Wednesday, May 7, 2008

NPR attempts to understand Coneys


The elusive smurfs inc offers up some more coney info:

"In other Flint Coney news, many of you may have heard the broadcast on NPR profiling our favorite local delicacy last year. Long story short, some lady in Wisconsin liked to cook assorted regional American cuisine. The recipe she chose for National Public Radio? You guessed it. Not only did listeners learn the intricacies of the recipe, she also provided some cultural context. Apparently the schism between the Flint and Detroit coney hinged on our cities unique ethnic landscape. Detroit's wet sauce was Greek in origin. Flint's dry sauce, Macedonian. Another interesting coney sauce fact: the sauce actually includes ground up Koegel. Does that make sense? Would you grind up pasta for your spaghetti sauce? Well anyhow, I was inspired. Altering the recipe, I may have created the first Flint-style vegan coney island. Scoff if you must you meat-eating creeps, but it was remarkably close to the original: tasty, soggy, AND cruelty free t'boot."

And here's the audio from the NPR story on Flint-style Coneys, which is slightly annoying because the NPR reporter insists on calling the
Coney topping "beanless chili."



9 comments:

  1. And how do you know its close to the original? Ohhh, its your dark carnivorous past of EATING CONEYS (dun dun dun...) Here in Wisconsin its all about the brats. Not bad, but not even close to a coney.

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  2. Did she say coney sauce contains ground kidney?!? I dunno where I got the info about the sauce containing ground up Koegel, probably online, but somehow after hearing her description it sounds much more preferable.

    I always wondered who the hell ate Salay's instead of Koegels. Back in my meat eating early twenties I used to purchase Salay's Olive Loaf and Hot Dogs out of sheer sympathy. They looked so lonely just sitting there in the Kessel's Meat Dept., unpurchased, untouched, unloved.

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  3. God, my mom loves olive loaf, and I always hated it, which made for some rough school lunches. I even hated the deluxe with olives at Halo, which everyone in my family loved and they were all astounded that I didn't like something so great. Now, fancy gourmet olives of all varieties are a a big deal in San Francisco. Still hate them.

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  4. I like the earnestness/cluelessness of the npr interviewer. She's really taking this seriously.

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  5. Olive loaf rocks. With French's mustard and white bread - anathema here in Vienna.

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  6. speaking of olives, is it only in michigan that green olives are a common pizza topping? since leaving 22 years ago, i've only been offered black olives.

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  7. I love anything I can read about Coneys. Seriously! Out of Coney solidarity we're linking to your piece from www.ConeyDetroit.com. On April 7 we posted a report on an Arizona restaurant that does Flint-style Coneys. Check it out. Another Flint ex-pat.

    Does anyone have an honest-to-goodness Flint recipe? Even for a vegan dog?

    Thanks, Gordon!

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  8. Joe has issued a call for coney recipes! Any takers?

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  9. I worked at Otto Liebolds one summer, and we made the coney mix for a lot of the coney joints. I seem to recall beef heart was an ingredient. We also made the hamburger for Halo Burgers. Also, you can get green olives on your pizza in Chicago. But of course, no coneys in Chicago; just Chicago-style hot dogs.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.