Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time [Past]

"Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time"
Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance presents fifth symposium April 27 to 29 in Chicago


Keynote speaker Michael Stern of RoadFood.com on, "Will Success Spoil Regional Food?"


Ride along with Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time. Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance presents its fifth annual symposium, from Friday, April 27, through Sunday, April 29 at Kendall College and locations around Chicago.

The event features keynote speaker Michael Stern, best-selling author of the Roadfood series, discussing 'Will Success Spoil Regional Food?'

The three-day conference kicks off Friday afternoon, wrapping that night with a food truck dinner—including a classic construction-site canteen; one of the city's hottest chef-driven trucks; and an art installation as food truck.

Saturday’s lunch serves up the rare, authentic Springfield, Illinois horseshoe sandwich; an Indiana breaded pork tenderloin sandwich; and a Nebraska runza—plus, for dessert a true Pig Pickin’ Cake. The day ends with a Midwestern wine and Wisconsin cheese tasting.

Speakers include Sun-Times writer and Route 66 expert Dave Hoekstra on supper clubs; Smart Museum Deputy Director Stephanie Smith on her current exhibit "Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art"; and Chicago Public Media food blogger and chef Louisa Chu on food trucks—among a dozen notable speakers.

The full program can be found here:
http://www.greatermidwestfoodways.com/index.php/page/ProgramRoadFood.html

Speaker bios can be found here:
http://www.greatermidwestfoodways.com/index.php/page/SpeakerRoadFoad.html

Sunday starts with breakfast at Lou Mitchell’s, where Route 66 begins. "The first stop on the Mother Road"—Lou's nickname—will be followed by a choice of two guided tours: Maxwell Street Market, led by Greater Midwest Foodways president Bruce Kraig and The Local Beet publisher Rob Gardner; or the Smart Museum exhibit "Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art", led by chief curator Stephanie Smith.

Buy tickets now at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/235228. For more information, email greatermidwestfoodways@gmail..com or call 847-432-8255.

Friday and Saturday: $85
Friday, April 27: Program and Pay-as-you-go food truck dinner
Saturday, April 28: Symposium with lunch

Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) will be available.

Sunday, Apri1 29:
9:00 AM: Sunday breakfast at Lou Mitchell's - $20
11:00 AM: Maxwell Street Tour at northewest corner of Roosevelt and Des Plaines Streets, Chicago - $10
11:30: Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art @ The Smart Museum of the University of Chicago - $10

Membership:
- Student, full time $20
- Individual $35
- Family $50
- Not-for-profit $200
- Corporate $500
Members will receive a 10% reimbursement for the symposium and tours, not Lou Mitchell's breakfast.

About Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance:
Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance is dedicated to celebrating, exploring, and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest.

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/GreaterMidwestFoodways?ref=ts

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/MidwestFoodways #MidwestFood

Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts
900 North Branch Street (Chicago Ave & Halsted St)
Chicago, IL 60642

Saturday arrival

Baked Oats with raisins, brown sugar and maple-cinnamon flavored whipped cream
Corner Cafe, Wakarusa, Indiana as stated in Cafe Indiana Cookbook by Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and Jolene Ketzenberger

Coffee and Tea


Saturday lunch

Pickled eggs, beets, celery, carrots
Marty's Bluebird Cafe, Laketon, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook

Horseshoe
Leland Hotel, Springfield, Illinois from Whatever Happened to the Horseshoe? by Julianne Glatz

Pork tenderloin slider
Newberry Cafe, Newberry, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook

Runza (from Nebraska)
I'll Have What They're having: Legendary Local Cuisine by Linda Stradley

Marinated Vegetable Bowl
Wolcott Theatre Cafe, Wolcott, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook

Cranberry Salad
Palmer House, Berne, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook

Double crust fruit cobbler
Bobbie Jo's Diner, Edinburgh, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook

Pig Pickin' Cake
Baby Boomer Cafe, Hamilton, Indiana from Cafe Indiana Cookbook


Mid afternoon break

Wisconsin summer vacation snacks
Courtesy of Chef Kelly Sears of Marcel's Culinary Experience


Wine and Cheese Tasting
Illinois wine

Wisconsin cheese
Courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

For those who need it:

Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) will be available.

Keynote speaker Michael Stern of RoadFood.com on, "Will Success Spoil Regional Food?"

Wondering what a Nebraskan Runza might be? Me, too. As I watch this video, I realize I ate these frequently in Moscow. I then checked to learn the Runza does have the influence of the Russians who settled in Nebraska.

