50 | AUGUST 11 • 2022

S

ummer heat has been evaded in
many ways throughout history.
When traveling the U.S., you
may find bars called icehouses because
they were exactly that
at one point. Often they
were buildings, usually set
somewhat into the ground
(much like many base-
ments today) and well-in-
sulated. These icehouses
could be packed with ice
during the winter, and
the ice could be stored for
decent quantities of time.
At some point, some enterprising ice-
house owner realized it would be a good
place for a drinking establishment — and
thus a Southern tradition was born.
In Europe, many cities have open-air

parks near the riverfront, and this tradi-
tion was replicated in the U.S. as well. To
this day, you can find Belle Isle packed
with all sorts of Detroiters, from longtime
city residents to new immigrants to fami-
lies from across the region and the world,
many cooking or eating food in the open
river air.
There are as many strategies to summer
cooling as there are people, and whether
you find yourself splashing in a kiddie
pool in a backyard, enjoying a river
breeze or bicycling through the trails and
parks of the area, you’ll need to bring
food.
My grandparents arrived from Austria
to the west side of Detroit to find a very
different world than the Vienna they’d left
behind, and yet they found something
familiar in Cass Benton Park, part of the

complex of parks along the Rouge River
in western Wayne County. It’s named
after Cassius Benton, a county road
commissioner, who gifted the land to the
parks department in the 1920s.
By the ’50s, when my mother recalls
accompanying her grandparents to
“Kaspenten Park,” it was a popular picnic
spot, filled with picturesque hills and
lovely wooded areas. (It extends from
Northville Road to Hines Drive and now
includes a disc golf course, a sledding hill,
play structures and a picnic shelter.)
My mother specifically recalls a cou-
ple of picnic items being brought along:
cold chicken schnitzel (how Austrian!)
and a mustard-and-mayo potato salad.
Today, we’ll focus on the schnitzel, with a
little mustard to put on it (because what
doesn’t need a little mustard?).

Keeping it Cool on
Hot Summer Days

Chef Aaron
Egan
Contributing
Writer

FOOD

Picnic Foods, Part 1

FROM THE HOME KITCHEN OF CHEF AARON