With Special Guest, author Jim Northrup
$45/dinner
Special Dinner #96

Jim Northrup, Native American storyteller and author lives on the Fond du Lac reservation in Minnesota.  His writing is imbued with day-to-day reflections of life on the reservations and suffused with humor and political allusion. Jim writes the syndicated column Fond du Lac Follies and his books include Walking the Rez Road and The Rez Road Follies.  In order to give Jim adequate time to share stories, poems and speak about life, we will begin this evening early, and start with a short talk.

Also present will be Margaret Noori and Howard Kimewon, both teachers of Ojibwe at U of M, will speak about traditional Native American life, which means following the seasons, preparing, collecting, storing and preserving the harvest to use across the year.  The menu for this Native American dinner, crafted by James Beard-nominated Chef Alex Young will explore two harvests that possess cultural significance for the Native American tradition, rice and corn.

1. Give me some background on how the Jewish people came to live in Algerian, what time-period(s) did they settle here? Why which particular hardships were they fleeing/where?

The first Jews who settled in Algeria arrived there involuntarily, as slaves or exiles. The Romans landed initially at Carthage and discovered the lands of Algeria as they spread westwards from Tunisia. Many late Roman-era Jews were exiled to Algeria from Palestine in the first century C.E. for rebelling against Titus. These Jewish settlers were very successful and consequently, many indigenous, pagan Berbers converted to Judaism. The integration of Berbers into Jewish settler communities fused Jewish customs with Berber traditions. Intermarriage between Jews and Berber was common throughout the medieval and early modern periods. Cultural and culinary similarities between Jews and Berbers in modern Algeria, such as the use of North African spices like coriander, stem from the cultural exchange between the communities that took place during this era. The next major upheaval in Algerian Jewish life occurred when Muslim armies conquered North Africa in 642 C.E. After their successful conquest, the Muslims forcefully converted the indigenous pagan Berbers, but because of their shared monotheistic religious heritage, the Muslim invaders permitted the Jews of Algeria to live as “tolerated infidels” within the umma, the Muslim community of believers. The Muslim ruler of Algeria protected the Jewish community and assured their freedom of religion because of their identity as “People of the Scripture,” or dhimmi. The freedoms accorded to Jews because of their dhimmi status afforded them a measure of autonomy within the Muslim population.

Though the physical, social, and economic separation of the Judeo-Algerian community from the Muslim majority enabled the creation and preservation of a unique culture, such autonomy came at a price. Jews had to pay additional poll and land taxes, jizya and kharaj, and could not marry Muslims or testify against them in court. Algerian Jews lived separately from the rest of the population in a ghetto, or hara, and were required to wear markings on their clothes to indicate their Jewish identity. Though Jews lived peacefully during the Muslim occupation of Algeria, the majority Muslim rulers and population treated them as foreigners in their own homeland. When the Ottoman Turks conquered northern Algeria in 1481, they continued to categorize the Judeo-Algerian population as dhimmi.

Shortly thereafter, a large number of Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled to Algeria after the Spanish Inquisition exiled them from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. Iberian culture influenced the customs and cuisine of these new Jews, the megorashim, literally “exiles” in Hebrew. The cultural changes wrought by the integration of Iberian Jews into the Judeo-Algerian community permanently differentiated Judeo-Algerian culture from the indigenous Berber cultures by incorporating Spanish and European traditions into Judeo-Algerian customs. While Berber converts to Islam were increasingly culturally aligned with the Ottomans, the arrival of the megorashim facilitated the beginnings of European cultural influence in the Judeo-Algerian community.

2. How is Algerian Jewish Food different from simply Sephardic Jewish cooking? How is it the same?

Algerian Jewish food, because of the influx of Sephardim in the fifteenth century, bears much in common with basic Sephardic cuisine. This includes the use of a wide array of spices, frying savory pastries in oil, etc. However, unlike sephardic foods in, say, the Balkans, Algerian Jewish food retains common features of Berber cuisine-the use of the Tajine, for example, and the ras al hanout spice mixture.

3. Has an Algerian Jewish population moved on to the United States? Where have they settled, and in what ways have their foodways changed in the U.S.?

There are few Algerian Jews in the United States. The French colonial state granted Algerian Jews French citizenship in 1870. Consequently, between 1870 and the end of French colonization in 1962, Algerian Jews gradually acculturated and assimilated French customs. As a result, it made much more sense for Algerian Jews to immigrate to France when, in 1962 and 1963, they were forced out of Algeria. The majority of Algerian Jews continue to live in France, with some immigrating to Israel in recent years. In terms of evolving foodways, in French colonial Algeria and in France, Algerian Jewish cuisine became somewhat gallicized, with foods like coq au vin and boeuf bourguignonne (kosherized, of course), entering their repertoire.

