Soul Food

You've likely heard suggestions for making greens without the pork fat or “fried” chicken in the oven. All well and good, but the connection of “soul food” to African Americans goes way beyond editing recipes, and a new film asks viewers to think deeply about why they eat what they eat. What is soul food? The responses filmmaker Byron Hurt got were remarkable: love, conversation, dinner, but also death and slavery. Fried chicken, mac and cheese, candied yams, greens, cornbread, peach cobbler, sweet iced tea. That wasn't just dinner; it was sharing tradition, but for many people a troubling tradition of slavery, poverty, feeling forced to make do. Soul food nurtures, for sure.

Premiering Friday night for a modest six-episode run on TV One, the black-oriented basic cable network that is not BET, is "Belle's," a sweet if slightly undercooked sitcom about an Atlanta soul food restaurant and the family that keeps it. The big name here is co-creator and director Ed. Weinberger, who in another century wrote for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"; co-created "Taxi" and the first two Bill Cosby sitcoms; and created Sherman Hemsley's post-"Jeffersons"...

Byron Hurt was inspired to look at the ties between African Americans and soul food after the death of his father from pancreatic cancer. The result was his film, "Soul Food Junkies," which can be seen on public television. Your father connected getting comfort with food. Do you have some thoughts about how people can keep connections to their heritage without eating unhealthfully? It's important to keep and maintain the healthiest aspects of our culture, regardless of whatever that tradition may be. In my film, we demonstrate how soul food can be maintained in a healthier way. Dr. Rani Whitfield talked about baking chicken as opposed to frying chicken, not cooking any sort of greens with the fat back and the pork or meats.

Byron Hurt was inspired to look at the ties between African Americans and soul food after the death of his father from pancreatic cancer. The result was his film, "Soul Food Junkies," which can be seen on public television. Your father connected getting comfort with food. Do you have some thoughts about how people can keep connections to their heritage without eating unhealthfully? It's important to keep and maintain the healthiest aspects of our culture, regardless of whatever that tradition may be. In my film, we demonstrate how soul food can be maintained in a healthier way. Dr. Rani Whitfield talked about baking chicken as opposed to frying chicken, not cooking any sort of greens with the fat back and the pork or meats.

Fresh from securing a 40-episode commitment from the Showtime cable network, the drama series "Soul Food" serves up the first of its new batch of shows at 10 tonight, "From Dreams to Nightmares." Like the best episodes of the drama's two-season run, "Dreams" throws its characters curves when they're looking for fastballs. The theme swirls around the hard choices necessary in the real world.

"Soul Food," a surprisingly tasty Showtime drama about the ties that bind three African American sisters in Chicago, starts its second season tonight at 10. Nicole Parker is front and center as Teri, a strong-willed attorney torn between career and family. Teri has threatened to leave her high-powered law firm if it doesn't ante up big money and make her a partner.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I spent this past week at a little-known gem down in South L.A. Its past is long and winding. After a police stop turned violent, sparking riots that tore through Watts in 1965, a group of churches transformed an old furniture store on a fire-charred street. They created the Watts Happening Coffee House, and amid an explosion of pride and creativity that rooted in this corner of the city during the '60s, it became a smoke-filled community hub. "It's one of the only decent things we have in Watts," a young man is quoted telling city officials in a Times' story published in 1966.

It's more than a bit unusual for television producers to rally behind a repeat showing of a series' episode, but tonight's airing of "Soul Food" (10 p.m. Showtime) merits the support. "I'm Afraid of Americans," directed by Jeff Byrd from a script by Salim Akil, originally appeared in September--within a week of the terrorist attacks that sucker-punched the national consciousness.

"The only reason I'm inviting y'all," Irene told me darkly as she whip-snapped a dampened pillow case across the ironing board, "is 'cause your Mama's such a fine Christian woman." Irene's invitation to Mother, Daddy and me was to a special music service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. was then pastor. Years later, Ebenezer Baptist would become world-famous because of the Rev. King's son and co-pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

A few San Fernando Valley entrepreneurs are banking that they can make a living selling soul food in a region without a whole lot of African American souls. In places such as Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks and Encino, where the black population is less than 3%, restaurants serving soul food are trying to do what the Italians and Chinese have done for years--offer their specialized fare to the hungry masses, regardless of race. So far, the results are mixed.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 13 - 19, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies        SERIES The Carrie Diaries: In this new prequel series, AnnaSophia Robb makes a delightfully believable teenage Carrie Bradshaw of "Sex and the City" from a small-town high-school outcast (8 p.m. KTLA). Extreme Smuggling:  This new unscripted crime series details the extreme efforts and schemes employed by drug dealers (8 p.m. Discovery)

