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Meant To Be Eaten

by Heritage Radio Network

Meant to be Eaten looks at cross-cultural exchange in food and contemporary media. What determines “authenticity”? What, if anything, gets lost in translation when cooking foods from another’s culture? First-generation Chinese host, Coral Lee, looks at how American culture figures forth in less-than mainstream ways, in less-than expected places.

From the show's RSS feed, refreshed Apr 14, 2026. Source feed.

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Episodes

  1. Gastromica's New Feed On HRN

    If you’ve been keeping up with Meant To Be Eaten, you know that our last few seasons were produced in collaboration with Gastronomica, the Journal for Food Studies.Gastronomica now has its very own feed on the Heritage Radio Network where they are continuing this work! So, if you’re a fan of…

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  2. What to Read Now: Melissa Fuster's Caribeños at the Table

    This episode is part of a collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by editorial collective member Jaclyn Rohel. Jaclyn shares some new and soon-to-be published titles in food studies and is joined by her Gastronomica colleague Melissa Fuster in conversation about...

  3. Stephen Velasquez on Art and Activism

    This episode is part of a collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Paula Johnson. In this episode, curator Stephen Velasquez discusses how activism and food history come together in a graphic calendar. The Calendario de…

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  4. Sucharita Kanjilal on Tomatoes and Taste-making in Indian Recipes

    This episode is part of a collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Krishnendu Ray. The tomato is a staple ingredient in Indian subcontinental cooking, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon. In this episode…

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  5. Aya H. Kimura on Pickling: Histories of Tsukemono

    This episode is part of a collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Daniel Bender. Aya H. Kimura unpacks the biocultural history of tsukemono (Japanese pickles). She discusses the different kinds of traditional tsukemono in...

  6. Benjamin Schrager on Risk, Regulation, and Raw Chicken in Japan

    This episode is part of a collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member James Farrer. Geographer Benjamin Schrager talks about his new article, “Risky but Raw: On (Not) Regulating One of the Most High-Risk Dishes in Japan,”...

  7. Raúl Matta and Padma Panchapakesan on Dining Out: Changing Values of Good Taste

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Josée Johnston. Raúl Matta and Padma Panchapakesan discuss how ideas of "good taste" have changed over time with the aid of different...

  8. Gastronomica: The Next Issue

    This episode offers a sneak peek behind the scenes at Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. Lisa Haushofer hosts a roundtable live from the 2021 Food Studies conference, Just Food: Because It Is Never Just Food. Editors from the Gastronomica editorial collective – Amy Trubek, Paula Johnson,...

  9. Chicken Politics

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Melissa Fuster. Michaël Bruckert explores meat industrialization in South India. Recounting his fieldwork in the region of Tamil Nadu,...

  10. When the Rainbows Bring the Crawfish

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Paula Johnson. V. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder explores human-nature relationships through the social life of camarones, a Peruvian river...

  11. Japanese Immigrants’ Pantry

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Bob Valgenti. Eric Funabashi discusses Japanese immigrants' culinary experiences in Brazil following the initial migration of Japanese...

  12. What to Read Now

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Jaclyn Rohel. Jaclyn is joined by her colleague, anthropologist Janita Van Dyk, to introduce a new feature on recent and upcoming books in...

  13. Race in American Food Television

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Krishnendu Ray. Alison Hope Alkon and Rafi Grosglik discuss representations of race in food media. Drawing on examples from contemporary...

  14. Well Rooted: A Gastronomica Interview with Chef Rob Connoley

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Daniel Bender. Chef Rob Connoley discusses culinary collaboration and the roots of Ozark cuisine at his research-driven restaurant…

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  15. Ketchup as a Vegetable: Condiments and the Politics of School Lunch in Reagan’s America

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Melissa Fuster. Historian Amy Bentley returns to the show to discuss the politics of food and nutrition. She traces how the Reagan...

  16. Lunch Interrupted! COVID-19 and Japan’s School Meals

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Jessica Carbone. Alexis Agliano Sanborn explores how Japan's school lunch programs connected people and supported communities in the...

  17. Rumor, Chinese Diets, and COVID-19: Questions and Answers about Chinese Food and Eating Habits

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Krishnendu Ray. Historians Michelle T. King and Wendy Jia-Chen Fu discuss the stigmatization of Chinese food and eating habits in...

