449: Furikake

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:03

I'm Molly and I'm Matthew

Molly 0:05

and this is spilled milk The show where we cook something delicious eat it all and shake and sprinkle it on whatever else we're eating

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:12

and that's because this week we're talking about food Akaka

Molly 0:15

photocopy

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:16

Did I say that right yeah, I

Molly 0:17

really enjoy saying you know obviously my my American pronunciation of the Japanese are I find it satisfying kind of slapping the roof of my mouth with my tongue.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:27

No, I think it sounds pretty good.

Molly 0:28

Oh, thank you.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:29

So should we should we define foot Akaka first, or should we do Memory Lane First,

Molly 0:33

let's define it first.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:35

Okay, so foot Akaka is a Japanese sprinkle seasoning not unlike shichimi togarashi, which we did a few weeks ago. But for the Kaka is especially made to go on rice and it always has some crunchy bits in it and something see flavors like dry fish or seaweed or both.

Molly 0:55

Right You know when you say Japanese sprinkle seasoning.

Unknown Speaker 0:59

It makes me think about what Americans sprinkle seasonings we have because right we've talked about this last time I think like we talked about like Lowry seasoning salt.

Molly 1:09

Did we talk about Mrs. Dash Molly Mick butter mollymook butter. Those are like butter, butter buds.

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:14

Those are like butter buds. But I think but I mean yeah, that's just sprinkle seasoning.

Molly 1:18

It's interesting though, because I don't think of a sprinkle seasoning in American culture being something that is out on the table while you're eating. I mean, I know that actually all the things we're talking about would be out on the table while you're eating. But I don't it they're not as integrated into the the like average american dining table situation as foot Akaka or shichimi. togarashi

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:44

Yeah, that's true. The I just another one came Oh, is cinnamon sugar a sprinkle seasoning. Do you think?

Unknown Speaker 1:50

I don't think that I

Molly 1:51

don't call it a seasoning. I feel like it's like a it's a spice.

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:55

Yeah. Is cinnamon sugar is a spice interesting.

Unknown Speaker 1:59

There's no real

Molly 2:00

word for what sugar is just it's

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:02

okay. So Alright, so do you have any food Akaka a memory lane?

Molly 2:07

I do I do. I think that the first time I encountered it was certainly at a Japanese restaurant. In one of the little like, you know, cylindrical get glass jars usually next to the togarashi. The togarashi would have like an orange plastic lid, I think and the photocopy would have a green one. Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:27

that sounds really one could also is also often our naughty, which is like finely finely powdered ground seaweed. Okay, but but it could be either one.

Molly 2:36

So I think that's where I first encountered it. And honestly, I don't know that I ever picked it up and used it. I think I probably picked it up and sniffed it. But I

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:47

think this sounds like you.

Molly 2:48

It does me. I pick up everything and sniff it. Anyway, I think that I probably first really understood when

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:57

I take you out for your walk. I'm always having to say don't pick that up and sniff it. No.

Molly 3:02

Yeah. And then you swap me across the nose of the newspaper to people still do that to their dog? I

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:07

hope not.

Molly 3:09

I hope not either. Anyway, I think that going to Tokyo with you in the fall of 2017 was probably the first time that I really understood how much I loved for to Kochi. Prior to that. I didn't understand how much I loved hockey I was constantly mystified by my love for it. Well

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:28

no no I think if if people haven't yet picked up a copy of your of your new book, the fixed stars it's all about how how you came to understand your love for food iqoqi and whether whether it was like in there all along.

Molly 3:40

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's one born with a love for food Akaka. Can it change over a lifetime

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:46

book, which is a very good and mostly very serious book makes such a versatile punchline.

Molly 3:52

It really does. You are welcome anyway. So now I always keep photocopy in the house. I even have a little designated container for it. Oh, what's that look

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:01

like?

