Fav Foods

By: Tené B. La Escritora, Lex Lavish, Leafy Loveboat, and AcE the Legynd

As a start-up magazine team, Pour’lâme members are continuing to build and learn from each other daily. We have grown to mesh well very quickly and learned that we all LOVE food. When people travel domestically and internationally, what’s the first activity they look forward to? The amazing new foods and deserts they have been eager to experience. Food is an extremely important aspect to distinguishing cultures. Certain seasonings, elements, and styles of cooking can only be traced back to specific countries and ethnic groups whose influence has spread across the country. 

Many dishes attract consumers through smell, taste, and colorful dish presentations. Most people have their first food experiences through their parents and family members. Many of us reflect on our family food traditions and recall that one dish we look forward to eating every year. Stay tuned and read about our Pourl’âme team executive's favorite food elements and family meal traditions.



Ace the Legynd: Smoked BBQ Ribs 

One of the first ways we ever experience love is through food. I vividly remember occasions where my grandmother would have to yell at me or discipline me but would always cook something she knew I loved to make amends. Obviously holidays and special occasions would come with elaborate spreads of the most classic southern black foods, pieced together mostly by the women of the family. The general rule is, when it’s your birthday you decide what you want and your favorite cook of said dish, will make it for you. When I got to college and moved with my father these occasions became more frequent. It turned into a Sunday tradition of sorts, the family would typically pick a place and come together. Along with the food comes the deep tradition of spades. At some point, usually early in our time together, the table would be set up, the cards would come out, and the games would run for hours on in. As my grandparents started to age, the responsibility of cooking and hosting shifted more so to my household, which brings me to my dish, smoked bbq ribs. Every year my dad was eager to grill, as soon as the NY weather broke he brought the grill out and made whatever he craved over the winter. Over the years I watched my dad perfect his technique of smoking meat as opposed to traditional grilling. It's definitely a learning curve and a process that takes significant time. A lot of times while he was sitting out there by the grill smoking his cigar I’d be alongside home talking about anything from sports to politics. It’s times like this where me and my dad really got to know each other. At some point my grandparents would arrive and the extended family and we would bring out the card table. It would be a day filled with family, spades, and ‘70’s blues music where my grandfather would sing and tell stories according to the hand he was dealt. For me the smoked BBQ ribs are a reminder of those summer Sundays.



Lex Lavish: Food Elements


Unfortunately, I do not have a favorite meal, my palette refuses to be restricted. However, there are certain elements of highly regarded entrees that I look for when judging the quality of a meal. To me the best meals are the ones that change things, for your body, your palette, and your expectations. They open your world to new flavors and leave you thinking “Where has this been all of my life”? The first element I want to explore is freshness. Fresh ingredients, be it meat, seafood, or vegetables are always something that automatically elevates a meal. You are able to taste the food as it was intended to be tasted and it retains more of its original flavor the fresher it is. The next element is flavor balance, whether or not all of the flavors and seasoning in a dish complement one another rather than overpower one another. Quality of ingredients is another element that can really raise the caliber of a meal. An example of that would be seasonal ingredients that you can only get during a certain time of year, or delicacies that you would not normally have access to. Things like that really help a meal to stand out in your memory. Personally, I think that texture is another element that can really make or break a favorable dish. If the texture is off, that could be the difference between you gagging over something too mushy or choking on something too hard. Lastly, I would like to leave you with the element of presentation. This element really puts the art in culinary arts, but has roots in survival skills. Many humans still eat with their eyes first. This innate response comes from living in nature and having to assess which foods could potentially be harmful. However, in today’s society a pretty plate just serves as a seduction for you to consume your meal and post your plate. With all of these elements considered, remember to break bread and be merry with friends and family because some of the best conversations happen around a great meal. 

