No trip to the U.P. would be complete without a pasty (pronounced "pass tee"), gravy, and cold slaw. This is not an original topic, as I found a post from 2019 on the same subject, but from a different location. The longer you travel, the fewer novel topics there are.
The pasty (or pastie, depending on the sign) always reminds me of a chicken pot pie. According to Wikipedia, my definitive source, it originated in England, but I always associated it with the Finnish miners of the northern areas of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Michigan makes a strong claim advocating for the "home of" and "pasty capital".
The miners, at lunchtime with dirty hands, found the pastie they had carried in was still warm, and they could hold it by the crusty edge and discard the crust when finished. I kind of like the crust the best. I believe the part about retaining heat, as I remember from my youth, burning my tongue on the potato chunks in my pot pie. Wikipedia claims it is not just potato chunks, but also rutabagas that provide the starchy chunks. Both Cindy and I prefer the chicken option.
Muldoons, the store where we found our lunch, claims beef was the original. This makes some sense because I read about many with a preference to top their pastie with ketchup and that makes little sense to me with chicken.
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