  18. Paqueteros and Paqueteras: Humanizing a Dehumanized Food System

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies , guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Jaclyn Rohel. Alyshia Gálvez explores the work of transnational food couriers known as...

  19. Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Bob Valgenti. Bryan Dale and Jo Sharma share a COVID-19 dispatch from Toronto, Canada. They discuss how their project "Feeding the...

  20. Around the World in 50 Restaurants: The Curious Irony of Hyperlocal Food

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Daniel Bender. John Broadway problematizes how a global restaurant ranking system produced an irony in haute cuisine in the years…

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  21. Decoding Miracle Food Cures for COVID-19

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies , guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Lisa Haushofer. Adrienne Bitar investigates the many miracle food cures for COVID-19 that continue to circulate on social media,...

  22. Salmon on the Table

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Melissa Fuster. John Gifford discusses salmon and sustainability, drawing from his piece that appears in the current issue’s section…

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  23. The Food and COVID-19 NYC Archive: Mapping the Pandemic’s Effect on Food in Real Time

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Jaclyn Rohel. Amy Bentley and Stephanie Borkowsky discuss The Food and COVID-19 NYC Archive, which documents the ongoing changes to…

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  24. Taste as Governor: Soy Sauce in Late Chosŏn and Colonial Korea

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, guest hosted by Gastronomica editorial collective member Krishnendu Ray. Kyoungjin Bae, as part of a Gastronomica round table on Taste and Technology in East Asia, explores the production…

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  25. Mexicans in Chicago

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica. This episode offers new understandings of the food desert. In the case of Mexican Chicago, the imageries of food desert is inadequate. Drawing on…

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  26. Lockdown Destitution: Delhi, March 2020

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose recent issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early responses to...

  27. A Grocery Store Employee's Experience on the COVID Front Lines

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose recent issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early responses to...

  28. The Stockpile and the Letdown

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose forthcoming issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early…

    more
  29. I Miss the Grocery Store the Most

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose forthcoming issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early…

    more
  30. COVID-19 and Challenges of Urban Informality in Delhi, India

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose forthcoming issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early…

    more
  31. South Africa under lockdown

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica, whose forthcoming issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early…

    more
  32. The Sickness Unto Hospitality

    This episode is part of a special series in collaboration with Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, whose forthcoming issue is entirely devoted to COVID Dispatches—in it, authors from around the world offer short, intimate portraits of early responses to the food crises of this pandemic…

    more
  33. Alicia Kennedy on the value of white acceptance

    A conversation with Alicia Kennedy. Alicia Kennedy wears many hats. A food and drink writer from Long Island—now based in San Juan, where she’s covering the local culinary scene—Alicia’s written for NYLON, The New Republic, Time, and the Village Voice, to name just a few. She also hosts Meatless…

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  34. Heifer International on how agriculture can provide a path out of poverty

    A conversation with Donna Kilpatrick and William Matovu. Heifer International works all over the world to use agriculture as a path out of poverty. Under its umbrella is Heifer Ranch, a regenerative, organic and humane ranch, run by 3 women, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Donna Kilpatrick—who oversees...

  35. Andrew Genung on the importance of word choice and what we can learn from H.K.'s reopenings

    A conversation with Andrew Genung. Andrew Genung is a Hong-Kong based writer and regular contributor to Eater. He also writes a twice-weekly newsletter, Family Meal, that covers the goings-on in and around the food/media world. Photo Courtesy of Andrew Genung. Meant To Be Eaten is powered by...

  36. Esther Kim on Afro-Asian solidarity, Eddie Huang, and how a fistful of rice fuelled a democracy

    A conversation with Esther Kim. Esther Kim is a writer and editor of the Asian American Writers' Workshop's Transpacific Literary Project. We discuss the stickiness of the "Asian-American" genre, Eddie Huang and appropriation, how a fistful of rice created a democracy, and our duties as...

  37. Lori Flores on farmworkers' rights amid and beyond the pandemic

    A conversation with Lori Flores. Stony Brook University associate professor history Lori Flores's research and writing focuses on Latino life, labor, and politics in the United States from the post-WWII era to the present day. We discuss farmworkers' rights amid (and beyond) the pandemic. Link to...

