I know this looks like a sloppy mess…but this is soul food, baby…
This is how Soul Food looks in Paris
Some of you may know that while I was living in Paris in 2006, I had a blog called Black Girl in Paris. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to kill that blog. But that does not mean the posts are dead. I have decided to post some of the posts from this old blog here. I wrote the post below after I cooked a soul food meal in Paris for Easter. I remember skinning catfish, scouring Paris for corn meal and baking some chicken wings. Read about it below.
Just last week, I decided to cook a real soul food dinner for Easter. I kept thinking of fried catfish, greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, potato salad, sweet potatoes… I could have gone to the only soul food restaurant in Paris. It’s right around the corner from my house. But I knew it just wouldn’t satisfy my soul, nor my tastebuds.
So at the last minute, I decided to invite some friends over for an Easter dinner. The bad part about this was that I had one day to buy the ingredients for fried catfish, greens, black-eyed peas, cornbread, potato salad, and sweet potatoes.
I trekked all the way down to Chinatown for some greens and the first store didn’t even have it….But they did have frozen catfish, and boy, was I excited. It also had this corn flour that I thought I could used to make cornbread. Boy, was I wrong. The next store DID have greens. I bought them at 3 Euro for half a bunch.
By the time I finished shopping, I had gone to three different grocery stores, one in my nearby ‘hood (Chateau Rouge), one in Chinatown, and Champion (the upscale grocery store) — and had spent a load of money.
Below is a little guide to finding the ingredients for a soul food dinner. Before you use my bootleg guide, you might want to check out Monique Wells’ “Food for the Soul: A Texas Expatriate Nurtures Her Culinary Roots in Paris.” In the back of the book, she has an extensive listing of where to find soul food ingredients in Paris.
I have a copy of the book, but I left it at home!!! Never again will I leave Chicago for Paris without this book.
Greens: I didn’t find them initially at Tang Freres, but I did find it at another asian grocery store down the street (and I can’t remember its name…but if I go back there I will update the name and address).
Sweet Potatoes: I made the mistake of buying some old and expensive sweet potatoes at Champion. I found the best and cheapest pink sweet potatoes in Chateau Rouge. Do NOT by any means buy the non-pink sweet potatoes. They are just not good for black American soul food.
This is not the cornmeal you buy at home...
Cornmeal: Never buy the Maizena! This is NOT real cornmeal. I found some real cornmeal in Chateau Rouge at 2 Euro for 1 kilo. This cornmeal, however, was quite coarse and my cornbread was extra dry! But if I had to do it all over again, I would just buy a really expensive bag of REAL cornmeal from Thanksgiving, an American restaurant and market.
I had to skin this catfish
Catfish: Where can you find some skinned catfish steaks in Paris? I have no idea, but please tell me if you know. I found a whole frozen catfish at Tang Freres. I had to skin the catfish and cut it! This is something that I will never do in Paris again…However, according to an article on Monique Wells’ Food for the Soul book, you can find live catfish in the Chateau Rouge fish market.
Black-eyed peas: Tang Freres and Chateau Rouge
Okra: Tang Freres or Chateau Rouge. This is not a typical French ingredient, so do not look for it in regular grocery stores.
Potatoes: Anywhere. However, if you like American mustard in your potato salad, don’t expect to find it at a French grocery store. Just get it at the Thanksgiving location.
Fatback, turkey butts, pig tails: Usually, I use turkey butts in my soul food, but I didn’t have the slightest idea where to look for this item. So I just bought some smoked, salted, thick-sliced bacon from Champion. This worked out just fine.
Do you think you could do the same?
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