The Forgotten Cuisine

About 80 percent of the patrons who attend Craig’s tasting dinners are Native American, he says. Wednesday night’s group of six will include both Natives and non-Natives. It’s a company gathering—board members of a local Christian in-home caregiving service are celebrating a recent milestone. The cost of the tasting is $89 per person.

Prior to the group’s arrival, Craig and his assistants clear a portion of the kitchen for a round dining table. On a nearby counter, he places various books celebrating Native American cuisine and history. There are also cookbooks from his travels to Germany, Brazil, and Japan, all places where he’s hosted dinners to showcase Native American cuisine. (Craig has also prepared a Native-themed menu at the James Beard House in New York City.) A banner over the dish-washing station reads: “Apaches Do It Better.” I stand alongside Craig and his three assistants as they prepare and serve the meal, and they give me small servings of each course.

The 12-course meal begins with a spartan offering of traditional “trail mix”: toasted kernels of three native corn varietals. This is followed by a shot glass of cold melon soup, enlivened with the oxalis; a quinoa salad; and cornmeal-fried squash blossoms stuffed with bean paste. Many of the courses employ the “three sisters” of Native American cuisine: corn, beans, and squash. “These crops, which have special, mythic meaning for Native Americans, are traditionally grown together, and they help each other grow—not like with the mono-crops we see now,” says Allison Barlow, associate director of the Center for American Indian Health. (Native Americans historically used “companion planting,” meaning that the three crops were planted in close proximity; as the corn grew, the beans climbed up, so the farmers didn’t need poles, and as the squash spread along the ground, it blocked sunlight from potential weeds.)

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