How exciting to pick up a copy of the NYTimes while getting coffee last week and finding an article about the whitefish that we had thoroughly enjoyed in the UP of Michigan. A couple of places mentioned, including the one way up in the Copper Harbor place are all familiar. For more information about the UP's flaky, moist, rich whitefish enjoy this article:
New York Times article about Whitefish in the UP of Michigan.
"Signs for smoked fish abound outside gas stations and stores on U.S. Highway 2, the Upper Peninsula’s main east-west route, making it one of the area’s best-known specialties. Another is the pasty, a hearty Cornish pie filled with meat, rutabaga and gravy."
I chuckled when I read these true words about gas station and fish signs...and yes, we still have a couple of pasties in the freezer. The article also mentions a place across from the copper mine. This is the very spot, a little white building with a screen door entrance on the side that slams as you walk through, that we bought our first whitefish to cook on our own. We used Jiffy corn bread mix as our coating and fried it in an electric frying pan atop a picnic table at the state park. Lo these many years later, long before our children were born, I can still taste the sweetness of the fish.
Wistfully I think to myself, "It's time again (yes, already) to return to the UP for more fish. If only I had 3 more weeks of vacation. And the first thing I'd do would be to go to our favorite whitefish spot that we pass on the way to Point Iriquois, a restaurant that also sells pieces of smoked fish to go." Mmmm
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