Tuesday, August 23, 2011

TMDTIATW: Powwow Chow

The most delicious thing I ate this week (TMDTIATW) was at the annual Mohegan Wigwam Festival (aka Green Corn Festival), out in the woods a mile or so from the shiny Mohegan Sun Casino and Hotel complex.

It feels like a million miles from all the din, though. If you'd imagine that the casino glitz has diluted the tribal culture, you'd be dead wrong. Each year, the tribe hosts this dandy powwow. And while the facilities are, as you'd imagine, top-notch, it all feels soulful and down-home. And the drumming's stellar:


I come for that and for the food stalls. While the Northeast isn't known for primo Indian cuisine (ala Arizona or New Mexico) - indeed, the fry bread here tastes more like street fair zeppole - there are always some unusual and delicious items to be found. Last year, I loved the deer meat and potatoes, as well as the luxuriously broad-flavoed Indian pudding. But this time I got [as always, please click photos to expand for extra porn]:

Smoked mussels (outrageously smokey, beautifully sauteed):

French fried frogs legs (sorry for blur):

And, most locally authentic of all, quahog fritters (just superb; the batter is permeated with the flavor of clam and ocean). Here's something you won't find on reservations in New Mexico:

Good news: the chef of this particular concession (Sherry Pocknett) has a catering business in Massachusetts (Sly Fox's Den/Wampanoag Cooking, 13 Main Street, Mashpee, MA; 774-521-7405). Here's her flyer:

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