Tag Archives: New Mexico

A Book About Immigrant Doughnuts Begins With Indigenous Doughnuts

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It wasn’t one singular inspiration but a handful that were all blended together to form one delicious idea: exploring the world and its peoples through their sweetened, fried doughs. These aren’t delicacies that are referred to as doughnuts, but I challenge you to explain why they are not such. To workshop these stories, I get to contribute to The Takeout–a culinary website from the same publisher as the seriously-funny innovators of “fake news,” The Onion.

I traveled to Navajo Nation in New Mexico just for this. Worth it!

First up: Navajo fry bread. Yes, the Indian food staple is now part of most tribe’s cookbooks or maybe you think it’s just fry-dough or a carnival staple, the elephant ear. Here’s where the yummy treat originated.

Beer Traveler: River Rafting

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Why River Rafting? In AAB (Vol. 32, Iss. 4, 2011) I postulate that lovers of craft beer and outdoor enthusiasts have been one and the same since the get-go. Most of the pioneers of post-Prohibition brewing are in fact or in heart grizzled nature buffs who carved out career paths that enabled them to make a natural and thrilling product far away from the mainstream. Not unlike wild rivers themselves.

And like the beer we love, some of these rivers are easy to navigate, some are too challenging for most, they’re each about 95 percent water (remember, it’s air that makes rapids white), and, thankfully, these liquidy adventures can be sourced from all over the country. Namely: the Gallatin River near Bozeman (MT), the Rio Grande River near Santa Fe (NM), and on the Chattooga River near Athens (GA) and Greenville (SC).