The Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham is celebrating Black Historical past Month with its delicacies.
Each Wednesday this month, the Black-owned restaurant plans to introduce a brand new dish.
Final week, the particular was fried catfish and spaghetti with origins from the Mississippi Delta. This Wednesday, the menu will characteristic bake and shark, a dish standard in Trinidad and Tobago that consists of fried shark stuffed in a pocket sandwich.
On Feb. 16, the particular will likely be Senegalese fish yassa, a twist on a conventional West African hen dish. The brand new dish on Feb. 23 will likely be Moqueca Baiana, a Brazilian fish stew.
Proprietor and chef Ricky Moore mentioned in a press launch that the specials are in celebration of Black Historical past Month and the Pan-African world affect of the Atlantic Slave Commerce.
He mentioned that African Individuals have contributed to many cuisines the world over, and that world affect lent itself to what he calls the restaurant’s celebration — “culinary cultural contribution month.”
“Plenty of these dishes I’ve eaten already,” Moore mentioned. “I used to be like — this might be a reasonably cool factor to do. We’re gonna undergo the African diaspora.”
He mentioned the dishes are easy and authentically African-influenced, chosen with the aim of not directly educating folks with meals.
“I believe quite a bit might be completed while you put meals in entrance of someone,” Moore mentioned. “You get a little bit cultural lesson, when you would.”
Saltbox Seafood Joint opened in downtown Durham in October 2012 and expanded to a different location on Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd in 2017. The unique location closed in August 2021 on account of its 10-year lease expiring.
“All I’m attempting to do is ship a product that’s constant time and again,” Moore mentioned. “Hopefully, excellence is achieved all through.”
Carmen Rivera, staff chief of Saltbox Seafood Joint, mentioned that working on the restaurant has been an awesome expertise. She mentioned the restaurant is multicultural and that along with Black Historical past Month, it has additionally celebrated Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month.
“(Moore’s) fairly concerned,” she mentioned. “He opens the doorways to all people who comes.”
Tammy Hope, proprietor of the TammyHope & Extra on-line boutique, mentioned she’s a daily on the restaurant and is planning on attempting the specials.
“I really noticed it yesterday on Instagram,” she mentioned. “I’m gonna hit Wednesday up subsequent week and see what it’s like.”
Moore grew up in New Bern, N.C., the place he mentioned consuming seafood was a part of his tradition and upbringing.
After graduating highschool, he served within the Military from 1986 to 1992. He mentioned he was deployed in Saudi Arabia for a 13-month tour the place he was a navy cook dinner.
“The mission of a navy cook dinner is to offer sustenance to your troops,” Moore mentioned. “That’s an enormous morale booster, particularly in fight.”
This expertise as a navy cook dinner, he mentioned, permits him to be further highly effective within the civilian world as a result of he appears like he can cook dinner for anyone.
After leaving the navy, Moore mentioned he attended The Culinary Institute of America. He graduated in 1994 with an training he mentioned was invaluable.
Now, with the Saltbox Seafood Joint, he hopes to remain recent and present with totally different occasions like this month’s weekly particular dishes.
“I’ve a whole lot of issues I’m lining up for Saltbox,” Moore mentioned. “Eating places usually are not simply locations to come back eat — they’re locations to collect, they’re locations to fulfill and I consider they’re locations to turn out to be educated.”
@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com
To get the day’s information and headlines in your inbox every morning, join our e mail newsletters.
