Speaker 1: We're back. Did you miss us?
Speaker 2: I know I miss talking to you and the rest
Speaker 2: of our friends last week.
Speaker 1: Yes, but last week's episode, all about the science of celebration,
Speaker 1: was the perfect setup for this week's episode. We're talking
Speaker 1: about celebrating June teenth.
Speaker 2: That's right. Last week we talked about the temporal aspects
Speaker 2: and the food and different traditions that are all around celebrations,
Speaker 2: and so it's so important for us to consider the
Speaker 2: food around the celebration of Juneteenth.
Speaker 1: My stomach is growling.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, I think our legal team is saying we
Speaker 2: need to insert a disclaimer T T Yes, if you.
Speaker 1: Are listening to this episode right now and you have
Speaker 1: not eaten, please go and grab a snack. You will
Speaker 1: get hungry. Please, this is your warning. Now, please go
Speaker 1: and grab snack. I'm TT and I'm Zakiyah and from Spotify.
Speaker 3: This is Dope Labs.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science,
Speaker 2: pop culture, and a healthy dosa friendship.
Speaker 1: June teenth is right around the corner. It's coming up
Speaker 1: this Sunday.
Speaker 2: Yes, and this week we're celebrating Juneteenth through food. Specifically,
Speaker 2: we're asking more about how people continue traditions and tell
Speaker 2: stories through food, and how people are innovating to create
Speaker 2: new takes on food and their celebrations and gatherings.
Speaker 1: And of course we're going to talk about some amazing
Speaker 1: and delicious recipes that I am looking forward to trying myself.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and get into the recitation.
Speaker 1: But before we jump into Juneteenth foods, talk about the
Speaker 1: holiday itself. What do we know about juteenth.
Speaker 2: We know it's the oldest celebration commemorating the end of
Speaker 2: slavery in the United States.
Speaker 1: Yes, on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, a Union general
Speaker 1: arrived at Galveston, Texas to tell enslaved African Americans that
Speaker 1: they were free and that the Civil War had ended.
Speaker 1: And this was two and a half years after President
Speaker 1: Lincoln had already issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and.
Speaker 2: So Juneteenth, which was June nineteenth, quickly became an annual
Speaker 2: holiday where black people would gather, especially in Texas, with
Speaker 2: their families to pray and celebrate.
Speaker 1: And it took the federal government more than one hundred
Speaker 1: years to catch up because Juneteenth only became a national
Speaker 1: holiday in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Was the government always late to the party.
Speaker 1: We don't have enough time. In this episode.
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy nine, they were late for Black music, months
Speaker 2: late for Juneteenth. There are multiple dimensions of celebration, and
Speaker 2: we've talked about this in our Celebration episode, and one
Speaker 2: of them that we're focusing on today is food.
Speaker 3: Food.
Speaker 2: Food can be a way to learn history and to
Speaker 2: practice traditions and to connect with people. It's also kind
Speaker 2: of a way to mark the hope and renewal of
Speaker 2: a holiday.
Speaker 1: Food is something that is universal all of us are eating,
Speaker 1: but the types of food you're eating and the way
Speaker 1: that you're eating the food can be unique to different
Speaker 1: cultures and communities and even just specific families. Black communities
Speaker 1: all over the country have different foods that they cook
Speaker 1: and enjoy during Juneteenth. And part of the reason why
Speaker 1: this is so special is because the roots and history
Speaker 1: of some of these foods come from so many cultures
Speaker 1: all over the world that we have continue to maintain
Speaker 1: and celebrate during different times of the year. So what
Speaker 1: do we want to know?
Speaker 2: Well, I think we want to consider all those things
Speaker 2: you just said and understand them about Juneteenth, So, like,
Speaker 2: what foods are important to Juneteenth and why like, what
Speaker 2: are the traditions behind them or what stories are they telling?
Speaker 2: I think I want to know how food helps us
Speaker 2: to celebrate Juneteenth specifically and connect us not only to
Speaker 2: one another, but to our ancestry. And when we consider
Speaker 2: the past and tradition, we always have to also look forward.
Speaker 2: How is the food of Juneteenth changing? What new food innovations?
Speaker 2: You know, because everybody's going crazy about the air fryer,
Speaker 2: my cereals still what? And as much as we look
Speaker 2: back at the tradition and history of food, we also
Speaker 2: want to look forward and see how food is changing,
Speaker 2: especially food that is connected to our history in Juneteenth's
Speaker 2: history too.
