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Aired: August 18th, 2021
Audio and Photo Source: Erika and Instagram
Orion Brown hits it off with her Chi Town sister from another mister, Erika Jackson! The connection was truly magnetic, we're talking knew each other in another life magnetic. Flow through this convo between Erika and Orion where they talk womanhood, Blackness, entrepreneurship, travel and you guessed it, food.
Wine Down Wednesday: Erika Jackson
Orion Brown:
Hello? Hello? Hello? I hope I have good service? I think I have a couple of bars, so you all forgive me if the service is weak. But this is a very, very special Wine Down Wednesday. Oh, Hey dad. My dad's on you guys, so don't say anything crazy in the comments. I am in beautiful Santa Rosa. It's actually Wine Down on a vineyard which is very nice. Very rarely do I get the opportunity to take these breaks, but I am really excited to do Wine Down from here. Hey, and I think our guest is coming. For you guys that don't know me, my name's Orion Brown. I am the founder and CEO of Black Travel Box. We are a personal care products company for travelers of color, and this is a helicopter going overhead. This is Wine Down Wednesday. We do this every Wednesday that we can. We bring on fun guests. We sit here, we talk, we Kiki. I think it is a Kiki. Somebody tell me if this is technically a Kiki. But we just, we sit over a glass of wine. If you got Pepsi, that works too. Bring a glass of OJ. If this is that time of day you need some coffee, then bring that. Hello, hello Erika, how are you?
Erika Jackson: Hello.
Orion Brown:
I'm loving this swoop. Oh, the swoop, the swoop.
Erika Jackson:
Had to give it to you all on this Wine Down Wednesday.
Orion Brown:
Yes. Give it to them. Give them a little then take it back.
Erika Jackson:
Right, just a little, just a little.
Orion Brown:
I love it. I'm just introducing myself to the folks that have just joined us and just talking. One of the things that I'm really excited about this particular Wine Down and for those of you who don't know it was our brand company. The government knows my name birthday this past weekend.
Erika Jackson: Okay, well happy birthday.
Orion Brown:
On Saturday. Black Travel Box became legit four years ago. We were originally going to have a trip out here and a black girl magic experience as a part of our iPhone women campaign. But you know how the Rona wants to kick up and act up. I was like, I'm not going to bring people out here in a group in large numbers with the Rona acting up. But then I was like, you know what? I still got my room and it's just me.
Erika Jackson: I mean, look.
Orion Brown: Look.
Erika Jackson:
I call that [inaudible 00:02:42].
Orion Brown:
Aye, so cheers to that. Thank you so much for being my birthday guest. You've come for the birthday turn up. Now, what are you drinking?
Erika Jackson:
Actually this is not wine.
Orion Brown:
That's okay.
Erika Jackson:
I'm fronting. It's just fancy in my glass that make me feel good.
Orion Brown:
That's what you're supposed to do. You're not fronting.
Erika Jackson:
This is from ALDI though, I found it in ALDI's, Belle Vieit. It's a sparkling soda.
Orion Brown:
I mean, see ALDI comes through. ALDI comes through. You all don't see ALDI even-
Erika Jackson:
I was there on a whim, like it was the closest store. I was like, "Oh, I've never seen this before. Let me try that." I did.
Orion Brown:
Cheers to that, pinkies up. Clink, clink. Okay. It doesn't matter what you drink. We're not going to push anybody to do nothing they want to do, but sometimes that sparkling hissed it right. You're just like, "You know what? I'm not going to have a headache tomorrow either."
Erika Jackson:
Right.
Orion Brown:
Look at that, the more you know. All right, Ms. Erica, please introduce yourself. We have a little, I call it a tradition. It's just a thing that I do, a way of introducing ourselves. Tell everybody who you are, where you're from, where you live and how many stamps you have on your passport.
Erika Jackson: Oh, okay.
Orion Brown:
It doesn't have to be exact number because people start freaking out when I say that. I'm like, "No, just give us around three."
Erika Jackson:
I'm like, right, where I've been. Well I am Erica. I am from the Midwest. I was born in the Midwest military brat. I did travel around most of my younger years. Settled back in the Chicago land area and I've been here ever since. I've been a Chicago resident for many of years now.
Orion Brown: Hey, [inaudible 00:04:29] what's going on?
Erika Jackson:
Tiago. Oh, hey Sores, that's Sores on the comments. I was in education until recently. I was in education for about 10 years and the last two months I actually moved into marketing and advertisements. That's fun.
Orion Brown:
Hey, nice.
Erika Jackson:
Super shift. Like you said, Rona was acting up and I had to do some thinking and do some adjustments to some things. I do content creation. I have another page where I do like plus size lifestyle. I just share things and I have a following there. This page here, this is Lotus Noir which was also burst during the year of the Rona.
Orion Brown:
The never ending decade of the Rona.
Erika Jackson:
The idea of Lotus Noir which is, never ending, never ending. I will say that I think that there's a lot of great things that have come from this situation, if you look at it properly. I'm just here. I appreciate this opportunity to come and share and Wine Down with you. I don't think I Wine Down often, even though it's not wine. Just having the opportunity to do so.
Orion Brown:
That's what this was completely burnt out of because I realized, and we going to still talk about your passports though, your passport stamps.
Erika Jackson: Oh, right.
Orion Brown:
I realized as we were going through I would say probably like the end of last summer, it's like we had 10,000 followers last year and everybody was feeling that angst. What am I supposed to do if I can't go anywhere? That was, I didn't go to therapy. I went to Tibet. Like I went to Turkey, I went to Trinidad. It was one of those things that, I was like that feeling you get when you book. When you're like, all right, I paid them. I can't take it back for the most part. I can't take it back. The flight is booked or the hotel is [inaudible 00:06:39]
Erika Jackson:
Committed.
Orion Brown:
You have nothing going. It's just the one kind of commitment that just feels so effervescent whether you're going in [crosstalk 00:06:47].
Erika Jackson:
It's a special treat. It's like a new level of self-care. It's like, it's different.
Orion Brown:
Travel is ultimately our self-care and that is the rally cry for Black Travel Box. Travel is my self-care, travel is my self-care. That's why I created Wine Down because I was like, well, let's just talk about it because you still get those feelings. When you start getting excited about a place, you're like, "I've never thought about going to Iceland."
