Happy National Gumbo Day!!! 🥣🔥 Comment below and share any stories about the best gumbo you’ve ever had!
To this day, my favorite “best gumbo ever” memories go back some moons ago, when my dear friend—and another mother of mine, along with others lucky enough to be added to her lovely lineup of daughters—Ms. Myrtle Escort White (“Moms Myrt”), my beloved Gumbo Muse in San Francisco who would make her signature gumbo—which was always AMAZING!!! Over the years, she was kind and generous enough to teach me how to make it step by step… and each batch i ever made down in Southern California back in the day practically came with marriage proposals from more than one party attendee lol.
Beyond Moms’ and “my” gumbos, another of the best batches of gumbo I ever had which —chock full of fresh snow or Dungeness crab claws, “scrimps!” (aka shrimp), well-seasoned stewed chicken and andouille sausage + all the aromatic veggies & elements that make a great gumbo (e.g. diced celery, onion, green pepper, and garlic cloves…) —was beautifully made by my baby sister in LA many moons ago (see beauty shots below — including the pic of a jar of gumbo to go!) . Yes, this was long before she went all vegan on me y’all (8 yrs ago!)… and guess what? HER recipe was based on MY hand-scribed rendition of Mom Myrt’s Most AMAZING GUMBO recipe! I just love full-circle moments…
Luckily for baby sis (omnivore that I am), I recently ‘discovered’ a slammin’ vegetarian/vegan gumbo recipe by Chef Omar Tate in Bryan Tterry’s stunning (literally & figuratively) “Black Food” book, which I’ve since put her onto… Now I just gotta get her to make that vegan version next time we’re in the same city/state so I can update my gumbo gallery of beauty pics below (& more importantly so I can try what I’m sure will be delicious given Omar’s genius & my sister’s culinary skills ) For now, enjoy the gumbo photo gallery which also includes images from one of my older sisters, Lisa-Lis — one of Moms Myrt’s birth daughters and continues Moms amazing gumbo tradition each year during the holiday season in California. Oh and she also shared with me the gumbo art image you’ll see from artist Robert Colescott which she saw recently in a San Fran art museum:
Gumbo has a long, rich history tied to specific regions of the U.S. (most notably, New Orleans) and its roots in West Africa, where the majority of African-heritage people in the New World originate. But for all that savory scoop, you’ll have to join my Patreon Platform—AND also to get your very own PDF copy of Mom Myrt’s Most AMAZING GUMBO recipe! 👏🏽👏🏽
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