What we now call soul food originally came out of black culture in the southern United States. At its core, soul food is a hearty, spicy food rich with the calories and protein African Americans needed to make it through long days of hard work, first as slaves on plantations and then after Emancipation working as sharecroppers on farms in the rural south. But over time soul food has become high cuisine and it's at the heart of some great Washington, DC, restaurants. VOA's Unshin Lee reports.
