♪ ♪ >> So, what are you doing in Detroit?

>> MISHA: Well...

This... We're doing a show.

>> Mm-hm.

>> MISHA: As you can see, from the cameras.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ Mm, delicious.

>> Yes, it is.

>> MISHA: We're exploring soul food in Detroit.

What does soul food mean to you?

>> I'm from a different generation.

Grandmother's house was the house everybody went to on Sunday for dinner.

Fried chicken, the greens, the beans.

It's the coming together, sharing the meal, catching up on everybody's week.

>> For me, it's like, I just love to have like a big plate... (laughter) ...of runny stuff.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ In the 1970s, a young couple set out on the most epic road trip of all time.

Jane and Michael Stern were on a mission to discover every regional dish in America, and over four decades, they burned through 38 cars and published ten editions of their iconic guide, Road Food.

♪ ♪ Now I'm picking up where they left off, exploring what makes America's communities unique and what binds us all together.

And it's delicious.

>> Major funding for this program was provided by: ♪ ♪ >> Yours is a front-yard family.

Because out front... >> How you doing?

>> ...is where all the neighborhood is.

And your neighbors know you well.

>> Mario, what's up?

>> They've seen your robe, your run, even your bathing suit.

>> (laughing) >> They also know your home turf stays open to the whole street.

So you stay out front.

We'll stay real-brewed.

And the world just might get a little golder.

Gold Peak real-brewed tea.

♪ ♪ (shade rustles) (doorbell rings) ♪ ♪ >> (softly): Yes!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Detroit was a booming manufacturing town.

And as you drive along, this used to be all residential neighborhoods, but as you can see, it's just vacant lot, after vacant lot, after vacant lot.

The city is about 80% African American.

Black farmers left the agrarian South and came north to find a better life in manufacturing jobs.

Then those jobs left, the factories closed, and all of these vacant lots sprung up as people left the city.

♪ ♪ The first person that we're going to meet this morning is Willie Patman, who himself was a part of the Great Migration.

He was a farmer in Oklahoma, and now he is back to his roots, he's farming on the vacant lots here in the city.

♪ ♪ >> Good morning, sir.

>> MISHA: Hi, I'm Misha.

>> Please to meet you.

>> MISHA: Will you show me your garden here?

>> Sure.

>> MISHA: Okay.

♪ ♪ >> I started out with one lot.

As the first house went down, I turned that into a garden.

Then the second, I turned into a garden.

>> MISHA: What did these lots cost you?

It was $100 to buy the adjacent lot.

>> MISHA: $100?

>> $100 to buy an adjacent lot and keep it up and plant a garden, which I think is one of the greatest things that the city's ever done.

>> MISHA: I think I might want to move to Detroit.

That sounds like a bargain.

(chuckles) What is the mission here?

>> The mission is to take the knowledge that I gained in my 87 years, and pass it on to the residents in urban areas who's got land available that they can grow their own clean, urban food.

If I can grow my own fennels, I don't have to buy them from anybody.

>> MISHA: Yeah.

>> And I know where they came from and I know they're pure.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: I see you have some collard greens... >> Those are collard greens.

>> MISHA: ...Growing over here.

>> MISHA: Do you know the history of collard greens?

>> In the 1600s, when they brought the first slaves over, they brought collard greens with them.

It was something they had, they could grow themselves.

This is a favorite green for southern Black people, now northern Black people, eastern, western, and whatever you might think.

>> MISHA: Right.

Would you be willing to just give me a little driving tour around the neighborhood?

>> Sure, yeah.

>> MISHA: Great.

It's a beauty.

>> Yeah, got a little bit of work to do on it.

(engine starts) >> MISHA: Oh, wow.

(engine rumbling) I love of the sound of your engine.

>> This is an engine.

>> MISHA: (laughs) Where was it made?

>> Lansing.

>> MISHA: Lansing, Michigan.

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

>> MISHA: How much of the population of Detroit left?

>> From Detroit's peak, I think half of the people's gone.

>> MISHA: Yeah.

♪ ♪ >> You know, my grandparents always had a garden.

So if you had, for an example, something happened to the weather, and something that was growing in the fields didn't come out right, we always had the garden.

See, this is another thing that, microfarming... >> MISHA: Oh, boy, that's so beautiful.

It beautifies the neighborhood.

>> Right.

>> MISHA: It also immediately instills me with a feeling of hopefulness.

>> Right.

That's my vision.

We get that all over the city, fruit trees.

You have to visualize it, to really understand it, to get yourself into it.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Willie, thank you so much.

It was really a pleasure, such a pleasure to meet you.

