SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome back to the Word Spectrum Podcast. Everyone, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome back to the melanated solstice. We have arrived back at this summertime of plenty of all things black and beautiful, uh dark and lovely.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I'm doing background sound effects.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Oh, background sounds I'm sorry. Love talk and slow jams, the things that make you feel like you feel when you feel. Wow, wrong sound. Spit on it. Um, so yes, uh, we're here to talk about a specific subject, and I hope they do not spit on it because we're talking about black food. And uh this episode actually comes to you right after uh the uh uh special holiday had been created in the US uh by the name of Juneteenth. Uh, it is now a recognized federal holiday. So if you you know were at work on Friday, I'm sorry. Maybe it happened too soon for you or too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Many people you still have to go to work on that day. Please don't get it twisted.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Uh that's not true. Uh as of next year, they won't.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Um yeah, uh to my siblings in interracial relationships. Uh, you own your white partner for 24 hours. Wow, I don't make the rules.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

That's true. Uh, yeah, that's true. I heard a couple people were waiting for the reparations at uh midnight on Friday.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Some good ideas for race play, like push them out of the house because of their religious views. So that's eviction.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Wow. Gentrification. Okay, so I'm not gonna fall into that point. So today, though, we're talking about something that is near and dear to I believe almost every black person's heart. Um, which is seasoned, gorgeous, delicious, delectable food. Uh, so we're kind of doing the almost Juneteenth and Grub uh episode, uh, coined, of course, by uh Lolo Von, uh Zoe, as many may call him. Uh, we are going to bring to you some of our personal experiences of food, uh, delectables, enjoyment from our experience with the black culture, uh, with the black uh restaurants and the black chefs and cooks, whether it be our mamas, our grandmamas, our aunties, uh the corner store, the carryout owned by black people from around the block, you know, different types of things. The food truck outside of the stands, you know, them places. Um but of course, first I still have to introduce our panelists, starting with myself, your moderator for today, Suchy No Shogun. Next. Are you the moderator for like every day? Uh I mean, I keep trying to get you all to be the moderator, but I'm enjoying myself. So yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Maybe I'm living for your Naruto headband, like it's giving village hidden in the 40 acres. Yes. He summons a mule.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Nigga scroll, the mule enlargement.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

The doctor.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

What's good?

SPEAKER_03 3:11

We have the black McCoy.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Hey, bitches, raggedy and bad at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Oh, do you have a bonnet coming out of your your headband?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I do because if there is any ninja who would absolutely wear a bonnet, it is Daedra.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

I can't confirm nor deny that fact. Uh Kaze Shinryu. Yo yo. And of course, as I just stated a couple seconds ago, our guest panelist for this episode, Lolo Von, uh Zoe Z. Uh uh, introduce yourself, sir.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

All right. Hey, it's uh Lolo Von Z. Um, aka the Liberian Aquarian. That's also what the aka the doll of connoisseur, aka the patron saint of Crunchyroll Passwords, um, aka Afro Samurai cut you in half without spilling a drop of lemonade, aka uh Jay Versace's uh cameo in Django Unchained. They beat No Jody and yeah, I'm here to talk some shit about some delicious black food with my niggas.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

We felt like we could not have a black food episode without having the the the representative of the the syndicated or soon to be syndicated, the uh uh world pronounced, world renounced. Uh the pronoun. I know I said those two words on purpose. I I like saying words incorrectly. You know this. This is a part of the stick.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

If we're if we're building the character, sure.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

I greatly I greatly will I will support you. Stand by your man of the big boy brunch. So, you know, we are of the of course gonna eventually have to go to brunch. We've been saying that for several months. It's gonna eventually happen. We need to find the best place. Somebody told me about three places yesterday. So, you know, one of them might be in Baltimore, all the way to dance with in Baltimore, with with the wretched fund.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Uh, but yes, like I said, today we're gonna talk about our food experiences. So uh, you know, one first question, of course, I have to have for our panelists is, you know, when you hear, kind of like what I did, you know, in the previous episode, when you hear the word black food, or when you hear the word, honestly, when you hear the word food, what is the first word that comes to mind? Uh, is it, you know, uh a memory that's uh taps into your memory banks from, you know, sitting alongside your mother, your grandmother, your auntie in the kitchen? Is it, you know, uh experience, a heavenly experience at a restaurant where you partake partook of something that you didn't expect to change your life? Uh is it an episode of Food Wars, uh, of the beautiful artistry that, you know, uh evolves around food porn? Uh, what exactly is that comes to your mind when you think about food or black food? And I'm going to start with the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

So when I think of food, and especially when I think of black food, um, I think of love. I think of food as a way to show that, you know, you love someone coming from, you know, family and these like really loving family gatherings with, you know, mom and you know, dad and aunts and uncles, you know, cousins and so forth. Like all of that is tied up with food for me. And of course, you know, the food that I most associate with love is soul food in a lot of ways, just because it has, you know, those links to family. And, you know, I really I have so many good memories around like soul food and you know, the dinner table with you know my grandma and grandpa and you know, all of these loved ones. Um, you know, so it's it definitely is something that is very warm to me, like it's something that has a lot of uh emotion behind it, you know. And also we'll add like it's also has a lot of history behind it, and that's something else that I think of when I think of food. You know, it's it is such a core part of our culture. Um I'd recommend, you know, to anyone listening, if you haven't seen this yet, uh High on the Hog, the not the Netflix documentary, um, that does a really good job exploring black foods and their links to traditional African dishes and you know, traditional African culture. Um that's something that, especially like in my early life, I never really thought of the link between the two, even though it of course makes complete sense. But um that's a really good documentary that I'd recommend. But yeah, when I think of food and when I think of black food, um I'm thinking of love, I'm thinking of family, I'm thinking of history, and I'm thinking of culture. All those things are represented in different ways through our food. So awesome.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Um I I see I see I see Zoe tearing up like uh like some of those words definitely uh affected you. Uh what's what's going on over there?

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Um I'm I'm just thinking about the the love and also the pain of in in um my mother or my aunt or my grandmother um cooking a delicious uh pot of um you know uh collard greens. We're West we're West African, so we cook it a little different. We add like you know, chicken, beef, you know, all all that stuff, and you know, and you know, we we serve it with with uh rice, but you know, that they'll they'll have a big pot of soup or stew, and you look over and the rice cooker has not been turned on yet.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

So everybody gotta everybody gotta wait another 30 minutes before we can eat. Oh turmoil, but also heaven. So those those 30 minutes is like struggle, you know, it's like a it's a a prayer circle. Okay, um, it's it's we shall overcome hardship.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

Um in the words of my daddy, who's also West African, you he would say, You lazy Americanized Africans. Oh, what you turn to a rice cooker, put it on the stove, it'll be ready in 50 less than 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Which is weird because your mom got a whole rice cooker.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Like say it to her too. What what part what part of what part of West Africa is your dad from? Nigeria, Liberia Arjellov is better. Don't argue. You didn't, you know, you're wrong. The fact that you had to say that you knew you were.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

But that's not what this episode is about. I don't want to speak no truth to you. Uh, but yeah, uh well, since you're talking already, though, why don't you tell us about uh what what is the first word that comes to mind when you think of black food or food in general? Soup.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

So many soups and stews. Um my my my go-to go-to dish that I love cooking on my own. Um a Liberian dish known as uh uh palm butter, also known as uh palm nut soup. So it's it's made from the um the the nuts of the uh the pom palm tree that you like that they um they beat they beat like take the nuts and then they beat them into a paste that they use as uh stew. Luckily, we can go to the international store and just get a whole can of that. We gotta go through all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and it's it's creamier now. Like it, you know, it's wild because growing up, um, even like a couple even a couple years back, like you had to like it, it wasn't like it wasn't creamy, like it was, it still had some like the pulp in it. So you had you would have to open the can and strain and strain the sauce to get the pulp out to even to even get so it's like it's a real process. So but now, but but now like the like they they done hooked it up, so you can just like you can talk toss that joint in. And it's it's a it's a very intricate process. And I and it's um it's really a um how a lot of Liberian dishes are made. So basically you got um uh one one thing um that uh other west West African countries hate on Liberians for is we will add every sort of protein in a dish. So you got your you got your chicken, you got your beef, uh, you you got your um you got your shrimp, yeah, you got a little fish, and like you, you season all the season all that shit with some like with some hot peppers, some habanera pepper, um some some fried fried pepper, cook all that up. Um you put all put all of your proteins in a pot and you boil boil them and add add some Maggie cubes, that's add some like some bullion, some like you know, like some shrimp, either shrimp. I I like using shrimp. I I like um oh and crab, of course crab.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

That's what I said you forgot crab. Yeah, crab. Don't forget, y'all be throwing goat uh goat in there.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

If we add some goat, but we probably throw them bitches in there too. Yeah, and then you boil that shit until it until it turns turns into a broth, and then you take you take the actual meat out and you leave the broth and you mix the broth with the with the palm nut um cream, and then like you like you you boil that down until that that's all like combined and mixed with all the flavors, and yeah, and then and then you add the protein back into the pot. Yeah, and you let that simmer for like for like an hour or so. So, like all that goodness, like the house smelling good. So, like for someone to not turn the rice cooker on after all of that, that took a while. That's that's that that's like an i ideal um food for food for me.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Okay, uh uh the Black McCoy, you seem to be uh staring off into the distance, which to me, if you've watched any Disney movie, means that you are having a flashback. Uh, should I come back to you? No, no, no. Am I still in the midway?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

