Latest / Austin Signal / Austin bond preview, Residences between San Antonio and Austin, New cookbook from Nixta owners

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Austin bond preview, Residences between San Antonio and Austin, New cookbook from Nixta owners · Austin Signal

0:08
You might be focused on the races
0:10
for Texas, in Texas for U.S.
0:12
Senator and Governor, but several
0:14
important local votes are happening.
0:16
That includes a nearly $300 million
0:17
bond proposition on the ballot to
0:19
help local libraries and parks.
0:21
That's coming up on today's show.
0:23
The Austin Signal is a
0:25
production of KUT News, hosted
0:27
by Ben Philpott.
0:29
Austin and San Antonio are growing
0:30
closer together every day.
0:32
We'll get an update on home sales
0:33
and housing developments in those
0:35
counties just south of Travis.
0:37
Plus, Austin is home to one of the
0:39
best taco restaurants in the
0:41
country, at least according to me.
0:43
Now, the co-owners of Nixta
0:45
Taqueria have a new cookbook that
0:46
tells their family stories and
0:48
how they've blended those
0:50
traditional foods into
0:51
their lives here in America.
0:54
That and much more coming up
0:56
on Austin Signal.
1:08
Hello everyone, this is Austin
1:10
Signal. I'm your host, Ben Philpott.
1:12
It's Tuesday, October 13th.
1:15
We're less than a week away from the
1:16
start of early voting in this fall's
1:18
elections. There's a lot of
1:20
attention at the top of the ticket
1:21
for competitive races for U.S.
1:23
Senator and governor, but
1:24
down-ballot there are important
1:26
votes for Austinites.
1:27
That includes deciding on a $295
1:30
million bond to improve
1:32
parks and libraries across the city.
1:35
KUT's Luz Moreno-Lazano
1:37
reports.
1:38
The bond is broken up into two
1:40
separate propositions on the
1:41
November 3rd ballot.
1:43
There is $260 million for
1:45
parks, and $35 million set
1:47
aside for libraries.
1:49
But this ask is coming just one
1:51
year after Austinites rejected a
1:52
major property tax hike known as
1:54
Proposition Q.
1:56
While advocates say it's time to
1:58
invest in the city's parks and
1:59
libraries, opponents worry about
2:01
the financial burden on homeowners
2:02
as inflation and the cost of living
2:04
continue to rise.
2:07
Alyssa Vargas is with the Austin
2:08
Parks Foundation.
2:09
The non-profit works with the city
2:11
to fund parks, projects, and trails.
2:14
She says Austin's budget mainly pays
2:16
to maintain current parkland, but
2:17
doesn't leave room for much else,
2:19
and there are a lot of parks and
2:21
pools in need, including Garrison
2:22
Pool in South Austin, and Zilker
2:24
Park.
2:25
If we want to continue to use them
2:27
and enjoy them
2:29
in the way that we do, we must
2:30
sustain them and fund
2:32
them.
2:32
Especially when compared to Dallas,
2:34
Fort Worth and San Antonio.
2:38
Get these bonds in November, then
2:40
we'll continue to fall behind to our
2:42
competitor cities if we don't
2:43
invest.
2:44
The $260 million would
2:46
support parks, buildings, and
2:47
facilities, infrastructure, public
2:49
pools, and new parks and trails.
2:52
Then there's a bond proposition for
2:54
libraries.
2:55
The $35 million would fund two
2:57
main projects.
2:58
About $20 million would go to the
3:00
renovation and expansion of the
3:01
Hampton Branch Library at Oak Hill.
3:04
Tim Staley is the executive director
3:06
of the non-profit Austin Public
3:07
Library Friends Foundation.
3:09
He says it's a much needed project
3:10
to address the aging facility's
3:12
needs as one of the most heavily
3:14
used branches in the system.
3:16
So it's in need
3:18
of not just renovation,
3:20
but also expansion.
3:23
More room is needed for it
3:24
to effectively provide the needs
3:26
for the surrounding community
3:29
there.
3:30
That's space for
3:32
programming, for children's
3:33
programming, adult programming, too.
