This is the fourth stop on our five-part audio guide to Asheville, North Carolina, and it may be the tastiest one yet. In this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene digs into Asheville food, and the surprising reason this mountain city punches so far above its weight at the table.

Aislyn joins a walking food tour with Sita of Eating Asheville, eating her way through a town where farm to table isn’t a slogan but a fact of geography. Along the way she:

• Discovers that Asheville food can be a real relief for anyone with dietary restrictions at the celiac-run kitchen of Strada Italiano
• Hears the moving, Helene-shaped story behind Mehfil from its owner, Raj
• Tastes mountain-grown rice at the farm-to-table cornerstone Table with chef Catherine Smedley
• Forages Appalachian flavors at Luminosa
• And finishes with a former science teacher turned chocolatier, Melissa Quinn, at Asheville Chocolate.

It’s a scene built on tight relationships between kitchens and the farms a few ridges away, where the rice on your plate might have been grown just up the road, and where a devastating hurricane the year before only deepened the sense that these restaurants belong to their community.

But great Asheville food is also a question of who gets to make it, and whose history gets remembered. In a segment on the region’s Black foodways, Aislyn talks with two of the city’s most celebrated chefs, Ashleigh Shanti of Good Hot Fish and Rakim Gaines of Capella on 9, about Affrilachian cooking, representation behind the stove, and the stories layered into every plate. Their conversation is a reminder that a food town’s story has to include the people history has too often left off the menu.

It all adds up to a rich piece of cultural travel and a portrait of one of the best small food towns in the country. Whatever you come hungry for, consider this your guide to where to go and what to know.

Unpacked by Afar is a travel podcast that unpacks one destination at a time, with a real love of food and travel. This Asheville audio guide has one more episode to go, so look for it in the feed.

CHAPTERS

00:00 A Real Food Town 03:00 Strada's Gluten-Free Surprise 05:00 Mehfil and Raj's Story 09:45 Table's Mountain Rice 12:40 Foraging at Luminosa 18:15 Cooking on The Block 23:15 Dessert With Melissa Quinn 26:00 Come Hungry

GUESTS

• Sita, operations manager and tour guide, Eating Asheville Walking Food Tours
• Raj, owner, Mehfil Indian Restaurant
• Catherine Smedley, chef de cuisine, Table
• Chef Sean McMullen of Luminosa
• Melissa Quinn, head chocolatier and owner, Asheville Chocolate
• Ashleigh Shanti, chef and owner, Good Hot Fish
• Rakim Gaines, executive chef, Capella on 9

PLACES WE VISITED

• Strada Italiano
• Mehfil Indian Restaurant
• Table
• Luminosa (in the Flatiron Building)
• Asheville Chocolate
• Good Hot Fish
• Capella on 9

MORE FROM AFAR

• Asheville Travel Guide
• A Local Chef’s 2-Day Travel Guide to Asheville
• Immerse Yourself in Asheville’s Culturally Diverse Experiences

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices