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When Weather Shuts You Down
Once or twice a year in the Midwest, a big storm sweeps through, and causes upheaval. Trees come down, taking power lines with them. Businesses close, so do schools, and people are stuck at home.
Sometimes, it is thunderstorms and tornadoes that do damage. This week, it was an ice storm, a relatively rare thing up north. Lower Michigan was smacked by what is already a costly and disruptive situation.
More than 700,000 people lost power Wednesday. At least 3,000 power lines were down across DTE Energy’s territory in Southeast Michigan. Cities scrambled to open warning centers and find meals and snacks for those who had no electricity at home. On Friday, the repairs were still underway, with an estimated 200,000 people still powerless.
The lack of power was especially difficult for restaurants, food shops and groceries. Unless they had their own generators, all they could do was close and wait. Even though Covid taught resilience skills, there isn’t much you can do to sell food in frigid temperatures without electricity.
Getting The Message Out
Social media became all-important in keeping guests informed. As the storm approached, restaurants closed proactively, rather than risk the safety of staff and customers.
By Thursday morning, my Instagram and Facebook feeds were filled with posts from places that had closed and canceled events. Likewise, those that were open were letting guests know they could stop in.
Here in New Orleans, restaurants have ample experience dealing with power outages, hurricanes and the deep freeze that hit the area over Christmas. But people up north are rarely inconvenienced for more than 24 hours. We’re used to short interruptions, however, the region is so intrepid that things bounce back pretty fast.
This time, all kinds of problems piled up, food spoilage being one of them, as well as uncertainty for guests. Good Cakes and Bakes, a beloved Detroit bakery, decided not to leave customers wondering, and is staying shut through the middle of this week,
Even when everything is restored, there will be a bumpy few days waiting for vendors to get back on track. Remember: they may have been knocked out, too.
Perhaps a hidden blessing
One silver lining, or maybe I should say icy lining, is that this is a relatively slow period for the food world. The storm hit the Midwest the day after Fat Tuesday, when dozens of places sell the filled donuts known as paczki. St. Patrick’s Day isn’t for a few weeks, and no one is really gearing up yet for the busy spring holidays and graduation.
Also, the pandemic has honed everyone’s coping skills. After all the adjustments the food industry has made since 2020, ice and snow is something solvable. It is supposed to get up to 45F today in Ann Arbor, or shorts weather, as some might put it.
This weekend, my social timeline had happier messages as the lights and ovens returned to life. “We are open!” declared the Washtenaw Dairy in Ann Arbor on Saturday. “The donuts are fresh and the coffee is warm!” Hopefully, power soon will be back on for all, and any losses recoupable. Sending warm wishes from the Gulf Coast.
A Quirky, Mouthwatering Japanese TV Show
I was scrolling through Netflix’s suggestions of shows I might like when I came upon an unfamiliar title: Kantaro, The Sweet Tooth Salaryman. It is one of the most charming, if eccentric, food programs that I have watched in a long time.
The show, which debuted in Japan in 2017, is based on a popular animae or comic book series. It features Kantaro, a suit-wearing office worker, who secretly writes a dessert blog called AmaBio. Kantaro visits real-life cafes around Tokyo to review a variety of Japanese and international desserts. (There are English subtitles.)
When the show opens, Kantaro, who been working in a dull engineering job, takes a new position as a sales associate in a publishing firm, even though he has not worked in that field before. We quickly learn that his job allows him to match the locations of book stores with cafes offering the types of desserts he wants to review.
He knocks off his sales calls in record time so he can salivate over his chosen sweets, and write his enthusiastic prose. One of his associates catches on, of course, and then Kantaro’s skills of evasion are put to the test.
While it’s a comedy, viewers get an extensive look at each dish featured in the show, from the fluffy ice and fruit concoctions called kakigori to eclairs and caramel pudding. There are surrealistic segments in every show (I tend to fast forward past them) and slightly orgasmic reactions, but the cafes featured look very attractive, and the scenery in Tokyo brought back memories of my days there. (Watch for the landmark next to the Sumida River that we called the giant carrot.)
It’s hard to compare Kantaro to any other show, because it is quintessentially Japanese. But if you like Travel Man with Richard Ayoade, enjoyed Midnight Diner Tokyo and laughed at Old Enough, you will like it. And, oh my, the desserts.
Maple Syrup Producers Have Never Seen Anything Like This Season
A few weeks ago, my friend Eric Mayne recommended that Detroiters cross the border into Canada and visit Ruscom Maple Farms in Lakeview, Ontario. He spoke highly of its maple syrup lineup.
Wait, I said: isn’t this too early for the sap to be running?
It turns out that maple syrup producers across the northern U.S. and Canada are experiencing their earliest season in memory. As I wrote for The Takeout, warm and unpredictable weather tricked trees into thinking spring was on the way.
Barred Wood Farm in Vermont, which I buy from, began tapping its trees on Valentine’s Day. Last year, it did not begin making syrup until March 11.
The farmers are trying to hold the line on prices, but you should not delay if you want to taste the latest crop.
Chicago’s Coffee Scene is Changing
When I worked at WBEZ in Chicago, a local coffee roaster called Intelligentsia was one of our sponsors. It brought free bags of coffee for the station every week. Whatever didn’t get opened was put out on Friday for us to take home, since a fresh supply was imminent. Almost nobody drank decaf, so there was always a bag for me.
Intelligentsia has since become a national coffee player, thanks in part its acquisition by Peet’s Coffee and Tea, and in the past decade, its Chicago cafes were ubiquitous hangouts. That is about to change.
Eater Chicago reports that Intelligentsia is closing its stores in Wicker Park and Logan Square, two neighborhoods that have been popular with millennials.
An email sent by Lori Haughey, the company’s vice president of retail, said in part that “despite our best efforts from the team now, and days gone by, these locations have challenged us throughout the term of their lease, and since coming out of COVID it has proven to be even more difficult to sustain.”
Coincidentally, the stores are unionized. The IBEW had no comment to Eater Chicago. The closings mean Intelligentsia has shut three places in Chicago in the past year (another store closed when a Plum Market grocery left town).
Chicagoans will still be able to get Intelligentsia at several other cafes. But the closings follow a pattern by coffee chains of winnowing stores they do not feel are worth the effort to run. That has happened with Starbucks here in New Orleans, and elsewhere.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
Stay tuned for the winner of our latest giveaway. I have several prizes lined up for the next few months, and paid subscribers are automatically eligible.
Feel free to contact me at culinarywoman at gmail dot com. You can follow me on Instagram at michelinemaynard and my New Orleans adventures are at micki_in_nola.
If you are looking for New Orleans restaurant tips, I feature the places where I’ve eaten most recently on that account, I was tickled when one of the owners of Nudo, which I wrote about in Red Beans and Advice, told me a customer said they found them through my Instagram account! (Those are their grilled shrimp summer rolls above.)
Please stay safe and warm (or cool if you are in the South, where temperatures have risen). I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow, and everyone else next week.