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Summer travel is revving up, and Europe will be a popular destination for summer vacations. A trip to Europe can take you back in time. Admiring the timeless Rome Collsuseum or have you marveling at the richest collection of art in the world from the Louvre. Yet beyond the glamour of the Eiffel tower, Europe offers travelers a unique culinary experience.
Visiting places like London or Italy prompts you to indulge in staple foods such as fish and chips or pasta. But what if you could visit Europe and please your taste buds with the unique flavors of West African and Soul food? Yes, you might be skeptical, but over the years, there’s been an influx of Black restaurants across popular destinations.
If Europe is on your summer list, here are some Black/African restaurants you must try.
Paris, France
Paris has a thriving Black culture scene. From an array of Black tours to a nightlife filled with Afro-beats DJs, Black culture is alive and well in the city of romance. So, of course, food has become an integral part of the scene.
BMK-Paris is a well-known Afro-chic restaurant in Paris. As well as Jah-Jah an Afro vegan restaurant that caters to your taste buds with spices and seasonings from different parts of Africa. But if you’re looking for some good ol’ American Southern flavor, you can find it at Gumbo Yaya.
Gumbo Yaya was founded in 2015 by Lionel Chauvel-Maga. He got his inspiration for the restaurant during his various trips visiting his aunts in Georgia. Growing up with a mixture of French culture from his dad and American culture from his mom, his menu options reflect the blending of two cultures. Soul food mixed with French cuisine.
Dublin, Ireland
“A thing or person that can not be shut out by darkness” is what is represented by the restaurant “Irawo” meaning star in the Yoruba language. This Afro-fusion restaurant blends flavors and spices from both Irish and African cultures. Sending your taste buds on a journey of African bean dishes and signature Irish meat and vegetables.
Edinburgh, Scotland
This French-Caribbean restaurant, owned by Buumba Mweetw, brings you mouth-watering salt and fresh water meals. The menu has a variety of Caribbean favorites such as Jerk chicken, almond and coconut fish, and, of course, fried plantains. French decadents such as Traditional French cassoulet with Toulouse sausage and a Blue Cheese Salad are also on the menu.
For a different dining experience with appetizing Kenyan food, Knight’s Kitchen has a lot to offer. Their mainly plant-based menu offers home-cooked soul food derived from traditional Kenyan meals. This family-run business operates as a pick-up-only restaurant. You can order the food in advance and pick it up during your stroll in Edinburgh.
Italy
The pizza and the pasta are two very good stand-alone reasons to visit Italy. Amongst the carbonara and the pizza, Black culture influences Italy’s unmatched culinary scene.
One way is through IBRIS, a Black-owned pizzeria. The owner, an Italian immigrant Ibrahim Songne came from Burkina Faso and went through a drastic cultural shift. This included overcoming cultural shock, a speech impediment, and the objections of a Black man owning a pizza restaurant. Despite it all, Songne has achieved culinary success. He created pizzas by using locally sourced products with bold flavors such as potato cream, saffron, and chickpeas.
Once you get your pizza fix, you can check out Corey’s Soul Chicken. This well-known restaurant is currently between locations but was previously a popular place. Corey, from Kentucky, keeps the tradition of southern fried chicken alive with a family recipe of all-American ingredients. If you’re wondering if they’ll re-open by your next trip, you can follow their Facebook page where Corey stays active with restaurant updates.
Madrid, Spain
The capital of Spain has two Ethiopian restaurants. Restaurante Etíope Gonder and Restaurante Etíope Nuria. These restaurants offer authentic Ethiopian cuisine with injera (Ethiopian flatbread) and an array of colorful vegan and vegetarian dishes.
Barcelona, Spain
Spice BCN blends cultures using local produce from Spain and herbs and spices from Africa and the Caribbean. It opened its doors in November of 2016 and has fulfilled its mission of making customers feel at home. They aim to help South Africans living or traveling abroad feel at home and make non-South Africans want to visit.
Lisbon, Portugal
Djairsound is a restaurant with a taste of Cape-Verdean paired with Lusophone music. With a 4.5 star rating on Tripadvisor, guests from across Europe have appreciated their authentic African food and its welcoming atmosphere.
Gingolé Restaurant has the motto: “it’s the flavor that unites us.” It’s the flavors of Angola and Portuguese that have made this restaurant a must-try when in Lisbon. A signature dish to try is the calulu de peixe, an Angolan fish and vegetable stew.
