Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 10 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 19 years, 8 months ago by
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Why does black cuisine seem to so often have fatty and/or rich foods in it? What is the cultural origin? I have a black friend for whom it’s normal to put an entire stick of butter in a bowl of peas. I consider myself open-minded toward food, but I’m not sure if I could ever stomach that much richness.
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Name : Sarah-C28160, Gender : F, Race : Asian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 24, City : San Francisco area, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,I dont know if you are asking about soul food or personal preferance,but it sounds like your friend just enjoys lots of butter in her peas.I also dont know what you mean by black cuisine.are you basing this on observing one or two people?I can tell you that through three generations of our family,we cook very rich no restrictions only on special occasions,other than that,most everything we eat is bake ,broiled,steamed with very little added fats and oils.I think you just observing one person’s or family’s preferance.If you want to know about soul food(something we rarely eat)i can tell about that and how it came about.
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Name : J-WILSON, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 38, City : NAVARRE, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : US AIR FORCE, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,What your’e referring to is individual preference, not necessarily so-called ‘black’ cuisine. I happen to consider myself African American, and I am vegetarian and would rather not have a stick of butter in a bowl of peas – but that’s me. There are many whites and blacks in various regions of the country – particularly the South – where the regional dishes are richer than other parts of the country: fried chicken, biscuits with butter, etc., for example. However, this is regional cuisine and not what you are referring to as ‘black’ cuisine. Besides, most of us ‘blacks’ have mixed heritage and prefer many different types of cuisines. I am Native American, French, Portuguese, English and, of course, African.
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Name : Cara19221, Gender : F, Race : mixed race, City : Boston, State : MA, Country : United States,During slavery, the slaves got the leftover parts of the animals, which tended to be the parts with the most fat. It has carried on from then.
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Name : senetra28037, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 28, City : anderson, State : IN, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College,Blacks and whites in the south eat many of the same foods. Black people like to call it soul food while whites like the term country cooking, but it is all the same. Fried chicken, greens and collards, yams with butter. Northern white people do not eat like this for the most part. Northern blacks may so because they probebly came from the southern states. It is one thing that black and white people, in the south anyway, have in common
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Name : William, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Occupation : Sales, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Two things here. 1) As the other respondent noted, this is regional cuisine, not just Black. Many of the foods thought of as Black are actually Southern, and are eaten by Whites as well as Blacks. 2) All of it isn’t greasy fried food. Collard, Kale, and Turnip greens are part of this traditional cuisine. It seems that Whites in the northern part of the US prefer broccoli (spelling) or brussel sprouts or whatever. The funniest thing that happened to me was when I first moved to Minnesota back in 1985. I was discussing grocery shopping with a co-worker (White) who was into what was apparently called ‘health food’ back then. I mentioned trying to find some good Kale, and he asked me when I ‘got into health food.’ Huh? This was just the normal things I ate growing up. Not health food, just ‘food.’ I considered health food something totally different.
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Name : WayneC24416, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 41, City : Parsippany, State : NJ, Country : United States, Occupation : Marketing, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I believe your observation is valid. Before returning to school to study law, I worked as an RN with Kaiser Oakland for many years. I’ve seen firsthand the negative medical implications of such a diet in my community.
The ‘general’ diet of African Americans, in my opinion, does consist of fatty and rich foods. Most of the black folks in my circle, both socially and professionally, seem to bask in the comfort of ‘fatty’ foods, too. Eating fatty foods has always made me feel sluggish. Not wanting that sluggish feeling was my motivation to change my diet.
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Name : Richard D., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 39, City : Oakland / Emeryville, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Appellate Lawyer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,In the south we all eat a lot of the same foods, black or white. In the north, many black people eat the same foods that we eat here in the south, but they have probably been exposed to a more diverse menu. I think that someone who has never had a plate of BBQ. spareribs with a glass of sweet tea are the ones with the odd diet. Whites in the south also eat more than our share of deep fried chicken and iced watermelon. Shocking aint it yall?
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Name : William, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Occupation : Sales, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,If you look at our history, you’ll see that we didn’t have the same privileges as everyone else. Until the 1950s or 60s, their weren’t as many upper-middle class or rich blacks. We had to eat what was affordable. During the times of slavery, we had to really live on the land. There was no one telling us that we shouldn’t eat this or that. We were disposable. Plus, we lost our culture. Yes, we know the continent we came from, but we don’t know the country. So, we don’t have a specific cuisine. We can change the way we eat, and a lot of blacks are. Every person who is black does not eat or like fatty foods. And really, the cuisine you call black can be considered soul food, but it also is a Southern style of food. Lots of whites from the South eat it, too.
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Name : D-Finney31789, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 27, City : St. Louis, State : MO, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Our cuisine stems from our history. Back in slavery, the slave master and his family enjoyed the choicest part of any dish. The master got the pork loin; the slaves got the pig’s feet. The master got the turnips; the slaves got the turnip greens. The master got the chicken legs and breasts; the slaves got the chicken gizzards and feet.The master got the broccoli and beans ; the slaves got the collards and kale. We (blacks) eventually learned how to cook and flavor these foods so that they tasted like something we could choke down. After years of making these dishes, we found that even when we could afford the nicer parts of the animal, we had learned to cook our ‘slave foods’ so well and they tasted so good, that it became our own or ‘soul food’ as we like to call it. That is also the reason blacks tend to use more salt and seasoning on our foods; we did not have the luxury of having pricer seasonings such as rosemary, thyme, or basil to season our food….we had mainly salt and pepper, which was cheap and plentiful.I know many blacks that cannot eat foods prepared by whites, b/c whites historcally do not season their foods as strongly as many blacks prefer and are used to.
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Name : AmberW, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 23, City : Greenville, State : NC, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Until two generations ago, African-Americans were a largely rural culture, attuned to the farming cycle. Having grown up as a child on a farm, you need a lot of energy to do farm work, and vegetarian food DOES NOT cut it! Oil and other fats provide the energy so necessary to plow, dig fields and harvest crops. Farmers have a ‘heavy’ diet but are not fat people, but when people who eat this way move to the cities, the risk of obesity is real.
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Name : Paul-A28956, City : Long Beach, State : CA, Country : United States,
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