3:36
The remaining $15 million of the
3:37
library bond would go toward
3:39
building a new branch and colony
3:40
park.
3:41
That's a newer neighborhood in
3:42
northeast Austin.
3:44
Staley says the city has grown
3:45
quickly over the last several years,
3:47
and the library system has not kept
3:49
up. He says that area is no
3:50
different.
3:51
There are just too many Austinites
3:53
that do
3:56
not have the access
3:58
to the
4:00
services and amenities that
4:02
the public library provides.
4:04
This bond would come at a cost to
4:06
taxpayers.
4:07
If approved by voters, the owner of
4:09
an average-valued home of $495,000
4:12
would pay about $40 more on their
4:13
annual property tax bill.
4:16
City staff previously recommended
4:17
waiting another two years before
4:19
putting this decision before voters,
4:21
and Mayor Kirk Watson agreed with
4:22
that.
4:23
Responsible government doesn't ask
4:25
taxpayers only one question.
4:27
Is this worthwhile?
4:29
Of course parks are worthwhile.
4:32
Of course community investments are
4:34
worthwhile, but that's not the only
4:36
question.
4:37
Responsible governments also ask,
4:39
is this the right time?
4:41
Is this the way to pay
4:43
for it?
4:44
It'll be up to Austin voters to
4:45
answer that question.
4:47
Early voting begins on October 19th.
4:50
I'm Luz Moreno Lozano in Austin.
5:02
The space between Austin and San
5:04
Antonio continues to become a
5:06
lot less spacious.
5:08
Home sales and new home construction
5:09
numbers tell the tale.
5:11
And to help us dive into them, we've
5:13
got Ali Jewell from the Austin
5:15
Business Journal.
5:16
Hey there, how are you doing?
5:18
Pretty good.
5:19
So when you look at those three
5:20
counties between Austin and San
5:22
Antonio, that's Kamau, Lockhart
5:24
and Hays.
5:25
What's going on?
5:26
What kind of housing growth are you
5:27
seeing?
5:28
So as with kind
5:30
of any portion of the metro
5:32
right now, there's a lot of softness
5:35
in those sub markets, but
5:37
there's lot of promise too in
5:39
the long term.
5:40
I mean, as you mentioned,
5:42
those Austin, San Antonio metros,
5:43
they're getting closer and closer
5:45
and those three counties
5:46
are very much in the
5:48
space primed to benefit.
5:50
So I'm assuming softness in
5:52
the sub markets means that,
5:54
that, well, I mean, we've got high
5:56
mortgage prices and kind of a
5:58
whatever economy.
5:59
So that's just, things aren't,
6:00
aren't cooking like they usually
6:02
would.
6:02
Yeah, sales have been down a bit.
6:04
I know specifically in Kamal,
6:06
the data showed kind of
6:08
on par with 2019 numbers.
6:10
And obviously we saw that pandemic
6:12
boom, so don't necessarily want
6:14
to be backtracking in that way.
6:16
And yeah, like you said, things like
6:18
interest rates, consumer confidence,
6:20
just not at their peak right now,
6:21
not encouraging people to
6:23
necessarily go out to
6:25
those, you know, less
6:27
tried and true spots, but yeah,
6:29
long-term potential still there.
6:31
So when I moved to Austin almost
6:33
25 years ago, the
6:35
boom county was Williamson.
6:37
How does Hayes County now kind of
6:39
compare to what Williamson was
6:41
doing when it was really, just
6:43
clicking and booming and going?
6:45
Yeah, I got to talk about this with
6:47
Hayes County Commissioner Walt
6:49
Smith.
6:50
In his opinion, he thinks that,
6:52
you know, Hayes is primed to be
6:53
in about a decade, kind of the
6:55
next Williamson County.
6:57
He sees places like Kamal
6:59
and Caldwell and Guadalupe
7:01
following suit like in the
7:03
next decade.
7:04
So lots of confidence among those
7:06
people that South is
7:08
prim'd to be a Williamson county
7:10
kind of position.
7:11
So this may be a simple question,
7:13
but you know, in general,
7:15
is it, is all of this home
7:17
building just about cost, you know?
