156: Cooking through the Silk Roads with Anna Ansari
AnthroDish21 Loka 2025

156: Cooking through the Silk Roads with Anna Ansari

If you grew up in the Western world, it's entirely possible you've heard of a singular Silk Road used for trade between two major entities, Europe and China. And maaaybe Marco Polo. But the reality is so much more deeply textured and layered with transitions of food, spices, ideas, and cultures along along a wide array of travel and trading routes across Asia.

My guest this week, Anna Ansari, speaks to this through her new cookbook-cum-memoir Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing. In this thoughtful and rich cookbook, Anna celebrates her Iranian-American heritage with the world's most storied trade routes through 90 recipes and essays. Anna is an Iranian-American writer, cook, and former international trade lawyer whose work explores the intersections of food, family, and history. Her work as appeared in Pit Magazine, Eaten, and Fillerzine. She lives in London with her husband, son, and cat.

In today's conversation, Anna talks about her own journey into writing Silk Roads and researching culinary narratives across Asian trade routes, the expansive history of food and ideas travelling along the Silk Roads, and why the apple isn't so quintessentially American as people would think.

Learn More From Anna!

Jaksot(185)

43: Can We Really Have a Global Diet? with Dr. Sarah Rotz

43: Can We Really Have a Global Diet? with Dr. Sarah Rotz

I came across this week's guest on Twitter and was so grateful for it, because her perspective and research on food systems is a complete inspiration. I'm interviewing Dr. Sarah Rotz, a postdoctoral f...

15 Huhti 201953min

41: The Neurobiology of Eating Disorders with Dr. Jillian Lampert

41: The Neurobiology of Eating Disorders with Dr. Jillian Lampert

If you've been listening to AnthroDish for a while, you know that the topic of disordered eating is one that holds tremendous meaning for myself both personally and from a research perspective. I am a...

9 Huhti 201950min

40: Recreating Ancient Roman Foods with Farrell Monaco

40: Recreating Ancient Roman Foods with Farrell Monaco

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that when I was a kid I was completely obsessed with ancient Rome, given that I've gone on to work in anthropology. So this week's interview was an absolute dream come...

1 Huhti 201949min

39: Edible Insects and Human Evolution with Dr. Julie Lesnik

39: Edible Insects and Human Evolution with Dr. Julie Lesnik

Why do some cultures get squeamish at the idea of eating bugs when other cultures use them as dietary staples? There are a lot of biases, particularly for Western folks, about what animals are and are...

26 Maalis 201938min

38: LGBQ+ Health and  Food Security with James Gibb

38: LGBQ+ Health and Food Security with James Gibb

Food security is a topic that's very close to my heart, in part because of how complex and varied experiences of food access, affordability, and availability can be. This week, we're breaking down foo...

18 Maalis 201939min

37: William Lucas on Indigenous Food Transitions and Health in Rural Guatemala

37: William Lucas on Indigenous Food Transitions and Health in Rural Guatemala

What really happens when a community undergoes a dietary transition, or shift? When speaking about Indigenous communities and their health, we often think of nutritional transitions as linear, and unc...

11 Maalis 201939min

36: FEAST - Exploring Canadian Identities through Food with Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller

36: FEAST - Exploring Canadian Identities through Food with Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller

A topic that I feel we haven't REALLY explored the way I'd like to is Canada's food identity. And that's something that my guests this week, Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller know an awful lot about...

5 Maalis 201935min

35: Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Food Industry with Hassel Aviles

35: Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Food Industry with Hassel Aviles

As someone who's worked in the food industry and has a partner and many friends that still work in the industry, the topic of mental wellbeing in these intense environments is of great importance to m...

26 Helmi 201939min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

sita
olipa-kerran-otsikko
ihme-ja-kumma
kaksi-aitia
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
i-dont-like-mondays
uutiscast
poks
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
antin-palautepalvelu
kolme-kaannekohtaa
mamma-mia
rss-murhan-anatomia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
aikalisa
loukussa
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
naakkavalta
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2