Valentine's Dinners That Change Everything: Romance and Seduction on Your Plate!

Welcome everybody to another episode of Family Tree Food and Story

where food carries our memories and our history, and sometimes a little

heartbreak because this show's all about romantic love, friendly love, family

love, and it's all woven into food.

But before we start.

I wanna let you know, you have to wait till the end because we have a

very romantic Valentine's gift for you at the end from Sylvia and me.

your secret valentine on the side, right, Sylvia?

I love that idea.

Yeah, I think they're gonna wanna hang on to the end.

Anyway.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in this episode.

So let's kick it off with, something lovely and delicious, Sylvia.

Lovely.

Yeah.

'cause today is Valentine's Day show.

it's all about finding love.

Or not if you screwed up that crucial first date.

Oh, been there, done that.

Alright, let's just dive right in.

you know.

Many love stories don't happen because of the bad date.

You never know what might have happened, right?

If it hadn't screwed up.

Or it could lead to some really great stories later on that you

can tell your grandchildren, right?

But let's talk about those first dates and, and I think

you should go first, Nancy.

'cause

Oh, I've got one.

I've

Go, go, go, go, go.

Go.

I've got a couple of them.

But honestly, I'll have to confess, and he knows this, I mean, we've talked

about it before publicly, so it's not, now he's just going worldwide.

But our first official date together, not on a matchup date with friends,

was a bomb.

Oh,

Yes.

And it was over a movie and a meal, and I thought if I never see

this guy again, it won't kill me.

What happened?

we went to see a movie, which was not a movie you should

go to on a first date, which was Children of a Lesser God.

Great movie, but not terribly

Hmm.

cuddle, romantic, I guess you could say.

Not that you have to go to a romantic movie on a first date.

And then we went to dinner and he ate the string beans off

his salad with his fingers.

And it really like.

Where's the fork?

So I thought that's it.

Maybe call me a snob, but . I'll have to admit they were cold string

beans off the top of a salad.

So it really wasn't a terrible food crime, but I just was not

in the mood after that movie.

So that was it.

And guess what?

He called me six months later after that.

And the rest is history

I love that.

I love that story.

Sort of.

It's not perfect.

I don't know Bob, I know enough about him ' but I know you and I can just imagine,

'cause you know, can be a little exacting.

I mean, you have things that you like and things you want to be the way they are.

I know that much.

I know that much about you.

Okay.

But that's a great story though, and it turned out to be a super great

37 years later, we're still going at it.

I

love it.

because it is Valentine's Day,

And by the way, is this R-rated, this

I know.

I think we should maybe, we should tone it down to at least gp

Oh, there's some real zingers when you start talking about it.

Right?

Okay.

But.

how about

you?

okay.

My first date was with a real hunk.

And what could have been, and don't tell Bernie that.

'cause you know, I, I ended

I don't want it to go to his head.

Absolutely not.

I have a couple of really good stories, but, this is the kicker.

I went on a date with a hunk and I. Okay.

Is it better to stay silent and let him think I'm an idiot or

speak up and dispel all doubt?

I was silent.

I didn't talk in the entire date.

And I'm like, what did that guy think?

I mean, it's like idiot alert.

that and, let me see.

Oh, quickly my other one.

First date was with Bernie and I was in the library.

I was a library nerd.

I mean, I was, and, he came to get me and he had that kind of long hair of

the seventies, you know, he was like an

Oh yeah.

guy.

So we went across the street and I thought I was gonna go toward the beetle, the

Volkswagen Beetle that was sitting there.

And instead I looked up and he's going to this car that the engine is going.

It was a sport car with those little wires on the front.

And I'm like, no, you're, you know, you're not fitting the stereotype

here, Anyway, the rest is history.

so there you go.

did you ever go to the diner with him in that car where

they put the, the trays on the edge?

I could see you doing that with him

No, that's an experience we missed.

But anyway,

yeah, that thing took wings when we got on the interstate though.

I mean, it flew, it was quite a hopped up car.

Turns out he's a car aficionado.

And I don't know that, I just was going with the stereotypes.

Right.

But anyway, dates gone bad.

What?

What's some foods that we should stay away from?

What do you think?

Oh, stay away from, I would say stay away from spaghetti,

because that can be messy.

