Gastronomica’s Dan Bender and Jaclyn Rohel explore wines from Italy’s Alto Piemonte region in this discussion on taste, livelihoods, and a changing environment. In his newly published creative nonfiction article, Dan writes that “Wine is good for thinking ruins.” This episode connects abandoned factories, overgrown terraces, vineyards, cellars, and local memory of “The Great Hailstorm of 1905” to tell a larger story about how past, present, and future collide in the wineglass.
What is the social value of a daytime street market? In this episode, sociologist Ellen Meiser talks with Gastronomica’s Dan Bender about the meaning and value of Taiwan’s caishichang. Drawing on her early memories of these vegetable street markets and her participant observations of the same lively streets in the contemporary moment, Ellen explains the important roles that caishichang play in the local food system and in social, economic, and political life.