Amena Brown:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another new episode of HER with Amena Brown, and it is a Road Stories episode. That means my husband, who is usually the producer that you all don't get to hear from, you get to hear from him. Matt is here.
Matt Owen:
(singing)
Amena Brown:
Matt's here in the living room with us and-
Matt Owen:
(singing)
Amena Brown:
... Matt's always here to bring a snack or to eat a snack.
Matt Owen:
Show me.
Amena Brown:
And I don't remember if I ever asked you that when we first started doing Road Stories. Because normally, I ask a guest if they were going to hang out in the living room with their friends and they were asked to bring a snack, what snack would they bring? What would be your snack that you would bring?
Matt Owen:
See, the problem is normally when you ask that question, you asking, a lady. And you can't say all, but mostly ladies are pretty thoughtful to people. I represent the other set of the population, a dude, and I'm not a mindless dude.
Amena Brown:
That's true.
Matt Owen:
But us dudes, we're going to do what is the easiest thing. So I'm probably bringing some Doritos.
Amena Brown:
Okay, that's not a bad choice though.
Matt Owen:
A jar of something to dip that Dorito in, maybe.
Amena Brown:
What's the flavor of Dorito that you would really pick? Or is it just whatever is the first one?
Matt Owen:
Well, I was told that Cool Ranch is my favorite.
Amena Brown:
Please. You all, the way that Matt is hating on me in this episode, you all.
Matt Owen:
It's a good chip.
Amena Brown:
Okay. First of all, this is a respectable snack choice-
Matt Owen:
It is.
Amena Brown:
... to bring a bag of Doritos to a gathering of friends and to bring some element of dip, which I feel would probably be of a cheesy sort of nature. That's respectable. But also listeners, I just want you all to know which I feel I may have referenced in a previous episode that we released for our anniversary one or two years ago. I will try to make sure we get that in the show notes. That is a shout-out to the show notes that if we're ever here talking about something and you're like, "Oh, a link. Wait, I can't remember," you don't have to remember because you can go to amenabrown.com/herwithamena. The links are right there. I'm going to try to link to the actual episode where Matt and I tell our story of how we had got together. But a part of that story was me asking Matt to build a show with me in the studio and I didn't have money to pay him. And for some reason, I had in my head that he would be a Cool Ranch Doritos person.
Matt Owen:
Maybe you thought I was a cool type of dude and cool people eat Cool Ranch.
Amena Brown:
Oh, maybe so. I also feel generationally Doritos is premium snack like when we were kids.
Matt Owen:
Oh, yeah.
Amena Brown:
And if you were having a lunch made for you by your parents and your parents went and got the little mini bags of chips, bless their hearts if they got the variety bag because I was never really a Fritos girl. And the plain Lay's also could kick rocks for me as a kid. But them Doritos, the regular, Original-
Matt Owen:
Nacho Cheese, baby.
Amena Brown:
... and the Cool Ranch, if you open up your lunchbox and that's what you had, immediately it must be that your parents love you more than the rest of those kids.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, you felt cool because also that meant that your parents probably just went to the store. So that means your family doing all right. It's like you showing up in a Starter jacket or something. You got a Starter jacket in your lunchbox because everybody knows you go to your friend's house and their mom ain't been to the store in a minute. Mom, Dad, whoever ain't been to the store in a minute. And all you saw was a bunch of Frito, them little Frito bags. You know, "Oh, okay. We're getting the leftovers today."
Amena Brown:
Yes, that makes life hard. I hated that variety bag because when it came time to eat them Fritos, this another thing. And I don't know because the kids that we have in our lives, I haven't really asked a lot of lunchtime questions of them. And then things have changed so I don't know if kids is still getting their lunches made or if they just eating there at school. I don't know. But I'm going to tell you right now, I want to give a shout-out to Gen X for learning negotiation skills very early in life. Because if you had a bag of chips in your lunch that you hate, you had to really try to-
Matt Owen:
Trade.
