Lately, claims of cultural appropriation have come to my attention, based on the argument that certain groups of people have “stolen” the culinary achievements of other groups, as well as commentaries suggesting that unless a cook or chef was fetched up in a certain culture, then she or he has no business cooking the food of another…
Tag: Beans
Hoppin’ John, or Dashing Myths Galore
(Due to a foul up with WordPress and dates, this post appeared on December 30. I was not finished with it yet! But now I am!) Black-eyed peas, a gift to the New World from Africa. These beans were there as early as 1659 at St. Louis, now present-day Senegal, but they actually originated in North Africa, in…
A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
There’s something about tables, big, little, or bare – and those bare ones in particular – that make me want to festoon them with food I’ve cooked, like floral garlands at a grand wedding. I feel an urge, too, to seat people on the equally vacant chairs, saying, “Come on now, sit down a spell,…
Eat a Meal of Solidarity: Haiti’s Sos Pwa Rouj
As in a nightmare wrought by Quentin Tarantino, I watched the horrors unfolding in Haiti after the earthquake. Hands tied, unable to help in any major way, I turned to my pantry, memories of the lovely Haitian women who cooked for us stepping into my mind, smiling, images of hope for Haiti’s future. Here’s a…
Counting Beans: A Soupçon of History
Not too long ago, I looked at the messy pile of one-pound bags of beans in my pantry and knew I needed to start using them up. But how? For some reason, the night before, I’d cooked chicken-and-sausage gumbo and maybe I could just make red beans to go with the leftover rice. Yes, that…