7:19
In other words, are the people
7:21
buying and building homes in Hayes
7:23
and Caldwell, uh,
7:25
because it's just cheaper than
7:26
Austin, than Travis County.
7:28
Yeah, I mean, a really big
7:30
challenge these days for home
7:32
builders and developers is
7:34
land prices.
7:35
And, you know, obviously, assumably,
7:37
in a place like Austin Proper, the
7:39
prices are going to be higher.
7:40
And so the benefit to a place,
7:42
like Caldwell or Hayes,
7:45
is prices are cheaper and, you know,
7:47
you can really target those
7:49
kind of first time home buyers.
7:51
It's a place where they can afford
7:52
to go and there's exciting things on
7:54
the horizon.
7:56
You brought up Hayes
7:57
is hoping that they may be
7:59
Williamson County in about a decade.
8:00
So what does that mean for
8:02
infrastructure? How is local
8:03
infrastructure holding up?
8:04
That was also a very big
8:06
topic of conversation with Walt
8:08
Smith.
8:09
I know that right now, they're a
8:11
little bit behind in terms of kind
8:13
of road work and stuff.
8:14
I wouldn't want to be in Dripping
8:15
Springs at school getting out
8:17
time, personally, but they
8:20
have a lot to look forward to.
8:21
Also in terms wastewater treatment
8:23
build out, that's on the horizon.
8:26
They have a a lot of infrastructure
8:27
and roadways coming online soon.
8:30
What he told me is we may not
8:32
be completely prepared for the boom
8:34
that's about to come, but we're
8:36
doing our darndest to catch up.
8:37
It feels like the roadway issue is
8:39
there's one way in one way out to
8:41
all of these towns that you go
8:42
through. Like if you're heading to
8:43
the hill country and that, that's
8:44
what makes it, you know, clog up so
8:46
easily.
8:47
Totally, yeah.
8:48
So what's on the horizon?
8:51
What are the next big developments
8:52
in Hayes and Caldwell?
8:54
Yeah, well, so Wilson Capital
8:56
recently closed on the
8:57
ridge. It's a massive,
8:59
massive neighborhood, over a
9:01
thousand acres, that they're
9:03
planning on working on.
9:04
It should have commercial and
9:05
residential in there.
9:07
Perry Homes has a 1,400-home
9:09
project that's coming online
9:11
close to Lockhart.
9:13
And, you know, when I talked with
9:14
Walt Smith, he said that there's a
9:16
lot of developers that are preparing
9:17
to bring things to the table.
9:19
So there's lot of investment still
9:21
going that direction.
9:22
That preparing is it is it kind of
9:24
a they're making that bet they're
9:26
hoping that once you know
9:28
once the the homes have been built
9:30
that maybe the interest rates are a
9:32
little lower
9:32
Yeah, I mean, the magic word
9:34
whenever you talk with homebuilders
9:36
or developers is depending on
9:38
market conditions.
9:39
So they're.
9:39
Depending on my
9:40
They're always preparing and,
9:43
you know, hoping that market
9:44
conditions align the way they want,
9:46
but also, you, know, they're not
9:47
afraid to take some time if need
9:49
be and if buyers are maybe a little
9:51
shyer than they're hoping.
9:53
Ali Jewell covers residential real
9:55
estate for the Austin Business
9:57
Journal. Thanks so much for joining
9:58
me today. Of course.
9:59
Thank you.
10:06
Coming up on the show, a new
10:08
cookbook from an Austin restaurant
10:10
traces family roots and
10:12
the blended cooking that they've
10:14
created in America.
10:15
We'll hear from the co-owners of
10:17
Nyksta Taqueria.
10:19
And what does an improv troupe do
10:21
when they lose their home and can't
10:22
find a new theater?
10:24
Well they improvise, of course.
10:26
Those stories coming up after the
10:27
break. This is Austin Signal.
10:29
This is The Austin Signal,
10:32
welcome back.
10:33
Last year, the hideout theater was
10:35
forced to leave its 26-year
10:37
home on Congress Avenue.
10:39
They got the boot after the
10:40
building's new owner decided to
10:42
convert the space into a bar.