Amena Brown:
... convince some other kid. Now hopefully, I remember having some other friends or other people I went to school with, they love a Frito bag so they would be happy to trade me that for they... Now for Fritos, you're not going to get Gushers because that's not equal negotiation tactic.
Matt Owen:
Mm-hmm, not. It's not.
Amena Brown:
It's not an equal trade. So I don't know if you're getting a Welch's Fruit Snack which is still a good thing, but it's not. Or if you're getting a apple sauce. But I would rather have a apple sauce than eat Fritos for me.
Matt Owen:
What was the sour one bit into it?
Amena Brown:
That wasn't a Gusher too?
Matt Owen:
That was a Gusher, yeah. But those-
Amena Brown:
Gusher had a sour... They had a sour-
Matt Owen:
Yeah, a sour one.
Amena Brown:
They had a sour one, yeah. So shout-out to a Gen X because you had to really learn how to do the best with what you had or learn how to trade up.
Matt Owen:
We've been navigating things like that, talking about a recession.
Amena Brown:
Yo.
Matt Owen:
When you show up with a Frito bag, you knew you was in a recession and you had to figure it out.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, you had to do work out a trade. But it turns out some people like Fritos.
Matt Owen:
Although if anybody from Fritos is listening, mm mm mm. I would love a bag right now.
Amena Brown:
Well, at least the Fritos, first of all, Frito is a Lay brand and Lay's has other wonderful chips. So I can appreciate the brand of Lay's without having a rock for them Frito chips. Now, the only time them Frito chips came in good is somebody at the football games of our high school team would cut the bag, the Frito bag. Would you mind to go there?
Matt Owen:
That's what I'm talking about, yeah boy.
Amena Brown:
They would cut the bag and then they would dump a little chili and a little cheese in that hole. Or they would dump the Fritos bag out and put it in that little paper, paper little bowl-
Matt Owen:
You doing it, you doing it.
Amena Brown:
... that you would get.
Matt Owen:
You doing it.
Amena Brown:
... the high school thing. They would dump that in.
Matt Owen:
Let them in your bowl.
Amena Brown:
And that's really a different type of nacho situation.
Matt Owen:
Some people call it a walking taco. I've heard it called where you put different chives, different herbs, stuff on top.
Amena Brown:
My, my.
Matt Owen:
And that's a shout-out to being in our forties now. You know what I mean? We know how to take what maybe at one time might not have been the chosen chip bag that was in there.
Amena Brown:
Come on, the chosen chip.
Matt Owen:
Aha.
Amena Brown:
Blow my mind.
Matt Owen:
And then you put a little cheese melted on there. Cheese on just about anything, it's going to work.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, it does.
Matt Owen:
But let's talk about adding chili.
Amena Brown:
The chili is really what sets that.
Matt Owen:
Or adding some chorizo. We was at a restaurant the other night and somehow another day, we got a side of chorizo with some cheese.
Amena Brown:
And add it into the queso, my god.
Matt Owen:
Add it into the queso.
Amena Brown:
This is we were talking about miracles, people.
Matt Owen:
Praise.
Amena Brown:
These are-
Matt Owen:
I'm doing your mom's praise hand.
Amena Brown:
... miraculous thing. Yes, that's definitely you want to do the praise hand with the 90 degree angle at the elbow or the praise doesn't arrive to God. I don't make the rules, guys.
Matt Owen:
Bless it.
Amena Brown:
I don't make the rules. Okay, so thank you Matt for sharing your snack, which albeit an easy snack is respectable. And we thank you for bringing that into the living room.
Matt Owen:
And that is a thing though. I would say that your other guests, because I edit your podcast. And of course I'm interested in what you do so I listen. I'm a big fan. Wow, everybody subscribe right now. But you got people on here when you ask them, they're like, "I make this deluxe salad from scratch. I'm putting things together." And some people are baking things, some people in the oven. And I'm like, "Man."
Amena Brown:
We've had some very high-level deli meats as well for some charcuterie. There's some high-level charcuterie among-
Matt Owen:
That's what I'm talking about.