Speaker 1: All right, let's jump into the dissection.
Speaker 2: Our guest for today's lab is Nicole A. Taylor.
Speaker 4: I'm a food writer and producer and the author of
Speaker 4: the first cookbook solely dedicated to Juneteenth foods, Watermelon and Redbirds,
Speaker 4: a cookbook for Juneteenth and Black celebrations.
Speaker 2: Nicole is a food right and a master home cook.
Speaker 2: She brought her years of experience making food for her
Speaker 2: family and friends to Watermelon and Redbirds.
Speaker 1: Nicole started writing the cookbook in twenty nineteen. She was
Speaker 1: living in New York City, and in her spare time,
Speaker 1: she'd work on the cookbook, typing notes in the subway,
Speaker 1: writing on the weekends. And in twenty twenty, that work
Speaker 1: took on additional meaning.
Speaker 4: I was working on a story about Juneteenth for the
Speaker 4: New York Times, and that story morphed into so many
Speaker 4: different things because of the murder of George Floyd. And
Speaker 4: at that moment, that's when I knew that black people
Speaker 4: needed this book. They needed this cookbook, They needed joy, they.
Speaker 5: Needed a guide, a road map.
Speaker 4: Something tangible that was really a symbol of in sorrow,
Speaker 4: in sadness, we still celebrate, we still gather, We still
Speaker 4: want to put a smile on our face. We still
Speaker 4: want to sit and talk to our piets. And I knew,
Speaker 4: I knew it one hundred percent. And then now as
Speaker 4: we are safely returning back to gathering with family and friends, Hey,
Speaker 4: people want to cook, people want to be outside.
Speaker 2: So, as Nicole said, one of the reasons she wrote
Speaker 2: this book was because she wanted to give people a
Speaker 2: culinary resource for the Juneteenth holiday.
Speaker 4: I have been celebrating Juneteenth for more than ten years,
Speaker 4: and my apartment, my house has always been a place
Speaker 4: that people gather for Memorial Day, fourth of.
Speaker 5: July, Homecoming weekend, you name it.
Speaker 4: My place has always been the hub and the gathering
Speaker 4: spot for everyone, but particularly for black folks. And there's
Speaker 4: always a whole lot of food and a whole bunch
Speaker 4: of drinking. So I mean, why not put that in
Speaker 4: the cookbook and tell the stories behind it.
Speaker 1: We can't talk about Juneteenth without talking about the cookout
Speaker 1: and barbecues when people gather together and spend time together
Speaker 1: to eat, eat.
Speaker 2: And you know, we talk about this all the time,
Speaker 2: especially in the South. Cookout is the event. Barbecue is
Speaker 2: a type of meat at the cookout. But one thing
Speaker 2: I love about the cookout and for most summer celebrations,
Speaker 2: especially in my community, is that everybody eats.
Speaker 1: That is very true, but it feels different when it
Speaker 1: comes to black people. With Like, when I show up
Speaker 1: for a black event, I have no worries. I usually
Speaker 1: know the food is going to be good, but if
Speaker 1: it's a non black event, I might need to have
Speaker 1: a snack before I get there.
Speaker 2: No shade, but we must be a fad because we're
Speaker 2: celebrating Juneteenth. We're going to talk about the experience of
Speaker 2: the cookout, whether it's on June Teeth or any other
Speaker 2: day and consider everything that's happening. Yes, there's the food,
Speaker 2: but there are a lot of other sensory things you're
Speaker 2: going to experience that don't necessarily have to do with
Speaker 2: food but are really specific to black events.
Speaker 5: For one, you roll up and everybody is dressed to
Speaker 5: the nines.
Speaker 4: You can smell the perfume from your auntie where her
Speaker 4: bright red lipstick on, your aunt has his gatas on,
Speaker 4: and the music is blasting. You already know what music
Speaker 4: is going to be played at least one time, Frankie Bevering,
Speaker 4: Lee and Maze before I let go.
Speaker 2: I know if you go to t T's cookout, they
Speaker 2: gonna playing Asap Rocky.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just like sometimes you just gotta hear
Speaker 1: I love that, and that's my problem.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, y'all know I don't listen to that kind
Speaker 2: of music.
Speaker 1: So we all have these experience as a cookout. And
Speaker 1: then there's the food. So let's start off with the sides.
