The Pasty

One of the things we love about fulltiming is the chance to taste local and regional cuisine. If it’s recommended by a local, or one of our fellow fulltimers who has passed this way before us, we’ll try it. We’re like “Mikey”. We’ll eat anything!

Laurie and Odel included a recommendation in a recent comment about Brown’s Fish House up the road in Paradise. We stopped there yesterday and enjoyed one kickass whitefish sandwich and some mighty tasty fish and chips. What a treat to enjoy such tasty faire in a place that otherwise we would have passed by. Thanks, guys!

When we crossed the border from Wisconsin into the Upper Peninsula a week or so ago we almost immediately began to see signs for the pasty. Karen, a blogging buddy we unfortunately weren’t able to hook up with while we were in her woodsy part of the world, recommended we stop at The Pasty Oven while we were in Iron Mountain. Some friends we camped with there had pasties served for lunch a couple of days during their Habitat build. Their reactions were mixed. When we stopped by the Iron Mountain Mine for a very interesting and informative tour, we learned about the pasty. This handy meal was served to hard-working miners back in the day. (It’s pronounced PASTy, as in “blast from the past".) With meat, potatoes and other veggies of choice wrapped up in a sturdy crust, this was the perfect easy-to-eat, rib-sticking meal.

We spotted The Pasty Oven while we were in Iron Mountain, but we never managed to stop. When we dropped by the local Wal-Mart the afternoon before we left town, we spotted pasties from the The Pasty Oven in the freezer case. We’ve noticed that Wal-Mart can often be the best spot to pick up local goodies. We picked up two of the frozen rocks of dough and planned to enjoy them down the road.

We decided today was pasty day. After all, our days in the UP are dwindling. And, it seems only fair to enjoy this uniquely Yooper treat while we’re in the UP. We pulled the two frozen bricks out of the freezer and fired up our convection oven. Voltage is poor in this park we’re never coming back to. So, we crossed our fingers that we could get the oven heated up long enough to make dinner and keep our surge protector from tripping. Somehow, we managed. We tossed a salad and put some baby carrots on the plate to improve the otherwise very bland presentation.

Our friend Len warned us about what it takes to enjoy a pasty. He piles his with gravy, ketchup, mustard and cheese. We didn’t have any gravy on board, and didn’t take the extra step to grate some cheese. So, we served the bricks with ketchup and mustard and plenty of pepper (They already have gobs of salt!) and hoped for the best. Our nearly purist baptism to the pasty was surprisingly tasty. Hearty and filing, we can see where this would be a handy lunch for a hungry miner.

Will we be stocking up on these treats before we cross the Mackinaw Bridge south to the Lower Peninsula?

Eh, no.