Amsterdam, Holland
African kitchen is a restaurant that offers a house specialty of Nigerian entrees. Along with offering a mixture of West African and international cuisine. This restaurant serves more than food but offers a genuine hospitable African experience. Some of the specialties include rice and fish dishes, along with fufu. A stable West African food comprised of dough made from boiled and pounded starchy foods such as pounded plantains, cassava, or malanga.
In addition to preserving Black culture, these restaurants help break the barriers between cultures. Inviting natives, travelers, and tourists to experience and taste aspects of Black and African culture.
Summer travel is revving up, and Europe will be a popular destination for summer vacations. A trip to Europe can take you back in time. Admiring the timeless Rome Collsuseum or have you marveling at the richest collection of art in the world from the Louvre. Yet beyond the glamour of the Eiffel tower, Europe offers travelers a unique culinary experience.
Visiting places like London or Italy prompts you to indulge in staple foods such as fish and chips or pasta. But what if you could visit Europe and please your taste buds with the unique flavors of West African and Soul food? Yes, you might be skeptical, but over the years, there’s been an influx of Black restaurants across popular destinations.
If Europe is on your summer list, here are some Black/African restaurants you must try.
Paris, France
Paris has a thriving Black culture scene. From an array of Black tours to a nightlife filled with Afro-beats DJs, Black culture is alive and well in the city of romance. So, of course, food has become an integral part of the scene.
BMK-Paris is a well-known Afro-chic restaurant in Paris. As well as Jah-Jah an Afro vegan restaurant that caters to your taste buds with spices and seasonings from different parts of Africa. But if you’re looking for some good ol’ American Southern flavor, you can find it at Gumbo Yaya.
Gumbo Yaya was founded in 2015 by Lionel Chauvel-Maga. He got his inspiration for the restaurant during his various trips visiting his aunts in Georgia. Growing up with a mixture of French culture from his dad and American culture from his mom, his menu options reflect the blending of two cultures. Soul food mixed with French cuisine.
Dublin, Ireland
“A thing or person that can not be shut out by darkness” is what is represented by the restaurant “Irawo” meaning star in the Yoruba language. This Afro-fusion restaurant blends flavors and spices from both Irish and African cultures. Sending your taste buds on a journey of African bean dishes and signature Irish meat and vegetables.
Edinburgh, Scotland
This French-Caribbean restaurant, owned by Buumba Mweetw, brings you mouth-watering salt and fresh water meals. The menu has a variety of Caribbean favorites such as Jerk chicken, almond and coconut fish, and, of course, fried plantains. French decadents such as Traditional French cassoulet with Toulouse sausage and a Blue Cheese Salad are also on the menu.
For a different dining experience with appetizing Kenyan food, Knight’s Kitchen has a lot to offer. Their mainly plant-based menu offers home-cooked soul food derived from traditional Kenyan meals. This family-run business operates as a pick-up-only restaurant. You can order the food in advance and pick it up during your stroll in Edinburgh.
Italy
The pizza and the pasta are two very good stand-alone reasons to visit Italy. Amongst the carbonara and the pizza, Black culture influences Italy’s unmatched culinary scene.
One way is through IBRIS, a Black-owned pizzeria. The owner, an Italian immigrant Ibrahim Songne came from Burkina Faso and went through a drastic cultural shift. This included overcoming cultural shock, a speech impediment, and the objections of a Black man owning a pizza restaurant. Despite it all, Songne has achieved culinary success. He created pizzas by using locally sourced products with bold flavors such as potato cream, saffron, and chickpeas.
Once you get your pizza fix, you can check out Corey’s Soul Chicken. This well-known restaurant is currently between locations but was previously a popular place. Corey, from Kentucky, keeps the tradition of southern fried chicken alive with a family recipe of all-American ingredients. If you’re wondering if they’ll re-open by your next trip, you can follow their Facebook page where Corey stays active with restaurant updates.
Madrid, Spain
The capital of Spain has two Ethiopian restaurants. Restaurante Etíope Gonder and Restaurante Etíope Nuria. These restaurants offer authentic Ethiopian cuisine with injera (Ethiopian flatbread) and an array of colorful vegan and vegetarian dishes.
Barcelona, Spain
Spice BCN blends cultures using local produce from Spain and herbs and spices from Africa and the Caribbean. It opened its doors in November of 2016 and has fulfilled its mission of making customers feel at home. They aim to help South Africans living or traveling abroad feel at home and make non-South Africans want to visit.
Lisbon, Portugal
Djairsound is a restaurant with a taste of Cape-Verdean paired with Lusophone music. With a 4.5 star rating on Tripadvisor, guests from across Europe have appreciated their authentic African food and its welcoming atmosphere.