>> No problem, no problem.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: I'm supposed to meet Jerome.

Ah, that's me.

>> MISHA: Oh, hi Jerome.

>> Hey, how're you doing-- good, good, good!

>> MISHA: Really nice to meet you.

>> Yeah, welcome to Detroit Soul.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Man, it smells delicious in here.

>> Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Come on in.

This is my brother, Samuel Van Buren.

>> Hey, how you doing?

>> MISHA: Hi, Samuel, Nice to meet you.

>> Good to meet you.

>> MISHA: Yeah, are you the chef?

>> Yes.

>> MISHA: And you're the spokesman?

(crosstalk) >> He thinks he's a chef, he thinks he's a chef.

>> MISHA: Oh, I see, I see, okay, you are brothers.

(laughter) What are you cooking over here?

>> This is collard greens, and this is the smoked turkey wing that is used to give it the smoky flavor.

>> MISHA: Is that instead of using bits of pork?

That's a kind of a traditional way to do it, right?

>> Traditional, yeah.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: So you're not open for indoor dining right now?

>> No due to COVID, but for you, we're going to.

>> MISHA: Ah, I'll get the place all to myself.

♪ ♪ That's great.

Oh, this is, I feel like royalty here.

>> We'll get you a fork.

>> MISHA: Okay.

>> Get you a napkin, before we eat, >> MISHA: You say grace?

>> You say grace.

>> MISHA: Good.

♪ ♪ >> Dear Heavenly Father, well, we thank you.

We thank you for this food.

Grant us grace and mercy, in Jesus name we pray thank God, Amen.

>> Amen.

>> MISHA: Amen.

How do you feel like God and spirituality touched your relationship as brothers?

>> Our biblical Christian foundation helps us navigate the business arena.

Helps us remember the mission of what we're doing, it's just not to make a dollar, it's to be a part of the community.

>> I agree, and Christian values.

That don't mean that he don't get on my nerves.

>> Oh, it's going to be some fights.

(laughs) >> Oh, oh, we have those, those things happen.

You know, we're still human, haven't gotten the wings, haven't sprouted my wings yet, so.

But then we also know that at the end of the day, he got my back.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: That's delicious.

There's some secrets in these collard greens.

>> A lot of it's love.

♪ ♪ Soul food is considered a Southern tradition.

So I'm, I was surprised to learn that there's so much soul food in Detroit.

>> Our parents migrated from the south, during the '40s and '50s migration of southerners coming up to working in the auto plants.

And so every year, we had family reunions in Alabama, the Louisiana area.

And it was at those family reunions in the summertime, the whole family come together and cook.

And so it's the same thing we experience here.

It's, it's a labor of love.

It really is a labor of love.

>> Times have changed.

And I'm going to be real honest with you.

A lot of the generations behind us are not going to do this.

They're just not going to do it.

They're not going to stand over a stove all day cooking, you know, or picking collard greens.

They're not going to do it.

So it's almost like becoming a lost art.

>> MISHA: That is so good.

This is good for the soul.

(laughs) >> Yeah, oh, that's a nice slogan.

"Good for the soul," I like that.

>> MISHA: Well, thank you both so much for sitting down and watching me eat.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ Sydney James is who we're trying to find here.

And this is her mural, and it's spectacular.

What a beautiful undertaking.

How did... how?

(laughter) These are my articulate interview skills coming to bear.

>> "How?"

>> MISHA: I look at this, and I have one syllable, which is "how?"

>> You create a system to scale it up.

And, you know, it's called a squiggly grid system.

>> MISHA: Want to sit down and have some soul food with me?

>> Yes, I do!

>> MISHA: Okay.

>> Do I get to have some?

>> MISHA: Yes, you do, but you have to introduce yourself.

Who are you?

- Okay, I'm Halima.

>> MISHA: Hi, Halima, I'm Misha.

>> Hi, good to meet you.

Misha?

>> MISHA: Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> So what did you bring?

Ooh.

>> MISHA: This is catfish, candied sweet potatoes, and collard greens.

>> I want the turkey leg.

>> (giggles) >> MISHA: There better be a turkey.

Oh, there's a mountain of turkey there.

Yes!

>> MISHA: (laughs) >> I'm giving you the catfish.

>> So is this your show?

Do you bring people food in their own cities?

>> MISHA: Oh, that's a great-- let's retool, that's what we're going to start doing.

>> Yes!

(laughs) ♪ ♪ >> It's about to... >> MISHA: It's about to pour.

>> Oh, you want to go to the bar next door?

It's right here, like, it's that bar right there on the corner.

Let's go to Kingsley.

