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So it's not ethnic cuisine? Does eating fried chicken make a person Southern?
No...because white people in the South eat the hell out of fried chicken too. It's just that fried chicken was never really prevalent in the North until Black migrants arrived from the South. That doesn't make it a "Black" food.
Eating fried chicken is certainly not only a Southern quality. Soul food is more of an ethnic cuisine rather than a regional cuisine. The South just so happens to have the largest African American population, so you're naturally going to see more soul food establishments there than in other regions.
The whole fried chicken argument is ironic because most of fried chicken spots in Baltimore is a chain called New York Fried Chicken.
No...because white people in the South eat the hell out of fried chicken too. It's just that fried chicken was never really prevalent in the North until Black migrants arrived from the South. That doesn't make it a "Black" food.
So soul food isn't African American cuisine? People of all ethnic backgrounds eat Chinese food but it's still Chinese food regardless of who eats it.
Yellow Grits are popular in the south.Most people Baltimore have never even heard of yellow grits. Me and a group of friends conducted this little study yesterday about Grits vs Cream of Wheat.
So soul food isn't African American cuisine? People of all ethnic backgrounds eat Chinese food but it's still Chinese food regardless of who eats it.
Soul food is more than fried chicken.
Some staples of soul food have origins in West Africa. Fried chicken is not one of those staples. It was introduced to the South by white settlers. It's not a "Black" food anymore than biscuits are.
I could say it, fried okra, watermelon and several others foods were introduced by West Africans.
But I'm talking about fried chicken specifically (which is what the post was about). Find me a source that says fried chicken originated in West Africa and later in slave communities and I will gladly rest my case.
That's like me moving to China and introducing cheesesteaks and then calling it a "Black" food because it's emissary happened to be Black.
Some staples of soul food have origins in West Africa. Friedchicken is not one of those staples. It wasintroduced to the South bywhitesettlers. It's not a "Black" food anymore than biscuits are.
Did you not read the link you provided? That's not what was said. It is well known that several West African cuisines fried chicken in palm oil and ultimately...seasoned the chicken "right" due to access to spices not found in Europe.
Some staples of soul food have origins in West Africa. Fried chicken is not one of those staples. It was introduced to the South by white settlers. It's not a "Black" food anymore than biscuits are.
There's no denying that it came from the South but that's not the main point. The point is that it's also considered to be African American cuisine. When most Americans hear the word "soul food" they usually think African American cuisine before Southern cuisine. Meaning that it's more associated with ethnicity than region. Of course soul food is part of Southern cuisine. Let me help educate you on the history of soul food.
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