In 1978, Anna Ansari’s father tried to carry a perfect melon from Tashkent, Uzbekistan all the way to Michigan. He didn’t make it past customs. But he talked about that melon for decades, and it became the start of her cookbook.

"Because he talked about it so much and still talks about these things so much that we could almost taste it. As that power of sharing memory, and the way in which food can connect us across space and time, that story to me really was the epitome of that."

Anna grew up in metro Detroit, the daughter of an Iranian father and an American mother. Her book, Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing, follows the old trade routes from Central Asia to the Middle East, and she finds her own story along the way.

In this episode of The Dish we talked about:

• The Iranian kebabs and Michigan sweet corn that taste like childhood

• Green noodles colored with dill, and the Uzbek city where you can only find them

• Iranian chicken and rice cake Anna has topped with birthday candles

• Her cheeseburger macaroni, which her brother warned would offend Iranians everywhere

• The almond bundt cake her mom made for a house full of Iranian guests, and why it worked

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Traverse City has been getting lots of national attention for it's food scene. It was even named Food City of the Year by Midwest Living. But the chefs and wine makers who've shaped this place say the story goes much deeper.

At the second annual Traverse City Food & Wine Festival, The Dish spent time with the people behind the plates. What emerged was deeply rooted to the land, the water, the farms, and the community that lies them together.

Veteran chefs like Eric Patterson of The Cooks' House talked about the decades long relationship with farmers, and one in particular he warmly refers to as "Heirloom Craig."

"We've been with the same grower for 15 years. He provides all of our heirloom tomatoes ... and he brings, between 250 and 500 pounds of tomatoes a week for about eight weeks straight, right around now," he said.

Newer voices, including chefs Cameron Rolka of Umbo and Sarah Bobier of Artisan, described a culinary community that welcomed them in and handed them the keys to the region’s bounty.

Another voice, chef Adam McMarlin of Wren in Sutton's Bay, put it this way: "A lot of the restaurants that have been here before me, like Cooks' House and Trattoria Stella and Tapawingo, really kind of paved the way for what people are seeing when they come to town now, you know?"

You taste that closeness through the food. Whether it's cherries picked at peak ripeness, heirloom tomatoes delivered minutes from the vine, or wines shaped by the cold water surrounding Old Mission and Leelanau Peninsulas. You can feel it in the way chefs show up for each other in mentoring, collaborating, and celebrating what grows here.

As chef Tony Vu of The Good Bowl put it, Traverse City’s food culture is “by far” defined by its ingredients, and by the people who care for them.

It’s a place where the table keeps getting bigger, and it seems there’s room for whoever shows up next.

We heard from:

Brad Morgan: Wine Club Manager, Mari Vineyards

Myles Anton: Executive Chef & Owner of Trattoria Stella

Amanda Danielson: Founder of Trattoria Stella

Eric Patterson: Co-Chef Owner of The Cooks’ House

Bryan Ulbrich: Left Foot Charlie

Sarah Bobier: Executive Chef at Artisan in ther Delmar Hotel

Cameron Rolka: Chef & Owner of Mink in Detroit, Owner of Umbo in Traverse City

Tony Vu: Chef & Founder of The Good Bowl

Whitney Waara: Event Director, Traverse City Food and Wine

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There's a small restaurant near Western Michigan University where, for a lot of people in Kalamazoo, lunch is also an introduction to gobit doner, to lahmacun, and to a whole cuisine some customers didn't even know they'd been missing.

Ayasofya is Kalamazoo's only Turkish restaurant, and its owners, Halil and Fatma Dursunoğlu, feel that responsibility every time someone walks through the door.

"When you are the only one responsible to represent the Turkish food... you need to think like 100 times more than normal," Fatma said. "I have more responsibility to let them taste good food."

They didn't set out to run a restaurant. Fatma's an environmental engineer who spent ten years working with the United Nations on desertification and erosion. But when she moved to Michigan she was pregnant and craving lahmacun, Turkish flatbread topped with minced meat. She couldn't find it anywhere, so she decided to make it herself. The couple opened Ayasofya while Fatma was nine months pregnant. One day, while preparing food for a customer, she went into labor. After giving birth she was back in the kitchen within two weeks.

"Actually, she went to labor literally from the kitchen," Halil said. "I still remember that day."

The restaurant sits in the old Bruno's pizzeria space, a spot generations of WMU students knew and loved. Fatma and her husband Halil, who teaches computer science and cybersecurity at Western, kept the plates, the forks, even the oven. "We respect their memory," Fatma said.

On this episode, we're in the kitchen for the making of gobit doner, a Turkish sandwich filled with shaved meat, fries, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo and fresh-baked flatbread. And Fatma and Halil talk about that it means to be the only ones carrying the Turkish cuisine's reputation on your shoulders.

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