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?