The word broth came up, and for some reason I transitioned into the idea of boiling that broth down to all the all the the the the flavors that were in it, you know, getting rid of that water. But then I thought, you know what, what would happen with that? But then I thought, you know what, you could do a lot better and a lot more if you just had some some good old grease and some butter. Oh, and here comes the southern bell. No, yes, Lord Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Grease some butter, you know, and add a little flour, add a little bit of flour, you know, make it some stone, yeah, some stone mountain soup. Not a stone listen.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

It ain't if it ain't racist, you can't taste the flavor, Lord Jesus. Oh, if you if you can't if you can't taste the the blood of your ancestors, then I don't I don't know what you're eating. Uh I I need the gravy to be thicker than blood. I need it to be I need it to oh I'm sorry, I almost said something naughty. I need my gravy slide down the the recesses of my spirit. Wait a minute. I need the gravy to coat the back of my mouth and wow, this is happening. So taking down the love of my life. I need the gravy to touch my spirit in a way that makes me think God is actually real. Don't try and convince me otherwise. But you know what? Gravy's deal might doesn't matter. It could be bacon gravy, it could be salt, it could be sausage and bacon gravy. You can take some chicken fat and some baking grease and just cook it down, add some butter. Go ahead and season a little bit, baby. Add some salt, add a little bit of pepper, mostly pepper, not too much salt. Oh, and and put it over some nice pillsbury or homemade. No, it doesn't matter how you do it, that's your business. And oh, just put it on top.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Maybe some y'all can't see this, but they are fanning themselves like furiously right now.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

If you want, if you want to put some ground sausage in there, go ahead and put that in there. That's your business. That's all right.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Like if while while the black mccoy is talking, if you can't hear someone saying, Mercy me, I do declare, then you aren't visualizing.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I do declare. Glory. Oh, I can I can I can I can just imagine myself with under a nice magnolia tree.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

A beautiful, a beautiful mimosa. No pulp because we don't do that. We have sense. And a plate, a nice homemade biscuit with that good old socked up.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Jesus is a biscuit. Let them sock you a kiss.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Oh, that good. Shout out to Latrice Royale. They just got the and the gravy's just coating the biscuit. Like, I'm not gonna make that reference because this is a family show to some extent.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

But ooh, Lord Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

It's all right as long as you know what the reference is. Love you.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Um so going back to the question at hand, uh the black the black McCoy, when you hear the word food or black food, what is the first word that comes to mind?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Home is the word that comes to mind. I think that the the the strongest tie that I have to food is being with my family at home, particularly with my grandmother. Um, so story time. So when I was growing up, uh every Saturday, we would have this like huge, I call it a lunch fist. I actually didn't start saying the word brunch until I moved up here. And even then it took a couple years for it to like nestle in because I hate the word. Um still kind of do what I hate myself a little bit for being assimilated into using it.

SPEAKER_04 16:27

I've been saying it.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

But it's tied to yesterday, so stay tuned. Um, so growing up, we would have, you know, this large like breakfast every Saturday. But you know, we would start cooking like 10, food wouldn't be ready till like 12 or 1 o'clock. So, you know, folks would just be waiting and cooking and chilling until my grandma gave the go ahead, call your uncle, call your aunt, go ahead, call them down the street, tell them food's ready. And it was such a wonderful like experience. It was such a it was such a beautiful habit because like my grandma's house and all of that food, you know, all the being breakfast food, of course, like people from like folks who just in the neighborhood, family friends, um, you know, like spouses, um, significant others, um, would just come and go. And, you know, the door was always unlocked, it was always open, it was always welcome. And like the the dining room table full of you know, fried chicken, bacon, sausage of varying sorts, grits, sometimes pancakes or waffles, depending on how my grandma was feeling that morning salmon croquettes, some biscuits, um, scrambled eggs with cheese, as always. Um what else did we have on that table? Uh coffee for as however many people wanted coffee. Jew, everything was laid out. And that is where, like, that is where my sense of family and home is. And the interesting part is that I didn't know why we did this every Saturday, but it wasn't until like my aunt actually told me this, told me how that started to happen. And apparently, when I was little, I don't remember how little I was, I made a comment about wanting to, you know, see everyone um, you know, every week. And so we started, my grandmother started having breakfast at her house every Saturday. And everyone showed up and it just continued as a tradition until she died in 2014. And it has always been like the staple experience in my mind. Like friends who I grew up with, they don't know, they don't know what being in my grandmother's house was like, if if not for that spread that was on the table every single Saturday. And even the way in which care and love were expressed through that, through like that that act, that tradition was amazing. Because I remember one time my um my uncle, he actually was rushed to the hospital because you know he had some heart problems, had to get a stint put in his heart. Um, and so they told him, you know, he had to cut back on smoking, you know, he had to change the way he was eating and stuff. And so my grandmother went out of her way to make sure that every week we had like turkey bacon, we had turkey sausage, like we had um healthier alternatives and stuff to make sure that you know he was eating how he supposed he was supposed to be eating. Because you know, grandma ain't gonna fuck around and play them games that you're just like what's your doctor saying? Oh, okay. Mm-hmm. Uh-uh, I don't care. And she would point out, she's like, There's your turkey bacon right there. But yeah, so um the the word home is explicitly what comes to mind. And it is like it's where I learn to cook, it's where I develop my love of breakfast food. Like I I love, like if there is nothing else that I can cook, breakfast food is always my expertise. Like it is always the area that I will be the most creative, that I have the most foundational um understanding um and concepts of like food, um fuck nutrition, but just food and flavor and and and just the ability to create something that is so fundamentally um just beautiful and um caring and loving. And I think that that has also created my relationship to you know, not just you know, breakfast, but food in general as being um an activity or a habit that is extremely intimate. Like cooking with other people is a very intimate act, like feeding other people is a very intimate act, and you know, it's it's something that I don't take very lightly. Um, and it's nothing that I've ever grown to understand outside of that context, because food has always been such a a really powerful way for black people to come together, and especially, you know, for my family to come together. And um, even on major holidays, like, you know, outside of Thanksgiving, because fuck that holiday. But but even outside of like major holidays, like that is how we always come together. It could be a cookout, it could be Christmas, it could be a graduation, a birthday. It's always it could it could be just cuz. It could be, you know, it doesn't matter. It's it's always something that you know creates a home for black people. And it's always uh it's always a a project of creation of not just love, but of space for black people to live and breathe and feel that that freedom that we want so badly when it comes to our own existence.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Lord I shay.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

You need to give me something else to drink, excuse me. I'm right.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Well, I I I apologize. She's getting her some peach tea. Yep. I apologize, Kaze. Um, you have to follow that. Uh, because that was uh That was a chicken soup for the for for the for the black soul type of uh story.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

That was a shrimp A2Fae for the soul. Oh yeah, shrimp that's my god. I apologize because I drank leave it. I need some water too. Excuse excuse me, I'd I'd be right back. No problem. So Kaze Shinri.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

What is your first word that comes to mind when you hear the word? You think of the word food or black food?

SPEAKER_02 22:39

I don't know. I get I get I get kind of a mix. Um you know, it's a kind of a fight going on. Like uh one one one word is uh is uh comfort. Like uh actually a better word is uh uh contentment. Um uh I you know when I'm uh you know when I'm when I'm having black food, like everything else just kind of you know melts away. You know, I'm just living in the moment. Uh you know, when you know good when good food is going to people's mouths, good things aren't coming out. It is one of my you know, just go-to happy places when uh when dealing with other uh you know human beings that uh I was I was sad to find out young that I I have to be wanna um yeah no uh yeah I think I think contentment is a good uh is is a is a is a good is a good one for me. It just uh it just takes it just takes you to that special place.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

I know what place.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Oh Lord Um Okay, so for for me, uh kind of the same thing, Kazay, kind of a battle between two, but I think the battle for me is uh I I like I cook as well, so um where I enjoy cooking, the difference between cooking and enjoying cooking, um on the on the cooking side, um from what I hear or see when it comes to black food, uh faith is the word, and I'll explain that in a second. Um, and then from the person who is you know sitting down partaking of the food, it's um it's peace. And so the the faith from the cook is, you know, I think everybody who you know is melanated for the most part uh has heard someone else who is melanated talk about, you know, when they're when they're cooking, they can um they can feel their ancestors guide in their hand. They don't have to measure in you know teaspoons and cups, they don't have to, you know, just do one stick of butter, several sticks of butter. And make the grits good, maybe and for me, that shows me not necessarily that you know there's a faith in a higher power, but that there's a faith and a trust in the lessons that they were taught by their predecessors, that you know, their parents, their grandparents, you know, this recipe that was handed down from you know the matriarch or the patriarch of the family, you know, uh there's a there's a connection, there's a feeling of oneness, and there's a faith and a belief in what they were taught, that that skill that they were taught. Like I don't have like it's let them guide my hands is kind of how I see it. I and and that that faith and belief that no matter what, how you you could do it different all 42 times you've cooked this year, but that recipe, no matter what, when it gets on the table, is either gonna taste the way it's supposed to taste, or it's gonna taste better than the last time you made it. And it's that faith for the cook when you hear black food that I always that that that comes to my mind. Because like I've seen, you know, food trucks, I've seen restaurants, I've seen, you know, cookouts, uh, you know, people cooking in the kitchen at home. And just that belief, just that that that faith in I don't, I you you said I need a what, a recipe?