10:44
The improv troupe then signed a
10:45
lease for a new spot in South
10:47
Austin, but that plan was
10:49
derailed.
10:49
For KUT's art beat, Michelle
10:51
Dollenberg spoke to the owners about
10:53
how they've been, well,
10:55
improvising.
10:57
Welcome! Come on in.
10:59
Here we are at the front door.
11:02
The first thing that you see is that
11:03
we've got kind of this forest thing
11:04
going in the hallway.
11:06
It wound up being a lot more jungle
11:07
themed than I think we
11:09
expected it to be, but in
11:11
a very cool, good kind
11:13
of way.
11:14
That's owners Jessica Arjay and
11:16
Roy Janek giving me a tour of the
11:18
Hideout Theater Annex.
11:19
I asked them how the past year has
11:21
been.
11:21
Yeah, I mean, how do you feel
11:23
about roller coasters?
11:26
When we had to move out,
11:28
we were really fixated on wanting
11:30
to basically smoothly
11:32
move to another location
11:34
that was as good or
11:36
better than 617
11:38
Conchrist. And because of that,
11:40
we jumped very quickly into,
11:43
comparatively quickly, into
11:45
trying to make a location work.
11:47
We also thought that we'd be moving
11:48
to a new space in South Austin.
11:51
That fell through, very sadly.
11:53
With a move-out deadline looming,
11:55
the hideout decided to temporarily
11:56
perform at their annex space where
11:58
they have improv classes and
11:59
workshops.
12:00
The space on North Lamar was just a
12:02
typical office with a couple of
12:03
large rooms, a kitchenette and
12:05
a bathroom.
12:06
Now that we're using it as our home
12:08
base, we've completely transformed
12:09
it.
12:10
A team of volunteers helped designer
12:12
and improviser Casey Bueller convert
12:14
the front room into a cozy lounge
12:16
and the back room into an intimate
12:18
theater space.
12:19
The team transported a mural Bueller
12:21
painted in 2009 from their old
12:23
location and nailed it to the wall
12:24
in the lounge.
12:25
So now that same mural that everyone
12:27
walked past for, you
12:29
know, 16 years is here
12:31
to provide some continuity.
12:34
As we move into the backspace,
12:35
improv students start coming in.
12:37
A class is about to begin.
12:39
So we're now standing in
12:41
the theater and
12:43
the stage in the theater is actually
12:45
the stage from the upstairs theater
12:47
at 617 Congress.
12:49
The hideout's old location had two
12:51
theater spaces.
12:52
The upstairs theater had about 50
12:53
seats, and the downstairs one was
12:55
nearly double that size.
12:57
The new space seats about 40.
12:59
Behind the stage, Bieler painted a
13:00
mural of a mountain vista.
13:02
The moon variant of the hideout logo
13:04
is the centerpiece of the
13:06
entire set.
13:07
Roy said the design of the space
13:09
represents the journey the hideout
13:11
is on.
13:11
You're hiking through the woods as
13:13
you come in through the hallway and
13:15
you come out here to basically like
13:17
an outpost where
13:19
you take a breath and you
13:21
take a moment to relax and
13:23
that is kind of the story of the
13:25
Annex as well.
13:26
It's our outpost as we
13:28
like gather our strength for the
13:30
journey ahead.
13:31
To help figure out what's next, the
13:33
Hideout is participating in a
13:34
program called Art Space Immersion.
13:36
They're helping us figure out how to
13:39
make this step into a larger place,
13:40
into a place that's more comfortable
13:42
for us on a permanent basis.
13:43
Based out of Minneapolis, ArtSpace
13:45
is a national nonprofit developer
13:47
and consultant of creative spaces
13:49
for artists.
13:50
The Hideout was one of six arts
13:52
organizations chosen for an Austin
13:54
cohort, which is being funded by the
13:55
Moody Foundation.
13:56
The program kicked off in May and
13:58
will wrap up in December.
13:59
Each month, the organizations work
14:01
on plans for their own space needs
14:03
and learn more about the real estate
14:04
industry.
14:05
It's an opportunity to be like,
14:07
what do we really value?
14:08
What's worth like growing what's
14:11
worth, like redirecting in terms
14:13
of what we do.
