For our lunch break in Munising, we got pasties from Miners Pasty Kitchen in Munising.  Pasties are a beloved regional food in Michigan and Wisconsin.  British-American immigrants brought them over from mining communities in Great Britain and they were especially popular in the Upper Peninsula with its mines.  Today they are mostly a draw for tourists.  Calumet, Michigan, has an annual Pasty Festival.

Typically, pasties are made of beef and turnips or potatoes or rutabaga, wrapped in a pastry crust.  They are a meal that can be packed and held in one hand.  Tom and I really like them, but they are high in sodium so we don’t eat them very often.  None of the Shaws had ever had a pasty.

We had planned on eating at Muldoon’s Pasties in Munising for the whole trip.  We didn’t order pasties from anyplace else that had them because we heard Muldoon’s were the best.  But when we found Muldoon’s, there was no indoor seating.  In fact, the only seating in the whole place was one little table being hit full-on by the stiff wind.  Too cold for that.  There was also a long line.  So we left to find another pasty place.

We passed Miners Pasty Kitchen when we drove through town to get to Muldoon’s, so we tried there.  They did not have any seating indoors, although they did have a large picnic pavilion behind the kitchen.  We debated going someplace else, but the pasties inside smelled so good that we figured we could eat in the truck.  We all ordered pasties and a side and headed back out.

It was a little scrunched eating the pasties in the truck, but we all enjoyed them very much.  Tom and I both got the Breakfast Pasty, which had sausage, egg, cheese, potatoes, and onions.  Everyone else got the Yooper Pasty, which has the traditional filling of beef, pork, potato, rutabaga, and onion.  The pasties were warm and filling.  I like to dip mine in ketchup.  The pasty crust was the best Tom and I have ever had.  It was very light and flaky.  We also enjoyed the coleslaw and a home-baked chocolate chip cookie.

Miners Pasty Kitchen has wonderful pasties in a variety of flavors.  Their Thanksgiving Dinner Pasty gives me an idea:  what if I take the leftovers from Thanksgiving and wrap them in a pasty crust?  I may have to try that!