Amena Brown:
... with Amena Brown guests. Some high-level prosciutto is out here.
Matt Owen:
You get some dudes together, first of all getting dudes that actually get together and say, here's what we usually say, "Yeah man, let's get together sometime." And I know you be rolling your eyes because we ain't never going to get together. Ain't nobody going to put nothing on. But by the time we finally get, it's probably a big game or something like that on, somebody going to bring a six-pack of beer and somebody going to bring a bag of chips, and somebody going to bring a jar or something to dip it in, and that's about it. But we make it work.
Amena Brown:
I do want to give you a little more credit than you're giving yourself because when we have gone to some co-ed gatherings for a game, the people trust you to bring the wings.
Matt Owen:
That's true, that's true.
Amena Brown:
Because they know that you are a chicken connoisseur, particularly a fried chicken connoisseur. If there was a sommelier for fried chicken, that would be you. So we have had some gatherings where I was like, "Hey, what should we bring?" And they'd be like, "Oh, it's Matt coming with you?" And I'd be like, "Yeah." They'd be like, "All right, you all bringing the wings then."
Matt Owen:
Yeah. If you going to be good at something, chicken's a good thing to be good at.
Amena Brown:
It's a good thing to know. So shout-out to that.
Matt Owen:
Now granted, that's the snack that I bring if I'm going somewhere. Now, my go-to snack for myself is different because I can't quite figure out how to bring this snack somewhere. But one of my favorite snacks to make late at night when I come home from DJing and I'm trying not to eat a thousand plus calories like I once did, I ain't getting no younger, trying to change it up, so I get a little bit of sourdough bread. Now, we doing the multi-grain sourdough.
Amena Brown:
Right.
Matt Owen:
Because being in our forties. So I toast it, put some crunchy peanut butter on it, slice up a banana. Shout to your Dekalb Farmers Market.
Amena Brown:
Come on, you're Dekalbing?
Matt Owen:
Them bananas, them organic bananas taste different.
Amena Brown:
Oh, taste so fresh. They're so fresh.
Matt Owen:
Wherever you all getting them things from, I don't want to know what's happening. Man, they taste amazing. So you put them on top. And first of all, that right there, my favorite snack. Now, if you need to go into overtime, you need a little bonus, take a little bit of one of them dark chocolate bars we got. You take a couple squares of that and put that on top. You go.
Amena Brown:
See, I have never seen that. So that is a thing that you have been doing when I have not been around.
Matt Owen:
Uh-huh.
Amena Brown:
But it does sound delicious. I thought you were going to say you drizzled some honey on that hoe, but you didn't.
Matt Owen:
Ooh, that's a good idea too.
Amena Brown:
Oh, okay.
Matt Owen:
See, my normal routine is when I'm packing up from the gig and I'm heading to the car, I text, I say, I hold my watch because Siri listens.
Amena Brown:
She do be nosy. She do be nosy.
Matt Owen:
I'm like, "Siri, text my wife, 'Headed to the car.'" If I don't hear back from you, I know you sleep. I'm like, "Oh, it's peanut butter time."
Amena Brown:
You know it's your time.
Matt Owen:
"It's peanut butter banana on time. It's peanut butter banana time. And we got a chocolate bar."
Amena Brown:
This is good to know because I knew what you were doing. I knew the bread. I knew the banana and the peanut butter. I knew those parts. The chocolate add, that makes a lot of sense now. So I'm happy to know that this is what you're doing. This is also a very respectable snack. I can't think really in my mind now what... And I guess I should be there. There would be certain things someone would say that I would be like, "Hmm." I feel like anyone's snack, I would try to respect because snacks are relative and everyone has various sundry tastes and likes. But there would be some things that I'd be like, "Ooh, I don't know." If somebody was like, "Oh, I go to the gathering and I just bring a bag of saltines," I'd be like...
Matt Owen:
Snacks, music, and movies.
Amena Brown:
I don't know. I would be like, "Saltines?"
Matt Owen:
You are what you like.