14:14
While they plan for their future
14:15
theater, they're making the most of
14:17
the present at the Hideout Annex.
14:18
But it's been a transition.
14:20
Until we did the first show here,
14:22
I was really worried that
14:24
the magic wouldn't be there.
14:26
During the construction of the stage
14:28
and risers, just
14:28
left to run an errand.
14:30
And then by the time that I came
14:31
back the stage was almost completely
14:33
put together and the risers
14:35
were there and it just, I'm so
14:36
sorry, and it was suddenly
14:38
it was like oh this is a theater.
14:40
This is really gonna be something
14:42
and it pretty magical.
14:45
You feel immediate connection
14:47
to the audience, even
14:49
in a way that our smaller theater at
14:51
the old space didn't have.
14:53
There's a feeling of
14:55
like intimacy and
14:57
just possibilities.
14:59
Over the past
15:01
10 years, a lot of Austin theaters
15:03
have gone through major transitions.
15:05
Some have moved and some have
15:07
closed.
15:08
And we find ourselves in a weird middle
15:09
place. It's very improv-like,
15:11
you know?
15:12
Instead of choice A or choice B, you
15:14
go choice banana.
15:15
And that's what we're in right now,
15:17
is the banana choice.
15:18
We're laying the foundations now.
15:20
It may be several years from now,
15:21
but like I want a 200 seat theater.
15:24
I want another, I want to secondary
15:25
theater. I want the coffee house
15:27
again. Will we wind up with that?
15:29
I don't know, but I do know that
15:30
this isn't like where our story
15:32
ends.
15:33
Also, I would say that
15:35
choice banana is choice B because
15:37
it starts with B.
15:39
Roy?
15:43
Let's go ahead, everybody go ahead
15:44
and get in a circle.
15:46
The improv class is starting.
15:48
For many of these students, the
15:49
annex is the only place they've ever
15:51
known as the hideout.
15:52
It's their hideout theater.
15:54
When the lights come up, pew!
15:56
Hi, I'm Tom, the commercial
15:58
window washer.
16:00
Hey, um.
16:01
Jessica on the ballerina.
16:03
Perfect care!
16:04
Perfect care.
16:05
One of the skills they're learning
16:06
is to be in the moment, to
16:08
let go of planned jokes or
16:09
storylines and react to what's
16:11
happening right then.
16:12
I'm an eight-legged octopus.
16:15
I'm a zombie.
16:17
While the hideout
16:17
While the hideout dreams about the
16:18
future, every week they'll also be
16:20
here on stage, in the present,
16:22
reacting to what's happening in the
16:24
moment.
16:24
Chad the surfer
16:26
I must.
16:28
For KUT's Art Beat, I'm
16:30
Michelle Dollenberg in Austin.
16:43
Who has the best tacos in
16:45
Austin? It's the kind of question
16:47
where the answer could start a
16:49
war or at the very least end
16:51
a friendship.
16:52
But I want to go on record now as
16:54
saying that any attempt to answer
16:55
without discussing Nixta Taqueria
16:57
just isn't taking the question
16:59
seriously. And now the team behind
17:01
Nixtia has their very first
17:02
cookbook.
17:03
So for our On Our Plate
17:05
segment, we're joined today by
17:07
co-owners Chef Edgar Rico and
17:09
Sara Mardenbigi.
17:10
Hey guys, thanks so much for coming
17:11
in.
17:12
Thank you for having us.
17:13
All right. So, um, you know, we met
17:15
a long time ago.
17:16
We actually met back in 2019 when
17:18
you were just launching Nick stuff
17:20
for a story that I had done for
17:22
Katie's at explained project.
17:24
So I know where both of you, you
17:25
come from, your, your backgrounds,
17:27
uh, but for the audience, when
17:28
you open up the book, one of the
17:30
first things that I think people
17:31
will see and will be really striking
17:33
is how you have the table of
17:35
contents divided.
17:36
Yeah, I think for us,
17:38
it was, you know,
17:40
this feeling that the two of
17:42
us had that I think a lot of people
17:43
can relate with if you are like,
17:45
first generation American in your
17:47
family.
