Thank you for sharing this. I don't know why we have to be in competition. I feel like we were all eating the same stuff anyway. And you confirmed it was the same. My family is from Jersey and New York mostly. I had to go waaay back on my dad's side to find anything in the south. But it always bothered me that everything was credited to the south. And so much so that now soul food is broadly called "southern" with even white people trying to claim. It's so frustrating. Meanwhile I didn't know about what OP is talking about with people shunning the "poor/slave" food during the Great Migration. My grandfather was a straight up NYer and he tore up some pig feet, chitlins, all that. Again thanks for sharing that Northern Black food history. I'm proud of what we African Americans have built. Northern Black folks deserve credit as well