TEXARKANA, Ark. (KTAL/KMSS) – Tickets are on sale for an event that will simultaneously serve up and explain the complex culinary heritages of the southern United States.

The Texarkana Museums System is presenting an evening of food history, where guests will explore the concept that traditional, southern cuisine was perhaps appropriated from African American culture in generations past.

Collard Greens are but one staple of southern cooking, or is it soul food?

Is it possible to take a traditional dish, change it, and make it something completely new, while still acknowledging the culture that it came from originally? That’s what TMS Board President Velvet Cool asks.

“This is the gift of what we want to discuss, all while we enjoy those dishes,” she says.

Those attending the event in Texarkana will dine on modern interpretations and traditional dishes created by Dre’Licious Dishes, with ticket prices beginning at $30 each for TMS Members and $40 for non-members.

Buy tickets now by clicking here

America has been called the great melting pot, and our cuisine is no different. The nation’s foods are a patchwork quilt of foods from a variety of cultures, with traditional dishes evolving to become a part of the whole. Soul food is undoubtedly a cuisine stemming from African American culture in the American south, with many dishes evolving to become identified merely as southern food.

To examine the link between traditional African American dishes and cuisine known in the modern south as “southern cooking,” you need to get yourself to Texarkana on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

Just make sure you purchase your tickets by the deadline on Feb. 23.