This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

"Eating is so much a part of getting to know someone. Without sharing that, then what is love?"

That's Taz Ahmed.

This week on The Sporkful, we celebrate Valentine’s Day with the writer, activist, and co-creator of the podcast Good Muslim Bad Muslim.

Love is often a topic of discussion on her podcast, which Taz co-hosts with comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh. It's also a theme that pops up in Taz's other work.

She contributed to a book called Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives Of American Muslim Women, and her column Radical Love explored the connections between social justice and love.

And then there are Taz's #MuslimVDay Cards (below and at top):

Dan met up with Taz at Big Al's Pizzeria and Barbecue, a halal pizza joint on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Over beef ribs and Lebanese-inflected pizza, they talked about food and love -- from dating as a Muslim-American to Taz's efforts to recreate the Bangladeshi home cooking she grew up with, after her mom passed away.

"[My mom] would always ask, 'What did you eat?' I was always so annoyed by that," Taz tells Dan. "But that was her way of [showing] love."

Listen in to the full episode to hear Taz's advice for sharing food on a first date (hint: don't get handsy with the tacos!), and why she wishes that guys she dates would stop trying to out-Muslim her.

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!

Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:

- "Sweet Summer Love" by Stephen Clinton Sullivan

- "Stay For The Summer" by William Van De Crommert

- "Give It Up" by Stephen Clinton Sullivan

Photos: Dan Pashman and courtesy of Taz Ahmed