Erika Jackson:
Never.
Orion Brown:
I'm like, "Hmm, let's wrap this up and see how this is going to look." It gets you happy. I'm getting you over hump day with a little travel top.
Erika Jackson:
Nice. I appreciate it. That passport, I probably I'll say that I am still on the lower end, I probably got like four or five stamps. It's usually to these mostly the same places because I didn't really like getting better at getting out there well over the years, and then definitely before COVID. We were in a really good flow of making sure that we were going somewhere every year, experiencing, wanting to do certain things and then boom. Travel got halting. Trying to find in those ways to do that. I look forward to adding more stamps. I got to make sure it didn't expire while we sitting in the house.
Orion Brown:
I mean, do they?
Erika Jackson:
I definitely got to check on that.
Orion Brown:
Well, you know what though? One of the things that I will say that the lockdown has done for me is to really appreciate even domestic travel.
Erika Jackson:
That part.
Orion Brown:
Because there's so many places that we can go that's even driving distance away. It's you can do a road trip and seal yourself up in that car with a can of Lysol and enjoy yourself to death. It really is an interesting thing that gives new life to just being in places that are in the states. We go, "Oh, I want to go on this big trip and that big trip." Baby drive two hours, you will find something interesting.
Erika Jackson:
Definitely see something different for sure. Driving two hours away from Chicago, oh, it's a whole nother world.
Orion Brown:
Oh, yes.
Erika Jackson:
All the land.
Orion Brown:
Starved Rock is gorgeous, that whole park, it's a huge reserve for any of you that aren't familiar with it. It's just, it's a rock in the middle of Prairie. You've got basically a gorge and it's got weird bugs and it's a very different place than Lower Wacker.
Erika Jackson:
Right, exactly. Traveling, I missed it. Domestic travel, like you said, I feel like I've grown a stronger appreciation for it because it's closer. When we didn't have the other option just to stay here, we would leave, let's go elsewhere. This stuff will still be here when we get back, but we're spending all that time elsewhere. Just appreciating the domestic travel. That's why I said there's some good things that came out of this. Looking at life a little differently, the area that's around you a little differently, so yeah.
Orion Brown:
That's a really interesting concept. It's like the things that are closest to you, you take for granted.
Erika Jackson:
Yeah.
Orion Brown:
Until you don't have access to it. Even like being able to go out locally, it's like, "Oh, I really want to go out. I don't really go. I wish I could go out."
Erika Jackson:
I was one who stayed on the go every weekend like I'm booked and busy. I will say now the being forced to sit down, it was a struggle, but I got to go, I have to go. Now hopefully we don't go back into lockdown. People just need to act right. Wash their hands, social distance, all that stuff. I look forward to going back, but I'm not in it like, let's go like I was before. It's not that I'm confused by that a little bit like this has changed me. I feel like it also changed me in a good way too. It makes you be more creative in your experiences too. I'm going to travel, let me go this way and this is the type of experience I want to have, so then you get to make that closer to home.
Orion Brown:
Oh, I like that. The idea that you value the experience more. Because sometimes we just start flying through stuff. Fly through it. We pass so quick. I was working through it. I was playing through it, whatever it might be. I think that it resonates really well. Because I've heard a lot of people being like, "I don't want to go back to the hustle. I don't want to go back to the grind. I don't want to go back to the rat race or whatever you call it. There's like euphemism for all of it. Just taking a moment.
Erika Jackson:
Yes. I'm hanging just a little bit, I'm hanging a bit. You like my purple wall and my stripes.
Orion Brown:
Look, this, it took several people to convince me to come. Not because I don't love to travel, but there's also that piece where, especially as an entrepreneur, you have that sense of, I got to keep on going. The funny thing is there's never an end to the list of things that need to be done. It's like the only end is when you decide to stop.
Erika Jackson:
Right. When you're entrepreneuring and you keep creating a new ideas built off of that idea and that idea, then comes with all of these little pieces that go along with it. We can always be on the move.
Orion Brown:
Always on the move, always looking for how do we get it done? Every time you hit one peak, you're like, "Cool, what's the next one."
Erika Jackson: Well.
Orion Brown:
Which sometimes you need a little valley that has grapes in it that may have been fermented for a small period of time.
Erika Jackson:
Sometimes you need a little Wine Down Because you don't get a moment to sit down and think about it, right. Like, "Let me sit down for a second. Let me celebrate. Let me bask in this."
Orion Brown:
You listed what? Three different companies. Your three different projects or I don't know if you want to call them companies, hustles jobs. How do you think about this ecosystem of the stuff that you're doing now?
Erika Jackson:
One is just, I love social media. I've always loved social media. I grew up with the internet and it's always been super fascinating to me. I love that you are able to connect with other people that you've never met, but you combine deeply with them. That's always been intriguing to me. Yes, I have one platform where I do share more so lifestyle where I'm open to share with the world wide web of who I am and things like that. Of course I got my own personal page that I've had forever.
Orion Brown:
It's on the low low. It's got the high-school screen name on it. I know you.
Erika Jackson:
Well, that's just for family. I don't care, nobody ese would go over there. But with that that page and don't laugh when I tell you the name. But the page name is Baddie Badlies. I said don't laugh.
Orion Brown:
You must have to get so many followers now, I assume it's just going to be hilarious.
Erika Jackson:
No.
Orion Brown:
This is going to live forever on IGTV and they're going to be tracking you.
Erika Jackson:
There's a story behind it. There's a story behind everything. That burst another project, which was the BBK collection where I shared basically my lifestyle as a plus sized black woman. In a very quirky, like funny ways because I love having fun, I love laughing. If I could laugh all day, I'm going to choose that before anything else. Where I would talk about little stories, like how senior year high school I was voted most huggable. What fat kid is voted most huggable? Me, I was, I can hook all of you better.
Orion Brown: They say she cuddle you all.
Erika Jackson:
Yes, I am, and I take pride in my cuddliness. I share those joyful moments, moments of life where people can really tear you down about it. I've heard it all. I get the comments, all of that stuff. But whatever, that doesn't matter. None of you all are stopping what I got going on.
