“Understanding Soul Food this Black History Month”

Sweet Potato Pie

“Understanding Soul Food this Black History Month”

(A lesson well learned for the Carondelet High School for Girls)

By Glenn Peppers  2-8-14

Everyone is talking about the Carondelet Catholic High School for girls, in Concord, California. They were in the news because they tried to have a Soul Food Lunch commemorating Black History Month, and the menu was less than desirable, and came off as racist and stereotypical. To be honest about it. I don't think that this school was trying to be racist in attempting to adopt an African American food selection, symbolizing African American History Month. I just feel that it would have been executed much better if they had done their Soul Food Homework, and featured foods that were not the common flashing billboard stigma Red Flag for bigotry; and did not symbolize or historically represent stereotypical, and derogatory jokes, and belittlement. Along with the insults and shortsightedness that come along with such things. 

Speaking personally, of course I feel there were many other food items in the realm of our soul food universe and experience that could have exemplified our culture perfectly without appearing snide, typical and ignorant! There are healthy menu food choices in our culture, just like in any other culture, as far as soul food goes.

Ethiopian Plate

There's vegetarian/Ethiopian dishes that qualify. There are gourmet soul food, and specialty items that are now main menu selections in a lot of america's major chain restaurants, that twenty years ago weren't even thought of as dinner or snack items. Things like chicken wings! Back in the 1960's and 70's, and even 80’s, you could buy chicken wings for a little bit of nothing at most any supermarket! But ever since the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York discovered them, and smothered them in hot sauce, like we use to back in the day. They suddenly became, Buffalo Wings. Now at most “ALL” supermarkets that I know of, the price of wing dings, and whole wing cuts of the chicken are through the roof! 

Hot Wings or Buffalo Wings

There's even a national restaurant chain built on the business of, Chicken Wings. You may have heard of it. Its called, Buffalo Wild Wings! 30 years ago, the business of chicken wings as a featured item wouldn't have even been a thought! I think had this school hired a chef whose forte was southern, and or gourmet foods that the black community enjoys, and that is also good for you, and didn’t fit the negative idiom of the Jim Crow stereotype, that “all black people love to eat is Fried Chicken and Watermelon.” This might have worked out perfectly! Yet the menu inference was so pitifully, and poorly planned, it was insulting to the point of almost being revolting! Personally, I detest watermelon; yet at the same time, who doesn’t like fried chicken, black white or otherwise? 

Do you know that at present there are just as many (if not twice as many) KFC Chicken restaurants in the suburbs just outside of Detroit, Michigan than within the city of Detroit itself? So again, had this school done their cultural homework, they'd have known that soul food is much more than the stereotypes handed down through the ages!

BBQ Ribs

Black Culture is not all about greasy, unhealthy foods! We're about great yam dishes and casseroles. Soul food has always been about Great BBQ and grilling. Now days you have places like "Slows BBQ" (who in technique and theory has copied most all of what they know about grilling and smoking BBQ from southern grill masters) is making a killing in downtown Detroit, in an upscale setting or guise of Soul Food. 

Smothered Cabbage and Brown Sugar Ham

My idea of Soul Food is great Ethiopian food like at "The Blue Nile” in Ferndale, Mi on Nine Mile Road! Soul food at home to me is Corn Muffins and Smothered Cabbage with Fried Apples and Brown Sugar cured Ham; along with Banana Pudding for dessert! Its Cajun Fried Cat Fish and oven Garlic Parsley Potato Wedges and Hush Puppies with homemade Coleslaw. Soul Food for me growing up was fresh hot Baked Ginger Bread with a dollop of warm Molasses poured on top, with homemade Whipped Cream! Sure some black folks like their ham hocks and salt pork. So do a lot of white folks for that matter! But there are many of us out here who like to cook slow roasted Basil Turkey Drumsticks, and Turkey Wings, along with Sage Cornbread Dressing, Stir-fried garlic Spinach, and kicked up, Loaded Mashed Potatoes and Homemade Rolls. As my Grill master Brother In-Law says about cooking and preparing great meals and BBQ... “Its a Labor of Love!”

