Hoppin’ John

I used to be a cynic about New Year’s Day. It’s kind of asking for it really. It’s an arbitrary day after all, no different than the one before or after it. Nothing really changes on New Year’s Day.

It’s not even a day recognized universally throughout the world. As with everything, when you declare the end of one year and the start of another is entirely dependent on your culture and its calendar. The whole notion of picking a day in the middle winter, calling it the start of a new year and making some half-hearted attempt to become the person we dream we are for a few weeks after, is, well, pretty laughable really.

Still, it’s what we’ve got. Cynics are boring anyway. What they miss is that, sure, the only meaning in New Year’s is what you bring to the table, but that’s true of every day you exist on this planet.

Bring something to the table damn it.

For New Year’s Day might I suggest, in addition to anything personal you want to bring to the table, that you bring a bit of black eyed peas and collard greens. The superstition here in the South is that eating the former will bring you good luck while the latter will bring wealth. I don’t always go in for the local superstitions, but when they involve food, why not?

So Hoppin’ John and greens it is, but naturally I couldn’t just serve up Hoppin’ John as is, that would be following a recipe, which I just can’t do, so I put a little tomato, onion and cilantro salsa on top for a bit of color and spice. Everything is better with salsa.

Before I deviate from norms though, I like to know what those norms are. It turns out the history of Hoppin’ John and its association with New Year’s luck is murky, but over at Serious Eats they dug deep into the history. Apparently Hoppin’ John started out with a red bean and a very different, much toothier version of rice. Today’s black eyed peas and white rice is, like American culture at large, just a watered down version.

On the plus side, it appears that you can actually track down those beans and rice through the farmers at Anson Mills in South Carolina, which I just might do for next year, if I can remember.

In the mean time, black eyed peas, collard greens and fried chicken seems — authentic or not — like a pretty good way to start the new year. I’ll let you know how the superstitions hold up.