Speaker 1: Nicole said. One of the things you can almost always
Speaker 1: find is potato salad.
Speaker 4: When you move around to the dining table or to
Speaker 4: the table where all the food is set up, you
Speaker 4: see the potato salad and a universal question people ask
Speaker 4: us who the potato salad?
Speaker 2: And I just.
Speaker 4: Feel like those sensory things and those questions you don't
Speaker 4: oftentimes find them in non black barbecues there or non
Speaker 4: black baby showers or a block party. There are some
Speaker 4: cultural nuances that I feel like you can always find them.
Speaker 5: You can always find them when there's celebration happening.
Speaker 2: There's always something with the potato salad. But let's dive
Speaker 2: into what we consider to be special about Juneteenth foods.
Speaker 1: Nicole walkers through some of her favorites in her book
Speaker 1: Watermelon and Redbirds. The book has an entire chapter dedicated
Speaker 1: to the most important drink of juneteen celebrations, the red drink.
Speaker 4: I dedicated an entire chapter to the official slash unofficial
Speaker 4: drink of the Juneteenth Party.
Speaker 5: And that's the red drink that is essential, the red drink.
Speaker 4: Oh, the global the African diaspora, black people all over
Speaker 4: the world, we get the red drink.
Speaker 2: It's important to highlight that red drink has a place
Speaker 2: beyond Juneteenth. Yes, on June teenth, but it's Juneteenth, and okay.
Speaker 2: It comes from a tradition of making tea out of
Speaker 2: hibiscus flowers, and Hibiscus is a plant that grows in
Speaker 2: tropical and subtropical regions. Nicole said that more and more
Speaker 2: farmers in the American South are growing it as well.
Speaker 1: Black cultures all around the world have different versions of
Speaker 1: the red drink, and Nicole has a cheat sheet in
Speaker 1: her book about what this drink is called in different places.
Speaker 4: This hibiscus tea minus the sweetener is known as beesop
Speaker 4: in Senegal, where it's the national drink, and in Africa
Speaker 4: it's called cardad, and the Caribbean is called sirel, not
Speaker 4: to be confused with the green herb. And in Mexico
Speaker 4: Aqua de Jamaica, and at Black American gatherings, and in
Speaker 4: pop culture it's called red drink. It's a ritual. It
Speaker 4: is a thirst quencher. Traditionally, if we go back, you know, decades,
Speaker 4: it would be hibiscus right in West Africa, you see
Speaker 4: steep hibiscus pods or tea in the Caribbean.
Speaker 2: As it slave African people arrived in the Americas, that
Speaker 2: tradition continued, but it took on other forms like strawberries.
Speaker 4: Creating strawberry lemonade for celebrations. It became a soda, a
Speaker 4: red pop. So that tradition of steeped hibiscus flower where
Speaker 4: you can find.
Speaker 5: All over the world, where not only.
Speaker 4: Black people but brown people too through the transatlantic slave trade,
Speaker 4: that blood, that redness, that fearlessness staying in us.
Speaker 5: And so even now you see the red drink.
Speaker 4: It may not be in the traditional form, but it's
Speaker 4: definitely on the table, and it may be spiked with Hennessy, or.
Speaker 5: It may be spiked with tequila.
Speaker 4: But you will see the red drink in some form
Speaker 4: at most, if not all black.
Speaker 1: So it's so amazing how some of these traditions can
Speaker 1: last so long. They change, but their root stays the same.
Speaker 2: Right, And when you say red drink, everybody knows what
Speaker 2: you're talking about. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: And my friend Zakia, if you have not had the
Speaker 1: pleasure of attending one of her cookouts, she has her
Speaker 1: own very special red drink that she always has to
Speaker 1: whip out. If I'm coming, this is what I am
Speaker 1: looking forward to. And we call it Wattley water.
Speaker 2: Yes, so for adults it might be a drink but
Speaker 2: a little alcohol. For kids it can be juice. But
Speaker 2: as Nicole said, it is still a product of your history.
Speaker 2: I did not know anything about the red drink.
Speaker 3: Did you guys?
Speaker 1: Look into your Spotify app right now, and there should
Speaker 1: be a pole and we want to know which red
Speaker 1: drinks have you heard of? Thinking about how traditions can
Speaker 1: change but can still hold a really deep significant that's
Speaker 1: kind of liberating because it gives you room to experiment
Speaker 1: and innovate in the kitchen. And that's something that Cold
Speaker 1: focused on in her book, taking those classics that people
Speaker 1: love and then making something new and delicious for me.