Bierocks, also known as runzas or baked piroshkis, are meat and cabbage buns baked by Germans from Russia who settled in the Midwest. They are comfort food for transplants living all over the U.S., including the large community in Lodi, California.

These will be served at lunch at Saturday, April 28th:

Relocated Maxwell Street Market Tour
Guided by Robert Garner & Bruce Kraig

Sunday, April 29th, 2012 – Rain or Shine
11:00 AM until 1:00 PM

In front of the Red "Maxwell Street Market" sign
Northwest corner of Des Plaines and Roosevelt Roads
Chicago, IL
$10

More event information here: http://www.GreaterMidwestFoodways.com
Registration


(image by David Hammond)

Maxwell Street Market moved in 2008 for the third time in its history. Bruce Kraig will provide the market's history. Rob Garner will talk about Maxwell Street today. Together they will comment on the Mexican offerings as we walk about and eat our way through the market. Bring some money for food; ten dollars will easily cover food costs for one. We will be walking with few places to sit. Please wear comfortable clothing and shoes.

To prepare for this tour, you may want to consult David Hammond's Maxwell Street Market Guide 2011-2012 available to read on-line or download. Also check out Gorilla Gourmet’s Maxwell Street Mexican available on streaming video:

Exploring Midwest roadfood

The folks at Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance are at it again! In years past, the GMFA, an organization dedicated to “celebrating, exploring, and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest,” has held symposia with such Midwestern themes as “Stuffed” (Sausages), “Sweets,” “Beef” (Following the Cattlemen’s Trail), and Foodways of the Great Depression. I’ve not been able to attend them all, but thoroughly enjoyed those I have. I asked GMFA Vice-President Catherine Lambrecht how they choose their symposia themes: “Ideas come from prior symposium participants, board members and whatever we observe is being discussed in the media, Internet and literature. Once we have a salad bowl of ideas, we begin to prioritize by available resources (books, potential speakers, web searches, research topics). What’s most important is our enthusiasm for a topic, because a keen interest and lots of ideas can move mountains!”

This year’s symposium topic is “Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time.” Lambrecht says, “It was clear the topic of Road Food would resonate to many in different ways. We had people independent of each other who suggested food carts, food trucks, drive-ins, diners and supper clubs.” This year’s GFMA Symposium will take place April 27-29 at its usual location, Chicago’s Kendall College School of Culinary Arts. Also as usual, it’s sure to include lots of fascinating and fun information and lots of delicious food – not least among the reasons to delve into the anthropology of food!
...

The slogan of the Illinois Office of Tourism is “Mile after Magnificent Mile.” One might smile while traveling mile after mile across the third flattest state in the Union, but there is a lot more to being on Midwestern roads than corn and soybean fields.

Road travel is about history and culture, the things that make the Midwest so interesting and varied. Every region, every city and town has its own story to tell, each unique yet interlinked with each other, most often by road and rail. How else to explain the almost mythic phrase, “Route 66?”

Food tells us about the varieties and interlinks across the Midwest. From very local specialties such as the Horseshoe Sandwich in Springfield, Illinois, to Indiana and Wisconsin cafes, supper clubs and vacations to hill and lakes areas, from the pork tenderloin belt stretching from Indiana to Iowa, and drive-ins, wine tourism and farmers markets, each is embedded in local and regional cultures.

This magnificent theme runs through our Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance conference: “Road Food: Exploring the Midwest One Bite at a Time.” We’all hope that you will enjoy sampling the gustatory and intellectual treats therein.
 
Bruce Kraig,
President

Friday's events wrote:3:00 PM: Opening remarks

Marked for Life: My Travels on Rt 66 in ‘53
Terri Ryburn


Terri has found her life’s work in her love of Route 66. In 2007 she bought a gas station along old Route 66 in Normal and is restoring it to its 1931 glory. She will open it as a Route 66 Visitors Center, tea room, and bed and breakfast.

Her interest in the road began in 1953 when, at age five, she traveled the road in a Ford Model A pickup truck with her parents, four brothers, and her Dad’s two hunting dogs. Terri’s presentation is entitled “Marked for Life,” a humorous account of that 1953 trip.


State Fair Heirloom Recipe Contest
Catherine Lambrecht

An update on results and future plans.

Food Trucks: Yesterday and Today
Louisa Chu, Chef, Writer and Chicago Public Media blogger


Food truck dinner (cash)

In addition to food trucks, Peter Engler will speak on Chicago's pushcarts circa 1900 or earlier.

The food trucks will be:

- Pleasant House Bakery - it is the inaugural run of their new truck.

- Enemy Kitchen - art plus food. Interesting to note they serve food on paper plate replicas of Sadam Hussein's personal plates.

