Six food devotees shared some of their all-time favorite eats in Northern Michigan with us for our annual MyNorth Food Finds. In our Food Finds 2016 series, originally published in the March 2016 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, discover 42 tasty eats from Northern Michigan foodies. Then you can put their picks on your culinary bucket list and start tasting!

Meet the Foodie: Maureen Abood

Maureen Abood’s provenance as a cook began in the dark hours of morning, kneading bread with Sitto, her Lebanese grandmother in their Lansing home. Always drawn to the intoxicating flavors of her family’s native Lebanon, Maureen left a fundraising career in Chicago to attend culinary school in San Francisco and reinvent herself as a food writer.

Maureen’s award-winning food blog, Rose Water and Orange Blossoms, put up its first post in July of 2011. She has subsequently published everywhere from Saveur to The New York Times, The Washington Post and others and released a successful cookbook last year.

Dividing her time between Lansing and Harbor Springs, Maureen loves the bounty of Northern Michigan produce and its burgeoning local food scene. She is presently working to perfect traditional Lebanese flatbread.

Maureen’s Food Finds 2016

Chop Chop Salad

Small Batch 117 West Main Street, Harbor Springs 231.242.4655

Harbor’s hottest micro-eatery has the salad crowd swooning with the simple pleasure of shaved Napa cabbage, crunchy fried ramen noodles and succulent chicken in a sweet, tangy sesame dressing.

Hummer

Stafford’s Pier 102 East Bay Street, Harbor Springs 231.526.6201

Sidle up to the Pier’s dockside patio, ogle the yachts and sip on this ice cold old school slurry of rum, Kahlua and ice cream done right.

Fried Chicken Sandwich

American Spoon Foods Café 411 East Lake Street, Petoskey 231.347.7004

Give yourself wholly to Chef Chris Dettmer’s fried chicken wizardry where buttermilk-brined breast and thigh meat mingle with crunchy slaw on a perfect brioche bun.

Mint Chocolate Fudge

Howse’s Fudge 201 East Main Street, Harbor Springs 800.813.1845

Said by some to inhabit the top of the fudge food chain, Howse’s cooks quality dark chocolate cut with the coolness of mint and imbued with perfect density.

Chicken Pot Pie

Good Hart General Store 1075 North Lake Shore Drive, Good Hart 231.526.7661

Incomparable crust contains slow-simmered chicken and tender crisp vegetables in a salty amnios of bangin’ gravy at this comfort food outpost en route to Sturgeon Bay.

Neapolitan Pizza

Wood Fired Up Pizza Truck Harbor Springs/Petoskey 231.881.4150

Pizza purists crave the Margheritas or Biancas spun in this four-wheeled pizzeria whose tender crusts are crisped in a hardwood inferno. Bring it, Naples.

Charcuterie Board

Vintage Chophouse & Wine Bar 3600 Village Harbor Drive, Bay Harbor 231.439.4051

Settle into the posh leather upholstery, order a big gin martini and nosh with gusto on this well-appointed spread of salumi, aged cheeses, housemade pickles and preserves.

Lamb Burger Sliders

Mustang Wendy’s 129 East Bay Street, Harbor Springs 231.242.4810

Chef Wendy’s umami-rich love-pucks of ground lamb balance on toasted pretzel buns with roasted tomato, onion and goat cheese.


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Photo(s) by David Weidner