Molly 4:02

It's it's the one that I bought at the togarashi shores. Yeah, 14 sX. Yes. Anyway, it's a clear plastic little, little cylinder. It's maybe four inches tall with a little lid that's got a flip top. And we actually have this funny little like, silver dish that used to be my grandmother's or something that we always keep the togarashi and the photocopy in and it sits on a shelf with our rice in the cabinet and we pull it down whenever we're having rice or anything else. vaguely japanesey Oh, that

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:36

sounds great.

Molly 4:37

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so my memory lane maybe goes back to 2017. There you go.

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:42

Yeah, honestly, I don't know if I was really aware of food Akaka before I started traveling to Japan, either like I definitely remember it from from my first big trip in 2012. But I know I'd probably encountered it before that maybe like on an od giti or something like that, but I don't think I would have I've known what it was called. And that's, you know, relates to the history of Woodcock a because he didn't actually settle into that name until relatively recently, as far as ancient foods go, Oh,

Molly 5:12

well, perhaps you'd like to tell me that history.

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:14

I would love to. Okay. So, food cockade does not have as ancient a history as shichimi togarashi, which we talked about the the spicy spice blend that goes back to I think we said like the 17th century. That sounds right. So foot cockade really started as a nutritional supplement. And it was one of these things like how you know, when you learn about the history of Coca Cola, like it was invented by a pharmacist to view like a health drink. And then only only much later did people realize, Oh, this is very tasty and is the opposite of a health drink.

Unknown Speaker 5:51

Uh huh.

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:51

And for to cockade Not, not that it's like unhealthy in the same way as soda, but like it was originally built as a calcium supplement. And it was developed by a pharmacist in Kumamoto in in Kyushu named Yoshi, moto sweet ki T. And the original product was made with sesame poppy seeds, seaweed and fish bones like ground fish. Oh, okay. And it was called Gohan Natoma, which means friend of rice.

Molly 6:20

Oh, that's so sweet. You

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:21

can still buy that brand today. Have you had it? I have not had it. But it's it comes in a very nice looking plastic sleeve and still advertises been big, bold letters on the package. Like it says ca for calcium.

Molly 6:37

Wow. So I wonder what what the fishbone you know, obviously, they add a lot of calcium. But I wonder what they do in terms of flavor. Because so for one thing, I mean, I think that when we talk about photocopy, similar to togarashi, but but even more, so we're talking about a wide variety of actual flavor blends here. Yes. And the ones that I've had that had fish flakes in them, for me, taste wise, were so different from the ones I'd had that didn't have fish flakes. Yeah. And that instead just had seaweed. I wouldn't even use them in the same places. So it's fascinating to think of what it would taste like with fish

Unknown Speaker 7:18

bone,

Matthew Amster-Burton 7:19

so I can't I don't think I've had that variety but I have an idea of what it'd be like because I have eaten quite a lot of crispy fried fish bones in Japan. It's called Jose Sam Bay and which means like, like sin Bay like rice crackers, but in this case, it's bone crackers. And so like especially like an eel which has like a long but thin backbone after you fillet the E L and grill the filets like you will fry the the bone the backbone and it gets really crispy and salty and like not super intense fish flavored but definitely noticeably so

Molly 7:55

you have a great story about your child eating fried ale backbone in pretty good number one

Matthew Amster-Burton 8:00

I do you want me to tell the story now? Sure. Okay, so back on our first trip to Japan in in 2012 teenager of the show Iris who was then not quite a teenager they were eight we went to our favorite tempura shop now sadly closed called 10 the iris his favorite thing there was the the crispy eel backbone which after the chef would would fillet and fry the the saltwater el he would tie the backbone into into an overhand knot and toss it into the fryer not breaded just just like fried super crispy. And an Irish we eat it and so like the last time we went I think before before we left Tokyo we ordered the freshwater eel and and the chef presented to Iris and Iris picked it up with their chopsticks and promptly dropped it onto the floor and we were like oh now this is good this moment like when the kid loses their ice cream you know like the saddest kid face you can possibly see and and the chef was like No Hey pick it up Give it to me and and I was just like what we're all like what berries picked it up and pass it back to the chef through this elbow and from the floor back into the front here and pulled it out and presented it back to Iris kind of with a flourish oh my god so

Unknown Speaker 9:19

I love it five

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:20

second rule it's applies across culturally around the world.

