Sunday, November 02, 2025

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 2, 2025): Automobile Import and Ethnic Food

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 2, 2025): Automobile Import and Ethnic Food
Q: Name a popular automobile import (make and model). Add the letter V and anagram the result. You'll name a popular ethnic food. What names are these?
Insert an E in the model to get something directly associated with the make.

Edit: The Kia Soul is manufactured in Seoul, South Korea.
A: KIA SOUL + V = SOUVLAKI (Greek)

112 comments:

  1. Remove the first letter from the car and rearrange. You get the first name of a famous American author.

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    1. I thought you meant just the make and got a chuckle.

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    2. Somewhat oddly, I immediately thought of Virginia.

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    3. Rob, the famous author was a distant relative of mine, or so I was told by my Grandmother.

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  2. This is what an extra hour of sleep gets you.

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  3. Wow there are a lot of surprising anagrams of make+model+v.

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  4. When my Pop had such a vehicle, I told him it was appropriate that it was black.

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  5. If my interpretation of the clues so far is correct, then I don't think I've ever heard of the food.

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  6. It took a little bit of searching, but I finally got it.

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  7. Anyone who gets this without consulting lists probably owns the car.

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    1. As mentioned upthread, my father had one. My brother had one more recently.

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  8. How many correct answers last week?

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    1. 559, according to Ayesha during the broadcast.

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  9. I was afraid this would devolve into an epic search, then, I remembered the KISS principle and voila!

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  10. I think there are 42 million people concerned with ordinary food to feed their 16 million children.

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  11. I think it's interesting what gets to count as 'ethnic food'.

    Ummmm. I don't have any clues.
    Oh ok: if you forgot the name of the car, you could describe it briefly, add two letters, and get the same ethnic food.

    Wow that is a bad clue. But it's certainly not TMI.

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  12. Anyone watch the San Francisco - Jacksonville game?

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  13. Nissan Rogue + BR is BRAIN SURGEONS ... which I've never tried.

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  14. A great distance between the car and the food. Choo! Choo!

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  15. This is my ideal fusion cuisine.

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  16. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  17. Think of a kind of salad dressing, dip, or condiment in two words. Remove a "V", change one vowel to a consonant, and rearrange to get the make and model of a popular automobile import.

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    1. Actually, maybe it's not an import.

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    2. HONDA ACCORDs (AVOCADO RANCH - V - A + D) are made in Ohio.

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  18. One hint above got me there. I don't think I know anyone with this car IRL.

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  19. This isn't just any Sunday puzzle. If you know what I mean.

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  20. I not only solved it, I also get Blaine's clue.

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  21. My son and his wife once owned the automobile, and I am particularly fond of the ethnic food.

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  22. Change the third letter of the food to an A, and rearrange to get another foreign thing.

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  23. Remove the 2nd letter of the model, rearrange the remaining letters of the make and model, and get a dog breed.

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    1. I never heard of that breed, and neither did my anagram server.

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    2. Nice! Learned something new. Never heard of the breed, but the pictures are beautiful!

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    3. It's probably in poor taste to point out that you can add a letter to the dog breed and rearrange to get a popular ethnic food.

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    4. I’m only familiar with this dog breed because of its similarity to another more common breed, which my wife and I had for many years

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  24. Got this on the first make and model I thought of. Instantly.

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  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Why would you post this? Do you intentionally go out of your way to be a jerk?

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    2. Maybe you should take this down?

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    3. Scarlett, he already knows that. He is the little kid who treated the community sandbox as his personal litter box.

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    4. I'm surprised Blaine has left it up this long. Talk about a spoiler alert!

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    5. Apologies to everyone. I hadn't noticed it previously. Thanks for letting me know.

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    6. Your post is most appreciated. Because last night I was surprised it remained up, and this caused me to think perhaps you were out enjoying a wonderful evening at an ethnic restaurant. But when I saw it still up this morning I began hoping you were not dining at a hospital cafeteria. So your apology is reassuring.

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    7. In Blaine's defense, those URL comments are usually irrelevant to the puzzle. I don't often check them out either, but Scarlett's reply got me curious.

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  26. Blaine to the rescue! Anyway - this is one of those puzzles that seems to only have one answer (vs alternatives). I think it may also have some familiarity.

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  27. Replies
    1. Any ethnic food with spinach in it is OK by me.

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    2. For some reason I find his voice like fingernails moving on a glass pane.

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  28. Finally got the right make and model, and then the answer jumped out at me. I had to work from lists, since I'm not that familiar with this make's models. As for working backwards, most foods are ethnic in some way, so that really doesn't help at all.

    No clues here.

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  29. Took a while for me, too. Don't eat much "ethnic food".

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  30. OMG. I can't believe how long this took me. Not only do I actually HAVE this car make and model, but the ethnic food is from one side of my family's background.

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  31. Answer came to me Sunday morning when I spotted the car parked in downtown Boston on the same block as a restaurant that sells the food.