Speaker 4: And this cookbook, I decided I would put some very
Speaker 4: classic things in the book, but maybe.
Speaker 5: Do it a little bit different.
Speaker 4: For example, I have this juicy, glorious chicken burger with
Speaker 4: white cheddar, and it's not that dry burger is like
Speaker 4: real nice and moist.
Speaker 5: And why did I do that?
Speaker 4: I have so many people who come to my gatherings
Speaker 4: and they're like, I'm not eating red meat.
Speaker 5: So I got them. I got them.
Speaker 2: I feel like Nicole has taking us to a Juneteenth party.
Speaker 2: We've had all different kinds of red drink. She's described
Speaker 2: an amazing burger. It's time for dessert, Yes, I am ready.
Speaker 1: And since it's June, Nicole takes us right into ice cream.
Speaker 5: What is the summer time without ice cream?
Speaker 4: Particularly a nectarine roasted nectarine Sunday with caramel sauce and
Speaker 4: a honey vanilla ice cream.
Speaker 5: I share that in my book.
Speaker 4: So if you want to wow people with ice cream
Speaker 4: or a raspberry popsicle, you can do that.
Speaker 2: Depending on where you are in the country, there might
Speaker 2: be a Juneteenth festival or parade. But Nicole said that
Speaker 2: if you don't want to do that and you would
Speaker 2: rather stay home, you can bring the party to you
Speaker 2: to your house.
Speaker 4: I've included a whole chapter dedicated to what I call
Speaker 4: Americana festival food, like the funnel cake, the golden crispy
Speaker 4: fonnel cake. Not trying to toot my own horn, but
Speaker 4: my fonnel cake batter is totally not super sweet. I
Speaker 4: got my batter just right, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and
Speaker 4: in this cookbook, I give readers two options for toppings,
Speaker 4: mango and of course it's a very classic apple topping.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something, funnel cake is important to me.
Speaker 1: That is something that it is very important. I will
Speaker 1: stop at a fair that I have no intentions on
Speaker 1: attending for the funnel cake. Wow. It was a fair
Speaker 1: down the street and I was like, I'm sure they
Speaker 1: have fun okake.
Speaker 2: I smell a funnel cake.
Speaker 1: O cake in the turkey legs. Shoot, I will get
Speaker 1: a funnel cake in a turkey leg and it's time
Speaker 1: well spent.
Speaker 2: Wow. See for me, it's the ice cream. I remember
Speaker 2: growing up and my grandma making ice cream in this
Speaker 2: like brown ice cream maker thing, the one you got
Speaker 2: the crank on the side. Yeah, it was like a
Speaker 2: special occasion thing. Put the ice in the salt, the
Speaker 2: ice in the salt. There you go.
Speaker 4: Hm.
Speaker 2: Now queensin art is making my ice cream and sometimes briars.
Speaker 1: Well, let's take a break and when we get back
Speaker 1: we'll hear more from Nicole A. Taylor about juneteen foods
Speaker 1: and the place of food in this celebration.
Speaker 3: We're back.
Speaker 1: We've been talking to Nicole A. Taylor, cookbook author and
Speaker 1: master cook about June teen foods, their history, how they
Speaker 1: connect people and cultures in their place in the juneteen celebration.
Speaker 2: We've talked about cookouts, potato, salad, red drink, all of it. Okay,
Speaker 2: ice cream, funnel cakes. You're gonna have to take an
Speaker 2: antacic at the end of this episode. But more importantly,
Speaker 2: we've been thinking about how food connects communities and also
Speaker 2: ties into our personal memories. We wanted to step back
Speaker 2: and look at foods in Black culture, food that is
Speaker 2: central and shared.
Speaker 1: One is watermelon. This is a fruit from the African
Speaker 1: continent and it's the cousin of the cucumber and pumpkin,
Speaker 1: among other vegetables. For Nicole, watermelon brings up deep memories
Speaker 1: of her childhood.
Speaker 5: That fruit is so much a part of my summertime.