Amena Brown:
"Do you..." Because the thing is the difference between a snack you enjoy versus what you bring to share with other people, that says a big thing about you. Because it's like I might enjoy something that I know other people think is whack, and I'm just going to eat it at my house. But if I bring something that I know most people going to think is whack to share, that to me is where you're not being a good living room guest. So we always bring snacks to the living room here. You all let us know what you think are the snacks that do not deserve to be brought to gatherings. That's important.
Since we are also here to talk about food, this is the third in our... We are still in our Road Stories series. We have a few more episodes to share about that, but this is the last of our food episodes regarding Road Stories. And we have two important locations to cover. We need to circle back to Portland. We have discussed Portland on this podcast regarding the great shopping that we have experienced there. We have discussed very slightly this is a coffee city. So let's talk about what we have enjoyed in our time that we traveled to Portland. What was the food like that we loved?
Matt Owen:
I got to say my favorite thing in Portland is the food truck scene. And I can't even tell you the name of any of those food trucks, and it's quite possible none of those food trucks are still there. They might have cycled in and out and become something else, but it's one of those type of cities. Austin already also has the same thing. Chicago, similar in a part of it. But you could go to a place, and I remember there's somebody that all they make is grilled cheese.
Amena Brown:
Oh, yes.
Matt Owen:
Different variations of grilled cheese sandwiches. And I've been eating a grilled cheese sandwich my whole life. I didn't know you could do different variations, but boy was I wrong. Them people grilled that cheese. And whatever they did to it, they did it. I remember there was some sort of a Japanese dish that the lady only made one thing and there was nothing else. I don't remember what it was called. But anyways, it was delicious. Everything I had from a food truck over there, I'd be like, "How you do that in the truck? How you do that back there? What you doing?"
Amena Brown:
Right.
Matt Owen:
But sometimes, you just don't want to know because it's delicious. But Portland had that food truck scene.
Amena Brown:
I have to say you brought up a good point about Portland because Portland, this is not a disrespectful statement. For those of you that are Portlandians, Portlanders. I don't know what the official term for those of you that live up in there or are from there. But Portland, when you're a visitor, gives off when people said the word hipster, they really meant that it originated there in Portland.
Matt Owen:
I think it did.
Amena Brown:
But the thing about Portland though is I feel like Portland, go ahead and just don't be ashamed of the fact that it's a very hipster-y town. And I think a lot of the hipster vibes show up in the food truck scene and those things, the very particular items that people decided to build their food truck empire from. And I have to say in any other city I would be like, "Ugh." When I'm in Portland I'm like, "Yes, let's have waffle fries in as many different ways as a waffle fry can be made. A waffle fry dessert? Sure, let's have a waffle food truck that has savory and sweet and breakfast and not breakfast. Let's do this. Let's do this."
Matt Owen:
Just from an outsider looking in, I'm not from there. I'm from Atlanta. I've been in Atlanta since before my 10th grade year of high school, this home to me. Wherever else I've laid my head for any period of time other than that, this is home. ATL, home been here. So I know how I feel when people say things about Atlanta or presuppositions, whatever, from outside looking in. So I understand that somebody from Portland might hear what I'm about to say and be upset. I'm just saying from an outsider looking in-
Amena Brown:
Oh, boy.
Matt Owen:
... my perspective is that Portland is a blend of whimsical and furrowed brow. Because it's not a whimsical silly place, but you might see a dude riding up the street on a unicycle wearing a monocle with a furrowed brow like, "What you doing here? What you looking at?" I'm looking at the dude on the unicycle wearing a uniglass.
Amena Brown:
It might be the guy on a unicycle with a monocle, but the shirt says, "You all keep killing the trees."
Matt Owen:
Yeah, there you go.
Amena Brown:
I think that's the vibe. That's the Portland vibe for sure, for sure.
Matt Owen:
It's like the, "We ain't holding on to traditional norms, but we are upset about something."
Amena Brown:
I think you've made a great description there. And the people there, I'm not a beer drinker, but people who love beer, they get involved in that in Portland.