Molly 9:25

I'm so so glad to know that

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:26

so anyway, like if you crunch that up, it would be a great fruit cocktail ingredient

Molly 9:30

okay. So alright. So, like Coca Cola, for Takaki started out as being a questionably marketed health supplement

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:42

right and after World War Two, so it was it was introduced at a time when nutrition was a you know and malnutrition was a very serious issue in Japan like around after after like World War One and and during around the time of the of the gradient. Kanto Earthquake. And then after world war two Nietzschean foods, commercialized punakaiki on a large scale and they build it as a nutritional supplement that would turn rice into a complete meal. The name for the cockade didn't become the generic name for this type of seasoning until around 1959 when the national photocopy association was established,

Molly 10:21

how can we become members?

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:22

Um, that I was thinking about that I think we have to start a photocopy business but i don't know i probably has to be located in Japan and probably has to be like a business of a certain size. I don't know we should look into this. We should Yeah, I

Molly 10:36

mean, you know, when this podcast You know, when it when it runs dry, Matthew when we finally run out of things to talk about. It is pretty dry. When we finally run out of things to talk about, we're gonna need a new line of work. So I'm

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:52

pretty sure business ideas along the way. I don't remember any of them. So let's go with joining the National Food Akaka Association. Oh, it sounds like you just want them to bail us out when our food ikkaku business inevitably fails. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, that

Molly 11:06

sounds fine with me. Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:08

yeah, so food a cockade. It likes it's got to have something salty and something crispy other than that kind of anything goes and the the simplest form of photocopies just is go Machito which is just salt and sesame seeds. That's considered a photocopy.

Molly 11:22

Okay, and that's what you mentioned as possibly being in one of the little glass cylinders. I remember seeing in Japanese restaurants.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:30

Yeah, that's that is definitely a condiment that you've see widely like at ramen places you'll very often see that okay, for example, great. There is a close relationship I think between food Akaka and oh Charles. Okay. Have you ever had Oh Charles okay. I don't think so. We should do an episode

Molly 11:47

so we What are you okay, wait hold on. I'm reading the agenda. So So packaged a child's okay. Okay, a child's okay mix is just photocopy with a little green tea powder.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:57

So Oh Charles. Okay is a mixed rice is where you take rice, and you put some toppings on like a usually like some dried toppings like like seaweed or dried fish or could be like some fresh fish like some eboshi something like that. And then you pour tea on it.

Unknown Speaker 12:15

Ah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:16

okay. Hi. And so it has it has like the flavor like usually like a seaweed or fish flavor and a tea flavor and it's very good and very like kind of like homey like something you would eat like when you're recovering from being sick. Or just like like a really like simple homey dish but nowadays like it's something that you can like whip up at work because you can get like a no child sick a packet that has all the seasonings you need including the dried tea powder and just add hot water and there's also just like instant Oh child's okay in the same way there's like cup of noodles.

Molly 12:48

So do you do you ever purchase it watch Maya

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:52

from time to time I have a friend who really likes a particular brand from Japan so I will often stock up on that and and give it to her when I get back. It's not something I eat a lot and if I were going to I would probably toss on some some fruit Akaka and then use some freshly brewed tea rather than the tea powder which is not bad but it's not as good as freshly made tea.

Molly 13:12

That sounds really good. And really I can understand how you would want it when you're like a little under the weather. Yeah, so soothing and yet like toasty and it sounds really good.

Matthew Amster-Burton 13:23

Yeah. Okay, let's let's put it on the to do list.

