Things to do / Travel Guide
In northern Michigan, fresh and tastily prepared fish generally predominate the culinary scene, with lake trout and whitefish being the common favorites. Travelers will find a large number of quaint, family-owned restaurants that offer a pleasant “home-cooking” style, an authentic introduction to northern Michigan's local cuisine.
To get the best perch and whitefish, try the Bluebird Restaurant in Leland, which opened in 1927 and has been owned by the same family for three generations. The Bluebird is famous for its Grandma Leone's cinnamon rolls.
In the northern Lower Peninsula, Traverse City and Marquette offer the widest variety of dining selections, ranging from simple and inexpensive to elegant and pricey. In Marquette the Sweet Water Café offers a variety of healthy and organic meals, and is unique in the region for doing so. For gourmet food head either to the wine country on Old Mission Peninsula or Leelanau Peninsula near Grand Traverse Bay. Additionally, in the tiny town of Burdickville, one can find, quite unexpectedly, a collection of gourmet boutique-style restaurants.
The Upper Peninsula in particular has several distinctive local delicacies. Doughy pot-pies and Cornish pasties, un-sweetened pastry dough baked with meat and vegetables inside, are favorites among locals and visitors. If you are trying a pasty for the first time, the best place to go is in Munising, to Muldoon's Pasties. The “nisu” is a cardamom-seasoned sweet bread brought to the region by the Finnish. Another treat of Finnish-origin is the “korppu,” toasted cinnamon-bread dipped in coffee. The Upper Peninsula region is also famed for its Thimbleberry jam and maple syrup.
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