Michigan UP Pasty

If you drive anywhere in the UP you are guaranteed to pass by sign after sign advertising homemade pasties. It’s like the equivalent of billboards for Wall Drug in South Dakota (except a much better end result in my opinion). Growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis I had never heard of pasties, they just weren’t really a thing ( much more hotdish focused region). When I was 16 I helped my aunt drive on a road trip from Minneapolis to just over the Mackinac Bridge, and we were both intrigued over what the hell all of these handmade wooden signs for pasties were all about. It took awhile to track one down because it was the middle of winter and the UP can be a pretty bare place. If you drive along Highway 2 in the summer you will likely hit bumper to bumper traffic from all of the tourists. Drive it in the winter and you are more likely to hit a moose than a car. We eventually tracked some down in Escanaba, and what is not to love about meat and potatoes wrapped in a flaky pastry crust. They were brought over by Cornish immigrants who came to work in Michigans copper and iron ore mines and have become a staple of UP culture, along with Stormy Kromer hats, Gordon Lightfoot songs, Big Boy restaurants, referring to people as “trolls”, and getting drunk playing euchre. It’s really a great place to visit.