African / Soul Food
Lexington
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African / Soul Food Lexington |
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Only a few years ago there were three, but with the closing of Sav's, Lexington now has no African restaurant and none serving soul food. This is sad, because both these are great cuisines, and in other cities these are popular restaurants. With bright sun and a year round hot, humid climate, Africa is full of plants producing a rich mix of foods, and its natives have evolved their unique cuisine over several thousand years. African cuisine makes heavy use of rice and plantain. Plaintain is a large green vegetable much like a banana, which can be mashed or dried. Cassava is a favorite plant native to the Ivory Coast but now raised domestically all over Africa. It is dried and pulverized to produce Attieke, used in salads or as an additive to meats. Goat is an easily raised domestic animal which can graze on less grass than cattle or sheep and produces a meat low in cholesterol and high in protein, very lean, tender and tasty. Conchs are found along the coast and their meat is used in soups, salads or as an entree. |
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"Pulling" meat is a favorite African technique. It involves cooking over low heat for a long time so it becomes tender enough to tease apart into shreds. Often the heat involves smoking and in the process some sort of flavoring is rubbed in. Africa offers exotic coffees, ginger beers, and pineapple and lime drinks. If you're into something more alcoholic, they have those, too. African food is not expensive; in that regard it is much like Mexican. |
| There's not a true Soul Food restaurant anywhere in Kentucky. Soul Food means Porgies, Fatback, Ham Hocks, Hog Jowls, Giblets, Chitlins, Pork Ribs, Shrimp & Grits, Catfish, Hoppin John, Black Eyed Peas, Collards, Mustard Greens, Okra, Sweet Potatoes, Turnip Greens, Cornbread, Grits, Hoecakes, Hush Puppies, Peach Cobbler, Chicken Fried Steak and Sweet Potato Pie. From that foundation, Soul Food may differ regionally. Plantation cabins in Kentucky, South Carolina and Louisiana added their own local specialties, and in the 150 years since slavery, families may have continued to add to the menu. But the Soul Food Core remains the same. Sharecroppers in western Kentucky was a wildly popular Soul Food restaurant, with loyal customers driving in from two hours in every direction, but the owners retired after a long run and no other restaurant has since opened to serve that market. There are five restaurants in the state claiming to serve Soul Food but Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Mac n Cheese and Green Beans are White Comfort Food, not Black Soul Food. |  |
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The slow cooking that is so characteristic of African cuisine is usually done in a Tagine, a cone shaped ceramic oven as seen in the photo at left. These can be large, as used for a family or village gathering (or a restaurant), or small, as used at home on a regular stovetop. The Tagine traps the moisture inside, creating a sauna like environment, allowing the steam to permeate through the meat and vegetables and intensify the flavors. The Tagine is the African version of the Indian Tandoor Oven, the Mexican Molcajete or the European/American Dutch Oven. Tagines originated in Morocco and North Africa and slowly spread throughout the continent. Sadly, when Africans were captured, put in chains, shipped to Europe and the Americas, and sold as slaves, they were not allowed to bring anything with them. So Southern Slave Cooking in the U.S. did not use the Tagine, and Soul Food developed without it. Only recently have African Americans rediscovered this valuable part of their heritage and begun buying them for home use. Thus, a Soul Food restaurant does not emphasize slow cooking and the Tagine, but an African restaurant does. A Soul food restaurant also does not feature Goat, Plantain, Conch, Casava or Rice, but an African restaurant does. Marketing surveys indicate that an African restaurant in Lexington would be popular, and Sav's certainly was. It's a niche waiting to be filled. |
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