Hamtramck Star

[lightbox http://defcode.com/wiki/images/thumb/1/15/Gallon.jpg/800px-Gallon.jpg][/lightbox] Hamtramck never ceases to amaze me with it's diversity and abundance of interesting, inexpensive, high-quality food. Right in our neighborhood, for sale are big bags of whole cardamom pods, locally smoked turkey, $60 tins of caviar, bulk pickled herring, vimto, kefir, and sweet paan.

A neighbor is always cooking, baking, boiling, smoking, or grilling some awesome-smelling home-cooked meal. I've seen neighbors from various parts of the world roasting whole goats in their yards, smoking huge cuts of pork, or drinking tea on the sidewalk.

A trip down any alley exposes our city as avid gardeners. Bushels of squash, greens, peas, herbs, and tomatoes are hauled from our tiny back yards every summer. Seeds from almost every part of the world are grown in Hamtramck soil, the same soil tilled by German immigrants until the industrial revolution.

All this great access to food demands it's own publication. We're calling ours Hamtramck Food: Journal of the First Monday Club. So far contributors are Hillary and our neighbors Barb and Tim, all members of the First Monday Club, which was created to celebrate, discuss, and promote Hamtramck food.

You can visit the new weblog here: http://food.hamtramckstar.com.

On the sidebar here, below the recent comments, are links to Hamtramck Food posts, family recipes, fermentation experiments, and garden updates. You'll also find photos and accounts of The First Monday Club's visits to area restaurants.

We welcome and encourage readers to contribute. Send your submission, with a photo if you like, to food@hamtramckstar.com

Extra points for using locally obtained ingredients. Perfect English is not a necessity. We would really love to be joined by people who specialize in cooking some of the more exotic ingredients at the local stores.