real food good

 

 Photo by Anita Verna Crofts

I'm not a culinary isolationist.

While I don't expect to ever stumble across a bowl of southwestern Chinese rice noodles (mǐ xiàn, 米線) outside of the Mainland that comes close to the flavor and composition that is found on the streets of Kunming, I'd be the first to line up if such an eatery chose to open its doors in the USA. 

Josh Ozersky's recent article in Time Magazine asks when the USA will apply our entrepreneurial spirit to designing a cuisine that instead of borrowing from our immigrant ancestors, blazes a unique gastronomical path. But given the staggering marginalization of the indigenous culinary traditions of this land, it's no wonder what we eat relates directly to whence we came. Just today, CNN's Eatocracy uploaded a video highlighting key chefs in this country who draw inspiration in the kitchen from their cultural heritage.

Case in point: Waldoboro, Maine, was settled by restless Bostonians in the 18th century but saw an influx of German emigrants in the mid 1800s. Fast forward a hundred and fifty years to July 2011, and Morse's Sauerkraut & Euro Deli is pickling cabbage in the proud German tradition--as it has since 1918.

En route back to Casco from Bass Harbor last week, my road trip companion and I ate half our body weight in Morse's homemade pickles, as well as bread dumplings, spätzle, potato perogies, house kraut, classic coleslaw, and red cabbage with apples. Did I mention there were four varieties of mustard on the table? The only disappointment was that they were sold out of soft pretzels.

Sure, it can feel illicit in lobster-land to step into a store where you half expect the servers to be sporting lederhosen, but these are Mainers in the kitchen, and this is their food.

So let's dispense with verbs: real food good.

And it is.