Fruits of our labor

The final months of summer gardening are always met with mixed emotions. This is often when the plants we have worked so hard to grow come to fruition and are ready for harvest. It is also the time when the impacts of bugs, drought and animals are felt more acutely, and the mature plants require more care to keep them producing the glorious vegetables during this harvest season.

There is so much to learn about life through gardening as it teaches you that the work is never done, growth requires care and attention, and to produce results you have to put in the time. All too often, when embarking on anti-racism efforts, fellow white people (myself included) often want to see the fruit without the labor. There are many times where we say, “please just tell me what to do” without having the context or the history for why this particular action is needed. Without this foundational understanding, it can be difficult to commit to the work in meaningful and long-term ways.

The scope and importance of becoming more aware of whiteness takes time to dig into the depths of our subconscious, to unearth long-held beliefs and thought patterns that many argue are imprinted into our DNA over generations. It takes quiet reflection, sitting the discomfort of acknowledging our own dirt, picking away at our bugs, having conversations with people to help us clear the weeds, and fertilizing our soil with knowledge. Due to our social conditioning, the gardens of white people, in particular, need the investment of time, curiosity and labor to understand what lies beneath.

The beautiful upside to this work is knowing that it will produce the results we want. There are literally hundreds of years of learning to unlearn but we are so lucky to have books by James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Maya Angelou, and countless other Black authors to read, social media accounts to follow and films to watch. In the moment, it may feel overwhelming and hard to understand where it will lead us, but we have to trust the process and our own labor in the work.

Gardening is not an easy process. The path to success is not clear or linear, and there are variables that will constantly pop up, and work to deter us from seeing the work through until maturity. The same is absolutely true to on the path to becoming anti-racist. There are going to be moments of appreciation, gratitude, frustration, sadness, and fear. Despite all of this, those who take on the work know one thing to be true: In the end, it will be worth it.

Solo turn

New music from Mindset X leader

As a performer, Steven Scott has some distinct personas. He’s the leader of Mindset X, a band with which he’s created ambitious progressive rock, most recently the 2015 concept album Oceans. More than a few fans know him for playing cover songs as The Deviant at area restaurants and bars.

There’s another side to the singer, songwriter and guitarist that’s not as familiar to his followers, but it will be soon as he prepares to release a spare, acoustic solo EP called Albino Road. A preview single, “Anywhere But Here,” came out late last month.

In a recent phone interview, he said he was tapping his inner Cat Stevens or Roy Harper for the new disc, which he hopes to release in full later this fall.

“The solo stuff came out of the need to express myself on the softer side of things,” he said. “Mindset X leans toward a rocking, electric sound, while this is kind of indie folkish.”

There’s a lot of reflection on the record, and a few painful truths about human nature. The title cut recalls a historical event in Andover, Massachusetts, toward the end of the 19th century. According to folklore, a pair of albino children living there were killed by fearful neighbors, who also burned down the family’s home.

The song reflects the racism of today, Scott said.

“They killed the kids just for being different,” he said. “We’ve been through this crap before, why are we still doing it? We’re still in the same position, just with better technology. It’s a weird road we’ve taken as a species. It confused me, made me a little angry and I tried to put that in the song.”

The EP’s other two tracks provide brighter bookends. “Anywhere But Here” is a carpe diem for the downtrodden, with lines like “cheers to the ones who ignore their fears … don’t be silent, ever scared, ’cause this is your life,” while “Sunshine On Me” is a call to action that echoes the Youngbloods’ ’60s chestnut, “Get Together.”

He hopes to finish and release Albino Road by the end of August, and is currently contemplating how to unveil it live.

“I’m figuring out if I want to present it in a solo fashion, or try some looping, or have some people on stage,” he said. “I may drop a song into my covers set, as my plan is to peel away from that at some point and do all originals.”

The project has changed shape on the way to completion. “Originally … it was just going to be me and my acoustic guitar,” Scott said, “but any time I try to do that I end up thinking, ‘I wonder what a piano would sound like, or a flute.’”

He recruited local producer and musician Jay Frigoletto to add some layers to “Anywhere But Here,” which revved up the once-austere track.

“Instead of a down to earth folk song,” Scott said, “it turned out to be more folk rock.”

Mindset X was working on a new album with plans to hit the studio in April, “but Covid threw a wrench in all of that,” Scott said. “We didn’t jam for a couple of months because we weren’t supposed to.”

With his solo record basically done, MSX is targeting the next month or two to record tracks for release early next year.