Speaker 4: I remember going in the grocery store when I was
Speaker 4: a young girl, and you would see the big brown
Speaker 4: tubs with the watermelon stack really really high, and I
Speaker 4: would be begging to grab the watermelon and put it
Speaker 4: in a buggy. And then we would check out, and
Speaker 4: I would get in the car and literally I would
Speaker 4: listen to the watermelon go back and forth on the
Speaker 4: floorboard of the car. And then you would get home
Speaker 4: and all day is like when are you gonna cut
Speaker 4: the watermelon? And my aunts and my mom they didn't
Speaker 4: want that watermelon juice like all over the house. So
Speaker 4: they would give us a piece of newspaper and tell
Speaker 4: us to go outside, the kids go outside and eat
Speaker 4: the watermelon.
Speaker 5: That story, to me is just pure joy.
Speaker 4: It is the story of so many Black people in
Speaker 4: the American South, so many Black people who live in Oakland,
Speaker 4: black people who live in Chicago. It's a pretty much
Speaker 4: universal story about a fruit that really goes all the
Speaker 4: way back.
Speaker 5: To the continent to where we're from.
Speaker 4: There's so many other fruits and vegetables that connect Black
Speaker 4: people around the world.
Speaker 2: I love that and it brings up my own memories too,
Speaker 2: and it's just really amazing. I think about how food
Speaker 2: is tethering people and communities, like we don't know each other,
Speaker 2: we're having a similar experience. It's wild.
Speaker 1: Another food that black community share is sweet potatoes.
Speaker 4: And I'm not talking about yams, but for real deal
Speaker 4: sweet potatoes, as Jessica Harris told us, and how on
Speaker 4: hogs yam is this hairy, very fibrous vegetables. But sweet
Speaker 4: potatoes is such a part of the African American really
Speaker 4: the black table, and that's a vegetable A lot of
Speaker 4: times we don't think about as being a universal thing
Speaker 4: no matter where you are, from Brazil to West Africa
Speaker 4: to South Georgia.
Speaker 2: And this is why conversation about food is so much
Speaker 2: more than just food. When I reflect on growing up,
Speaker 2: I don't know that I really thought about the African diaspora.
Speaker 2: It wasn't that I didn't know these things to be true.
Speaker 2: It's just I wasn't exposed to different folks from the
Speaker 2: diaspora as a kid, right, and so everybody I knew
Speaker 2: it was just Black American Southern culture, that's it. But
Speaker 2: then I went to college and I started to hear
Speaker 2: black folks from totally different places talking about some of
Speaker 2: the same things, both food experience, tradition, and I started
Speaker 2: to think about these connected experiences around the food and
Speaker 2: the rituals around it, like, for example, frying fish on Friday.
Speaker 4: It's the stories behind it, right, It's the story like
Speaker 4: the newspaper we just talked about, and frying the fish
Speaker 4: on Friday and even putting to catch the grease you
Speaker 4: would put newspaper down. So what I think about it
Speaker 4: is I listen and I laugh. Sometimes I like sit
Speaker 4: back and go, oh my gosh, it's someone quote taking
Speaker 4: our food. But I know that beyond the.
Speaker 5: Food, there is a bigger story.
Speaker 4: It is attached to a person, it is attached to oftentimes,
Speaker 4: you know, unpaid labor. It is attached to migration, It
Speaker 4: is attached to our grandmothers, our mothers, or even our
Speaker 4: sisters or ourselves.
Speaker 5: So I know that you can't.
Speaker 4: Gentrify a cultural food because that means you're taking our stories,
Speaker 4: and our stories are in us. And I think, like
Speaker 4: with my cookbook and so many other black cook books
Speaker 4: on the market, what we're doing is telling the story,
Speaker 4: reminding people. You may be in love with collar greens
Speaker 4: or sweet potatoes, maybe in vogue now, but here's the
Speaker 4: story behind that dish or that food.
Speaker 1: Wh Nicole talked about here. The connection between stories and
Speaker 1: food made me think about how holiday experiences are so
Speaker 1: tightly interwoven with food.
Speaker 2: And we've been talking about how Juneteenth and how food
Speaker 2: and Black culture are so intertwined, But how does all
Speaker 2: of these things fit together. Nicole has thought about this
Speaker 2: a lot, and I'm sure it was a heavy load
Speaker 2: on her as the first person to write a book
Speaker 2: dedicated to June tenth foods. She said, cookbooks have a
Speaker 2: permanence to them, and she wanted to create a permanent
Speaker 2: resource for folks to have in their kitchens.
Speaker 5: It's forever. You can't erase it. If it's online, it's like,
Speaker 5: oh wait, that website is down.
