Black History Month For Foodies Series: Rethinking Black History

Sweet potato pie, this in many other recipes below

I today I want to want rethink the concept of Black history month through the lens of food. In A Pinch of Soul in Book Form, published in 1969, Pearl Bowser uses the word our and us throughout her description of soul food or African American cuisine in its variation regional forms. I interpret her choice of words to signify her belief that soul food is the intellectual property of southern-born African Americans. It “represents a legacy of good eating bequeathed to us by our parents and grandparents,” who as slaves and later as sharecroppers “broke their backs but not their spirits.” According to Bowser, “Soul food is also food rich in taste. What is bland becomes exciting by the addition of our spices—garlic, pepper, bay leaf—and the other condiments which are always on the table along with the salt and pepper—hot pepper sauce, either from the West Indies or Louisiana, and vinegar to go on many meats and vegetables.” But where does this southern based definition of black culture and cuisine as a marker of cultural authenticity place those of us with roots in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua for example? My book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/tableOfContents and this subsequent blog takes a more inclusive diasporic approach to the development of black urban food markers of identity that argues that jerked chicken, tamales, empanadas, patties, coconut bread, feijoada, mofungo, mangu, and fried plantains were just as much a part of soul food as collards, Hoppin John, fried chicken, corn bread, and sweet potato pie.

Feijoada recipe: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-soul-food-in-nineteenth-century.html

Mofungo recipes: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/search?q=mofongo

Empanada recipes: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/search?q=empanada

Hoppin John recipe: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/2010/12/watch-night-series-part-2-food.html

Sweet potato pie recipe: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html