On today’s THE FOOD SEEN, chefs Julian Medina and Pichet Ong bring their multi-cultural cooking backgrounds to Coppelia, a 24 hour Cuban dinner, reinforcing the idea that Manhattan’s melting pot is not just American like apple pie (or chocolate chip cookies) anymore. Travel the world through tastes and techniques from Mexico to Thailand and find fusion everywhere!

Jessica Soffer explores the connections between food, writing, culture in her first novel, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. Jessica joins Cathy Erway for this week's Eat Your Words to talk about her Iraqi Jew heritage, and how the food culture of her people is underrepresented in New York City, and the world. Learn more about the novel, and the trend of books that includes evocative plots involving food and heritage. Have you ever had masgouf? Learn about the traditional Iraqi dish that includes butterflying and grilling a white fish vertically. What other novelists does Jessica admire? Find out all of this and more on this week's installment of Eat Your Words! This program has been sponsored by Fairway Market. Thanks to The California Honeydrops for today's music.

"I think there's an explicit connection: getting affirmation from cooking and writing." [6:30]

"Masgouf is the national dish of Iraq, which is interesting because it's so different from what it once was." [17:50]

-- Jessica Soffer on Eat Your Words

This week on Let's Eat In, Matt Timms and Rachel Wharton, co-hosts of their own show on Heritage Radio Network, join Cathy Erway to talk cookies--both for Hannukah and Christmas. Tune in to hear why Matt abhors eating on first dates, Rachel's recipe for a perfect pasta carbonara, and Cathy's experience as a sausage-making class. This episode is sponsored by Hearst Ranch.