Northern Michigan recap: Elk Rapids to Charlevoix

We took a roadtrip up north last weekend and cruised through Elk Rapids, Torch Lake area and Lake Charlevoix area. I had been wanting to make it up that way for a while now to check out Pearl's New Orleans Kitchen in Elk Rapids, which was supposed to have excellent cajun/creole food. It did not disappoint.





Heading north out of Elk Rapids, we came across Friske Orchards - pies, jams, fresh fruit, donuts, bbq. I could have eaten every meal here but I had to restrict myself to some donuts and plenty of goodies to take home.



In East Jordan, I figured out what broasted chicken was.



I have a more complete write-up with more pics on my blog of all of the places we stopped at:

Great Lakes, Better Food: US-31 - Elk Rapids to Charlevoix

Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen
617 Ames St
Elk Rapids, MI
http://www.magnumhospitality.com/pearls/

Dairy Grille
1111 Bridge St
Charlevoix, MI

Chicken-N-Stuff
101 Mill St
East Jordan, MI
http://www.chicken-n-stuff.com/

Friske Orchards
10743 N. U.S. 31
Atwood, MI
http://www.friske.com/

OK, I give: what IS 'broasted chicken'??

Geo

the short answer is that it's frying in a pressure cooker. From the wikipedia page on broasting, it looks like the term was trademarked by a company that started selling pressure fryers to fast food places back in the 50s. I've only seen broasted chicken advertised at places in small towns along lake michigan.

The end product is a juicy fried chicken that is not as greasy as the traditional deep fried method - I assume this is due to less time being spent in the fryer, though I'm not sure that holds up to food science scrutiny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broasting

BigT wrote:I've only seen broasted chicken advertised at places in small towns along lake michigan.

I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and broasting was huge. Someone apparently landed the Middle Eastern distributorship and did a booming business.

When I lived in the Detroit suburbs I frequented a small, local chain serving broasted chicken. Googling tells me it's called Chicken Shack.http://www.chickenshack.com/index.php

There are a number of other places in the Detroit area serving broasted chicken as well.

Also in the NY area when I was growing up.

Ah.... my favorite part of country. I've been going to the "Charlevoix" area for over 30 years (man I'm old), and staying in Boyne the past decade or so when we visit. It's amazing to me that an area like this can have so many good places to go get food and drink and that is essentially franchise free (if you don't count Kilwin's of course). We usually hit places all over Boyne (Cafe Sante, Red Mesa for Casa Noble only, Lake Street Market, Johann's, and the Boyne River Inn), Charlevoix (John Cross Fisheries, Weathervane, Juillerts, Terry's, The Villager, and Whitney's.), E. Jordan (Murray's) and Ellsworth (The Rowe Inn) when we visit. Why can't that overcrowded Chicago suburb - Lake Geneva - be more like this?