Speaker 4: Or when your grandmother write downs her recipe and you
Speaker 4: pass it.
Speaker 5: From person to person, or you keep that spiral bound.
Speaker 4: Community cookbook or church cookbook, you hold on to the memories.
Speaker 4: And so for black cookbook authors, particularly for myself, documenting
Speaker 4: Juneteenth and Black celebrations is more more than just me
Speaker 4: telling my stories.
Speaker 5: It's something to pass down to my son.
Speaker 2: Nicole shared with us some of her own food experiences
Speaker 2: that she wants to pass on to her son and
Speaker 2: the future generations in her family.
Speaker 4: I think it's waffles, waffles. I want him to master
Speaker 4: making a beautiful walk. I want him to own a
Speaker 4: very nice waffle maker, and I want him to remember
Speaker 4: how on Saturdays, even if it was a holiday or
Speaker 4: it was a regular.
Speaker 5: Saturdays, that I'm in waffles. That is something that is everlasting.
Speaker 5: Is simple.
Speaker 4: He can pass that on to his next door neighbors, kids, uncles, nieces, nephews. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I want him to know the feeling of his mother
Speaker 4: making him a waffle.
Speaker 1: When Nicole wants to do showing her son how to
Speaker 1: make waffles, making them for him, having him pass that on,
Speaker 1: that shows how sharing food and traditions is just as
Speaker 1: important as the actual food.
Speaker 2: It makes me think about like, yes, you enjoy like
Speaker 2: your grandma's cooking or your auntie who makes really bomb
Speaker 2: sweet potato pies, but what you may enjoy even more
Speaker 2: than that is the experience of being there with that
Speaker 2: person when it's time to break bread or watching them cook,
Speaker 2: you know, like seeing how they do things.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually just had a conversation about this with my
Speaker 1: uncle because he was asking me if I knew how
Speaker 1: to make like Joe Off rice and all these things.
Speaker 1: I was like, m no, not yet. He was like,
Speaker 1: all these years and you know know how to make it.
Speaker 1: I was like, part of the experience for me is
Speaker 1: sitting in the family room and my mom is cutting
Speaker 1: up onions, blending it up, the sound of the rice
Speaker 1: pouring into the pot and everything, and then starting to
Speaker 1: smell it as just her scooping it out and making
Speaker 1: the perfect portions for each of us. And that's part
Speaker 1: of it for me, not to say like, oh, my
Speaker 1: mom has to be cooking for me, but I like it.
Speaker 1: It feels like so comforting to smell those smells and
Speaker 1: to hear those sounds it's kind of like bigger than
Speaker 1: just eating the food and enjoying the food. It's like
Speaker 1: these traditions, like that's something that I would want to
Speaker 1: eventually do and something that you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: is a labor of love for her, and that labor
Speaker 1: of love once I do learn how to make some
Speaker 1: of those foods, I can then use that as a
Speaker 1: labor of love for my friends and my family, and.
Speaker 2: I think that's so important. I can think about things
Speaker 2: that I have learned, and then I put my own
Speaker 2: spin on them, so even though they were passed down
Speaker 2: to me, maybe I'm changing them in a way. And
Speaker 2: this is something that Nicole talked about because in her
Speaker 2: cookbook there's a lot of innovation. Some of the foods
Speaker 2: are classics, but there are also some creative spins on
Speaker 2: the classics, and it feels like there should be some
Speaker 2: room for that.
Speaker 4: When I was researching this cookbook and more so not
Speaker 4: even the recipes. Talking to people about juneteen, the folks
Speaker 4: who are from Texas, from Galveston, or from other parts
Speaker 4: of the country who've been celebrating Juneteenth twenty and thirty years,
Speaker 4: I asked them that question, what's an essential Juneteenth food.
Speaker 4: I got a lot of answers Marguerita Hannah. She lives
Speaker 4: in Atlanta, born and raised in Galveston. After talking to her,
Speaker 4: she gave me permission to be as creative as possible
Speaker 4: with Juneting. So what she said to me is like, listen,
Speaker 4: we always had brisket. She's like, I know this is crazy,
Speaker 4: but we had gumbo at Juneteenth. She's like, it would
Speaker 4: be hot outside, but we would have gumbo. And I
Speaker 4: just remember her saying, you you can have whatever you
Speaker 4: want a Juneting that makes you happy, that brings you joy,
Speaker 4: that special food, that special thing that you only have a.