You've likely heard suggestions for making greens without the pork fat or “fried” chicken in the oven. All well and good, but the connection of “soul food” to African Americans goes way beyond editing recipes, and a new film asks viewers to think deeply about why they eat what they eat. What is soul food? The responses filmmaker Byron Hurt got were remarkable: love, conversation, dinner, but also death and slavery. Fried chicken, mac and cheese, candied yams, greens, cornbread, peach cobbler, sweet iced tea. That wasn't just dinner; it was sharing tradition, but for many people a troubling tradition of slavery, poverty, feeling forced to make do. Soul food nurtures, for sure.

Artists come in many varieties. There are those whose work appears in galleries and on stages. And then there are those whose work receives little public attention but is created with the same expressiveness, dedication to excellence and desire for meaning. Esther, an African American seamstress living in a respectable New York City rooming house in 1905, belongs to the second category. A plain, unmarried 35-year-old with diminished prospects for personal happiness, she puts the best of herself into her sewing, making sexy garments for those who have more use for them than a spinster like herself.

LAS VEGAS - A former Public Enemy rapper known as Flavor Flav was arrested early Wednesday on several felony charges in connection with a domestic argument with his fiancee in which the rapper threatened the woman's teenage son with a knife. Entertainer William Jonathan Drayton Jr., 53, a rapper and reality TV star, was being held on $23,000 bail at the Clark County Jail, according to a release by the Las Vegas Police Department. He was taken into custody by officers responding to a domestic disturbance at a home in a residential neighborhood several miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I spent this past week at a little-known gem down in South L.A. Its past is long and winding. After a police stop turned violent, sparking riots that tore through Watts in 1965, a group of churches transformed an old furniture store on a fire-charred street. They created the Watts Happening Coffee House, and amid an explosion of pride and creativity that rooted in this corner of the city during the '60s, it became a smoke-filled community hub. "It's one of the only decent things we have in Watts," a young man is quoted telling city officials in a Times' story published in 1966.

Why did Malcolm Mitchell go home in this week's episode of "Food Network Star"? Malcolm ended up on the chopping block with Michele Ragussis, both from Team Bobby, after less than stellar performances before Food Network queen Paula Deen. Michele ended up there after serving crab that contained shell pieces. It was so bad that Food Network took the unusual step of pulling back her plates, lest someone break a tooth or choke. Malcolm seemed to be up for elimination for his blockheaded refusal to adopt a POV -- point of view.

Paramount's "Kiss the Girls," starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, earned $13.2 million in its opening weekend, knocking "The Peacemaker" out of the No. 1 position. "U-Turn," the latest from Oliver Stone, debuted in 8th place with $2.7 million. "The Peacemaker" dropped to No. 3 in its second weekend, taking in $8.2 million, bringing the 10-day total for DreamWorks' first feature to $24.2 million. Fox 2000's "Soul Food" continues to be the surprise of the early fall.

Athens, Ga. As Dexter Weaver and I chatted in Weaver D's, his 40-seat soul food restaurant on the outskirts of downtown Athens, his mother called to see how things were going. "I'm going to tell her you thought I should hang up my cooking pots and go to Hollywood," he said. It doesn't seem such a stretch. A decade ago, Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods was just a local institution, with Athens native Weaver dishing up collards and fried chicken. His slogan: "Automatic for the people."

The path to nirvana starts with appetizers at Himalayan Cafe in Old Pasadena. Those hot, steamy curry-stuffed dumplings called momo look exactly like twisty-top Chinese xiao long bao , but their fillings taste vaguely Indian. Every spectacular bite, accented with bright pungent "pickle" dipping sauce, shows off the Indo-Chinese personality of a cuisine that makes its home in the valleys and hills in the shadow of Mt. Everest. On the menu, familiar terms like pakoras , lamb masala and sag aloo give an impression that Nepal's food mimics that of northern India.

For every restaurant whose menu reads like a doctoral thesis on globalization, there are those that still consider a kind of insular Americana the noblest pursuit. These are the dens of hard-line pit masters and down-home confectioners, restaurants where the American culinary heritage provides incubation for innovation. At the similarly minded but altogether unaffiliated Toni's Soul Burgers in Inglewood and Otis Jackson's Soul Dog in North Hollywood, that American ingenuity takes the form of a double dose of comfort: hybridized hamburgers and hot dogs fused with soul food.