"Me and Jenny Goes Together Like Peas and Carrots"
Most people (unfortunately) think of Forest Gump (and hence this quote) as the essence of the South. They couldn’t be more wrong. And to add insult to injury, the fucking movie was fucking filmed in Savannah.
If I remember correctly, W.J. Cash, in his classic 1941 study, The Mind of the South, notes that the essence of southern culture lies in its uneasy harmony among various CONTRADICTIONS OR CONTRASTS (not copacetics). That, sounds more like it. If if were up to me, I’d rewrite that cinematic cliche as “Me and Jenny goes together like Peas and Mango.” ‘OK, no one ever said I was a screen writer.
Take the topic of soul food, for example. It has the reputation for being terribly unhealthy (some of it is, to be sure). But it also is based primarily on locally-sourced vegetables (and other fare) that are today considered so-called Superfoods. It has a reputation for being a sweet cuisine (think yams mixed with molasses and marshmallows or classic southern iced tea). But it also runs through an arpeggio of spicy heat, from Caribbean influences to the south, cajun and Mexican coming from the west, and a wide range of peppery sauces coming from just about everywhere. Often the sweet and spicy come bundled together, like our mango-habanero sauce. It is a cuisine that is often lumped together under the general geographic and cultural rubric of “southern.” And yet there are vast differences among various parts of the South, and smart southern cuisine likes to riff on this heterogeneity — like the canteloupe salad pictured here with red onion, minced jalapenos, and feta cheese.
I was watching re-runs of the old 70s TV series “The Odd Couple” the other night, a favorite show of mine growing up, starring the comedic genius of Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. And the tought popped into my head, that’s what my whole kitchen is all about. To paraphrase the show’s opening: “Can two divorced ingredients live together without driving each other crazy?”. Segue into theme music.
