Hey everyone, Dan here with the last sporkful reheat of 2024. And, you know, it's the holiday season,

but it's also truffle season. And I think about this reheat all the time because I love truffles.

I eat them maybe once a year, maybe even once every other year. Don't give me any truffle oil on your

French fries, okay? Like, that's not actually

truffles. It's like a synthetic compound, okay? Truffles are special. They're extremely expensive,

and that's why I only eat them like once a year or once every other year. And when I do it,

I do it right. And at the same time, I think about this episode, because we're going to dive into the musky, expensive, and surprisingly cutthroat world of truffle buying and selling. Now, I'm happy to report that Ian Prakaiastha,

the young scrappy truffle vendor you'll hear from in this episode, is still selling truffles

through his company, Regalis foods. They got a whole lot of other incredible specialty items, too,

and Ian did publish a memoir called Truffle Boy. Now remember, if there's an episode of the

Sporkful you want us to pull out of the deep freezer, let us know. Send us an email or voice memo to

hello at sporkful.com. Tell me your name, location, what episode you want us to reheat and why.

Thanks so much and enjoy our final reheat of the year. Ian Praskaya tasted his first truffle when he was 15 years old.

He was out at a fancy restaurant with a friend's family.

The server came over and said, okay, we have a special for tonight,

and it's a black trifle ravioli with a foie gras sauce.

And it was music to my ears.

So why would a 15-year-old boy care about truffles?

Well, Ian's family had just moved from Houston to rural Arkansas,

and Ian had gotten really into foraging for mushrooms.

For foragers, truffles are almost mythical.

They're really hard to find because they grow underground around the roots of trees.

...