And if you wanna be exacting, do you eat your spaghetti with a

spoon like you twirl on a spoon?

Do you cut it?

you just just slop it so that when you take a big slurp, the end of

the noodle goes up in your nose,

Yeah.

Okay.

I think, I think the solution to that problem, what's the movie?

Oh, shoot.

in the, tramp, lady in the tramp.

So you grab the other ends, you know, and you end biting all the way

through and then you kiss at the end.

ah, and romance alive.

I think my favorite not to do is French onion soup.

I've probably tried that at some point that, and in a business meeting, you never

want to eat french onion soup because it's gooey and the strings, you can have

a string hanging, you don't even know it,

That's soupy that you chew,

Yeah, you do.

So don't, don't do that.

Okay.

So what else do we have?

Some people have ordered, everything on the menu.

Okay.

That's

Oh, right.

Or the most expensive thing I've, yeah.

Yeah, that one.

Yeah.

I've, I've heard of guys saying well, let's presume in this case, whoever

is picking up the check on that date.

Usually it's not split.

I mean, I don't know.

Do you split a check on a

first

don't know anymore.

I don't know.

That's

kind of interesting.

Yeah.

But if.

if.

one person or the other is picking up the check and you are the guest, it's,

I was always told by my dad, you be polite and you order a lower priced item.

You don't, you don't have to order the lowest price.

Depending upon if you're dating a church mouse, but I'm not the type of

personality to date a church mouse anyway.

yeah.

I've also heard of, guys in this particular case, when I was

younger, who, when the girl ordered, let's say lobster, and he ordered

the chicken, depending upon how hot the girl was, He either ran outta

money or he just never asked her out

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She had champagne taste.

You know, one of my favorite, getting back to the screen Friend's episode

is a hilarious one where Rachel is breaking up with Ross and her

clearly disgusted date is calling.

Check, please check please.

And she's drunk and she's carrying on in this message.

She is leaving for Ross.

Bad thing, don't do that.

Okay,

so what else?

Let's see.

Oh, when Harry met Sally, I don't think it was actually a date,

but when Harry met Sally and she's having this episode at the diner,

we'll call it to be, since we wanna be

PG rated, and the woman, says, I'll have what she's having.

Oh, no.

I don't know if that classified as a data or not,

Yeah.

that's pretty close.

Yeah.

How about green food in your teeth?

Ooh.

Gotta watch those greens.

Gotta watch them.

not good.

Yep.

or actually, like whatever it is, ends up on your front of your shirt.

Not good.

Anything.

Dribble or, or like,

yeah.

some people say the safest bet is a coffee date, right?

Just get to know 'em a little bit and and then you can branch out and do

whatever you need to do to be happy.

But,

I guess you can have a $10 coffee too.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Trust me.

And I remember our Terry Hall story in the book, Terry's dear friend,

and he had slaved away making chicken cordon blue, and the mashed

potatoes were lumpy and all that.

But he tried.

Turns out she didn't like chicken cordon blue.

She didn't even like the dish.

So,

eh,

but

love bloomed.

I have to give any guy, or any, any gal, woman who's making a meal for

somebody that they care about when they try and they do, even if it's not perfect,

there can be a lot of fun and laughter and food can be an aphrodisiac, let's face it.

But so can laughter and the mistakes that go along in the kitchen.

And I think that's okay.

And again, since we're GP rated here, everything can be fixed

with whipped cream and a cherry.

your, wait, I've got a whipped cream joke.

I'm

coming.

Okay.

right.

Alright, so you wanna do a quiz,

gimme an aphrodisia quiz.

Okay.

all right, you gotta say whether you think it's true or it's myth.

Now how do we start this?

Every food has at some point been an aphrodisiac.

Why is that, do you think?

Why do you think that is?

Food is primal, isn't it?

well.

it is, and every show we've done, it seems like there are always something

that goes back to the Greeks, right.

And or the Romans.

think of the orgies that they had.

Now, this is not slight, this is not terribly off track, but the image of

men and women laying down on big pillows, being fed grapes and I don't know,

did they have strawberries back then?

I'm presuming they had some kind of thing like that, but

certainly they had grapes for sure.

Or even olives, I would say.

But being fed by somebody else is seductive,

Yeah.

and, food is just about pleasure.