SPEAKER_02 26:08

That's enough, baby.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Uh go ahead and taste that.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

That's not enough, baby. Keep going.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

And it is interesting because like I remember when I was younger, I always and this is parlay and I'm gonna come back, but I always felt like, and you know, as you know, uh uh uh Lolo von Z had said, you know, about being West African, you know, the a lot of the times when we were younger, we always felt there was a separation. We didn't try to make the separation, but there was a separation between ourselves, you know, the uh African next generation, and then the African Americans or the black kids at school.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Um, you said African next generation, I immediately meant thought of like a cool African sci-fi. I was thinking African sci-fi show, African next generation. I was like, oh shit, wait a minute. I would watch it. Uh Ninja Art Fufu stick emergency.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I'm thinking about the grassy. I I'm so done. Not the grassy, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I would watch that too. I wouldn't want to say too.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

You don't know how I can make it through. So this is another side note. The stick that they use to pound foo foo is so long and pineapples and so thick, pineapples, that like if that was actually a jutsu where they could literally create a foo fu stick out of nowhere, you would be afraid. It would hurt. I ain't afraid. Anywho, back to what I was saying. One parlay ago. Get it, bitch. Wow. One parlay ago, um, I was talking about you know, the separation between, you know, uh the you know, the black kids at school and the African kids at school, and how you know they made fun of each other. Well, specifically black kids making fun of the African kids if there weren't too many of them. And how there was always a distinction between, you know, what they do at home and what we do at home is completely different. I mean, there was a lot of culture shocks when I would go over friends' houses and see how their mother or their father cooks and you know what they cook and what they enjoy eating. But I knew at a ground-based level, kind of reference referencing what the doctor was saying about that. Uh uh, I don't know if it was a I guess it was a documentary or just a show about uh the connections between the connections between the food that we cook and then where it came from in Africa is, you know, even my mother, I remember she she wanted to learn a recipe, or she there was just some because I enjoy baking more than cooking. So there was uh a pastry that I was making, and it's her favorite, it's one of her favorite things to eat when I make it. And she wanted to learn how to make it, and I was like, okay, no problem. So first you need, and she's like, okay, what do I need? I was at first you need about you know uh two sticks of butter, uh, approximately about you know 16 tablespoons. She's like, 16, what? What do I need? I need a cup of butter. Okay, next. I was like, okay, you need about uh um four, four, no, two tablespoons of brown sugar lights. Uh what is this table, tables? I need a spoon on the table. I so I need brown sugar. Okay, next. I was like, all right. Um, so do you want me to tell you this? Or should I just write down the ingredients? I mean, you said you were gonna tell me, tell me. You're you're you're you're wasting time with all these additions in the middle. So it's for me, the same way that you know black people say, you know, we following our ancestors, um, and I'm not gonna say anybody's closer to the ancestors than others. I'm just saying the same context I saw in my mother and a lot of my aunts and uncles where there was no measurements of things. There was no, you know, using an ice cream scoop for to measure out Puff Puff. There was no uh uh uh uh uh what's it called? The um uh paring knife to cut the edges of meat pie. No, use the fork or use your fingers. Like there was there there is such a way of just being able to do the things based off of how you were taught and knowing no matter what, I've either A, I've made it enough and I know it like the back of my hand, or B my mother, my father, whoever will guide me in in making what I made before what they made and what they taught me to make. So that's on the on the cook side. And then of course, on the one who's partaking, like I said, peace, uh kind of going back to what Kaze said, and even how uh uh Lolo Von Z and uh uh the Black McCoy were responding to their experiences. There is such a otherworldly experience when you partake of I mean, there's always good food, there's not just black food, but there's something about black food that literally makes you pause. I think one time I saw uh Kaze Shinryu, uh, I think we were at a Soul Fu restaurant, uh it might have been in New Orleans actually, and he took a bite of something. Actually, it might have been an atufae now that I think about it. Um and this, like uh uh okay, I'm gonna get slightly graphic, post-sex look on his face.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Um graphic.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Right, thank you. Um this look of ecstasy, and then he then eventually melted into his trademark happy dance that he does when he eats amazing food, just comforting food. Um another one, uh, the doctor, we went out to a restaurant uh once, and you know, we were trying different things, you know, experiencing different desserts, and there was one dessert. I don't know if the doctor had had it before, but this time the doctor had such a like the doctor has a very approving face when something is good. But this one look that he had, whatever it was, was such an ethereal look on his face. It was as if he heard uh violinists and angels singing through his ears when he came in the dessert that he was. So it's more range. There's a there's a level of peace that black food can, in my opinion, that black food can give you when you partake of it. It whether it reminds you of an experience like the Black McCoy of you know eating breakfast with his grandmother and the rest of his family, their family, uh, whether it's uh uh uh the a humor-based piece, as uh uh Zoe was experiencing with you know the rice cooker, knowing about the food that they were going to partake, but uh uh his whole family was about to partake, but knowing that uh uh there's a halt. So there's there's a humor in it. There's always, in my opinion, a connection to either an experience or a connection to something else in your mind and your heart and your soul when you have black food, which is, in my opinion, why they called it soul food. It wasn't just about, for me, again, my definition, it wasn't just about uh how they named it or you know, soul music. It was about the fact that there's such a spiritual or soulful connection that you get when you have this food with the right seasonings, with the right ingredients, with the right materials made by the right people. You know who the right people are. Um yeah, that's that's that's that's mine. So you know something you saw. Do you have a statement?

SPEAKER_01 33:22

No, something you said that like really, really stood out to me was like the that that that really like not the kind of like really viscerally intimate way of engaging food, like when you're putting it, when you're making it and putting it together. Like there, there's a certain degree of instinct that comes with the body, like when you're describing like you're not not using a parent knife, but like using like your hands or using like a using whatever's around you. Right. Like it doesn't matter what the tool is, as long as you get the job done because you have such an intimate relationship with that recipe, with that food item, you know, with that process, that you know, it's almost not even almost, it is second nature. Like it is a it is like it's like uh that that that um that play, that kind of performance, that um that very I I want to call it a more like sensual, sensual, um really sensual and secular relationship with food.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

You had to throw secular in there. Was that necessary?

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Yes, that's why I use the word anyway. That sensual was like more secular relationship with food in that way, on this very like kind of hardened material, hardened like material practices kind of way. It like it really like speaks to the like food being an extension of ourselves in a very literal way, right? Like this very um in the real way, yeah. Like this this the realness, yes, yes, like this, this, this, like this way in which you touch something, or like when you like see Serena pick up her racket, like it is an extension of herself. When Beyonce holds that mic, it is an extension of herself. Like what the what is happening in that moment is not simply just uh an act, it is uh it is an expression of the self to the point where there is there's a line blurred between the self and the other being in that food, like the food and and the and the individual and the identity become one and the same at the same in in that through that process.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

So you're saying it's a blurred line? I knew that was gonna be no Robin Fake.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Oh this is why we have you on. I need someone to back me up.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Doctor, you were about to say something. No, it's it really is amazing how much power there is in food and how you know food is connected to people. And like even like one bite of you know the right food that you have a memory with, or you know, you associate with the right person, I can bring back so many memories. So like now every year, so my grandmother passed when I was like 16 years old. You know, and before she passed, she taught me how to make her sweet potato pie. But I always loved sweet potato pie. She would always like make me my own little sweet potato pie that, you know, was just mine. And it was just like this really sweet you know thing that me and my grandma had. And I make that every year off for Thanksgiving now. And every time I have that first bite, I, you know, I immediately think of my grandma and like all these more memories of how like kind and loving she was, and you know, how like you know, I was I was her favorite grandkid, and so like it was oh, you do your favorite.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

Got a lot of favorite grandchildren on this podcast to let y'all know.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Also known as like there's so much power in that and so much, you know, emotion in that. And you know, food is really something that I mean so integral to who we are in a lot of ways. So, you know, you talk about that extension itself, like that just really makes me think of how linked up those memories and those feelings are with food.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

So when we're talking about black food, of course, we're you know, we're talking about the past, but you know, you also have to think about the present and of course eventually the future. Where is black food now? Where is uh where would you say is our current current level of our culinary roots? Have we strayed too far away from our ancestors' uh uh recipes and uh hand uh generational uh gifts to from generation to generation? Uh have we decided to you know pick up sous-vites and uh uh uh uh wireless blenders and we're no longer you know uh making things by hand? What where would you say is our current skill level, our current connection level to black food? Like we can we can partake in it, but are we still cooking the same way? Or have we adopted these new techniques and and straight away almost? Because I see memes all the time talking about uh somebody's grandmama in heaven looking down, uh looking down at their air fryer. So, like where where's our current level of connection with our ancestral roots in cooking these dishes that we hold so dear?

