Discovering America bite by bite
Meryle Evans reports.
| More Front Burners in this issue |
| Let them eat cake |
| My dinner with the pope |
| Beery endings |
| Beef, bees, and buffalo |
| Sustaining farms |
Asheville, North Carolina—A three day in-depth culinary excursion to…Detroit? Well, then, trade toques and tasting menus for moonshine and muskrat when you join American Table Culinary Tours to explore the culture and cuisine of Motor City. "We want to provide people with an opportunity to enjoy eating in places that aren't normally visited and to explore the important role of food in American culture by getting out in the field instead of just reading about it or watching TV," explains the nonprofit organization's founder, Hanna Raskin, a food writer and restaurant critic for the Mountain Xpress in Asheville, North Carolina. "Our interactive tours stalk our nation's diverse vernacular foodways, from church basements to humble roadside cafes," she continues, "along with hands-on workshops and the participation of local experts."
The company is an outgrowth of an expedition Raskin planned for the Southern Foodways Alliance in Apalachicola, along Florida's forgotten coast. Encouraged by its success, she started her own venture with SFA's blessing, tapping their vast archive of oral histories to work out itineraries. The first edible expedition explored barbecue country in West Tennessee, hitting rural 'cue spots, chatting up pitmasters, and learning how pigs are slaughtered.
The Detroit tour, June 26 to 28, selected by Raskin because "I grew up there and have always been a fan of that underrated city," has been designed to provide a reflection of the amalgam of global dishes brought by generations of immigrants who helped build America's auto industry. Among the highlights: a chili dog feast in the factory where Henry Ford designed the first Model Ts, a guided tour of the venerable 43 acre Eastern Market, and visits to ethnic enclaves to sample Polish pierogies made by the Ladies Guild of the Sweetest Heart of Mary congregation and Middle Eastern pastries at the brand-new Islamic Center of America. Break-out sessions at local bakeries and homes will offer small groups of participants hands-on practice making Mexican cakes, Syrian pastries, or Southern sweet potato pies.
For dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse in nearby Ann Arbor, chef/co-owner Alex Young has developed a menu to honor the mid-century Detroit chronicler Harriette Arnow. Belle Isle, the Detroit River Park, will be the site of a picnic featuring muskrat, the hirsute rodent that 18th century Catholic fur trappers were permitted by the Pope to eat in place of Lenten fish.
"A Stroll Down Kentucky's Bourbon Trail," to be held October 2 to 4, will have participants tippling at distilleries; soaking up the past at Bardstown's Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History; chowing down on Kentucky's traditional political campaign stew, burgoo, at a bluegrass joint; and tucking into a lunch prepared by chef-in-residence David Larson at Woodford Reserve Distillery that features the area's famed Hot Brown, a rich open-face turkey sandwich with béchamel sauce. (The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States' "American Whiskey Trail" brochure includes these and several other locations in Kentucky and Tennessee; for info: www.discus.org/trail/.)
As Raskin says, "Food is something you have to experience firsthand."
For info: info@tabletours.org.