>> MISHA: So now, we're racing for shelter in the nearest building.

This looks like maybe one of her murals as well.

♪ ♪ Cheers.

>> What are you having?

I'm having, the camera-- tequila and soda.

One of the most inspiring things you can do is to put something up that almost seems impossible.

>> Yes.

>> MISHA: And to do it that fast, and that big, and that beautifully is in and of itself, an inspiration.

>> I see how my work transcends beyond what the piece actually is.

It's bigger than what it is.

And it's, right now, it's bigger than me, you know?

>> MISHA: Do you have a vision for what the reinvention of Detroit might be?

>> My hope would be for equity for all.

Because it's one thing to be equal, but equity is a whole, it's a completely different word.

And Detroiters overall, we might be equal, yes, but we have to always do five more steps to be equal.

I want to take out those extra steps.

I want to get rid of redlining.

I want to make sure everybody has the resources that they are due.

Everybody pays taxes.

I want infrastructure improvement, because we pay for that.

I want the services that we pay for to actually work, and do what it's supposed to do, which is not breakdown and stuff.

(laughter) You know what I mean?

>> MISHA: Hey, it's so nice meeting you.

And it's so nice talking to you.

>> Nice to meet you, too!

>> MISHA: And it's actually quite inspiring.

>> Cheers, through conquering the world through creation, and partnerships, and community.

>> MISHA: So good!

(laughs) ♪ ♪ >> MISHA: How long have you been here?

>> 18 years.

>> MISHA: Oh my goodness.

Since you were a baby.

>> (laughs) I'm much older than that!

>> MISHA: What's the history of the boogaloo sandwich?

>> The boogaloo sandwich was created by Brothers Barbecue Restaurant back in the late '60s.

This is a Detroit sandwich.

>> MISHA: Specialty.

>> Period.

>> MISHA: Is there a strategy for approaching this sandwich?

>> Attack.

(laughter) >> MISHA: I should do it.

>> I was just saying, "Hey, he's got to sign a waiver, please!"

>> MISHA: I should sign a waiver.

I'm going to go face first.

>> I'm just, >> MISHA: I need to get more vertical here.

♪ ♪ Mm, thank you.

(laughs) >> MISHA: This is a team effort.

>> (laughs) >> MISHA: I've got to say, it's delicious.

What you've done with this roll, it's grilled and it's crispy on the inside, and it's full of spices.

>> Yes.

Would you like a cup of Kool-Aid?

>> MISHA: A cup of Kool-Aid?

>> You want some Kool-Aid?

>> MISHA: Yes, I would.

>> Tropical punch, or grape, or you want the two mixed?

>> MISHA: I guess I want, want a mix.

>> Can I get a mixed Kool-Aid?

>> MISHA: I haven't had a mixed Kool-Aid since I was... >> Well, what we do is, we take the tropical punch... >> MISHA: Nine years old.

and we take the grape, and we just mix them together.

>> MISHA: Would it be possible to try the vegetarian boogaloo, >> No!

Hey Lloyd, I need a veggie.

>> Veggie boogaloo?

>> Yes, sir.

♪ ♪ I started making the vegetarian sandwich because I had a pastor who was vegetarian.

>> MISHA: This reminds me of, like, the perfect lobster roll, it's really quite tasty.

(laughs) We've been, like, tracing the lineage of collard greens, which came from Africa, and it was, like, a tether to the past, it was a connection to heritage.

>> Every African American home had collard greens, and they all cooked them the same way.

They all, it was either soft pork or fat back, or ham bone or something.

And as time went on over the years, there are certain things I had, I changed.

I figured I needed to based on how society looks at food today.

>> MISHA: Mm-hm.

>> I have a lot of vegetarians, even vegans, who wants collard greens.

>> MISHA: Oh, really?

>> Who wants black eyed peas and pinto beans, you know?

I was using the meat, the pork, the salt pork, the fat back.

I was using the smoked turkey in the collards.

Oh, don't get me wrong, it tastes good.

But you don't taste the greens.

>> MISHA: Right.

>> Now, there's no meat in there.

>> MISHA: This is just, it's really just the flavor of the collards.

>> Well, come on in young man.

You coming to get a boogaloo sandwich?

>> Sure did.

I'm up here from Alabama, you wanna see my driver's license?

(laughter) This is my driver's license, I'm from Alabama, I'm straight from Alabama.

>> MISHA: Okay, I'll check your ID, why not?

You really are.

So is this the only place you can find a boogaloo sandwich?

>> Yeah, it is.

>> MISHA: It's nowhere else?

This might be... >> Never found one anywhere else.

>> MISHA: Well, I like what I saw.