SPEAKER_01 38:15

I think that to answer that question specifically to our to our you know relationship with food as a as you know, as a people, as black people, as a black culture, like there even just generally speaking, like when we think about the the ways in which automation inserts itself into the various you know nuances and nooks and crannies of our lives, that there is there is something, there is admittedly something that is lost in that process, right? Um, but there's also something that is uh gained in some way, shape, or form, right? Like the um I I I I'm not I only say that in the spirit of there's likely is an argument for a lot of things that are gained through automation. I don't have any of them at this particular moment.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

The only thing I know is proficiency, speed, and and money. Other than that, you get anything.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

I mean, if you're mass producing things, absolutely. But I think that the thing that gets lost kind of is is the the more like I I think something that's been kind of essential to us as black people, um, whether we were like black African people or black American people, like there is a laboriousness to preparing food. There is a there is a labor um that we are tied to in this ironically very Marxist way, like a part of our identity and our our our um our um fulfillment is in the labor of the creation of this thing or of this food, right? And so when we move from a lot of that, you know, love labor um into I sorry I coined that term just now, but like and move from this love labor into this more automated way of doing things, a lot of that has a tendency to get lost, right? I mean, there's still you know the act of doing it in particular, right? But there's something that you lose when you don't do something with your hands, right? Um there's something very like even regardless of whether it's carpentry, welding, cosplaying, whether it's like building your own computer or whatever, right? Like there is something intimate about doing something with your hands, about using your own physical body to um make sure that this thing or this process is completed from start to finish. And there's something that gets lost when you start using stuff like air fryers and you know, like whatever other automated machines that you can use to really get something done. Because it's like the the what I think that a lot of the history of probably probably, I say probably because I'm not entirely sure, what informed a lot of this automation is the experience of using the physical body to achieve certain ends in the first place. Convenience convenience is what inspired automation. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, convenient, but but I mean like not simply just convenience, but like when you're mixing something and you know when it needs to be stopped mixed, like when you're using a stand mixer and you know like when it needs when it's good, like when you need to stop, like we wouldn't have that knowledge if it wasn't for someone who went through that people who went through that physical labor to know when that process was. That's that's more so what I meant. Um like if it like if it wasn't for that tangible relationship, then we wouldn't have the automation to begin with, right? You know, we want it to be more convenient for you know whatever's sake, which is fine, right? But there's also you know, that that it's it's it's it's very essential. Like yesterday when I well, so yesterday, like I had people over and I cooked, you know, that old style way that my grandma used to cook when I was growing up. And I told folks 10, but you know, niggas gonna be niggas, so ain't nobody show up at 10 for real for real, except for like, you know, me and you and Brandon. I'm about to excuse me, well, Brandon, because you was outside in the parking lot getting caught up yet again. But what about getting caught up?

SPEAKER_03 42:11

First of all, somebody was having car trouble, and I as a good Samaritan was helping them even during well, even though we're during a pandemonium.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Your altruism will always delay you from doing or being other places, it's totally fine. Um, but like I I I I waited to start cooking, right? Like, I even though I pre I turned on the oven like ahead of time because I knew that you know niggas is gonna I I need the oven to be hot. I just gonna ning. Uh hello. Like I can't turn the oven on when people are getting here, like, oh shit, let me like start preparing. But like I I didn't I didn't start putting bacon in the oven, like I didn't start like you, you and not to cut you off, but I feel like you did exactly kind of referencing back to what I said before.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

You let your less of saying ancestor, more of your grandmother, kind of lead your hand. Because I heard your story from before, uh, when you were you know recanting what your grandmother would do, and the fact that she would start at 10 and you know, she would tell you to go call your uncles and stuff around 12, one o'clock. And that's around the time we were eating. That's that's when you put the first bowl on the table, whether you were doing it on purpose or whether just so happened to happen. Right. I was like, it was one o'clock. It was like one, no, no, it was like 12:55, one o'clock when you put the first plate and was like, Okay, y'all can go eat now.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Or I was like, And I do I did exactly like I cooked the eggs and the biscuits last because you know, you you don't want your bread sitting around too long because you did not hide the bacon well because like people was I know you niggas and bacon just uh I didn't eat my one stick of bacon until the breast people was walking by grabbing bacon and I was like, Are you ever gonna eat a ball of bacon before? But but what's interesting is that that's exactly what would happen at my grandma's house, too. Like people will walk by and grab like bacon. I would grab pieces of sausages because I care more about sausages than bacon pineapples. Um, but you may.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Right amount because bacon was there all day.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

It was until the last person left.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

Mm-hmm. May hash may hash browns and everything. Like, and it was like it I love doing it because like I love being like much like my grandmother, I love cooking for like large amounts of people like that. And I like doing it for like, you know, family and friends and shit like that. And because it's really fun. It's more so fun for fam, like my blood relatives, because you know, they have a tendency to underestimate me. And so, like, because I I was always the one who like never did anything, but you didn't know that I learned all the things that I learned. So, what I did do is like, I when did you all have to do this? I've known how to do it the entire time, nonetheless. But um, yeah, like so, like yesterday was like it was a it was a really great Juneteenth because it was like it was a day of celebrating something that was implicit to our culture as black people in a way that was implicit to my personal relationship with food as a black person and that familial tie and extending that same amount of love and you know, labor and effort, and you know, just you know, attention to those around me in the process. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Okay. Well, Lolo, where do you think we are?

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Um to the air fryer comment. I I like from for me, the air fryer has just replaced the microwave, to be honest. But when I'm when I'm cooking down, like I don't really I don't use that shit a whole lot. It's really just like like I literally like if if I'm hungry real quick and I need to just like heat up some some chicken sausage, I'll just throw that shit in the air fryer. So like you know, the little crunch. Yeah, microwave doesn't add that the crunch, they call they call it a microwave oven, but all your shit comes out soggy, it does in the air fryer, you know, and sweaty, and sweaty, you know. Um, I I I I think I think we're we're doing we're doing pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

Send it in church child, just how in church.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Listen, because I let listen, um, my my uncle, um, shout out to my uncle Kojo from um lives in Manassas. Um, he's a caterer, like he like on my mom's side of the family, like the Ajavan side, like he is the guy who cooks all the food, like cooks all of the food. Okay, so um, and I'm I made um I made um palm butter because my grandmother was in town. Like whenever my grandmother comes um on this side, she stays at um his his place. So I'm I made palm butter like for for my um for my grandmother. It was a surprise. I surprised her with it. And um he was having like a big a big party later on, but I couldn't stay. So I came through, I came to see my grandmother. Um, I dropped I dropped the food off a day later. Um, he calls me. He's he says, uh Ren. Um well they they call me Ren in my my my family like Ren. I I I tasted a bomb button. I had I had to hide it from everyone else. It was too good. I was so your boy ain't miss a beat. But we're glory. We're good over here. We're good over here. And yeah, we're we're good over here.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

And that's the key. I think there's a balance is needed. Uh Kaize, what do you think? Um uh what's the question again? Uh whether or not you whether or not we have strayed too far away from the the roots of how we were taught how to cook and rely heavily on automation, you know, the air fryers, the sous vite, the mechanical ways of kind of, you know, I don't say shortcutting, but you know, different ways of how you you can cook, different materials and equipment.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Um I mean honestly, I think uh I think I think uh every you know kind of generation kind of relies in on the tools that kind of came up and grew up around is uh kind of responsibility to for you know for the people who you know who can't afford to really instill and pass down the the importance of uh like you know, kind of like uh the black McCoy said, like you gotta you, you know, you gotta remember like the the basics and where you and have a base knowledge of where you came from so you can even use these these new tools to their full uh uh capacity. So I don't think uh um I don't I don't I don't think there's an intrinsic uh I think we're doing the same thing that we always do. People, you know, people are always gonna innovate, we're always gonna move on, and we're always going to evolve. And and as always, we we forget the past to our judgment. So uh you know, I think I think I think it's that same thing. We just need we need to make sure, we need to take responsibility to uh you know look back, see how things are done, why things were done, uh, you know, learn the lessons we need, and then and then after we do, we can move on from that.

unknown 49:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

If if I may add, if I may add, like my dish, like I just learned how to do it on online. And like, you know, like and the ancestors just got in my hand. It was just like, you know, um, you know, the the rest recipes that like the like some some random Liberian auntie on online like like gave gave me the hookup. So like I didn't like that that wasn't a recipe that I had just gotten from like that was passed down necessarily. It was just like everyone knows how to make this specific dish. So like I just went without Liberian website, I was like, you know, like you know, broke it on down. Yeah, and yeah, yeah, the the elders, you know, blessed my plate.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

So I oh so randomly, I just had the most interesting idea, partly because you know, you you said you went online, and you know, you found this process. So I was like, you know, what things are I go on online to do and learn and stuff, and so like you know, fried chicken has always been one of my favorite things to do. It's always been like very close to like my grandmother's breakfast. And you know, breakfast is like like I have all fried chicken being a part of breakfast is always never it's always been a thing for me. Like it's never it's been I don't have it. Like I was gonna make fried chicken yesterday, but I couldn't find the wingets and stuff that I needed, so like you know, I just I let it go, it hurt my heart, but yeah. Um we also didn't go to Costco anyway. Um because they keep the cost low. Hello, anyway. But um, so like at one at one point, I um you know, I would just fry my chicken, but it was actually for the doctor's birthday. That was I the doctor doesn't know this was the first time I did that, but um I brined the chicken before I fried it. You know, I brined chicken before, it's no big deal, but like it wasn't until the doctor's birthday, it was during COVID, actually, it was during the panorama. Um I um I brined it in a solution of salt. There was some cinnamon, some nutmeg, some honey. Now, like the concept of brining is simple, but like what you put in there is what really makes the flavor when you the flavor when you bite on into the beat, yes. And um, but yeah, and uh yeah, no, the that that was that was interesting. So after I took another brine, you know, seasoned it on the outside, um, you know, fried it and everything, you know, all the people came and the doctor was just elated with this chicken. It was one of those moments where, like, you know, innovation, um, it wasn't a bad thing, right? Because it wasn't something, it wasn't like uh it wasn't a method or it wasn't a means of automation that changed some degree of intimacy with the process. I think that's the the difference with innovate, like different kinds of innovation. Are you innovating by improving or enhancing, or are you innovating by uh detaching um through a process of you know convenience and automation, right? I see convenience and automation as like driving forces for a lot of quote unquote innovation that don't actually change a lot of what's happening, but just moves the process elsewhere and puts it into something that you know puts it onto an uh uh for all intents and purposes, an inanimate object when you could for all when you could technically do it yourself. Like, but innovation for black food and like through tradition for me is let me take this recipe that I've always known and let me do a little something different, let me add a little something extra. And so I was thinking like I was thinking about brines because of that entire situation, and I was thinking like, has anyone ever brined anything in like pure butter? I wonder what that would taste like.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

