A RECENT DETROIT WEEKEND REMINDED US YET AGAIN of how much richer migrants make us all—including on our plates. Our daughter and her boyfriend are major explorers of international cuisines in the Detroit area, and we are always happy to tag along, feasting on their finds. Like this Salvadoran pupuseria tucked between a quiet residential neighborhood and an industrial area in the city. The pupusas were amazing, our first time trying them. And the trio making them in the food truck, a family from El Salvador, was friendly, helpful and generous. We left with more food than we ordered, at their insistence.
We enjoyed a Mexican dinner from La Ktrina in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Mexican-American breakfast sandwiches from O.W.L. in Royal Oak, Michigan. Sushi from Tai Fai in Oak Park. As always, Anita’s Kitchen in Ferndale delivered delicious, authentic Lebanese food. And New York Bagel, also in Ferndale, came through with bagels, flavored cream cheeses and bagel sandwiches. Yes, bagels, that very New York, very Jewish-American deli icon. Turns out, according to National Geographic, the origin of this delicacy in bread form goes all the way back to “13th century Jewish bakers in a part of Eastern Europe that is now Poland.”
Just a reminder to all of us how much migrants have brought and continue to bring to the table in America, literally and otherwise. Eat well, dear readers. And remember that, unless you’re eating Native American cuisine, you’re enjoying food that can somehow trace its beginnings to the ongoing stream of migrants that built this country.
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