I chose this article from the New York Times as my choose your own adventure piece because it's a great start to talking about the connection between food and place, and it’s something people from all backgrounds can relate to. The article discusses the importance of food to a city's identity, and how the food that a city is known for is most often the city’s best food as well; for example, the pierogi in Pittsburgh or the Philadelphia cheesesteak. Whenever my family and I travel to a place we’ve never been to before and we’re overwhelmed with dining options, we ask the locals because they know the town the best. This article brings back memories of a small restaurant/tortilla factory back home in Chicago called El Milagro (see picture) that I would never have visited if my dad had not forced me. It’s in the middle of a run-down street that receives very little traffic.
At a place like Kalamazoo College where students come from all parts of the world, everybody has a unique story about their experience with food back home. Food is an important part of any culture, and an important way for a place to create an identity among a sea of chains.
Do you think every place has its own "soul food" and do you think all its residents would agree on what it is?
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ReplyDeleteComing from western New York, I can absolutely say that I believe we have a "soul food": Buffalo chicken wings. I obviously cannot vouch for all of WNY residents, but I know a fair amount of people who believe that you simply cannot get real chicken wings anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteI love this concept. That discovery of a new hole in the wall restaurant is something I long for in any new place I'm in. I'm still working on finding somewhere in Kalamazoo. I think that the assertion that there's a deeper local current of restaurants running under the surface of the fast food places is true but I don't think that people in different cities will always be able to find a great little local place. Coming from a suburb of Detroit there are extremely few non-chain restaurants that I would recommend to a visitor. I think people in big cities have an easier time of finding delicious nooks.
ReplyDeleteI love having a small local place to recommend to visiting friends when they come to my neighborhood. I live in a suburb right on the edge of Chicago, and when anyone is looking for a taste of the city I know the best place for deep dish pizza. But I also enjoy taking people to the tiny mexican restaurant with its special molés or the hole in the wall ice cream shop appropriately named Hole in the Wall, places with food that may not be considered the taste of the city, but are still adored by any local. Everyone needs their secret place, their spot where they know the owners by name and have the menu memorized by heart. These are the secret gems that give a place character, even if the walls are a funny shade of yellow and the fluorescent lights give it an eerie glow. At least you know you can always get a decent burger, even if it's four in the morning.
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ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to disagree with the author on one point: Fish Fries are NOT the essence of Minnesota soul food. Living just outside of Minneapolis gives me an endless supply of cheap, soulful, one-of-a-kind food—if I'm willing to look for it. In my opinion, it is not the place that gives the food soul, but the people. Minnesota does have the famous hot-dish—think casserole—and the bundt cake pan was invented in my hometown. But good Twin Cities soul food is only found in elusive places. I just recently discovered a Nepalese place on a random side street in St. Paul that has THE MOST amazing dumplings with both vegetarian and yak options. Yes, yak. Everyone knows about the Tea Garden and their tapioca pearls but not everyone knows where they can get the "Orgasmic" Chai Latte at Uncommon grounds (its marshmallow flavored). But its not the yak or the fluffy 'mallow that I keep going back for, its the atmosphere and the people. The comfy couches in Uncommon Grounds and their dark, pleasant lighting make the refurbished house seem more like home while the friendly owner at the Everest on Grand making Yak noises when he brings out your food—although I'm not quite sure what Yak sounds like—makes the meal relaxed and my food go down easy. So while Bubble Tea is the 'cool' thing to have around town, I think the soul lies somewhere at the bottom of my Nepalese Mango Lassi smoothie
ReplyDeleteWhen you go to Guayaquil everybody you meet will claim to know a hole in the wall (we call it "hueca") where you can get the best serving of a certain dish in town. It´s something very characteristic about Guayacos. Be it crab, encebollado, empanadas or cebiche, you can count on there being some shoddy-looking stand in the middle of a sidewalk in the downtown area where people take their friends to show them "the best in town"
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this article as well as your interpretation of it. I think it's great how you took what you learned from the NYTimes and applied it to your own hometown of Chicago. It looks like it really made you think about your own experiences with food and place, and reevaluate a place you've eaten at before.
I particularly liked the quote from the NYTimes article that said: A city’s soul food can help residents find an identity amid a landscape of chains and give them something to cheer for. I think that's a crucial element of the article that you definitely have touched on. I guess my only question is what did finding that little tortilla restaurant in Chicago do for rediscovering your identity? Or the identity of chicago as a whole? Or for that small part of chicago? Or for your interest in that type of food? Or for your relationship with your dad? It'd all be interesting to hear!
Is this question allowed - other than maybe cherries or maple syrup, which don't exactly count as a meal, does any place in Michigan have a "soul food?"
ReplyDeleteStephanie makes a good point that is also my concern. As much as I would like to think that every place I go to will have some unique exciting dish to try it's always a reality. I am from a little town 20 minutes outside of Kalamazoo and if a traveler asked me where the best food was I could say it's at Big T's or Decoy Ducks but I wouldn't really believe it. These two restaurants serve up the usual options just as well as The Bistro in Paw Paw does. Maybe it's because I just haven't found the diamond in the rough on the menu.
ReplyDeleteI'm not discounting the beauty of the types of places Emily and her article mention I just feel it necessary to take a step back and not be overly general.
I agree with you (Elaine, Max, and Stephanie) that not every place has its own soul food, which I'll talk more about in my presentation today!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Goshen, IN has a "soul food"--but I do know that there is only one coffee shop in town, the Electric Brew, that is also one of the few hangout places. It's not a secret place, but every local knows about it and has probably sipped coffee beneath one of the two famous gigantic paintings on the wall (one depicts the earth, the other the moon). I know the regular workers and can always spot when someone new is behind the counter. In fact, Goshen's quaint "down town" area is pretty much void of chain stores and restaurants (and hopefully stays that way!) However, I never really appreciated this local joint where you can be sure of running into at least a handful of people you know until I moved away to go to college and then came back to visit. I think sometimes it is important to have an outsider visit or somehow get a fresh view of familiar places in one's hometown in order to fully appreciate unique and defining "soul place."
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