Sampling Chicago's chitlin' circuit
"We were always singing in the fields. Not real singing, you know, but we made up songs about things that was happening to us at the time, and I think that's where the blues started."
- Son House
The blues, a term coined by Washington Irving in the early nineteenth century, is a form of folk music dating back to the black rural South of the post-Civil War period, a fusion of work songs, field hollers, minstrel show tunes, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes. Although examples of similar music have been found in Northwest Africa, particularly among the Wolof and Watusi tribes, the blues remain a singularly American art form that developed in the Mississippi delta in a triangular area defined by the cotton field work chants of Greenville, Mississippi, the King Biscuit Flour broadcasts from Helena, Arkansas, stretching to the gambling halls, posh theaters and wild night life of Beale Street in Memphis.
In the 1920s and 1930s although it was hard to find a bluesman without Memphis roots, Chicago played a large role in the development of the urban blues that was first sung by Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Memphis Minnie and others. In 1947, Chess Records opened its doors at 2120 South Michigan and began to define "the Chicago sound" with the music of Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, among others. The studio added artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and in the 1950s, introduced rhythm and blues to mainstream airwaves, planting seeds for rock 'n' roll.
Like the blues, the cooking of soul food is a uniquely American art that grew out of the plantations of the South. A relatively recent term (circa 1960), soul food describes the menus that developed as poor Southern blacks made due with what they were given, caught or raised. Southern cooks learned to create flavorful dishes from chitterlings, ham hocks, hog maws and other scraps and coarse parts that were not choice enough for the "big house," and those culinary skills remained valuable in the poverty of post-Civil War reconstruction. The meager meats available were then combined with local produce, like rice, black-eyed peas, collards, kale, turnip tops and other wild greens that American pioneers traditionally depended on. Southern cooks drew on their heritage to make these scraps delicious. With pork lard being plentiful and flavorful, many soul food dishes were fried in a bubbling kettle of oil, a practice that harks back to an African tradition of meals made from vegetables and fruits (later pigs, once Europeans had begun their incursions) fried in palm oil. Seasonings from the West Indies - garlic, pepper, bay leaf and hot pepper sauce - all helped turn a sow's ear into a silken meal. As Southern blacks spread north and west from the farms of the South, they took their recipes with them. The recipes are mostly easy to make, but they don't lend themselves to any short cuts in the kitchen. For that reason, good soul food looks and tastes much the same in Biloxi and Birmingham as it does in New York, L.A., Detroit and Chicago.
Most of Chicago's soul food traditions were transported north by the Illinois Central Railroad's Green Diamond, which brought rural Southern blacks from the backwaters of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas directly to Illinois Station, the Ellis Island of the Midwest. Once in Chicago, these travelers gravitated to the South Side, where most of Chicago's established soul food restaurants can still be found.
Army & Lou's has been cooking up soul food on East 75th Street since 1945. Current owner Dolores Reynolds thinks good soul food is really what people are now terming comfort food. "It's not fancy or frilly. Good soul food is warm, home-cooked food, like you'd expect to get at your aunt's or great grandmother's house. Even at our restaurant, everything's made from scratch - like your mom was in the kitchen."
Maggie Guy, owner of Queen of the Sea, agrees. "It's not out of a can or box. Good soul food is home-cooked and fresh. My greens are picked fresh every day, and our cornbread is baked fresh daily. That's what people want."
Paul Tucker, chef and owner of N.N. Smokehouse on the northern edge of Lakeview, notes demand has caused him to add a regular Wednesday-night soul food special to his menu. "With the ethnic mix in our neighborhood, I was surprised to have customers asking for black-eyed peas or greens, but now I find myself selling as much comfort food like mashed potatoes and gravy as I do French fries. Good soul food is cooked with loving care, and I guess everybody just wants to get another taste of that."
A. LaBan
- Army & Lou's Award Winning Restaurant, 422 East 75th, (773)483-3100.
- N.N. Smokehouse, 1465 West Irving Park, (773)868-4700.
- Queen of the Sea Restaurant, 212 East 47th, (773)624-1777; 8701 South Stony Island, (773)221-3711.
- N.N. Smokehouse, 1465 West Irving Park, (773)868-4700.
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.