Matt Owen:
Some good beer in Portland.
Amena Brown:
I do live with a coffee drinker.
Matt Owen:
Me.
Amena Brown:
And Portland do have the good coffee though.
Matt Owen:
They do.
Amena Brown:
I want to give a shout-out to Stumptown-
Matt Owen:
That one.
Amena Brown:
... Roasters up in there. There's multiple amazing coffee to have in Portland.
Matt Owen:
I think Portland was one of those first places that I walked into a coffee shop and tried to ask for some modification. Because I was still new in the drinking coffee, and so I asked for some modification and back to the furrowed brow.
Amena Brown:
You were shunned?
Matt Owen:
They handed one out.
Amena Brown:
You were shunned?
Matt Owen:
You know what I mean? They let me know, "That ain't cool, bro."
Amena Brown:
You were coffee shunned?
Matt Owen:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Amena Brown:
That does happen in Portland. That does. I really, my favorite food thing in Portland is Voodoo Doughnuts.
Matt Owen:
I felt like I got roasted.
Amena Brown:
Ooh, burn.
Matt Owen:
Starbucks.
Amena Brown:
My favorite thing is Voodoo Doughnut. I'm at a point of life where the amount of things I will wait in line for is very little. I will no longer wait in line to get in the club. I will no longer wait in line to be shopping on Black Friday. It's just-
Matt Owen:
Nah, I'm not.
Amena Brown:
... things I'm just not going to do.
Matt Owen:
I'm just going to wait and buy it.
Amena Brown:
But in Portland, standing in line for Voodoo Doughnuts, I will do it.
Matt Owen:
We'll do it.
Amena Brown:
And I will have no regrets. That was my first donut with cereal as a topping.
Matt Owen:
See.
Amena Brown:
Fruit Loops.
Matt Owen:
Now back to my point, Poodoo.
Amena Brown:
Huh?
Matt Owen:
Edit. I edit that.
Amena Brown:
It's the one time you get to say it to yourself.
Matt Owen:
Oh, my podcast. I'm, "I'll edit that." I'm going to leave it in. You all laughing. Let's go to commercial.
And we're back. And so my point about Voodoo Doughnuts, about Portland being whimsical yet furrow-browed, Voodoo Doughnuts, you walk in and they're going to have a donut with pink icing with Captain Crunch or whatever cereal stacked high on it with some little kids' toys, but also have skulls all over-
Amena Brown:
That's true.
Matt Owen:
... the wall line, you know what I mean? It looked like a tattoo shop/donut shop. And so it's like "We're whimsical, but don't play with us."
Amena Brown:
It's very, Voodoo Doughnuts definitely gave me... I appreciate you bringing up the word whimsical because it definitely gave me is it whimsy? Is it punk rock? Is it Dia De Los Muertos? We're just-
Matt Owen:
Oh, yeah. Oh, I see.
Amena Brown:
... here in a combination of things. But either way, I accept that combination because those donuts were delicious. And then for me, this ain't no disrespect to the other outposts of Voodoo Doughnuts, but I have had Voodoo Doughnuts in another city and it just ain't the same.
Matt Owen:
It's not the same.
Amena Brown:
It's just not the same.
Matt Owen:
It's not the same.
Amena Brown:
I really like it. If you going to have Voodoo Doughnuts at least you all first time, have it in Portland. Get that pink box.
Matt Owen:
That pink box.
Amena Brown:
Stand in line, do the whole thing.
Matt Owen:
I feel like back in the day when you'd be walking through the mall and you'd see somebody with that, whatever bag of the shop that's the expensive like, "Ooh, they shopped at," whatever. Remember back when everybody's wearing Guess jeans with a little triangle on the pocket and you see somebody with that Guess bag. You're like, "Oh, they all..."
Amena Brown:
Right, wow. The status.
Matt Owen:
I feel like carrying that pink box through the airport. It's like, "Yeah."
Amena Brown:
Oh, for sure. That's definitely a thing that I know we did probably multiple times, is get them donuts and take them back and then everybody at the airport know what you got.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, they know the thing.