Molly 13:26

Okay, cool. So okay, here's the thing when I think about photocopy though, now that we're in the middle of this episode, I realized that actually Matthew I think that of all the foods that I have eaten with you, on the two trips, we've we've been to Tokyo together. I don't think I've ever used photocopy actually in Tokyo I've just bought it and brought it home and used it a bunch at home. Can we just backtrack for a second and say like, what do you put it on in in restaurants? Usually because like, you know, you'd see it on a table or something there what do you do with it?

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:04

I mean, I think of it like I don't use it much in restaurants I think of it as being like a thing that you'd put on a bento especially so like if you go into a bento shop and like build your own bento like there definitely eat food or coffee available to shake on there. Yeah, I mean, I know I see it on tables and you're right. I don't use it as much as I use like a go machine, which is technically afford Akaka or, or shichimi togarashi especially. Yeah, I

Molly 14:30

think about how much I loved using shichimi togarashi. When we went out for for udaan for it yes using like shaking it into the broth and all that stuff or using a little bit on ramen. But yeah, I

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:45

don't think I used photocopy there, you know. So we're gonna get to this but you know, the place where you would find food Akaka, like on every table, more so than in Japan is in Hawaii. And I learned quite a bit about the role of food Akaka in Hawaiian cuisine. But let's let's set that aside for now. We'll get okay a minute.

Molly 15:03

Wait, Matthew, it just occurred to me that we have not actually said what the word for takaka means. Oh,

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:09

it means sash shakin, sprinkle. That's my translation

Molly 15:12

is that is that also your life mantra.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:15

It is also my life mantra. I try. I try and like shake and sprinkle a little happiness on things wherever I go. I like Johnny Appleseed, but unspecified salty food powder.

Molly 15:27

That's exactly how I think. Yeah, my life has had so much less sprinkle and shake and happiness since I've been sitting alone in a closet talking with you instead of sitting with you in person.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:39

Now once once you come over like you're gonna be you're gonna be greeted with like, just a shower of salty flakes. Oh my god. It's gonna be like, math, right?

Molly 15:49

Oh, in a Greek myth people get showered with salty flakes I think

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:52

that tells us sometimes appears and impregnates people.

Molly 15:55

Oh, God, please don't impress me. I got so freaked out about that. I said impregnate please don't impregnate me with anything.

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:05

You know what? Okay, great.

Molly 16:16

God, I'm glad we got that settled. Oh, man. Okay, yeah, let's let's move on the agenda here. The next category is how to buy,

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:24

how to buy,

Molly 16:25

how to buy foreigner. Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:27

so if you go shopping for food at cockade like, you can often find it like in the Asian ingredients aisle of a American supermarket. You can find it in any Japanese market and many non Japanese Asian markets. And the most common brand you will find which is made in China is a GMO foods naughty comi foodie Kaka and when teenager the show Iris was using some yesterday and said, Oh yeah, this is the kind of photocopy that everyone gets. It's the most popular brand. And it's super simple and good. Yes.

Molly 16:59

I think I bought it at. Let's see, I had run out of the stuff I had brought back from Tokyo. And I think that I bought this brand recently at Central Market in northern Seattle. I could not get over the sweetness of it. Like the sugar was really pronounced and I was like, What the hell is this stuff and I threw it away.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:19

Okay, yeah, it's sesame, sugar, seaweed, salt and preservatives.

Molly 17:23

Was markedly sweet compared to what I had had from yoga and body.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:30

Okay. Yeah, it is. It is definitely sweet. I guess that doesn't bug me because I like Okay. Okay. All right. And one thing I like about it. This brand does have other varieties like more like I suspect some of the fishier ones are less sweet, although I'm not sure. One thing I like about this is that it comes in a nice glass jar and the lid has a really big hole for shaking it like anything where where the packaging just says you're going to use a lot of this like we know this. here's here's a big hole for you.

Molly 17:56

That's so interesting because the container that I bought at yaghan. Bodie, which I keep my photocopy and has a really big hole on top. And I always feel like the hole is too big. So I wind up shaking the photocopy into my hand and then sort of distributing it over my rice.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:14

Well and that's good. Because then you can you can like stick your stick your tongue into the little pile on your hand and just eat some that way.

