Soul Food

CHICAGO - Duct tape covers a large crack in the premier booth at Hard Time Josephine's Cooking, where waitresses call you "sweetie" and customers come for the steaming shrimp bisque and homemade peach cobbler that leaves a hint of cinnamon on the tongue. Not long ago, such an eyesore at one of Chicago's top soul-food restaurants would have been unthinkable. Despite the name, times were good: Chicago was a bustling center of black America, and people in the neighborhoods savored Southern-style cooking.

For the purist, the thought of "healthy" soul food is the culinary equivalent of Aretha Franklin singing "Muskrat Love" or James Brown waltzing. The two just don't fit together. Let's face it. The soul food that for generations has been so good to us, is not exactly good for us. In these health-, heart- and cholesterol-conscious times, we've been bombarded with so much negative rap on the cardio-vascular consequences of partaking of favorites like pork ribs, fried chicken, ham hocks, neck bones, black-eyed peas, collard greens, corn bread and - sigh - sweet potato pie, that we could almost give them up. After all, folks yammering incessantly about high blood pressure and heart disease can really take all the pleasure out of a hearty mound of grits smothered in onion gravy.

Don't pass on Soul Food, a tender and tasty family comedy set in Chicago. Equally important, don't make the mistake of seeing this heartwarming and cholesterol-elevating film on an empty stomach. Sure, George Tillman Jr.'s movie - a hugely accomplished urban fairy tale with an all-star cast including Vanessa L. Williams and Vivica A. Fox - nourishes the spirit. But the bountiful pans across supper tables groaning with greens, brimming with baked ham, steaming of cornbread and crackling with catfish aggravate hunger pangs, while the story feeds spiritual appetites.

Don't go to see "Soul Food" hungry. If you do, after seeing all the catfish, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas and peach cobbler lovingly photographed on the big screen, you'll probably have to leave abruptly and run to the nearest soul-food restaurant. And you'd miss a feel-good film that does something very rare - shows African-American characters with heart and compassion going about their everyday lives. "Soul Food" is an unabashedly sentimental family drama that will leave your stomach growling and require some tissues for the tears you'll shed.

COLLARD-GREEN SMOOTHIE Cherron Perry of the Dandelion Bunch has a fresh take on collard greens: Cut 3 to 4 fresh collard-green leaves into strips. Put 1 cup cold water and stevia to taste in a blender. Add 2 handfuls of the greens and 1 to 2 frozen bananas, and blend until smooth. For a thicker consistency, add 1 or 2 cups ice cubes. BLACK-EYED PEA FRITTERS Head over to Geechee Girl Rice Cafe (6825 Germantown Ave.) for an awesome remake of black-eyed peas using a food processor, dried peas, onions, bell pepper, cornmeal and seasonings.

Randall Cunningham - author, co-host of his own television show, commercial pitchman - says he wants to get into the restaurant business next. The Eagles quarterback, who is out with a broken leg, said he is interested in starting a soul food restaurant, "like the Hard Rock Cafe, but with soul food," in either Philadelphia or Las Vegas. "It would be a good place for people to go down and get homecooked meals," Cunningham said in an interview played last night on WHWH-AM in Princeton.

Soul Food, the longest-running predominantly African American drama on TV, will have its series finale tonight at 10. Now what? "Oh wow. What am I going to do now?" lamented Lydia Peace, 32, a University City filmmaker who has been an avid viewer of the award-winning series since its 2000 debut on Showtime. "Everything was wrapped around Soul Food on Wednesday nights. " Based on the 1997 movie of the same name starring Vivica A. Fox and Mekhi Phifer, Soul Food recounted the ups and downs of the three Joseph sisters in Chicago.

During February, which is Black History Month, soul food gets a lot of attention. But some folks pass up traditional African American cooking, thinking it's automatically high in fat and calories: greasy fried chicken, collard greens laced with fatback, and dense, rich desserts. But there's a new generation of at-home cooks and professional chefs who whip up tasty, low-fat versions of such beloved foods. They take what Grandma made and improve on it, using different fats (replacing lard or shortening, for example, with olive oil or canola oil)

The video business wakes up from its holiday hangover this week, with a great batch of new movies on video. Topping the list is a funny and sad tale of two college friends. Career Girls 1/2 (1997) (Fox) 95 minutes. Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman. Director Mike Leigh's wistful, minor-key rumination about friendship and the passing of years, as two college roommates from the mid-'80s (the terrific Steadman and Cartlidge) meet six years later for a weekend of reminiscing and reflection.

SOUL FOOD carries a certain connotation of deep fryers, heavy cream, lard and tastiness at the expense of arterial clogging. It doesn't have to be that way. Vegan food also carries a certain connotation - of tasteless but sensible cuisine dependent on faux tofu meats and processed fake cheeses. That's not always the case, either. Chef and self-proclaimed food activist Bryant Terry wants to set the record straight: Soul food can be fresh and even healthy; vegan cooking can have soul.