“There’s a lot of questions still to be answered, but we’re ready to go and I’m proud of the stuff we’ve written,” Scott said. “It’s definitely us all the way.”

For now, Scott performs covers to audiences, who seem to appreciate him more.

“You look back six months ago and people are posting about three friends who showed up to see them play, but now people are really hungry for it,” he said. “They seem more enthusiastic, and more willing to accept an original song thrown in now and then. I try to move to the light and away from the darkness; Covid exists — we know that — but you gotta look for some good in all of this.”

Featured Photo: Steven Scott. Courtesy photo.

Steven Scott – The Deviant
When:
Friday, Aug. 21, 6 p.m.
Where: Jocelyn’s Mediterranean Restaurant, 355 South Broadway, Salem
More: stevenscottmusic.com

Project Power (PG-13)

Film Reviews by Amy Diaz

Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dominique Fishback fight a chaos-bringing drug in Project Power, a promising but under-baked action movie from Netflix.

It is a chocolate chip pancake with a raw-batter center — potentially satisfying but frustrating for its not-quite-there-ness.

Art (Foxx) is on the hunt for the source of Power, a new street drug that comes in a glowy pill and, when ingested, gives the user five minutes of some kind of superhuman power. Most of the time. Sometimes it kills the user — is I think the implication of a scene where a person takes it and immediately explodes. And it doesn’t appear that you know or have any choice in what power it gives you. And that power could kill or maim you, in the moment or over time. Feels like a lot of medication side effects but I guess the chance that you can be briefly bullet-proof, as New Orleans police detective Frank (Gordon-Levitt) is when he takes Power, or chameleon-like, as with an “invisible” bank robber we see him chase, is enough for some users.

Robin (Fishback, this movie’s real star) is an enterprising high school student who sells Power to help raise money for her mom, who is sick and needs medical treatment. Robin sells to Frank sometimes, who buys because it helps him and other cops level the playing field with the Powered-up criminals they chase. Frank likes and roots for Robin and is genuinely concerned when she texts him for help.

Trying to work his way through the Power supply chain in New Orleans, Art kidnaps Robin to get information about the person distributing Power to dealers. Though initially he gets her assistance through threats, Robin seems to come around to Art’s mission. A former military officer and an early test subject for the Power drug, Art later had a daughter with naturally occurring superhuman abilities. She was kidnapped by Power’s manufacturers and now Art is desperate to get her back.

The movie brings Art, Robin and Frank together at what feels like a late point — actually, everything feels like it happens later than it should in this movie. At an hour and 53 minutes, this movie feels about 20 minutes too long but also off in its pacing. Within individual scenes, there is good momentum and good chemistry between Fishback, Foxx and Gordon-Levitt, who are fun individually and fun together. But the movie itself doesn’t quite keep the energy level where it needs to be.

All three of the leads — but Fishback, in particular — are solid at the action and the comedy (which isn’t big and quippy but more smart and to the point) this movie requires. But Project Power often feels like it turns down the volume on them or crowds them out with a lot of visual “here’s what the drug is doing” business.

The movie also makes mention of Henrietta Lacks (the woman whose cells are fundamental to the last 60-plus years of medical research) and the fact that Power’s makers are testing the drug on the people of New Orleans. This feels like heavy stuff to just sort of sprinkle into a movie without doing anything with those elements. As with the movie’s overall pacing and runtime, I feel like this aspect of the story could have been more significant and given the movie more weight had somebody (some studio exec, in ye olden days when this movie would have been theater-bound?) asked for another draft of the screenplay and another round of edits on the finished film.

While the movie can be filed under “meh,” Fishback — and to a lesser degree Foxx and Gordon-Levitt — pushes the movie a notch above. Her Robin is an engaging character, the movie is always at least 30 percent more interesting when she’s on screen. A natural C, Project Power gets a boost from Fishback into B- territory.

Rated R for violence, bloody images, drug content and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (and if you’re thinking “hey, that sounds familiar but from where,” they are the directors of some mid-series Paranormal Activity entries and of the documentary Catfish) with a screenplay by Mattson Tomlin, Project Power is an hour and 53 minutes long and is available on Netflix.

