Afro Eats Zine

the pilot issue spring 2018

AFROEATS : PILOT ISSUE

January 2018

EDITOR

RUI DA SILVA

PHOTOGRAPHER

SANA BADRI

PRODUCERS

WESTWAY TRUST

Lentil soup is mental fruit

Fresh vegetable with dem ital stew

Ginger root is good for the yout

Sweet yam fries with the green calalloo

- Dead Prez Be Healthy

What is AfroEats?

Food: any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk of otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy or to promote growth. The dictionary meaning of food, but for a lot of us, we have a familiarity with food that concerns more than just our nutrition. Rather food, for a lot of us, is a cultural practice.

I once read a book that said, 'The dominant value of the food system in human experience are, to be precise, not defined in terms of "naturalness", but result from and represent cultural processes dependent upon the taming, transformation and reinterpretation of Nature". And it is the process of taming, transforming and reinterpreting nature that we all do differently, and for different reasons, that define our cultural foods. Almost everyone had access to rice and tomato puree. Only some had the genius to invent Jollof.

For the African diaspora, our connection with our cultural foods has depended mostly on the knowledge of our grandparents, parents, uncles and aunties who preserved cooking traditions specific to Afro-Caribbean cultures in their hearts and memories of home, giving us the opportunity to embrace parts of our history and our ethnicities on a plate. As part of the Sao Tomean diaspora, an Island in West Africa, eating Calulu De Peixe was always more accessible to me than the music I didn't quite understand and the plane ticket I couldn't afford.

However, Afro-Caribbean people have been in Britain for long enough to develop food practices that are more specific to their British experience. And so, Afro-Cook is a zine that hopes to explore the developments of Afro-Caribbean British food that happen in our homes.

In this zine, I talk to two home-cooks about their relationship with food. The idea is to use this issue as a start and produce a fully-fledged zine later down the line.

If you read these interviews and would like to support the idea, please find the information on the final pages of this zine.

WORDS ARE SWEET

BUT THEY NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF FOOD -IGBOPROVERB

MEET SUNSHINE

Name:

Yvvonne Isaac, nicknamed Sunshine.

Birth country: England but reps the Grenadian flag

Favourite meal: Curry chicken and rice

Firebar : "You are what you eat. Don't kill yaself."

Words by Angel Isaac

WHAT IS YOUR FONDEST FOOD MEMORY?

My favourite memory is when I used to be at home, and my mother was always in the kitchen and I could smell all the different aromas of the food, so I knew exactly what we would have for dinner.

[PREVIOUSLY] YOU MENTIONED RAVING: Yeah, so when I used to go out and come in the morning, I used to straight to bed. My mum would be in the kitchen cooking the food and I knew exactly what she was cooking up. I could smell peas off the fire. She would cook the chicken and I could smell the stew, the salad and everything.

I remnisce sitting in my bed and knowing any minute now the food is going to be ready. So when I’m cooking, I don’t really have to taste because the smell. I know because that’s how it was when I was living at home.

THINKING ABOUT FOOD BACK THEN AND NOW. HAS IT CHANGED AT ALL FOR YOU? Yeah, it’s all different because never had never had as many seasonings. My mum used to use the basics, salt, curry, pepper, garlic and ginger and that was it. Nowadays, the food has got so much seasoning, that has so much salt in it and it isnt’t that good for our bodies.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST LEARN TO COOK?

Very late in life. When I had to leave home, I thought, it’s time for me to look in the kitchen and cook. But it didn’t take long.

My mum had 5 of us and she didn’t like us in the kitchen.

She just wanted to cook on her own but I was always around her. But yeah, really I learned to cook around 21.

WERE YOU ALWAYS GOOD AT COOKING? Yes. It didn’t take me long. It just came to me, natural.

YOUR KITCHEN IS SO COLOURFULLY DECORATED. WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT? Because it brings up my personality. It makes me feel safe cooking in a kitchen that’s mine. I know where everything is.

I feel like you have to cook with love and so I show love to my kitchen.When people come to my kitchen, I want them to taste the love but see the love too.

WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK FOOD PLAYS IN THE COMMUNITY?

It makes people feel like there’s somebody that cares for them. Especially the youngsters. Because it’s culture food and it’s our culture.

