Food and Drink

Food safety is a subject that bores some people (“I’ve been cooking for thirty years and I haven’t killed anybody yet”) and terrifies others (“the timer thingy popped up, but it still looks red inside.”)

When it’s time to cook the Thanksgiving turkey, even the most seasoned chef should follow basic food safety rules to ensure that a delicious feast doesn’t end with a run to the nearest ER.

Tucked away at 2000 Merritt Road, between Park Lake Road and Haslett Road, is the largest beverage distillery in Michigan. It produces apple brandy, buckwheat bourbon, corn whiskey, gin, and rice vodka for its own label as well as producing distillations for private labels. In addition to the distillery, this location includes a tasting room, Red Cedar Spirits, featuring handcrafted cocktails.

"Last week, my companion and I had the totally serendipitous experience of finding an East Lansing restaurant we had never heard of."

There is something personally satisfying about eaing seasonally. Stocking our pantries and kitchens with fruits, veggies, and meats specific to the time of year is a great way to minimize the cost of transporting food, encourage local growers, and promote creative, ever-changing plates of deliciousness to share with family and friends. And with the explosion of Michigan craft beer these past few years, it is much easier to be a seasonal beer drinker and still remain faithful to the local products fermented in our community.

Altu’s is owned by chef Altaye Tadesse, and many of the menu options are her family recipes.

Note: ELi is instituting new weekly features! Today we introduce our new Saturday feature, “City of the Smarts.” This weekly column will fill you in on geeky pleasures of and brain-enhancing opportunities in East Lansing. If you have news of a local brainy pleasure to share, use our contact form.

Perhaps because we have serious winters in East Lansing, when the weather is nice the outdoor cafes and pubs fill up. The current stretch of temperate, dry weather led this reporter to ask a non-scientific sample of locals for their two or three favorite places to enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of beer outside.

Sara Beer doesn’t just show up at the East Lansing Farmers’ Market on Sunday mornings with homemade granola and a great smile. A tremendous amount of work goes into every week of selling Spoonful of Granola at the Market, and for Beer, that work is a labor of love.

“My favorite thing,” she says,” is to see people love what I do. I like the fact that I’m making something homemade that’s not full of sugar, and is pretty much a super food – it covers all the food groups if you add dairy.”

Adapted from a news release by Ami Van Antwerp, City of East Lansing:

"Winter Glow," the winter-inspired annual tradition in East Lansing, will take place this Saturday, December 1, in downtown East Lansing with a wide variety of fun-filled seasonal activities from 3-6 p.m. and a special lighting of luminaries at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
 
2012 Activities, 3-6 p.m.
This year’s Winter Glow will feature ice carving, a reindeer petting zoo, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, horse and carriage rides, a special outdoor holiday farmer’s market, a heated music tent, a kid’s winter carnival, marshmallow roasting, merchant activities, roasted chestnuts, hot chocolate, lighting of the luminaries and much more.

Outdoor Holiday Farmer’s Market, 3-6 p.m.
A special outdoor holiday farmer’s market will feature many of the popular vendors of the East Lansing Farmer’s Market, as well as other Michigan vendors. Items for sale will include bread, maple syrup, rubs, granola and much more.
 
Jingle Jam Music Tent, 3-6 p.m.
The Jingle Jam Music Tent will host three musical performances in a heated tent. Catch Kathleen Bolthouse (blues) at 3 p.m., Dave Samano at 4 p.m. and Rob Klajda at 5 p.m.
 
Luminaries to Bring a Magical Glow to Downtown, 5-8 p.m.
The City, with the help of volunteers, will light more than 500 luminaries throughout downtown East Lansing streets, bringing a magical winter glow to the heart of the community. Participants are encouraged to enjoy downtown from 5-8 p.m.
 

As a Yooper-wannabe, one vendor at the East Lansing Farmer's Market is especially close to my stomach, the Fresh Lake Whitefish Company, straight from the Sault (they also set up shop at the Lansing City Market on Saturday). Yes, Mark and Carla Ebener do actually sell fresh lake whitefish, as well as fresh lake trout, walleye, yellow perch, lake herring and salmon. But they also sell smoked fish, even more than pasties, true Yooper cuisine.

The Community Relations Coalition (CRC) is again this year hosting ice cream socials in three East Lansing neighborhoods where permanent residents and MSU students live together: Bailey, Red Cedar, and Oakwood. As the host of the Oakwood social, and as someone who has lived in Oakwood first as an MSU student and now as a homeowner, I would encourage everyone to attend.

I host the Ice Cream Social for the Oakwood neighborhood specifically because I lived in the neighborhood when I was in school and I remember what it was like to not feel connected to the residents who lived around me. Being a younger non-student resident in the neighborhood, I feel my presence as someone who bridges the gap between the college kids and the residents with families is important for showing that not everyone who lives in the neighborhood is exclusively either in school or already married with a family.

This summer, the East Lansing Farmers' Market has been featuring a product I've never had before, but I've become addicted to: dark honey, produced as a byproduct of processing beeswax. Beekeeper Dale Woods runs Applegarth Honey. Slogan: "we serve the queen." He's been appearing weekly on Sundays, 10 am - 2 pm, in Valley Court Park.

Dale's operation is located in Fowlerville, Michigan, and he has sold his wares at many of the markets in the area, including Allen Street, Merdian, Mason, Chelsea, and the take-your-life-in-your-own-hands drive-through farmers' market of St. John's. He offers traditional light honey that tastes beautifully buttery and fresh, as well as the darker variety that tastes to me more rough and wild. I love it on my granola and in my tea.

Dale explained to me how the dark honey is produced. The honey in the combs is covered with a thin coat of wax. The beekeeper cuts the surface layer of the wax off to get the honey out. If he heats that capping, he'll get beeswax floating to the surface of the heated vessel. At the bottom of the heated vessel rests a dark layer of honey.

Many people seem to have now figured out the best place in this town to get brunch on Sundays: in Valley Court, right next to the East Lansing Farmers' Market. Two terrific food truck operations are in hot competition for who can make you fatter on healthy local food faster. Seriously, these are both amazing mobile restaurants. And the city has helpfully provided picnic tables right under the trees nearby.