Orion Brown:
She said, "I'm going to focus on my light and the rest of you all can kick rocks."
Erika Jackson:
Okay.
Orion Brown:
[inaudible 00:15:33].
Erika Jackson:
I mean all the time in the world to come over here, it's not going to change nothing. Just thank you for the comments.
Orion Brown:
I love the attention. I appreciate it.
Erika Jackson: Thank you.
Orion Brown:
You could be thinking about anybody in the world, but you're thinking about me.
Erika Jackson:
Nothing. Like we mentioned, how COVID came about and things like that. That shifted, like you said, something else will come, it shifted. That's where Lotus Noir was birthed, for lack of better words, it's black flower. Lotus Noir, so outside of COVID I had some personal things going on. That helped me really outside of COVID, because I didn't ask her to come over.
Orion Brown: Outside of a whole pandemonium you still had a real life stuff.
Erika Jackson:
That Panorama, it really got me messed up. Because it just got me all the way messed up. I just still can't believe we end this Pandora's box. I just, I don't, how is this the thing?
Orion Brown:
It's a whole pepperoni pizza.
Erika Jackson:
It really is like it's super spicy too, like give me heartburn and all that stuff.
Orion Brown: With the Italian sausage, like just doing too much.
Erika Jackson:
I'm over it. But that birthed Lotus Noir. Lotus, what it means is, the Lotus flower, it grows so beautifully in the darkest ugliest places and they're gorgeous. The arrow in my logo, no matter how far that arrow is pulled back, it has to go forward.
Orion Brown:
Hold up, let's pause for that word right there.
Erika Jackson:
Let's pause.
Orion Brown:
Take a moment of silence. No matter how far the arrow is pulled back from it's destination.
Erika Jackson: From its destination.
Orion Brown: It's always going to go forward.
Erika Jackson:
It's always going to go forward. If you think about it like that, the harder it's pulled back, the further it has to go. That's basically what I want this brand to. Somebody said on the side of wings with the pepperoni.
Orion Brown:
Stop making me hungry you all. I'm over here, I haven't had dinner yet. I'm over here with my glass.
Erika Jackson:
Okay, but Corny, do you like blue cheese or ranch, which one of them, I just need to know.
Orion Brown:
Oh geez, with the chunks.
Erika Jackson:
Yeah, got to be too.
Orion Brown:
Look, I mix mine. I go to Costco and get the brick of blue cheese and get the heavy cream, shake it up in a jar. Season it a little bit, son you ain't never in your life.
Erika Jackson:
Okay, so now I'm learning how to make recipes on this, where is my notebook? Okay. Thank you.
Orion Brown:
I'm a foodie. What can I say? It's just, "Hey." You got to have the chunks. You do have to have the chunks.
Erika Jackson:
It is not right without it at all.
Orion Brown:
I like my blue cheese thick with two Cs, the extra thick.
Erika Jackson:
Somebody said they never thought about making it. Yes, please. I never thought about making it either. I don't know. I just never thought I could make stuff like that. I think that's like also like-
Orion Brown:
Food can be real.
Erika Jackson:
Real, right? You go to the store and buy it, but you can also walk around the same store and get the same ingredients and then [crosstalk 00:18:57].
Orion Brown:
Not even. Most of the stuff that you see there and I used to work in food you all so don't come from me, but I used to work in food. Most of the stuff you can make before ingredient is five ingredients and ends up having 12. It's not necessarily wrong, but everything can be made, everything.
Erika Jackson:
Everything.
Orion Brown:
You can the cookies that Keebler, elves made. They're not going to taste the same as on the shelf. You may or may not like that, but you can definitely make them.
Erika Jackson:
Definitely. Pretty sure they got a Keebler mold on Amazon somewhere. [inaudible 00:19:30] look it like it.
Orion Brown:
Don't let me figure out and I've been trying to do keto. Now, Obviously this glass of wine is not, well, actually it's a little bit dry, but it's not keto. We're on a keto hiatus. But if I could figure out how to make a Keebler elves, cookie, like an EL fudge, that was keto, it'd be over. I wouldn't eat real food ever again.
Erika Jackson:
Listening. If you can make anything keto, you have a customer, I will buy the cookbook and I will be a taste tester. Keto is, I get down with keto.
Orion Brown:
Okay. We're going to digress in the food because keto. I know there's like strict keto and dirty keto and sickly keto and all of those things. But as a lazy person's diet, like as a person who doesn't want to structure a diet, if I default to keto, it's really not that hard because it's basically meat and butter and I'm sick. I'm like, I've never met a piece of meat that didn't taste good with butter on it.
Erika Jackson: Never. Don't let it be garlic butter, but never.
Orion Brown:
Son, son. Now they have keto bread, like actual white bread tastes like white bread, all that good stuff, zero net carbs.
Erika Jackson: What they do with those?
Orion Brown:
Maybe one net carb. Well, you know what it is, it's got fiber in it. That's the thing that we didn't have in [inaudible 00:20:54] before.
Erika Jackson:
You're right.
Orion Brown:
I've been like making my little avocado smears and stuff and I'm like, mm-mm (negative) I'm about this life. I'm about this life I don't know why.
Erika Jackson:
It's so simple. It's easy. Just talk to Brit.
Orion Brown:
I mean, I wasn't a big bread person because I'm a bread snob. Once you've had really good bread, like where it's crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside, but not doughy, just like fluffy in it.
Erika Jackson:
Seem like straight from the deli type of bread, not like the shelf.
Orion Brown:
You want want freshly baked. I will say my embarrassing indulgence and I don't know if my dad's still on or not. He might have figured out how to stay on or he's on Instagram. But in any case, what is it called? Texas Roadhouse, whatever their restaurant, I don't like anything that they make there except for their roles.
Erika Jackson:
For the [inaudible 00:21:56], yeah. Go for the bread.
Orion Brown:
Their roles, I'm like, "You all want to go to where?" It's like, so I have family in Chicago. "We got to go to Merrillville for what?" Then I'm like, "Wait, they have those good roles though." Let me just get a tiny pat of butter that's frozen because it's always frozen. A tiny pat of butter and there's this role and I can be happy. Whoa. Carly has said pasta is her weakness. Croissant snob, yes. Croissant, you just licked your lips. I saw it.