That's what, when we talk about families, that's

pleasure.

Yeah.

And what we're talking about with romance is.

Pleasure on steroids.

Right.

Pleasure with a fork.

Alright,

next

Okay.

All right.

Did I answer that one?

I'm not sure.

You're good.

You're good.

But I do have a spoiler alert on this one.

. Oysters should be on this list, right?

And we all think oysters is, oh my gosh.

I mean, most Valentine's menus contain.

it does, they're tasty.

All of those things.

They're really good for you.

And there are people who say, okay, A X-rated here, R rated here, phallic.

you know what

we're saying here.

but they're not scientifically aphrodisiac like some

things are because some things have like.

Testosterone boosters and natural kind of stuff, and we'll get to some of those.

But anyway, oysters not on the science list, but what heck with that?

I mean, if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, go for it.

Right?

We'll be polite on that point.

It will be.

So let me see here.

let's look at these.

Okay.

Pomegranate.

Pomegranate is considered sexy.

Oh yeah.

It does seem weird.

It's got seeds, right?

Seeds,

and you have to work at it.

And they say it wasn't the apple that Adam and Eve.

Chomped on it was a

it pomegranate

Aphrodite, well known for our love superpowers planted the

first pomegranate tree and the seeds symbolize abundance and fertility.

And some studies claim that the fruit flowers, contain cortisol,

increases testo, testosterone.

We all see what that's doing.

There's a craze among women for testosterone enhancement.

and then I've heard stories where the husbands are like hiding out in the house.

Because

No, I've heard those two.

Yeah.

her libido has gone wild.

But a last, it was sponsored by a pomegranate company, so I

Right.

It's, it's like the nut research study.

I have a pomegranate story, we found a pomegranate tree, A local flea market

where they were selling plants and stuff.

so we bought it and the flower is really beautiful on it.

It's delicate and it's lovely.

And they had little teeny tiny pomegranates starting behind

the, the buds of the flowers.

But we've had frost, I mean, really cold frost down in the twenties here.

And I know you guys have had snow further north of us, but our

pomegranate died because it got too cold and we left it outside.

We should have brought it in from the pot and not planted it

and brought it into the garage.

So I hope that doesn't say anything

about our relationship.

that's not very romantic

We got have to go get another pomegranate.

okay.

So what do you think?

I think that's probably myth.

Don't you think that pomegranates,

Well, I think so too.

They're, pretty and they're beautiful, but have you ever tried freezing

pomegranate seeds in ice cubes and then putting it into, let's say, a cocktail

that's one thing you can do as a champagne cocktail.

they're pretty potent in romance as well, and so

I think that's, they're very pretty.

so you eat enough of it, ladies.

You don't have to go to get one of those prescriptions.

Oh, because it's high in vitamin C. Is that it?

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

It's got all kinds of wonderful things all these foods do actually.

But how about asparagus?

What do you think?

Oh, I would definitely think that's certainly a sexually enticing food.

Yeah.

Yeah.

the Kuma, the Kama Sutra, which is the Hindi version of romance, right?

It's written up and it, it's about the concept of sexuality and

emotional fulfillment comes as a goal.

And so they suggested in there drinking it as a paste.

Now.

but let's talk about that for a minute.

Can you imagine drinking a paste?

I can see licking a paste.

Maybe that could take the place of whipped cream.

Ha.

Got my whipped cream joke in there.

or frozen paste, asparagus as an ice cream pop or something.

That also sounds disgusting,

I know.

I don't know.

O.

but, oh, wait a second.

But you know, asparagus comes in different colors too.

Yes sir, it does.

In the springtime.

In the springtime, the French Ula la, the French have tons and tons and

tons of white asparagus, and they create the white asparagus by covering

it with a lot of hay as it's growing.

And so it usually gets thick versus long and stringy.

So I guess it depends upon how you like your asparagus,

white, green, or purple or

thick or not.

You know, a common theme , and I don't know if this is just

a PBS kind of thing that I was reading.

It was very interesting, but all about the phallic shapes and I'm

like, asparagus, that's skinny,

but, but you haven't seen a French asparagus, so, oh,

Sylvia, I think we get, I don't know.

Good thing they're not showing this on screen because we're blushing.

Bottom line is the Pea is a turnoff, right?

Yes.

Eh, myth, eh.

