Mm Mm Good…

Charleston, South Carolina is revered for its "genteel " elegance and southern tradition. But also on the opposite side of that, Charleston is also known for the grass roots culture of the Gullah people. And while I was impressed with the charm of downtown Charleston, I admit that my rendezvous with Gullah culture left a far sweeter taste in my mouth than I expected.
As our class shuffled into Gullah Cuisine, a restaurant located in the Mt. Pleasant part of Charleston, I held a certain level of hesitancy with my excitement. The only thing that I knew about Gullah people was what I got from that Nickelodeon TV series that featured a big yellow polliwog, so I was excited to learn more about the culture—I just wasn’t that excited about eating the food.

Pearce had called ahead to inform the restaurant that we were waiting and Kesha was there waiting for us when we arrived. It was her family’s restaurant and she had instructed them to reserve the large dining area for us. We settled down and she introduced herself as well as the culture behind the restaurant. She quickly explained that the Gullah people were slaves from Sierra Leone who remained near the beaches of South Carolina after they were emancipated. She went on elaborating on the grass baskets that they are known for and the origins of Gullah cuisine. Like slaves and freed slaves after that, the Gullah people were often force to use scraps to make their food from, and from these scraps, or undesirable vegetables and meat parts Gullah cuisine was born. It soon occurred to me that this sounded similar to the origins of soul food, which is what I grew up eating.

As Kesha went on, she mentioned that Gullah food was very rich and that a lot of it was seafood based. She mentioned several dishes we could try like broccoli casserole, yams, collard greens and succotash, and I was heading for the buffet. These were all foods that I was familiar with. I loaded my first plate with BBQ pork, yams, macaroni and cheese, succotash, collard greens, okra and a huge roll. And I devoured all of it. I wasn’t the only one either. After everyone in my group sat down with food, our room was completely silent because everyone was eating, and this is always proof of good food.

As I continued to work on my first plate I took a sip of sweet tea and felt joy come over me. It occurred to me that I hadn’t felt so much like myself in a long time. And then I also realized that I hadn’t had soul food, the food I grew up on, my comfort food, in a really long time either. It actually hadn’t been since our day Little Rock. Vegetarian food, Thai food, Sushi, Polish food, Italian food, Indian food, Mexican food, and even organic foods are great but there is something about Soul Food that woke up a part of me that had been sleeping.
After noticing Pearce’s second plate, and my empty first plate, I knew it was time for more. And as I walked back to the buffet I noticed that I had an “extra pep in my step,” and I just assumed it the presence of food in my belly and it was the food; this particular type of food that was feeding my body and soul.

My second plate consisted of seafood casserole over white rice, broccoli casserole, more macaroni and cheese, more yams and another buttery roll. I decided to take it easy though, so I switched from sweet tea to water. That didn’t help too much though because halfway into my second plate I started to get full. But I didn’t force myself to finish, I just sat back and “took a break” while Kesha continued talking to us.

As she continued to talk about her family I couldn’t help but think how similar it sounded to my family. My family doesn’t come from the Gullah culture, but I wondered how central some of their ideas about family were in the black culture as a whole, and also cultures across the world. Hearing her talk about her grandparents and their experiences in the South made me think about my grandparents, who were also from the South and I could feel pride rising up inside me.

It was interesting because Kesha talked a lot about being proud of where you are from. She encouraged all of us to be proud of where we are from and that made me think of where I am from and how that shapes my identity. Kesha said she had the best of both worlds because she grew up in Jersey, but spent her summers in Mt. Pleasant, and that resonated with me. I realized that I have been blessed in that way as well. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago but because of my grandparents I also have southern roots. I looked back on my childhood began to appreciate every family reunion and every plate of greens and cornbread (that I hated as a little boy) I had encountered. I picked up my fork and I continued to eat MY food, because it was mine and it was already apart of me.

When we left Gullah Cuisine that day I was thankful. I was thankful not only for good food that fed my soul, but also for the Gullah experience because it presented this picture of pride in oneself and one’s family that I hadn’t seen before so clearly. Is that part of what it means to be an American? To be proud of where you come from? As I sat back in the van with a belly full of food, I knew for sure that Gullah culture was something worth digesting.