Erika Jackson:
I'm like, " Wait, what else is in this comment?" Because I ain't had a croissant in so long. Oh my goodness.
Orion Brown:
So long. That's another thing. That's one of those things like I won't eat it if it's stale or if it's like, because it's just not worth it. It's not worth the calories. But man, if it's good, you better step back and I eat the whole pack, son.
Erika Jackson:
Step back while I eat the whole pack.
Orion Brown:
It's a word. Less, I'm gonna bring it back to travel, but I want to keep it on food. One, because I love talking about food or two because I love talking about travel. What is a place that you went to that stands out as like some of the best food you've ever had? It could be somebody's home, it could be at a restaurant, it could be on the street. Street meat, come on you all.
Erika Jackson:
I think I'll be honest. I do believe that Chicago is top when it comes to food. However, I also think part of my soul is from New Orleans. I don't know what type of magic is in those seasonings in new Orleans.
Orion Brown:
It's voodoo. We know it.
Erika Jackson:
Okay, well. They got me. When I say I don't, it shouldn't be that good. Like it should be illegal, their food be that good from a place that you can get to.
Orion Brown:
No, no. Are you a Creole fan or a Cajun fan?
Erika Jackson:
Cajun, more so Cajun. More so that Cajun spice that, and then I don't, not that I talk about it. I think about this, the Popeyes right here down the street. Getting Popeyes from here versus getting Popeyes and in New Orleans.
Orion Brown:
Oh yeah, no.
Erika Jackson:
You have not had Popeyes in new Orleans?
Orion Brown:
I haven't had Popeyes in New Orleans.
Erika Jackson:
You will be like "What is Popeyes in the Middlewest. What is this? This is you all are not doing it right?"
Orion Brown:
Pop who. Yeah, pop what? That is a very, humble beginnings. My mom, where I remember being in like second or third grade, my mom worked at Popeyes. This lady Doris did the biscuits at the Popeyes and she didn't go by the recipe. They get the big packet of flowers pre-made. Doris's biscuits would be this tall.
Erika Jackson:
See now, Miss Doris was trying to do only thing in the back and make Doris biscuits when we need the Popeyes.
Orion Brown:
No, no, no, no, no, no. We needed her biscuits. I can't stand Popeyes biscuits any more like.
Erika Jackson:
Oh, okay.
Orion Brown:
Popeyes biscuits to me are like bricks. Hers were like sky high and fluffy. I don't know where she took that fake butter and hit it up in the biscuit. But you bite in a biscuit and you're like, "Fake butter, fake butter, fake butter."
Erika Jackson:
I say there's this one other spot in New Orleans. It's a chicken spot but they have biscuits that they dabbled thing of butter right on the middle. You know what? I promise when I find the name I'm coming back and comment and tell you all what, where it is. But it's like on Bourbon Street. It's a couple of them on Bourbon Street. Oh my God, when I find the name, the biscuits.
Orion Brown:
I had another guest on a few weeks ago. I'm not going to put her on blast, but she had never been to the south. I was like, "You know what we need to do. We need to do a New Orleans trip." Because it's, if you're a northerner and you've never been down south, it can be intimidating for good reasons. But New Orleans is the spot. Everybody's friendly. Go ahead.
Erika Jackson:
She said the name is Willies.
Orion Brown:
Oh, Willies.
Erika Jackson:
Yes, Courtney with us. Thank you Courtney.
Orion Brown:
I love it. I agree. New Orleans is an excellent food city. The only thing I can't do is the oysters. I like raw oysters. I like oysters on the half shell. But those gulf oysters, I just keep thinking like BP oil's leak. Every time, something's not right.
Erika Jackson:
BP oil's leak. Now I have gone to one of their places it was [inaudible 00:26:33] I think. Something like that, where you get them. But I got them with like a crusted probably shine and all that. So I got real fancy done.
Orion Brown:
The Rockefeller.
Erika Jackson:
Yeah. I can't, I don't, like you said the BP oil's leak, I don't want to do that.
Orion Brown:
No, they are pretty good cooked. I normally don't like oysters cooked, but they're good cooked down there and they season them right. That's [inaudible 00:26:55]. I've sat down there and had like alligator and I'm like, "They seasoned it right. I mean, what am I supposed to do? I got to eat it."
Erika Jackson:
Oh yeah. I went to that place too. According to wild places down there. This I'll have pretty to go to New Orleans.
Orion Brown:
Once the Rona. Because I don't trust it. But I love that. All right. One of the things I like to do when I travel is I try to take at least a cooking class mostly. I actually might be taking a ricotta cheese making class while I'm here. I saw it on like evite or Eventbrite. I was like, "I can make some cheese and drink some wine and make cheese."
Erika Jackson:
Right. Why not.
Orion Brown:
I've made food in Cuba. I've made food in Kenya. I made food in The Bahamas. They had us making guava pop tarts though I don't know how I felt about that. But we did.
Erika Jackson:
Guava a pop tarts.
Orion Brown:
Yeah. It was basically a hand pie. So like a turnover, but we used guava and some spices and stuff. Do you like cooking and have you had any good cooking experiences, whether it be like finding a cousin that knows how to throw down and like cooking with them? Or just being in a space that you were like, "This is dope. This is fun."
Erika Jackson:
Yeah. I've gone to a couple of cooking classes here. Now you've given me the idea to get different experiences while traveling that's super dope. I'm pretty sure that that'd be like a bom experience. Because the cooking classes here have been like super fun. Have I tried the recipes when I got home? No, no.
Orion Brown:
No, you already tried it once.
Erika Jackson:
We did it. I've experienced it. I got pictures and videos to prove that I made it and I made it successfully.
Orion Brown:
It was good.
Erika Jackson:
It was real good.
Orion Brown:
Where you have the obligatory where you're holding the plate next to your face, real close in an anchored position.
Erika Jackson:
Right.
Orion Brown:
Everybody's got, "Look what I made you all." They're like, "What is it?" "It's the little baby lingo steam with some." Because it's not in focus because you got your face all in it. This thing is too close.