All these shops like Chicken Cottage and Kentucky. A lot of these young boys are going there because they haven’t got the money to buy West Indian food. So I make my food sufficient so people can afford to buy it.

YOU SAID [PREVIOUSLY] FOOD MAKES THEM FEEL LIKE KIDS AGAIN?

A lot of these boys, when they come to my house they get excited because they know their getting real home cooking and it brings them together. They come my house and reminisce together.

WHEN DID YOU START PRICING YOUR FOOD?

As I said, I used to take food to carnival and I started doing events naturally. I tried to make it as cheap as possible. For the people.

YOU HAVE TO SERVE A DISH TO A NEW SET OF FRIENDS. WHAT ARE YOU COOKING?

Curry goat and rice. Because it’s got a lot of flavour. I prefer white rice but rice n peas because it’s traditional, ya know.

I’d like to say, food is the healing of the nation.

You are what you eat. Don’t kill yourself.

MEET ELNETE

Name:

Elnete Da Silva

Birth country: Sao Tome E Principe

Favourite dessert: Portuguese Pudding

Firebar :

" You can have everything, nice clothes, cars, money but if you don't have good food you don't have anything."

Words by Rui Da Silva

WHEN DID YOU START COOKING?

16/17

WHO WAS COOKING FOR YOU?

My mum, or my sisters but we mostly had someone to cook, clean, wash and so I never had to cook. I just ate.

COMPARING THAT TO MY CHILDHOOD. YOU SOUND PRIVILEGED.

Life was easier back then. I had to teach you and your siblings differently because life is harder here. You need to know how to survive. You only have each other.

WHAT WAS FOOD LIKE IN SAO TOME?

My mum always cooked a nice dinner. Wasn’t always the same. Different food almost everyday.

SO YOUR MUM COOKED EVERYNIGHT?

No, she had someone to cook everynight [laughs]. She supervised the kitchen evernight.

WAS IT MOSTLY ISLAND FOOD ?

That but also a bit of European food. My dad worked for the Portuguese government and he used to go to Lisbon a lot. Sometimes for 6 months. From 1953 to 78 I think. He would sometimes bring back some ideas.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY GROWING UP ON AN ISLAND?

Ah so many. There’s one [laughs]. My uncle used to send boxes to Lisbon.We didn’t have airplanes so they came in boats. It sometimes took 2 months. Usually by October, my mum had these boxes in time for Christmas. In the boxes were sweets and she would save them for Christmas day. My brother would creep up, steal the goods and share it with us. He told us not to say a word. We said ‘Yeah yeah yeah’. But as soon as my mum asked me who stole the goods, I was the first to say ‘It wasn’t me, it was Zeca, my brother’ [laughs]. He got whooped.

SNAKE! WHAT ABOUT THE MANGO TREES?

Ah yeah. That’s something you can’t get in this country. Well, Europe. When I was younger, the place we used to live. Back home, it rained a lot. And when it did, no one would be out. So on these days, we would wake up 5am, go to the farm and pick all the mangos on the floor. We came home happy. My dad would ask where we

went and we would say, we just went toilet. Of course, one day my nieghbour came and complained to my dad. My dad called all of us out. I assessed the situation and said ‘Hi’ to my dadand my nieghbour with a sweet smile.

My sister came out scared, saying ‘Hi’ to my dad but not to the nieghbour. He reacted and said ‘It was her. The rude one!’. My mum came out and said ‘No way’, that has to be Nete’s job. But the man said no, it was ‘That one. So my dad blamed by sister and she’s held it against me ever since. Afterwarrds, my dad told to take the mangos and put them in the bin. My sister did what she was told. I hid my mangos in the empty water tank. I sold it to her afterwards.

WHY WERE YOU SO MISCHEVIOUS?

Listen.

Only God can judge me. DID YOU FOOD GET YOU INTO A LOT OF TROUBLE?

Not really. I used to go out and eat a lot of rubbish. When I came was too full to eat. That was the only trouble I really got in because of food.

BY RUBBISH YOU MEAN FRUIT?

Yeah, seomtimes I couldn’t eat for 2 days because I ate so much outside.

AND THESE FRUITS WERE FREE?