Peach Cobbler

My soul food experience as a child growing up with a southern mom has been (in short)homemade Pecan Pie, Chocolate Creme Pie, Peach Gobbler, Homemade Fried Pies, 7Up Cake, Triple Layer Lemon and Devils Food Cakes. I remember my mother (and now my Brother In-Law) making Bread and/or Rice Pudding with a Vanilla Hollandaise Sauce. Now that surly would have qualify as soul food! Not to mention what I think is, the south’s biggest well kept secret... Chess Pie! And of course, who can forget everybody’s favorite. Simple as pie -- Apple Pie! 

Salmon Patties, Eggs and Home Fries

If you know what I’m talking about, than you know that soul food is, Sausage Biscuits and Gravy with Cheese Scrambled Eggs, and Pear Preserves on the side! This is a good southern soul food breakfast food. Lets not forget, Salmon Patties and Rice (or Grits) with Eggs anyway you like them... I like my salmon with my own special buttery Home Fries and Onions, with a hint of sauteed red and green Bell Pepper!

As I mentioned earlier. I won’t even go into how much Barbecue plays a gigantic role in southern cooking, and/or soul food, period! Soul Food is not all about fried chicken, by any means! Thus the stereo types!... Thus also why so many were upset at this school’s inability to exemplify, and pay homage to cuisine that basically has sustained and inspired America’s kitchens and culture like none other, yet at the same time doesn’t get any of the accolades for the latter! Let some folks tell it, people like Paula Deen was the end all, be all of southern cooking. Believe me, she was not the last word in soul food. Not by any means! Black white or otherwise! 

Pan Roasted Green Beans and Potatoes 

Soul Food is what my people had to exist on, for hundreds of years, during the time of slavery, reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era of america, and even on to this very day! Before whites discovered that we had this knack for turning less than desirable cuts of meat and vegetables into delicacies, we survived on foods that was considered of lesser quality than the slave owners would ever eat. Slaves through necessity and creativity, would salvage this food, and make due with it; turning things like second rate cuts of pork, beef, and chicken, and wild root vegetables, and greens into something special!... Something called Dinner! 

Yes, a lot of soul food based items then and now features some kind of cut of the hog. Now tell me, who doesn’t like bacon? They even have bacon milkshakes now days! Pork was not a healthy food choice then, and still isn’t a good for anyone. Yet people from all walks of life love it! Pork has flavor! Pork belly’s and rinds and shanks, and hog heads was just one of many food items we had to work with back then. 

Beef Brisket Slices

We learned to use the worst cuts of the hog, the scrawny backs and wings of the chicken. The toughest cuts of the cattle, (that being cuts like the beef brisket) and make a meal out of it! We learned that through low and slow roasting, and grilling with wood, and slow smoking how to command flavor and tenderness. You could take a piece of meat that is normally tougher than shoe leather, and turn it into a cut of beef that taste better than Prime Rib, and would end up being so tender, you can slice it with a butter knife! 

Had the Carondelet Catholic High School for girls put the research work into their Black History lunch project, it could have came off quite beautifully! Instead, they settled for the typical. The thing they’ve heard all their lives! “All black people eat is fried chicken, cornbread and watermelon!” That’s about as incorrect, and as stereotypical as saying all Asian people eat Chop Suey! 

The entire incident in and of itself was off handedly bigoted, and at best lazy! Because of the stigmas involved with such a touchy subject, careful planning should have been done. In fact they would have loved the results! Their effort demanded deeper insight, and careful diversity. And it wouldn’t have hurt to have had some kind of participation from people of color involved as well. The whole thing screamed, “Do this with class and dignity, or do not do this at all!” the Carondelet High dropped the ball on this one, be it intentional or not. So to sum it all up. From my perspective, if there is one thing to be learned from this incident, it is to always respect the feelings and cultures of others, as if they were your own!

Glenn Peppers