In the kitchen with Anna Wallace

Anna Wallace and her longtime friend, Susan Werrick, are the owners of PPC Italian Restaurant & Bar (133 Plaistow Road, Plaistow, 819-4320, ppc-restaurant.com), an eatery formerly known as the Plaistow Pizza Co. Since taking it over last September, Wallace and Werrick have introduced all types of menu items, from appetizers like fried pickles, bruschetta and chicken wings to Italian pasta dishes, soups, salads and some seafood options, such as grilled or baked salmon. It also serves pizzas, calzones, burgers, hot and cold sandwiches and subs, and dinner plates like steak tips with rice and sauteed vegetables. A full bar with domestic and craft beers, wines and seasonal cocktails is also available. Wallace, who’s originally from Greece, will occasionally prepare Mediterranean specials like spinach pie and salads.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I would say a knife.

What would you have for your last meal?

Seafood. I mean, I like all seafood, but salmon and calamari are my favorites. I like my salmon grilled.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

One place I do really like is Tino’s [Kitchen + Bar] in Hampton. The father of a friend of my daughter’s owns it. They have some really great variations of Greek items that I like.

What celebrity would you like to see eating at your restaurant?

J. Lo [Jennifer Lopez].

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

I definitely love our steak tips and I love the chicken picatta, and I’m not a big meat eater.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

We definitely encounter gluten-free [requests] a lot. Right now, we’re in the process of [adding] more gluten-free and vegetarian options.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

I would say roasted vegetables and some type of protein, either chicken or filet mignon.

Featured Image: Anna Wallace and Susan Werrick of PPC Italian Restaurant & Bar in Plaistow. Courtesy photo.

Mediterranean chickpea salad
From the kitchen of Anna Wallace of PPC Italian Restaurant & Bar in Plaistow (mix and toss the following ingredients; quantity dependent on preference)

Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Red onions
Bell peppers
Kalamata olives
Feta cheese
Chickpeas
Greek olive oil vinaigrette

Food is love

New recipe book offers aphrodisiac foods

From finding comfort to strengthening our relationships, we use food to express and celebrate love in all kinds of ways — that’s the idea behind a new book being released this week, as it explores food’s roles in self-love and interpersonal relationships with personal anecdotes, spiritual techniques and more than 50 original recipes and illustrations.

A Kitchen Witch’s Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance, available Aug. 25, is the latest project from Dawn Hunt of the Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery, a Salem-based purveyor of gourmet foods like infused olive oils and risotto mixes. On Friday, Sept. 11, Hunt will host a virtual lecture and cooking demonstration featuring a recipe from the book. Then on Saturday, Sept. 12, she will be at the Bookery in Manchester for an outdoor book signing.

Hunt said the book’s genesis came from a “recipes for romance” cooking workshop she has taught in the past, which covered various foods with aphrodisiac properties.

“The class was all about foods that align with some sort of energetic qualities for self-love, or bringing new love into a romantic relationship or healing a family relationship,” she said. “I realized there was really nothing out there that had all these things together.”

She collected ideas for recipes over the course of the last five years. A chance encounter with a publishing scout for Simon & Schuster who visited her booth at a New York City show last year landed her a book deal.

Structurally, A Kitchen Witch’s Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance is divided into three sections. Each introduces a specific food — avocados, tomatoes, chocolate, cinnamon, strawberries and oysters are among them — by detailing its nutritional and aphrodisiac properties, followed by one or several recipes.

“The first section of the book is all about loving yourself, both when it comes to eating healthy and taking care of yourself, and also treating yourself to comfort foods and brownies and all that,” she said. “The second section is about learning to connect with others and draw love into our lives … and then the third section deals with keeping your relationships fresh and exciting. … Everything is all kind of weaved together with my own experiences and what I’ve learned.”

Hunt said about two-thirds of the recipes consist of new material, while the rest were recipes she had made before. You can learn to make everything from cinnamon crumb pound cake, avocado chocolate mousse, and strawberry, spinach and feta salad, to stuffed zucchini pinwheels, pomegranate mimosas with muddled raspberries, and pork loin roast with cherries and red wine. The recipes appear the sections Hunt felt they fit best.

“A lot of it had to do with what resonated with me,” she said, “so for example, I have a seafood risotto recipe that I put in the ‘rekindling’ section, because of how it’s made and the visualization and attention recommended for that recipe.”

The book was written with the same principles Hunt said she founded her company on — the idea of “spiritual nutrition,” or sharing positive energy with one another through food.

“The recipes are meant to be easy and accessible to everyone, and that was really important to me,” she said.

