Food For Thought

I’m learning the locations of the different supermarkets and other food stores in and around Birmingham.  While I was willing to go to different areas to do some of this shopping, I was not prepared for the culture shock that went along with it.  In metropolitan Denver I was accustomed to getting food from supermarket chain stores that carried the same items with minor variations among them.  So shopping in a store in Longmont was much like shopping in Lakewood if the stores were part of the same market chain.  The reality in Birmingham is something completely different.

The first disagreeable surprise came when I made up my shopping list and arranged to patronize the stores in my immediate area.  I was told that I should be ready to drive a little way to find one and that quality would vary widely.  The surprise came when I learned that many of the items on my list would not be carried by local grocery stores. 

“Raymond, you’re going to have to go where white folks live to get that stuff.  You ain’t gonna find any of it in the local stores,” my brother John told me.  “We’ll have to go over the mountain to find it.”  Going “over the mountain” meant going south of Red Mountain, the huge uplift that skirts Birmingham on its southern edge.  So “over the mountain” we went, but my quest was only just beginning.

The store we shopped in the town of Homewood didn’t have half the things I wanted.  I was looking for the same kinds of mushrooms, chili peppers and green leafy vegetables I could find in a Colorado grocery.  The only mushrooms available were the white button ones.  So I wasn’t happy to come up empty in my search for oyster, portobello and shiitake mushrooms; anaheim, pablano and serrano chilies (although this store did have jalapeños); as well as chard and kale.  Even shallots were absent.  I hunted to no avail and my grumbles and curses only provoked John to laugh out loud.

“What did you expect?” he asked.  “People don’t eat that kind of stuff here.  We’ll have to go to an Asian or Mexican market to find what you’re looking for.”  The long face I made prompted John to laugh some more.  I bought a few items and then John drove me back home.

I was still determined to find a store that stocked most of what I wanted.  So a few days later my sister-in-law took me out on another foraging expedition.  We went over the mountain again and back to Homewood but to a different supermarket than the last time.  This store was much bigger, and I was able to find a few other items that I had wanted, but once again the vegetable selection was not up to my standards.  I looked in vain for different mushrooms, shallots, chard or kale.  But Anji urged me not to give up.  “Let’s try one more place, but it’ll be expensive,” she suggested.

We found a Whole Foods store, a chain that specializes in organic foods and a wide variety of produce.  At last!  I knew Whole Foods from my Colorado years but never knew the chain had expanded into the Deep South.  Here were all the mushroom varieties I wanted and more.  Here were the chard, kale and other leafy plants.  Here were the different cheeses, nut butters, fruits and meats I craved.  The cost, however, was beyond my means right then and there, but finally I had found a market that carried what I wanted and was within fairly easy reach of my home in Birmingham.

So I came back to the city satisfied that even though I would have to drive a bit farther than I would like, I had found a store that carried the kind of food I wanted.  We made note as well of the locations of the Asian and Mexican markets and I will be paying them a visit in the near future.  To be honest, I would never have expected to see any kind of cultural market around here.  However, Birmingham’s ethnic makeup has changed since I moved away and there is now a place for specialty stores catering to foreign food lovers.  But my food adventures weren’t over quite yet.

Last Friday, Anji and I went on another excursion to a large supermarket in Birmingham’s West End.  This store is close—about 5 miles/8 km away—and so will be easy to get to.  The store did carry kale, but no chard.  There were only button and crimini mushrooms available.  It also had the standard greens any Southern market has:  collard, mustard and turnip greens.  But I was stunned by how big the bundles were, at least twice as large as anything I had seen in Colorado and at half the price.  There was one other surprise here that once again emphasized that I am living in Alabama and not Colorado.

We went to the seafood case and I rejoiced in the wonderful assortment of fish that was available and at prices much cheaper than what I was used to paying in the Rockies.  I had to remind myself that with the Gulf of Mexico only a five-hour drive from Birmingham, some of the fish I was viewing was yesterday’s catch.  My mouth watered when I thought of all the seafood dishes I would now be able to cook and enjoy.

One of the fish for sale was Gulf red snapper—my favorite fish when I lived here before.  Another fish that I was glad to see was grouper.  The display case featured both whole fish as well as fillets, and I was told that if I bought the whole fish the staff would fillet and dress it for me.  I liked that and said that when I came back to make a purchase I would very much appreciate it if they would also give me the head, fins, tail, bones and any guts.  The staff and Anji all looked at me as if I had gone completely out of my mind.

“What on earth would you want that junk for?” I was asked.

“Why, to make seafood stock out of them,” I replied, surprised in turn by their question.  “This is the kind of stock that goes into fish stew, different fish and shellfish chowders, bouillabaisse and other fish soups.  You put those things into a pot of water, add the appropriate vegetables and seasonings, boil them down, strain the liquid, and you have a stock.”

“Well,” they answered.  “It’s obvious that you are a real cook.  Nobody here would ever think of doing anything with them except to throw them out.”

Chowder, bouillabaisse and fish soups don’t figure prominently in Southern cooking, particularly that of black Southerners.  Neither do chili peppers, exotic mushrooms, chard and kale or alums like shallots.  I had to remember what community I live in now.  Getting some of the things I want means going “out of the community” as Anji put it or “to the white folks”; but I’ve learned that black as well as white folks often won’t have what I seek.  When it comes to food, my tastes have been shaped by a culture and experience that might as well have been on the other side of the world.  Getting the ingredients for some of my favorite meals is going to be a combination of grocery shopping and scavenger hunt and will probably involve driving all over Birmingham and beyond.

On the other hand, I will have an abundance and diversity of seafood I could only dream of in Colorado.  Besides that, there are many wonderful dishes that make Southern cuisine particularly delicious and I’ll have the ingredients for them close at hand.  I can’t wait to make genuine jambalaya, dirty rice, gumbo, shrimp creole and other good things.  The possibilities are endless and I plan to have as much fun in my Alabama kitchen as I did in my Colorado one.  

There was also one other bonus I got on the drive back home from this particular market.  We stopped at a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop.  I was addicted to those doughnuts when I lived in Alabama before.  Only once in all my years in Colorado had I got a hold of some and that was in a shop located halfway between Boulder and Colorado Springs way back in 2001.  Seeing one again and being able to load up on some of my favorite varieties offered sweet compensation to the exhausting hunt for the other food items.

Cooking and eating in Alabama is going to be an adventure.  Gathering the ingredients as well as acquiring the necessary utensils, implements and appliances will be a challenge as well.  But if the conversations I’m having with my family and friends are any indication, I think we all will benefit from the exchange of recipes and information.  My first big family dinner is going to be a blend of foods and flavors from the Rockies and the Deep South; and I think everyone is going to really enjoy it.