Of course. Why pay for something grows next to you.

THAT IS A VERY DIFFERENT REALITY FROM TODAY INIT.

Yeah. You lot don’t know what’s good.

HOW DID THINGS CHANGE WHEN YOU WENT TO PORTUGAL?

When I went to Lisbon, I started cooking more. But mostly for my sister. She wrote down instructions on paper and I followed them.

WHEN DID YOU START COOKING CONFIDENTLY BY YOURSELF?

I think I started cooking properly at 24. When I was with your dad.

YOU WERE COOKING FOR HIM?

No, we would help each other.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO IN THE FUTURE?

"I want to open up my own own cafe one day. One step at a time. I’m on my way”

IN PORTUGAL WHAT WERE YOU DOING?

I had a small job and was studying. Most of the time, going to disco. Enjoying my life.

GWAN. I ASKED ANOTHER WOMAN ABOUT HER MEMORIES OF FOOD AND SHE MENTIONED EATING AFTER RAVES. SAME FOR YOU?

Yeah. I had 6 friends. We were good friends. 2 of them I’m good friends with today, the other 4 I have no idea where they are. We used to on Satur days, to the burger shop in town and see who can eat more than the other. 4 or 5 burgers each.

5 BURGERS!

Yeah, one day I ate 8 ham and cheese burgers. I got home and vomited straight away. My sister said ‘What’s wrong with you!’ [laughs].

WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU CAME TO LONDON?

When I came to London, I learned a lot more about food. Certain things I had never seen before. I didn’t even know how to eat them. No one showed me. I really had to start cooking for myself. Sometimes I called my sister to ask what was next when I was cooking.

WERE YOU COOKING THE SAME FOOD FROM LONDON?

Yeah. Back home I didn’t realize what European food really was.We never just cooked potato and called it jack potato. We had to put something else. Something. Not just potato and butter. Also, back home we didn’t use all this sugar and honey.

SOME SAY LONDON IS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES FOR CULTURAL FOODS. I’m not too sure because I never really eat Indian food or whatever people get in takeaways. I cook what I eat at home. I’ve eaten some Chinese, Fish n Chips but I don’t really eat anything else. If I want to eat, I get up and cook.

someone to bring you food. You don’t know what’s in it.

If someone wanted to kill you, they’d do it with food.

I THINK A LOT OF BLACK FAMILIES DONT TRUST FOOD OUTSIDE THEIR HOME. Yeah, my mum would never eat food from a tin. Not even tomatoes. We grown up distrusting anything that we can’t grow.

WHY DO YOU THINK PEOPLE TO GO SUCH LENGTHS. WHAT'S THE PURPOSE?

For me, food provides well-being for the family. If you have a big family, when there’s food, we have conversations and we’re together. Food is so important. You can have everything, cars, money but if you don’t have good food, you don’t have anything. That’s the way I see it.

YOU'RE STUDYING COOKERY NOW. WHY?

I enjoy cooking but I’ve come to enjoy learning and experimenting with different foods as well. It’s a good experience.

DESSERT?

Hmm. My favourite is a good Portuguese pudding. I like Bolo de Bolacha as well. And Banana Cake but not the Banana Cake you guys are used to. My mum used to make it with a sauce made with banana and caramlised sugar. Your dad tried it with wine.

IF YOU HAD TO SERVE A NEW NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR, WHAT WOULD YOU COOK?

Mmmm. I don’t know, people have such strict diets these days.

YOU CAN COOK ANYTHING.

Okay, well grilled fish. A good grilled fish.

ANYTHING YOU WANT TO SAY?

Make sure you eat well. Because if you eat well, you’re eating healthy and if you’re eating well you’re happy.

