Soul Food

I was fortunate, during an emergency trip to Riverside several years back, to stay at a hotel near a Soul Food restaurant. We ate there two or three times, and impressed the owners, who were NOT used to white people coming in. The cook even asked us what we thought of it, and I expressed happiness at the flavors, and particularly at how difficult it must be to cook fried breaded okra just right, and that they'd pulled it off. You still want a bit of crunch in that. Okra goes slimy like spinach does. I was also impressed with their sweet potato pie, which is a Southern Soul Food specialty and does not taste like pumpkin pie when done right. And this was done right. Even though the trip was very sad, and cemented in us our need to marry rather than delay any longer, a decision we came to regret, while we were together we embraced tasty food.

My wife and I were exposed to lots of cultures, and eating their foods was something we enjoyed. I have eaten the common ones (Mexican, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Cajun), but also Peruvian, English, Irish, Spanish, New Mexican (different from Mexico), Moroccan, Egyptian, Lebanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Taiwanese, Bulgarian, Canadian, Alaskan, Quebecquois, Afghan, Kurdish, Indian (3 different kinds), Midwestern, Texican, Memphis, St. Louis, Atlanta, Hawaiian, Philippine, Australian, Kiwi, Chilean, Brazilian, Basque (inventors of Hors d'oeuvres AND cocktails), Malaysian, Burmese, Korean, Mongolian, Kentuckian (not fried chicken either), West Virginian, Cape Cod, and Norcal Beach BBQ. And yes, there's a restaurant for each of those. Despite being white and middle class, I am not, after all, ignorant or afraid. I've also had Nigerian and Venezuelan and Colombian food. Oh, and Ethiopian which is very spicy but vegetarian since the population of that country is a particular branch of Jewish which doesn't eat meat. Eth E O Pya, as it is properly pronounced, still reveres Hailie Sailassi and I impressed those nationals by knowing his name. Africans, I will point out right now, have little respect for African Americans who are lazy and violent and have everything so easy. To escape Africa is a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, and they're glad to have arrived here and thrive once they do. This is a big difference, and proves the divide between Black people and African immigrants is social. Terry Pratchett describes the ghettos of his fictional London as a Crab Pot, which needs no lid because the other craps pull down any that try to climb out. Out of jealousy and petty hatred, mostly. Africa is a crab pot and in time the Chinese will own all of it. Especially if America continues to stand aside, ignoring it.

I really appreciate proper food. I am a foodie, but I can't afford to pay for other's cooking so I generally cook it myself these days. Despite it being a warm and sunny day, only a couple days from Thanksgiving, I made pea soup again. This time with hickory smoked sausage slices and more carrot than last time. After nearly two hours of simmering it was ready, and again, it was delicious. Dad and I had a bowl each on our warm back deck, under a comfortable sun and a bright blue sky. The Midwest and East are mostly dug out of their last blizzard, but here in California there are still people riding motorcycles and laughing. I spend days like this hiking the hillsides and staring at the views, raking up leaves, and making soups like the above split pea. And yes, the hickory smoked sausage really did add nice flavors to the soup. Didn't even need to add salt.

So many leaves to pick up, and the fig tree is nearly bare, but this is California, and our normal is really different from everyone else's. We aren't afraid to have restaurants for so many kinds of food from around the world. We can eat food that doesn't look exactly the same as we're used to. We like spices and interesting flavors. We discover the joy of experience. Rather than throw firebombs at our neighbors, like in say Ferguson. California is still in drought, but we'll have rain on Black Friday and all weekend, and that's fine. We might even see a few flakes of snow.