Speaker 5: Few times a year.
Speaker 4: I wanted to make sure in this book that you
Speaker 4: get the essentials, but you also get something that's that's different,
Speaker 4: that are showstoppers. Juneteen is a celebration, So at the
Speaker 4: same time that there are staples, classics, traditions, it's also
Speaker 4: about what the holiday means to you and how you
Speaker 4: want to feel, and that can be reflected in the
Speaker 4: food you make, share and enjoy.
Speaker 2: So at the same time that we carry on these traditions,
Speaker 2: we see foods evolving over time, and some of that
Speaker 2: may have to do with being more aware about what's nutritional,
Speaker 2: what's healthy. We can reflect back to Lab forty eight,
Speaker 2: where we learned that your protein is only supposed to
Speaker 2: be about the size of a fist, and basically half
Speaker 2: your plate is supposed to be vegetables, and maybe that
Speaker 2: does not include potatoes. That potato salad is out. So
Speaker 2: Nicolea's innovative in the kitchen to bring new takes to
Speaker 2: traditional Juneteenth foods.
Speaker 4: I think we understand at the root of everything what
Speaker 4: our traditional foods are. Having a big pot of collar
Speaker 4: greens with pork fat to season it is a very
Speaker 4: traditional way of how we do greens.
Speaker 5: But I'm happy to say my mom gets it.
Speaker 4: Like when she sees me taking collar greens up and
Speaker 4: cutting them into really fine strips and putting olive wool in.
Speaker 5: Garlic, She's like, oh, okay, you're doing it the same
Speaker 5: way and it tasts good. What else you got in there?
Speaker 1: You see how she did that? Moving from a more
Speaker 1: traditional collar greens, it's something that is a little lighter
Speaker 1: with olive oil. In the cookbook, the Cole pushes the
Speaker 1: envelope even further.
Speaker 4: Make a pesto out of all of these leaf and
Speaker 4: greens and put it into grains, maybe even a traditionally
Speaker 4: African grain like fonyo.
Speaker 5: It's still connected.
Speaker 4: I think we And when I say we, I think
Speaker 4: that Black Americans are very much in tune with what
Speaker 4: our traditional foods are and we are at the point
Speaker 4: we're cool with playing around with them or you know,
Speaker 4: putting our own spin to them.
Speaker 2: Of course, some people might need to try new take
Speaker 2: some more traditional foods before they're on board, and the
Speaker 2: cole says, that's okay. The most important thing is keeping
Speaker 2: the stories alive. As you innovate with those foods, somebody's.
Speaker 5: Gonna be like, what you just bring to the cookout?
Speaker 5: What did you just bring the Sunday dinner?
Speaker 2: You did not?
Speaker 4: Just put this in fill in the blank, and we're
Speaker 4: okay with it. And then we're okay with being the
Speaker 4: butt of the joke.
Speaker 5: And then they taste it and I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: this is good. Can you bring this again? So I
Speaker 5: think that's how we've evolved.
Speaker 4: We understand that one food, one dish, one fruit, one
Speaker 4: vegetable can have many legs, and we're fine with it
Speaker 4: as long as again back to the stories, that we
Speaker 4: keep the stories intact around the fruit of vegetables. That's
Speaker 4: the most important thing.
Speaker 1: Of course, Juneteenth only happens once a year, but you
Speaker 1: can make meals special every day. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I have the energy to do it every day, but
Speaker 1: the cole says it doesn't have to be hot.
Speaker 2: That's right. We asked Nicole what she recommended for people
Speaker 2: who might not be that confident in the kitchen.
Speaker 4: In Watermelon and Redbirds, I have a chapter titled every
Speaker 4: Day June tea, every Day June teeth, And one of
Speaker 4: the dishes in that chapter is pretzel pounded chicken.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4: It is a chicken breast or thigh pounded very thin
Speaker 4: and breaded with pretzels bread crumbs. Before you bread it,
Speaker 4: you dip it in fish sauce. That's the secret. That's
Speaker 4: the secret sauce, that's the secret ingredient.
Speaker 5: And a little egg and it's essentially as nitzel.
Speaker 4: Right, But it's so gorgeous and it looks so fancy
Speaker 4: when you have a beautiful plate and you can put a.
Speaker 5: Bed of a arugula or whatever lettuce you like on
Speaker 5: the bottom.
