Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

11/2/16

Restaurant Review Assignment Part III

            I had fairly high expectations for my first meal at Crow’s Nest, because everyone said it was ‘the best’. However, I did have my speculations going into my meal, because I wondered what would make it more interesting than, say Sophia’s House of Pancakes or any other breakfast place in the area. Part of me thought Crow’s Nest must be a favorite place because people love breakfast food. I expected, therefore, a little something special at the beloved Crow’s Nest.         

            What I found was that Crow’s Nest is a charming spot for breakfast. The menu spans past merely breakfast and brunch options, but breakfast seems to be the highlight. I was delighted by the unique spin on French toast and the prevalent crispness and seasoning of red skin potatoes and fluffy biscuits. The French toast was outstanding, while the berry cream pancakes and side of scrambled eggs and bacon were average. Overall, I would say the food, while some parts, average, was much more sophisticated and delicious than I expected. I wanted the food to spark my taste buds and be more than the typical Saturday and Sunday conglomeration of potatoes and greasy sausage and pancakes, and I would say it was. However, what really exceeded my expectations was the atmosphere. The restaurant was quaint, trendy, colorful, and felt hip and funky. I loved that it felt different from a diner or a meal at the white-walled Bob Evans where the plates are huge and the food comes in heaps. It felt more tailored, which I found very interesting and fun. It was smaller and felt less ‘generic’ than I was expecting from a place to go mainly for a nice breakfast or brunch.

            Thinking about the atmosphere of the restaurant, I realized how Crow’s Nest appears different than my idea of an American breakfast place. I think of IHOP and Denny’s. I think of large white tables and heaping plates of pancakes, plastic Coca-Cola Brand water cups and bustling waitresses holding coffee pots. Lucy Long in her piece about culinary tourism addresses this idea of authenticity, and that is what I consider to be authentic American breakfast food.  The term authenticity can be interpreted in so many different ways. In terms of breakfast food, I think of authentic as the most common. Crow’s Nest had some dishes that were better than the authentic food in my mind, because it differed from the common dish. Generally speaking, I think a lot of people, at least from the U.S., often go to restaurants as a form of tourism in order to taste something authentic. A French dish isn’t the ‘real thing’ in America as it would be in Paris, so we seek that authenticity. What is a common dish in America is not a common dish in another country, so we seek that change, much like I did in eating at Crow’s Nest.

            Writing this review and eating a Crow’s Nest made me much more aware of how food plays such a large role in culture and tourism. What seems intriguing and new to me (banana bread French toast) may be common for someone else. I agree with Lucy Long in the sense that we all have our own expectations and experiences that alter how we view the world and other cultures. A lot of times we want to be transported from what seems common to what seems uncommon in our lives, and so we travel and eat and try to immerse ourselves in new activities or in new cultures. Food is such an amazing way to branch out in this way. In the future when I go out to eat, I think I will be more aware of menus, the atmosphere of restaurants, the reasons I choose to eat out, and the reasons I have for eating at a certain place. I think I will use food as a way to be a tourist in my life in study abroad and in general. If I go to Costa Rica for study abroad, I will definitely try foods and eat out as a way to learn about the main culinary culture that makes up Costa Rica. I think no matter where I go, food will be a way for me to learn new things and enjoy a shared experience at the same time. Everyone loves food, and food is something that can bring not only define people but bring them together.

Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

Intended publication: The Index

A Trendy Spot for a Special Taste of Kalamazoo

            Don’t get confused. That skinny staircase is actually the way to the restaurant. That lady wearing khaki pants up there is one of the waitresses, and those glass doors to your right, well, even though it’s so tempting to push through them, they won’t get you to a table at Crow’s Nest any faster. What they can give you is a warm cup of tea or coffee to sip on as you wait for the line on the staircase to move.

            Crow’s Nest is a cozy breakfast spot that is nestled among a café, a tattoo parlor, and various other establishments on Westnedge Avenue in the diverse Vine neighborhood of downtown Kalamazoo. A local favorite, this quaint and quirky establishment is adored for its breakfast menu available 7 days a week and 24 hours a day on the weekends. Closely connected with the Fourth Coast Café located below the restaurant, fresh baked breads and brewed coffee are available from local co-ops and farms in the area.

At busy times such as brunch on the weekends, the line down the staircase from the restaurant resembles that of a crowd waiting in line at an amusement park. Grabbing a bite to eat sometimes requires an undesirable wait time. Surely a place for a good bite to eat when the timing is right.

