African American festivals/parades and food Part I

Tom Tom, a one pot dish, recipes below

Starting a series today on a historical look at African American festivals/parades and food. By the eighteenth century northern colonies had been increasing dependent on enslaved African laborers. For example, between 1700 and 1774 there were about 6,800 slaves in New York; 2,800 directly from Africa and 4,000 from the Americas. With them came African retentions in music, dance, dress, and foodways. Tom Tom, described as “a very good Pudding Composed with the Flour of Indian Corn, and boild [sic] with Flesh, fish Cayenne pepper” and okra, is example of dish that one might find a vender selling at a Pinkster celebration; more on that tomorrow. Here is an interesting East Asian recipe for Tom Tom Gai (also called Tom Yum) which seems very similar to the one pot dish described above. We do know that Asians foodways began to circulate in Madagascar in the ninth century as Indonesian migrants settled there to facilitate trade between Asia and Africa. We also know that the Dutch imported slaves from Madagascar into their American colonies in the Caribbean and New York.

Traditional Tom Tom Gai recipe: http://www.indobase.com/recipes/details/tom-tom-gai.php

Vegan Tom Tom Gai recipe: http://vegsfblog.com/2010/02/11/vegetarian-thai-hot-and-sour-soup-tom-yum-gai/