Here’s the next Food and Folklore event for January:
Here’s the menu:
Passed Hors D’ouevres
Mojito Marinated Grilled Chicken Skewers
Tostones topped with Black Bean Puree and Habanera-Lime Sour Cream
Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche
Empanadas de Queso
First Course
Avocado-Mango Salad with Jalapeno Lime Vinaigrette
Entrée
Grilled Pork Tenderloin or Red Snapper with Guava Glaze and Mojo Sauce
over Black Beans and Rice
Dessert
Coconut Caramel and Rum Flan
WHEN: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 6:30 PM
WHO: NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten will share highlights from his biography of the Bacardi family (Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba), founders of the rum company that inspired the “Cuba Libre”; and Daphne Muse, writer and mixologist specializing in “rhum,” will introduce her recent creation, the “Zojito” a libation paying tribute to Zora Neale Hurston. Muse was a judge for the first US International Cane Spirits Festival Competition presented by the Ministry of Rum. (Proper ID required for rum tasting.)
Make that reservation:
foodandfolklore@gmail.com or call 202-332-ZORA (9672) Eatonville Restaurant
2121 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
If Zora were here, she might jump up on the table and dance.
Washington Post (November 16, 2009)
I’m still trying to figure out the Crow Dance?
The first Food and Folklore event at Eatonville Restaurant was a big success with food, company, talk time, and spirit. The maiden launch which coincided with other Zora-themed events at the restaurant that weekend was covered by staff writer David Montgomery in the Washington Post, Monday, November 16 in the Style section – front page and back! Eatonville hosted Valerie Boyd, Zora Neale Hurston biographer, who’s introduced “Zora-head” to this social mix.
The theme for the December 9th Food and Folklore event is African American Holiday Traditions and Celebrations. Camille Giraud Akeju director of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum will be the special guest talking about the museum’s 2008 exhibit “Jubilee: African American Celebration.” Last weekend I enjoyed lunch with Camille, Eatonville owner Andy Shallal and Eatonville executive chef Rusty Holman to talk menu, food and meaning. You just can’t talk about food without swapping stories. Food traditions seem to come from what’s readily available to the household and in season. Even I remember when oranges made an annual appearance around Thanksgiving through New Years straight from Florida. Today I see my favorite navels all year round straight from South Africa and Chile. According to Valerie Boyd, oranges were among Zora’s favorite fruits. Note: Eatonville was her childhood Florida home.
Christmas and Thanksgiving certainly have a crossover appeal with variations on the themes depending on means, region, culture, race, and denomination. I’ll never forget my first Puerto Rican Thanksgiving. No turkey. Pork shoulder.
But it’s New Years eve that seems to have significant meaning in the African American experience particularly after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people in the U.S. It would be the law of the land at the beginning of the new year in 1863. It took a little more time for that message to get to Texas.
Is that what the church “watch night” (New Years eve) was all about?
I’ve gone into a panic about not having black eyed peas on my plate for New Years. Even Martha Stewart’s been stirring black eyed peas. Since Martha’s adopted this tradition, I have to get to the grocery store earlier than December 31st to get my stash. For years I never questioned why it’s important to have the peas on the plate or for a Black Man to be the first to walk through your door on New Years Day. I’ll have to find out before December 9 for the next Food and Folklore.
It’s BYOS – Bring Your Own Stories. Zora-heads welcomed. Listen to Zora sing the “Crow Dance” song here on the Library of Congress website of Florida folklore in the WPA collections.
Reservations required for Food and Folklore at Eatonville Restaurant; prix fix menu (see below): Email foodandfolklore[at]gmail[dot]com or call 202-332-ZORA (9672)
Eatonville Restaurant invited me to work with them on a new monthly series of themed dinners called FOOD AND FOLKLORE. It combines three of my favorite things, food, culture, and Zora Neale Hurston. When I was introduced to the concept of crafting menus and a program around something topical, I thought “dinner party.”