Yeah, peas.

Peas are not sexy by any means.

Here's one on beets.

Imagine beets are real popular right now in recipes in things because

we, like, we serve a beet salad.

People just eat it.

And, and maybe there's something going on out there because

this is really interesting.

Romans, oh, again, started so many of our food traditions love them and there

are beet drawings in Pompeii, you know, the excavated Pompeii on brothel walls.

Beets, and they're good for your heart too.

I mean, it's like people take beet supplements and at least we think

they take it for their heart.

Maybe not, because here's the funny part, there's a couple of these that have

tryptophan as one of their components.

It slows you down.

We didn't, know Thanksgiving could be so fun.

The Turkey is actually a sexual food.

Did we know that?

I don't know.

I don't think the Turkey knew that.

but here's the kicker.

It has boron, which is thought to increase sex hormones and

support sex hallmark hormones.

So, there you go.

Turkey puts you to sleep.

I always thought, now I'm gonna pay more attention to where people

go on Thanksgiving when they say they're gonna go take a nap.

I don't know.

You know, I'm going to stop you a second because you mentioned that

beets were depicted on brothel walls.

Have you ever been to Pompeii?

No,

So I went to Pompeii and very interesting, you walk around and they,

of course they show you the brothel walls and on the, the paintings, it's

amazing that they're still even there.

They have pictures of the different poses that you could order.

And right loud mouth me raises my hand.

I said, I guess this is how McDonald's got the idea of the different menu

numbers that you could select from.

So maybe McDonald's is a little bit more seductive than we realize.

It's kind

of the fast food menu.

You'll never look at a McDonald's menu or a fast food me menu

ever the same way again.

birdcage reminds me of that movie.

Remember where he passes out the plates, has the settings also, and then has

to take them up real quickly because.

Oh my goodness.

Hey, listen, before we go forward, I think we need to take a

great break.

I think we need to take a break because I don't know, I'm

getting a little hot in here.

We'll be right back

. Okay, Sylvia.

It is getting hot for sure, but, maybe we should heat it up again because this

time we're talking about coffee as an aphrodisiac which is not something I ever

considered to be a sensual kind of coffee.

I shouldn't say that.

Coffee when you have frothy foam on top

I like my frothy coffee.

Yeah, I'm kind of a, black coffee girl, but, you know,

It was

never a turn on for me, other than, you know that and baking

bread when you go into the grocery store, but I'm not thinking about

personal things when I'm going into the grocery store smelling coffee.

I.

there's extra pep, right?

Extra pep, boost your heart rate, blood flow, dopamine, all those good things.

But the funny story on coffee, I gotta tell this story.

magic Power Coffee was a company, actual company and it has now gone outta business

in part because of what was happening.

and.

People would get that coffee because it would really increase

their libido, and then they found out that it has these ingredients.

This is hilarious.

It has goji berries.

That's okay, right?

We know about that.

But you gotta love this one.

Horny goat cheese.

Horny goat cheese.

It has goat cheese in the coffee and horny goat cheese.

I thought all

Horny, horny goat cheese, and

Ginseng.

What

Viagra.

no, they actually put Viagra in the coffee.

Yeah, that's alleged.

I mean, and then if you Google it, FDA says, stop selling this coffee.

they went outta business, so tell Bob he can't find that anymore.

So, you know, I'll tell Bernie and you

tell Bob.

But you could try a rum and coffee rubbed brisket.

You know, I've heard of coffee being used to,,

Coffee rubs on

coffee.

Rubs,

uh, meats.

Absolutely.

rubs, rubs.

Get it.

Rubs.

Okay.

Yeah, along with the paste of asparagus, , I

don't know.

Let's not go there.

okay.

What do you think of strawberries?

Do you think science drives strawberries?

'cause they're, it's universal.

They're always served with chocolate covering on Valentine's Day.

I would say that they're not necessarily an aphrodisiac

or a sexual drug, but they are.

are noted to be, and moist and oh, you know, all those,

those words that go along with

strawberries and, succulent

goes on.

But they are good.

You keep talking like that.

And I'm gonna say I want what she's having, are heart shaped.

You know, if you look at 'em closely enough,

Okay.

There you are

huge.

They're red.

The ancient Greeks banned red foods for a while, fearing their power.