            Friendly hostesses lead customers up from the dark staircase into the inviting, brightly lit space of the small, apartment size restaurant. Colorful vase-patterned half-drapes decorate the many windows and blend with the golden yellow paint and wooden trim of the walls. Families, college students, couples and friends frequent the intimate dining experience of Crow’s Nest.

            Scrambled eggs, omelets, breakfast burritos and other egg variations make up a large portion of the menu. Lunch and dinner options such as burgers, salads, and sandwiches fill up the remaining space on the menu pages, but delicate creations stand out. Banana bread French Toast is a beautiful, thick hunk of banana bread topped with a light and lovely fluff of whipped cream. The golden brown slice bathing in a thin pool of sweet cinnamon cream syrup and pecans is like a dessert. Superbly moist and tangy, the plate is far more elevated than the usual oily French toast of most breakfast restaurants. For only $4, a single slice is plenty of decadence, while adding a side of bacon or eggs is best for a more filling meal. Berry Cream Pancakes and Biscuits and Gravy with a side of Potatoes lack such a saliva-stirring presentation. Minimal strawberries and a sad dollop of whipped cream and powdered sugar add little aesthetic or flavor to a plate of satisfactorily fluffy, golden brown pancakes. On the savory side, salty, buttery biscuits are masked by a crusted layer of chunky gravy that taste better than they look. The potatoes are a crispy delight on the side, producing a satisfactory crunch in the mouth and make up for the strong pepper and salt seasoning that the gravy lacks.

            The food is easy to devour, but not especially unique enough to make this a go-to stop for brunch. Some dishes sparkle off of the menu, while conventional burgers and greasy bacon and buttery sides of eggs constitute the rest. For around $10, much of the menu resembles that of Sophia’s House of Pancakes in price and presentation. A side of bacon and scrambled eggs looks like a sad afterthought on an oversized plate and glistens of butter. Dishes like this aren’t worth the wait at Crow’s Nest.

            The artsy atmosphere is a refreshing change from the diner style brunch restaurants in the area. Some dishes match this uniqueness and make for an unconventional taste on the town that is truly worth a bite. As for the food at 2 am? Well, I guess that is a reason to go back.

Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

10/31/16

The Omnivore’s Dilemma Into and Part I Reading Response

            In my first year seminar Roots in the Earth, we watched the film Food Inc. which is a documentary about corporations that have taken over the food chain in the U.S. This documentary included interviews from Michael Pollan himself. Many of the issues that Pollan raises in Part I of The Omnivore’s Dilemma were also touched upon in the film and yet, I was still equally as disgusted and amazed after facing the information a second time when reading this book. Pollan’s voice, scathing and didactic at most points, is distinct from the very first page and makes these serious, highly important stories about the food industry laughable and almost enjoyable to read about.  Scathing and didactic, though, do not serve to fully describe his tone. I think the Los Angeles Times says it best on the back cover, calling the tone “one of gleeful irony and barely suppressed outrage.” Pollan explains dense topics with ease to readers who are not well informed (ironically, because hardly anyone is truly informed about where our food comes from in this country), and along the way he points out the absurdity of decisions people in the food business have made, and I think he is an extremely skillful writer in this way. In short, I loved every part of this reading not just for the insights I gained on the topic of “the omnivore’s dilemma,” but also for the way in which this information was presented.

            Part I covers a plethora of interesting points surrounding the omnivore’s dilemma, but the few that stood out to me were the American food culture (or lack thereof) and the corn surplus. As Pollan points out, humans have the unique ability to choose what we eat for every meal, and to choose from many more options than any other creatures. In other cultures where food traditions are more prevalent, people don’t face as great a dilemma as Americans do. I find it astounding to think that, being such a rich mixture of different cultures, we have been driven to health issues based on the idea that we don’t have a strong food culture to ground us. As Pollan argues, we have been pushed as a society to change the way we eat, and this change is not turning out to be healthy. On top of this, we have an entire food system that is “out to get us” in a sense. While we try to eat healthy, food engineers and farmers are stuffing as much corn (cheap calories) as they can into everything we consume. I agree with Pollan when he says we are corn people, because corn is one of the main ingredients that makes up our diet, whether we know it or not. We are what we eat. I believe that we have a right to know what we are eating, but our food system keeps this from us. I think there is a sense of pride in knowing from where your food comes, and food should be a form of identity in which we can understand a certain culture. However, I believe, based on this reading that food identity in this country is almost nonexistent because we need investigators to tell us what we’re eating. The rich diversity of cultures in America does not come through in our food as it does in other countries. Sadly, looking at our country in this way makes us seem like a society of little cultural interest or tradition.