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know this may sound ironic to you but it is true. Only a few Soul
Food restaurants still exist from the old school era. My data is
based on being a longtime Harlem resident and diner, beginning in
the sixties to present day.
Restaurants
like Adel’s - famous for her great chocolate cakes; Wilson’s
- the great breakfast spot and Wells - home of the chicken &
waffles (don’t forget the chicken man), his complete menu
consisted of two specialties; golden brown pan-fried, scrumptious
chicken made to order, a delicious one-of-a-kind biscuit.
In
this new millennium, only a handful of the old school restaurants
survived from that era. Copeland’s - which started in 1959.
Sylvia’s hit the scene in 1962. M&G is another long-timer
starting in 1968, and Louise Family Restaurant starting in 1964.This
about sums up the core of the old school restaurants. Oh, by the
way, did you know that Sylvia is Louise’s aunt? Now that’s
what I call a cooking family.
Now
we venture into the category that I like to call the new school
Harlem Soul Food restaurants. Trust me, there aren’t that
many. Lets start with Amy Ruth’s - the third best known Soul
Food restaurant in Harlem after Sylvia’s and Copeland’s.
Next comes my favorite, Londel’s. A great menu, gorgeous décor,
and a very friendly bar, ha, ha, ha.
The
last true Soul Food restaurant left is Charles’ Southern Kitchen.
After that, the others sport a mixture of Soul Food and other cuisines.
For example, Spoon Bread - Soul and Cajun cuisines. Manna’s
- Soul, Oriental and Spanish cuisines. Native - Pacific Coast cuisine.
and Revival - Soul, French, and Italian cuisines. So go figure…
at the end of the day, there are about five or six true Soul Food
restaurants left in a community where Soul Food restaurants once
dominated the scene. They are indeed a dying breed.
The
following are the basic ingredients and a few do's and don'ts of
pure, Soul Food cooking;
Meats
- Chicken (fried, baked, stewed, smothered), Steak (smothered,
peppered, Salisbury), Oxtails, Stewed Beef, Meatloaf, Pork Chops
(fried, smothered), Spareribs, Beacon, Ham, Fried Fish and Salmon
Crochets.
Vegetables - Collard Greens, Cabbage, String
Beans, Corn, Mixed Vegetables, Cole Slaw, Garden Salad, Green
Peas, Mashed Potatoes, Black-eyed Peas, Candied Yams, Macaroni
and Cheese, Lima Beans and Potato Salad.
Breads - Corn Bread, Corn Muffins, Biscuits and
Dinner Rolls.
Desserts - Sweet Potato Pie, Banana Pudding,
Peach Cobbler, Apple Cobbler, Blackberry Cobbler, Apple Pie, Chocolate
Cake, Coconut Cake and Lemon Meringue Pie.
Do's - Always pan fry southern fried chicken.
Always use flour base. Always clean chicken well and cook well-done,
the smaller the cut, the easier it cooks and the better it tastes.
Don’ts
- Never deep fry southern fried chicken. Never use meal or corn
meal. Take all pinfeathers and fat from chicken, do not leave fat under skin
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