But butter, squeezed into butter. It's like butter.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

The doctor, same question.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

Yeah, so it's interesting. I think that, well, I think cuisines generally do grow, you know, as you know, cultures grow and develop and change based on a lot of things, um, you know, circum like a lot of different circumstances and such. And I think that's true for food as well. Like, you know, our food, you know, is naturally going to grow and change, and sometimes it gets um, you know, it just that's partially due to technology, you know, making the things that make the way we prepare for certain foods easier, whatnot. Um, if we do do a lot of things, I don't think that's necessarily an issue. Um, but I do think, and I'm glad uh Kate brought this up, that there is a responsibility we have when it comes to you know carrying down our recipes. Like that's I think that's every generation's responsibility when it comes to you know making um being able to hand down that part of our culture. And interestingly, I think technology can help a lot with that and does help a lot with that. So, you know, um I think uh Lolo mentioned like looking up a recipe online, you know, whatnot. Well, nowadays, you know, you can look up the historical, you know, traditional foods and whatnot online. It's also a lot more accessible than it used to be. So it's not, you know, in a library, like a physical library somewhere that not many people can reach, you know. Um, you had like people who are, hey, like sharing this information, and there are many, you know, social media personalities and such and foodies who make it a point to really highlight traditional foods. So, you know, food, the magic of like YouTube, like I've learned about a lot more food cultures than I think I ever would have without it. You know, and I think that's particularly true for a lot of traditional black foods as well. So, you know, I see this growth in many ways as a strength. You know, I don't think we're straying too far from the wishes of our ancestors. Um, you know, on the contrary, I think we're both growing in a way that is unique and you know, often practical, you know, depending on like the particular recipe and whatnot, and how easy or difficult it may be to, you know, continue. But also, I think we just have more access to knowledge of our traditions than and more easy access to knowledge of traditions that otherwise would have been very obscure. I think that's super important for carrying on our culture.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Definitely. Yeah. If I can piggyback off that, or excuse me, if I can high on the hog off that. Um I I I I I will say that um Liberian cuisine has grown. Like there are some Liberian um chefs who have taken the traditional meals and altered them in um a way for the better. Like um, like I always go come back to like the palm butter dish, but like that, that that soup, like it's so it's so flavorful that some chefs have actually used that soup to coat wings. So like they'll use that as like an appetite appetite. Yeah, yeah, they're like you know, really delicious, and they'll just like use it to like coat wings and all that stuff. So marinade I need to try. Uh-huh. Like it's giving like like a Liberian version of like the the Thai the the Thai curry from from B dubs. Yeah, those, those type, those type of teas.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

This is gave me an idea that I need someone's mother's uh jollof recipe. So I can turn into a marinade for some wings.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

But um but else, yeah, some jell, yeah, jell a jollof spice rub, yeah. That would hit that would definitely. Um, have we all are we all familiar with the video of the um the the old black ladies um have having a an an emergency meeting um because one of the aunties um had the idea of putting shrimp in the potato salad?

SPEAKER_01 56:57

First of all, I did see that I did not. I'm glad I didn't. Because so I uh this is this might um I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna be very transparent, put it out there. I hate shrimp, I don't like shrimp. I've given shrimp many chances throughout my life. I'm 30. I've I've tried shrimp multiple times, I just don't like it. My mom said, even when I was little and she gave me shrimp, I spit that shit out and I said, I never want to eat this again. Like I don't have one. I but even in like Suchi will tell you in my adult, I have tried, I've given, I've made attempts.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

I I just can't do it in potato salad, in potato salad, and like we didn't we didn't actually see the bowl, we just saw we no, we just saw the emergency meeting because like she she was planning to do that. They heard that she was planning to, and they were like, Oh no, ladies, let's let's convene and let's have a discussion about this. And one of one of the younger one, like the the the lady who posted it, like she she like caught them on on video, was like, oh, so like there's is there some potato salad controversy? She was like, Oh, so there is there is there not gonna be any potato salad? And and quickly, quickly, one of the ladies was like, No, it's not no, it's not gonna be potato salad. She didn't they didn't yell, they were very quiet about it. Yep, you know, like when when one one of one of your your um one of your cousins like fucks up, yeah, and it's so bad, like they don't yell, they just whisper in a corner together. It's like you know it's bad. And to add fuel to the fire, um, Miss Mama, who was holding the camera, was like, uh, I mean, she's not like she's not putting the shrimp in the potato salad uh after all, but not because people didn't want it, but because she didn't have any.

SPEAKER_04 58:38

What this video just ends right there.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

And to make matters worse, one of the ladies in that video actually passed away like a day after the shit posted. I was like, oh no, that's so that's so unfortunate, but you know, um, we know who was not cooking at that repass, okay? Oh, yeah, you ready?

SPEAKER_01 59:00

Yeah, they don't want it after of uh Carla Um and her potato salad with all these other white women.

SPEAKER_02 59:08

Oh no, yo, how was yo bro? Yo, how are you the only black woman on the list and your shit looks the worst? No worries.

SPEAKER_03 59:24

She does what she needs to do when she's on the show. I mean, she tries to do what it's a woman.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Okay, okay, this woman is the cut is the cut is the culinary advisor for the um the African American museum in the in DC. She is like like they they go to her, yeah. So, like, and and she coming through with potato salad like this. No, no, we're not this is not this is mean, yes, it's a a bit of a calling out, but also a calling in. Like, let's let let's let's let's reconfall. Let's let's let's let's calm down. Oh my god, you know, let's let's like this is a place of healing.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Well, maybe maybe next time they'll call Sunny Anderson and you know she'll she'll throw her foot in it because Sunny normally doesn't upset me. Maybe Sunny will do it next time, hopefully. She tries to incorporate other other other other uh cultures into her food. She does. I don't know what culture they do. I don't I don't know. This year we was like blacks is just going down bad with the potential. But uh, well that actually it's not really a segue, but it kind of prompts me to my next uh question, which is you know, we talked about the past, our experiences, we talked about the present with the different technology now, future, um, which is you know, can will our how do I ask this question? Is it acceptable to allow other cultures to cook black food for themselves?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

That's the cra that's the correct answer.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

Go right ahead. Is it okay uh come on, is it okay for other for other for people from other cultures, other uh lineages, other heritage to open up a soul food restaurant?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

I mean that's I wouldn't go that far. Like you know, you can call 8x11 food, but if you open in a restaurant, I mean you cook it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

That's also any so yes, you can definitely open up a restaurant, but how much research have you done? Who who is your chef?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

Where are your are your funds going back into? Arkansas first of all, Arkansas's a different kind of racist.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

I don't know if I want to like yeah, like Arkansas it's it starts with a hard R. So I I didn't think that makes it all that much more important.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Like I'm pretty sure that's where they call it call them colored greens instead of collar greens.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

I mean, but that's what you heard me ride, boy. Don't fetch me the collar greens. Oh no, there was a snort. Wow. That's that's that's that's why that's why you need a place over there because somebody's job took them over there and they got nowhere to eat. Right. So that makes it that much more important where you need a spot. I'm I mean, but like if you cook them by yourself, like at home, like at the very least, like you're buying, um, you're buying specific ingredients from people, you know, from that community, at the very least. But if you like if if you're making and and I guess if you're built if you're making a restaurant, I guess you you'd you'd be in constant business, you know, with you know the originators of the culture, but even still, like you're turning a profit based off a culture that you weren't born in. So that there's still there's still like it's it's problematic, like at its foundation. So like if you're cooking at home, cool. If you're trying to like make a dollar off of it, nah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

The doctor, you seemed like you had a question, uh statement.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:20

No, I agree. So like that's the thing. I feel like if it's something where you know you're making money off this and profiting off of this, like I would want that to be black people making that money and profiting if it's off of black culture, you know, and black food.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:35

Um and and and just uh, I mean, I know I want to give uh the black uncle and Kazi a chance to answer the question, but just to kind of piggyback piggyback, just to kind of add another sub-question to those two points. I don't know how I'm gonna say this. What do you what do you think of when um individuals, non-people of color, non-black people, uh say that everyone else is copying their culture and cooking their food? It was very difficult for me to put that as a statement, but um so there's for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:14

Wait a minute, black McCoy, uh, for the doctor first.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

I'm sorry. Yeah, I think it's bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

I just I think it is bullshit at its core. You know, bits and pieces have been taken into these other cultures, you know, and just the idea that when we think of something like, let's say, um, French culture, French culture is not exclusively white. Like there are so many like black, French, you know, culinary artists who you know contribute to that culture of food. And Spanish. No, like when we talk about this whole world, oh, you're taking from our culture, blah, blah, blah. Like, no, we're really not. It's like that's not a thing. Like, it's just it's such a bullshit excuse. Like, it really is. Like, it and it irritates me so much because it's rooted in just an ignorance of how much black food and even more broadly, just black culture in general, has contributed to what people consider like mainstream American, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