4. What ingredients are very unique to this area of the world? How have they been used specifically in Algerian-Jewish dishes?

Ingredients unique to Algeria are those common in North Africa: dates, raisins, prunes, olives, lamb, goat, spices (cinnamon, coriander, ras al hanout), wheat, couscous, fava beans, oranges, lemons, etc.

5. What’s most exciting to you about being the special guest at this upcoming dinner what’s your area of passion on this subject?

I’m fascinated by the ways that the evolution of Algerian Jewish foodways between 1830-1962 (the period of French colonization) maps the cultural shifts in the community. You can mark the changing identity of the community in the foods they consumed over that period: from lamb kefte to Coq au Vin and Blanquette de Veau! The retention of many traditional Algerian Jewish dishes also speaks to the community’s desire to maintain their cultural and religious heritage, especially after their mass migration to France in 1962. Adrift in a foreign country, with no chance of returning to their homeland, Algerian Jews maintained their unique cultural and religious heritage through their foodways, both ritual and everyday.

Small slices of toast, spread with pimento cheese and topped with a bit of crisp bacon and a leaf or two of celery make a superb appetizer. Pimento cheese sandwiches with bacon and tomato are terrific, too. I like them grilled, but they’re actually very good toasted, as well. As for the bacon, I’d go for Broadbent’s, Edwards’ or Burger’s: nice and meaty and smoky, but not so much so that they overpower the cheese.

We make a pimento cheese macaroni and cheese at the Roadhouse that’s at its best topped with chopped bits of crisp bacon. This is also outstanding on a burger—not really melted, just softened up a bit from the heat of the meat. If that’s where you’re headed, I’d go for a couple of slices of Arkansas peppered bacon, along with a little bit of chopped celery leaf to lighten the whole thing up just a touch.

Ingredients:

• ½ pound sharp cheddar, coarsely grated (we use the two-year-old raw milk cheddar from Grafton Village)

• 1 cup mayonnaise (I prefer Hellman’s up here: out West the same mayo is sold under the brand name Best Foods )

• 2 ounces by weight roasted red peppers, diced (about ¼ cup)

• ¾ teaspoon juice from the roasted peppers (if you’re using jarred roasted peppers)

• ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

• Scant ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

• Pinch coarse sea salt

Procedure:

Fold all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Eat.

Repeat as regularly as you like. It’s addictive: as more than one person around here has said more than once, “It’s kind of good on pretty much everything, isn’t it?”

Serves… well, it’s kind of hard to say. A real addict could probably consume this entire recipe in a single setting. Being more conservative, let’s say it’s enough to serve eight as an appetizer. You’ll probably have to test it on your family and friends to see how much they can eat!

Regardless of entrée, the main thing is that the connection with Ann turned out to be a great one. We share values around creativity and caring for the community, as well as a passion for good writing, and in this case, good cookies. Given the national stage on which The Christmas Cookie Club is “showing” this fall—network talk shows, big time films, blogs and magazines galore—I’m sure Ann and her literary manager could have handed the opportunity to make these cookies to some big time industrial bakery that would have paid a lot of money for the opportunity. But in the spirit of the Cookie Club, our long-standing relationship and Ann’s commitment to quality and local production, we’ve worked together to do a set of cookies that match the spirit of all that I’ve talked about above. I’m sure there are less costly cookies that could have been stuck into a “Christmas Cookie Club” box, but I doubt that they’d actually have had the spirit, soul and flavor of the ones that Amy, Frank and everyone from the Bakehouse has put into these. I hope you enjoy eating them as much as we’ve enjoyed working with Ann, reading, baking, testing, tasting, and talking about them.

Before I move on I should state really clearly that not only is this a good story but the actual cookies are really, really good! They’ve been winning raves from all the staff, many of whom have been diligently eating all the test bakes! Thin little ginger crisps and pecan butter balls are made from recipes out of the book, plus one of my long time favorites, the mint chocolate shortbread from the Bakehouse. That trio of taste treats is packed into a book-like box designed by our graphics crew. It’s really a great package—especially if you pair it up with a copy of Ann’s book—and would clearly make a great gift for anyone who likes to read and eat cookies which is probably a pretty high percentage of people out in the Zingerman’s universe. Stay tuned for the Wendy Finerman-produced (Forrest Gump and The Devil Wears Prada among other famous films) movie, which is likely to start filming next fall! Ann’s been pushing hard to have the filming done here in Ann Arbor so hopefully that will work out. In the mean time come on by and taste a cookie and celebrate some nice local success and the start of a sweet holiday season!