Molly 18:21

That's pretty fun. That's actually why I do it. I yeah, I'd never I always wondered why the hole was so big, but I really like your take on it that you know, it's like you're gonna want a lot of this of course.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:32

I mean, do you think there could be some other explanation for why the hole is?

Molly 18:39

I don't know. I haven't spent a lot of time considering the industrial design of these sprinkles seasoning containers fair.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:46

Yeah, I'm gonna like put a lid on my hand and look it up right now. Oh, that's kind of a lot. Alright, so

Molly 18:51

do you. Do you have the naughty call me?

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:55

I do. Okay. Oh god. It is. Yeah, it's sweet. But I balanced with the saltiness and now it is all over my hand and I can't reach the napkins.

Molly 19:06

That's what you're telling us.

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:07

I get Yeah, I'm just gonna lick the rest off like a cat.

Molly 19:09

Okay. All right. So Matthew, what do you use it for at home like what was teenager of the show Iris putting it on?

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:16

Oh, this was so great. I was yesterday. sitting at the table. I think I was in a meeting for work and teenager the show Iris brought over a freshly made onigiri rice ball that was wrapped in seaweed. And then the the exposed edge rolled in naughty comi for the khaki. It was so great.

Molly 19:36

Oh god. We made onigiri. A couple of weeks ago we made it with a little bit of salmon leftover from the previous night's dinner. It was just it was honestly it wasn't as good as what you can get in a convenience store. But anyway, I've had on the sort of meal planning list Ever since then, a plan To make tuna onigiri with like, you know like tuna salad in the middle Oh sure. Ah so excited about it I don't know why I haven't done it yet but anyway I don't know why I didn't think to bust out the photocopier when we made the salmon ones that's Hans. Oh god Iris please come over and make a snack for me

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:18

yeah now to be fair then I wanted another one but Iris had eaten all of them so all the rest of the rice yeah so at home like I use it pretty much for putting on rice and only giti which is rice. So it really you know when we get into Hawaiian cuisine we're going to talk about some other ways to use it but fundamentally it is it is made to be a friend of rice

Molly 20:41

I we tend to use it at home when we have so if we have nothing else in the house we always have rice we always have eggs. We always have foot Akaka and then there's always some sort of vegetable kicking around that we can cut up raw or cooked so ashes father is his South Korean and so ash grew up with you know with a rice cooker always filled with rice on the counter. So ash particularly loves it when we have this meal and they've gotten really into foot Akaka too awesome. So yeah, anyway, but uh, hold on wait, can you make this stuff at home because what do I do when I run out of my supply? If I don't want to buy the the naughty call me.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:22

Okay, you can. And as usual whenever we talk about a Japanese recipe, like the first place I always turn is the website. Just one cookbook calm.

Molly 21:31

I used her instructions to make my onigiri Oh, awesome.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:35

She has a recipe on the website for homemade food Akaka. And there are lots of other recipes available online. But I'm sure Nami is is great. And when you make homemade food Akaka, often you will use and her recipe does call for this kombu seaweed and katsuobushi fish flakes that have already been used for making hdaci. This is like thrifty on the one hand, which is great, and also it gives them a baby lighter texture, because they've been kind of reconstituted and dried.

Molly 22:03

So this is interesting. So yeah, when I've made dashi Well, you know, you wind up with this like saturated soggy, you know, kind of pile of fish flakes looks like paper pulp or something. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 22:14

Does. And then

Molly 22:16

your your kombu is nice and soft. And so does she have you like lay these out on some sort of a screen? Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:23

exactly. Oh, okay. Yeah, so I've never done this. Like, I've always known that. And there are like lots of other things you can do with your with your USD combo and katsuobushi then I have never done any of these things. And like, I know, every Japanese grandma hates me for this. So I'm gonna give this a try.