Yeah, white people weren't against snails until black people started seasoning them. Wow. Listen, listen, listen. I was in I was in Liberia, like I was staying, I was staying at my friend's place, they're Nigerian, like their dad was like, um, um, yeah, he was he was stationed there for work. And um, the nanny, like, was also also not Nigerian, we call um call her auntie, like no, no, like no nan. She was just auntie. Yeah, um, she she made us okra with snail. And I was like, that's French. And I'm like, oh shit. Yeah, we've been cooking, we've been cooking this for a minute. It like it just hit me. I was like, oh shit, bro. And Frank is like, no. For like like like the niggas eat escargot there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:05

I heard of escargot him. Oh wow, I've heard of escargot first. Don't get it. I've heard of escargot for years, and it wasn't until maybe uh maybe 10 years ago my mother explained to me she'd been cooking snails since before I was born. Like, and we we would be eating it in the house. She just was and that's another thing about my mother. She loved that woman, but um, she she has a tendency back when I was a kid to cook things and not tell us what we were eating. And it tasted amazing. Every single dish she made was always phenomenal. But and I felt like there were certain things I shouldn't have asked questions until I was an adult. At least I would had the adult-like mind to appreciate what I was eating. Versus as a kid, you know, we have a uh a certain um filter where, you know, because our friends would say that's nasty or doesn't make sense, or the TV makes jokes about it, in our minds, we kind of trigger it as being wrong. So I remember one time she gave me like it was three separate pieces of meat, I think she put into a stew, and or four, because one was fish. I instantly knew what the fish was. Another one was turkey. Uh, you uh a couple people know about my mama's turkey, it's delicious. Um, the next one was a very um, it was a very, it wasn't tough, it was a very uh delicate piece of meat. I was like, oh my god, it's like one of the best pieces of meat I had when I was a kid. Then the next one was a little bit tougher. You had to kind of tear at it, but it was a kind of a chewing process, but it was good, it was delicious. So the last one was snail, and I was like, okay. I mean, I thought this would taste a lot more slimy, and it wasn't slimy at all because of how she prepared it. But that third one caught me completely off guard because I was like, mommy, it was the best out of all four of them at that time. I was like, Mommy, this is amazing. What is this? She's like, Oh, you know what it is. I was like, I know, I don't. That's what I'm asking you. And she was like, That's why the question's here. She's like, that's cow tongue. I'm like, excuse me. I was like, I wasn't ready for that. So in my mind, it was delicious, but then because of my mind where it was, I was like, No, I can't never eat this again.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

Eventually I did, but wow, yeah, that's that's so that's you know, and that that's so genius of black mothers, yeah, to like sometimes like not tell their kids like you know what they're feeding them. Because like if you tell them, you're like, yeah, I don't want to eat that, and then they won't eat and then they won't get nourished.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

My mom like you just go ahead. I'm finished, go ahead and finish.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

I'm sorry, and then that and that's and that's so like you, you know, like you're gonna get all this nutrition and it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. You may not know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:42

We use nutrition very loosely, but but also my mom has this thing called sloppy steak, and I promise you, I've been eating it. Why it's called sloppy steak, sloppy steak, sloppy steak, yes, and not sloppy Joe's, but sloppy steak. That's gonna be my drag name. It's sloppy she has been she has been making it ever since I was little. The only difference that she has though implemented was changing the ground beef to ground turkey, and you don't taste it, it tastes the same. And so there was this other ingredient in it, and I didn't know until maybe like my adolescence, and it didn't change a thing. And um, there was this other meat that it was it's basically just meat and like barbecue sauce. And like a meat. I remember I would watch her like boil and then like cook, and I'm just like, I would see the end result, but I didn't see what was boiling in the pot. And so she when I found out one day, because I opened the pot and I looked in it, and it was it was a bunch of ears. And I'm like, Mama, what's this? She's like, Oh, that's pig ears. I'm like, okay, kept on eating drawing.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:56

I didn't care, I didn't give a fuck. I'll be like, but but mama, like they they sell these at Petsmart for dogs.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

But when you boil them shits and add some seasonings, some oohs.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

And for people then, I mean, yeah, it's I mean, it's still pork, it's still pork. We are all animals eating animals. Drawing unnecessary lines, right? Coming to the steak, consider not eating.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:29

Get your A1 sauce ready.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:33

And I'll be like, Mama, can you make some sloppy steaks? She will make some. That woman will freeze it and ship it overnight if she needs to. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you know you're the favorite.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

Ladies and gentlemen, get your A1 sauce ready. I don't know if you want it well done or maybe even raw. Coming to the stage.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:58

I'll take it raw. Okay, okay. They want that barbecue sauce first. The time is taking it. That's water and sugar in a bottle. The time has now come for you to chew for your life. I cannot.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

And the category is beefy bottoms.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:29

I'm done.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:38

Did you have you don't fuck it up?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:41

I don't know. We've been we've been jumping around. But if we you had a question I didn't answer the first one when you went into it, then what are we talking about?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:47

Oh no, the the the second one I wasn't uh that was a uh a secondary question for the doctor, but the original question is still the one that stands, uh which is uh uh uh pertaining to uh can we allow individuals who aren't of the culture or aren't of black descent or African American descent or African descent cook. I mean, because again, people go to culinary school, people become chefs, iron chefs, all that stuff. Can they have the should they be able to cook the food and even higher than that, open a restaurant and cook the food?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:24

Gotcha. Um, so uh usually when a uh question uh because I think I think questions like this come up um a lot. Uh I don't I don't like to uh uh you know we we we don't have we don't we don't actually have that uh uh power to allow anyone to do anything. Uh so I think it's I think it's more uh what is the uh I guess what are the benefits I I like to look at as what are the what are the benefits and uh you know the pros and cons and like unless and less weigh them and then you know and then as a I guess as a community or culture, which you know we we can't we we we can barely agree on these dinners, much less uh broader cultural aspects. So but so you know, so that that's probably dead too.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:14

We can you know what's what stuff is not though.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

But uh, I mean, you know, whenever I whenever I think about uh think about something like that, I think it comes down to uh um like you know what is your intent and are you you know are you are you respecting the culture, the process, the history, cuz it's kind of like cause you know, because and like I said, that's what and that's why I I don't like to think about it as loud. I like to think about it as like because it's like are you just are you just uh a black person who wasn't even in the kitchen when grandma was cooking, which is which is fair because sometimes grandma kicks you the fuck out.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

But we was eating what was in there, but it's all right.

unknown 1:13:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

Her kids was eating what was in there and then and then the and then and then she banished everybody, grandkids and great grandkids for life because she wasn't about to deal with it. But but but regardless, that uh that that ancestral knowledge was not passed on to you. All you did was eat. So you know, so now so now you feeling, you know, you you you you uh you cooked a few things, you feeling yourself, you go open up a restaurant and and people tasting your food and they're not cat, they're not, they're not, they're not, they're not hearing the ancestors, they're not tasting the culture. You know, uh yeah, yeah, Carolina Kitchen is just golden corral dipped in chocolate. Well, not chocolate. It's golden corral dipped in chocolate. Uh chocolate's not right, it's more like excuse me, hey, hey, excuse me, dipped in the hazelnut spread. That doesn't that's just the right thing because that's not a golden corral.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:02

Um but um we can all agree that Carolina Kitchen is just golden carol with a tan. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:11

It's a slight one. It's good. Oh, but they but they tripped uphill on them greens. Well, I don't know. Somebody somebody somebody fell and and dropped some neck bones in there or something. Because them greens are all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

I can give them them greens, I can put a fish sandwich in there for every month. That's about it. It's hard to fuck up a fish sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:35

Yeah, you know, everything else is all right. That little that little chicken. And now, and now like Queen and Slim is out, and they like they quite literally teach you how to fry fish in that movie. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

So have y'all seen Queen and Slim? I haven't seen it yet because I heard the you know black trauma at the end.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:53

So oh yeah, but like it's literally like literally literally there there's a scene where um Queen's uncle is like straight up just dropping breaded fish just like into the oil. Um but yeah, but yeah, getting back getting back to the question. If uh you know, if you are just black and you bring nothing else to the table versus you know, versus somebody who went and uh you know studied under a master's, studied a culture, uh, you know, looked into the techniques, put the put the work in. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go to that second, I'm gonna go to the second thing. You know, it reminds you know, it reminds me of people like uh, you know, I've been I've I watched a bunch of uh uh a bunch of shows and they've you know they went and studied under a sushi chef for 15 years. Yeah. So so no, some random uh Japanese American kid is not gonna cook better than this white dude who studied underneath the the sushi chef. And so it's like so there's a uh you know, it's kind of like you still have to there's so many different, you know, like grown-up in that culture in that life gives you know gives you like a head start. But it's kind of like, but that doesn't mean that you're that you're good at it. And you know, and it and as far as like the you know, could you or should you like the uh I think I think I think those uh if if it was uh if it was a thing where every type of food was was at everyone's fingertips everywhere, then that that would be a that'd be a situation, but but that's not the case. So it's kind of like so if there's a mark if if you are like entering a market and and and people and the people living here don't don't have access to that food, uh then like you know, then I don't care, I don't care if you are if you're you know if you if you're doing it correctly, then I think I think you open up a place is and and like I and also like I said before, you uh just because you open up a place don't mean you're cooking. You can fly, you can fly if you're opening up a place and flying up a flying in a chef, yeah, then then you doing it, or you hire, or you hire somebody's grandma who uh who who still got her wits about her and you know, and she can get about the kitchen, her ankles ain't swollen, then you you know you know what she's supposed to do. So um, you know, I don't I don't think that's uh there's a there's a lot of context and factors.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:19

