- Hi, I'm Beryl.
And the theme for this week's episode is liver.
(audience cheering)
I got dressed up because I felt like
this is a pretty big occasion.
I've been talking about it for quite a long time.
The point of this episode, really,
is to show you guys that
just because you might've had a bad experience
with a dish or a food once,
doesn't mean that you should write it off completely.
And I think that liver is a great example
of something to talk about
because a lot of people have a very strong
and immediate visceral reaction.
I have seen a lot of comments saying,
"no,"
"ew,"
"gross."
I think a lot of us come from
a really comfortable place
where we can pick and choose
the parts of animals that we like.
And therefore, organs kind of get pushed
to the area of "I don't wanna eat them."
And I think that's something that
trips a lot of us up, right?
Like maybe you have a bad experience with a dish once,
and you write off a food or a dish because of that.
So, I challenge all of us
to try again or try something new,
because what's the worst that's gonna happen?
You might not like it, but you also might.
Right?
So, I have three dishes that I'm gonna try today.
I'm gonna be trying chicken livers from the Philippines,
lamb livers from Iran,
and beef liver from Jamaica.
The artist today goes by the name, Gato Iberico.
Their work is behind me and I, of course,
am gonna leave a link to all of their other stuff below.
They are a comic book artist.
And I think that that is
definitely something that is up my alley.
So, we are going to start with the chicken livers.
(chuckling)
(classical music)
- Hi Beryl, and hi everyone.
My name is Julia and I'm from Manila City, Philippines.
So, the dish that we'll be discussing today
is called adobong atay, or chicken liver adobo,
which I think is the best form
a liver could take on, honestly.
The main ingredients for this dish
are chicken liver, soy sauce, and vinegar.
Adobong atay is quite easy to make, actually.
And that's coming from someone who doesn't normally cook.
Most of the flavor comes from the sauce itself.
It's savory, salty from the soy sauce,
and a bit sour from the vinegar.
And depending on your preference, it could also be spicy.
I, personally, like mine really spicy,
so, I put a couple or more chili peppers to it.
I remember bringing this dish to school for the first time,
and my friends stared at me like I'm a madman.
I think people are crazy about the fact
that it's an organ and that it may taste weird or bloody,
or that it might be dirty 'cause it's an organ.
But the taste of the liver is quite unnoticeable.
It is a home-cooked dish,
and it is rarely served in restaurants.
Our family would normally have this for lunch or for dinner.
And if you have leftovers and rice the next morning
then you bet that we will also have this
for breakfast as well.
One thing that I love about the Filipino cuisine
is that a lot of the dishes are easy enough to make at home
but also good enough to be like found in bougie restaurants.
So like, wherever I go or wherever I eat,
there will always be a taste of home.
Before you ask, yes, I do love liver,
but, you just really have to make sure
that it's cooked properly
and that it's not plain, dry or bitter.
So, that's it.
Enjoy!
- Okay.
I have chicken liver adobo.
The adobo sauce smells absolutely amazing.
I would give the sauce a 10 out of 10.
I still don't know if I love liver in this.
It's, you know, the texture of it is
still kind of throwing me off.
The adobo sauce is absolutely bomb, though.
I really wanna love this more than I do.
I'm struggling a little bit because
it still is very gamey.
As much as the vinegar and the soy sauce
are doing so much to pack in tons of amazing flavor,
it's just not enough to balance it out completely for me.
I wonder if maybe there was a way I could make it crispier.
That would balance out that creaminess
that I don't love, either.
I wanna add this.
A lot of people, I think, are scared
at trying foods they don't like,
and I always think about it this way:
What's gonna happen?
If you don't like it,
that's it.
It doesn't taste amazing,
like that's not that big of a deal.
And I don't think it's worth it
to not try something
because you're worried
that you're not gonna like the taste of it.
It seems like pretty low risk.
And the thing is, I've learned that I love this adobo sauce.
I also think, something about me and who I am,
even if I don't really like something
I'll probably eat it anyway,
because I can always find things to appreciate
within a dish, anyway.
I don't want food to go to waste, you know?
(chuckling)
I feel like this would be really good with tofu,
if you wanted to do a vegetarian adobo.
Or, even just like chicken thighs.
The adobo sauce is like frickin' amazing.
The liver,
I still don't love it.
(groaning sheepishly)
but I'm glad that I tried it.
(chuckling)
I feel bad I don't like it!
(classical music)
- Hey, my name is Mozhdeh,
I was born and raised in Tehran in Iran,
but currently I live in Los Angeles.
I think you should try jaghoor baghoor.
Jaghoor baghoor, besides being really fun to say,
is this hearty Iranian liver dish.
It's traditionally made with lamb liver.
The liver smell is eliminated
with the addition of turmeric
which is the golden key here.
And then by incorporating other spices and veggies
it ends up being this really lovely hearty dish.
I think it just happens to be this explosion
of happiness in your mouth and heart.