Erika Jackson:
Right. But cooking classes, I would definitely, that's going to be on my list when outside opens back up for real, to include that as an experience while traveling. That's cool. I've done of course, Mexico and go back when I did used to really, really drink.
Orion Brown:
She said back when the tequila poured freely.
Erika Jackson:
The tequilas, yes. Those are really great experiences doing that. But cooking classes, no. When I traveled the type of experiences, I like to sight-see. I like to learn about the land. I like to learn about the people there. I like to learn what's their favorite thing to do. One thing I do do when we travel is whatever is famous for their food we have to try it. If we got it at home, we not doing it, no, that's not happening.
Orion Brown:
Although like with Popeye's I had KFC in South Africa and it was an experience. I didn't eat it the whole time I was there, but I was like, they gave me a loaf of bread instead of a biscuit, what just happened?
Erika Jackson:
How did they hand you the loaf of bread? I'm trying to visualize.
Orion Brown:
These little baby loaves. You know how the loaves are for lobster rolls. They're bigger and boxier than a hot dog roll. That's the kind of rolls that they had. Then just giving an African, they gave us half a bag of it. It was like, "You like these?" Because we were like, "Oh my God, look at these rolls. We got whole rolls." They were like, "You can take a bag." It's hard to get them to give you extra fries after they get your order wrong.
Erika Jackson:
Listen, you got to pay 30 cents for all the condiments. It's like, damn, don't I get one with my chicken strips or no?
Orion Brown:
That is why I have a drawer full of ketchup packets. Some from Taco Bell, I'm not going to lie. I don't even like their hot sauce, but I get the hot, medium and mild. I don't even care.
Erika Jackson:
We got it because in case we need it, I'm not paying for it.
Orion Brown:
In case it goes down, no, we got that at home. You don't need to get that.
Erika Jackson:
We ready. We're prepared.
Orion Brown:
Stay ready so we don't have to get it.
Erika Jackson:
Exactly.
Orion Brown:
What's been some of the most adventurous stuff that you've tried in terms of food.
Erika Jackson:
Certain fruits that are not grown here like out of country, I will try fruits that really look maybe like an animal, those star looking fruits. Yes, they got hair going off on them and stuff, but I'll try fruits. Fruits are one thing that I would definitely try all the time. I don't know. I trust fruits, but certain meats and meals, I don't know. If it's looking back at me I might not try it. I do like to try to be in the culture. If the culture requires you to eat with your hands, definitely I'm going to do it. I want to have that full experience. If it requires certain type of utensils or things like that, I want to have the full experience, because you combine through food it's about your culture, your heritage. It's a lot of things, a lot of stories that can be told through recipes even. Fruit, I'll be safe. That's my safe zone, fruit.
Orion Brown:
That's a really good point because that is the one thing I don't refuse when I travel. Every now and again I'm like, "That's not right. I'm not going to eat if it don't smell right," because your body does know what it's going to like and what it's not going to like. If it smells good and it sounds crazy I'm going to eat it because it smells good.
Erika Jackson:
I try to do reviews too of the area, like what are people talking about? I'm a big, what are the people saying about this? Of course, even if I really want to try it I'll try it even though people are like, "Don't do it," YOLO.
Orion Brown:
Don't do it, you're eating crickets and stuff?
Erika Jackson:
No.
Orion Brown:
I've had crickets. It's not terrible. It's like the stuff at the bottom of the potato chip bag. It's just the stuff in the corner. As long as you don't look at it, just [inaudible 00:33:52] recipe.
Erika Jackson:
I can't lie. I probably will try it. I probably would try it. I will have to do with my eyes closed and then somebody else would have to give it to me maybe.
Orion Brown:
You know what I was saying? The ones that I had were so covered with seasoning, even though this was at like a natural product show. Seasoning can be natural, but it was so covered in seasoning it just looked like a hot cheese doodle to me. Not identical, but you kind of squint. You're like, "It's hot cheese doodle." If you don't put your glasses on that day, you're just eating hot cheese doodles you don't even know it's a cricket.
Erika Jackson:
Somebody said they don't even like them alive, but Jiminy Cricket never did anything to nobody. He was so nice.
Orion Brown:
They're whistling and just being happy. We did find him and-
Erika Jackson:
Chocolate covered crickets. I might try that. That's not like a chocolate covered raisin. Are they sweet? What do they taste like? You said Cheetos, so there's more savory.
Orion Brown:
No, that was just with the seasoning. To me and Brentley, I don't want to say your name wrong. You tell me if I get this wrong, but to me they're just crunchy. They're just crispy. It's just light and crispy and then you have to add-
Erika Jackson:
I like a good crunch.
Orion Brown:
It's like crunch crunch and you're like, "It's an animal."
Erika Jackson:
Animals, we eat a lot of that and sometimes you think about like, there's so many animals.
Orion Brown:
My last week of wine it was because I'm pretty sure I swallowed a bug. I'm over here talking and I'm outside and I was like, "Protein." I got to keep it up with my keto. You said at the very beginning that you've kept your passport stamps to a tight set that you'd like to go back to the same places. What are these places that you like to go to and what is that thing that keeps drawing you back?
Erika Jackson:
When you plan travel, you got to plan and make sure that everything else in your life is lined up. I had kids, I had a husband. You got to make sure that everybody is together. Honestly, sometimes when we're like, look, we need a trip. It's something that's super quick. It's not going to have us needing a vacation after the vacation from traveling. I do have some goals and dreams to go to some really far, far places. When I was younger though, I had a small fear of flying. I don't have that anymore.
Orion Brown:
It's creepy, even if you're not really afraid of it. It's creepy when you think about it.
Erika Jackson:
Yes. It is super creepy. The experience as you keep going, it gets better, going and going, you get better. The places I've been mostly have been Mexico. Honestly, it's Mexico. It's easy to get to. I've gotten a custom, I tried to go to different parts and see different parts because like I said, I don't want to go to the same location and I want to be able to feel the ground, the culture, get in tune with what they do there. Mexico has been the biggest spot we've been to. Now, my husband really wants to go to Fiji. I would love to be able to be like, "Babe, pack your bags because we got it and we going."
