My favorite dishes are the ones that intertwine different cultures, weaving togetehr familiar and unexpected threads. That’s one reason why I’m stoked for the Delta Mississippi popup at Honey’s in Bushwick that highlights favorites from chef Omari Chapman’s childhood while also considering the long legacy Chinese immigrants who initially settled there to work in plantations and eventually came to own and operate grocery stores across the region.
The Delta continues to be an important hub for intercultural exchange with more recent waves of 21st century migration. And the supplementary zines by collaborator Annie Faye Cheng explain as much. Making them felt natural given that both chefs are also writers.
Below, a conversation with Omari and Annie on menu planning for the pop-up—and what they’re eating, drinking, and watching lately.
Annie Faye Cheng a novice butcher at a whole-animal shop The Meat Hook, and freelance producer of popups. She’s also a student of labor studies and wrote my graduating senior thesis on the kitchen brigade system’s formation during interwar Paris, in particular relation to the French empire and the experiences of Indochinese migrant cooks.
Omari Chapman is a chef and baker who works in restaurants all over NYC, including Egg in Prospect Heights at the moment. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, he takes inspiration from and soul food cuisine and anything else that tells a history connecting to the south within the American diaspora.
How did you get your start as a chef?
Omari: I got into food by watching The Food Network. My Grammy and I would watch Barefoot Contessa, Bobby Flay, and Alton Brown and come up with ideas and things for menus, like what to make for the holidays. I started working in restaurants when I was 12 as a french fry cutter in my uncle's burger spot, then continued to work in Mississippi under Chef Enrika Williams, who taught me everything I know about cooking. I've been working in restaurants and bakeries for 13 years, spanning from Atlanta, LA, and New York, and I love it so much I can't imagine doing anything else.
Annie: My first industry job was slinging french fries at a mall when I was 16, my second at Chipotle making burritos (probably my longest-lasting stint yet—three years!). I worked as a prep cook and menu design intern in college, and was a line cook and projects manager for a restaurant afterwards. I’ve cut ducks to order at a Cantonese restaurant, rolled pasta for an old-school Italian joint, and presented reports on everything from lamb breeds to regional cold storage facilities.
Food equity has always been central to my vision for a liberated food system as well—I was involved in a lot of food distribution, food education, and eating empowerment initiatives in school and continue to be invested in mutual aid practices related to community care.
Both of your beginnings involve fries! How’d you two meet?
Omari: We both wrote for the Midnite Snack zine. I read one of Annie's pieces and then she read mine and then she held a food writing class that I signed up for since then we’ve stayed in touch.
Annie: We became fast friends because as fellow fanatics about flavor and storytelling and history. Sometimes you just instantly click, and we were able to converse in such a natural way about our relationship to kitchens and cuisine.
Tell me how the pop-up came to be.
Omari: Mississippi foodways are a mix of a lot of things. People go straight to mac and cheese, but we have a lot of diversity. There's a large Chinese population. There's a large Mexican population. I grew up eating tamales and chop suey. People also tend to get stuck in the historical aspect too without necessarily recognizing the amazing things that are happening with cuisine now, so we wanted to put a modern twist highlighting the vastness of the culture for our pop-up.
What are classic Mississippi dishes or ingredients that get called out the most?
Omari: Everyone and their mama knows how to make fried catfish, fried okra, fried pickles. Most people don’t realize that Mississippi actually has a surprisingly diverse landscape though and an array of ingredients. Everything can really grow. My family loves Swiss chard, collards. My grandma loves cabbage for some odd reason. At every meal she's like, can I eat cabbage?
For the pop-up we're doing cabbage Sichuan-style, a little peppery, kind of numbing, served with this thing called Red Rose Sausage. It's literally like the most insane artificial red you can think of. We won’t replicate it exactly since it’s one-of-a-kind, but we wanted to pay homage. People just have it up with mustard on the side or white bread, and we’re serving Chinese mustard and chow chow, which is essentially medley of pickled peppers.
How does your heritage play into it, Annie?
Annie: I grew up eating amazing Southern food, from food trucks parked against the highway to tiny intergenerational mom-and-pop shops. Being near the coast, fried seafood was a shared love of both of ours. One of my all-time favorite childhood meals came from a carry-out only seafood shack in my hometown, a fried fish sandwich with hush puppies and coleslaw. People would walk right up and place their order, bearing out the wait with a Styrofoam cup of sweet tea on a hot summer afternoon before a gloriously greasy paper bag would get handed to you.
My parents made homestyle Chinese food at home, growing up in Florida exposed me to regional interpretations of so many cuisines from Puerto Rican food to Jamaican food to soul food. I didn’t always appreciate that upbringing, but it’s really a special kind of magic. I try to cook earnestly, honestly — not necessarily authentically.
What other dishes are you excited to highlight and share?
Annie: Definitely the pig ear sandwich. We’ll use pastured pig ear from Gibson Family Farm, sourced via The Meat Hook. Scratch-made barbecue sauce, and a chili-apple butter that makes it a little more fall and a little more New York.
Omari: It’s an homage to this place in Jackson called Big Apple Inn. Our version is pressure cooked, comes with brussell collard slaw, and i served on a potato bun. I think we really nailed it. We’re also making Delta tamales. Mexican immigrants came to the region to work on the railroads and obviously brought a lot of their own cooking. The story goes that they essentially sold the recipe for their tamales to this one place in the Delta, which started making them and that kind of went all around Mississippi. These are made with a cornmeal base instead of masa. Cornmeal is a little bit thicker. The meat is also barbecue or sloppy joe like in texture, already sauced and ready to go, rather than the braise you’d get in a tamale. We also used high quality meat rather than whatever odds and ends were leftover as is traditional.
1. Where are you a regular? What’s your order there?
Annie: Nepali Bhanchha Ghar in Jackson Heights. vegetable momo and chicken thali set.
Omari: Bonnie’s. I used to work there, so I get to see the girlies, but the food, the vibes, everything—I just love sitting at the bar watching the Wok cook. I always get the shrimp, long beans, and a lychee martini, a perfect order.
2. Underrated ingredient
Annie: I’m a big fan of beef tendon. I love throwing it into braises for extra collagen, and when it cooks just the right amount its such an unbelievable texture.
Omari: Salted egg yolk, one of my favorite ingredients. It does not have a super strong taste but adds a velvety, buttery, slightly umami flavor to anything.
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