Gingolé Restaurant has the motto: “it’s the flavor that unites us.” It’s the flavors of Angola and Portuguese that have made this restaurant a must-try when in Lisbon. A signature dish to try is the calulu de peixe, an Angolan fish and vegetable stew.
Amsterdam, Holland
African kitchen is a restaurant that offers a house specialty of Nigerian entrees. Along with offering a mixture of West African and international cuisine. This restaurant serves more than food but offers a genuine hospitable African experience. Some of the specialties include rice and fish dishes, along with fufu. A stable West African food comprised of dough made from boiled and pounded starchy foods such as pounded plantains, cassava, or malanga.
In addition to preserving Black culture, these restaurants help break the barriers between cultures. Inviting natives, travelers, and tourists to experience and taste aspects of Black and African culture.
If you Google the term yoga, you’ll most likely see similar photos of fair-skinned and small-framed women in a fancy yoga pose. These pictures don’t show the diversity of yoga over the past 20+ years.
In 1975 an article in Ebony magazine featured some of the great leaders such as Angela Davis and Krishna Kaur. In their interviews, they spoke about the positive effects that practicing yoga had on Black women. In addition, Pam Grier and Rosa Parks were yoga practitioners as well. These women practiced yoga not only for the positive results yoga has on the body but for the effect yoga has on the mind.
Grier said ” I started to practice yoga to quiet my mind and learn to be still.” She studied natural healing methods and committed to a daily practice, even on movie sets. “The point was to be able to sense—in other words, to feel and hear—any medical issues in the body and mind.”
Even Eartha Kitt, who never exclusively called her physical practice yoga, spoke of the mind-body benefits. ” When the [brain and body] are functioning well in concert, there is nothing in the world more exciting,” she said. “So I strive to make the body love the mind, and the mind loves the body, keeping the spirit vigorous as a consequence.”
Their messages remind us of the importance of practicing yoga. Here are 7 ways practicing yoga can improve your mental health.
Stronger Mind
Yoga is an exercise for not only your body but your mind as well. Muscle builders show off the thickness of their biceps. But, yogis can flaunt the thickness of their cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. These areas in your brain are responsible for information processing, memory, and learning. Studies have shown that those who practice yoga have increased brain functions such as memory, attention, and language. Yoga can even lessen how much your brain shrinks as you get older. Yes, your brain shrinks with age.
Natural Mood Booster
It’s well known that exercise releases endorphins, a hormone that helps put you in a happy mood. However, yoga helps release another amazing chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This happy chemical has been known to decrease anxiety. When paired with other treatments such as talk therapy, yoga can help reduce depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Reduces Anger
Anger can sometimes feel like an automatic response to some of the injustices in the world. Yet when unchecked, anger can be detrimental to your health. It can cause high blood pressure, headaches, skin disorders, and heart problems. To avoid these health issues and reduce the negative effects of anger, yoga is a great tool. It’s also been shown to reduce verbal aggression in adults.
Improves Sleep
Throughout the many yoga practices, a common thread is the use of slow and controlled breathing. Through the activation of your breath, it can trigger the vagus nerve. This nerve is connected to your parasympathetic nervous system, which handles putting your body into a relaxed state. Breathing in yoga is like a deaccelerate button for your body. So when you’re feeling restless before bed, with a few deep yoga breaths, you can calm your body down and prepare it for a restful night.
Reduces Anxiety
In addition to the breathwork that improves a better night’s rest, the deep breathing in yoga can ease anxiety. The meditative part of yoga has been known to reduce the worry and fear that often contributes to high levels of anxiety. Yoga introduces gaining awareness of the body to gain awareness of the mind. With greater awareness of your thoughts and emotions, you can better regulate your response to stress. Thus helping to reduce your anxiety.
Improves Body Image
One body-image survey showed that 62% of women feel negative about their body image. Yoga combats this by introducing a sense of gratitude for your body. It helps you attribute to a sense of accomplishment when you advance to different yoga postures. Along with helping to improve self-confidence. With more diverse bodies entering the yoga scene, such as Jessamyn Stanley, more women feel more confident in their skin.
Encourages a Sense of Community
The yoga scene has expanded to a more open and colorful than ever before. Amongst traditional yoga, such as Hatha and kundalini, communities have begun to create more unique types of yoga. This includes one’s representative of the culture, such as Trap Yoga and Hip Hop yoga. With these spaces, people can connect with people who share their interests in yoga. They also allow sharing commonalities in background, race, and culture. Allowing you to make connections with new people and feel supported and safe within a community.
Among all these benefits, practicing yoga offers a safe space for women to heal. A majority of yoga facilities offer a non-judgmental space for women to take time to focus on themselves.