17:48
I think we always, it's, we
17:49
are always in that in-between space
17:51
where you don't feel quite
17:53
Mexican enough, or you don't
17:55
feel quite American enough, and
17:57
like, I thin-
17:59
me and her when we were writing this
18:01
book, like a lot of those, you
18:03
know, recipes on there were like
18:05
things that our moms would try and
18:06
make to like make us fit in
18:08
and make us feel American.
18:10
Like my mom has a recipe on
18:12
there. It's like inspired by
18:14
like something my mom would make.
18:15
Cause I remember going to like
18:17
kids, like when I was young, going
18:19
to kids friend's houses for dinner
18:21
and like seeing them eat
18:23
like chicken fried steak or
18:25
like meatloaf.
18:25
And I was asking my mom like, how
18:27
can we never man? How can we ever
18:28
eat that stuff? Like, what the heck?
18:30
You know, and,
18:32
you know, our moms would attempt
18:34
doing their own versions of it.
18:37
You know my mom, the first time she
18:39
ever tried it, decided to like
18:41
nuke some microwave, microwave
18:44
meatloaf that she cooked for like 45
18:45
minutes in the microwave.
18:47
Weirdest thing ever, but I remember
18:49
as a kid being like, this is
18:51
the best thing ever.
18:52
And I felt so American eating that.
18:55
But then Sarah's mom also has a
18:57
recipe in there that we have in
18:58
there. It's like called Macaroni,
19:00
that is like, you know,
19:02
it's a version-ish
19:04
of like
19:06
spaghetti, Hold the Meatballs.
19:08
It's like a bolognese sauce kind of,
19:10
but she makes a tattie
19:12
out of it. So you make your
19:15
sauce and then you cook your noodles
19:17
and then.
19:18
Almost combine that and layer it
19:20
like a like a lasagna and then
19:22
you crisp it up at the bottom you
19:23
get a bunch of oil And a little bit
19:25
of potatoes, and you make like a
19:26
really crispy
19:28
noodle tadig and then like flip
19:30
it out almost looks like a little
19:31
cake and you eat it and
19:34
It's very interesting.
19:35
It's like a very different take on
19:37
Italian spaghetti.
19:38
But I don't know, there's things
19:39
like that throughout the book.
19:40
And I think that was the part of the
19:42
reason why we wanted to include the
19:43
American section because we're like,
19:45
you know, we're in
19:47
that space where we're kind of like
19:48
in between and we are American,
19:51
but we are also like really proud of
19:52
our roots and where we are from.
19:54
So yeah, it's kind of a fun
19:56
little nod to our experience
19:58
growing up here in the States.
20:00
So what are your favorite, what are
20:01
your favorite recipes on this?
20:02
Like, do each of you have one
20:03
favorite that you, you're like, I
20:05
don't care what you do with the
20:06
book, but this has to be in it.
20:08
For me it was
20:10
the rajas con crema.
20:12
That dish for me is like
20:14
a very dish
20:16
that it was one like a
20:18
like every mom I feel like has
20:20
like a bread and butter recipe.
20:22
That is like absolutely like my
20:23
mom's bread and butter recipe, but
20:26
for me it also kind of like...
20:28
Oh, like in memories
20:30
in my head is like something I
20:32
vividly remember.
20:33
Because like when we were first
20:34
opening the restaurant, I
20:36
remember my grandma and
20:38
my mom were like both in the space.
20:40
And I remember my grandma decided
20:42
to like.
20:43
Cleaned the space with a limpio and
20:45
like she like lit up a bunch
20:47
of sage, palo santo
20:49
everywhere, had some
20:50
uh you know holy water and she like
20:52
blessed the whole space and
20:54
I remember after uh
20:57
we like sat down and like had
20:59
like just rest the ingredients
21:01
kind of laying around and my mom
21:03
just threw that down and I just
21:06
that also looking back at it would
21:08
be like the last time I ever got to
21:09
cook with like my grandma and my mom
21:11
and like us all in the same space
21:13
together and I don't know just that
21:15
dish is like very sentimental to me
21:17
and You know making the book and I
21:18
was like that's has to be like
21:20
absolutely in the book.
