Oh inspiration how I love thee...when you strike, we just have to run with you, and this time you nailed it! The Food Squad is born and I can't wait to see how it grows! A large and super diverse crew of food lovers of all backgrounds and cultures, eaters, workers, growers, activists, chefs, and home cooks. A handful of us will pop up on the show each month to dish on food finds, adventures, recipes, food memories, and so much more... this is the love of food in life and community, it's delicious, fun and definitely not your average food show.  

Thank you to our amazing first guests, Franco, Babz and Rachel
for sharing their adventures and summer food finds! 

Check us out on facebook live at The Table Underground with Tagan Engel

August 2017 Food Squad #1
Franco Comacho - Exceptional chef and culinary director of some of New Haven and Connecticut's best restaurants for nearly 20 years, including Shell & Bones, Geronimo and Roomba (now closed). He brings knowledge of fine food from around the world as well as dishes from his native Tijuana, Mexico. 
Tagan Engel - Professional chef and baker turned community builder and activist, now host of The Table Underground. Her life long passion for food drives her movements through community and life...she's always happy to taste and explore, trying foods, meeting new people and discovering places and cultural details along the way, and she loves nothing more than to share this with others!
Babz Rawls Ivy - Food and drink lover with a serious dairy allergy, this fab fly woman runs the Inner City News - print paper, hosts a daily radio show and lives life to it's fullest. She is the friend you always want to be out with (but you're really sitting home on the couch watching netflix) - how could we not have her on the show?!
Rachel Sayet - An adventurous food lover of all kinds, this Mohegan food expert comes from a long lineage of women who carry on the history of their peoples, and other first nations peoples, her specialty: foods of people indigenous to this land...but she'll adventure all over the state and beyond for great eats...including those in her own kitchen. 

Food Squad #1: Summer Food Finds

Tagan's Summer Food Finds:
The Superlicious Ice Cream Trail of New Haven  - This insanely delicious ice cream trail will take you from ocean front creameries along the CT shoreline - to city scoop shops near amazing restaurants and free world class museums - out to grassy tree studded homemade ice cream shops in quiet surrounding towns and farms. Taste your way through old-school roadside stands and shops bursting with ice cream innovation alike.

Need something to do between ice cream eating stops?  Check the Nearby & Notable suggestions to make a day, a week or a season out of your ice cream adventuring! Check out Tagan's Favorite Picks at the bottom of the post, and tons of other tips on Ice Cream adventuring around the northeast! 

Babz's Summer Food Finds:
Always on the hunt for great vegan treats, she takes us to Divine Treasures in Manchester, CT for soft serve vegan ice cream in amazing chocolate dipped cones! This fine chocolatier makes high quality chocolates, that also happen to be dairy free. Babz originally found them for sale at The Wave gallery on Chapel St in New Haven, and she followed her tastebuds out to their shop in Manchester, and she said "it was well worth the drive!". The rare opportunity to have caramel and chocolate sauce with no dairy too, just pushed the whole experience over the top!
Divine Treasures West Manchester, 404 Middle Turnpike - 860-643-2552
Photo credit: 1st and 3rd pictures from Divine Treasures facebook page

Rachel's Summer Food Finds:
It's summer pow wow season on the east coast, and Rachel shares on foods she finds and talented native cooks. Powwows are Native American celebrations of culture through dance, music, food, crafts. Rachel digs into the complexity around native foods pre and post colonization... like Fry Bread, resulting from the wheat flour and lard given to native people on reservations, drastically changing their traditional diets and health... she talks about the love of "Indian Tacos" made with fry bread, and also many people's efforts to reconnect with traditional ingredients (and life giving) foods.  

Summer Pow wows
Aug 12-13 Narragansett RI  Their 341st gathering!
Aug 19-20 Mohegan Uncasville, CT
Aug 26 Pequot Mashantucket, CT
Sept 2-4 Shinnecock (biggest on east coast) Long Island

Sly Fox Den - Native Caterers, Mashpee, MA
Mashpee Wampanoag Caterers at Sly Fox Den serving up dishes like: Quahog fritters (clam cakes) Snapping Turtle Soup, Indian Tacos, Buffalo, Venison, and Wild Blueberry Drink and Sassafras Root Tea. For more info contact: Sherry Pocknett or Jade Galvin at slyfoxden@gmail.com

"People are tired of being so sick, they're just tired of it. 150 years ago, diabetes and heart disease did not exist in tribal communities. That's because we were eating a diet based on the land and the seasons and a protocol that ensured an abundance of foods. That's the picture we want to get back to.“- Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot tribal member and a community nutritionist

Franco's Summer Food Finds:
As a great chef, this man truly loves food, and as you can imagine so do his daughters (lucky them!) When he's not running between restaurants and fixing equipment (or menus), he steals away some time to go adventuring with his girls. He shared these spots as some of their favorites for this summer. They span from New Haven, CT to Guilford and range from fine french pastry, to BBQ in a converted gas station, to amazing tacos at a new chill spot opened by a friend. He raved about the Tacos Al Pastor with chared shwarma style meat, browned and shaved, served with lime and grilled spring onions. Check out all these spots
Hen & Heifer -  Guilford, 23 water street - 203.689.5651  near the green (1st 3pics)
Taqueria Juancho Guacamoles - New Haven, 84 Kimberly Ave - (203) 535-0595 (2nd 3pics)
The Stand - BBQ in Branford - 196 S Montowese St. (3rd 3pics)
Photo credits: from each business's facebook pics. 

OOOOOOOOoooooo... this was just such a fun show to record, hope you enjoy it!
Please post your comments and feedback below, and make suggestions for future Food Squad show themes!
- xoxo The Food Squad 

Ep. 20— The Table Underground — Aug 11, 2017