Orion Brown:
We're going to Fiji.
Erika Jackson:
One day I want to go to China. I've recently just wanted to go to China for a couple of different reasons, for business or whatever the case may be but also to, again, submerge myself in the culture. Get used to see what's going on there.
Orion Brown:
I will be there just for the noodles because I'm like, it's too many people. I love people, but I don't need that many people, but I do love that many noodles.
Erika Jackson:
It is lot of people.
Orion Brown:
It's a lot of noodles too.
Erika Jackson:
Yes, I want to do that and get authentic food and stuff like that. I want to go to Dubai. I just recently saw one of my classmates. He just went and he's gone a couple of times, but it looks so beautiful. If I were just living vicariously through him okay, we got to go. Those are just a couple of places I want to go to. I will love honestly, when it comes to travel, do the wonders of the world. Except for the ones that are really deep in the water. I ain't trying to do those.
Orion Brown:
That one we will leave to the fish and to the Lord.
Erika Jackson:
Yes, and whatever else is down there. I'm good on that, but I would like to start doing that. I was just talking to my friends this weekend about it, like in the next 10 years, by the time we get closer to 45, 50, we should have seen a lot of those spots. Let's make it happen.
Orion Brown:
I love that.
Erika Jackson:
Luckily some of them are here, so we can start. If we can't get out super far and with travel with COVID and stuff like that, we can road trip to a couple of spots.
Orion Brown:
Yes.
Erika Jackson:
Definitely want to do that.
Orion Brown:
Definitely. The arbitrage that I have in my head now, it's not feasible with life and responsibilities, but in my head I'm like, I'm going to go somewhere real far away. Then we're going to have another flare up and then I'm going to get stuck there. Just stuck as an ex-pat with good Wi-Fi in 70 days.
Erika Jackson:
That doesn't sound like a bad stuff though. That sounds like a good stuff to have.
Orion Brown:
Especially when [inaudible 00:39:58] and the food and you got fresh weird fruit to eat all the time. I will say Dubai is a great place for weird fruit. Stuff like rambutan and all these dragon fruit and stuff. They'll have a buffet out and normally you look in the buffet and you're like, "They put fruit next to that beautiful piece of ham," but they don't really eat ham like that in Dubai. It smells like beef bacon, not that there's anything wrong with beef bacon, but it's not the same thing. [inaudible 00:40:31] eat all the fruit.
Erika Jackson:
It's nothing like pork bacon. I'm sorry to all the people who don't like pork, but pork bacon is amazing.
Orion Brown:
It's its own thing, but that's the funny thing, like I have family that's Southern. It's like [inaudible 00:40:47] and I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm not going to lie, you put some chitlins in front of me and they've been cooked by somebody that I love and I know it's thorough in their cleaning, I will go to town. I will go all the way to town. I will walk to town with my donkey, go to town.
Erika Jackson:
Some people probably will revoke my black card, but I just cannot do the chitlins.
Orion Brown:
A lot of people don't, and that's the thing. Number one, nobody can take a card they didn't give you. Two, we are not a monolith. We don't all like the same stuff. That's beautiful. Some days I like stuff. Sometimes I don't. I'm like, "Spinach not messing with that." Then one day I'm like, "My body needs some vitamins, let me get on this. Let me put some salt on this and some butter." It is what it is. That's the beauty of it. One of the fun things that I learned, I've been to Africa twice and I've been in South African and I've been to Kenya. The food is so similar to soul food, but different. One could easily be like, "I don't really know.
We have a lot more similarities than we have differences, but the style, the flavor that we put on stuff, the way that we express it and all of that is so different. You were talking about eating with your hands. I can eat pizza with my hands. I can eat hot dog with my hands but if it looks like soup, somebody better find something. Somebody give me a spoon. [crosstalk 00:42:22].
Erika Jackson:
That time I did eat, I think we had Indian food. We had to use the, and I do not want to offend, it's this thing that they give you and you take it and you pick your food up with it.
Orion Brown:
Ethiopian. The spongy bread.
Erika Jackson:
There we go. Yes, Ethiopian. That's right. It's all [crosstalk 00:42:47].
Orion Brown:
You know what I end up doing, I end up taking strips of it and just turn them into little burritos. I have to have it encapsulated a little bit because it gets under the nails. Did I scratch myself before I came in? Did I wash my nails thoroughly? I don't know.
Erika Jackson:
Nowadays right. I would love to go to Africa. You said you went to Kenya. Growing up I always chose Kenya in my projects. Anytime we have to do a project about Africa, I always chose Kenya. My mum bought me these Kenya dolls. I had these Kenya dolls and they were beautiful. She named them. One doll she kept for a really, really long time, his name was Little Ricky. He had a high top fade. She named him Little Ricky. He had a high top fade. It was a hard down too.
Orion Brown:
Let me [inaudible 00:43:48] Little Ricky.
Erika Jackson:
Pour one down for Lil Ricky. Yes, girl because by the time we got rid of him, he was missing an eye. Well, I'd say we had him for a long time.
Orion Brown:
He was a family friend.
Erika Jackson:
He was. I always did my projects on Kenya. I would love to go see, Africa is so vast. I will have to stay there for some months because I don't want to have to keep traveling back and forth.
Orion Brown:
It's definitely far, but to me, these little things like the Diani Coast, which is off of Kenya is like the Caribbean, but African. Beautiful blue waters, resorts, beaches, people peddling art on the beach. It's just different, a cultural bend to it. To me, I'm like, all right, I can waste a day on a plane, sleep another day because you got to sleep that day off. It's hard.
Erika Jackson:
Vacation from a vacation.
Orion Brown:
Wait, hold up, let me roll back. I think it was last time. I think it was when I went to Bali. We did a layover in Dubai and we were coming from Colorado and I had been to Dubai before, but I had gone from the East Coast. From the East Coast, you just go around the world. We went over the north pole and I remember being on the flight and looking at the little screen that tells you where the plane has a little plane on it, we just passed [inaudible 00:45:24].
Erika Jackson:
I got a note for him and I got something to talk to him about from last Christmas, he didn't get my list right.
