The most broadly nourishing stop on any Oakland eating tour is undoubtedly Wahpepah’s Kitchen这里光线充足，专为印第安人烹饪而设. 交通便利，距离奥克兰的Fruitvale BART站仅几步之遥, Wahpepah’s Kitchen does quite a lot with its compact menu, showcasing many ingredients sourced from local suppliers. As for its cuisine, wahpeah的厨房提供一系列与许多地理上不同的土著国家有关的菜肴，这些国家的历史都经历了暴力殖民和随之而来的被迫流离失所.
For Oakland-born owner-chef Crystal Wahpepah, 在她那色彩斑斓的壁画餐厅里，开胃菜和主菜——背景中可以听到沉思的土著鼓声和诵经声——必须足够好，才能与这座城市最受欢迎的烧烤店和最热门的新咖啡馆竞争.
“It has to taste amazing,wahpeah谈到了蘸着樱桃酱的烧焦腌制鹿肉棒等菜肴, 蓝玉米玉米饼上覆盖着稀有品种的熏拉科塔南瓜和切罗基南瓜, and bison-based Kickapoo chili, 哪一种配蓝色玉米面包，上面撒着枫奶油.
For the record, 这些例子在竞争中脱颖而出, 而是为了瓦佩帕和为她的厨房供应食物的当地生产商, 本土美食必须更进一步:当种植得当时, raised, and sourced, 本地食物不仅要“好吃”，而且要对你有好处, healing medicine for the body and soul.
“Our foods are sacred,” Wahpepah says. “Some Native foods have been around for a long time, some haven’t because of historical trauma and colonization. So the restaurant is about making these foods our own again.”
As a restaurant serving Indigenous cooking, the staff at Wahpepah’s Kitchen is diverse, pretty much by definition. 因为她的祖籍在俄克拉何马州——她小时候在那里过夏天——瓦佩帕, who was raised and now works on Ohlone land, is a member of the Kickapoo Nation. 她的三个女儿住在加州北部，她们在餐厅里扮演着重要的角色 Pomo (“They’ve taught me a lot about working together,” Wahpepah says), 而她的其他员工的根生长在大湖地区的Ojibwe国家和其他十几个地方的土壤中.
你盘子里的食材也可以是很广泛的. 这里有住在西雅图的卢米族(Lummi Nation)成员捕捉和熏制的鲑鱼, 科罗拉多州尤特族人收割并晒干的蓝色玉米, 以及由莫诺族弗雷斯诺族人碾磨的橡子粉. Even the cedar-smoked salt is Native. 这种对食物来源的一丝不苟的关注是瓦佩帕致力于恢复土著人民“食物主权”的重要组成部分.
wahpeah像许多厨师一样，从年长的亲戚那里获得灵感，热爱烹饪. 对她影响最大的两个人是她在俄克拉何马州的祖母, 是谁在wahpeah 7岁的时候第一次教她如何正确地晒干新鲜收获的玉米，并准备前面提到的Kickapoo辣椒, and her grandfather, also from Oklahoma, 谁教这个好奇的孩子如何准备兔肉和鹿肉之类的野味.
Before she opened her restaurant in late 2021, Wahpepah ran a catering business, 但以她的名字命名的厨房更符合她的工作兴趣，她曾被邀请到白宫做饭，并获得詹姆斯比尔德奖(James Beard Award)提名.
“We serve people from all over the Bay Area, all over the nation,” Wahpepah says. “bbin游戏官网的大多数顾客都不知道bbin游戏官网是谁，但他们离开时都很惊讶. And then they come back with a friend. That’s the beautiful part.”
These days, for her own sustenance, 瓦佩帕发现自己又回到了祖母做的辣椒或绿色南瓜籽鼹鼠, which like the restaurant’s tacos—bison, rabbit, 或南瓜——配上附近奥克兰屋顶上种植的绿色蔬菜. 虽然这些菜和其他菜可能给瓦佩帕带来了一定程度的个人赞誉，但这从来都不是她的目标.
“I happen to be doing something I love,” she says. “Things like the James Beard nomination are nice, 但重要的是，bbin游戏官网的工作和bbin游戏官网在社区中所做的事情得到了认可. 这绝对是bbin游戏官网的使命——促进粮食主权，同时在bbin游戏官网的社区中引人注目, especially to youth. They are our next generation, you know.”
