Food From The SOUL

Ok, ok, ok...I know I said I wouldn't post again until Friday, but a link my friend Steve posted on facebook last night inspired me to go ahead and blog today anyway.  

 May I Offer You A Drink To Start With? 

In my first blog Welcome To: The Din-HER Club, I said "Everyone loved my Grandma's southern hospitality, cooking and warm smile. Her faith in God and commitment to the church was so strong, it made us believe that the reason her cooking was so good and put people at peace after they ate it, is because God was guiding her hands and measurements".  #fact  Well, my fellow Din-HERs and Foodies to me that's what real soul food is all about, it's cooking from the soul! It doesn't matter what you cook as long as it's made with love. You don't need measuring cups and spoons when you're cooking from the soul because somehow over time you master how much to add/give and how much to take away/omit.
Bon Appetit!

Appetizer

If you leave it to me I could write this entire blog about my family's cooking all day everyday, but that would defeat the purpose of my blog.  One cuisine that I love and is in my top 3 is..... JAMAICAN FOOD!!!!

 (Oh boy, I can see Terri-Ann and Shawniel reading this now with their lighter fingers up in the air with joy.)

 

Outside of the southern fried chicken, grits, cornbread, collard greens, candy yams apple brandy and pound cake etc., I grew up on, I also fell in love with Jamaican/Caribbean food.  From the ackee and salt fish, stew peas, cracked lobster, brown stew red snapper, sorrel, red stripe, curry goat, bun and cheese, grape nut ice cream, ting etc....I just love it ALL! 

 

I have visited Jamaica (Negril, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay) for vacation every summer for the past 4 years.  I even dated a Jamaican guy that I attended undergrad with for 4 years and mastered a few of their infamous dishes, how to speak patois and do some of  their dancehall moves (nuh linga).  Terri-Ann and Shawniel ask me all the time "Girl, are you sure you're not Jamaican?"

 

 I use to enjoy going over my ex's house for gatherings and Sunday dinner. I would just sit in their kitchen with the lace curtains and watch his Mom and Dad (The Johnsons) chop up all the fresh produce, clean the meats (yuck), while he jerked the chicken on the grill with red stripe. His Dad's fish soup was my favorite and it was absolutely fantastic!  Like I said he's my ex so I don't eat over there anymore, but I am happy they were once apart of my life and able to teach me a few Jamaican soul food recipes.  
There were a few Jamaican takeout spots in my hometown, but nothing could come close to Mr. Johnson's Jamaican soul food, until one day my original Dinner Club buddy/BFF (Bootsy) took me to this little Jamaican restaurant out in Mt. Vernon, NY.  The food at this family run restaurant reminded of eating at the Johnson's home and even my home because it was so intimate and the food of course was made with love and from the soul (Mi tell yu di food wicked mon!).

Ripe Kitchen & Bar

Cuisine: Caribbean 

51 W. Sandford Blvd
Mt Vernon, NY 10550

 (914) 665-7689

Price: ($16-$25)

What & Where to Eat? Such is Life

May I Offer You A Drink To Start With?

Before I sip my tea (pinky up) and start writing/blogging, I think really hard about a topic, but yet I don't think hard about the actual content to follow.  I guess you can call this free spirited writing.  I almost feel like Julia Roberts in the movie Eat, Pray, Love and how she also related her life experiences to food, but for me it's without all the international traveling and humorous fortuneteller Ketut.  Sigh, as I digress and open my fortune cookie from the other night.
Bon Appetit!

Appetizer

In my professional life and most of my personal life, I am such a controlled, think 16 steps ahead, have a bomb shelter plan, overly organized and decisive person, but hunny, when it comes to picking a nail polish 

color, what shoes to wear and what I want to eat.....I'm totally clueless!  With that being said, my pallet for food is enormous and I can never decide if I want a simple arugula salad, tabbouleh, drunken noodles, p&j, saag   paneer, brie, a Pepsi (can of course) or a glass of gewurztraminer wine.  In these cases I have found it's best I just go with my gut craving...I mean gut feeling.

I'm no food connoisseur, I just know what taste good to me and for the past year, I have wanted to try this Peruvian spot, but I would either end up at my favorite Thai place or this sushi bar around the corner.  The other day I was taking a stroll downtown with my cousin (Tegan), and if you think one hungry indecisive person is bad, try two hungry hippos...smh.  We literally walked into two restaurants and walked back out after viewing their menu.  Then we strolled passed the Peruvian spot and went to another place AND walked out of there too.  On the way back we walked by the Peruvian spot again, but for some odd reason this time the sun was shining on its awning and the aroma of fresh seafood, saffron and cilantro hit us like a bag of bricks so we stopped, took a step back while accessing the menu hanging in the window and IN WE WENT!