Speaker 4: And if it's the summertime, or if it's not the
Speaker 4: summertime and you want to get some beautiful little tomatoes
Speaker 4: and put on top. Wow, it looks like something you
Speaker 4: would order in a restaurant. I feel like it's the
Speaker 4: perfect weak night meal that doesn't take that long.
Speaker 5: And you can make two of them. If you're really.
Speaker 4: Hunger, you can eat one, but you can just cut
Speaker 4: the other one up the next day and have it
Speaker 4: for lunch, put it in a sandwich or put it
Speaker 4: in a salad, and you cook them with gas punattended.
Speaker 2: I love thinking about history through food.
Speaker 1: Right, So exploring foods that bring us together on Junet
Speaker 1: shows that we can form a really strong connection, a
Speaker 1: connection people share across different countries, cultures, and different environments,
Speaker 1: you know, like the red drink, but also foods that
Speaker 1: are really specific to.
Speaker 3: Like my state.
Speaker 1: So I grew up in Maryland, So for us, at
Speaker 1: every cookout, you have to have bushels of crabs, and
Speaker 1: that is just a part of the experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, food carries forward traditions in ways that nurture us
Speaker 2: and others, so friends and family, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: a living tradition. Even though it's rooted in the past,
Speaker 2: it's dynamic and constantly.
Speaker 1: I think one thing that we've heard multiple times from
Speaker 1: Nicoll is that it's also important to recognize where foods
Speaker 1: and recipes come from.
Speaker 3: And to respect that.
Speaker 1: I love this episode because you know, no matter if
Speaker 1: you're getting together safely with extended family or you're staying
Speaker 1: at home and doing something small and intimate, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of really great food traditions that you can
Speaker 1: do to celebrate Juneteenth or making some new traditions for
Speaker 1: your family to celebrate not just June teenth, but any Holladay.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was so beautifully said t Tee. And it
Speaker 2: makes me think about some of our traditions and some
Speaker 2: of the things that we share together, and so I
Speaker 2: think we should put some of that stuff on our website,
Speaker 2: some of our own recipes to share some of our
Speaker 2: celebration with other folks.
Speaker 3: What do you think.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great idea, and we would love
Speaker 1: to get some recipes from all of you. Send it,
Speaker 1: we will make it. I love getting a recipe. My
Speaker 1: friends of kids always send them to me and I
Speaker 1: absolutely make them. So send us your recipes and send
Speaker 1: it to us on Instagram or Twitter, or you can
Speaker 1: call and tell us your recipe and we will let
Speaker 1: you know how it goes. Our one thing for this
Speaker 1: week is Watermelon and Redbirds, a cookbook for Juneteenth and
Speaker 1: Black celebrations by Nicole A. Taylor. You have to go
Speaker 1: and grab this book. We will have a link to
Speaker 1: the book in our show notes, and as you're cooking
Speaker 1: those recipes, make sure you tag us and Nicole Taylor.
Speaker 2: That's it for this lab. If you're feeling hungry like me,
Speaker 2: I want to hear about it. If you have a
Speaker 2: recipe idea, email it to us at contact at Dope
Speaker 2: labpodcast dot com. Call us at two zero two five
Speaker 2: six seven seven zero two eight and tell us what
Speaker 2: you thought about this lab, or give us an idea
Speaker 2: for a different lab you think we should do this semester. Remember,
Speaker 2: we'd like hearing from you. That's two zero two by
Speaker 2: six seven zero two eight.
Speaker 1: And don't forget that there is so much more to
Speaker 1: dig into on our website. There'll be a cheat cheap
Speaker 1: for today's lab, additional links and resources in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Plus you can sign up for our newsletter check it
Speaker 1: out at Dope labspodcast dot com. Special thanks to today's
Speaker 1: guest expert, Nicole A.
Speaker 3: Taylor.
Speaker 2: You can find and follow her on Twitter at food
Speaker 2: Culturists and you can find all of her delicious recipes
Speaker 2: in her cookbook Watermelon and Redbirds available everywhere, and you
Speaker 2: can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Dope Labs podcast.
Speaker 2: TT's on Twitter and Instagram at dr Underscore t Sho.
Speaker 1: And you can find Zakia at z said So. Dope
Speaker 1: Labs is a Spotify original production from Mega Owned Media Group.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Jenny Rattlet, mass Lydia Smith and Izzy
Speaker 1: Ross of Wave Runner Studios. Our associate producer from Mega
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