- Classic construction site canteen.

For those who want to visit the food trucks only, they will begin service at 5:30 pm.

Saturday, April 28th, from 9 AM to 4 PM at Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts


Registration from 8:00 to 9:00 AM

9:00 AM:

Keynote: Will Success Spoil Regional Food?
Michael Stern, Author, RoadFood and RoadFood.com


The Drive In Restaurant; Before and After the Dawn of Fast Food, Food Theater Mary Bergin, Author, Culinary Historian

As a farm kid, I rarely ate at restaurants. When I turned 16 and snatched the family car keys, a favorite and frequent destination was the local A&W drive-in. That was – geesh – 40 years ago, but today that A&W – renamed Chester’s – remains a drive-in and popular. I know of other flourishing Wisconsin drive-ins, including two with roller-skating carhops, and have my theories about why these places thrive even as this category for dining declines nationwide. Reportorial research into this topic will complement my personal experiences, observations and details already gathered through my work as a journalist.


A Gopher Turned Badger Eats Hoosier, and Vice Versa: Midwestern Culinary Traditions in the Small-Town Cafe
Joanne Stuttgen, Folklorist

Joanne Stuttgen is author of Cafe Wisconsin (1993 and 2004) and Cafe Indiana (2008), two ethnographic books about the food, people, culture, social rituals, and history of each state’s small town cafes. Stuttgen is also a co-author of Cafe Wisconsin Cookbook (2007) and Cafe Indiana Cookbook (2010), which offer recipes for and a more in-depth examination of cafe food. In this interactive “lecture,” we’ll compare the iconic foods and culinary traditions of the two states—one in the upper Midwest and one in the lower Midwest—and cultural traditions and history that left their imprints on daily specials board and daily social rituals in small town cafes.


What Happened to Horseshoes?
Julianne Glatz, Journalist

The Horseshoe, Springfield Illinois' signature sandwich, has been inextricably linked to its political and social life since its creation in 1928. But the 'shoes that almost inevitably are offered at Springfield's casual eating establishments are a far cry from the original. Julianne Glatz takes a look at Horseshoe history and how it's morphed into its current form.


Pies on the Road
Shirley Cherkasky, Culinary Historian

This deals with how my family made it through the Depression in Wisconsin when my father lost his job. He made his own bakery truck from our family sedan and drove it farm to farm. He figured my mother could make better pies than he could buy wholesale. He took orders on his three routes per week, and then delivering each order two days later. My mother made from 15-20 pies six days per week selling 25 cents each: single or double-crust, fruit, cream or custard.


Lunch

Presented during lunch as a breakaway session:

Ethnographic Food Writing, or How I Ate My Way Across Wisconsin and Indiana and Lived to Write About It
Joanne Stuttgen, Folklorist

Joanne Stuttgen will share her research and fieldwork methodologies. “Everyone is always very curious about why and how I ate my way across two states one diner at a time. Most people have a romantic view of my adventures and have no idea just how much work there is!”


Culinary Tourism in the Land of Meat and Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole
Lucy M. Long

The Culinary Tourism industry focuses on distinct, memorable, and fine-dining food destinations. While such destinations exist in the American Midwest, the overall image of this region does not evoke these types of experiences. The Midwest, however, offers a wealth of rich foodways experiences. If we open our eyes to the meaningfulness of food to residents, the historical contexts behind contemporary food, the shift to foodways (totality of activities and concepts surrounding food) from food, and the idea of “reading” a culture through its food, we can turn a culinary roadtrip to the Midwest into an adventurous exploration of the meanings of everyday and common foods and foodways.


Summer Vacations in Northern Wisconsin
Chef Kelly Sears

The memories of that one week every summer when the family loads up the station wagon, the kids fight to sit in the “way back” along with the coolers, the sleeping bags, extra pillows, and piles of beach towels sticks to me like sand to wet feet. As much as that week is about sun, fun, water, and bug spray, it’s also a membership card to an exclusive club of food memories from the lake.

Board games, and bonfires, citronellas and pot lucks; summer vacation is the big dining table that can seat sixteen and teaches us all that sometimes the people that sit around your table make what’s on your table seem that much better. This is summer vacation in Northern Wisconsin.


Born to be Mild, Oral Histories and Pathways of the Midwest Supper Club
Dave Hoekstra, Journalist

Midwest supper clubs were born in the early 1930s--mostly in rural Wisconsin---just as the automobile opened the door to the opportunity of American culture.
By the 1920s anyone who wanted a car had a car. According to Douglas Brinkley's Henry Ford biography Wheels of the World, the first drive-in opened in 1921 in Dallas. Brinkley writes that one of every eight Americans was involved in some kind of automobile-related industry.

