What could be more delicious and traditional than light crisp waffles dripping with cider syrup, made to order in the vibrant Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland? Learn with me how to make them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdd0ud-8ny4) and check out the recipes at www.bakingblind.com
Tanya Holland of the Brown Sugar Kitchen has built the reputation of her great Brown Sugar Kitchen restaurant on the traditions and community of West Oakland: across the Bay from San Francisco where African Americans working on the railway thrived, built homes and established their own culinary history. Now everyone with a taste for authenticity travels from far and wide to share great food cooked with passion and pzazz. No wonder Tanya is already looking to expand her Brown Sugar Kitchen.
Tanya explained the background of her food, “Soul food is the cooking that developed from what the Africans brought to this country, what ingredients they found in the South and what they brought with them. The fusion of cultures that, over time, has produced dishes, such as fried chicken, gumbo, corn bread or Mac and cheese, that are associated with an African American cuisine.”
She allowed me to take part in a lunch time service: an open kitchen full of hustle and bustle, happy cooks and even happier customers. There was huge pace, noise and boisterousness amongst the fellow chefs working in the galley-style kitchen – to the great amusement and entertainment of their clients.
Last week I shared Tanya’s shrimp and grits, this week it is a wonderful waffle that gains its lightness from both yeast and baking soda – so light you’d hardly guess that there’s a calorie in sight! And the recipe is readily adapted to the home kitchen.
Tanya is rightly proud of the Oakland heritage and has commissioned local artists to capture the history and culture in the restaurant’s art works. But, like any community, people and cuisines change: Tanya is at the forefront of embracing the current demands for organic and seasonal food which, in turn, attracts even more diverse and discriminating customers.
I also enjoyed the excellent homemade hot chocolate topped with their own marshmallows and a red velvet cake but missed out on the intriguing peanut butter cake which had all been sold.
This was a really terrific cooking experience that brought great American cooking alive for me – I’d had too much muddled fast food over previous days so it was a delight to be amongst real cooks again.
And all thanks to the Holman prize awarded by San Francisco’s LightHouse for blind and visually impaired people.
Penny