COLLARD-GREEN SMOOTHIE Cherron Perry of the Dandelion Bunch has a fresh take on collard greens: Cut 3 to 4 fresh collard-green leaves into strips. Put 1 cup cold water and stevia to taste in a blender. Add 2 handfuls of the greens and 1 to 2 frozen bananas, and blend until smooth. For a thicker consistency, add 1 or 2 cups ice cubes. BLACK-EYED PEA FRITTERS Head over to Geechee Girl Rice Cafe (6825 Germantown Ave.) for an awesome remake of black-eyed peas using a food processor, dried peas, onions, bell pepper, cornmeal and seasonings.

I HAD THE PLEASURE of interviewing activist/filmmaker Byron Hurt recently about his new documentary, "Soul Food Junkies. " Hurt will screen and discuss the film Thursday during a free event at Community College of Philadelphia. More than a documentary, "Soul Food" explores a son's deep love for his father, who refused to abandon the culinary tradition's high-fat and calorie-heavy dishes even when his health was threatened. Hurt's film takes a historical, cultural and culinary journey to the origins of soul-food traditions and their complex connection to black identity.

On the label of Daisy Smith's signature applesauce, several essential ingredients aren't listed. But you can almost taste them. "Determination, perseverance, hard work, and love," says Smith, whose sauce is featured at Momma's Home Made, her new Voorhees takeout. Set between a grocery store and a gold exchange in the modest Southgate Plaza on Haddonfield-Berlin Road, Momma's Home Made celebrated its grand opening Monday. The menu is soul food with a fresh twist and a light touch.

Second of two parts. Therice Denby's career track crystallized in the late 1980s while she was enrolled at Cheyney University - but not in the classroom. Her entrepreneurial calling came in her dorm room, where she toiled over a double-burner hot plate and an electric frying pan. "I was selling food out of my room," Denby explained. Her menu included pork chop and chicken sandwiches. On weekends, she met breakfast demands with eggs, grits and potatoes. It was all forbidden by university rules so "we would buy incense to try to cover up the smell," Denby confessed recently.

"Good Lord, good meat, c'mon, let's eat!" That abbreviated grace uttered over a plate of soul food is one of the few laugh lines from New York filmmaker Byron Hurt's new documentary, Soul Food Junkies . Scheduled to screen Sunday at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, Soul Food Junkies is a thoughtful, historical, and personal examination of the unhealthy effects of African American eating habits. Which is anything but funny. Too much fat and sugar? Yep. Obesity-causing and disease-inflicting?

The chicken fryers are cold and the signs are dark at Delilah's, the signature soul-food stands at Reading Terminal Market since 1984 and at 30th Street Station since 1993. The stands are closed, apparently as a result of a bankruptcy case in New Jersey, where founder Delilah Winder lives and bases her business. Winder did not return messages left at her office and on her cell phone Tuesday. Her attorneys indicate in court filings that her rents had been paid through March.

Menu: Major home-cooked meals with a Caribbean kick. (Miss out on Denise's jerk chicken, and you'll be the jerk.) Look for: A hot-pink-on-white truck parked on 30th Street between Market and Chestnut. Open: Daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Phone? Website? Nope. Owner: Haiti native Denise Severe, since 1996. What to order: A small platter (most are $7) comes with two sides and is big enough for two meals. (A large costs $2 more)

What does family dinner look like at your house? The Cosby Show or Leave It to Beaver but with texting teens? A scene from Modern Family ? Or The Simpsons , but with better food? The ritual of gathering for a meal may look a bit like any of these. Or not. That's the beauty of family dinner: It may bring together a mom, dad, preteen, and toddler - or a trio of fresh-out-of-college roommates for pizza, or a quartet of friends for a potluck - sharing different stories and different foods.

CHICAGO - Duct tape covers a large crack in the premier booth at Hard Time Josephine's Cooking, where waitresses call you "sweetie" and customers come for the steaming shrimp bisque and homemade peach cobbler that leaves a hint of cinnamon on the tongue. Not long ago, such an eyesore at one of Chicago's top soul-food restaurants would have been unthinkable. Despite the name, times were good: Chicago was a bustling center of black America, and people in the neighborhoods savored Southern-style cooking.

Vera Lee Amerson brought her love of Southern soul food from her roots in Georgia and enjoyed serving it to her clients in a nursing home and fellow workers. As an employee of the Children and Adult Disability and Educational Services (CADES), she took care of three men at the Norwinden Home. And they were lucky enough to savor her soul food. "Vera enjoyed caring for and spending quality time with her clients," her family said. "She looked forward to preparing a spread at Thanksgiving and Christmas.