Food Stereotypes

Here's a well-written article from The Root, a black-oriented 'zine, on shattering the Soul Food stereotypes typically associated with black cuisine.
I don't know about you, but I could go for some sauteed okra and grilled grit cake right about now!

Admittedly I pigeonhole a great deal of black-owned restaurants here in Nashville as unhealthy and overcooked. Sweatt's , Monell's and even Prince's Hot Chicken are places you go once and then stay away, because salt, sugar and grease, though tasty, can be downright deadly.

Perhaps because I can count on one hand the times I have spent at the dinner table of a black family, I assume through such respectable and accurate depictions of black culture in Soul Food and The Nutty Professor ("Hercules, Hercules!") that so much of black food is mac 'n cheese, chitlins and collard greens.

The Root article proves otherwise, that so much of black food is intended to be unpretentious, fresh, local and real. And that's more than can be said for a lot of the food out there right now.