Molly 22:42

This is very exciting. I had no idea. Okay, so we'll we'll put up a link to the just one cookbook method for making homemade photocopy. Yeah, in our show notes. I want to finally talk about Hawaii. Can we get on to this?

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:55

Yes, because one of the biggest uses for photocopy a worldwide now has become a topping for poker. That that is like the most common use in Hawaiian cuisine. But there's so much more so like poker, like you know, it's a it's a salad of raw fish and other stuff on top of rice. And it is for to cockade is almost always used as a topping or mixin.

Molly 23:21

Okay, I guess this is the part to reveal that I've actually never eaten. Okay.

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:26

Oh, okay. So here's the thing about poker in in I don't think this is like a really hot take. I have had poker at some, like, you know, polka restaurants that have popped up around Seattle back when that was a big craze, maybe four years ago, right? And I thought it was fine. And what I ended up hearing over and over from people from Hawaii is like, this is not really how we do polka in Hawaii. In Hawaii. It's, like more simpler and more intensely flavored, and I'm like, okay, that's what I'm missing. Okay,

Molly 24:00

I like this take because yeah, when I see it, it always seems like it does seem like it's been like dressed up for you know, like a metropolitan. Yeah, American audience.

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:13

It's got it's got a bad case of global pantry going on.

Molly 24:17

Yes, I get that. Okay, well, interesting. I wonder if we can find like a recipe from a Hawaiian author or a Hawaiian blog or something. I think what how they

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:28

show season their focus. So there's a really good Hawaiian food blog called feeding my ohana. ohana being Hawaiian for family. And there are a bunch of recipes on that site and I mean there's definitely poke a recipe for that also many other recipes involving food Akaka, including fish dishes, raw and cooked salads. And I found on this blog and I thought, Okay, this must be some, some great idea that this blogger came up with and that was like, Oh, no, there are dozens and dozens of recipes for this and is a huge thing in Hawaii is food Akaka. Chex Mix

Molly 25:00

Yes, I love the thought of this. Have you tried it? Yeah, I've

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:03

not tried it yet, but I am 100% going to try it. It's exactly what it sounds like it is Chex Mix made with food Akaka and it has become like a standard dish in Hawaiian cuisine.

Molly 25:14

Oh my god. Okay, while we're sitting here I'm going to click on the link that you provided for in the agenda for the photocopy Chex Mix because I am so excited to make this I want to open it up on my browser

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:26

get some get some checks up in here.

Molly 25:28

Yeah, man. Okay, that's so I love the thought of this. I'm so excited. What else do we need to say about photocopy what anything else you use it in or not. And really, there's

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:41

one other thing I want to say about buying it which is that it is a very popular gift item in Japan. Like we talked about how like shichimi togarashi is a good omeo gay like a gift that you that you get when you travel somewhere and then bring back to the people back home food and coffee also because it can be used to highlight local ingredients like you know, here's the here's the food of cockade that that has like our local octopus that's like dried and crushed and it's also very easy to package in an attractive way and it is shelf stable. So it is like the perfect thing for this type of gift so you can buy like a set with five beautifully packaged packets of food Akaka that have colorful ingredients like like you know, red dried shrimp and that sort of thing. Dried dried red shiso powder is a popular food Akaka ingredients called Ducati Okay, and so like if you if you go to Japan and you're looking for a gift to bring to someone in Japan or to bring to people back home like a food or khaki assortment is perfect nice and it's so easy to use because like if you make some rice and put it on it's gonna be delicious.

Molly 26:45

Right and it also I imagined keeps for a while too. Absolutely. Yeah, well, I would love to have any of our listeners pipe up maybe on Facebook and let us know if they use foot Akaka in any places that we have not already

Matthew Amster-Burton 26:59

mentioned. Yeah, speaking of listeners piping up remember we got into a thing about pipe organs A while back we had a listener who want who asked us we could come who invited us to come and visit his pipe organ. Yeah, and play play a real pipe organ.

