The Ya-Ka-Mein Lady

 

When I first got here, the first place I visited was the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. I thought it was a pretty cool museum, and they also had music that day so, the atmosphere was great. But, one of the things that called my attention in the museum was this African American woman serving soup in a table, inside of the museum with a line of people waiting to buy some “Ya-Ka-Mein”. Later I found out that this was a type of soup with shrimps, vegetables, noodles and meat (very delicious) , and I also found  out  the lady’s name: Ms. Linda who by the way was incredibly nice; she told me that Ya-Ka-Mein was one of New Orleans well best kept secrets, and an old family tradition. Another thing that I found very impressive is that she was the winner in this cooking show called: Chopped. But, I think the most amazing about her is that she is keeping this type of tradition, which in my opinion is very important to preserve the culture in a community, and in a country.