Watch "High on the Hog"

[ysabetwordsmith]

We watched the first episode of "High on the Hog" tonight.  It traces the roots of soul food from Africa through America.  This episode features Benin and foods like yams (the original, not the sweet potato substitute), okra, and black-eyed peas.  It's a lot heavier than most food shows, but it has great culinary and historical detail, with black people exploring and telling their own stories.  If you appreciate ethnic history and food, this is a wonderful of example of history written by someone other than the winners.  Most highly recommended.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Thank you for the recommendation. I watched the first episode last night. I really appreciate that the producers put the food in the context of the place, the culture, and its history. That's incredibly powerful. <<

Yeah, I wish more food shows were like that.

I've found a few others with strong cultural imprints -- there was a taco series so sensual that I'd call it R-rated food pr0n.

>> Did it strike you that Stephen Satterfield bears a striking resemblance to Chad Boseman? He even moves the same way. It's strikingly different from American patterns of movement, too.<<

Yep. Other things that caught my attention:

* I admire a black man secure enough to cry on camera.

* He talked openly about a little bit of ancestor magic that's been around for centuries, since some abolitionist groups funded repatriation trips for former slaves -- that part about bringing the ancestors home. People do it, but they almost never talk about it. I've seen a few references to it in slave narratives and then again from the Civil Rights Movement when a few activists when over there. I think this was the first time I've seen any mention of it on TV.