Perspective: My Harlem

Between D.F. and Dakar: Flavors of 116th Street

Perspective: My Harlem is a feature in Studio magazine and on the web that invites Studio Museum staff members—who commute from areas as far as Elizabeth, NJ and as close as a block away—to offer their own narratives of the neighborhood in which we work.

Special Projects Assistant, Gabrielle Lopez, offers a culinary tour of Harlem along with a couple delicious recipes, after the jump.

It’s just before dawn, and West 116th Street is still. As the sun rises over the brick and brownstone, delivery trucks begin to rumble down the street. Double-parked, one driver unloads crates of onions, carrots and cassava in front of Le Baobab. Across the street, another stacks boxes of okra and yams at the entrance to the soul satisfying Amy Ruth’s. Next door a few dozen whole slaughtered lambs are hauled into the Halal butcher. From the window of my fifth-floor apartment, I watch as my street comes to life.

I grab three grocery bags and head out the door. Harlem’s 116th Street, running from Little Senegal to Spanish Harlem, is home to an abundance of diverse flavors. The rich smells of roasted lamb and fish stewed in tomato broth, the hum of French and Wolof being spoken, fade as I stroll east towards Spanish Harlem to gather ingredients for my dish, a combination of the Senegalese thiebu djen (fish stew with rice) and the Puerto Rican bacalao guisado (codfish stew) with a Mexican twist.

At the Mexican grocer, I sift through bins of dried chilies: smoky ancho and chipotle, mild guajillo and pasilla and the piquant arbol. Instead of purchasing the fresh habañeros or scotch bonnet chilies used in West Africa and the Caribbean, I opt for the smoky, rich heat of dried Mexican chipotles. I also grab a bag of Hibiscus petals and fresh mint to make agua de Jamaica to serve alongside my hearty stew.

Down the street another grocery store displays its fresh produce in bins and crates out front. I buy fuzzy green okra, succulent on-the-vine tomatoes, rough, waxy cassava and plenty of pungently tangy culantro and cilantro before heading west towards home.

Just before Malcolm X Boulevard, I slip into Sea & Sea Fish Market. Bypassing the heaps of fresh fish, I pick up some dry salted cod. I then pop into the Halal grocery, just opening for the day, where the store attendant is speaking on his cell phone in a language I do not understand. I point to the word thiakry on my grocery list; without interrupting his conversation, he digs through some plastic bins, removes a bag of the nutty brown millet and holds up four fingers. I hand him four dollars and cross the street to climb five floors to my apartment where I will simmer Harlem’s flavors from Le Petit Senegal to El Barrio.

As my kitchen heats up, the smells of West Africa, the South, Puerto Rico and Mexico waft out my windows and back onto 116th Street in Harlem, my own culinary cross-section of the world.

116th Street Inspired Fish Stew

1 pound salt cod / bacalao
1 yellow onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
3 cups yuca /cassava chopped into bite-size cubes
3 dried chipotle pods
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/3 cup culantro/recao finely chopped
1/3 cilantro finely chopped
1 cup scallions chopped
½ pound fresh okra chopped
3 tomatoes chopped
1 Tablespoon Olive oil
In a large pot, cover the salt cod with water. Bring it to a boil and cook for 15 minutes to remove the excess salt. Drain and break cod it into small flakes making sure to remove all bones. Set aside.
In a large pot heat the olive oil on medium. Add the yellow onion, garlic and yuca and cook for 3 minutes, until onions become semi-transparent. Add 12 cups water, cod, chipotle pods and tomato paste and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the yuca is tender but firm. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Serve with rice or grain of choice.

Serves 6-8
 

Click here for more from Gabrielle.