Special Episode: A Crash Course in Dembow, a Misunderstood Pantry Staple and Simple Tips to Keep Calm and Carry On

First up, Isabella Herrera writes about music for the Times. And today, she's giving us a crash course in Dembo.

We would make sure we went to the beach at some point. It was about, you know, two hours away from Santiago, where my family is from. On the way to the beach, we would often see these vans that were, like, really just, you know, had huge speakers, like, just covered in subwoofers.

There would be a lot of gasolineras, which, you know, these gas stations where a lot of these vans would just kind of park. And it was basically, like, as soon as you pulled up, you could just feel the bass.

I would roll down the window and just, like, dance in my seat.

That's one of the first times I really remember hearing Dembo.

I'm Isabella Herrera, and I write about music and culture.

Growing up in Chicago, I didn't really hear Dembo in the street anywhere. It was mostly something I listened to at home or with my brother. But when I moved to New York, it was everywhere, and it was finally, like, someone gets it. Like, I see myself here.

I'd hear Dembo coming out of, like, a bodega or coming out of people's cars, just, like, blasting on the street out of people's windows.

Your body will uncontrollably move.

I mean, it's definitely, like, the danceable. Like, you, just can't. You have to bop to it as soon as you hear it.

So Dembo is all about having a good time. You know, a lot of the songs are about dancing or partying or doing drugs. And because this is a sound that comes from working-class black neighborhoods outside of Santo Domingo, a lot of people look down on it. The Dominican government censors songs that they think are explicit. You know, people who are socially conservative really dismiss the genre as vulgar and obscene.

Dembo is not the first genre that experiences that kind of backlash. I mean, any genre that comes from the street often gets that type of criticism. So, you know, if you dismiss Dembo, you're really missing out on a larger and richer, deep cultural history.

It holds, you know, the history of Jamaican dancehall, and it holds elements of proto-reggaeton from Puerto Rico, hip-hop from New York. But Dembo's signature sort of style is that they crank the tempo up, sometimes to, like, 140 beats per minute.

And it is, like, breakneck rapping over it, a lot of repetition in the chorus. And that repetition is super central to the genre and its catchiness.

If you're just getting into Dembo, I think you absolutely need to listen to El Alfa.

He is the king of the genre. He is the funniest one. He is the wittiest one. And he is definitely your entry point to get into Dembo.

You can really hear how hard he goes in Demagage, Gigogu, which is his song with Bad Bunny from 2016.. The title is a reference to the word demagogo. And demagogo is Dominican slang for someone who's a hater, someone who's a jealous person. And the title is this, you know, really witty wordplay, in the sense that it's, like, expanding all the syllables of demagogo.

It's not just demagogo, it's a demagage gigogu. That's how much of a hater this person is. That's how much of a jealous person they are. It's sort of like, you. encompass all of the possible syllables and vowels of the word.

I got to see El Alfa and to see the king of Dembo, someone who really came, you know, from the street and brought this music that has been dismissed for so long, to sell out. Madison Square Garden was huge. I mean, you could hear, like, the chairs shake. You could just hear everyone screaming the lyrics. You know, there were Dominican flags waving everywhere.

I mean, it was really like a carnival. Like, it was so fun. It was constant movement on the stage. It was a great time.

He made a lot of comments through the show and, like, in his audience, banter being, like, who said the Dominican Republic couldn't go global? Who said Dembo wouldn't make it? As this kind of, like, celebratory moment for the movement.

You know, my reaction was just like, yes, finally, Dembo made it.

I listen to Dembo pretty much every day, whether it's on my running playlist or my cooking playlist or, you know, just to get pumped up for something. And I think you should too.

In this series, we're going to take a deep dive into the pantry. God, you know, did you know? I have two jars of Marmite? Why do I have two jars of Marmite? I mean, when was the last time you actually explored everything in your pantry?

I'm opening it up and it smells so savory. Well, I'm going to help you figure out what to do with all of those condiments in the back of your pantry, how to use each and every one of them to its absolute best. Oh, God, it's so good. I love it. And today we're going to talk about something that's a real pantry staple.

Worcestershire sauce.

Worcestershire sauce is absolutely essential in Caesar salads. You need it for your Bloody Mary. But what else can it do? And what even is it?

So Worcestershire sauce was developed in the 19th century. It was actually developed by pharmacists, pharmacists named Lee and Perrins in the town of, no surprise here, Worcester in England.

Worcestershire is made up of four main ingredients. So you've got anchovies, which have a saltiness. They have an umami depth and a little bit of a saline fishy flavor.

You have molasses, which adds sweetness. You have tamarind, which gives a very bright, fruity flavor, almost like a citrus flavor. And then you have barley malt vinegar, which is sharp and acidic. And all of those were fermented together with some other seasonings. There was garlic and shallots.

There were spices. And when you ferment all of these things, they blend into this just very rich, very fragrant sauce with a bold flavor. And it keeps for a long time too. So that bottle of Worcestershire in your pantry, you can still use it, even if you can't remember when you bought it.

