African American Foods

In fifth grade our teacher made us write down our dream occupation and decorate the letters on a piece of paper. My piece of paper had said "chef" on it. She then proceeded to take pictures of each and every one of us and posted them on her personal blog for us to see. I wanted to continue my cooking passion and create my own blog post to see how much I can grow and learn about the fine culinary arts.

The before photo.

 
I picked out an African-American Heritage Cooking book called The Welcome Table by Jessica B. Harris.
I chose a simple tomato, cucumber, and onion salad. I chose this because it was fairly similar to what my mom creates at home and I wanted to see how the African-American version of this salad was similar and/or different to our Russian version!







The after photo. Cut and peeled. Aesthetics, right?










"Several years later my admiration for Mrs. Lippman grew and when I found out that she and I shared a fondness for leftover salad eaten the next morning at breakfast."(B. Harris page 68-69)


Like any human, you begin to like them more and connect when you realize you have things in common with that person. Jessica began to admire Mrs. Lippman when she realized that they both had the same mindset. Nothing should go to waste. Simple salad for breakfast.



"If there's any left over, refrigerate it overnight and serve it the following morning as a breakfast salad. The vegetables will have marinated in the dressing and be even more intensely flavored" (B. Harris page 69).


This quote talks about how if you want more intense flavors in a salad or any food, leave it to marinate over night and eat and/or prepare it the next day.


This reminded me that nothing should go to waste. I cut the tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, scraping up each little bit. Not only was this a side to my dinner that night but also breakfast the next morning. The next morning I got up and tried the African-American culture by eating it in the morning. The juices from all of the vegetable released making it more flavorful than the night before.


Even if this was a fairly simple salad I learned that intensifying flavors isn't terribly hard. Just needs a little bit of time!


Question for you:
What are some dull foods you have tried that you could marinate over night to create more enjoyable flavors?


Thank you for reading(: