On the kiddie ice cream totem pole, the Superman flavor is pretty high up there, somewhere near bubblegum and cookie dough. But the poor squirts who don't live in or near Michigan probably haven't experienced the red-blue-yellow trio of creamy goodness. Our recent Superman ice cream post inspired Quinn of the Michigan culture blog The Mitten to cruise around the Ann Arbor-area and get to the bottom of this dessert enigma. What's the Michigan connection? Where exactly does the "blue" flavor come from? According to Jim and Forrest Karnopp of Cafe Luwak in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Detroit-based Stroh Brewery stopped making beer during prohibition and segued to ice cream, bringing Superman ice cream into this world. But to this day,...
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Southern Foodways appears on Fridays as part of our collaboration with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization based in Oxford, Mississippi, that "documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South." Dig in! Interested in Southern food but find yourself geographically challenged and living above the Mason Dixon line? Never fear—Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan is here! Zingerman's is devoted to finding (and making) the best foods in the world, and they're kind enough to ship their treasures right to your door. The Roadhouse (one of several jewels in the Zingerman crown, including the Bakehouse, the Creamery, the Delicatessen, and the Coffee Company) specializes in really good American food—their description, not mine! Alex Young, the chef at...
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The Zingerman's group is kind of like the Warren Buffet of the food world. Culinarily speaking, no matter what owners Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig get their hands into, like Buffet's stock picks and corporate bids, things tend to blow up. So far they run a successful deli and gourmet carryout store, a coffeehouse, a coffee roaster, a slightly upscale roadhouse, a bread-baking operation, a creamery, a catering operation, and even a staff-training consultancy, all based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The crown jewel in their empire is the Zingerman's gourmet deli located blocks from the campus of my alma mater, the University of Michigan. In my first few weeks at Michigan, rumors abounded about this exotic deli where you...
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Though I was glad to see the New York Times cover Zingerman's today in its business section, the piece somehow failed to convey the idiosyncratic soulfulness of both the Zingerman's family of businesses and its co-founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinsweig. That family of businesses includes a world-class deli, the best food mail-order and online catalog I know, a bakery that turns out very good baked goods and bread, a creamery that churns out the best cream cheese I have ever tasted as well as a number of other fine artisanal cheeses, a roadhouse restaurant where they smoke their own meats, and even Zingtrain seminars where they dispense their unique set of business principles. Having known them for more...
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Though I was glad to see the New York Times cover Zingerman's today in its business section, the piece somehow failed to convey the idiosyncratic soulfulness of both the Zingerman's family of businesses and its co-founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinsweig. That family of businesses includes a world-class deli, the best food mail-order and online catalog I know, a bakery that turns out very good baked goods and bread, a creamery that churns out the best cream cheese I have ever tasted as well as a number of other fine artisanal cheeses, a roadhouse restaurant where they smoke their own meats, and even Zingtrain seminars where they dispense their unique set of business principles. Having known them for more...
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