Smithsonian exhibit needs your ingredients
By Michael Johnson, Editor
Most cafes or kitchens in this pocket of North Dakota offer varieties of knoephla, fleischkuechle or kuchen, but did you ever stop to think why these traditional foods are popular here? Why is this a meat-and-potato kind of place instead of the pizza capital of the world? These are the kinds of questions that shaped the Smithsonian’s Traveling Exhibit: Key Ingredients. There are key ingredients in every village in the world. Those ingredients were shaped by our heritage, our resources and our tastes. Through a selection of artifacts, photographs, and illustrations, Key Ingredients examines the evolution of the American kitchen and how food industries have responded to the technological innovations that have enabled Americans to an ever-wider variety of frozen, prepared and fresh foods. A local look shows just how some locals continue to keep the traditional foods alive. A committee has been working since 2010 to bring the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit to Underwood with the hope to show the entire region this exhibit.