Quechua

Cuisine: Peruvian

21 N. Main St., Norwalk, CT

203-810-4480

Price: $$ ($10-$16)

The Entree 

I'll go back to my dining experience at Quecha in a minute:  This experience kind of reminds of that good guy women sometime pass up, over and under-look for the playas, hustlers and busters, when MR. RIGHT is staring in our face.  Let's be honest, we tend to ignore listening to our intuition/gut feeling & God about many life choices.  (Ummm yea, if you just felt some type of way about those last few sentences, then yep it relates to your current situation).

I'm not perfect, I always had to fall on my butt not once but twice before learning my lesson because I'm a leo and a leo woman.  I can see my Mom's face now projecting this out her mouth sounding like Kevin Hart "You don't ever listen, but you gone learn today".  I will admit (mom close your eyes for a sentence or three please. ughhh, I know she's reading) it's also good sometimes to take WISE ADVICE from others (Mom).  Not, from someone who's traveling the same road or just loading up their car for the journey, but someone who has already lived it, experienced it and has a testimony to share.

Women do it all the time, for example, a woman in an actual relationship some where right now is taking advice from her veteran single friends. Child please!  You can't always listen to what others say, BUT you can take their advice into consideration.  At times you have to just stop, pray, take a step back, watch and access what's in front of you and make a move.  I did it picking my career and the journey isn't always easy, but like the GOoD book says in Philippians 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing..." because in the end the reward, peace of mind and feeling of self you have is so amazing!

 

WELCOME to: The Din-HER Club

Greetings Everyone & WELCOME to my new blog:

 The Din-HER Club

Side Note: This blog is dedicated to my belated Grandmother Sarah Brown


Bon Appetit!

I have always wanted to do my own take on a food/dining blog, but I was a little afraid because I am not the best writer in the world, but from what I am told that is the beauty and essence of blogging because I get to speak MY own language. Besides, I have seen worse and you only live once so here I go...

I'm an average size woman, but I truly LOVE food and going out to dinner with my girlies 

(hence the name Din-HER). Unfortunately, that means I have to workout extra hard each week to keep my girlish figure.   So many people relate to food in various ways, especially emotionally/socially. The way I relate, is some of everything lol, but it's mainly to gather with my girls to eat, talk, laugh, drink, laugh again, cry then laugh harder.

The Din-HER Club blog is not only a way for me to rate and share my own cooking experiences and opinions on various restaurants I have visited; It's also about sharing a part of my life and Din-HER conversations about our joys, man-problems, kids, work issues and revelations. 

Your Table is Ready & Please Enjoy My Blog!

                                                                    Personal History                                                     

  As a little girl, I was raised in the kitchen by my Mother, but my Aunt and belated Grandmother were also a major influence in my life. As long as I can remember my Grandmother always loved to garden, cook and host all our family and church functions. Our roots stem from good ole Santee, South Carolina...home of  soul-food (yes, I said it), Myrtle Beach, the best golf courses, the infamous south of the border rest-stop and orange dirt roads. Although I grew up in Fairfield County CT, I was raised like a southern belle, where addressing adults as "No/yes Ma'am/Sir" was a must.  

All the women in my family from generation to generation knew how to cook well....It was actually MANDATORY!  My grandmother not only made sure her two daughters knew how to cook, but also made certain that her grand-daughters did too.  Ughhh, I remember I use to hate snapping green beans and grating cheese, while listening to the gospel music of Mahalia Jackson on my Grandmother's record player every Sunday after church. My first time learning how to clean a whole chicken, I was ready to faint (yuck). Seriously, by the age of 12 I knew how to make a full breakfast, simple dinner meals, set-up a formal dining table and make a mean pan of cornbread.

 Everyone loved my Grandma's southern hospitality, cooking and warm smile. Her faith in God and commitment to the church was so strong, it made us believe that the reason her cooking was so good and put people at peace after they ate it, is because God was guiding her hands and measurements.

                  

                      (My Grandmother..I miss her so dearly)

  My mother was into fashion and interior/exterior design and also loved to cook as well, but since she grew up around a more culturally diverse area (CT & NYC) than my grandmother did, she enjoyed trying and making foods of other cultures. Regarding food, she taught me that I had to try everything at least once. She use to yell and say " How do you know you don't like it, if you haven't tried it?" Outside of eventually loving Indian & African cuisine, calamari, alligator, caviar, duck etc., little did she know that force fed teaching (lol) has opened up so many doors for me and how I think about life on multiple levels. That's why I fell in love and became a professional Event, Meeting & Party Planner because it encompasses everything I grew up on (food, hospitality, art/design, people, music and fashion).

-(My Mom & I)                               
 -(My Mom, Aunt, Me and Cousin)