August Wilson`s ”Joe Turner`s Come and Gone,” the powerful play now at the Goodman Theatre, is set in a black boarding house in the Pittsburgh of 1911, but the food discussed and served during several kitchen scenes is clearly Southern.
Half a century later, the food hadn`t changed much, but it had become known as soul food. Now, we see fewer references to soul. It`s Southern food again, even when cooked in Pittsburgh or Chicago.
But the roots haven`t changed. The soul of African-American cooking is still in assorted pork products, from the ribs and bacon familiar to all cooks, to hocks and chitterlings, along with biscuits, root vegetables and coarse-textured greens, frying fish and stewing chickens, fruit pies and lofty layer cakes.
While the pressures of modern life and the appeal of convenience foods have reduced the number of home-cooked family meals, markets that specialize in the ingredients that set this stick-to-the-ribs fare apart still survive on the South Side.
Though rendered nearly extinct by the growth of supermarket chains, a row of these small markets line the east side of South State Street between 71st and 72nd Streets, overlooking the sunken speedway that is the Dan Ryan Expressway. The markets are side-by-side, one-story brick storefronts with awnings and pulldown garage doors in front.
The classic essentials
A visit can provide everything necessary to re-create classics from the Southern/soul repertory. The display of products reaffirms a commitment to fresh ingredients, and the swirl of customers on a busy day and the banter between them and the sellers recall marketplace scenes of days gone by.
From a distance, these markets look almost indistinguishable, but up close they are very different.
Three of them house florists, and four contain produce specialists. There are a fresh fish market and carryout for cooked fish, an all-purpose grocery under a weathered, hand-painted sign ”Groceryla …” plus Harold`s No. 6
(which specializes in carryout fried chicken), a pizza shop and a no-name corner place that offers ”homemade tacos” and ”six chicken wings, $2.25.” Signs outside Art`s Market offer mustard and turnip greens, five pounds of sweet potatoes for $1, Delicious apples by the box for $11.98. Next door, frozen chitterlings are $3.99 for 10 pounds and smoked whole ham is advertised at $1.19 a pound.
Outside Al`s Produce, at 7109 S. State St., the hand-painted signs read,
”We specialize with quality,” and offer ”charcoal, sorghum and cane syrup,” ”snowball syrup, pickles by the gallon, nuts in shell, old-fashioned mints & more.” Pumpkins, for baking or for pies, are on display in a grocery cart, and stalks of sugar cane lean against the wall.
Inside Al`s, Louis Okoutropoulos, an 18-year veteran of the store founded by his uncle in 1935, says business is ”so-so.”
”We do a lot more in the summertime. The doors are open, and there`s lots outside. People just pull up in their cars and shop.
”The big things at this time of year are greens, all kinds of fruit and nuts.”
Does he compete by cutting prices, as the supermarkets do?
”Nah,” he replies. ”We all got our own prices.”
Hard work, thin margins
What the markets do share is minimalist decor and minimum per-item profit. The operators stay in business only by working hard long hours.
Among the vegetables at Al`s are the expected: onions, potatoes, green peppers, iceberg lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, leaf spinach. They are augmented by neighborhood specialties, including mustard greens, turnips and turnip greens, collard greens, cabbage sprouts, rutabagas and pole beans.
In the meat case the emphasis is on pork products such as salt pork, ham hocks, slab bacon, pig tails, neck bones. These will go into long-cooking soups, stews and casserole dishes.
At Central State Produce, there is less stock; a small TV set is on, and Bill Katsianis, who will complete his 25th year at this location in a few months, looks back.
”It`s changed,” he says. ”People want what we have, but there aren`t so many people living in the neighborhood now. Years back it used to be a farmers` market here, like Randolph Street. We`d handle fresh merchandise the big stores wouldn`t. Then along came Dominick`s and Jewel and Cub, and they had everything; so people started going there to do one-stop shopping.”
Why stay? he is asked.
”I can`t go anyplace else. I`m 55 years old. But I don`t see any recovery.”
In contrast, things are humming, literally, at the Market Fisheries, where five electric scalers are running almost full-time. Customers representing a spectrum of ages scan trays of 25 kinds of clear-eyed fresh fish, oysters from the East and West Coasts and all manner of frozen shellfish.
Haim Brody, the youthful owner, talks of ”a big increase in retail sales” during 1990. He took over management of the shipshape fish shop and carryout last year upon the death of his father, Sheldon. The elder Brody had started the family business in 1957.
”We sell a lot of buffalo fish steaks,” Brody says, ”and red snapper and lake whitefish. We sell gar steaks, too, although they are tricky to cook. ”But the best seller is catfish. We have two kinds. Our older customers want channel catfish because farm-raised doesn`t taste right to them, but the younger generation likes farm-raised fine. It stayed expensive at the big markets this year-it wasn`t on sale-and that probably brought some customers back to us.”
In the Southern tradition, cooks often shallow-fry small freshwater fish whole and will bake or ”smother” large fish or fillets with vegetables and a white sauce.
”The shellfish,” Brody says, ”goes mostly into gumbo. Our customers make some gumbos that would knock your socks off.
”They like it here. They know us. My dad was here every day for more than 30 years. They know the fish is fresher than anywhere else because our turnover is so quick. Also, we clean and cut it free of charge.”
Blue, orange and greens
Another place drawing a crowd on this particular day is Nick`s, an eye-catching storefront painted navy and orange, the colors of the Chicago Bears. A profusion of greens is on display in baskets.
Christine Gikas (Mrs. Nick) is holding court on the sidewalk, chatting up and cajoling customers and passers-by, most of whom she seems to know and who know her.
”We`ve got something special for you,” she tells one woman. ”You want me to cook it for you?” she asks another.
”Our customers come from all over,” she says. ”Some come from Hyde Park; others drive in from Country Club Hills. They can`t find greens there. We go through 500 cases of greens a week at this time of year.
”We sell a lot of sweet potatoes, smoked meats and fresh sugar cane, too. The people who come here like to eat. They want good products, fresh things, and they`ll pay for them, even the younger generation.”
And why is this store so popular? she is asked.
Instinct, not computerized market research, provides her answer.
”You give people quality and treat them the way you want to be treated, and they will come back,” she says.
”It`s a nice place here. The customers have seen me pregnant, seen my kids grow up. We`ve never had no trouble. We talk; sometimes I`ll serve them a cup of coffee or give them some free hot peppers for the greens.
”What kills you is the hours. My husband and I are here seven days a week, sometimes 16 hours a day. But we never get tired. You can`t afford to.” According to Nick Gikas, who spits out sentences as he hustles about restocking and straightening already-neat shelves, his family has several food-related businesses, each run separately. He began coming here 18 years ago.
”My father told me on my 10th birthday, `You`re not a boy anymore. It`s time to go to work.` So I did.”
What he has learned, he says, can be summed up in one sentence: ”If you stay on top of your business, you`re gonna make money.
”At Christmas people want evergreen trees and apples and oranges and pecans to decorate their homes. In spring it`s plants and garden supplies. In summer, we`ll sell a thousand melons a week. Now it`s greens. The store never looks the same from one season to the next.”
In addition to the grocery items, Nick`s also sells smoked meats, including Mississippi smoked sausage, ham hocks, pigs` tails and something called ”sweet meat,” which is smoked pork rib tips, or riblets.
”Take the slick-leaf mustard,” Christine Gikas tells a first-time customer as the interview ends. ”That`s the best-eating green.”