', Because they're sweet.

just.

Good feeling, but not really science other than they're really good for you

and they've got those kind of properties.

And then of course, just getting them covered in chocolate,

which we'll get to in a minute.

By the way, so strawberries, and let's move to honey.

I love this story of honey.

And did you know, I mean honeymoon, right?

If you think about it,

Oh, you got Mead

Mead

Mead is, can be like an alcohol from honey, correct?

It ferments, it's just honey water and yeast and it ferments.

And in some cultures, the bride and groom drink mead to ensure

their love life after marriage.

Ah, this is fun.

If a hive is abandoned in the wild, it will sometimes produce mead.

So, you

know, we'll send Yeah.

On its own, it'll ferment

and all natural mead, so, you know, we'll, we'll send armies of people

into the forest looking for dead hives.

Right.

Right.

Remember to wear your fig leaf, please.

You know?

But here's the kicker.

It contains boron just like beets

The, the honey, the raw the the mead does.

the, mead, because it's made from honey wood,

but boron is, is intrinsic in, thing, compo, composed in Boron.

It's the same as beets.

I did not

kinda the same thing.

Yeah.

So

we talked about honey in food as healing.

You know,

food is as medicine and, so, I guess it's a romantic healer.

Yeah, I didn't know that.

in ancient cultures, a bee sting was a welcome thing 'cause it was like a

shot, like the GLP drugs or whatever.

You can give yourself a shot and start losing weight.

You give yourself a shot of a bee sting and it's the gateway to romance.

Okay.

No, no.

You know, I have actually heard of, people taking bees and.

so that they sting all around their lips so they don't have

to get Botox or whatever it

is.

I know.

So that their lips are all inflamed.

Oh, That's painful.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that.

No.

okay, now we got four, or five more.

I dunno.

If you wanna go through art artichokes.

Let's go through artichokes.

Avocados, but we still have them the best come,

which are figs and chocolate.

Okay,

I can, I can see fig is,

Yeah.

sure.

So let's go, let's do avocados first because I love avocados.

Okay.

Avocados again if shape means anything.

Right.

So Aztec word, it's called addle, as best I can pronounce it.

And you know what it means?

It means testicle.

Power

An avocado.

An avocado.

Yeah.

You know,

like, think about it,

think about it.

Montezuma, who was legendary for his conquest of the romantic kind

and had many wives shared them with his minions and he also ate them.

and Aztecs would not allow virginal women to leave the house

during the harvest of avocados.

Okay, so I have a question for you.

yeah.

You know, there are different size avocados.

Yeah.

Right.

I wonder if they were talking about small ones or like the big ones from

California, oh my god, like that sounds like it would've hurt,

California dreaming, you know,

right?

I'm surfing in the us, eh, California.

Here I come,

No wonder there's such an appeal,

right there is a song, California.

Here I come.

Maybe it was all about avocados and we didn't know it.

It was big ones.

Okay, let's move on.

How about figs?

Oh, we, we forgot about Otter chokes.

Oh, artichokes.

Let's do our artichokes.

okay.

You know, I don't know.

Artichokes, I like them.

Zeus created them that's the myth that he created them after rejection

from a beautiful young woman.

They're sort of tough on the outside

they're they're beautiful.

They're a thistle.

It's a type of thistle.

Yeah, and tender on the inside.

So you know, they acquired that kind of myth, if you wanna call it that.

But Catherine de Medici, who is the Queen of France and pretty wild

known for her insatiable appetite for food and romance, do you notice

how those things always go together?

I mean father romance and, sometimes excess.

And both of them, when she married, Henry ii, she brought them and

the Swedish doctor said women would bring them to their husbands

to improve their performance.

Of the husband's improve the husband's performance.

Yeah, they, let's

feed them to their husbands.

We

why does a husband always have to perform?

as a, woman, I would say, yes, he has to perform,

but I do love artichokes.

I think they're very

seductive food

have to take the bottom pieces off.

And in the center you cut the choke out and you then you eat the stem and

oh my goodness, maybe we shouldn't air this part of the show, but,

I want what she's having.

and all the butter and the goo and the, oh, they're,

and they're great when they're

stuffed.

But anyway, I think we should move on

to something else

before

Okay.

Breathless.

Breathless.

artichokes,

How about fig leaves?