Featured Photo: A Kitchen Witch’s Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance

Meet the Kitchen Witch
Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora in Salem presents
A Kitchen Witch’s Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance (available Aug. 25)
Fri., Sept. 11, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: Online lecture and cooking demonstration (tickets available through the Bookery in Manchester; bookerymht.com)
Sat., Sept. 12, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: In-person outdoor signing (admission is free, but masks are required)
Visit cucinaaurora.com

Southern decadence

Madear’s relocates to downtown Pembroke, introduces bakery

Nearly a year after Madear’s hosted its final night of service on Hanover Street in Manchester, the Cajun comfort restaurant will reopen in its new home in Pembroke, featuring new menus, almost twice the dining capacity and, for the first time, a bakery.

Madear’s Southern Eatery & Bakery, as it’s now known, will have the distinction of being one of the few full-service sit-down restaurants in town when it opens in the coming weeks.

Chef-owners Robb Curry and Kyle Davis originally opened Madear’s, a 35-seat restaurant and bar, in the former space of a nail salon in July 2017. Curry, who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, credits his paternal grandmother Martha “Madear” Sullivan, the restaurant’s namesake, with inspiring him to learn to cook when he was young.

As their following grew, so did their culinary inspiration. Davis said the pair’s desire to expand their Southern comfort offerings in the form of a bakery, coupled with the end of their lease on Hanover Street, was among the factors that contributed to their closure last October. At first they explored other options within the Queen City, but when those didn’t pan out they started broadening their search. In January they found the space that most recently occupied the Rock On Diner on Main Street in downtown Pembroke.

“We had breakfast here and we were like, ‘Oh, this is a really good place,’ and then about two weeks later we saw a For Lease sign, so we thought maybe it was a little serendipity,” Davis said. “This space allowed us to tick all the boxes. It gave us the size, the downtown access … and it put us right in between Concord and Manchester.”

At 56 seats, the new location is extremely spacious compared to its Manchester predecessor, with its dining room broken into four distinct arrangements. There’s an intimate lounge area and a bar with a copper countertop, plus multiple banquettes to the right of the entrance and family dining tables in the center of the restaurant that were made from reclaimed wood. The kitchen is also much larger, allowing Davis and Curry to introduce new menu items.

One of the most notable additions to the menu is a new bakery case that will be regularly stocked with scratch-made cakes, pies, cookies, tarts, croissants and other sweets.

“What we found on Hanover Street was that a lot of people who really loved the baked goods would ask, ‘Can I order a pie to take home?’” Davis said. “So now we’re going to have a daily selection of things that are done like a traditional sort of bakeshop.”
But a bakery doesn’t mean Madear’s will be open in the morning. Instead, Davis said, they will likely open the doors at 4 p.m. each day, while ordering ahead is also available with a 24-hour notice.

“We’re not going to be doing breakfast sandwiches or anything like that,” he said. “We’re really trying to focus on more of the dessert-type bakery products that people can pick up on their way home, like a few slices of cake or some cookies or something … and then for people eating in the restaurant, the dessert menu will be a combination of what’s available in the bakery, plus our staples, like the bread pudding.”

If you were a regular at Madear’s on Hanover Street, you probably noticed that the menu changed four times a year, each season — that won’t be the case in Pembroke, Davis said.

“We learned some lessons … and we decided that we’d have a menu of staples and then do specials that are seasonal,” he said. “We’ve also changed some of the terminology on the menu. So instead of calling them ‘tapas,’ which confused some people, we have [the options listed as] small plates and large plates.”

You can expect many of the same favorites, like gumbo, jambalaya, fried crab meat, fried chicken and baked macaroni and cheese items — along with some new items never before seen on any Madear’s menu, like oxtail stew simmered in a chicken stock demi-glace, and bone-in pork chop smothered in Southern gravy and served over rice.

There’s a section of the menu devoted to grits, with the option of adding one of four sauces, as well as your own protein, from shrimp, gator or catfish, to andouille sausage, pulled pork or chicken tender. The eatery’s Southern craft cocktails are also returning, including staples like hurricanes and sazeracs in addition to seasonal specials.

Once Madear’s has settled into its adopted community, Davis said, many of its popular events — like the comedy nights, the pajama drag brunches and the monthly themed dinners — will all be due to return. Cooking classes and live musical performances are planned too.

“We really want to just get into the rhythm of running the restaurant for a little bit, but we definitely have events lined up,” he said.

Photo courtesy of Madear’s.

Madear’s Southern Eatery & Bakery
An opening date is expected in the coming weeks. Visit their website or follow them on social media for updates.
Where: 141 Main St., Pembroke
Anticipated hours: TBA
More info: Visit madears603.com or follow them on Facebook or Instagram @madears603

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