What is soul food?

By: Karen S. Sieczka  

What is soul food? Everyone seems to have their own take on the
topic but most can agree soul food is ethnic in its origins. Most
agree it was creation of the slave population in the American South,
a gifted lot who used the throwaway bits of food leftover from the
plantation owners and the fields they worked as the base for their
cooking. They took the toughest parts of the meat and the tops of
root vegetables and turned them into something delicious and hearty.
Many of the soul food recipes cooked today comes from these humble
origins.

Every ethnicity has their own traditional foods, their own version
of soul food. To me, soul food evokes memories of the kind of food
my mother and my grandmother used to cook when I was a child. My
mouth starts watering when I think of my mom's Puerto Rican rice and
beans and Arroz con Pollo, my surrogate mom's southern fried
chicken, or my grandmother's Italian chocolate layer cake and
spaghetti and meatballs. This is my soul food.

What foods do you remember enjoying at family gatherings? What takes
you back to your childhood? Maybe you can smell mustard greens with
ham hocks and black eyed peas cooking. Or maybe you crave the taste
of pierogi and paczki. Perhaps couscous or a spicy tikka masala is
more to your liking. Whatever you have a fondness for, these are
your soul foods and each of these foods has a story. Take time to
talk with elder family members and research where your favorite
family dishes came from. Cook with your mother and grandmother.
Write down the recipes. Often these family recipes are cooked from
memory and have a unique story. So when a loved one dies and the
recipe is not passed down, it is lost forever. This is a tragedy.

To learn more about the history of soul food and for recipes of
other soul dishes here are some websites on the internet to visit.

The History of Soul Food
http://www.foxhome.com/soulfood/htmls/soulfood.html
World Famous Soul Food Recipes
http://www.worldfamousrecipes.com/soul-food-recipes.html
The Gutsy Gourmet
http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/soul.html
Food for the Soul
http://racerelations.about.com/library/weekly/aa092701a.htm
Soul Food On-line
http://www.soulfoodonline.net/recipes.php

Are you getting hungry yet?



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