I like conversation, and I like what I tasted today.

>> Yeah.

>> MISHA: And I wanted to say thank you, thank you for having us down.

>> Thank you for coming.

>> MISHA: Yeah.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Are you Godwin?

>> Yeah.

>> MISHA: Hi!

>> How we doing, my brother?

>> MISHA: How long have you been in Detroit?

>> I've been in Detroit all of my life.

>> MISHA: How'd you come to open this place?

>> It's actually a long story.

Initially we started off as a tech company.

Yum Village was originally an Airbnb for pop-up chefs.

We would get a place, we would get a chef.

We would partner with them, >> MISHA: That's a very cool idea.

>> Yeah, like a supper club.

>> MISHA: Yeah.

>> You know, before they were, like, a thing.

>> MISHA: There is definitely a scent of soul food here.

>> Yeah.

This is African, it's Caribbean.

>> African, Caribbean.

All because we want to make sure that the dialogue and conversations around the diaspora are still happening.

>> MISHA: Do you know any of the lineage between African cuisine and soul food, and... >> Yeah, yeah.

>> MISHA: And maybe how that came to migrate all the way up to Detroit?

>> Well, I mean, for example, what we here is the jollof rice, which is the almighty right underneath there.

It's like a one-pot-style rice cooked with garlic, onion, and tomato.

And if you've ever had a jambalaya, or a gumbo, this is essentially the birth of those dishes.

During the 14th and 16th century, when the Portuguese were on the ports of Benin, and that food came along the trans-Atlantic slave route into the United States.

And a lot of these dishes are adaptations-- so, okra and tomato... >> MISHA: This is the best okra I've ever had.

That's not hyperbole.

>> (laughs) >> MISHA: It's not slimy somehow.

>> Yeah, no, we do a quick flash fry before we slow cook it with the tomatoes and onion and garlic there.

>> MISHA: This is awesome.

It sounds like everything is very mindful, very thoughtful, and so delicious.

Thank you.

>> Oh, thank you, that's a blessing, yeah.

>> MISHA: I'm going to take a bite of this and then I'm... going to bring okra with me, 'cause it's my favorite.

>> (laughs) Thank you.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: So we're looking for Jerry, who I think is up here, and this is her Oakland Avenue farm.

Are you Jerry?

>> Hi.

>> MISHA: Hi.

I'm Misha.

>> Hi!

>> MISHA: This is so lovely.

It feels like we're out in farm country.

>> In the country.

>> MISHA: Do you want to like walk me around... >> Sure, sure, come on.

>> MISHA: Show me some of it.

>> Let me give you the grand tour.

Be patient with me, because I talk a lot about this work.

>> MISHA: Uh-huh.

>> So 2009, we broke ground right here.

There was a food justice movement happening at that time.

>> MISHA: Can you talk about that term, "food justice," and what that means?

>> Food justice means that everybody has the right to good food.

And how do we make that happen?

Coming over here in 2008, no grocery stores, food was being prepared in fast food places, gas stations, liquor stores like that, uh...

This is where people were eating.

>> MISHA: Mm-hmm.

>> You couldn't find a fresh batch of collard greens or tomatoes, any of that, anywhere.

>> MISHA: So people actually come to your farm and collect vegetables?

>> Every day.

>> MISHA: How does that transaction work?

>> Some people who have the capacity to pay, will, and those that do not, we still feed them.

>> MISHA: That's awesome.

>> (laughs) >> MISHA: I love that.

>> It's interesting, Misha, because, I would hear people on the phone, "Yeah, I'm walking down to the park, meet me here."

I'm like, "the park"?

>> MISHA: Oh, you're a park.

>> (laughs) They were referring to this area here.

It's a safe place.

You know, for kids, for adults, for anybody.

>> MISHA: Well, it seems like such a lovely opportunity for resurgence, but also for connecting to the land.

One of the things that cities and urban planning, in general, seem to overlook is the connection to the land as a source of food, right?

>> Right.

>> MISHA: And this is an interesting opportunity to rethink what urban planning is, really.

I mean, it's kind of fascinating to have seven acres of farmland in the middle of the city, and you're creating a community gathering space.

I find that quite uplifting.

♪ ♪ >> These are collards.

>> MISHA: Ah, smells delicious.

>> Yeah.

One of the things that is interesting about collard greens is that when Black people were leaving the continent, they took seeds and the ladies planted the seeds in their hair, so that when they got to land, they would have food that they could grow and eat in the new country.

>> MISHA: I didn't know that, that's amazing.

>> So let's go meet Tepfirah, who works with me with the Black Farmer Land Fund.