just a few of

ELNETE’S RECIPES

PREP TIME: 20MINUTES

COOK TIME: 20MINTUES

VEGGIE BALLs

served with grill chicken or fifISH serves: 2-4 people

ingredients DIRECTIONS

- 2 sweet potatoes

- 2 regular potatoes

- 1/2 a butternut squash

- 1 tin of sweetcorn

- 1/2 a cup of peas

- 2 onions

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- tea spoon of virgin oil

- 1/2 a tea spoon of black pepper

- handful of chopped parsley

1. chop and grate potatoes and squash

2. after washing them well

3. place grated veggies in a bowl and add oil

4. add sweetcorn, peas and mix until mushy

5.chop onions, garlic cloves AND PARSLEY FINELY THEN add to the bowl

6. continue mixing

7. ADD THE BLACK PEPPER AND MIX

8. MOULD THE MIXTURE INTO BALLS of good SIZe

9. COOL THE BALLS IN THE FRIDGE FOR 10-15 MINUTEs

10.TAKE OUT THE FRIDGE, CONTINUe MOULDING THE BALLS

11. OVEN BAKE FOR 20 MINUTES AT 220 OR FRY FOR 10-15 MINUTES on medium heat.

12.serve with ANY SALAD

PREP TIME: 1hour

COOK TIME: 45MINutes

cacupa

(served with pork sausage or chicken) serves:4-6 people

ingredients

- 250g of corn

- 250g of beans

- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

- 2 yellow onions

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1 red bell pepper

- 2 carrots

- 6 or 7 collar green leaves

- 1 table spoon of rock salt

- table spoon of black pepper

- teaspoon of virgin oil

DIRECTIONS

1. boil beans and corn in a large pot for 10 minutes after washing thoroughly

2. chop pork sausage or chicken in medium sized bits after washing then add to the pot

3. let it cook for an hour on medium heat, maintaining the same level of water. add more if necessary

4. slice onion and tomatoes and then chop garlic into small pieces

5. saute in a saucepan with oil for until they are soft

6. add to the pot

7. cut collard greens in halves after washing and add to the pot

8. slice carrots and peppers equally after washing and add to the pot

9. mix well and let cook for half an hour

10.add salt and pepper in to the mix

11. mix well and let it cook for a fiFINal 15 minutes

12. SERVE hot

PREP TIME: 15MINUTES

COOK TIME: 30MINTUES

stir fry noodles

(with veal) serves: 2-4 people

ingredients

- 2 red bell peppers

- 8 closed cup mushrooms

- 2 packs of egg noodles

- 2 full sized carrots

- 1 yellow onion

- 2 garlic gloves

- 1/2 a lemon

- handful of parsley

- big piece of ginger

- 2 substantial portions of veal

- crushed red chilli

- black pepper

- 2 tablespoons of honey or sweet soy sauce

- TEA SPOON OF ROCK SALT

- 2 TABLE SPOONS OF BUTTER

- TABLE SPOON OF VIRGIN OIL

DIRECTIONS

1. chop the following FINELY in fiLONG pieces after washing:

- red peppers

- mushrooms

- carrots

- onion

2. PUT CHOPPED VEGGIES TO THE SIDE

3. SOAK EGG NOODLES IN SALTED WATER AFTER WASHING

4. CRUSH GARLIC IN A MESH

5. ADD PARSLEY AND ROCK SALT, MESH AND LEAVE ASIDE

6. CHOP VEAL INTO CUBOIDS AFTER WASHING

7. RINSE AND SEASON WITH THE MESH CONTENT IN A BOWL

8. ADD SQUEEZED LEMON, BLACK PEPPER TO YOUR PLEAsING AND LEAVE THE MEAT TO COOL IN THE FRIDGE

9. GET A STICK-FREE PAN AND PUT ON HIGH HEAT

10. ADD BUTTER UNTIL IT SIZZLES

11. ADD CHOPPED VEGETABLES

12. STIR FOR 10-15MINUTES ON MEDIUM HEAT

13. CHOP GINGER INTO SMALL BITS

14. GET A LARGE SAUCEPAN AND PUT ON HIGH HEAT

15. ADD SEASONED VEAL ALONG WITH CHOPPED GINGER

16. LET THE MEAT SIZZLE FOR 10-15MINUTES

17. DRY AND RINSE EGG NODDLES

18. ADD HONEY TO STICK-FREE PAN AND STIR FOR 5 REMAINING MINUTES

19. PLACE IN A SERVING DISH

20. in thE SAME PAN, FRY THE EGG NOODLES FOR 5 MINUTES

21. ADD TO THE SERVING DISH

22. ADD MEAT TO DISH

23. MIX WELL AND SERVE

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE RECIPES OR SHARE YOUR OWN

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