Black is poppin' big time in Toronto lately and I'll never be mad at that. The newbie magazine aimed at us called Sway is still around after like, 5 issues and not only is it free but it actually has the shiny high expectations you'd expect from paid circulation mags. The cover alone is such heavy glossy paper it makes me gloriously dizzy. Sorry - magazine journalism student!
A group of investors is currently in negotiations to change the face of Toronto's waterfront with a so-called Africana Village that will commemorate Black's contributions to Toronto and Canada.
And a new resto has opened downtown, apparently since December of 2006, called Harlem.
In Sway magazine they describe it as "soul food fusion". I do not. Although a lot of the focus I give to stories on this blog are soul food oriented when they're not I'm not gonna insist on slapping the soul food label on them. The recipes I will be trying will run the gamut of cuisine but if it's not soul food I won't tell you it is. As Judge Judy says, "don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!"
Call me a purist but take a look at the menu below and feast your eyes on veggie samosas, quesadilla filled with jerk chicken, Chinese noodles with peanut sesame sauce (sounds Thai to me), curried tomato spread, and the fact that almost everything comes with mangoes.
There are arguments to be made that jerk is related to soul food and that the cuisine does in fact incorporate aspects of Caribbean culture. I disagree. Soul food and Caribbean food are similar variations on different themes. Slaves brought over to the Americas brought with them their unique methods of preparing food. In the Caribbean and parts of South America, they put an African spin on Spanish cuisine (which in itself was derived in part from Arab cooking), adding a dash of Native islander knowledge of local plants (spices included) and animals. The exact same thing occurred in North America with cuisine that was modified primarily from English and Scotch-Irish cooking. With that in mind, England had not yet become the curry capital of Europe and hence curry is not a traditional aspect of soul food nor are mangoes.
The dinner menu posted on the site isn't any better:
Sigh.
But the name of the restaurant is what irks me the most. If this was simply a Black restaurant named almost anything else I'd be down with it (although I find the menu quite repulsive, boring and lacking meat - I'm just sayin'!) but that they are trying to trade off of an inherently American name to sell what's essentially Caribbean food with a dash of top-selling-watered-down-world cuisine like quesadillas.
Tasty fresh fruit pumpkin seeds and citrus in a lime molasses dressing on a bed of spring greens? Harlem?
Fried plantain, avocado and Chèvre with herbs and lemon dressing in a whole wheat tortilla?
Harlem?
"The Harlem" sandwich recipe: Swiss cheese, ham, and jerked chicken, with mango mustard and avocado. WTF?
That ain't soul food or fusion. Oh snap, I forgot they do have sweet potato biscuits (home made) on the menu that come with a bowl of soup (curried French onion no doubt, to keep up the multicultural bastardization).
Why would you name a restaurant Harlem - knowing the image that people would conjure up based on that name is 180 different than your concept? Sure the press the eatery is getting focuses on the decor as Harlem-esque but where's the proverbial beef? It's like that other restaurant in Toronto, irritatingly named Soul Food that is Carribbean plain and simple. Why? I think it's deceptive at worst, and just plain sneaky at best. if I went out of my way to reach their spot only to find out that it's not as advertised according to the name, I'd be pissed.
Now it's not all bad, and I hate feeling like a big bitch for callin' out a brother who's trying to make a business. It's always nice to see a Black guy use his talents in creative ways - especially non hip hop related ways. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hip hop, but the world has gotten so that people think that's all we can do.
Co-owner Carl Cassell is an exceptional artist, who's work flanks the restaurant walls. I'd love to own some of it one day. He's done big things with his (more appropriately named) Irie Food Joint on Queen St. West an kudos to him for for strivin' to be more and not stoppin' at one success despite protestations from others. Because of course I'm not the only one causing ruckus albeit for completely different reasons although in one such instance it does concern the restaurant name. It's appalling but not surprising that in the Sway article it's noted that neighborhood locals tried to take issue with the restaurant by calling into question the negative connotations associated with the name Harlem. *snort of derision* (my argument is better.)
