Its gold walls reflected in the pond at its feet, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji, is glorious in any season. It was originally the retirement villa of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, former shogun and patron of the arts.

How Yoshimitsu was able to be shogun is a story from some decades before, a story of betrayal, revolutions, and lots of samurai warriors committing ritual suicide.

Listener Jaime discussing seeing the temple in various seasons, as well as the experience of visiting Kyoto itself. Also, somehow Drew makes it through an entire episode on Kyoto only mentioning geisha once, and that's in the opening song lyrics.  They make up for it with all the good food, including okonomiyagi, "Japanese pancakes".

NB: Drew makes an important announcement at the end of the episode.

Sources:

Dougill, John. Japan’s World Heritage Sites
Miller, David. Samurai Warriors
Milner, Rebecca. Lonely Planet Japan

Photograph by Pedro Szekely

Nestled in the hills of north central Morocco, Fès' ancient walled medina is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, passages, lanes and souks: the world's largest car-free urban space.  Founded by Idris, an Arab refugee-turned-Moroccan king, Fès also claims the world's oldest university, built by Fatima al-Fihri, herself a refugee from Tunisia.

There's no specific wonder here other than the medina, and that's OK. Sometimes a city or neighborhood is exemplary enough to be a wonder in and of itself.

Listener Steve Fait joins us to talk about visiting Fès, navigating its maze, exploring its secrets and managing carpet salesmen.  Plus, we discuss the joys of tagine, although the recipe this week is b'stilla, a savory/sweet Moroccan pot pie that is one of my all-time favorite foods.

Sources:

Abun-Nasr, Jamil Mirʻi.  A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period

Carrington, Daisy. "This 1,157-year-old library gets a facelift". CNN. 

DK Eyewitness Morocco

Hourani, Albert.  A History of the Arab Peoples

Lonely Planet Morocco

Nader, Emir.  “The World's Oldest University Was Founded by a Woman of Color” in Vice

Othman, Najwa. “Kairouan: Capital of Political Power and Learning in the Ifriqiya”

Sarkeesian, Anita and Ebony Adams.  History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don't Want You to Know

Wolfert, Paula.  The Food of Morocco

Photo by Alina Chan

Can you make this classic Neapolitan pie at home?  No.  No you cannot.  You don’t have Neapolitan flour, Vesuvian tomatoes, Campanian water, fresh mozzarella from Italian buffaloes… or a dome-shaped wood-fired brick oven.

So whatcha gonna do?

Well…  You can improvise. 

I like to grill my pizza in the summer - which gives a nice char and crisp but still provides a good chew.  But it’s not Neapolitan.

To replicate the Neapolitan experience, you’ll need your oven.  It won’t BE Neapolitan.  Your oven can’t get up to a Vesuvius-like 700 degrees, so it will never be the same. But it can be delicious.  So step one is getting a pizza stone.  Now, I hate the concept of buying a giant piece of rock that you’ll rarely use and will take up space in your house. But you can actually use a pizza stone for all sorts of other thing that you’d like to bake or roast.  A pizza stone is just a slab of rock or ceramic that absorbs heat from the oven and provides that heat to whatever you’re roasting in a nice even, consistent way.  Better than an aluminum baking sheet, anyway.  So get one, but remember, have it in the oven as your preheat.  If you put it in after you’ve preheated, it will crack, as both pizza stones I have ever owned have done because I’m an idiot.

OK. So dough. Flour, salt, yeast, and water.  But not just any flour.  It has to be type 0 or type 00 Italian flour, which are very finely milled flours, so they are super powdery, almost like baby powder.  You can find this at specialty groceries, or you can substitute all-purpose flour, if needs be.

Mix up the flour with salt, water and yeast. Knead it up, divide into a couple of balls, cover and let them rest overnight in the fridge.  So no, this isn’t a spur-o-the-moment thing. 

Put the stone in the oven and preheat it to full hot for an hour.  Flour a surface and stretch out the dough with your hands.  Don’t twirl it over your head unless you’re an expert or comfortable with having floor dirt in your pizza.  Get nice and thin so you can almost see through it.

Sauce is next.  You can get canned San Marzano tomatoes at many stores, although note that a lot of canned tomatoes claim to be San Marzano without actually being San Marzano, so double-check.  Just puree the tomatoes to make the sauce, with a smidge of olive oil and a pinch of salt.  That’s it.  And DON’T USE MUCH.

Next: fresh mozzarella.  Again, quality matters.  If you can’t get the buffalo mozz, cow’s milk will do, but it has to be good. Get it in the fancy cheese section, not in the dairy case in the back.  And make sure you drain it, if it’s packed in water.  You do NOT want that extra moisture, unless you like soggy pizza.  Slice some thin slices and plop them on the sauce.  Again, NOT TOO MUCH.

And then scatter a few pieces of torn basil leaves on top.  Some people leave their leaves whole, other like a fine chiffonade.  Whatever.  I like torn pieces, but the key is 4 to 5 leaves per pie.  That’s it.