The supper club became an enticing automobile destination where farm people (who had “dinner” for lunch and “supper” for “supper”) would spend up to six hours. They would gather in a lounge for pre-supper drinks, have supper and then adjourn to the lounge for post-supper cocktails. A sense of community was formed.

Many supper clubs survived the creation of the 1950s interstate system. And many family operated supper clubs survived franchising of the 1960s and ‘70s.

But customers hanging around supper clubs all night became a thing of the past---with drunk driving laws. This has been a steady claim of the 25 supper clubs I have surveyed the past year.


Farmers Markets of the Heartland, the Ultimate Road Trip
Janine MacLachlan

To research my upcoming book Farmers’ Markets of the Heartland, I embarked on a road trip across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. As I met farmers and food artisans I discovered that the best road food is right at the farmers’ market.

A visit to a farmers market is an ideal way to explore local food while on the road. In addition to finding fresh, nourishing food, we also meet food artisans who sell at farmers markets to build clientele and try new flavors on eager patrons. At the same time these vendors are selling the taste of the soil, and establishing strong connections to their individual communities. I met farmers raising beef on land that had been in their family since 1820, novice farmers starting out on two acres, and a baker with roots in the French Foreign Legion. I’ll tell participants about the sisterhood of chevre across five states, a young farmer who is a booster for the Jimmy Nardello sweet Italian frying pepper, and a couple who started their heritage pork business to nurture their children’s health.


On the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail
Clara Orban, Sommelier and Linguist

Illinois has a surprising number of wineries, many of them in the southern part of the state where rolling hills glide into the Shawnee National Forest. Travelers can explore the wineries in this, the state’s most important AVA (American Viticultural Area) by car with maps and guidebooks to lead the way.

Wineries in this area continue to increase as interest in winemaking grows. A powerful engine for expansion is Southern Illinois University and its graduates, especially those in the sciences, who turn part-time student work into permanent careers.

For a state with rich soil such as Illinois, and occasional weather that is inappropriate for grapes, winemakers have been ingenious in finding varieties that produce good wines while still growing well in this climate. In the presentation I will list a few of these grapes and give tasting notes.


Concluding remarks followed by Illinois Wine and Wisconsin Cheese tasting.

Can anyone confirm the time of the Maxwell st. tour? The website says 11 am but ticket at point of purchase say 2 pm. Pls advise.

Hi,

It is 11 am for Maxwell Street. 11:30 for Smart Museum.

Sorry about any confusion caused.

Regards,
Cathy

Thanks C2.

Hi,

A link to Michael Stern's take on the Road Food symposium can be found here.

The food was fantastic, but best of all was spending a day with a group of people who are so enthusiastic and so incredibly knowledgable about a subject dear to all Roadfooders' hearts: regional eats. I cannot remember when I have eaten so well and learned so much and shared a passion with so many inspired food savants.

Regards,

This was really an excellent conference. Congratulations to Cathy and Bruce and the other organizers. Michael Stern gave a much more serious, thoughtful talk than I expected (I expected to like it, but not to have so much to think about). It was not all pictures (indeed, not any pictures), but he raised all of the right issues. Lucy Long gave an important talk. And the talks with pictures were spirited as well. I'm not one for podcasts, but I really would recommend Michael's talk, which creatively asks the question of the effects of popularity on roadfood restaurants - a question that certainly applies to GNRs.

Thanks to Bruce and Rob for a good tour. I was a bit apprehensive of doing Maxwell street alone as I was not familiar. Who knew it was a stone's throw from my alma mater UIC where I spent years whizzing by this area and not going. Methinks it was not located there years ago. If you have not been to Maxwell street, do not hesitate to go. Although the tour was good and informative, you really do not need one. Just go!!! On a Sunday. You do not really have to bother about showing up too early as things seem to still be going strong there at noon or later. One thing I would recommend beside comfy walking shoes is bring a few plastic knives and forks with you. Not that they do not have them there but some of the portions are huge and it helps to have extras to cut up the food for sharing. Also I would bring some wipes in packets. They do have napkins there and papertowels but fingers tend to get greasy picking up the food. There are a couple of parking lots here and there. The one we parked in was right north and a block east of the north end of maxwell street.. Eight bucks for parking. They also sell stuff for cheap. I saw all manner of things. I bought 2 packages of superglue there for four bucks no tax. I also saw people selling kitchen wares and a tupperware lady selling new tupperware if you are into that.