Fig leaves covered Adam and Eve, right.

Got lots of things like antioxidants, fiber, potassium, but their seeds,

signal, fertility, and ironically the leaves signal modesty.

So put those two things together.

Right.

but was it all figs or is it just a particular fig

that the seeds or that were that bee or that

bug that got inside?

We talked about

in eating bugs.

It's a female wasp goes into the fig and it's just a

certain species, laser eggs and dies and there's a big controversy over

whether you're supposed to eat it or not, or whether you're supposed to

open it up first and hollow it out.

Do you know

enough about figs?

I've never seen a dead bug inside of a fig. Have you?

No.

but they serve them at the restaurant in a lot of ways, but

I've, I've never eaten them like where I buy figs, but they're good.

And Fig Newtons,

I know

Right.

And they're crunchy.

They're on the, the seeds are crunchy, so maybe we're eating dead bugs and we don't

even know it necessarily, but it is only a particular kind of

It is, it is.

it could be.

Their bones are crunching on, they're exoskeletons.

Mm. I know, right?

But you said Cleopatra was also known for her romantic leanings,

or leaning in love of them,

Yeah.

which is, Hmm.

Here's, a fun, fact.

in ancient Greece and in other cultures, there's a. copulatory

ritual that was performed.

You see that in animals.

You know how, animals will dance around, do all kinds of ritual

things before mating, and I'm sure there's a human depiction of that.

I couldn't find one, or I didn't look that hard, but you could just imagine

what a Atory ritual was all about

With figs.

Yes.

I think of fan dancers with big fig leaves, right?

Yeah.

At least they'll cover themselves up.

They won't expose themselves to the world.

But fig leaves are actually small, so I guess, I don't know.

Okay, now chocolate.

Ah, of course.

Chocolate.

Crowd favorite, along with strawberries, right?

I know around here, the candy stores start stocking those California, and

they're big ones, big old strawberries, and they're covered in chocolate.

They only last a few days, right?

but , cacao is known as the Food of Gods, and that a few coffee beans could

purchase a night in the brothel in history, and you're gonna love Montezuma.

Was said to consume this is, this has to be myth 50 cups of chocolate a day

to satisfy his wives.

so, you know, who knows

there's actually, remember the movie Water for Chocolate?

Did you ever see that movie?

parts of it?

It's been

Oh,

ago, I don't remember.

it was a good movie.

if you're here with us, of course you're listening, but go watch the movie.

it's a cute movie.

It's a chick flick, but it's a cute movie.

And I learned from the gals that helped take care of mom

and dad that there's a type of.

I guess it's a Mexican or Hispanic type of chocolate that is specifically a

type of version of chocolate that you get to melt and put in the bottom of

a cup and then make your hot chocolate So that goes in there first, and

then you stir it and it's thick and it's gooey and you add your hot milk.

But I don't remember of making hot chocolate that way as a kid.

It was always.

Nestle's quick that you

made it with, and even if there was hot milk, but this melted gooey

chocolate, the idea of doing that and making hot chocolate that way

is really with whipped cream on top.

That's

Oh, oh, yeah,

So.

Have a cup of that while you're

What was the other, oh, you could put asparagus, paste on top of that.

Okay.

No, Sylvia.

And you're asparagus.

Ugh.

Okay.

So here's the deal.

It contains phena stimulant released when you fall in love

and serotonin that comes from.

tryptophan.

Again, we didn't know Thanksgiving could

be so fun.

Yeah.

It relaxes you, right?

and if you're lucky you don't fall asleep.

But most of the people I know do on the couch, so leads to love, we don't know.

but science doesn't really say, but chocolate.

And you know, I love chocolate.

I mean, who doesn't?

and what guy sits on the couch after Thanksgiving and

doesn't undo the top button of his

pants?

So

yeah.

Hardly romantic

that's actually seductive, but I am mentioning it.

a guy.

I do that.

Okay.

All right.

But in the end, it's love, food, love that really lasts soon.

It's whether it's with your honey or date, or whether it is with your

family or with your friends, right.

And I actually think that.

The food is important, but the environment that you're in is also

critical, And the lighting and everything else, they talk about candles.

I have to share, years back, there's a, restaurant up in a place called Pocan

Hills, New York, called Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and it was one of the big

famous, at least in the tri-state region, I guess it's, you know, food organic.

