The Observer Newspapers | Northern Adventures: From Barbaric Backroads to Metropolitan Marvels

Nov. 6, 2009

Northern Adventures: From Barbaric Backroads to Metropolitan Marvels

By Tom Grein

Former Observer Editor and Publisher

The life of a traveling man is not easy.

My wife and I, and two great friends from England, took a fall trip to the northern parts of Michigan last week, fighting off rain, wind, cold, and the unpredictable people of the north country.

They're a hardy bunch, feigning the feeling that living in the vast wilderness, known as the Upper Peninsula, is actually fun.

Our week-long trip took us from a Lake Superior back-county dirt-road filled with enormous holes with two, beat-up cars, one with a snowplow still attached, driven by two crazed men, spinning past us, throwing mud and rocks into the side of our car, to the shiny-chrome and glass offices of the Playboy headquarters in Chicago.

We went from a scene out of the movie "Deliverance" to the icon of pop culture, naked women and literature and art by the top artists in the country in less than a week. More on Playboy later.

We were actually lost on that dirt road in Deliverance land, looking for the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, known as the Great Manistique Swamp. We finally found it. It was closed, like most of our destinations were so late in October, but we did manage to drive in and see part of the 95,000-acre refuge. Beautifully lonely.

We were actually fortunate to survive the trip. Food was at a premium, but we found road-side shacks that sold smoked whitefish, trout and salmon. It was a good thing all four of us like that kind of stuff. We also managed to buy a couple of bags of real wild rice, which is not rice at all, but rather the seed of a grass found in the northern Great Lakes region.

Then there was the Berry Patch Restaurant in Paradise, Michigan. If you've ever been to Paradise you realize that it is totally NOT Paradise. But we managed to have a bowl of soup and eat the State Dish of Michigan: The Pasty (pronounced pass-tee).

While spelled the same as part of a stripper's basic costume, I'm talking about the meat-filled pie you can hold in one hand and eat, or pour gravy all over it and really pig out. It reminded our friends of the pasties sold all over Cornwall in England.

At the end of this column I'm going to give you a recipe for the Great Michigan Pasty, if you dare make it. Don't forget the rutabaga.

After days of rain and cold we managed to slip down the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan to visit the Kohler Design Center in Kohler, Wisconsin. Kohler makes all those cool sinks, bathtubs, faucets and showerheads. We were back in civilization, of sorts, and we had great fun roaming the area and visiting the famous American Club at Kohler.

After a couple of days at the Ostoff Hotel at Elkhart Lake, drying out and warming up, and eating in restaurants that did not sell Pasties, we ended up in Chicago for a two-day stay. Our friends have family there and we parted ways, but only after three great meals and a tour of the famed Playboy Chicago headquarters just off the shore of Lake Michigan.

Thanks to a good friend, we had a private tour of the Playboy corporate art collection, which reflects the history of the Playboy enterprise.

Nope, no naked girls in the building, just hard working magazine folks putting the final touches on the next edition.

But the art was fantastic. How often do I get to see original art in one place by such people, as Andy Warhol, LeRoy Neiman, Alberto Vargas (remember the Vargas girls?), original cartoons (the only reason I EVER bought the magazine!), and so many more.

It was great fun.

Finally we were home again. We left our good friends back in Chicago visiting family until they return to England. Tucked inside an envelope was this recipe for pasties I promised to share with you. The recipe was published in the Milwaukee Journal in 1943.

The Original Pasty

For the dough:

3 c. flour

1-1/2 sticks butter (cold and cut into bits)

1-1/2 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. ice water or more as needed

In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

For the filling:

1 lb. round steak, coarsely ground

1 lb. boneless pork loin, coarsely ground

5 carrots, chopped

2 lg. onions, chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

1/2 c. rutabaga, chopped or turnip

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, and roll one of the pieces into a 10-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Put 1 to 1-1/2 cups of filling on half of the round. Moisten the edges and fold the unfilled half over the filling to enclose it in a half-moon shape. Pinch the edges together to seal them and crimp decoratively with a fork. Transfer pasty to lightly buttered baking sheet and cut several slits in the top. Roll out and fill the remaining dough in the same manner. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Put 1 tsp. butter through a slit in each pasty and continue baking for 30 minutes more or until golden brown. Remove from oven, cover with a damp tea towel, cool for 15 minutes.

Go nuts: Serve with your favorite gravy!

And that's Our Town this week.

(You can reach me at baycity61@yahoo.com. Please write. Your emails will have a great chance of finding their way into the comment section of this column.)