Yeah, it's interesting that you it's interesting that you brought up that example in particular because the one that made me think of uh the anime food wars, because one of the things that food wars does is that you know, a lot of the chefs make these very creative dishes and they talk about the the anime itself talks about the history of not just the the dish, but the like techniques that are outside of different cultures that get brought into that dish. So you might have a French dish that's made using like Southern or South African or you know, South Central American techniques or ingredients and things like that. And so there's this like very intense and interesting fusion of like Japanese and other different kinds of cultures and you know, um, foods and ingredients and things of that nature. But um it also made me think that like it also made me think about how a lot of the food that you know we as black people love and we as like you know have have like continued to pass on and you know have you know like four levels videos with Epicurious and um different, you know, try me like you know, versus videos of who has the best this, that, and the other. A lot of these foods that get sensationalized and put into these restaurants of people who make five-star versions and things of that nature, it's like it's just another means of making very proletarian experiences somewhat accessible and palatable for bourgeoisie folks. Like, because a lot of the recipes that we've known and loved and grown up with, they come from areas of struggle and oppression and they come from people getting by with what they had. And there's something that really gets bastardized when that process or that experience becomes like, oh, you know, this this really like highfalutin um culinary experience. And I think that's something that a lot of people get attached to. But I definitely agree on the notion that like if you wasn't in the kitchen, if you wasn't trying to cook, if you wasn't trying to be around, regardless of whether you got kicked out or not, and you was just there eating, then there's a degree of licensure that you lose in that experience. Like there's a difference between me eating the food that my grandmother would make all the time and me being in the kitchen and around her while she was making it, and then being the one to have to make some of it and being the one who watched and learned the different processes that, you know, and asking the questions that, you know, that came along with that. And of course, you know, not everybody had, you know, that that privilege, right, to be around their family members while they were cooking and to ask the questions and to learn the techniques and to, you know, learn like the correct habits and things like that, even to the point where, you know, they don't have the full capacity to be creative with other things that they've learned along their way to, you know, amp the dish up or individualize it in that way. But there's also like something that's very fundamental about tradition that is, you know, that requires a presence and um and requires you know an attentiveness toward where this thing is coming from. Um, and it's not to like gatekeep food or whatever, but it's more of it's like there has to be an admission that you know what, there is a very fun, there's a very like essential disconnect that can be had with a lot of people and the food that they cook, because there is um there's this uh degree of um you know methodology that comes along with um not you know the kind of innovative techniques that we think now, right? But that comes along with um how we understand food and how we understand like Michelin star food and like poor quality food, um, and you know what we understand to be just good food, right? Um and that's if you just take away the presentation, I mean, which is problematic in its own way, but like if you just take away like how it looks and you take and you really just dig into, okay, what is this meal? Why was it cooked this way? Where did this come from? What ingredients were used in the beginning? Like what what why why was it this way? Like, oh, why did black people start frying things? Oh, like like I've I uh uh it was like last year or like a few months, it was it was last year, I think, where you like, I don't know if you all saw the article, there was this um um Korean person talking about the influence that black soldiers had on Korean, like we wouldn't have Korean fried chicken if it weren't for black people, the black soldiers being over there and teaching them how to fry chicken. And so, like knowing those kinds of origins and then knowing where you know the the hat the the practice of frying chicken even came from to begin with. Like even in food wars, when someone like fried bear meat, they deep fried bear meat, and apparently it was amazing. I kind of want to try it. But you know, like even that process, like when they explained it, the history of it, they they went into the background like, oh, this is a this is a like this is a southern American like style of cooking, right? Um, that was using, you know, blah, blah, blah, X, Y, and Z. And like, but like it's that, it's that kind of disconnect that we a lot of people have a tendency to have that kind of, you know, which I think influences this question that Suchi posted us to begin with. Like, do people have the the right to be able to do those things? It's like there's a there's a yes and a no. There's a there's a yes in so far as you know, Kazakh said we can't stop people from doing things. Like that's kind of fundamental. If we could, then you know, we wouldn't quote unquote be, you know, allegedly as free as we claim to be. Secondly, the the no is the the the no is uh because when we when I'll say when I think about, when I think about um like five-star cooking, or when I think about you know high high quality meals and things of that nature, right? Think about those Michelin star restaurants and the the quote unquote plays they have all different kinds of food. There is that I I I see in that a fusion of different traditions and of different cultures and of different practices and of different histories coming together to make something that's you know particularly unique that you can't really find anywhere else. But there's um but at the same time, there's still this very strong divorce from the the very fundamental nature of the the the community from that from the community from which that you know those those practices, those techniques, or even that food really derived and why they did so in the first place. There's like there's a really like I it's interesting because like when I was teaching one of my classes and we were talking about race and we we talked about this thing called hermeneutic location, which is this understanding that um there is a there's a history that comes along with different things, you know, like not with your facial features, with how you perceive, with your clothing, blah, blah, blah. Like, and that that's included in the relationship that we as people have to food. There is a history there, there is a culture there. There's people people's lives depended on how these items were cooked, prepared, and served to one another, and how they continue to survive and how we find our and what like where we find ourselves today is entirely dependent upon the backs of the people who who had to, you know, really work um to not even work, but struggle to figure out how do I live, how do I continue to live and how do I continue to eat in a way that brings that brings joy and peace and comfort in all these things that we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

Period. What what did Catronada feature in Van Jess say? If you want to taste what you bring to the plate, if you want to taste, bring something to the plate. Rammy award-winning bars. At all. Yep, yep. No, I definitely definitely I definitely agree. I think I think I think a lot of people forget that uh that food is not only um sustenance and community, it's also it's also art and history. And and that's you know, and that's and that's definitely going into uh what I what I was what I what I was saying before. Like I think as long as somebody uh takes takes all those different things into account, uh, I think I think there's a there's a you know there's a respectable and decent and uh and good in good way to you know for anybody on YouTube cooking everybody shit. I'm cooking all the all the all the all the Asian, Korean, Thai Gordon, uh Mexican, yo, it go and Gordon is such a good example because Gordon will will go will go to the country, he will he will go and hunt, hunt the animal, he will he will cook it in the way they tell him to. He will he will go to their most revered oldest chef and and and and off and and offer his version the the the his the dish in the way that they taught him uh to them, you know, and and you know, and he's like, hey, did that dude? I did I do it right. He gotta yell at the chicken before he seasoned it. Only only only if it's American. But you know, but you know, and that's and you know, and it like if if if if that amount of you know respect and and deference and uh and well yeah, just that amount of respect and deference is is involved in uh what you're doing. I don't think, you know, I don't I don't I don't think I don't think what's what comes out will be a will be a net a net negative as long as you take these other uh you know uh circumstances uh into um Okay. But that can but that I better not see No food on a bare counter. No, no Lord. Oh Lord Jesus. That's a couple videos. Where'd that trigger from? That's like TikTok. We're talking about food. We talking about good, the good the good things.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:15

I'm just saying she she she made she made some ice cream in the toilet, and that was that was another one.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:19

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's like that's like that that's that's like that's like like people stay abusing food for clout for clout everything. Food food is no food is no exception.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:33

But we have a food episode. I wasn't trying to go there, but it's the food.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:36

But we don't we're gonna turn this car around. All right, so I want to act up to wrap up the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:49

Um, I did want to ask, you know, we do want to eventually do a um a live uh uh uh episode, hopefully live episode, but at least an episode where we are, you know, mixing mingling uh with some brunch spaces and places and some dinner places and some breakfast and lunch places um with the big boy brunch as well as a couple of other podcasts. So we will be doing that sometime during the solstice. Uh so I hope you're excited for that. Um, but I do want to ask our panelists who are here today, real quick, real, real quick, is there a restaurant that you can say gave you that black food feeling that we talked about earlier? Um, it doesn't have to come off the top of your head. You can actually just say where it was located, if it was like a DC or or New York or or Florida or uh Miami, I don't know. Um, just say you either say the name of the restaurant or even say what the dish was. Actually, either the dish or the restaurant or the place where the restaurant was, like the type of cuisine. And I will start because yeah, I have two who want are biting at what is it, chomping at the bit? There it is. Uh, to say what theirs is, but I will start this.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:57

Is that a phrase? Where did that come from? Yeah, chomping at the bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:59

It's a horse, a horse chomp at their uh yeah, the bitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:02

I've never heard that before.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:03

I learned something new today.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:05

Yes. Um agitated or they really want to do something, very agitated.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:09

Um but I will send it to the black McCoy really quick.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:13

Um, so um if you all have been following on social media, um Dome um Domo from Champlace and I we've visited this place called um Um Gangster Vegan. They have they I don't think they have any other locations outside of uh Baltimore and about outside of Maryland in general, but I know that we know that they do have a place coming into fog about foggy bottom DC called raw-ish um pineapples and um raw-ish in foggy bottom, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:38

Right, it's in rights itself.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:41

