Raise a toast to Black American food

Years before I had my first taste of gumbo, I’d encountered the world of Black American, Creole, and Cajun food in the pages of James Lee Burke’s detective books. The image of dirty rice with gravy, with fried kidney beans and pork chops on the side, didn’t just feed my imagination but also opened up a whole new world of African-American food.

ALSO READ: The Hindu Explains | What is Juneteenth?

Today is a good day to raise a toast to this cuisine. It’s Juneteenth, a day that celebrates the end of enslavement in the U.S. with picnics, barbecues and feasts.

It was on June 19, 1865 — more than two years after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — that Union Army Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to finally let the enslaved people of the state know they were free. And a year later, Black Americans in Texas marked the day with joyous music, dance and food.

Melding together

And what food! A lot of it figures — in lip-smacking detail — in a new book,  Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations. But the book, author Nicole A. Taylor writes, is not an attempt to “capture the tastes and recipes” of the 1866 celebration. It is a testimony, she says, to where Black Americans stand today.

“Red is an essential part of the festivity — brightly bursting out of red soda, red beans and rice, and fruits such as watermelon”

“It’s more than classic American comfort food like corn dogs, turkey legs, elephant ears, and Frito pies that keeps Black Americans connected to traditions like fairs and festivals, and to places like Texas… We coalesce in backyards, melding together the places we know and the varied cultures around us, and mixing American traditions.”

Cover of ‘Watermelon & Red Birds’

Taylor’s book carries 75 recipes of drinks, entrées and side dishes for Juneteenth. It includes, as it must, the traditional red drink — hibiscus tea — found in many celebratory gatherings.

Red is an essential part of the festivity — brightly bursting out of red soda, red beans and rice, and fruits such as watermelon. I chanced upon an article in  Oprah Daily quoting writer-culinary historian Michael Twitty as saying that red was significant because the common foods of the people once were largely white, green or brown: “there was an excitement that came with the rarity of eating red-colored treats”.

Taylor declares any bright and vibrant beverage “A-OK for Juneteenth”. But remember, she adds, to “thank the descendants of enslaved Africans for keeping this ritual alive”.

Spirit of the Black cookout

Also nurturing the Juneteenth ritual are people with food memories. Taylor recalls how 61-year-old Marguerite Hannah’s voice “lit up” when she talked about the Juneteenth food she’d had as a child in Galveston: brisket, hot links, stuffed shrimp, potato salad and lemon pie. And how Texan Annette Gordon-Reed set off Taylor’s “drool alarm” when she described her grandmother making hot tamales on Juneteenth: “‘Softening the corn husks in hot water, grinding the pork, beef, or chicken, preparing the masa dough to be spread on the husks, filling the dough with the seasoned meats, and tying the tamales for final preparation…’”

The memories are not all about festivity though. Taylor walks us through the history of fairs, stressing that the word ‘fair’ sounds like fun but “like many words in the American lexicon, it is drenched in racial and racist history”.

The Texas state fair, for instance, was desegregated only in the 60s. Three years after it was first held in 1886, it added a “Colored People’s Day” — which meant that they were barred on other days of the fair. That day, too, was jettisoned in the early 1900s.

Decades later, in 2011, Taylor attended her first Juneteenth festival in Brooklyn: it reminded her of a “tiny Texas Juneteenth fair”. In 2012, she held a Juneteenth picnic, with oven-roasted pork shoulder, potato salad, pickled vegetables, cornbread and a strawberry crisp. “The food was good; the company was better; the spirit of the Black cookout continued,” she writes.

Along with the food stories and recipes, Taylor ladles out some rich advice for the reader. “Gather your tribe whenever you can. Feed them well.” Indeed.

Rahul Verma likes reading and writing about food as much as he does cooking and eating it. Well, almost.