College Cuisine: American Soul Food

So, tonight was a theme night in my college dining hall and the theme was...you guessed it "American Soul Food." Now, I had to check out the menu beforehand to get an idea of what would be served and then I realized it was typical "southern" cuisine. Never have I lived in the south, visited the south, or been served a meal by someone from the south, so this was all new to me and I was excited to try a few things I hadn't before.

Here's a run down of the menu:

• Corn on the Cob
• Collard Greens
• Fried Chicken
• BBQ Baby Back Ribs
• Stewed Black Eyed Peas with Rice
• Hush Puppies
• Spooned Bread

I looked at this and immediately noticed some things that I had no idea existed. Namely the spooned bread and hush puppies. I mean, I'd heard of hush puppies before, but had no idea what they actually were. I bit into the small, dense ball of some cornbread-looking thing only to find that it pretty much was cornbread. I hope I'm not offending any hush puppy lovers out there, but seriously, I wasn't impressed. Neither was my stomach actually. I could only eat one of the dense little bread balls to save myself for dessert! Maybe our dining hall version of this just isn't up to par. Wouldn't be the first time...

Anyway, next I moved onto the spooned bread, which again, resembled a pan of flat cornbread, just not in a ball form. By this point I was wondering why they didn't just make cornbread.  I was surprised however, and didn't think it was too bad.  I picked up sort of an eggy, salty flavor that was slightly different than the sweeter, fried flavor of the hush puppy. Meh, it's something I could live without.

Recipe from KFC here (from the Colonel himself :P)



When I saw the collard greens I almost jumped for joy! I am ashamed that this is my first time trying them, I feel like all chefs know how to cook simple collard greens. They just never looked exciting to me. I was wrong. They were great! They didn't even need a lot of flavor to them and I was happy eating them mixed with the black eyed peas/rice mixture.

After a hearty meal with my stomach full of soul, I moved on to the dessert counter and spotted what I knew I had to try: Sweet Potato Pie! Just imagine a pumpkin pie here, but darker more sweet-potato-ey. It was alright, the spices were nice, but I have an inkling the dining hall just bought a bunch of packaged pies. Oh well, it was a nice way to end the dinner.

Overall, I would have to say this dinner inspired me to try more of this southern style "soul food." I will have to experiment with collard greens myself when I get home. I'm not even sure I've seen them in our grocery store. Hm, going to have to do some hunting... Anyone have any opinions or recipes they'd like to share? I'm a good listener and I'm still looking for that first comment/follower. Come on, you know you want to be the first right? :)

Eat Hearty and Be Healthy!

Stephanie, WWT