I do think most people would like it
because it just a blank canvas.
You can modify it as you like.
I think it's a dish that captures many
of the characteristics of Iranian cuisine.
It's hearty and it ends up being
more than the sum of its pieces.
I think,
the things that I most adore
about Iranian cuisine
are firstly, it's very versatile.
It's also quite good at combining
different flavor profiles, like sweet and sour.
And lastly,
it's known that, traditionally. many Iranian dishes
take a lot of time to become ready and just come together.
But I think all of that time
and patience put into a dish
makes it full of love.
And every bite that you take from it is like a hug.
That's certainly how I like you to feel
when you try jaghoor baghoor.
And I hope that's the case.
- Another day, another liver.
I literally never thought I would say that.
(chuckling)
I'm gonna do
a little bit of lemon, since it's served with lemon.
Interestingly,
I like this liver more than the chicken liver.
Okay.
The texture of this lamb's liver
is definitely more firm than the chicken liver,
so a lot of my texture issues are also gone.
I do still get a little bit of that kind of gamey-ness,
but that is what liver is.
You know, you can't completely get rid of that.
I went to a specialty Halal butcher
to pick up this lamb's liver
and the beef liver that's in the next recipe.
And when I was there, I asked the butcher
if he would help me
and he kind of cleaned it up, cut off the bad bits,
made it so it was like
the best parts of the liver for me to eat.
And I think that that probably has helped for this one.
I also put some of these spicy radish leaves on the plate,
I feel like that would be nice.
'Cause I do feel like if this dish had a little heat,
I would like that.
I think this one's pretty good.
I don't know
if I'm now somebody who wants to go and buy lamb's liver
but I definitely feel like,
I like the liver in this more than the last one.
So, that's been really interesting.
I don't know if it's fair to pit
one liver against another liver,
but that's, that's just what we're doing.
(classical music)
- Hi Baryl, my name is Shamar Sherwood.
I'm 20 years old and I live in Queens, New York.
You are going to cook Jamaican cooked liver.
Speaking as, I'm a Jamaican-American.
In Jamaica, they do not waste any part of the cow.
I actually made the recipe myself for it,
because I want to make sure you get the full
authentic Jamaican cuisine experience.
Like I wanna have -
I wanna give you the whole experience for it.
It's very flavorful.
When you bite into it, like the way I cooked it,
it had a texture of, like, steak.
Special ingredients, it would be the scotch bonnets,
pimenta seed, I'd say,
and Browning.
When I think about Jamaica and its food,
it's an amalgamation of trials and tribulations,
and it keeps me humble because
the whole history of Jamaica itself wasn't pretty.
The whole enslavement, and what they had to go through.
And the slaves, they came through.
They made sure that, you know, they used what they had.
Even though they went through so much,
they found a way to comfort themselves
and that's through food.
Jamaican food is just,
it's one of those things, like you could just come home to.
Either it be liver,
curry goat, curry cow foot,
you know, stew peas.
All I can say, it's just,
it's humbling.
It reminds you of where you're coming from.
It reminds me of where my people came from.
And I can't wait to see you, you know, eat,
you know, the cooked liver with the recipe I give you.
And, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
- Roger!
(dog barking)
I need to record.
(dog barking)
You tell everybody why you're barking.
Tell everybody why you're barking, please.
Okay.
(dog barking)
Oh my God.
Okay, this is my final dish.
It is the Jamaican beef liver.
Honestly, it smells absolutely amazing.
I counted, there are 12 spices in this, so,
you know.
(dog barking)
Yo, wait, wait a minute.
Shamar!
Yes!
This is like steak.
The texture is like steak.
Oh, and it tastes really good.
(gasping)
So, the texture of the liver is definitely firm.
So, where the chicken liver, it was super soft.
The lamb's liver, it was a little bit harder.
This definitely has that like steak vibe.
And there is so much flavor going on.
For people who are apprehensive about the taste of liver,
that kind of gamey-ness,
there is absolutely none of that going on here.
You've got tons of spice, tons of garlic, onion.
I mean, it is, it's a party.
It's a party in your mouth.
And I'm happy I was invited.
I definitely feel like
doing this episode has taught me so much about food
and about how we talk about food, especially.
Maybe you weren't raised in a cuisine
or in a culture that eats certain parts of the animal.
But, the whole animal should be respected.
If you're gonna eat some parts of it,
at least respect the other parts.
So, I think that my big takeaway is
liver can be amazing.
It all kind of depends on how you cook it.
And there are a lot of amazing recipes out there.
All three of these are incredible.
And I'm so happy that I did this.
It's always good to grow
and to, you know, eat your own words.
And that's what I'm doing.
So,
that's it.
That's what I have about the liver episode.
I have had my mind changed.
Honestly, it was the beef liver that did it for me,
I really liked it.
(chuckling)
Thank you to everybody who submitted recipes.
And if you end up trying any of them, let us know.
I will see you all next week.