I cook a lot of fish, a) because I like it and b) when one starts with superior seafood, it’s simple and easy and a really great way to make a pretty special meal without spending more than a few minutes cooking. So, with that in mind, fresh fish is what I have for dinner two, three, four times a week. While my childhood fish fascination has stayed strong, I’ve expanded my range of favorites a lot. Lake fish is great, but there are oceans full of other options that my family never really accessed. The main characters in my fish cooking these days are mackerel and bluefish, with a recent big role for branzino (really great stuff from the Mediterranean if you haven’t yet had it). Sometimes though I cook trout, char, whitefish, hake, cod or catfish. I’m big on good scallops, oysters, and clams as well. And when I don’t go with fresh, I’m often enjoying really good tinned stuff—tuna, sardines, and anchovies.

Between cooking fresh fish at home so often and then all the work that’s gone into buying, cooking and serving it in every night for the last six years at the Roadhouse, I realize that I sometimes take good seafood far more for granted than is good for me. When I go to work we have fresh sardines (actually one of my favorites), scallops, striped bass, wolffish, oysters and all sorts of good stuff on the menu pretty regularly. But taking anything for granted is a sure sign of trouble, and I do try to be mindful and appreciative of all I’ve got around me. We’ve come so far in our understanding of how flavorful heirloom, freshly-picked produce can be, of what contributes to the complexity and quality of a fine olive oil, the difference between artisan cheese and what comes from the big factories, or what makes one chocolate great and another just so-so. But there’s seemingly very little discussion that I can remember about what makes better fish taste better.

Here at Zingerman’s we’ve worked to deliver much more than just lip service. From talking to the folks at Foley’s—one of the country’s best seafood houses, and a long standing supplier to us here—there are five things that we’ve come to look for in our fish sellers.

Five Really Reasons We Like Foley’s Fish

1) Shared Values and Strong Relationships

Paul (Saginaw, my co-founding partner) has been working with Foley’s since his days as kitchen manager at the Real Seafood Company over thirty years ago. It’s a relationship he built and enhanced even further when he partnered with Mike Monahan to start Monahan’s Seafood in Kerrytown in 1979. Frank Carollo—managing partner at the Bakehouse for the last seventeen years who taught me how to cook the line in restaurant kitchens back in the 70s—also ordered fish from Foley’s in the years when he was a kitchen manager and then when he joined Mike and Paul as a partner at Monahan’s for a number of years. Alex Young—now chef and managing partner at the Roadhouse—started working with the Foley family not long after that as well. Mike Monahan still brings in a lot from them today, which means that you and I can buy the same Foley fish we serve at the Roadhouse for your own house simply by stopping off at Kerrytown. I probably purchase fish from Monahan’s to cook at home two or three or sometimes four times every week. And there’s another local connection as well since Peter and Laura (Foley) Ramsden, the fourth generation to own and run Foley’s, went to school here in Ann Arbor and were regular Zingerman’s customers while pursuing their studies. Given all that, it won’t come as a surprise that when we were getting ready to open the Roadhouse six years ago, Foley’s was the natural choice to be our primary East Coast fish supplier.

In mid-June of this year, as I was working to prep for my talk for the Portuguese-American Fish Dinner we did at the Roadhouse, I figured I’d call Peter to catch up on things. I’m very glad I did. It’s always inspiring to talk to people who are inspired by what they do, to hear the energy that arises as they get into their passions. And fish at Foley’s is definitely a passion, not just a way to make a profit. I’m sure they have their cynics here and there (as we all do), but most everyone I’ve talked to at Foley’s over the years puts their fish passion out there pretty quickly, forcefully and consistently.

Peter is no exception. We spent a bit of time talking through the history of the company, the basics of what made better fish better, how Foley’s worked in such different ways than the vast majority of fish sellers out in the market. Maybe the most interesting element of the entire conversation was that what he told me was actually almost identical to what his father-in-law and grandfather-in-law had told me thirty years ago, which is a tribute really to everyone at Foley’s. While the world has changed, and they’ve certainly adapted, the basic principles of who they are and what they do have barely changed at all. In that sense the Foley’s folks are very much the same as us really.

2) History, Culture, Passion

As much as one might reasonably argue that business today is totally different than it was a hundred years ago, at many levels I don’t think it’s really changed all that much. Michael Foley took the boat over to Boston from his home in County Tipperary in Ireland back in 1906. He started Foley Fish down by Faneuil Hall, leasing a small retail space and selling fresh fish by the pound or the piece. Within four years Foley’s was considered the foremost fish retailer in the city.