So, if you're thinking, well, where would I want to use Worcestershire? Think about where you'd want to use Asian fish sauce.

Asian fish sauce has a ton of umami. You can just add a little bit to anything, and it's going to brighten the flavors. It's got salt. It's got that depth, that almost caramelized nuance. Worcestershire sauce accomplishes a lot of the same things, but it also has a little bit of sweetness and it has more acidity.

Fish sauce is going to be a funkier flavor. Worcestershire sauce, it's like the whisper of an anchovy. It's like, hmm, here I am. I'm adding this, you know, this depth of flavor, this salty umami flavor. And yes, there's anchovy, but you can't really taste it because it's integrated.

It's part of the sauce, but it's there and it's doing work for you.

What else can we use Worcestershire sauce for? Have you ever made a pot of stew or soup and you're just cooking and you're not following a recipe and you're tasting and you're like, oh my God, this needs something. And you know it needs salt, but it's not just salt. It needs something else. So in those moments, that's where you are going to go into your pantry and you're going to say, okay, condiments, who shall I choose to put into my soup pot?

Because you need that extra, and Worcestershire is my go-to.

A little bit of Worcestershire just perks up your stew. It's almost like adding bouillon to your soup, you know, instead of a bouillon, cube, a couple of dashes of Worcestershire. It's adding life, it's adding flavor, it's adding verve.

So, next time you've got your pot of whatever simmering and you don't know what to add, try the Worcestershire. It is there for you.

And finally, to send you off into your day, a new series called How I Hold It Together from The Well Desk. They started this little project during the pandemic and you might recall it was very hard to just get through the day, but the series worked. They got through those days and many more days and decided to just keep it going. So here's Deputy Editor, Kate Lowenstein on how she holds it together.

So here's how I kind of hold it together.

I feel like there are not a lot of good breakfast foods out there, personally. That's my hot take. And I have decided that I'm going to start eating non-breakfast foods for breakfast most of the time, and it has lots of advantages.

One, you can eat your leftovers from the night before, which is very fast and easy, sometimes standing and sometimes with the refrigerator door still open. Two, it keeps you awake. Three, it keeps me satisfied for much longer than a bowl of cereal. I think spaghetti makes a great breakfast. Delicious, spicy fish and cabbage soup.

I ate this leftover fried calzone for breakfast the other day. It was not good cold. It was pretty soggy. But it kept me full for a while.

So my hips and back often feel very tight and achy, especially after I've been sitting for a while.

And there's a spot right on the side of my hip that's just always kind of tight and tender. So something I find really useful is lying down on the floor. Sometimes it's just lying down on the floor. that feels good. But then also lying on a trigger point ball, which is a four-inch ball that's hard and smooth.

And I put the ball on a yoga mat. I get down on top of the ball, kind of on my side, so that the ball is right under my right hip. And at first it's really tight and tense and it hurts. But then I do a few deep breaths and I stay there a little longer and I feel the knot release.

It feels like a massage where someone's going really, really deep.

And if I stay on it for long enough, the pain kind of goes away.

So when I am finding myself having really overwhelmingly negative thoughts, like sweeping thoughts, like I never see my aging parents enough and my kids eat no vegetables, and I'm so late on every story, I'm working on, these sort of overgeneralizations about how poorly I'm doing in life, I've recently become able to notice when I'm doing that and think to myself, you know, what's going on? Are you especially tired today? And usually that is the case.

And on those days, I say, okay, today you're an unreliable narrator and you're not going to take yourself too seriously. And these thoughts are, we're going to just sort of hang them up and reconsider them later, because they're being heavily influenced by how tired you feel today. Not trying to have a conversation with myself about why it's not true, or, you know, certainly trying to stop the spiraling thoughts about how it is true and just being like, all right, these are the thoughts we're having today. Let's move on.

So there was this day last September when my toddler dropped my phone on the playground and it completely broke. I could not use it at all. And I really couldn't believe how sort of free and untethered that feeling was.

So I took a tip from my friend Tom and bought a lockbox that has no overrides, which means you put it in, you set the time that you want to leave your phone in there, and then you cannot get it out, which is a little bit terrifying, but it has allowed me to feel much more present. You don't have that feeling of needing to check something constantly. And I can read a book or sit with my toddler who's doing something maybe not super engaging, and doing it for ten minutes even feels really good.

I'm Kate Loewenstein, and here's how I hold it together.

I lie on a trigger point ball. I grant myself unreliable narrator days. I eat dinner for breakfast. I put my phone in a lockbox.

My son definitely did take the lockbox and lock it for two and a half days. My phone was not in it at the time, but it made me realize, you know, that it can go wrong.

This episode was produced by Tina Antolini, Elissa Dudley, Sarah Curtis, and Tracy Mumford. Edited by Wendy Dorr and Lynn Levy. Engineered by Rowan Nemesto, Corey Shruppel, Daniel Farrell, and Sophia Landman. Special thanks to Paula Schumann and Sam Dolnik. I'm Kim Severson.

Thanks for spending these past few Saturdays with me. And download the app. You're going to like it. I'll see you when I see you.