It's not the organic food, but food source, like you

eat is like right from the farm.

So they grew their pigs and their

chickens and their, everything was right there in, in the space.

And the food was delicious, but you couldn't get a reservation.

And we were driving around one day and, I had heard about it,

but never knew where it was.

We'd go on Sunday drives and, oh, there it is.

Let's go in and see if we can get a reservation for our anniversary.

It was somewhere around the end of February, which our anniversary is,

and they said, sure if you can be here next Friday for a, 5 o'clock seating.

And we said, sure, People were amazed that we could get a reservation.

'cause usually it's like six months to almost a year out to get

it Anyway, the food was stunning and everything was food as art and

Yeah.

Every, bite you took, the presentation was just seductive.

However, the environment was all in candlelight, the entire

place, even the bathrooms.

And I remember coming back from the bathroom and telling Bob, you gotta love

me because I look amazing in candlelight.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

And he looked pretty good too.

So candlelight if Yeah,, even if you're serving TV dinners, make sure

you're serving it in candlelight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We've got a record crowd coming and , the reservation started

coming into Azure weeks ago,

and yeah.

So people are really kinda,

I don't know.

Mm-hmm.

menu, like a, like a romantic seductive menu?

Can you give us a hint?

I don't know how romantic, and I know there's

asparagus in there somewhere.

Okay.

I swear I didn't suggest it.

beef wellington, tuna, duck breast.

And there's one more entree 'cause they get to choose an entree

and they get to, it's like a two four kind of thing, but each of them can

choose an entree and you know, . So, red velvet cake, which I adore,

but I won't make it.

I mean, 'cause I don't need to eat that much.

Right.

Beautiful.

And red and rich.

So I will indulge

, Nancy May: And I think of Red velvet cake as a southern thing.

It's not something that I knew of much up north

love it.

I absolutely love it.

But, yeah, so it's gonna be an interesting thing.

We're offering it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, and just a

big crowd coming and so that's fun.

Yeah.

that is, And do you think that, Traditional foods.

we talked about the asparagus and

everything else as being regular foods that are considered aphrodisiacs or

not, or they might be new one for you, but old fashioned things like

clam chowder and ordinary meals.

Do you think those are romantic?

Yeah, not romantic in the sense we understand

romantic, unless you wanna broaden the term to mean just lovingly.

Like, I love your dad's clam chowder story

that

you, you taped a long time ago.

You did that one a long time ago.

But just you know, food brings that pleasurable sensation, whether it's

in a bedroom or whether it's just sitting around with your family,

if food brings back a memory of somebody that you love,

then I think that is one of the sweetest ways to, bring caring of a

heart together at the table.

Or even if it's at the drive-in, there's food there too.

and I had that image of my dad making that cornbread.

That was his specialty, maybe his only one, but he would

lovingly prepare that cornbread.

And then I remember I have a visual in my head of him taking that cast

iron skillet out of the oven with his cornbread, and it was so good.

but it, was even better as a memory, you know, it was probably good,

But it was the love that went into it, I think.

So food is not always something that you need to think of on

Valentine's Day as what it's gonna stir up in more intimate ways,

but really the love and caring for the people that you, hold dear to

your heart, which is important.

Or you want to hold dear to your heart, like Merry Me Chicken, So

if you're looking to get married, learn how to make Marry Me Chicken and

give it to somebody that you want to

Mm-hmm.

seduce forever in life.

Yeah.

that note, we do have a special gift for everybody, and we

have created a romantic menu with some links to recipes for you as well.

And those are gonna be in the episode notes.

But.

I think that's pretty much everything that we've got as far as romance

goes in the kitchen, although there's a lot of romantic movies

that happen in the kitchen too,

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Or un over.

Food

is

Food

endless.

supply.

So on that note, remember to share like, and maybe invite us in,

into your kitchen on Valentine's Day.

Yeah.

Don't, forget, the asparagus paste.

That's right.

we might be busy, so,

Okay.

All right.

share, like, and enjoy the show.

And don't forget to pick up your gift in the episode notes of a romantic meal

that you can make or maybe have somebody make for you, because every meal is a

story and every story is a feast and it's Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com.

Take care.

We'll see you soon.

And bon appetit