Tarana Burke at the table

In the African American Southern tradition transplanted to Harlem and the Bronx, the Sunday meal after church is not a sequence of courses but a large shared table where everything arrives together: one or two centerpieces (fried fish, chicken, ham), a host of sides called 'fixings' (braised collard greens, cornbread, sweet potato), sweet drinks, and a dessert. You help yourself, go back for seconds, talk loudly, and catch up. This is a resourceful cuisine inherited from slavery and the Great Migration: you extract maximum flavor from humble cuts and leafy greens. Alongside, the New York streets impose their quick snacks — the bodega sandwich wolfed down between meetings.

The soul of soul food lies in a piece of smoked meat (pork hock, smoked turkey) that long perfumes the cooking water of leafy greens, spiked with a pinch of cayenne and a splash of hot vinegar. This technique of slow, economical braising comes straight from Southern kitchens where nothing was wasted.