Smithsonian’s Indian café shows diet

[blackcrowheart]

Smithsonian’s Indian café shows diet’s highs and lows
Washington Post

Lean, low-cholesterol buffalo meat, salmon rich in omega-3 fatty acids,
corn, squash: the traditional diet of the American Indian had a lot
going for it. But today’s Indians are suffering a crisis of obesity and
diabetes caused by junk food and processed carbohydrates. The cafeteria
at the National Museum of the Amerian Indian serves up both extremes of
the Indian diet.

The Mitsitam (\mi-ts&-’täm\) Native Foods Café in the
Smithsonian-operated museum has been praised for attemping to offer food
made from authentic ingredients like venison, quinoa, jicama, and maple
syrup (pictured is the sampler with salmon, buffalo, beans and cabbage).
But alongside the healthy fare is the reservation-style Indian taco:
iceberg lettuce, grated cheese, and chili on top of the “lead frisbee”
(greasy, high-calorie Indian fry bread).

When the Indians were relocated to reservations, their traditional food
sources became unavailable. The U.S. government filled the void with
commodity food like white flour, powdered eggs, pemmican, and lard.

The Smithsonian Institution is helping to reacquaint Indians with their
ancestors’ diet, as well as introduce non-Indians to these healthy
alternatives to fast food. In addition to the Mitsitam Café, the
Smithsonian cooperated in the editing of Foods of the Americas: Native
Recipes and Traditions, a lavish book of recipes for traditional foods
of North and South American Indians, as well as Hawaiians.

And in a hopeful trend, Indian enterprises and entrepreneurs are
starting to produce traditional food products, marketing them
internationally in some cases.

[Okwes]

Native flavors spice up new museum

Native flavors spice up new museum

Mel Umbarger, Copy Editor
(Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:58 am)
www.gotriad.com/article/articleview/17265/1/16/

Chicken Tamal in Corn Husk with Peanut Sauce. Dried Buffalo, Corn and
Potato Stew. Maple Brine Roasted Turkey. These are just some of the
offerings at the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, part of the National
Museum of the American Indian.

The museum is hoping the common ground of food will help educate
people about American Indian culture and traditions and their impact
on contemporary life.

And lucky me, on a trip last week for a newspaper conference, I had
the opportunity to eat at the Mitsitam at the newest Smithsonian
offering in Washington.

Mitsitam (mit-seh-TOM) means "Let's eat" in the Native Piscataway and
Delaware language. Although meals at the cafe are created with
authentic ingredients and traditional cooking methods, some of the
recipes are a bit more mainstream.

"We use native, indigenous ingredients and put them together in ways
to appeal to the consumer," says Executive Chef Richard
Hetzler. "They didn't use a lot of seasonings. We don't think that
would appeal to the everyday consumer."

The five regional menus (Northern Woodlands, South America, Northwest
Coast, Meso America and Great Plains) offer something for everyone,
with many recipes being made with organic ingredients and consumer-
friendly dishes clearly labeled as peanut- or gluten-free.

Perhaps more impressively, about 50 percent of the cafe's ingredients
come from native suppliers.

I have a hard time making decisions, and with five different stations
to choose from, it took me quite a while. The staff was more than
happy to help, though, offering samples when I wasn't sure if I would
like something and explaining the ingredients when I asked.

After walking back and forth between stations and debating my
options, I settled on the lobster roll and cornbread from the
Northern Woodlands, sweet plantains sprinkled with cotija cheese from
South America, and potatoes mashed with horseradish root from the
Northwest Coast.

Although there are options for picky eaters, Hetzler says parents
will often steer children toward more adventurous items, saying, "No,
you're not going to eat chicken fingers."

On the day my group was at the cafe, there were several school groups
on field trips enjoying the museum.

Even without parents around to prod them, many students were willing
to try the native foods. One fifth-grader from The Banner School in
Frederick, Md., was willing to share his thoughts. William tried the
venison and declared it a winner. "It tasted a lot better than steak.
It's a lot better than beef. It wasn't tough. It's easy to swallow,"
he says.

Other members of my group were quite taken with the food as well. One
reporter remarked that it was "much better than I expected."

I enjoyed the food immensely. Having had museum fare before, I was
pleasantly surprised by how well the dishes were put together. Of
course, I wouldn't have been if I had known ahead of time that the
cafe was recently reviewed by Zagat and that many locals show up at
the museum just to grab a bite on their lunch break.

Sadly, I won't be able to do the same from down here in Greensboro.
But I won't despair for long -- Hetzler is working on a cookbook to
be distributed by the museum with many of the recipes offered. He
says he expects it be out sometime in 2007.

Until then, I'll just have to get persuade the newspaper to send me
back to the D.C. area for a conference or two.

Fifth-graders from The Banner School in Frederick, Md., got a chance
to try out some native foods at the cafe.

Emily on why she picked the veggie tacos: "First of all, I'm a
vegetarian. Second of all, my mother is really about organic things,
and she doesn't like fried food."

Robby on the buffalo burger: "It's better than chicken or beef. It
had more cheese."

Muhammad on the buffalo burger: He liked it "because it was chewy and
stuff."

Ahmed chose the chicken fingers and fries. "I didn't know what to
pick." But he's a man who knows what he likes. Asked whether anyone
shared with him, he said, "No." Asked whether he saw food on a
classmate's plate that he wished he would have chosen, he said, "No."

Hannah on the American Indian brownie: "It was OK. I mean, it tasted
different than others. I thought it would taste like chocolate. It
just tasted different."

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience."

-- James Beard


WILD RICE SALAD

1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
6 cups chicken stock
11/2 cup wild rice
1 carrot, cut into 1/2-inch long matchsticks
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 Roma tomato, finely diced
4-5 scallions, finely chopped
3 bunches watercress

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the pine nuts and pumpkin seeds in a small baking pan. Toast
them in the oven for 10 minutes until they are golden brown. Let
cool.

Combine the chicken stock and wild rice in a stockpot. Bring to a
boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 45-55 minutes until
the grains are opened up and tender.

Spread the hot rice on a baking sheet and let cool.

When rice is cool, scrape it into a large bowl and add carrots, dried
cranberries, diced tomato, toasted pine nut pumpkin seed mixture and
scallions.

Toss all ingredients together with vinaigrette, refrigerate for at
least one hour and serve over watercress.

Serves 4-6.

Source: Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, Smithsonian's National Museum of
the American Indian

Additional reporting was done by Eddie Wooten.