A few weeks ago I was watching a television program about Michigan’s favorite food, the pastie. Borrowed from Scotland and Appalachia, the pastie is essentially a primitive Hot Pocket. Apparently it was popular because the working men could wrap it up in newspaper, stuff it in their front pocket, and have a hearty lunch while down in the mine. Yet this meal was not simply hearty, it was also complete. One edge of the pastie was partitioned off and dedicated to holding sweet fruit, thereby serving as dessert. Genius. Well at least Appalachian genius.
So I decided that I need to make these. Andrea is in Branson and Bobby Garner is crashing at my place, this was my opportunity. Last night Bobby picked up the ingredients and by 6:30 we were cooking. We decided that some of the pasties should be of the traditional fare (almost like a pocket pot roast) while others should be a little more Mediterranean, with rosemary, chicken, and tomatoes. Finally we used cinammon apples, peaches, and black raspberries to fill the dessert pasties.
40 minutes later we were eating pasties… and nearly throwing up. The savory pasties were terrible, like calzones but with none of the flavors that make calzones good. We were depressed, looking at each other and wondering how we had failed so miserably. A future depression also set in because we committed ourselves to wrapping up a pastie in newsprint and taking it to school with us on Thursday. That idea wasn’t looking so good or funny anymore. Worst for today, I woke up with the worst stomach issue in years this morning. I opted to drive to work instead of biking because I felt so bad and even became nervous about drinking my morning coffee and even traded Raisin Bran for oatmeal. Yes things were bad.
I must say that upon trying the fruit filled varieties our fortunes did reverse. They tasted much like pie, which is a good thing.
But we did learn from the pastie experience:
1) Don’t make poor people food and expect it to taste great. If poor people had a great, delicious lifestyle everyone would want to be poor.
2) Don’t sit comfortably in an apartment living room and eat dishes that became popular in dirty, cold, drafty mines. We should have known better.
3) Don’t expect great things from Michigan. Remember, these are the people who honestly believe their hand is an adequate replacement for a road map.
3 Comments
July 12, 2006 at 8:38 pm
your pastie
July 12, 2006 at 9:51 pm
funny Bob, real funny. Maybe there are better ways to try and identify with the poor.
July 13, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Jonathan, how does someone at RICHland Hills relate to the poor?