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