Amena Brown:
Which is a little risky on our part because they know what you got. TSA could be like, "Ah, got to search it. Need to keep this. I think this is a liquid. This is a liquid. Got to keep this."
Matt Owen:
Got to hold this. Go to have to hold this.
Amena Brown:
All right. Our next food stop, which is important as our last one, is Texas. And I'm saying the state of Texas, but if I'm honest, I really and truly mean San Antonio and Austin.
Matt Owen:
Might as well be honest.
Amena Brown:
There's really no disrespect to the other cities.
Matt Owen:
shout-out to Houston.
Amena Brown:
Okay. I do want to give Houston a honor for a moment there.
Matt Owen:
I do want to shout-out to Houston.
Amena Brown:
But the thing about Houston that's interesting for me is I feel like because Houston is such an international city, it's like the food there, the food scene there feels so varied. Whereas when we have gone to San Antonio and Austin, that is really to get TexMex wasted. That's really the vibe. But I do want to give an honorable mention to Houston, Texas because generally the food there... And really Austin too, I think Austin had generally a great food scene. But we need to talk specifically about tacos right now.
Matt Owen:
Yes, Lord.
Amena Brown:
These are two people that lived in Texas for long periods of time. You lived in the Dallas area for over 10 years or around 10 years.
Matt Owen:
Now, 10.
Amena Brown:
I lived in San Antonio for, sheesh, I guess almost... No, not quite 10 years. Probably six years until I went away to college. But then all that time I was in college, my mom still lived there so I was still coming home. So maybe around 10 years if you count all the breaks and everything from school that I was coming home. I need to talk about breakfast tacos. Breakfast tacos are such a staple of life in all of Texas, but in particular ways, in South Texas like that-
Matt Owen:
Yes, so necessary.
Amena Brown:
Your breakfast taco spot is right next to McDonald's, how some of us grew up, like your parents. Speaking of starting on people, your parents could take you to a dentist appointment and then be like, "Ooh, we didn't have time to get you breakfast," and how they stop and get you the big platter that was in the styrofoam thing that had the pancake and the little sausages. If you showed up to school with that-
Matt Owen:
Baller.
Amena Brown:
... the kids would be like, "Damn."
Matt Owen:
I got to stay fly.
Amena Brown:
There'd be regrets about that cold cereal they had. So basically in Texas, you could have the equivalent of that the same way people felt about going to get McDonald's breakfast. You feel that way about having breakfast tacos. Also, when you are traveling in church space like we were for a long time, church business is real big in Texas.
Matt Owen:
Real big. Everything bigger in Texas.
Amena Brown:
What's funny you all is we used to travel to Texas so much when we were doing church gigs. Now that neither of us are doing church gigs, we don't never, never go to Texas unless it's for leisure because we're going to see some friends, or we just have a city there we wanted to travel to. But Dallas, Texas don't never see us no more.
Matt Owen:
No, man.
Amena Brown:
Because the main reason we got booked over there was church. But I'm going to tell you one thing. When we were doing Sunday services and those people would show up with the long aluminum pan-
Matt Owen:
Let me tell you.
Amena Brown:
... of the breakfast tacos rolled up in the foil.
Matt Owen:
Let me tell you, the green room in a very large church in Texas more than likely was about to have some bomb breakfast tacos.
Amena Brown:
Yo, yo. I want to give a special shout-out to my Dallas people and the kolaches because I ain't know nothing about that. I ain't know nothing about that in San Antonio and Austin.
Matt Owen:
I didn't know about kolaches til I got to Dallas either.
Amena Brown:
No. So I do. Dallas, you do get a small minor shout-out right there on the kolaches. Because some of those churches, you would get breakfast tacos and kolaches.
Matt Owen:
And some of those mom-and-pop donut shops were really good. That's where you got the kolaches from. And then the one that had the little bit of the jalapeno in there.
Amena Brown:
Ooh.
Matt Owen:
Oh Lord, my goodness. Hey.
