As we approach Juneteenth, the federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, it’s worth remembering slavers weren’t just evil—they were also stupid and had bad taste.
This point was first brought home to me when, as a young intern at the Cape Cod Times, I was assigned to write about the importance of lobster to the region’s culture and tourism. That’s how I first learned the same lobsters now considered a delicacy were once fed to enslaved people, indentured servants, and prisoners because they were so abundant they were considered garbage.
Slavers disposed of “less desirable” cuts of meat this way as well—livers, gizzards, pig’s feet, ears and intestines, cow’s tongue. Enslaved people brought those things together with leafy greens, humble beans, and West African, Caribbean, and European cooking methods. What they created was quintessentially American—foodways born of injustice, inequality, the shortsighted and sneering dismissal of those who didn’t recognize that, with ingenuity and love, these things could become transcendently beautiful.
I was thinking about this last week over a plate of oxtails and rice at A’leurer on Mill Street, which bills itself as the “Best Soul Food in Greensboro.” That’s a bold claim in a city with so strong a field of contenders for the title. But with every bite of that slowly simmered, falling-off-the-bone tender oxtail, I was convinced they have got to be in the conversation.
“What is it…?” my wife asked as she watched me devour the entire plate.
“It’s essentially what it sounds like,” I said. “Makes great soups and stews because of all the collagen, but also great simmered and smothered like this—it’s insane this is one of those cuts some people didn’t see as valuable.”
Of course, that’s changed. The popularity of oxtails in Caribbean and African American soul food has ushered in their use in all sorts of restaurants—and, along with soaring beef prices in general, driven up costs. A cut that was once less than a dollar a pound now routinely sells for $15 a pound. At A’leurer, it’s among the pricier dishes.
In Greensboro, we’re lucky to have a lot of great places to enjoy oxtail in a lot of different traditions and preparations.
Looking for a more Caribbean take? Try La Palma or Da Raggae Cafe, both on West Gate City Blvd or Vybez Kitchen on Phillips Ave., where they’re serving up not just oxtail but oxtail egg rolls and oxtail pasta.
No point in being precious or traditionalist about preparation. This was always diasporic fusion food, by necessity and in spirit. Enjoy it any way you can and marvel at the idiocy of those who thought something this delicious was beneath them.
