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WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS, 1999
(available in paperback from Pocket, 2000)
HIP-HOP ARTIST, writer, and political activist Sister Souljah casts herself as a character in her first novel, a gritty portrayal of the urban drug culture and violence in New York’s African-American community. The Coldest Winter Ever is a platform for the author’s views on a number of issues, including drugs, sex, and community building.
Winter, the wealthy teenage daughter of a powerful Brooklyn drug lord, Ricky Santiaga, is savvy, sexy, street-smart, and spoiled. Santiaga gives Winter, her mother, and her three sisters every luxury, and Winter’s world of self-indulgence revolves around expensive clothes, the worship of rap stars, partying, and making herself appealing to men. Although Winter takes up with a “sugar daddy”—from whom she obtains money and rides in exchange for sexual favors—and other men, the mysterious Midnight, her father’s employee, is the real object of Winter’s affection. Midnight, a devotee of Sister Souljah, is quiet, serious, and indifferent to Winter’s many attempts to seduce him.
When Winter’s father moves the family from the Brooklyn projects to a Long Island mansion, separating them from the life they knew, a series of misfortunes ensues. Winter’s comfortable life begins to unravel quickly: Her father is arrested, the family’s possessions are seized, her sisters are sent to foster homes, and her mother becomes a drug addict.
The story of Winter’s survival and decline then unfolds. After Winter has a brief stay in a Brooklyn group home for teenagers, a friend brings Winter to a home Sister Souljah established to help troubled youth. Winter is skeptical of Sister Souljah’s ability to help, but believes Sister Souljah may lead her to Midnight. But her failure to heed Sister Souljah’s message and her continued attraction to a decadent lifestyle present a cautionary tale about poverty, racism, and values in contemporary urban America.
Winter prefers her food on the spicy side: Jamaican beef patties, ginger beer, and drinks with Alizé, a passion fruit–flavored liqueur, are staples of her diet. At one of Souljah’s womanhood meetings, Winter scoffs at the vegetables and dips as “rabbit food.”
While living at Souljah’s, Winter has to feed herself. But Winter invests the last of her food money in an expensive new dress, aiming to be the “baddest bitch in the universe,” with her sights set on seducing Souljah’s friend, the popular rapper GS, at his birthday party: “I knew if I could hook him, my problems would be over. Life would be all Range Rovers, rugs, chips, cheddar and pleasure.”
Buffalo wings are a favorite of Winter’s. She orders Buffalo wings from room service during a hotel-room party, and Buffalo wings are among the finger foods served at the rapper GS’s birthday party, which Winter attends.
Distinguished by a spicy pepper sauce and accompanied by blue-cheese dressing and celery sticks, Buffalo wings have their roots in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo’s Anchor Bar claims to have originated the recipe. Anchor Bar history has it that chef and owner Teressa Bellissimo deep-fried chicken wings, coating them with a spicy sauce. “The wings were an instant hit and it didn’t take long for people to flock to the bar to experience this new eating sensation,” writes Ivano Tuscani, the restaurant’s executive chef, on the Anchor Bar website. “From that point on, Buffalo wings became a regular part of the menu at the Anchor Bar.”
In Third Helpings (Penguin, 1984), a collection of culinary essays, Calvin Trillin explains that he “did not truly appreciate the difficulties historians face” until he attempted to chronicle the history of Buffalo wings. While acknowledging the Anchor Bar’s claim to inventing the wing, Trillin writes that the distinctive wings are thought to be rooted in Buffalo’s African-American culture, originating at John Young’s Buffalo restaurant, Wings n’ Things, in the mid-1960s.
Either way, the Buffalo phenomenon has gone nationwide. Tasty, inexpensive, and easy to make, chicken wings took flight from the Northeast to bars, restaurants, and fast-food chains across the country, making a permanent mark on American culinary culture by the 1980s.
Stephanie Groves, cofounder of two chapters of the Go On Girl! Book Club in Indianapolis, Indiana, contributed this recipe for spicy buffalo wings. “Although I’m not a big fan of blue cheese, I never serve my hot wings without it,” says Groves. This is a version her book club loves, and it is sure to spice up your group’s discussion of The Coldest Winter Ever.
We offer two blue-cheese sauces for your Buffalo wings. The first is a more “gourmet” dressing, the second a traditional Buffalo wings dipping sauce with a very strong blue-cheese flavor.