Tepfirah works with Keep Growing Detroit, and she's a co-director for the Black Farmer Land Fund, where we're helping Black farmers to acquire the land that they're working on.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Oh wow.

>> The jungle!

>> MISHA: This is a bounty of tomatoes.

>> Oh my God, yes.

Hey T!

>> Hey, Miss Jerry, how are you?

>> I'm good, how you doing?

>> MISHA: Hi.

I literally did not see you.

The chard is so tall.

(laughter) I'm Misha.

>> Hi, Misha.

>> MISHA: Hi, nice to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you.

How'd you get into that?

>> To farming?

>> MISHA: Yeah.

>>> We had a regional power outage here in the city.

And at the time I was, like, just like, super revolutionary.

I thought I was off the grid, but when the grid went down... (laughter) I was like, "Oh, like, all of that was theory."

And I was living in a neighborhood where there's a lot of vacant land.

And when you look at the land from the perspective of a problem, then there's one perspective.

But then when you look at it like, "Oh, "there's all kind of, like, herbs in the grass.

There's, like, things I can eat."

And so I started investigating all of the weeds that I found, and then I started cultivating my own garden over there.

And then I just, I was hooked.

(laughs) I kept going.

>> MISHA: All right, I'll go on tomato detail.

>> (laughs) You just like tomatoes.

>> MISHA: I just like tomatoes.

Also, there's such a bounty here.

I don't feel bad picking extra ones.

♪ ♪ >> Whoo hoo!

Oh my God!

Doesn't that look good?

♪ ♪ >> Mm, this is perfect.

I wasn't expecting it.

>> We don't need to go to no restaurant!

(laughter) We got food right here!

>> This winter with COVID, I was not panicky, because I had food in my freezer.

Been putting it up all summer.

That's how you make people food secure, and growing up, I remember as a kid, having these food pantries in our basement, that's what the food pantry was.

>> MISHA: Uh-huh.

>> It wasn't the place where you go get free food, because you went downstairs in basement, >> Pantry.

(laughter) Grandma pantry.

>> MISHA: Yup.

♪ ♪ The root cellar.

That's what we called it.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ >> To me, there's healing that needs to happen when you touch the soil, when you're out there in the sun, when you're seeing the different colors, that is a visual healing that's happening.

And our communities have been so hurt and oppressed, right?

And so to bring that healing to people where you riding down your block, you might see abandoned lot, abandoned lot, vacant house, vacant house, and then beautiful flower!

(laughs) And vegetables, and, you know, it gives you a different, you know, posture about yourself and what your community is worth.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: Obviously, Detroit had a heyday and this is not it, but this does seem like a moment where something is growing, something is changing.

>> Right.

>> MISHA: The seeds are sprouting.

>> That's exactly right.

>> MISHA: And in a sense, it feels like maybe a new city is being born here.

>> Right, I guarantee you this.

I guarantee you this.

>> We're changing the way these communities look, the way they feel.

These communities are safer and more engaged.

>> Detroit never went away.

We're always here, but it is coming back in such a way that people are recognizing that Detroit is a place that you can live, you can go to school, you can go to work.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA It seems like maybe that's something that's emerging here again with all... with all of these guerilla farms.

>> Yes, yes, >> MISHA: Urban farms, and backyard gardens.

>> And it needs to happen because I think society needs to get back to the basics of what life was.

We've been doing the same thing since man was created on this planet.

We do the same thing, you know, and we want to act like we're different, but we're not.

And that's a beautiful thing.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: If you want to see extended footage of these conversations, or of me spilling food on my shirt, or if you want to know more about the restaurants and recipes from this episode, go to RoadFood.com.

♪ ♪ >> MISHA: This is the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Do you have any imported delicacies that I could try?

>> We have here spiced sardines in olive oil.

Here, we have tuna from the Azores.

And then this is a spicy sardine pate.

>> MISHA: It's delicious.

>> This is the treasure chest of recipes.

>> MISHA: Do you mind if I just steal those?

This is all an elaborate scheme.

♪ ♪ >> Major funding for this program was provided by... ♪ ♪ >> Yours is a front-yard family.

Because out front... >> How you doing?

>> ...is where all the neighborhood is.

And your neighbors know you well.

>> Mario, what's up?

>> They've seen your robe, your run, even your bathing suit.

>> (laughing) >> They also know your home turf stays open to the whole street.

So you stay out front.

We'll stay real-brewed.

And the world just might get a little golder.

Gold Peak real-brewed tea.

♪ ♪ (shade rustles) (doorbell rings) ♪ ♪ >> (softly): Yes!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