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    1. The Kia Soul I saw was parked on Somerset Street behind the One Beacon Street building that's home to a Saloniki. Saloniki is a local chain of fast-casual Greek restaurants.

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  32. Here i Rochester NY there is a sneaky nickname for those associated with the car maker’s name.

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  33. Correction - Here in Rochester NY……

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  34. My brother-in-law is of the ethnicity where this food originates. I’ll have to ask if he and my sister ever serve it. BTW, the food is similar to a well known food from another region

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  35. Sorry, but I need to post this Puzzleria! Preview a bit early:
    On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. Afterward (according to some historians) he delivered a lesser-known address that looked futureward and validated Abe’s reputation as a visionary. It began:
    “Eight score and two years from now, our future friend Patrick J. Barry shall bring forth on this thing called a “Weblog” a new Cryptic Crossword Puzzle, his 41st to appear on a document called “Puzzleria!”... conceived in his cranium and dedicated to the proposition that all puzzles are not created equal – that some puzzles, Like Master Berry’s, are simply superior to all the rest!...”
    Honestly, Abe was prophetic! Patrick's 41st Cryptic Crossword will indeed appear presently on Puzzleria!, indeed, very soon this very afternoon.
    Also on this week's menus:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Encourage lachrymose yearning?”
    * a Ford Vehicle Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Not-so-fordable ends up affordable,”
    * a “Buck-&-A-Half-Just-To-See-‘Em Slice” titled “Put ‘em in a tree museum...”
    * a Kaleidoscopic Dessert titled “A hearse of another and of another color?” and
    * eleven riffs of this week’s NPR puzzle titled “S_______, S___ f___ f__ f__ a K__!” (including six composed by Nodd and one composed by Plantsmith)...
    That, my friends, is one encoded & uploaded, puzzle-muzzle-loaded weapon of mass confusion and cryptic elliptic post-apocalyptic fall-out!

    LegoADenizenOf"SpaghettisBurg!"

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  36. If you slowly pronounce the 2nd and 3rd syllable of the car, the result may be a way to describe (phonetically) our most recently censured blogger.

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    1. It reminds me of a certain Asian expression....

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    2. Last week's puzzle had us thinking about demonyms. Officially, I'm a Bay Stater, but this thread reminds me of our unofficial designation.

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    3. We're also called Massholes.

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    4. Yep, me too, a... satisfying little wordplay, Snipper.

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  37. The vehicle is a type of ethnic food in itself.

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  38. But not from the city associated with the name of the car which is ironically where it’s manufactured, too.

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  39. KIA SOUL +V —> SOUVLAKI

    Hint: “Remove the second letter of the model, rearrange the remaining letters of the make and model, and get a dog breed.”
    —> KIA SOUL -O —> SALUKI

    I thought Ben’s Neil Young clue was hinting at “Mr. Soul,” which Young recorded as a member of Buffalo Springfield.

    And here’s a special acknowledgment to my better half—il miglior fabbro—who solved this week’s puzzle first (and she’s not even a puzzle fan!) and then pointed me in the right direction.

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  40. KIA SOUL --> SOUVLAKI

    > Homophone

    The model name was chosen because it sounds like "Seoul", home of the company's headquarters.

    > Not a telecom.

    See the difference?

    > Timely

    Trump was in Korea this week, talking tariffs.

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  41. I wrote, “Remove the first letter from the car and rearrange. You get the first name of a famous American author.” That’s LOUISA May Alcott.

    What I wanted to put was, “Take the odd letters of the food without rearranging. You get what to do if you spend two hours on the puzzle and still don’t have an answer.” I had a little worry that maybe someone could get the answer via this, although I didn’t know how, and maybe erred on the side of caution.

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    1. At first I thought you meant only the make of car. I removed the K from KIA and anagrammed what was left to get AI. Ironically, that is on its way to becoming a famous American author!

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    2. From my point of view, your odd letters clue would not have given it away. There are a lot of things I might do after spending two hours on the puzzle without getting the answer--gripe, complain, retry, take a break...

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  42. Puzzleria! Is Now Uploaded!
    On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. Afterward (according to some historians) he delivered a lesser-known address that looked futureward and validated Abe’s reputation as a visionary. It began:
    “Eight score and two years from now, our future friend Patrick J. Barry shall bring forth on this thing called a “Weblog” a new Cryptic Crossword Puzzle, his 41st to appear on a document called “Puzzleria!”... conceived in his cranium and dedicated to the proposition that all puzzles are not created equal – that some puzzles, Like Master Berry’s, are simply superior to all the rest!...”
    Honestly, Abe was prophetic! Patrick's 41st Cryptic Crossword will indeed appear presently on Puzzleria!, indeed, very soon this very afternoon.
    Also on this week's menus:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Encourage lachrymose yearning?”
    * a Ford Vehicle Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Not-so-fordable ends up affordable,”
    * a “Buck-&-A-Half-Just-To-See-‘Em Slice” titled “Put ‘em in a tree museum...”
    * a Kaleidoscopic Dessert titled “A hearse of another and of another color?” and
    * eleven riffs of this week’s NPR puzzle titled “Souvlaki, Soul food fit for a Kia!” (including six composed by Nodd and one composed by Plantsmith)...
    That, my friends, is one encoded & uploaded, puzzle-muzzle-loaded weapon of mass confusion and cryptic elliptic post-apocalyptic fall-out!

