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Programs & Activities
Food
Food Traditions
What we eat says a great deal about who we are and where we came from.
Special foods help to reinforce and maintain group and family identity
and become the focus of celebrations, holidays or rites of passage. Many
foods brought to the U.S. from other countries have been adapted through
the generations to fit their new environment.
The Great Lakes Folk Festival strives to offer visitors a variety of food
offerings, especially traditional food items they might only sample in
certain ethnic or geographic regions. In addition, the festival hosts
food offerings supplied by local restaurants and civic or community organizations.
Information for Food Vendors
Information
for Traditional and Non Traditional Food Vendors
The Taste of Tradition Vendors
Click on
the name or scroll down to see more info about the vendors
( This
is the preliminary list for 2004- check back for updates updated
June 1, 2004)
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Local
and Other Food Vendors
Melting
Moments-Locally produced Ice Cream Treats
Blimpies-
Classic American Subs ( Hoagies, or Heros)
Somethin's
Poppin'- Sweet and crunchy Kettle corn
Flats
Grill- Yummy Quesadilla style sandwiches
Cottage
Inn- Pizza, a college classic! Lots of non students like it too!
S and
T Elephant Ears- A county fair tradition, sweet fried dough topped
with
powdered
sugar or apple pie filling.
Police
Athletic League (PAL)- Provides cold soft drinks at several locations
throughout the festival site.
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A.J. Rib Experience
Lansing, Michigan
barbecue
Barbecuing ribs is an art and practitioners have their own discrete methods.
Some marinate, some baste with vinegar, some boil, some bake, and some
smoke the meat. Ribs can be cooked long and slow or hot and fast. Some
like their ribs moist and tender; others argue that only firm and chewy
will do. And what of the sauce or spices? Some use commercially bottled
sauce that they adjust to their taste, while others make their sauce from
scratch, often using a family recipe. Others rub the ribs with spices
and may or may not use sauce. There is wide variation in the degree of
spiciness and sweetness. In Michigan ribs are a popular foodways, about
which everyone has a strong opinion. Allen Jones's barbecued ribs are
rubbed with a secret seasoning and smoked.
Allen Jones moved with his family from Chicago to Flint in 1969. As a
child, he already had aspirations of being a chef and began cooking at
the age of 5 under the direction of his mother, grandmother, and great
great uncle. He attended prestigious culinary art schools in Arkansas
and Boston and is now a certified chef. He applied his culinary skills
at the Michigan School for the Blind until the school closed in 1994,
when he turned to catering. Today his family's southern culinary heritage
is but one part of his cooking repertoire. He did not begin to barbecue
until the late 1990s, when he saw a fellow barbecuing and selling ribs
on a street corner and he knew he wanted to do this. When not at the Great
Lakes Folk Festival, Allen can be found selling ribs on the corner of
Pleasant Grove and Hamilton.
Altu's Ethiopian Cuisine
East Lansing, Michigan
Ethiopian foods
Spices play an esential role in Ethiopian cuisine, which ranges from delicate
and appealing to hot and and almost addictive. Berbere, a mixture
of spices and fiery ethiopian red pepper, is used for everything from a
rich man's delicacy to a poor man's chunk of bread. the national dish of
Ethiopia, a stew called wat, is made with chicken fish and meats
but the finest wats are made with lentils, beans or chickpeas. When
served, food is placed atop injera, a thin, round bread made of finely
ground teff, a high-quality millet, and eaten with the right hand by tearing
off pieces of injera and dipping into or wrapping the piece around
bite-sized food.
Altu Tadesse is from western Ethiopia. She was raised on her family's farm
and by the age of twelve, she was cooking complete meals. Altu came to the
United States with her husband in 1986. She opened her popular restaurant
in East Lansing in 1996 and serves fine examples of Ethiopian food.
Fonda Celaya
Bath, Michigan
Mexican foods
Maria ("Lupe") Aguilar left Mexico decades ago, now lives in Bath, Michigan
and is an active member of the Cristo Rey community in Lansing. At church
and Latino festivals, she prepares and sells Mexican foods, some from her
hometown, Celaya, Guanajuato. For more than 25 years she has been making
tamales, both the savory variety with pork, which most Michiganders know,
and the sweet variety, which Mexican-Americans favor at Christmas and other
festive occasions. For nearly as long, she has made and sold gorditas, thick
shells made from masa that are filled with meat, potatoes and vegetables
or vegetables and cheese. Another of her specialties are flautas, a form
of taco found in northern Mexico; a tortilla is filled with beef, generally,
then rolled and fried. Lupe cooks the real Mexican food, the same as she
prepares for her grandchildren and very different than anything you are
likely to find at commercial establishments.
