Especially The Blacks And The Jews Pt.421228976

Heh, Jeff Goldberg is doing a "Cooking With Elijah Muhammad" series of at his new blog. Of course I found this most humorous:

It was Malik Zulu Shabazz who once called me a lox-eating Jewboy. Which, though offensive, contained an element of truth

Zulu Shabazz is, I'm sorry to admit, a Howard man. Back in the day, David Plotz did a wonderful number on him in Washington City Paper. It was one of the first pieces I saw, in fact, that made me want to work there. Anyway, Goldberg takes on Elijah Muhammad's nutty How To Eat To Live. It was that book (along with the contention of many folks I respected that Farrakhan was involved in the death of Malcolm) which convinced me, at the tender age of 15, that I could never join the NOI.

I can't remember the exact contents, but my recollection was that you basically couldn't eat biscuits, collards, black-eyed peas and cornbread. I may have that wrong, but I just remember that the list of foods you couldn't eat were some of my favorites. "Jew-bait and demagogue all you want," said the younger I. "But no way you're coming between me and my biscuits and black-eyed peas. No true man of God would dare such a thing."

That said, Bean Pie--an invention of the NOI--is one of the greatest culinary oxymorons ever invented. Sounds disgusting, but it's absolutely delicious. My Dad, after grumbling that the bean pies on the street hadn't been the same since Elijah died, once made a batch of em scratch. By Master Fard's ghost, I swear they were the win. When I went off to college the brothers would buy a Brother Howard bean-pie, and eat it with two scoops of vanilla ice cream. They called it the Muslim Sleeping Pill. Then the word leaked out that the Brother Howard Bean Pie wasn't authentic. It was made by Seventh Day Adventists. Fun times.