A Pop Of Tradition

Everyone is always proud of their heritage, including their culinary one. What better way to celebrate and enlighten the community  than with a restaurant highlighting different recipes and ingredients. It's happening - but with pop up eateries in dining rooms, formal and not so formal across the New York City area.It's a way of getting the flavor out there but without the high operating costs.

Regular contributor Amelia Nierenberg wrote about this growing trend in today's New York Times Food section.Home chefs literally - from all backgrounds are discovering their culinary roots and sharing them for a price. It's a fun way to connect with other of the same background along with introducing others to new dishes and tastes. These are happening in not just dining rooms  but also in dorm rooms and even barns. It's not a new phenomena. They have roots in 20th Century supper clubs, the food trucks where where laborers bought their lunches and homes where civil rights leaders were fed. The Great Recession of 2008 closed many restaurants, leaving their chefs turning to pop ups to remain solvent.This new breed is charging for them, however the pop ups are not money makers. Most advertise on Instagram and and sell tickets on line. The food offered reflect  different heritages. There is Trinidadian and Cambodian, Columbian and African-American cuisines. There is also pop up restaurants  featuring the foods of Congo and Venezuela.

Some chefs such as Leigh-Ann Martin went to Trinidad, not just to escape the New York winters but also reconnect with her Trinidadian culinary history. She also visited other islands such as Grenada and Barbados, bringing their recipes to her Union City, New Jersey apartment.From there she created Table For Four, an $85 dining experience.One dinner was beach side themed, with fruit sellers and even soccer games. On a closer to home theme, Omar Tate creates an American meal with six courses with a nod to Philadelphia where he was raised and North Carolina. There was one dish, chicken croquettes with rose hip jelly which is what black caterers and chefs served to their white clients. For a more exotic fare there is Stephanie Bonnin's Le Tropi in Brooklyn. A trained chef, she recently drew on flavors from Colombian's Pacific Coast. There was shrimp with encocado, a coconut sauce. Cambodian food is made at the pop up Kreung run by mother and daughter Kim Eng Mann and  Chincayriya Un in Rhode Island and the Catskills. Linda A. Sebisaho brings her native Congolese cooking in Linda A.Cooks where there are such dishes as chikwangue, a fermented cassava paste along with sakasaka,a stew made from the cassava leaves that also has catfish and grilled goat.  For those who love Venezuelan cuisine, then book a small table at Mercedes Golip's pop up where you can get ham stuffed bread and tamales.

Pop up restaurants are a great way of introducing your heritage to the community. It brings chefs closer to their past and sets their futures. They also bring good and different cuisines to food lovers all over.