By the time 1920 rolled ‘round, Mr. Foley had begun shipping seafood across the country on refrigerated rail. As the years passed, his son Frank took over. I first met Frank when I went to Boston to visit Foley’s, probably in about 1980, and I remember him coming out to visit Monahan’s any number of times over the years. By the time Alex, Paul, Frank and I got going with the firm, Laura’s dad (and Peter’s father-in-law), Mike (a former Harvard football and rugby star who, the Foley’s folks say, might have been the “tallest fishmonger in history” at 6 foot 4 inches) and her mother Linda had began running the company.

A few years back, in ‘05, Peter and Laura (the two U of M grads) bought out her parents and took over. “Laura and I are the fourth generation,” was one of the first things Peter told me when we talked. “When you have your name on the roof everything changes.” I certainly know that feeling. By the way, notice Peter’s choice of words. Obviously he wasn’t running the business in 1906, and he actually married into the family, so it’s not really even his name on the roof. But he still—as I would, and I think he should—uses the word “we” whenever he talks about the company. For him, and everyone at Foley’s, it’s really about the whole organization doing the right thing to create success for everyone involved, not just for themselves.

3) Direct, Bought on Spec

“What differentiates us from the typical model is that we are a process-to-order seafood house,” said Peter. That probably doesn’t mean much to most of the world that’s never bought and sold seafood. But to anyone “in the industry” who’s buying fish at the high end, it’s huge. Most of the other houses go to the dock and buy what they buy, then bring it back to their plant and put out the price list and hope to sell it. Foley’s works in reverse—first they get our order, then they go to buy, and then bring the newly purchased fish directly back to the plant to clean, cut, filet and ice and then ship it to us. No sitting around and no second grade.

4) Freshness and Handling

Having sold, served, bought and cooked fresh fish for a long, long time now, I’d say the most commonly asked consumer question one hears is pretty certainly some version of, “When did this fish come in?” While the query is quite well intended, it’s pretty much really the wrong question to be asking because when something arrived here in Ann Arbor has little certain connection to when it came out of the water, and none whatsoever to how it was handled en route. By contrast a more effective question to be asking would be something along the lines of, “When was the fish caught?” And, if you wanted to really investigate, you could follow that up with, “How was it kept between the time it came out of the water and when the server brought it to the table?”

Here’s the scoop. Modern day fishing vessels are often out at sea for a few weeks at a time. The thing for us, and for Foley’s, though, is that we totally do NOT want the fish from anything other than what’s brought on board near the end of the trip.

Another important thing to mention is they don’t use middlemen. I“We only ship directly,” Peter said. “There are other processors that will cut anything that’s landed and then ship to a distributor. They buy on speculation and then they sell that way.” By going only direct to their restaurants and retailers, Foley’s has a far higher shot at staying connected and keeping the quality of the product we cook, serve and eat at a very high level. Since, as we know from the wholesaling we do at our own Bakehouse, Creamery and Coffee company, the product the consumer tastes may leave here in great shape but can still be subpar if the people we wholesale to don’t handle it well.

5) Sticking with Sustainability

As much as I’ve known about how Foley’s operates, their focus on sustainability was actually sort of new to me. I mean I wasn’t really shocked or anything—sustainability in seafood is clearly right up Foley’s fish-loving and living-off-of-fish alley. It’s just nice when someone you already feel good about comes through in a way that you hadn’t really thought would be their forte. But, lo and behold, Foley’s turns out to be at the forefront of the work to help restore and sustain seafood stocks in an environmentally and fish friendly way.

“We’re very active with fishery management,” Peter told me. He wasn’t talking with the tone of someone hesitant or unsure of what he was doing. Peter rattled off names and statistics with passion and feeling, pretty clearly coming from a grounded (or maybe “anchored” would be a more appropriate term) place. “We’re on the ground fish advisory panel for New England,” he explained. “We’ve been very active participants in setting policy for conservation. There have been laws in place in New England since 1993 that have been quite successful.”

“With what sort results?” I asked, truly not knowing what the answers were likely to be.

“In many cases, it’s actually been a huge success story. We’re actually not over-fishing anything. We’ve seen a 15-fold jump in scallop population. Haddock has had a 30-fold increase. We’re actually harvesting under quota to stay within the law. The boats are only allowed to fish about 70 days a year. Even though there’s lots of haddock in the water now, they don’t have enough access in those 70 days to get at the allowable levels. Little by little,” he added, “the good news is coming out. Steadier and more affordable pricing and supply.”

Ari interviewed Roadhouse special guest, barbecue judge, foodie and animated speaker, Adrian Miller recently about his research on African American

ARI In the ten years or so I’ve known you, you’ve always been pretty excited about food and history, but you seem particularly pumped up about doing this dinner with the food of the African American street vendors. It’s not a subject very many people think about very often. What got you going on it?

