The Sporkful

The next chapter... In honor of our 10th anniversary we’re re-releasing three all time favorite stories, as selected by listeners, each with a brand new update at the end. In this episode we follow one woman's attempt to recover from an eating disorder over the course of a year. We hear what it’s like to wake up each morning and have to fight a battle not only with food, but more importantly, with yourself...

Three years later... A famous sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria, played a key role in changing Shadi Martini’s life forever. Today on The Sporkful we hear the rest of Shadi’s story, and conclude our quest to find out what happened to the shop during the civil war in Syria. (In honor of our 10th anniversary we’re re-releasing three all-time favorite stories, as selected by listeners, each with a brand new update. This is the conclusion of the first story...

A quest for a sandwich… In honor of our 10th anniversary we’re re-releasing three all time favorite stories, as selected by listeners, each with a brand new update. This first story is in two parts. The second part is in your feed now, with a special update at the end. Before Aleppo became an international symbol for the devastation of the Syrian civil war, it was Syria's food capital...

Three years later... A famous sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria, played a key role in changing Shadi Martini’s life forever. Today on The Sporkful we hear the rest of Shadi’s story, and conclude our quest to find out what happened to the shop during the civil war in Syria. (In honor of our 10th anniversary we’re re-releasing three all-time favorite stories, as selected by listeners, each with a brand new update. This is the conclusion of the first story.)

A quest for a sandwich... In honor of our 10th anniversary we're re-releasing three all time favorite stories, as selected by listeners, each with a brand new update. This first story is in two parts. The second part is in your feed now, with a special update at the end. Before Aleppo became an international symbol for the devastation of the Syrian civil war, it was Syria's food capital...

Anger, depression, and massive success… For David Chang, every restaurant he opens feels like life or death. That mentality is a major reason why he’s one of the biggest figures in the restaurant world today. He combines highbrow and lowbrow, mashing cuisines together to create dishes that aren’t fusions — they’re collisions. If you know him from TV, you probably think of him as an affable, goofy guy who loves to eat...

Anger, depression, and massive success… For David Chang, every restaurant he opens feels like life or death. That mentality is a major reason why he’s one of the biggest figures in the restaurant world today. He combines highbrow and lowbrow, mashing cuisines together to create dishes that aren’t fusions -- they’re collisions. If you know him from TV, you probably think of him as an affable, goofy guy who loves to eat...

This was supposed to be the Queens Night Market’s big summer... When the open-air market debuted in 2015, the crowds were massive. Founder John Wang selected food vendors who represented more than 90 countries. And he had one rule for them: no item could cost more than $5. That way the market would be accessible to nearly everyone, and big businesses would stay away. In 2019 the market set a new record for attendance, and finally started to turn a small profit...

And the science of rocky road’s success… Ketchup started as a far different product from what’s on the shelves today. A lot of its evolution can be traced to an early government agency and a group there called “The Poison Squad” that tested the safety of different chemicals — by eating them. We hear that story. Then a linguist explains why the name “rocky road” actually makes the ice cream taste better...

And the science of rocky road’s success… Ketchup started as a far different product from what’s on the shelves today. A lot of its evolution can be traced to an early government agency and a group there called “The Poison Squad” that tested the safety of different chemicals -- by eating them. We hear that story. Then a linguist explains why the name “rocky road” actually makes the ice cream taste better...