Native American Food

Traditional cuisine sizzles on front burner
Antonia Choque, Quechua, in December made chicken tamales at Mitsitam, the cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Upscale restaurants are using more traditional, Native-inspired ingredients and helping to transform familiar foods. Diners at Mitsitam, the National Museum of the American Indian's upscale cafe in Washington, D.C., enjoyed Native-inspired food while overlooking a landscape in which ethnobotanist Donna House, Navajo/Oneida, recreated native habitats of forests, wetlands, meadows and traditional croplands.
In the past few years, Native food has stepped up to the plate. Indigenous heirloom crops and other products that were rare, or even endangered, a short time ago, including Navajo churro lamb and Iroquois white corn, are presented with panache on the fine china of top restaurants. Increasing numbers of individual Indians can imagine careers - not merely jobs - in epicurean establishments that exalt the foods of their ancestors.
The transformation of this ancient family and community cookery had been bubbling on the back burner for about a decade, with the opening of high-style restaurants serving Native food, including Potawatomi chef Loretta Barrett Oden's Corn Dance Cafe; at Picuris Pueblo's hotel in Santa Fe, N.M.; and the Liliget Feast House restaurant, owned by Gitksan First Nation chef Dolly Watts in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix, turned up the heat in 2002 when it opened Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and installed Sandy Garcia, from San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos, as chef de cuisine. Janos Wilder, of Janos Restaurant in Tucson, signed on as consulting chef and defined Indian cooking as ''cuisine,'' with all the self-conscious artistry the term implies.
A 2005 James Beard Award went to another handsome Native foods cookbook. Chef Fernando Divina and his wife, Marlene Divina, Chippewa, deliver history, reminiscences and polished recipes in ''Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions,'' written for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The Divinas also consulted on the development of Mitsitam Cafe, the museum's cafe, which opened the previous year.
Managed by Restaurant Associates, which runs upscale eateries nationwide, Mitsitam quickly became a destination eatery. Its 100 employees serve as many as 3,000 Native-inspired meals a day, said executive chef.

Date: May 8, 2006 - May 12, 2006
Guest Chef: Carolyn Niethammer
* Monday: Braised Navajo Churro Lamb; Guadalupe Salad with Avocado Dressing.
* Tuesday: Navajo Eggplant with Charred Tomatillo Sauce; Sweet Potato-Chicken Patties with Poached Eggs and Green Chile Hollandaise.
* Wednesday: Anasazi Bean-Dip Boats; Sugar and Chile-Cured Venison Chops with Colorado Corn Sauce.
* Thursday: Rattlesnake Empanadas; Cream of Green Chile Soup.
* Friday: Tequila-Braised Country-Style Ribs; Cotija Rabbit Rellenos with Charred Tomato Mole.

I am amazed by the lack of knowledge of Native American food. If you take away corn, tomato, potato and chocolate where would the worlds cuisines be? This is just four of the hundreds of Native American foods adapted by the worlds chefs. Very few if any acknowlege in their creations the roots of the Native food. If they were to use say bean sprouts or water chestnuts they would acknowledge the creation as a oriental fusion dish. I am not saying that "French fries" be renamed "Native fries" but I hope you get the idea.

Native Americans have been marginalized in society to mascots and floating whispy entities clutching dream catchers as they leave their sweat lodges or drunkin wards of the BIA. I see Native American cuisine the same way. It is either called somthing else like Mexican, South Western or whatever South American nations name it is served under. Or viewed as a dead cuisine eaten by peoples 400 years ago.

As a chef serving Native American food I have been told "well they did not have sugar" "this is not authentic it has flour" " Indians didn't eat this" " what kind of Indian eats food like this?". How funny. You could ask the same questions of Chinese or any European. Do they eat and represent only food eaten by their ancestors 400 years ago?

So to me Native American Cuisine is that which a chef creates with a flare of Native ingredients and names it as Native American. If I were to take those fries and dust them with Apache salt and Azafran could I not say these are Native Fries?

No spell checker so the spelling is Native American also.

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING http//nativecook.com

Cedar Pass Lodge Box 5, Badlands National Park, SD 57750 Tel 605-433-5460.

Kai, Sheraton Wild Horse Resort, 5594 Wild Horse Pass Rd. Tel 602-225-0100. Menu at:
http://www.wildhorsepassresort.com/dining-wild-horse-pass.html

Jakes Bakery off Highway I-40 between Gallop and Albuquerque NM take exit 102 to Acoma Pueblo and it sits back off the road to the right Tel 505-552-6542. Open Tuesday through Friday.

Uncas American Indian Grill, Mohegan Sun Casino, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd, Uncasville, Ct. 06382, Tel 1-888-226-7711. .Hours of Operation Sunday thru Friday: 11:00 am - 1:30 am Friday and Saturday: 11:00 am - 2:30 am Menu at: http://www.mohegansun.com/pdf/menus/uaig_menu.pdf:

Fry Bread House, 4140 N. 7th Ave., Phoenix Az 85013, 602-351-2345.

Agave at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, 6902 East Greenway Parkway Scottsdale, Arizona 85254 Telephone: (480) 624-1000 Toll Free: (888) 625-5144 Fax: (480)624-1001. . Menu at: http://www.kierlandresort.com/Spa.aspx

Native Hands, 8806 McDowell Rd., Scottsdale, Az 85254, Tel 480-675-9443 Breakfast and Lunch, Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Arizona Kitchen, Wigwam Resort, 300 E. Wigwam Blvd, Litchfield Park, Az Tel 623-935-3811
Wigwam Resort. www.wigwamresort.com. AE, D, DC, MC, V.Closed Mon.

Angelina's Mexican Food Restaurant, 5115 North 27th Avenue (inside SwapMart), 602-973-2344. Hours: Breakfast, lunch and early dinner,
Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Nava, 3060 Peachtree Rd., Atlanta, Ga 30305 Tel 404-240-1984

The Spirit Cafe, Wyndham Hotel, Alburquerque, NM. Closed

The Swan, Phoenix Az changed to Vu and no longer serving Native American food.

Burning Tree Native Grill, San Diego, Ca closed after 10 years. Menus located on Native Menu page.

Old Tortilla Factory, 6910 E. Main Street, Scottsdale Az., Tel 480-945-4567

La India Bonita. Kyle, SD Great

Miccosukee Restaurant 25 mi west of Florida Tpke., Everglades City, FL, USA Tel: 305-223-8380 Ext. 2374. Breakfast and lunch are served daily. AE, D, MC, V. No dinner. $10 to $15 range.

Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro 108 Murray Street, Ottawa, Ontario (613) 562-3683 Fax (613) 562-4674Toll Free (800) 327-9338 Hours Lunch: Mon - Fri 11:30 - 2:00 Dinner: Mon -Sat 5:30 - 10:00. web site http://www.sweetgrassbistro.ca/index2.htm

Blue Corn Cafe 133 Water Street Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505)984-1800 Emai:bluecorn1@cybermesa.com

Blue Corn Cafe & Brewery 4056 Cerrillos Road Santa Fe, NM 87507