“Soul food is in the marrow of our bones...”

March 30, 2016 8:16 PM

The State of Soul Food in America: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future by Adrian Miller [First We Feast] What does soul food mean in 2016? A roundtable of experts discusses the emerging movements and obstacles the cuisine faces.

Fifty years ago, “soul food,” as a coined culinary term, burst into the American mainstream after floating around in black culture for years beforehand. From the beginning, soul food was magical, malleable, and maligned. Soul food brought African Americans across our nation to a shared table based on a common racial identity and narrative despite class and geographic differences. In short, soul food was more about blackness than it was about a specific list of ingredients. While there was considerable consensus about the cuisine’s core dishes, soul-food cooks and diners gave wide latitude to what could be included on the plate, and to how it was prepared and seasoned. Though that flexibility powered soul food’s popularity for decades, it may now be the source of the cuisine’s problems.

posted by Fizz (5 comments total)

Obligatory
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:26 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Reactions (in rough order):

1. This is a really lovely piece.
2. I'm saddened by the loss of older Soul Food restaurants it discusses.
3. I'm suddenly REALLY hungry.
posted by feckless at 9:05 PM on March 30, 2016

I still take deep breaths when I recall the day I walked into Whole Foods to see the big sign, “Collards: the New Kale.”

I'm a white Southerner so my perspective on this is different, but lord is that offensive to collard greens.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:04 AM on March 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Terrific and interesting find, thanks!
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:20 AM on March 31, 2016

This article kind of pisses me off because the author displays a not very different attitude to the one he objects to. And the Florida grill? Really? He obviously never ate there when diving out of your booth or examining bullet damage to your parked car was a part of the experience or he'd realize that this fallen angel is part of the bemoaned problem. Any place with fried chicken worth eating is going to tell you, right on the menu, that it will be thirty minutes and we know we are getting into Cracker Barrel territory when there are, um, souvenirs to remind you that you ate there. You must have had the "two steamed feet, simply prepared" before you bought the 25$ baby tee.

At the two-minute mark there is some off camera stuff that will give some idea why I'm a regular here. Plus, gizzards!

First time I tried to go I'd been at the hospital all day and needed to feed Boy and there was a sign about being closed for a death. Then we went back a couple weeks later while my mom was still lingering and there was a different sign about another death in the family.

So it seemed like the place to go on the day after my mom bit the dust and the owner was waiting tables and said he hadn't seen us in there before and I mentioned the signs and the attempts and my mom passing and he sat down at the table and we shared grief and he asked my son what he wanted to eat. No sirree, you don't want a cheeseburger and fries. Give me ten minutes so you can try something and if you don't like it I'll bring you a cheese burger.

He brought 2 large chicken livers and 2 pieces of okra. What is this? It's liver, What's liver? Eeew! Buddy, you sat at a sushi bar and ate raw eels and things with eight legs that crawl across the ocean floor eating fish poop the last time we tried to come here. Just take a bite.

His eyes glazed over in ecstasy and he sat back and we had everyone's attention as he picked up a piece of okra and asked me what it was. Some kind of seed pod that has nothing to do with aliens. I promise. You've had it before in soups and stews but never like this.

Hey, thanks for not letting me order the wrong thing. What is a hushpuppy? Everyone laughed. At 49, I was pretty certain I was the second youngest person in there so I let other patrons explain that one cause they were all wanting to interact by then.

Someone tried to open a place nearby and clean (gentrify) up the neighborhood they didn't understand. They failed both as people and financially. The shelter isn't going anywhere and none of the newscasters seem to have children or they would know that that train depot has an immense HO railroad inside.

If you want soul food, you must have one or it is just food.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 2:36 PM on March 31, 2016 [5 favorites]