Right itself.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:45

But no, they're their their food is it is it is revolutionary, it is like it, it's like it's vegan interpretations of multiple kinds of like uh black and afraid of foods, um, and even the names of their like foods like that are phenomenal. They have this one snack called the Nino Browns, which are amazing. Oh their food is legitimately phenomenal. Whether you're vegan or not, it doesn't really matter. Like, if you love like good food, good flavorful, um, like fulfilling, filling, literally filling food, um, gangster vegan is a great place to try.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:21

Awesome. The Doctor.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:24

So, and this is just one item from one restaurant. But um, if you're gonna go to Roman Rooster, you know, they have a location in DC now, um, and they're black-owned, um, their chicken sandwich is amazing. One of the best fried chicken sandwiches I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:39

Say that one more time.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:43

So, between like it's got honey butter, or you can get like jalapenos and this nice uh what you call it, vinegar flaw. Like it's talking about delicious.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:54

He said, Are you talking dirty? Really? What's the name of the restaurant again, the doctor?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:58

The roaming rooster. The roaming rooster. I'm looking at it right now on Google. Glory be. It's in Bladensburg, DC.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:04

Bladensburg, Maryland. There you go. Uh Kaze Shinryu. Do you have one?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:10

Oh, this chicken sandwich looks sexual. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:13

All right. We got thank you. Kaze Shinryu.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:17

Oh man. Um I have a few, I have a few things. Uh so I mean, so just just as a general thing, you can uh you you can take like all the you can take like all the you know the the restaurants we went to in in Nollins. Yes, and just post, you know, just just put just put them just put them on a board and you can blindfold yourself. Throw a dart. Throw a dart. And anywhere and you will be good. The gumbo, the esouffe, the shrimp and grits. Um, you know, the the po boy was good, but if you want a good poi, you you go to you you go to uh Louisiana or Mississippi, go to the the poorest part you can find. And find you a place, find you a place with the uh with the um with a letter missing from the sign.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:05

No, you didn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:07

You you will have you a po boy with the softest bread, the the the best fried uh this shrimp, oysters, chicken, crab, gator, the whatever you want that you know it's uh you know, people people call poi a sandwich, but but if you go to the right part of Mississippi, that is uh that that that is a open that is an open sandwich because that sandwich cannot close.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:30

It can't, it's not supposed to. If it does, you ain't eating points.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:32

I also have a towel of meat.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:35

I also want to add a little uh a little clarification. Um, there there is there is only so many good places in Mississippi. I have been to Miss, I have been to Mississippi. Um if listen, we got somebody from Mississippi who can vouch.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:53

Uh yeah, no, yeah, yeah, you definitely gotta be careful. Um uh you know, also if you uh if you at like a high-class restaurant, they're trying to serve you a po boy, do not order it.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:05

Uh um, that that is if anybody with money tries to give you poor people food, do not take it. It will not be good.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:15

This is not crooked letter cuisine. What the fuck is this? Yeah, I had a po boy for McCormick and Smiths. I was so offended. Um McCormick and Schmitz. Oh my god, child.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:28

You you wasn't trying.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:29

Oh man, no, I was I saw what you liked on the menu.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:32

He was already there. He was like, Oh, this can't be that bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:35

I was I was starving for comfort. There it is. Okay, but but yeah, but yeah, as far as uh uh black food in the in the area. Um I've honestly been uh uh mostly let let down. Like you want you want you you you want good black food in the DMV. I'm sure there's some spots, but uh make you some friends, true. Uh get get invited to somebody auntsy or grandma's house. Yeah, the way like like don't nobody make a crab benedict the way I make a crab Benedict.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:09

Okay, and don't nobody make breakfast like I do, baby. I ain't from the DMV, but I got you. I'm from Georgia. I got I put I'll get you together. Just go give us a ring when you come on up here. I I brought you over.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:19

You know, you know what's so interesting? Like, I feel like that's a symptom of gentrification here. Where there really aren't that many authentic, like you know, soul food style places.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:31

Like they're just or when they're here, they get closed down. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:37

You know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:39

Or or or or or they have to uh take part into that uh that that kind of you know gentrified like bougie like culture and aesthetic, like like like like Georgia Brown's over there on 14th Street. Like that's that is a quote unquote soul food restaurant. The food isn't bad, but they but they charge you so much, and it's like okay, but I'm like you you didn't you didn't you didn't really evolve or uh send recipe elevate that's it. You you didn't elevate this food to to make this fucking this this fried chicken breast for 30. You did not you did not take me on a journey, you didn't educate me.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:18

You ain't say wait wait wait before you go left where we try to wrap it up, we try to wrap it up. I try to wrap it up, I can hear it coming. Circling it black, gotta circle it back, low, low. Do you have your your your uh restaurant or your dish? Because I I saw that going all the way over there, all the way ready.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:39

Um oh well actually to um to today um when once we get up get off this, I gotta I gotta go uh grocery shopping because I'm I'm you know I'm um I'm making a um I'm making shrimp and grits with um white white wine uh scampy butter um and yeah with with and some blackberry cornbread on the side. Oh what you're saying is that we can work place because how come they haven't been invited somewhere?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:07

Like I I this better not be for a date. This better be like for a community brunch.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:12

Um I'm okay. I'm I I you know nope, nope, family oriented, so let me not go there. But yeah, it's it's one portion.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:20

One portion, ah one one portion.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:23

Oh, we know what that portion's for. So I get behind the curtain. Don't call a backdoor cornbread.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:34

So I'll give you my two. One is in Atlanta, it is Suya Master, Suya Grill. Uh I uh if you are if you go to any, you know, African or Caribbean clubs, or even if you go to a regular club and you out at 3 to 6 a.m. and you are really hungry and you need something to like just calm the alcohol in your system or whatever else you was doing at the club, hit up Suya Grill or Suya Master, the Suya's bomb. It will it will do what you need at that time, I guarantee you. Now we're winding it back up here uh to the DMV. I got Nipsies featuring Cheers at 301. Uh, went there on a date night. It was absolutely amazing. They had crab fries, uh uh they had uh what was it? It was crab fies. Uh their pooh boys was like uh uh Kaze explained, it was spilling out the basket. It wasn't just inside, like it was in a carryout container, but the the the shrimp from the poor boy was all over the container, like it was everywhere. Like they they might as well just call it a shrimp basket with sauce, it was just um you might as well not even had any bread. Like it was so amazing. Um, they they had so uh it was just so good. Uh it's so amazing. It's on 301, uh not too route far from Route 4. Uh, if you in the DMV, check out Nipsies featuring uh uh Cheers at 301. It's amazing. Uh they only open on certain days, so be careful of that schedule. Uh and uh I recommend oh, and they have a bar, their bartenders are lit, and you can take liquor from there. Yes, go ahead and handle that.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:19

Does question liquor store right up right up on the same list? Right, also really.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:24

Question, question. So does Nipsies hustle?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:29

Yes, actually. They do uh they do uh because them prices is right, uh but those times are select, so you may last time that I checked and another one, all right. So thank you everyone uh for participating in this episode. Uh we plan on having uh uh another uh uh uh melanated solstice food-based episode during the course of the solstice. Uh so definitely check into that one. Um and like I said, uh if we can ever uh set up our schedules accordingly, you will see some uh uh either either on our live or on our social media, you'll see us go out with Big Boy Brunch uh for some one a meal during someday during the solstice. So look forward to that. Um and then continue, you know, following us, checking out what we're posting. Uh look at our uh our social media for uh our music episode that's a place last week, uh, our drop last week, as well as all of the different artists and producers that were on there. Uh, but now to wrap up, uh, if our esteemed panelists can tell our listeners how to find them, uh, starting with the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:34

I'm uh Rod RT on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:37

Uh the Black McCoy.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:38

First of all, the doctor you didn't say they had a breakfast menu. Um, you can find me on Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:43

I did not know. Oh shoot.

unknown 1:40:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:45

Now we know where we're going to brunch. Yes, I have a breakfast menu from 8 to 12 p.m., but only at their Bladensburg location. Amen. Glory be. Um, you can find me at the Black McCoy on Instagram and the Black McCoy cosplay on Facebook, and apparently at Roman Rooster at some point in the next week or so.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:01

Uh Kaze Shinryu. Kaze Shinryu uh on YouTube. Uh and Lolo von Z. Growler. Well, oh, but oh, but also on Twitter and Instagram at Lolo Von Z.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:17

You want to plug anything else?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:19

Um not after not after brunch, but um yeah, you can still time frame. Stream stream big stream big boy prunes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, um, Yonkles Trunk, uh, wherever you listen to podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:39

Wow, please do their podcast is amazing. They have some phenomenal guests. They uh I I love listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:44

Yeah, we we actually we actually just interviewed an OnlyFan star. Um, yeah, for for a very particular um he he he's a motivational speaker.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:55

He's a motivational speaker. I I loved every bit of that episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:58

Oh my god, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:00

Oh my god and the plugged work. Also, for blurred spectrum, you can hit us up on the blurred spectrum on Facebook and Instagram. The blurred uh sorry, blurred spectrum on Twitter. Uh also for if you want to reach out to us, uh you can check out our mailbag, the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com, or reach out to me uh on at Umbral Starcade on most platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, uh no, I'm forgetting YouTube. There's one, and then uh also myself on Discord, Tuchino Shogun. Uh, thank you for listening to this episode. Please, please come back and listen to another. Uh enjoy the rest of the melanated solstice. Uh, and from all of our uh panelists to you, uh one, happy Father's Day, two, happy Juneteenth, and three, Sayonara.