    LegoADenizenOf"SpaghettisBurg!"

    ReplyDelete
  43. I wrote "This is my ideal fusion cuisine."
    Back in the 1960s, when Washington D.C. was still a backwater as far as international cuisine was concerned, a Korean restaurant named Seoul Palace opened, leading to all the obvious jokes about “Seoul food.” That was just a silly pun, of course, but it would have made a perfect combination: collard green kimchi with galbi, Korean chitlins (Makchang), Korean-style cornbread (not really the same, but that’s what makes fusion cuisine so much fun).
    As for Kia, it turns out to be a bad employer, using convict labor, child labor and captive immigrant labor on restrictive visas to build its cars in Alabama, giving it a competitive wage advantage over other foreign car brands with parts and assembly operations in the South—and that’s saying something. None of which has any immediate bearing on this week’s puzzle, but I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without mentioning this.

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  44. Haluski is an ethnic dish made with cabbage and noodles. There's no Saluki in it; how could you even think such a thing?
    Never heard of Souvlaki before last Sunday; wondering if it would be good with a Kyser roll.
    Kia is headquartered in Seoul, which is a homophone of "soul". K-Pop music is imported from South Korea, while soul music is of African-American origin. Louisa May Alcott probably never heard of either of them.

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  45. My comment: "A great distance between the car and the food. Choo! Choo!" The distance between Korea and Greece is great. But Choo! Choo! was a nod to Soul Train.

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  46. Glad some of you enjoyed my post earlier today! As for my original post, "this is one of those puzzles that only seems to have one answer" was a reference to the "sole answer". And the reference to the puzzle having some familiarity was because we've had a previous puzzle (or more?) that have referenced Seoul, like the Dover (Delaware capital) Seoul (Korea capital) puzzle of recent memory.

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  47. Kia Soul, souvlaki. My hint said it took a little bit of searching to get the answer, referring to "Little Bit o’ Soul" by the Music Explosion.

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  48. My comment was that "this is not just another Sunday puzzle. If you know what I mean." I thought the Catholics in the group might know that it was, in fact, "All Soul's Day." I think Word Woman knew what I meant.

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  49. KIA SOUL + V = SOUVLAKI

    "Yes, better hurry up and solve." The KIA SOUL goes out of production next year.

    Lancek, I did get your drift!

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  50. KIA SOUL + V = SOUVLAKI

    My musical clue of Neil Young related to his earlier band, Buffalo Springfield, and their hit MR. SOUL

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  51. Kia Soul, Souvlaki

    Last Sunday I posted, “Franklin.” As in Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul

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  52. In 2015, my father got a black Kia Soul, and I said he could now use the expression "As black as my Soul" literally.

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  53. My hint "Anyone watch the San Francisco - Jacksonville game?" was a riff on the puzzle. "Kojak" was a classic TV show starring Greek-American Telly Savalas, who probably ate his share of souvlaki.

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  54. Here's a funny challenge from Mark Scott, of Seattle. Think of a famous actress -- first and last names. Interchange the first and last letters of those names. That is, move the first letter of the first name to the start of the last name, and the first letter of the last name to the start of the first name. Say the result out loud, and you'll get some advice on fermenting milk. What is it?

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    1. Hmmm... Did they get that right, SDB? The first instruction says to interchange the first and last letters of the two names. The next sentence mentions only the first letters. Sounds wrong.

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  55. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  56. Although the NPR Puzzle page (www.npr.org/series/4473090/sunday-puzzle) says this week's on-air player is Kevin Tenney of Denver, the page for the new puzzle (www.npr.org/2025/11/09/g-s1-96613/sunday-puzzle) lists last week's winner as "stuff".

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  57. That first sentence is incorrect; ignore it. It's a spoonerism.

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    1. In other words, ignore this sentence:
      Interchange the first and last letters of those names.

      All you are asked to do is switch the first letter of each name.

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  58. As three of my hobbies (making my own beer, wine, and bread) involve fermentation, I like the sound of this advice. More tasty things!
    Thanks, Skydiveboy!

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  59. Replies
    1. Sorry. That’s not something you’d want. SDB is offering very good advice.

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    2. Without active cultures, you'll raise-y diddly.

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    3. I get a rise out of bread making.

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  60. We're safe from AI this week: ChatGPT thinks “Bate Clanchett” sounds like “Be cultured”

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  61. 545 correct entries last week

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  62. Ha! Yeah, when I heard Will say, "Interchange the first and last letters of the two names..." I immediately knew he had misstated it. (Unless it was somehow a different 'Mark Scott of Seattle'!)
    This is indeed a funny one -- congrats, SDB! I'll cook up a hint for the main thread.

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    1. Yes, and he repeated it incorrectly, too.

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