ADRIAN Well, it’s another wonderful subject that sprang up while I was doing my soul food research. I think the street vendor stories are very compelling. Here, you have examples of entrepreneurs eking out a living in very tough circumstances. Yet, they do it with such flair. Given the their distinctive calls to sell their wares and the vibrant outfits they often wore, I think you had to be a real character in order to be successful.

ARI How did the whole culture of street vendors get going?

ADRIAN That’s a tough one to answer. Anywhere there was a market, sellers have often figured out ways to get their product noticed more than the competition. It appears that street vendors were those who were too poor to own, rent or operate a market stall, so they took their show on the road. The street vendor who existed in colonial America operated in ways that resembled European street vendors the most.

ARI What were some of the biggest surprises?

ARIAN There were two surprises. First, I had no idea that so many foods were either introduced or popularized by street vendors. One example is pepperpot—a soup that is made with chiles, tripe, meat, fish, dumplings and distilled cassava juice. The stew made its way from the Caribbean to Philadelphia by the late 1700s, and African-American women were the primary street vendors of the product. I have drawings of the vendors if you want to check them out. The other surprise was how African-American street vendors sold foods usually associated with other ethnic groups. African-American street vendors were associated with hot corn in New York, hominy in Philadelphia and hot tamales in San Francisco.
ARI What are some of your favorite dishes?

ADRIAN I have to go with the desserts only because I have yet to eat a really good pepperpot. New Orleans takes the prize with pralines and calas (rice beignets)!

ARI What about the vendor calls?

ADRIAN Many of these calls were very creative. So much so that the calls used to draw as much attention from music lovers and scholars as the blues and spirituals. Again, the entire point was to draw attention to your product, through imagery and humor, so that you got the money and the other vendor didn’t.

ARI Are you going to teach us any of them at the dinner?

ADRIAN Most definitely! I’ve got several vendor calls and the sheet music. I’m planning to sing the calls of the particular foods as they get served. We’ll learn two things: how appetizing a rhyme can be, and why I never tried out for American Idol!

ARI When you were here last year for the African American dinner at the Roadhouse I know you spent a little time at the Longone Center in the Clements Library doing research. Did you pick anything up on this subject?

ADRIAN I had an interesting time rummaging through the archives. I didn’t find anything that I would call new information, but I found quite a bit to substantiate the research I had done to date. Another highlight was meeting Jan Longone (before she retired) and the very capable staff at the library.

ARI Other thoughts or insights?

ADRIAN Another interesting part of the story is how slave owners would let their less productive slaves become vendors. These were usually the older slaves. Depending upon the master’s temperament, these vendors were allowed to keep some of the proceeds and purchase goods, and sometimes their own freedom.

ARI Excited to be coming back to Ann Arbor?

ADRIAN Absolutely! I had a great time there last year. Those who attended the dinner were a lot of fun and they showed me much love. Who wouldn’t want to come back to that?

…And that’s an Executive Order!

The Roadhouse has a full-flavored menu prepared for your New Year’s Eve dinner. We’re serving specials that pack a Presidential punch! Our chefs are preparing a menu featuring favorites from the Oval Office through our nation’s history. Each dish will be a past president’s favorite, or perhaps was served at a past Executive function.

The Roadhouse will be open until 10pm on New Year’s Eve.

Make reservations soon, we will fill quickly. Call 734.663.3663
A la carte menu.

STARTERS:

Seared Hudson Valley Fois Gras

Sweetbreads Piccata

Potted Ham & Pickled Eggs

Oyster Stew

Truffled Chicken Consomme

Peekietoe Crab Louis

ENTREES:

Standing Rib Roast with Yorkshire Pudding

Roasted Local Peking Duck with Blueberries & Wild Rice

Beef Wellington with Braised Endive & Potatoes Delmonico

Potato Scaled Wild Stripped Bass with Potatoes Lyonnaise

Tronçon of Halibut with Sauce Béarnaise

DESSERTS:

Profiterole

Lemon & Chocolate Cream Pies

Chocolate Fondue

Citron de Saxon

Why are the flavors more intense?
For starters, gelato has less air than ice cream. Conventional ice creams can contain as much as 50 percent of their volume as air. Zingerman’s gelato has only 10 to 20—that means that a little bit of gelato goes a lot farther than a big scoop of ice cream. Gelato also a softer texture than ice cream. Instead of scooping rock hard ice cream, you’ll find our gelato melts almost immediately in your mouth, leaving lots of flavor and a wonderful finish.

How does Zingerman’s Creamery Gelato differ from all other gelato you can get around here?
1) Better Ingredients. High quality whole milk and cream from Guernsey dairy, organic natural Demerara brown sugar and the finest flavorings possible.