Federated
Polish Home
Lansing, Michigan
Polish foods
The Federated Polish Home is a social and fraternal hall built by Polish
immigrants in about 1926. It is made up of three Polish fraternal organizations:
Polish National Alliance, Polish Falcons, and White Eagles. These organizations
were started by immigrants to provide accident and death insurance coverage
to members from Poland and their families. In addition to their function
as insurance providers, these organizations also are social organizations.
Among other things, they sponsor dinner dances at which Polish foods prepared
by members are sometimes served.
Pierogi are very popular dumplings that symbolize Polishness in the United
States. They have a variety of fillings, including cheese and potato,
which are offered by the Federated Polish Home, along with homemade kielbasa
(sausage) and sauerkraut.
Holy
Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
Lansing, Michigan
Greek Foods
Ethnic churches in America are very important in maintaining culinary
traditions, a role they do not usually have in their countries of origin.
Cornish-American churches hold pasty bake sales, Serbian-American chuches
have summer lamb roasts, and Armenian-American churches hold regular bazaars
at which a wide range of Armenian foods are sold, both to take home and
to eat on site. The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Lansing
is no excpetion. Among other food events, the congregation hosts
a fundraising luncheon featuring Greek cuisine prepared by the Greek Orthodox
Ladies Philoptochos Society.
Church
members are now second and third generation Americans and include a number
of other ethnics united by eastern rite Orthodox faith, as well as converts
in marriage. The food, however, is steadfastly Greek.
Lopez Bakery
Lansing, Michigan
Mexican pastries
The Spanish introduced a wide array of foods and a new meal system to the
Prehispanic culture of Mexico. One of the new ingredients incorporated into
the foodways of Mexico was wheat. Using wheat flour, Mexicans have developed
over the centuries many and varied kinds of pastries and rolls.
The Lopez Bakery offers a wide selection of traditional Mexican pastries.
Pedro Lopez started baking in Mexico when he was nine years old. Now in
his 70s he is a master baker, and he and his son Jose offer a selection
of their delicious sweet breads, cookies, and rolls, which are eaten for
breakfast, supper or as a snack.
Maria's Tacos
Lansing, Michigan
Tex-Mex foods
The term "Tex Mex" designates Texas Mexicans (Tejanos) and their culture.
Much of the cuisine we know in Michigan as Mexican is Tex Mex, brought by
families who settled in Michigan from Texas and by seasonal agricultural
workers from Texas who live part of the year in Michigan.
The Espinoza family's ancestors emigrated from Mexico to Texas during the
Great Depression. Highway construction work in the 1950s brought the grandparents
of James Espinoza to Michigan, and ultimately his family turned to agricultural
work and settled in the Thumb region. James Espinoza and his mother, Maria,
made and sold tacos for the first time at a Croswell festival three years
ago. They make tacos the way their family has made them for generations,
with corn tortillas, cheddar cheese, beef or chicken seasoned with cumin
and garlic, lettuce, tomato, and mild homemade salsa. This, according to
James, is the "real" Tex-Mex taco from the region of Corpus Christi. In
addition, they offer burritos, which James describes as taco ingredients
plus beans wrapped in a flour tortilla.
Taste
of India
Lansing, Michigan
Asian Indian food
The Asian Indians of Michigan come from different regions of India. They
are from different cultural and social backgrounds, representing different
religions, classes, and languages. They are Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs,
Buddhists, Christians, Parsees and Jews, speaking 16 languages or one
of 225 dialects. This diversity is also reflected in their foods.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Indian food is the preparation
and combination of spices that makes this cuisine unique; cooked with
meats or vegetables, the dish is memorable. Whether or not they are vegetarians,
vegetables are an extremely important part of the Indians' diet.
In mid-Michigan, many of the Indians who have come since the 1960s are
professionals. At that time, a generic Indian food was available in restaurants,
which often served foods proprietors believed Americans wanted. Today,
more and more restaurants and caterers serve the foods of their regional
origins.