Use a pizza peel, which is a pizza-size super-thin spatula, to move the pie onto the stone.  Cook for 6 to 8 minutes and buon appetito!

Wait.  Drizzle some good olive oil on top at the end.  Then buon appetito.

Serves 4-ish

INGREDIENTS

• 306 grams 00 flour (2 cup plus 2 tablespoon)
• 8 grams fine sea salt (1 teaspoon)
• 2 grams active dry yeast (3/4 teaspoon)
• 1 can whole tomatoes (
• Extra-virgin olive oil (approx 15 ml)
• 2 2/3 ounces (75 g) fresh mozzarella
• 4 to 5 basil leaves, roughly torn

STEPS

1. Place a pizza stone or tiles on the middle rack of your oven and turn heat to its highest setting. Let it heat for at least an hour.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend tomatoes, 5 ml olive oil and dash of salt
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.
4. In a small mixing bowl, stir together 200 grams (a little less than 1 cup) lukewarm tap water and the yeast, then pour it into flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, approximately 3 minutes, then let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.
5. Knead rested dough for 3 minutes. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (If you refrigerate the dough, remove it 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)
6. To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares.
7. Put the sauce in the center of the stretched dough and use the back of a spoon to spread it evenly across the surface, stopping approximately 1/2 inch from the edges.
8. Break the cheese into large pieces and place these gently on the sauce. Scatter basil leaves over the top.
9. Using a pizza peel, pick up the pie and slide it onto the heated stone or tiles in the oven. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbling, approximately 4 to 8 minutes.
10. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pie, and serve.

Recipe adapted from https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016231-pizza-margherita

Moutabel* is a smoky eggplant (or aubergine) dip from the Levant which is particularly popular in Jordan.  You would enjoy this with warm pita bread as part of a mezze, a large spread of appetizers like hummus, tabouleh, and other delicious taste sensations.

What makes moutabel different from baba ghanoush is the addition of tahini, that almost peanut buttery sesame paste.  This makes moutabel significantly smoother in texture, which I like, without overwhelming the eggplant and garlic.

The key to successful eggplant spreads is the cooking.  Flame-grilled is the best way to go, but roasting in an oven is fine too.  It’s important not only to make sure the skin is blackened all over but that the eggplant has basically been cooked into a soft goo.  If you think it’s done, it’s probably not done.  The more you cook out the liquid and break down the fibers, the better your dip will be.

I’ll be honest - I’m giving this recipe now, but I won’t try it myself until the summer.  Getting a perfect ripe eggplant makes a huge difference, and this is really a summery dip, with the bright lemon and garlic.  So save this for later, OR if you’re one of my Australian or New Zealander listeners, enjoy RIGHT NOW!  And then, let me know how it is!

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Filling:

• 2 large eggplant (about 850 grams)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup tahini paste (120 ml)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (120 ml)
• 2 teaspoon salt (or to taste) (10 ml)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (60 ml)
• Dried mint or parsley for garnish
• za'atar (spice blend) for garnish

STEPS

1. Place the unpeeled eggplants (aubergines) directly on the stove-top over a medium heat. Leave it roasting and keep turning from side to side until the skin is blackened and pulp is soft and tender. This process takes about 15 minutes in total.  Be aware that the eggplant can pop, so it might get messy.
2. Trim the stem off from the eggplant and remove the seeds (if any). Put the eggplant in a sieve or colander and let it drain for 30 minutes.  You can squeeze out the excess liquid if you’re in a rush.
3. In a serving bowl, mix the tahini and lemon juice until the tahini is well blended.  Add the garlic and salt and blend it in.
4. In the strainer, mash the eggplant gently with a fork, then add it to the lemon/tahini mixture.  Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Taste to adjust salt and lemon.
5. Spread the dip in serving plate, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with a pinch of crushed dried mint and a sprinkling of za'atar. Serve warm or cold with pita or taboun bread.

Recipe adapted from http://www.kitchenofpalestine.com/mutabbal and https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/sep/25/how-to-make-perfect-baba-ganoush.

Photograph from: http://bennydoro.com/chef/recipes/moutabal-roasted-eggplant-dip/ since I haven't made it myself yet.

* Moutabel, or moutabal, or muttabal, or mutabbal - I’ve seen all of these, and if anyone can tell me a really good transliteration, I sure would appreciate it.

Lost city of the Nabataeans, the rock-cut city of Petra has been rightfully celebrated as a Wonder of the World, at least since that Indiana Jones movie. But the story is well worth telling. We'll talk about the Nabataeans, their caravans, and their run-ins with the Greeks, Romans and Judeans.  We'll meet Pompey the Pompous.  And we'll eat Bedouin classics from underground pit ovens.

Stephanie Craig from the History Fangirl podcast shares her experiences traveling in Jordan.  For such a small country, there's so much there.  You will have chosen wisely to download this episode.  Enjoy!