2) Italian equipment. We’ve brought over special equipment from Bologna, Italy that’s designed to blend in a minimum of air during the carefully timed freezing process. This special machinery allows us to produce an authentic Italian gelato in Ann Arbor. Many so called gelati in this country are made using ice cream machines and are inadvertently incorporating air equivalents to ice cream and are therefore producing a hybrid of gelato and ice cream.

3) Freshly made. Because we’re working in small batches right here in the Ann Arbor area, Zingerman’s Creamery gelato will always be far fresher than pre-packed product shipped half way across the country. We deliver to the Deli and the Bakeshop from our Manchester base at least three times a week. And with gelato, freshness really does make a difference.

4) Tons of taste tests. We research and test each flavor in blind taste tests to determine which makes the most intensely flavorful recipe.

How can I tell a good gelato when I taste one?
Trust your taste buds. Taste a little of it. If it doesn’t scream out the flavor, it’s not a good gelato. It may be a OK ice cream or something similar, but it’s not good gelato. We joke that when we do a tasting, we give samples to ten people, if three people tell us the flavor is too strong, we double the flavoring and know we’re close. We want big, intense,
exciting flavors.

Although it’s Greek today, at that time Salonika was a Turkish town. The Jewish prominence in the city was no passing phase — at the turn of the 20th century, 400 years after the Spaniards started to arrive, Salonika was still very much a Jewish town; there were roughly 80,000 Jews, out of a total population of 150,000. (The rest of the population was hardly homogenous — Orthodox Christians, Muslims and others accounted for the remaining 70,000.) They carried on Jewish traditions that their ancestors had brought from the Iberian Peninsula hundreds of years earlier. Ladino (aka Judezmo), which is to the Sephardic community what Yiddish was in Eastern Europe — a blending of medieval Spanish with some Hebrew and a handful of words gathered up from Greek, Turkish and other Balkan languages — was the primary language of the town. Many non-Jews spoke it fluently. The Jewish presence was so strong that, although Salonika’s Christian community took Sunday off and the Moslems made Friday their day of rest, pretty much the entire town shut down on Saturday.

A Diverse Community & Foodways
Salonika was somehow, for many centuries, a model for diversity, a place where people seemed to get along, where different ethnic and religious groups lived together with a fair degree of respect for each others’ right to be who they were. This constructive coming together of cultures carried through to the cooking too. While Greek and Turkish politics are usually presented in the context of conflict, there are many overlaps between the two very important and interesting cuisines; the cooking of the Jews of Salonika includes both influences, but blended in a unique-to-the-food-world way that also includes the heavy influence of Spain.

Bread
It starts, as so many foodways do, with the bread. As in Spain, bread was considered a blessed food, treated always with great respect. It was apparently quite common for Jews in Salonika who happened upon a bit of bread on the street to pick it up, kiss it and carry home with great respect. At best it was brushed off and set aside to eat later, at the least it was set on a ledge and out of harm’s way. At the same time, it was also every day food — breakfast was typically bread and cheese (I’d imagine feta or fresh mzythra but I’m not really sure). In the winter months, women would make pan escaldado — stale bread cooked lightly in water, then dressed with grated cheese and oil. On Sabbath, children snacked on pan con azeite y asucar — slices of bread sprinkled with oil and sugar. Note that the names are Ladino, clearly connected to Spanish, and not to Greek in the least.

Savory Pies
As in the rest of Greece, there was a great tradition amongst Jews of serving savory pies. Unlike other Greek communities though they never mixed meat and cheese, adhering strictly to the rules of keeping kosher. Borekas, individually portioned, flaky phyllo-like pastries, filled with most everything you could imagine (though again, no mixing of meat and milk) were eaten in much of Turkey and northern Greece, but became a recognized Jewish specialty. Fritada — dishes of beaten eggs with various fillings — very much descended from the Spanish tortilla and are still the consummate Spanish egg dish today. The Greek Jews also seemed to love big white beans — what are known in Spain today as Judion, in Greece as Gigantes. Piaz is a bean salad with lemon and olive oil that’s still commonly made and was considered very much a dish of the Jewish community. Fideikos — the name is from the Spanish, fideos — were very popular and there were a number of macaroni dishes in the Jewish kitchen. Joyce Goldstein’s excellent book Sephardic Flavors, has a recipe for macaroni and cheese, made with milk and feta.

Vegetables
As is true in all Greek kitchens, Jewish cooks had a great love for vegetables. Okra, eggplant, artichokes, zucchini, tomatoes — the book has dozens of dishes that make this cooking a great one for vegetarians. Vinegar was used extensively, as was oil, either sesame or olive. Jewish cooks also had a great love of nuts and dried fruits, including a passion for apricot pits (the same used to flavor Italian amaretti cookies). Sweets were an interesting mix of the Spanish and Eastern Mediterranean — baklavas, nut-filled crescents, spoon sweets (jam-like confitures), Spanish-style sponge cakes, lots of walnuts and almonds.

