Go to Pond Bank Article Category Page
Go to LM2DM Site's Home Page
Soul Food Celebrating Black History Month©
At a time in the past, the NBC Cafeteria posted a special menu to celebrate Black History Month. This menu caused a bunch of bloggers and columnists to get upset about the menu. I am not sure why they are upset. I think it is a good meal except for the black-eyed Peas.
The menu is as follows according to a web page.
“Fried Chicken
Collard Greens w/Smoked Turkey
White Rice/Black-eyed Peas
Jalapeno Cornbread
16oz Fountain Soda or 20 oz Aquaria Water
Cost $7.50 “
Since I am White, I guess I am insensitive in relating to the menu that Celebrates Black History Month. I ran into this problem a bunch of years ago.
Fifteen or so years ago, I started seeing statements in newspaper articles about Soul food. I was not familiar with the phase, Soul food. I did not know if it was associated with the uplifting feeling that people get by reading a soup style inspiration book or the uplifting feeling generated by watching and listing to the musical Soul Train TV program. .
I finally got it though my head that Soul Food refers to food eaten by Black people. After spending time trying to understand Soul Food, I finally found a book in a bookstore that dealt with Soul Food. I was not impressed by the recipes contained in the book. The Soul Food was what I called country food. I have been eating country food all my life. I was disappointed, because I was looking for a new type of food to eat. I think country food is wonderful tasting, and I plan to eat it for the rest of my life. I guess my taste buds relate to Black’s taste buds more than I understood.
I guess the food called Soul Food could be called farmer food, hard-working people food, blue collar people food, honest working people food, etc. I do not expect there will be a History Month set aside for any of these classifications of people.
If I was creating the NBC menu to celebrate Black History Month, I would make the following menu.
Fried Chicken wings.
Collard Green seasoned with hog jowl with a boiled egg.
White beans.
Mashed potatoes.
Slice of onion.
Cornbread.
Banana pudding.
Sweet Ice Tea or lemonade.
The cost will depend if you are using leftovers.
This is a meal that is too good to be eaten in a five star restaurant. The food taste wonderful when eaten in a greasy spoon corner restaurant or on a chrome trimmed Formica top dinette table in a small kitchen.
The more I learned about celebrating Black History Month indicated that I have more in common with my dark-skinned sisters and brothers than I knew. I wonder how I got Black taste buds. I guess I would be more sensitive if I used “African-American” instead of Black. I am going to let my taste buds speak for me.
Dale “The Saint” Lee
A former resident of Pot Neck, Tennessee
Date last modified, September 9, 2010