With that, I looked up some tid bits about Zora’s kind of entertaining. Poet Sterling Brown said Zora “was the party.” Another mention was a “generosity with food.” Or artist/writer Richard Bruce Nugent (who was also in DC before he went to Harlem for their Renaissance in the 1920s) recalled, Zora would serve “not just food, but anything that you might be hungry for.”
I was part of the chef selection group when Eatonville Restaurant was a canvas in the corner space of the Union Row condominiums at 14th & V Streets, NW in DC. My role was not only to serve up opinion on the fried chicken and sandwich challenge, but to give the chef candidates an orientation to the woman who inspired owner Andy Shallal to create this sophisticated sister across from his poet Langston Hughes-inspired Busboys and Poets. I still haven’t convinced anyone to put gingerbread and butter milk on the menu – Zora’s fall back when she was cash strapped.
Valerie Boyd, author of the Zora Neale Hurston biography Wrapped In Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston— a very cozy book that you can sink yourself into–is the special dinner guest for Food and Folklore at Eatonville Restaurant on November 13 at 6:30 PM. Valerie contributed recommendations for the menu.
The evening begins with a reception with passed hors d’oeuvers, followed by dinner and dessert with the guest speaker. The prix fixe menu, prepared by executive chef Rusty Holman , is $45 per person (plus tax and tip).
Reservations are required for FOOD AND FOLKLORE: Email – foodandfolklore@gmail.com or call 202-332-(ZORA)(9672).
Eatonville Restaurant is located at 2121 14th Street, NW in the historic U Street corridor. It’s named for the childhood and spiritual home writer, playright, anthropologist/folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.
I’ll be chatting it up on WPFW-FM Thursday, November 5 at 9:30 AM on “Metro Watch.”
When Andy Shallal told me he was opening a restaurant inspired by Zora Neale Hurston, I was more curious as to how a companion to Busboys and Poets (named after Zora’s old poet pal Langston Hughes) would size up. Would there be a stage for folk stories? A wall of hat racks? Blues guitarists. Why wasn’t I thinking food? Well, by the time Andy started auditioning chefs, he asked me to meet with the candidates and talk about Zora the woman and writer and inspirations for food. Then I started getting hungry.
Long story short (and a longer story is in the works), Eatonville is now open for eaters. Having participated in the chef judging, I thought I’d bring the restaurant into the Big Read – D.C. with a food tasting. Afterall, Georgia native Carson McCullers was a southern writer, right? Any excuse to eat good food. Zora Neale Hurston was D.C.’s first Big Read author in 2007 and the city read of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora attended Howard University. In fact our group was seated in the Hilltop room not far from the mural that pays tribute to Zora’s Howard days and the student newspaper – “The Hilltop” – she named.
With so much going on in DC, it’s hard to bring in an audience even for a free food tasting at a new restaurant. All I have to say is whoever bagged out missed it! Whoever wasn’t paying attention, better for us. We felt like queens — like Zora. She was the life of the party afterall.
But enough about Zora. What about the food? Rusty Holman of North Carolina is the new chef. Our tasting plate included 3 cheese macaroni and cheese, fried green tomato, mushroom loaf, and Vidalia Onion, Tomato and White Cheddar Tart. After a sit down chat with owner Andy Shallal and a moment with the chef (his first big day on the job), Andy invited us to taste the deserts. No argument there. More applause. In came plates and bowls of berry cobbler, lemon mousse, chocolate mousse, almond pound cake, and bread pudding with sauce.
We’re already making plans for a return visit. In fact we started ordering more food on the spot just to taste – Gumbo, Hushpuppies, Collard Greens. I’m returning for an Oyster Po’ boy.
To be continued. The Eatonville experience has peaked my interest in exploring what is Southern cooking? What have I abandoned for convenience sake knowing that a whole generation who fed me the love from their kitchens have moved on to join the ancestors.
Time to step it up and do what Zora did. Collect and preserve the culture. Pass the gingerbread and buttermilk.
Enjoy the pics!
Eatonville
2121 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
202-332-ZORA (9672) http://eatonvillerestaurant.com
Currently open for dinner only.