Brothers Patrick and Ryan Evans fell in love with Sichuanese cuisine while working in San Francisco's fine dining industry. When they returned to Michigan, they teamed up with Ryan Corbin, a fellow chef, to bring those flavors to Traverse City.

We talked to the trio about Crocodile Palace, their takeout-only Sichuan restaurant, the appeal of the Sichuan region's mala flavor profile, and the ingredients that go into their bestselling dan dan noodles.

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Crocodile Palace's main brick-and-mortar is located at 124 Cochlin St. in Traverse City.

• Their kitchen at The Little Fleet near downtown Traverse City is open year-round, and offers a less spicy menu of options.

• Find bonus footage from our trip, plus a map of all our past trips, here!

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

Support our work: https://www.michiganpublic.org/podfund

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Tanya and Wasinade Raphael are the mother-daughter team behind Raphael Foods. You’ll find their food truck drawing long lines at powwows and other tribal events across northern Michigan. Most of their dishes are built on hot, pillowy fry bread – a Native American flat bread with a complex history.

• Find operating hours for Raphael Foods here.
• Find bonus footage from our trip here.

Want more food stories? Listen here. 

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Brittany March, the owner of a culinary pop-up called It’s Food Detroit, has a deep love for pizza that goes all the way back to childhood. Now, she's cooking her own pies, offering a vegan-first take on Detroit-style. She has plans to open up her own brick-and-mortar called Roots and Dough next spring.

• Find details about Brittany's fundraiser for her brick-and-mortar here.
• Learn more about Village Pizza and Alkebu-lan Village here.
• Find bonus footage from our trip here.

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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The Maple Grille in Hemlock, Michigan, offers a rotating farm-to-table menu. Everything is cooked on a wood-fired grill or pizza oven. The business sits on 6 acres of land, including the restaurant, a brewery housed in a repurposed shipping container, a chicken coop, a hoop house, and a small produce farm.

Two things stand out in the gravel parking lot: the smoke wafting out of a long pavilion, and an enormous pile of firewood. 

“The Maple Grille started out here,” said Josh Schaeding, chef and owner of the restaurant. 

Before the property just off M-46 became a restaurant, it was home to a construction company owned by Schaeding’s father and grandfather. The family built two long maple syrup evaporators in front of the business, near the roadside. 

“So many people stopped by and thought we were cooking ribs,” Schaeding said.  “We were just cooking maple syrup. I decided as soon as syrup season was over to… start a restaurant here.”

The restaurant is surrounded by farmland and draws in a mix of locals, loyal seasonal customers, and vacationers passing through on their way up north. Nearly everything on the menu is locally sourced, from the meat to the produce to the firewood that fuels all three of their grills.

You can see more photos from our visit HERE.

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It's Season 2 of The Dish! 

Today’s story takes us back to 2014, Ann Arbor. That’s when Eric Holloway started making cheesecake with his mom. Before that, Eric was in a bad place. But he’s come a long way from growing pot for a living to baking cheesecakes.

• EK’s Cheesecakes offers custom orders that are available for delivery or pickup at Stadium Market in Ann Arbor.
• They also offer a rotating menu at their storefront in Dexter on Fridays and Saturdays. EK’s Cheesecakes shares its storefront and kitchen with Rich Grains Bakery

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

Is there a culinary creative we should get to know in your area? If so, tell us about them. You can send your tips to [email protected] 

GUEST:

• Eric Holloway is the owner of EK’s Cheesecakes and co-owner of Rich Grains Bakery.

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A brand new season of The Dish is here, and we’re kicking things off with a Michigan favorite – pączki. We’ll take you inside a popular Hamtramck bakery known as "Pączki Headquarters," to see what it takes to make thousands of these rich jelly donuts ahead of Fat Tuesday, plus we’ll talk to a food writer about why this Polish tradition is so beloved, and how the pączki keep evolving.

GUESTS:

• Micki Maynard, journalist and editor of Culinary Woman Newsletter on Substack
• Suzy Ognanovich, New Palace Bakery family member

Photo caption: New Palace Bakery offers traditional and new flavor pączki.

Photo credit: Ronia Cabansag

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Chef Eddie Vargas has a long history with birria — a flavorful stew that is slow cooked until the meat of choice is fall-apart tender. Filled with dried chiles, garlic, and spices, the stew is traditionally made with large cuts of goat or lamb. However, in the U.S., it is most often made with beef. In the past decade, birra tacos, quesabirria, and even birra ramen have taken off. Listen to how Eddie is making this traditional stew. And stay tuned because in 2025, Eddie is opening a new taqueria called Tacos Wuey Detroit with his father Jose.  

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Music in this episode by Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions.

 

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For Chef Prej Iroegbu, Detroit is home base for both his family and his business: a series of well-loved food trucks called Fork in Nigeria. But his culinary talent was born and nurtured in Nigeria.

The Fork in Nigeria menu offers savory meat dishes made with goat, lamb or oxtail, and equally hearty but less heavy veggie-based dishes, like cassava leaf stew and spinach and kale soup.

Many of his ingredients, Irogebu said, are sourced directly from Nigeria, including peppers, yams, and various spices. He also imports palm oil, a key ingredient in Nigerian cooking.

Iroegbu’s most popular dish incorporates egusi, another import that he said he struggled to find in the U.S. The ground melon seed is served in stew form with fufu, a white, flavorless ball of pounded yam.

Fork in Nigeria Food Truck WEBSITE: https://forkinnigeria.com/

Bonus footage from Prej's kitchen: https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/the-dish

 

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A couple in Grand Rapids is cooking up homemade corn masa that’s garnered the attention of true tortilla lovers from all over the country. Madre Masa is one of the few Michigan businesses utilizing a process called nixtamalization in creating the dough for their corn tortillas.

Click here to see photos of the blue and yellow corn tortillas and the milling process with Renata Fernández Domínguez and Bek Ostosh. 

 

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Music in this episode by Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions.

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Every week, the display case at Q Bakehouse features an array of pastries that blend European form with East-Asian flavor. Owner Rachel Liu Martindale's current bestseller is a chili crisp scone. Rachel walked us through the recipe, and offered some tips for experimenting with new flavors in baked goods.

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