  38. Julia Bainbridge and Malcolm Harris on the antidote to loneliness

    Conversations with Malcolm Harris and Julia Bainbridge. This episode, we’re talking about loneliness—versus solitude, versus self-isolation. My first guest, author, editor, and critic Malcolm Harris and I discuss what it’s like to be young in America today: how obsession with productiveness and…

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  39. Chhaya Kolavalli on why the local food movement is so white

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Melissa Fuster, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Chhaya Kolavalli. The local food movement has been criticized for its overwhelming whiteness. How…

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  40. Eric Rath on what ancient sushi forms can teach us about sustainability

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Melissa Fuster, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Eric C. Rath. Many of us know about sushi, but have you heard of funazushi? Historian Eric C. Rath...

  41. Azri Amram on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, and food tourism as a bridge

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Melissa Fuster, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Azri Amram. Can food serve as a tool to build bridges in times of conflict? Azri Amram takes us to…

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  42. Rose Wellman on the popularity of Jell-O in Tehran, and its challenge to Islamic piety and Iranian citizenship

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Bob Valgenti, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Rose Wellman. Jello is a beloved dessert and also an unexpected source of religious debate....

  43. Krishnendu Ray on street food—mobility and diversity out in the open

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Bob Valgenti, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Krishnendu Ray. Street Food—emphasis on street, that “dwelling place of the collective” and site of...

  44. Laurie Bertram on Iceland's most reluctantly defended tradition

    This episode of Meant to be Eaten was produced in collaboration with Gastronomica Journal. Bob Valgenti, from Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, is in for Coral Lee. A conversation with Laurie Bertram. What motivates the passionate defense of a recipe? Historian Laurie Bertram expands on...

  45. Rebecca de Souza on why food pantries fail to solve hunger

    A conversation with Rebecca de Souza. Do food pantries completely miss the point? Rebecca de Souza thinks they might. In “Feeding the Other,” Rebecca demonstrates how “food pantries stigmatize their clients through a discourse that emphasizes hard work, self help, and economic productivity rather...

  46. Jeff Abella on fostering a sustainble agroeconomy in Cameroon

    After a decade of building up sustainable farming, ethical trade, and community development in Africa, Jeff Abella—and his partner, Ishan—founded MOKA farms in Cameroon, and thusly— MOKA Origins, a bean-to-bar/bag chocolate and coffee that inspires "real social change". Jeff is here to...

  47. Carol Pak on building America's first craft makgeolli company

    A conversation with Carol Pak. Carol Pak is the founder of Makku, America's first canned craft makgeolli company. We discuss why she markets Makku as she does (the can reads "rice beer"), and whether craft-beverage-crazed America s ready for makgeolli (as more than just a novelty "Asian"…

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  48. Amy Trubek on how restaurant culture needs to change

    A conversation with Amy Trubek. Amy Trubek's research interests include the history of the culinary profession, globalization of the food supply, the relationship between taste and place, and cooking as a cultural practice. We discuss the sustainability of restaurant culture and work. She is an...

  49. Daniel Bender on saving food... from what?

    A conversation with Daniel Bender. We’re all very concerned with saving food–from preservation to curation to nostalgia to archiving to salvation– but Daniel Bender, an editor of leading food studies journal, Gastronomica, and history professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough—took a step...

  50. Amanda Hesser on food media's effects on "taste"

    A conversation with Amanda Hesser. Amanda Hesser is CEO and co-founder of food, home, and lifestyle brand, Food52. Now in its 10th year, Food52 has evolved wildly from the recipe-sharing site it used to solely be, and recently closed a very large funding round (which we’ll get to in a bit).…

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About this show

Meant to be Eaten looks at cross-cultural exchange in food and contemporary media. What determines “authenticity”? What, if anything, gets lost in translation when cooking foods from another’s culture? First-generation Chinese host, Coral Lee, looks at how American culture figures forth in less-than mainstream ways, in less-than expected places.

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Frequently asked questions

How many episodes does Meant To Be Eaten have?

Meant To Be Eaten has 122 episodes on PodParley. The most recent episode was published on June 16, 2022.

What is Meant To Be Eaten about?

Meant to be Eaten looks at cross-cultural exchange in food and contemporary media. What determines “authenticity”? What, if anything, gets lost in translation when cooking foods from another’s culture? First-generation Chinese host, Coral Lee, looks at how American culture figures forth in...

How often does Meant To Be Eaten release new episodes?

Meant To Be Eaten publishes every two weeks, based on its 122 episodes since August 2017.

Who hosts Meant To Be Eaten?

Meant To Be Eaten is created and hosted by Heritage Radio Network.
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