Orion Brown:
He owes me a bubble mower from when I was eight. Still owes me that bubble. I want that bubble mower. I don't care if it's small, I will bend down. I've been doing yoga. I can stretch. I want my bubble mower, but it was the most bizarre thing in the world. Just to realize how quickly you can get places that are so, so very far. It's worth it. If it was like, you could go to Africa four or five times a year or stay once for three weeks, I would go four or five times a year in a heartbeat and just take a bit of time.
Erika Jackson:
Now that I think about it COVID has brought on all of these remote job opportunities, which are amazing. You're right. I can get up and move wherever I want and go-
Orion Brown:
That part too. Well, don't leave till we go to New Orleans because we got to go to New Orleans.
Erika Jackson:
We definitely have to go to New Orleans. I really think that's the next city I plan to travel to when it's time to travel again.
Orion Brown:
I would love to get a personal [inaudible 00:46:35]. Did I lose you? My phone [inaudible 00:46:39].
Erika Jackson:
No, you're there?
Orion Brown:
I would love to have a chef come teach me how to make beignets. I've made them before, but I want the beignets that make you want to slap somebody else's mum.
Erika Jackson:
You bite it in your ass, roll it in the back of your head.
Orion Brown:
Yes, and your toes curl just a little bit, that was good. I will say-
Erika Jackson:
Wipe your nose off sis.
Orion Brown:
Got that dust on it. Get that dust off your nose. I will say, I'll get yelled down but people love Café du Monde, but there's a spot just down the street, say two, three blocks away from where they do like sausage stuff things. It's like everything you love about a breakfast sandwich covered in confectioner's sugar and grease and love in the best way.
Erika Jackson:
I'm going to need that name of that place too. I love going to little mom and shop stuff. As an entrepreneur, I want to see other people... Chain restaurants are cute that's great, but when you're traveling and you get to see other people living their dreams and pursuing that stuff out, I love it. Going in and hearing about their stories, how did you do this? Then I just eat it all up. I always ask a bunch of questions.
Orion Brown:
You're a culture fanatic. I love that. You're a culture aficionado is what we would call it.
Erika Jackson:
I might have to change my Instagram bio today.
Orion Brown:
We have a travel quiz up on our site. I just launched it. It basically tells you what your travel profile is like, what's your personality. I've been getting-
Erika Jackson:
Definitely taking it when we get off of here.
Orion Brown:
I've been testing it on my friends to make sure it's not broken, that it does what it's supposed to do and all that. They're like, "How did you know?" I was like, "Well, I got this and it was completely right." I was like, "Yes because I'm psychic, [inaudible 00:48:32] know everything baby." We are here, because I know it. Culture aficionado, yes. I am the same way. I can't go on a trip without understanding something about the land that I'm going and the people. Either from today or yesterday or a thousand years before it's like, where did this come from? Why is this like this?
Erika Jackson:
To get the whole experience I also feel like to really appreciate it, the time. What are you going for? Just to say you went, go and experience everything, all that it has to offer. Take back what you can.
Orion Brown:
Well, I will say one of my favorite memories and I highly recommend going to Kenya. The people are amazing. Was cooking with women in Kenya. They were like throwing down for us. We were doing a habitat for humanity house. We had a group of, I think, 16 really mobile African-Americans that we all got together-
Erika Jackson:
I would love to do that.
Orion Brown:
You see the people who go and take pictures with the little kids and stuff and it's a little cringey, but it was amazing. We built a home for a grandmother of three. She had lost all her sons. She had the kids, it was a whole thing. We're out in this really impoverished part of the farm country. Girl, when people are poor, they cook their whole asses off, the entirety of their butt.
Erika Jackson:
Because you have to make [inaudible 00:50:17] out of nothing. I hadn't seen myself and I had to have made [inaudible 00:50:28]. I know this is not like what you got in Kenya, but my son, if we don't have garlic bread, we just make ghetto garlic bread. We just throw some butter on a slice of bread, throw it in the oven and throw some garlic powder on it. He thinks it's better than the stores.
Orion Brown:
No, here's what you do. You put the garlic powder in the butter, it could be margarine. Put it in there and put it in the refrigerator let it get up in the fat molecules real good. Then when you make it...
Erika Jackson:
I'm going to have to come back and tell you his response because when I say he thinks it's the best thing ever. I just be like, I just did it because I felt like we needed an extra side like that. It was just like, I forgot the piece of garlic bread, here you go, but he's like, it's the best.
Orion Brown:
My mum used to make [inaudible 00:51:21] when I was really little. She would take Roman meal, which for those of you all that did not grow up in a hood it's like the same bread that they have in the high school cafeteria. The loaf is 40 slices long. We used take that, put a little of Imperial on it. Put a little cinnamon, a little bit of sugar and put it up under the broiler for like a hot second. Get that crispy glaze.
Erika Jackson:
Get you a good cinnamon roll, cinnamon twist.
Orion Brown:
Cinnamon and sugar back then at least was cheap in the 80s. You need a two to one ratio. It's like two to sugar, one to cinnamon and you're like, "That was the biggest dessert I've had in my whole life."
Erika Jackson:
Golden. I think your cooking experience, I just feel like outside of learning about the food, you would feel so good. You just want a bunch of other women learning from other women learning from their culture, their land. Like you said, it's relatable, the food is similar. It's different, but it's very similar. I just feel like that moment. I got my travel list going.
Orion Brown:
I have photos. I took a little bit snippets of video and I'll say when I travel, I have these moments where I'm like, okay, I'm connected. I'm connected to whatever is here. I remember sitting, I'm talking to the women and we started talking about just what we call things. Garlic and bell pepper. She's, "What's this? We call it such and such." It's like, "We call that garlic." "Garlic, garlic, okay. Yes, it's good." My favorite part was everybody makes beignets. Everybody makes the same food. This is the funny thing to me. It doesn't matter if you're Asian, African, European, whatever there's always...
Somebody got a version it's like pierogi is a dumpling but with different flavor obviously. They basically have a fried dough dumpling, which is basically dumplings in the Caribbean. There's beignets in the south. It's like you fry it. You don't cover it with the sugar. We're making these. We're rolling out the dough on glass Sprite bottles because that's what they have but the [inaudible 00:53:47]. When I tell you all I remember taking a cooking class, I took one there's a spot in Chicago, right off North avenue, I want to say. That's a cooking school.
