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AT SOUL EMBASSY CAFE

by Madelyn Miller

In these days of fusion cuisine, I've had a chance to try many diverse cultural combinations of cuisine. But nouvelle soul really intrigued me and I was not disappointed by the concept. Soul Embassy Cafe is a sleek and sophisticated setting for some wonderfully folksy food. The black lacquer looks even richer as the sun
goes down and the jazz music starts up.

The only glitches were a few service problems, which you sort of overlook at you sit back to enjoy the music and ambiance. I started with fried green tomatoes ($3.75) which I had never tasted before. My dining companion, Rochelle Brown from Channel 4, is a fried tomato aficionado, and she was intrigued by the cornmeal crust, a little different from the usual batter. I loved the spicy black-eyed pea soup ($3.25) that
was chuck full of peas. The other appetizer we tried, "Dee's Weng"($4.50) was the spiciest rendition I've ever tried, thank goodness for the cooling buttermilk dressing. These were so spicy that if you licked your fingers you could get a second degree burn.

The nouvelle pot roast ($9.95) had a wonderful green onion gravy, which was important because the meat was so tough that you had to really chew on it. At least the flavor was great. I especially enjoyed the cinnamony sweet potatoes and rice pilaf that I chose at accompaniments.

We were stuffed, and decided to share a dessert. The sweet potato pie was rich ($3.25) but the portion was so small, there was only enough for a bite for each of us.

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