NOTE: These wings may be made ahead of time: Follow instructions through to coating wings with butter sauce, then cover the baking dish and refrigerate until ready to eat. Reheat in oven as indicated.
4 pounds chicken wings (about 24) 1 tablespoon seasoned salt 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1½ teaspoons lemon pepper 1½ quarts or more vegetable oil for deep-frying 4 tablespoons butter, melted |
4 teaspoons hot sauce (such as Tabasco) 1 teaspoon white vinegar Blue-Cheese Dressing or Blue-Cheese Dipping Sauce (see below) Crudités for dipping, such as celery sticks and carrots |
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cut off tips of chicken wings at top joint and discard tips. Cut each of the remaining wings into two pieces. Rinse the wings and dry well with paper towels. Sprinkle wings all over with seasoned salt, garlic powder, and lemon pepper.
Heat the oil in a deep fryer or pot to 375°F. If not using a fryer with a built-in temperature gauge, it is helpful to clip a high-temperature thermometer, such as a candy thermometer, to the side of the pot to regulate the heat. Add the chicken wings, a few at a time. Try to keep the temperature between 350° and 375°F while frying. Deep-fry for 6–10 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Remove the wings and drain on brown paper or paper towels. Continue until all wings have been fried.
Stir together the butter, hot sauce, and vinegar (adjust the amount of hot sauce for your guests). Place one-third of the wings in a large bowl and pour some of the sauce over them. Toss to coat well. Transfer wings to a baking dish. Repeat the process with the remaining wings. Heat in oven about 20 minutes before serving.
Serve with crudités and Blue-Cheese Dressing or Blue-Cheese Dipping Sauce.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
3 eggs ¼ cup chopped onions ¼ cup chopped celery ½ teaspoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar |
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
2 cups olive oil 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled blue cheese |
Place eggs, onions, celery, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, Worcestershire, salt, white pepper, and cayenne in a blender or food processor. Blend for 20 seconds. Then, with the motor running, add the oil in a thin stream. Continue to blend for 45 seconds to 1 minute after oil is added, or until thick. Place dressing in a bowl and stir the blue cheese in by hand until well mixed. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Yield: About 3 cups
1 cup (4 ounces) blue cheese ½ cup mayonnaise ½ cup sour cream |
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar Several dashes of hot pepper sauce |
Mash the blue cheese in a mixing bowl, leaving some small lumps. Whisk in the mayonnaise and sour cream until blended. Add the lemon juice, vinegar, and pepper sauce to taste and whisk to blend well. Adjust seasonings. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Yield: 1½ cups
NOVEL THOUGHTS
The Go On Girl! Book Club, Inc. (GOG), with more than thirty chapters in thirteen states, aims to increase the reading and appreciation of works by African-American authors and to provide a forum for exchange of ideas and opinions. The eleven women of Indiana 5, an Indianapolis chapter of GOG, fully immerse themselves in their chosen books through food, dress, and imagination. Occasionally the group meets at a local restaurant, but usually they meet at a member’s home and prepare a thematic meal. “We like to match food with books, because it gives us an opportunity to go inside the books. It takes us back to that era,” says Tracy Smith-Grady. “It’s fun to get as engrossed in the book as you can.”
One of the group’s favorite books, The Coldest Winter Ever, inspired lively conversation about the characters and their motives. “Everyone in the group gave this book five stars,” says Stephanie Groves. “We discussed the book at our meeting, and then again when we met with two other book clubs for drinks several weeks later. We could see ourselves getting caught up by a fine, slick brother, being naïve, and thinking we could handle all the drama.”
More Food for Thought
The Cultures Club at the Park Forest Public Library in Park Forest, Illinois, serving Park Forest and Olympia Fields, explores world cultures through literature. Members research the culture featured in the literature, and Leslie Simms, the group’s facilitator, displays related materials. One of the group’s best discussions was about The Coldest Winter Ever, which they read for its insight into the hip-hop subculture. “Some of our members were unfamiliar with the culture depicted in The Coldest Winter Ever, while others with more experience used the discussion as an opportunity to share personal knowledge,” says Simms.
Each month, the Cultures Club enjoys a dessert reflecting the culture of the month. “Since the foods mentioned in the novel were standard American junk food, I served pop and chocolate chip cookies,” says Simms.
teaspoon cayenne pepper