We are fortunate to have one of these caterers at the Great Lakes Folk
Festival. Uma Patel left her home in India some twenty years ago for Lansing,
where she has lived ever since. She enjoys a reputation as a good cook
and since 1996 has provided several local restaurants with her Indian
pastries and samosa. In this way she began her catering.
Thai
Food
Mason, Michigan
The cuisine of Thailand is a very special combination
of the bite of Szechuan Chinese, the tropical flavor of Malaysian, the
creamy coconut sauces of south Indian, and the aromatic spices of Arabic
food. Situated at the crossroads of Asia, many cultures have played a
role in the development of Thailand's cuisine. The people of Thailand
take pride in the harmony of tastes, colors, and textures of their food.
Lamai came to Lansing in 1970 from Bangkok, where she gained restaurant
experience helping in her sister's restaurant. With a varied and traditional
menu, including Pad Thai, fresh and fried egg rolls, crab rangoon, fried
rice with vegetables, and chicken curry, Lamai devotes herself to bringing
Thai food to others.
Turkeyman
Lansing,
Michigan
Barbecue
As the eldest
child, Craig Harris helped his mother by assuming much of the cooking
responsibilities. Even then his specialty was barbecue. He regards
his catering business as a natural progression. From his memorable smoked
barbecue turkey came his nickname "Turkeyman." Craig began
as a street vendor in 1994, seving smoked babecued turkey on street coners
and at ball parks. Today, in addition to providing barbecue to hungry
crowds at sports arenas in the Lansing area, "Turkeyman" donates
food to missions, volunteers in school kitchens and feeds families in
need.
United
Methodist Women
Holldand, Michigan
Dutch Pigs in a Blanket
A major stream of Dutch immigration to America began in the 1840's, arriving
in western Michigan in 1847. Within two years, despite malaria,
smallpox, dysentery, insufficient food, and other impediments, Dutch immigrants
had established Holland, Zeeland, Vriesland, Drenthe, and Graafschap.
Subsequent immigrations in the 1880's and after World War II scattered
Dutch throughout the state, although the highest concertration still is
in western Michigan.
Dutch Americans
have made major contributions to American culture through politics and
government, education, industry and foodways. Today's all-American foods,
such as cookies, pancakes, waffles, doughnuts, pretzels and coleslaw,
were originally brought to this country by early Dutch settlers.
A Dutch-American food not yet widely known is "pigs in a blanket"
(saucijzenbroodjes), a popular treat offered by the Women's Club
of the First United Methodist Church of Holland, Michigan.
Woody's
Oasis
East Lansing, Michigan
Arab foods
Outside of the Middle East, Michigan is home to the largest Arabic-speaking
population, comprising many religions, nations, ethnic groups, and regional
cuisines.
Great value is attached to cooking and good food in the Middle East. It
is a sensual kind of cooking, generously using herbs, spices, and aromatics.
Most local cuisines include rice and wheat dishes, stuffed vegetables,
pies wrapped in paper-thin pastry, various methods for roasting meats,
meatballs, thick omelettes, cold vegetables cooked in oil, scented rice
puddings, nut-filled pastries, fritters soaked in syrup and a variety
of fruit and vegetable juices.
Some areas are known for a highly developed cuisine. Lebanon, for example,
is one of only two Middle Eastern countries to have a highly developed
restaurant tradition. Lebanese emigrant cooks and restaurateurs brought
Arab cuisine to the attention of the world. In Michigan, the majority
of restaurants and bakeries offer Lebanese foods. Woody's Oasis, the first
Arab restaurant in the area, has pleased its customers with Lebanese foods.
Zemer's Rootbeer
Tyler, Texas
homemade rootbeer
Rootbeer is an all-American drink that dates from the mid-nineteenth century.
Chris Zemer is a fourth-generation rootbeer maker and vendor; his great
grandfather started his rootbeer business in Ionia in the 1920s. From a
stand made by his grandfather and great grandfather in the 1920s, Chris
and his wife Joy have been selling rootbeer since 1991. Chris's grandfather
made the counters and his great grandfather had used the rootbeer barrel,
both of which are part of the stand. The stand is a highly valued family
heirloom and the rootbeer business, a long family tradition.
With this history, Chris has stories to tell. He won't give us his secret
recipe, but he will tell you there's nothing better than an ice cold glass
of his homemade rootbeer. "Once you taste my rootbeer," Chris boasted, "you'll
never want anyone else's."
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