Eggs
I’m particularly fascinated with the Jewish emphasis on eggs, most particularly the huevos haminados. These are long-cooked eggs, simmered or baked for hours in a liquid turned naturally brown from onionskins, intensifying the flavor in the process. With their round shape and association with fertility, eggs have always had great symbolic significance. A big thing in nearly all the Sephardic Jewish communities, the huevos are typically served at Passover, on the Sabbath table and at holiday meals. In Salonika though, they seem to have moved beyond being a special occasion offering into a staple of every day life. They were eaten at every type of meal. They were chopped and added to salads. They were used as garnish for other dishes. Students even gave them to teachers the way Americans are advised to bring apples. I imagine bowls of them on Sabbath tables, shining the color of mahogany wood from being rubbed with olive oil, ready to peel and to eat, surrounded by families dressed in medieval Spanish silks.

Recent History
Massive fires at the end of the 19th century and again during WWI made life in Salonika very difficult. Tens of thousands were displaced. Early in the 20th century when the Ottomans left and the Greek government took over, thousands of Greeks were brought from other parts of what was the Ottoman Empire and settled in Salonika, in part to effectively Hellenize the town. While the Jewish population remained the same, its relative significance in size was radically reduced. The introduction of mandatory schooling in Greek cut into the long-standing use of Ladino as the language of every day life. But the real killer — literally and figuratively — was the Nazi occupation. Without going into all the details, between 1941 and 1944 something like 96 percent of the town’s Jewish population was deported and put to death in German concentration camps. Today there are only a few thousand Jews in Salonika. For me this sense of complete loss, of disappearance… it makes the whole thing a bit like a fairy tale with a bad ending. However a sizeable population of Jews from the area escaped and settled in the U.S. bringing with them their complex and flavorful history came too.

I met Adrian through the Southern Foodways Alliance (an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the diverse food cultures of the American South), and over the years he has been invaluable to me in my efforts to learn more about the influence of African Americans in this country’s culinary history and he’s also a really great guy. He former Special Assistant to President Clinton and is currently Senior Policy Analyst to Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. More importantly (maybe) for this piece, his passion for food leads him to spend his free time as a certified barbecue judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society and as a board member for the Southern Foodways Alliance. He’s currently writing a history of soul food in America. We’re thrilled to have him as our special guest at our January 21 dinner at the Roadhouse so we sat down to talk about food, politics, and White House cheeseburgers.

Ari: You’ve been studying African American cooking and eating for quite a while now. What are some of the big themes that have struck you?
Adrian: The first theme is creativity. It’s been amazing to learn how Africans used familiar and foreign ingredients to forge several fusion cuisines in the Americas. The second is artistry. Throughout our nation’s history, African American cooks have been lauded for their culinary skill in a variety of contexts: restaurateurs, chefs, caterers, private family cooks, hired out cooks and street vendors to name a few. By the late 1800s, many American gourmands boasted that the culinary talent of African American cooks rivaled, if not excelled, those of French chefs. I haven’t been able to determine whether or not these gourmands argued with their mouths full of food.

Ari: What are the biggest surprises?
Adrian: My research has turned up several surprises, a couple of which I’ll mention. First, I’ve learned that enslaved West Africans did far more to recreate home through the foods they ate. Sure they often had different ingredients, but those enslaved cooks figured out ways to substitute New World ingredients into familiar dishes. That’s why so many plantation dishes are remarkably similar to meals prepared in West Africa.

Another surprise is the extent to which African American cooking has evolved in ways very similar to other immigrants. When immigrants settle in the U.S., they typically eat more meat, dairy, fats and sweets here than they did in their home country. This makes sense because immigrants tend to be more prosperous in their adopted country. For African Americans, that prosperity, and corresponding dietary changes, came after Emancipation when African Americans migrated from the home “country,” the rural South, to their adopted “country,” urban centers in the North and the South.

Ari: What are three or four things you wish all Americans knew about African American cooking?
Adrian: First, “Soul food” is not the total sum of “African American cooking.” African American cooks, sometimes by choice but mainly by force, prepared a variety of foods for themselves and others. For example, wealthy families often had their enslaved cooks apprentice under French chefs in order to prepare the best French dishes. French, Italian, Kosher foods—you name it and African American cooks have made it.