Even more hilariously, according to Wordmag (predecessor to Sway - less glossy but more hip hop) the restaurants site is that of the former swingers club (yes you read that right) called Wicked. Apparently neighbors in the seedy decrepit area of Richmond & Church Streets would prefer the upstanding caliber of patron that frequented a sex den than Black professionals imbibing cocktails at a shiny new vibrant venue.
But then my neck swings back to the annoying if not disappointing point that on the events page of Harlem's website, with the title "barmaid beauty" is a White girl. I can already hear the cries of disdain from any White people who stumble on this page but the fact of the matter is if you're gonna have a Black business, widely touted as being owned and run by by 3 brothas, filled with Black art, serving so-called Black food, and named after a historically Black neighborhood, it'd be nice to not have the White girl show up first on the events page. I guess a White bartender will at least guarantee a few Black male patrons at the very least. LOL
I will be patronizing Harlem Restaurant soon and report back on whether their God-awful (sounding) menu is at the very least tasty.
A bit of Harlem in Toronto? A lot less than you'd think
Cooking from a Black Persepective
I've been hemming an hawing about if and how I wanted to do a food blog for quite some time now and I've finally decided to give it a shot when I realized how truly interested I've become in gastronomical pursuits. Everybody loves food but when you start asking for mandolin's at Christmas, a ricer, or even a melon baller, one can assume that you're a bit more serious than some about your relationship with food. Me, I'm a cautious experimenter. I mean shit, I'm Black yo! LOLNot to offend the bougie gourmands who are also of the Black persuasion but Black people have a different mind set about food. What is and isn't normally eaten would make most foodies roll their eyes at our ignorance. Some things are simple we like pork and most pork products. We do not and are not in the habit of eating anything raw or 'tartar' *affect a snooty British accent when you say it.We also like things saucy and spicier than our White counterparts. This does not mean blow-the-roof-off-your-mouth hot. We like spice – not necessarily “hot” . Seasonings that are flavourful and sumptuous with zest and kick. I’m not a fan of Tabasco (unless it’s in a prairie fire) for this reason exactly. I don't do missions to see who can withstand the hottest scoville measurement; that's so not my style. I actually make my own hot sauce that I just might share one of these days...if you're lucky ;-)
I live in downtown Toronto just steps away from Chinatown and Kensington Market, which I absolutely adore for food shopping. Many people in the city like to go to St. Lawrence Market for whatever cache they feel it lends them. I hate it. It’s too over priced, the veggies are often over ripe or rotten and it’s embarrassing to see the St. Andrew Poultry truck pull up outside and make deliveries straight from…wait for it, their slaughterhouse in Kensington market! I hate the snob factor in food. I don’t know how many people have told me that they think Chinatown is dirty or that they don’t have the same quality of food up there. For everyday cooking this neighborhood is excellent for produce, meat and fish. Of course if you’re doing high-end cooking I think the best places to go are Meat on the Beach, The Healthy Butcher or Cumbraes but I work in the arts which basically means I get paid in crumbs so unless I’m doing a fab roast beef, steak or crown roast of lamb (or get a fat raise in salary) I’ll be frequenting my market regulars. This blog is meant to be a smorgasbord of flavours and techniques, some of which I might be trying for the first time, which is kinda why I’m documenting it. I’ve also started it because there appears to be a serious lack of Black food bloggers out here. I know we can throw down in the kitchen and know we eat hearty so why don’t we blog about it?You will find that a lot of my home cooking is in the Southern tradition because as a Black Nova Scotian our roots go through the Underground Railroad. We do not have a large Caribbean population like Toronto, in fact I hadn’t even experienced curry chicken until I came to Toronto. Down home, we like black-eyed peas in our rice not pigeon peas like Jamaicans, we eat pasta and we prefer our chicken fried not jerk. That said, since I’ve come here I appreciate Caribbean cooking a lot and have perfected many dishes that even true West Indians have given me props for. This blog is purely for my pleasure. I want to experiment with a wide range of cooking styles and explore the gamut of culinary subjects, some that aren’t always politically correct but fuck it. This is my blog. With an intro like that how could I not make this recipe my first: Pot Cookies comin’ up!