I took a class and they had the chef and he's talking about dough and we were making these pies and he's like really the secret is you don't have to pay for like the expensive roller that you get at like Williams-Sonoma or whatever, where they say it needs to be this and that. Go to Home Depot, get some PVC pipe, clean it real good. I'm telling you, that's like all you need. He's like, I just work with PVC pipe. She pulled out Sprite bottle and was like, "Here, roll it with this." I was like, "That is perfect." It was a perfect size. It fit my hand. It was cold enough that the dough didn't stick to it. We was just out there cutting up.
Erika Jackson:
We know how to make a way.
Orion Brown:
In a pot, in a backyard.
Erika Jackson:
I'm going to have to go find these pitches of yours, where are they at? I need to feel this experience.
Orion Brown:
I started putting some albums on Instagram. This was before I understood how to work Instagram, let me be honest, this is like 2010. I was like, I don't know. Actually I don't even think Instagram was really out yet, but-
Erika Jackson:
It's definitely not what it used to be.
Orion Brown:
This is how old and [inaudible 00:55:10] I am. I got on Instagram thinking that [inaudible 00:55:12] thinking it was at to just edit photos. I started posting food photos and then I would go to work and people would be like, so you had lamb chops and didn't call me over. I was like, "Stalker," I had no idea I was sharing.
Erika Jackson:
How did you see what I ate last night?
Orion Brown:
That was my exact response. [inaudible 00:55:40] of it now because it's bringing people together. I grew up in Chicago, you in Chicago, we never met, but we met on the interwebs, look at that.
Erika Jackson:
Never met. I love social media for that.
Orion Brown:
We're destined to eat together because I can just already tell we're destined to eat together.
Erika Jackson:
We have to. The first stop has to be New Orleans. It is what it is. Courtney, if she's still here, she got to go.
Orion Brown:
I already got a list of places and I got the bougie places. I got my spots that I love to get the fancy, like French Creole Cuisine and all of that stuff. You get the nice... Those chefs down there don't play. Then it's just like, we going to have to roll out a napkin before we eat it, but that's okay because it's going to be good.
Erika Jackson:
It's going to be real good. The places that you look like, "Are you sure we are supposed to walk in here?"
Orion Brown:
The place where you're in a cab and you're in the pocket of the back seat and like, yes, that's my [inaudible 00:56:40] place. Go there and let him fry whatever he wants to fry and give you what's in the hot sauce on the bottle that's not marked. It's like, "Did you all make this? Is this Moonshine sauce, what is it? That's what we want.
Erika Jackson:
You made this in the back. How long has it been sitting on the shelves?
Orion Brown:
That just makes it good. Girl, this has been so much fun. I just realized we're almost at an hour and we just been kicking it. I just want to thank you for coming because you know what? I was having a really long day. I was having a really stressful day, had a little bit of a headache. Now I feel light and hungry, but I appreciate you.
Erika Jackson:
I appreciate you for this time and this moment and and the connection that brought us together. I definitely appreciate this and I definitely will be following and seeing what you got going on and supporting your Wine Down Wednesdays with my little ALDI pop and just I'm going to be here.
Orion Brown:
You know what? I miss people that say pop. God bless you for saying pop because I'm out here in the boonies, nobody says pop. Speaking of connection, tell everybody where they can find you on the interwebs, on the social medias, all the places.
Erika Jackson:
All the places. You can definitely follow Lotus Noir Co. That is Instagram, lotusnoirco. Yes, right now we do have one piece on the market, but Lotus Noir will be a household name. You heard me say it. It's coming soon. It will be a household name. Lotus Noir here, Lotus Noir LLC on Facebook. Then the website is www.lotusnoir.co. C-O, no M. .co.
Orion Brown:
You know what? That M cost money. That M cost money [inaudible 00:58:40].
Erika Jackson:
I'm learning about the inner ways and how people are making their money, buying URLs to try to sell them to the people who really need them. People are really out here hustling, really hustling. I was like salty at first, but I'm like you know what? It works out, it makes my name look really cute. Thank you.
Orion Brown:
It's branded now. I love it. You all follow Lotus Noir.co, or go find lotusnoir.co. Find them on Facebook, Lotus Noir LLC. I actually remembered it. Look at this, look at me. These gray hairs have nothing on me.
Erika Jackson:
That's just wisdom and knowledge that I'm going to [inaudible 00:59:28] That's all that is.
Orion Brown:
White wine effervescing up. That's what that is. I love it. For all of you that were new and that joined, thank you so much for coming. I love seeing everybody, folks in the chat. We've been hitting the hearts the whole time. If you're not following Black Travel Box hit at Black Travel Box, we got some really dope stuff coming. I'm really excited. We're pushing, we're pushing and we're supporting each other and we're not just supporting each other blindly because we're putting things out there that the world needs. When we win, everybody wins. We're going to have to get this New Orleans. We have to do like a live from New Orleans, Wine Down with a group of girls, like girls trip style. I feel like that needs to happen.
Erika Jackson:
I'm with it.
Orion Brown:
Thank you CJ's mum. I think that has to be CJ in the picture. That little nugget hair. I love it.
Erika Jackson:
That's my sister. That's my favorite nurse, my nurse Kiki.
Orion Brown:
Hi CJ's mum. Well, thank you all for coming. I think we came here. We did the thing. We did the exact thing that we needed to do. We needed to take a moment. We needed to laugh. We needed to connect. We needed to think about stuff that makes us warm and fuzzy inside and a little bit hungry. I appreciate that. I appreciate you Erika for joining us. This has been so dope-
Erika Jackson:
I appreciate you letting me Wine Down because I probably would have still been sitting on my computer work, figuring out some other work to do.
Orion Brown:
No, not today. Tomorrow, but not today. All right, everyone. Good night. We're going to have you back soon.
Erika Jackson:
Okay, thank you.
Orion Brown:
Bye.
Erika Jackson:
Bye.
Orion Brown:
Bye you all.
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