Fried Chicken Is Soul Food & Should Be Honored And Embraced As Such [View all]

[KittyWampus]

The whole argument against acknowledging fried chicken as representing Soul Food reminds me of the time when many lefties wouldn't use the word "liberal" because a few loud mouths in politics/media decided to make it a dirty word.

Rather than allowing some antiquated, negative attitudes dictate your perception of what fried chicken is or is not in relation to soul food and African American cookery and culture, it's a good idea to LEARN something about it.

How it got onto the Soul Food plate and what it signifies being there.

Food is one part of of my Anthropological interests. What food people eat tells us a lot about them.

Food also has a lot of subconscious "stuff" attached to it. We often eat by habit and find emotions attached to food. So it's kind of easy to stir up a fuss when critically inspecting the food a person or a people eat.

Last month I found a new book in my local library by Adrian Miller entitled "Soul Food". It's a good, interesting read. He has a great writing style. Very engaging.

There is a whole chapter on chickens and fried chicken in his book. It's so interesting. On Amazon you can open the book and read part of the chapter on fried chicken. He also included recipes, by the way.


Here is a short blurb from Miller's website on how one might talk about ANY food being considered as Soul Food-

In Soul Food–really a love letter to African American cooks–I create a representative soul food meal, and I write a separate chapter on each part of the meal. So, there are chapters on fried chicken, greens, black-eyed peas, etc. In an informative and entertaining way, I discuss the history of each food item and answer the following questions:

What is the food item?
How did it get on the soul food plate?
What does the food item mean for African American culture?