Leafy LoveBoat : Jerk Filet Mignon with asparagus 


Growing up a picky eater as a kid, I spent a lot of my teenage years really discovering my tastes and seeing what the world of food really had to offer. Like most people, a lot of my favorite meals are made by family but this is the first meal outside my home that has stuck with me. July 2018 I took a trip to Jamaica for a wedding. The night before the big day, the wedding party and guests gather for a meal in the resorts’ primary dining hall. Food was served buffet style and it was just overwhelming to have all these selections. Deciding to go for something more filling I walk over to the meat station only to discover an empty plate below the sign that read steaks. Visibly annoyed, I turn to find something else and almost bumps into the chef who notices my empty plate and says how he hopes I’m not waiting for steaks since they’re all gone but says he’ll hook me up with his specialty. I’m never one to look a gift horse in the mouth so I thank him and aim to return in the 15 mins he says it will take to cook. In about 10 min a waiter finds me, places the plate in front of me and wishes me a happy meal. The plate was beautiful for starters. A perfect medium-cooked cut of filet mignon with a fragrant lemon-colored sauce drizzled over top and complemented with roasted asparagus. The golden sauce gave off a lemony and spicy aroma that stimulates the palate. The filet was immaculately cooked and melted in your mouth! It’s a meal that I can still taste and smell while recounting this story. My mom and stepdad being huge foodies inquired into the pretty looking setup on my plate and shared in a piece as we all reveled in how amazing this dish was. Both mom and stepdad are big fans of steaks and consider themselves foodies so to this day steak is something that not only evokes fond memories of time spent with them but also is a topic of discussion when someone brings up a new spot to try! Food is undoubtedly a connecting force worldwide and the memories they form and unity they create between people is a power that is not to be thought of lightly. Just recounting this little moment in time brought a smile to my face and I hope this article in general brings out wonderful food related memories for the folks giving it a read!

Tené B. La Escritora: Steamed Porgie fish and oven baked rice and beans 

Some of my favorite homemade dishes growing up were cooked by my great Aunt Olive. Affectionately, we call her Anollie. Many of the meals were recipes that she learned from her mother and aunts, who were Trinidadian. The flavorful and spicy dishes Anollie creates are a great representation of our Trinidadian roots and her creative attributes to food preparation. Anollie was the first person to introduce me to fish that I liked besides shellfish and salmon. My favorite dish is steamed porgy with baked rice and peas. I would come down the stairs in our New York City Home and smell that savory gravy boiling on the stovetop. I knew my day was about to get better. I have never attempted to make this great dish because I am not sure if the ancestors will tap in with me the same way as my great aunt. 

You can purchase porgy in two forms, with the bone or boneless. I prefer my fish filleted into two pieces without the bone so I can fully enjoy it and not take tiny bones out of my mouth every two seconds. First things first, be sure to clean your fish not only for sanitation but to prevent any parasites and mercury from entering your body. As I mentioned, the seasonings in this dish make the fish what it is. Spices like black pepper, garlic, onion powder, and sazón are the foundation seasoning you layer on before it gets heated in the kitchen. This dish also includes some of my favorite vegetables like vine tomatoes, bell peppers, and white onions. The Caribbean seasoning is used in west Indian pepper sauce. Fun fact: Throughout my childhood, I ate tomatoes like apples. In a large sauce or frying pan, all of these ingredients with the fish marinate to create steamed porgy fish. After 15 to 20 minutes, the porgy is flaky and ready to be turned off for cooling. The rice and peas are a great compliment to this fish as they bring their flavor and sweetness. Ingredients used are pigeon peas, red kidney beans, Uncle Ben's brown rice, foundational seasonings, pepper sauce, and sugar. This is a layered process by seasoning each type of beans separately and boiling them in water. Dry ice is added to a medium to large glass pan. The boiled water from beans was added to the glass pan along with more butter. The rice is cooked at 350 F with aluminum foil for 20 minutes. It would be best if you stirred in between cooking times. The rice is cooked for a little more after the foil is removed, and once all the water has dried out, it's ready to be taken out and served.


Conclusion: 

We hope you enjoyed reading about our favorite meals and even learned about new dishes that you may be interested in cooking yourself. Take the time to learn about your family's traditional meals and even seek recipes, because when you're adulting, you will get a taste for those dishes and wish you could make it yourself!