21:22
Sarah. How about you?
21:23
I remember that night that we
21:25
opened for friends and family, it
21:27
was the first time his grandma also
21:28
tried a tuna tostada.
21:30
And she was like, this tastes way
21:32
different than the canned tuna that
21:34
I eat at my house.
21:35
All she ever had eaten, so.
21:37
That was a really special day,
21:39
honestly.
21:40
I think similarly,
21:42
food is this
21:44
time capsule, this
21:46
bank of memories that you have.
21:48
And for me, the recipe that really
21:50
resonates is the Khurysh e-Karafs.
21:52
So, I think so often,
21:55
there is not really a familiarity
21:57
with what Persian food is.
21:59
You may not have access to it to
22:01
where you live. It may.
22:03
Feel very foreign, but
22:05
I remember growing up in Arkansas in
22:07
the Ozarks, I would invite friends
22:09
over to my house and every
22:11
single time, they didn't know what
22:12
they were eating, but they would
22:14
have two or three plates of it.
22:15
They were super excited.
22:17
So for me, I really wanted to
22:19
show a different side of what
22:20
Persian cooking could be beyond
22:22
kebabs and rice
22:24
and what people sort of
22:25
associate with it if they don't know
22:27
much about it.
22:29
So any Rana Khorisht is similar to
22:31
you saw though in Mexico.
22:33
It's a type of stew.
22:34
Kadavs means celery.
22:37
And when you first
22:39
think about a celery stew,
22:41
it doesn't sound super appealing,
22:43
but the beauty of Persian cooking
22:44
is kind of two fundamental things.
22:47
It's one, the
22:49
time and care that you put into
22:51
something. It's not gonna be a
22:53
30-minute meal.
22:54
You want the flavors to continue
22:56
growing and developing over a few
22:58
hours. You'll start in the morning
22:59
and then by, you know, four or five
23:01
p.m. It's good to go.
23:03
And then the second part of it
23:05
is that we use an
23:07
insane amount of vegetables and
23:09
everything, like herb city,
23:11
piles of herbs, getting drowned in
23:13
herbs.
23:14
So this recipe, you'll find
23:16
eight bunches of
23:18
cilantro, eight bunch of parsley,
23:21
two bundles of celery.
23:23
And you kind of feel like Popeye by
23:25
the end of it. You're like, yeah,
23:26
I'm so strong.
23:27
But it's just this really
23:29
beautiful dish that uses these.
23:32
Limuamoni, which are these dried
23:33
limes that you put into the
23:35
stew, and over time it sort of
23:37
bursts into the still creating this
23:40
really beautiful lemony
23:42
kind of undercurrent.
23:44
And then you get that with
23:46
like a heaping plate of
23:49
basmati rice with saffron
23:51
on it.
23:52
And it's just so and it was
23:54
my momoney's, my late grandma's
23:57
favorite dish.
23:58
Because she was from the north of
24:00
Iran, near the Caspian,
24:02
and they say that
24:03
if there's no rice, then it's
24:05
not really a meal.
24:07
So I really kind of took
24:09
hold of that sentiment,
24:11
and I'm just excited for
24:13
people to try those recipes and
24:16
understand a little bit more about
24:17
Persian cooking.
24:19
The new cookbook is From Tacos
24:21
to Tadik, from Nixta
24:23
Taqueria.
24:24
Edgar Rico and Sarah Martin Beegy,
24:26
thanks so much for coming in and
24:27
talking with us today.
24:27
Good luck on the tour.
24:29
Thanks so much.
24:29
Thank you, thanks for having us.
24:34
Well, it's obviously lunchtime,
24:35
folks. That's it for today's Austin
24:37
Signal. Thanks to Luz Moreno Lozano,
24:39
Ali Jewell, and Michelle Dollenberg
24:40
for their reporting.
24:42
Caroline Files, our technical
24:43
director.
24:44
Alexander Hart is our producer.
24:45
Managing producer is Kristin
24:46
Cabrera. Jimmy Moss is the
24:48
showrunner.
24:49
And I'm your host, Ben Philpott.
24:51
Be sure to tune in tomorrow.