Second, and related to the first, African American cooking has shaped at least four regional cuisines in the U.S.: the Chesapeake Bay area; the Lowcountry region stretching from southern North Carolina along the Atlantic Coast to northern Florida; the lower Mississippi Delta region which includes Cajun country and New Orleans creoles; and a broad swath of the interior, rural areas of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, commonly nicknamed “The Black Belt” or “The Cotton Belt.” I believe that what we call “soul food” strongly represents the inherited cooking practices of the rural interior areas of the American South, not the coastlines.

Third, African American cooking can be healthy. This is shocking to those who think of African American cooking as boiling some food for hours and then deep frying it before serving. For centuries, African American cuisines were mainly based on a wide variety of vegetables and seafood—as they have been in West Africa. It is only in the last one hundred years, as African Americans moved to the cities that soul food has “gone bad.” As I mentioned earlier, African Americans became more prosperous and could afford more meat, fatty foods and sweets. Thus, foods that were for special occasions in the rural South became more commonplace in the city. However, city life brought a more sedentary lifestyle and over time the health problems associated with diet emerged. It’s interesting to see African American cooking now re-invent itself as cooks try to carry on culinary traditions while cutting back on the fat and sugar intake.

Ari: This year’s African American dinner at the Roadhouse is going to be about African Americans in the White House. What are some of the foods and the ideas you’re planning to cover?
Adrian: I first want to describe the two lines of cooking in the White House. Haute cuisine would define one line which was done for entertaining diplomats and wealthy members of the public. The President would often retain a European chef or an African American caterer to do such meals.

“Comfort food” best describes the second line of cooking. This was the way Presidents ate in private. Because we’ve had so many southerners as Presidents, there have been a lot of African Americans in the White House kitchen. Some were free, but most were enslaved cooks brought from their master’s plantation—the slave master being the President of the United States. There are many historical references where presidents said they preferred the comfort food to the fancy meals.

On the campaign trail, we are going to talk about barbecue. Many scholars argue that 1840 matchup of William Henry Harrison against Martin Van Buren was probably the first modern presidential campaign. It was “modern” in that the issues didn’t really seem to matter and the electorate was dazzled by campaign songs, political spin and massive barbecues where thousands attended and politicians spoke…for hours without a microphone!

Ari: Who were some of the key figures in the history of African Americans in the White House?
Adrian: We’ll learn about Samuel Fraunces, a free, West Indian immigrant of color, who was George Washington’s steward and literally nourished the American Revolution and Washington’s fledgling presidency. We’ll also hear about Hercules, the enslaved cook who Washington cherished. Then there’s James Hemings, the brother of the more notable Sally Hemings. Thomas Jefferson brought Hemings with him to France and had him trained in French cooking. We’ll learn more about his story and his recipes. We’ll also hear about Dolly Johnson, a famous Kentucky cook who worked for President Benjamin Harrison. President Cleveland fired her, and then tried to rehire her—she declined to come back. There’s also Vietta Garr, the Truman’s family cook. She too had a short stint at the White House, only to return because the President begged her to come back. We’ll end with a look at Zephyr Wright, the last true family cook to grace the White House kitchen under Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Ari: I know you’re writing a history of soul food. How’s it going?
Adrian: After eight years of research, things are going extremely well and I can actually see the Published Land, I mean the Promised Land. I’m finishing a couple of sample chapters, and then I’ll start looking for literary agents or I’ll go straight to a publisher. The Internet has been the biggest treasure trove for me. As more and more old resources are digitized and made available, the more I learn about what the world was like for African American cooks in the 18th and 19th centuries. I think I could spend the rest of my life happily doing research, but at some point that would be considered really pathetic.

Ari: How do you see soul food fitting into the White House world?
Adrian: With so many slave-owning southerners having served as president, soul food is an indelible part of the White House’s edible history. A lot of the cooking would best be described as “southern,” but there are many accounts of presidents eating things like roasted opossum and sweet potatoes. Rest assured, nothing says soul like “possum n’ taters!”

Ari: What are your hopes for the kitchen in the new Obama White House?
Adrian: I have several hopes. First, when it comes to public dining events like state dinners I hope the Obama White House will use it as a platform to celebrate and showcase America’s regional cuisines. I hope there will be more transparency such as digitizing the menus so that we can all learn more about our country’s bounty.

Second, I hope the Obamas recognize the power of food to bridge the artificial divides we have in our society. In my work with the Southern Foodways Alliance, and my experience as a barbecue judge, I’ve connected with people in ways I never would have expected. Being post-partisan will help a great deal, but as for the Obama’s private dining, I hope they will get some privacy. I mean, look at all of the attention paid to their choice of a puppy! We’re a food-obsessed society, and many will want to know what the Obamas are eating, but I think we should lay off. However, I will offer some unsolicited advice to Malia and Sasha—the White House Mess makes a glorious cheeseburger!