Dad and I had a blast roadtripping to the SFA’s “Global South” symposium and hanging out with rowdy food lovers of all sorts this past weekend. He’s a frequent SFA speaker, but it was my first rodeo. I found it enriching, delicious and way too much fun.
The diverse docket of programming included dialogue on Cuba and the American South, the Mesoamerican-Afro hot tamale and Viet-Cajun crawfish in Cali. Dad’s speech was titled “Houston: The South’s New Creole City.” He did a fine job of extolling Houston’s food scene while downplaying the scenery. But he was upstaged by the appearance of another Houstonian: the Masa Messiah himself, Chingo Bling.
We’ll be linking back to in-depth recaps of various presentations on Eating Our Words in the coming days—you can check out the first, a run-down of Thursday night’s Thacker Mountain radio show featuring dear ‘ol Dad, here.
I walked away from the symposium with a newfound appreciation for the connections we forge through food: with the world, with our loved ones, with complete strangers and old friends. To me, the concept of the Global South is as much about blurring interpersonal boundaries as it is geographic ones. After all, it’s hard not to feel closer to someone who’s shared in the experience of a perfectly fried piece of catfish and a cold beer on a wooden porch in the country.
Thanks, it was grand Oxford, Mississippi. We’ll be back.
-Katie Walsh