Amena Brown:
I'm going to tell you all right now. Also, when it come to breakfast tacos, these the shout-outs I want to give. I want to give a shout-out to a potato and egg taco. I want to give a shout-out to a bean and cheese.
Matt Owen:
That one.
Amena Brown:
Very specifically. I want to give a shout-out to a eggs, bacon, cheese-
Matt Owen:
That one.
Amena Brown:
... beside there. Also, I want to give a shout-out to a bean, bacon, cheese.
Matt Owen:
That one.
Amena Brown:
It's one a few. Remember when you was in school and they would be like, "How many combinations of these blah, blah, blah ingredients?" I really wish they would've given me that when I was in school in Texas related to the things that go into breakfast taco.
But here's the thing. We live here in Atlanta. The people here be trying to make breakfast tacos. But I'm going to tell you where they going wrong in my opinion. It's too many ingredients. It's too many choices. It's too many things. You can't be adding caramelized onions and sweet potato. Don't do that. Just focus on you need to have eggs, bacon, beans, potatoes, cheese. Maybe there's a chorizo.
Matt Owen:
Ooh, I love chorizo.
Amena Brown:
You really less than 10 ingredients that you could possibly choose for this and all them ingredients in whatever various ways, you're going to mash them up, going to be delish. I miss that very much whenever we go to Texas to this day. The last time we went to Texas before the pandemic... No, we actually have taken one more trip since the pandemic started. We took one trip.
Matt Owen:
Then?
Amena Brown:
And the first thing we did, got the rental car and did what? Drove straight to the taco spot.
Matt Owen:
Straight to the taco spot.
Amena Brown:
Need that breakfast. I sat in the lobby of the hotel.
Matt Owen:
They had the bit with the pork.
Amena Brown:
Oh, yes.
Matt Owen:
With the juices dripping down.
Amena Brown:
Come on, man.
Matt Owen:
And the pineapple dripping down.
Amena Brown:
Come on.
Matt Owen:
Oh my goodness.
Amena Brown:
Listen, I'm-
Matt Owen:
The brisket.
Amena Brown:
I just-
Matt Owen:
The brisket.
Amena Brown:
Okay. We do need to speak about the brisket because it's very interesting the amount of places that we've traveled and the various versions of barbecue. I'm putting my big air quotes there. You could go to Memphis and that's a different barbecue. You could be in Kansas City and that's different. You could have barbecue in North Carolina. That's different. But people in Texas say barbecue, they typically mean something involving brisket.
Matt Owen:
Smoked meat.
Amena Brown:
Yeah, and that brisket-
Matt Owen:
Specifically that brisket.
Amena Brown:
Yo.
Matt Owen:
They do the large work in Texas on that.
Amena Brown:
I'm going to tell you all, we have traveled to other places that have said they had brisket on the menu and yikes.
Matt Owen:
All all right.
Amena Brown:
It just, it's never great.
Matt Owen:
If I didn't know better, I'd be like, "Wow." Problem is my taste buds.
Amena Brown:
That's it.
Matt Owen:
They know better.
Amena Brown:
That's it. I also want to give a shout-out to the Texas establishment, especially to San Antonio and Austin where you can see the tias and the abuelas in the back hand-making tortillas.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, go.
Amena Brown:
I'm just telling you all.
Matt Owen:
It's a beautiful thing.
Amena Brown:
When we go to Texas, we are people that go ahead and get taco wasted. If they asking me do I have dietary restrictions, not this trip.
Matt Owen:
Nope.
Amena Brown:
I'm eating this, whatever this is. The queso, the pico de gallo. In Texas, they know the difference between salsa and pico de gallo.
Matt Owen:
Wow.
Amena Brown:
That is not the same.
Matt Owen:
Wow.
Amena Brown:
It's so much.
Matt Owen:
So much.