Molly 27:13

Wait, I love that. You said visit his pipe organ as though it were a person or like, yeah, like, like, like you'd go visit a relative in a like a nursing home or something. Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:24

no, I think I think probably most organists think of think of pipe their pipe organ as as a person. They just it's like a person that you sit down at and like, press on with your feet and enhance it. So it's a massage client. It's a massage client. Yes, that that makes a lot of noises depending on how they're different noises depending on how they're massaged. But yeah, so like, we sort of like got busy and forgot about that. And then now we can't go visit anyone. But like, once we're able to visit a local organist. I think we have to make a priority of doing this.

Molly 27:56

Oh my god, me too. I feel a little bit like teary eyed at the thought of seeing you again and playing an Oregon with you.

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:03

Me too. That's all I've ever wanted.

Molly 28:07

Okay, well, you know, Matthew, we should also mention that this episode is airing on on the day of our event to talk about my book. Yeah. So this evening, August 6, you and I are both going to be speaking on a zoom feed from one of our very favorite bookstores anywhere book larder here in Seattle. And we're going to be talking about my new book, which just came out two days ago, called the fixed stars. So it's gonna be at 5pm. That's 5pm. Pacific time today, August 6. So you know, if you're listening to this episode promptly upon its release, you can come join us go to book learner.com. I think you need to register and then they'll send you a zoom link, but it's free. And we actually might wind up having like, kind of a semi serious conversation about something. Yeah. I've

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:04

been wondering about that. Like, can we do that?

Molly 29:07

I don't know if we can do it. But I think that I mean, is it? Are you wondering if we are capable of doing it? Or if we can have permission to do I

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:15

was wondering if we're capable of doing it? I was I was specifically wondering if I'm capable of doing it.

Molly 29:21

I think that, uh, you know what, Matthew? I think it's going to be delightfully infused with some spilled milk edge.

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:28

Okay. Yeah. It's gonna be it's gonna sprinkle my flakes of happiness. Over here.

Molly 29:32

Great. Okay. All right. Well, Matthew, I'll see you on on zoom tonight. And the rest of the world. I hope to see you on zoom tonight too.

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:41

Yeah. All right. You can find us at spellbook podcast.com. Have a website where nothing know that you can find the show notes. No, you can't even find the show notes. They're a completely useless website. You can find [email protected] slash build note podcast where we'd like to hear what you're doing with with Akaka

Molly 29:58

excellent. You can, you know, I know he said it a million times, but you can leave us a review wherever you listen to this podcast and if nothing else, I think there's some people out there who like reading reviews.

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:11

Exactly. Yeah. That is my hobby is reading reviews of other people's podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. Radio lab. So many noises. Three stars.

Molly 30:25

Great. That is yes. Jad. abumrad. Excellent host. But I guess five stars. I started the sentence but I didn't know where I was gonna go with it. And then things started to feel dangerous and loading. So I evacuated. No, I like Chad a boom rod. I think that he is brilliant.

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:46

Oh, yeah, great hug. I like Robert Krulwich also,

Molly 30:49

like gone now. He's not part of the show anymore.

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:52

I know. I haven't listened to it in a long time. I know because Robert Krulwich left. Okay, so, Instagram ad spelled out podcast. Well, we've been signing off for a very long time.

Molly 31:03

Well, anyway,

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:05

thank you for listening to spilled milk. After listening to this show. You can you can dry it out and and crumple it up and listen again.

Molly 31:17

All right, that's what I'm gonna go do. I'm

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:18

gonna go do that. To be fair, sometimes, when we record remotely, that's what the audio ends up sounding like.

Molly 31:25

Alright, well, I'm Molly weissenberg.

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:27

And I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.

People say a nice NABS.

Molly 31:39

Oh, geez. I just read the part of the agenda that says shaken sprinkle. I shake and sprinkle my NABS. Of course Who doesn't? Okay, I hope you're recording.

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:49

Oh yes, I am.