Urban, soul and African cuisines collide at Goombay Festival

SOUL FEAST: The 35th annual Goombay Festival populated Pack Square Park for three days with vendors offering soul, African and Caribbean food specialties. Photo by Jonathan Ammons

For three straight days downtown, the air was thick with the sound of break beats and the smell of soul food. Asheville’s 35th annual Goombay Festival was held Sept. 11-13 in Pack Square Park for only the second time since leaving its former home on Eagle Street. The festival was inspired by a Caribbean tradition dating back to the 16th century, which allowed slaves to hold a party once a year wherein they would cook for each other, play music, drink, dance and celebrate their African heritage.

“It grew exponentially from last year,” says festival organizer Jessica Tomasin. Attendance at last year’s festival was estimated to be around 5,000 to 7,000 people, but this year Tomasin gauges numbers were somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 15,000.

“People came from all over,” she says. “We talked to a lot of people throughout the day that had come from Atlanta, Charlotte, Durham, Gastonia. … There were a lot of local folks, but there were also people that saw it and said, ‘Doug E. Fresh for free? I’ll drive three hours for that.'”

Chef Liam Luttrell-Rowland of Green Opportunities GO Kitchen-Ready program served fried fish plates with collard greens, potato wedges and coleslaw at Goombay 2015. Photos by Jonathan Ammons
Chef Liam Luttrell-Rowland of Green Opportunities GO Kitchen-Ready program served fried fish plates with collard greens, potato wedges and coleslaw at Goombay 2015. Photos by Jonathan Ammons

On the stage, Doug E Fresh, Lyric, Al Coffee and Da Grind, Kat Williams and Jonathan Scales laid down grooves, but on the lawn there was also magic happening among the tents and vendors. An abundance of stalls offered every imaginable variation of soul food, Jamaican cuisine and West African cooking. A walk through the crowds overloaded the senses with the smells of wood fires, bubbling deep fryers and slow-stewed curries.

Green Opportunities’ GO Kitchen-Ready program served up fried fish plates with collard greens, scratch-made potato wedges and coleslaw as well as blueberry, sweet potato and bean pies by the slice or whole. And not to be missed was the famous fish burger from Ms. Hanan Shabazz, who has been slinging soul food in Asheville for generations.

There was a nearly 20-minute wait at Gwennie’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken stand. Decorated with large Jamaican and Rastafarian flags, the tent was dishing up jerk and curried chicken, beef patties and peas and rice.

The famous fish burger by Ms. Hanan Shabazz.
The famous fish burger by Ms. Hanan Shabazz.

For those who wanted Jamaican food but couldn’t deal with the line, Carl and Stacy Brown‘s Jamaican food stall was right next door, “They’re chefs, and Carl cooks at the hospital, but he’s never vended at a festival before,” Tomasin explains, “So I worked with him to get him everything that he needed and walked him through everything from getting insurance to what the expectations were from a festival standpoint with the health department. And he had a really great festival.”

The Browns served jerk chicken fresh off the smoldering grill, as well as curried chicken, stewed until tender and elegantly spiced, not to mention curry goat and oxtails.

“I just really wanted to put the focus back on the community,” Tomasin says, explaining that this year in planning Goombay, she put together a committee of community members and worked with a minority enterprise development committee to seek out local entrepreneurs interested in vending at the festivals she helps organize. Those vendors came out in droves, she says, relying on her to help teach them the ins and outs of getting in the game.

At Kente Kitchen, a locally run caterer specializing in West African fare, Ramona Young served an incredible palm butter chicken with rice. It was savory, full of spices and tasted like a cross between a tagine and Indian butter chicken. She also doled out a veggie jollof rice, a one-pot, paella-like dish considered by many to be the inspiration for Louisiana’s jambalaya.

Kente Kitchen's palm butter chicken.
Kente Kitchen’s palm butter chicken.

And Daddy D’s served up a mean pork chop sandwich, old-school style — bone-in pork chop pounded thin, breaded and double fried then tucked between two slices of white bread. Add some mayonnaise, ketchup or hot sauce if you wish, but the seasoning on the pork was so perfect that there was really no need to mess with such a beautiful thing.

“At this point I’m just so excited to see what can happen from here,” says Tomasin of her hopes for future festivals, echoing a sentiment surely felt from by anyone who ate as well as I did at this year’s Goombay.

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Jonathan Ammons
Native Asheville writer, eater, drinker, bartender and musician. Proprietor of www.dirty-spoon.com Follow me @jonathanammons

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

One thought on “Urban, soul and African cuisines collide at Goombay Festival

  1. Sharon West

    This is by far the best Goombay festival hosted by the YMI Cultural Center over the 35 years!!

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.