Amena Brown:
It's so much. I also want to give a shout-out in San Antonio to, I think it's called the Original Donut Shop, which is one of our favorite taco places in San Antonio because they have donuts and tacos all in one. Great. I want to give a special shout-out to my favorite donut place in the country, Gourdough's, which is in Austin, Texas. And Gourdough's, I don't... Their food truck location may have changed, but they used to have a food truck location pre-pandemic that was next to a taco food truck that was called Mezcalito's, I think.
Matt Owen:
That's a win-win.
Amena Brown:
And we would stop up in there and get both of them hoes, get-
Matt Owen:
2000 calories easily.
Amena Brown:
... the donut, get the taco, get a Jarritos, and just listen.
Matt Owen:
Get cozy.
Amena Brown:
I'm telling you all right now, a time is going to come where we are going to go back to that area of Texas. I don't know. We going to fly into San Antonio. I got to get to Austin for the day.
Matt Owen:
Listen, any-
Amena Brown:
For the day.
Matt Owen:
Anybody that works at a big old church in Texas, I know Amena probably ain't going to show up and do it. But if you want me to recite He is Here, I bet I could do it by now. I bet I could do it by now. He is here, right here.
Amena Brown:
What we're trying to say... But no, what we really need is-
Matt Owen:
In your heart.
Amena Brown:
... do you all got a corporate gig? Who got a corporate gig in Texas that pays very well and that in our rider you all can just bring us these tacos at 8:00 AM? That would be the best case scenario.
Matt Owen:
That would be so great.
Amena Brown:
It's just all I'm saying.
Matt Owen:
So great.
Amena Brown:
So much food on the road to enjoy. And I'll tell you one thing in as we close the food portion of our Road Stories episodes. I feel like the thing that I've had time to think about as we've not been on the road as much, and it just gave me time to think about what do I really miss about that. And I've talked to some other friends that were in the same rigor of travel that we were. And some of it is I miss traveling. I miss being able to go to those cities.
So that said to me, well I want to make a priority of once a year, twice a year, however much the budget allows, to just travel some places. Go to the cities now that we don't have to go there just because we're working.
Matt Owen:
Right.
Amena Brown:
And sometimes, we do go to cities and work, but we're not doing gigs there. So we're going there. We're working on projects or working on client work or filming or recording for something else. But enjoy the cities when you go there. Because now 9 times out of 10 when we travel now, we're not on anyone else's schedule for the most part. So we can take our time and go to some food trucks and find the coffee spots we love to go to. And so I do want to bring that back some parts of where we were traveling. I don't want to travel back to them places, but traveling to some places we love, I do want to do that.
Matt Owen:
Yeah, see the culture. Taking in some, learning something.
Amena Brown:
Top cities for me if we could choose trips to go to next, top cities for me would be Austin/San Antonio area because they're close enough. You can do both of them in one. Chicago, Philly if I was going to take a food trip.
Matt Owen:
Oh, yes.
Amena Brown:
I was going to go one place. You have 24 to 48 hours and all you're going to do is eat the food, it would be them three-
Matt Owen:
Easily.
Amena Brown:
... top areas for me.
Matt Owen:
Easily. Same.
Amena Brown:
What about you?
Matt Owen:
Same. Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Amena Brown:
Huh?
Matt Owen:
I don't know. Is that a place?
Amena Brown:
Yes, actually.
Matt Owen:
Did we end up there?
Amena Brown:
It is. I think we did actually one time.
Matt Owen:
I'll remember the food being good though. I was-
Amena Brown:
We ended up...
Matt Owen:
There would be food too.
Amena Brown:
They were close too but you feel like you would go to the place-
Matt Owen:
I feel like you nailed it. Chicago. Oh, that's the one.
Amena Brown:
That's the top.
Matt Owen:
That's the one in Philly.
Amena Brown:
Top three.
Matt Owen:
Kindly just-
Amena Brown:
That helps real bad getting out of here. So maybe you all will see us around. If we travel out there just to eat some food, we will definitely keep you all posted. Tune in to our next Road Stories episode where we tell you how sometimes on the road, things get terrible. See you all next time.
HER with Amena Brown is produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with iHeartRadio. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.