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Seeking the Traditional Tastes of the Mountains

by

Fred Sauceman

Fred Sauceman

You can find Himalayan eggplant in Asheville, North Carolina. You can find Indian street food. You can find Korean seafood pancakes. 

In my home county in East Tennessee, there are three Vietnamese restaurants. Pho is now commonplace. The Philippine Connection in Knoxville, Tennessee, does a vigorous business in lumpia, the garlicky, pork-filled egg roll of the islands. Lumpia are even sold now at the Tennessee Valley Fair.

International dining options in Appalachia are almost endless now, and I celebrate them and write about them often. But amid the hummus and grape leaves, can you still find the kind of food that links us back to the farms of the region? 

The answer is yes, if you visit places like The Moose Café in Asheville. Its fare is simple, inexpensive, and hearty. It makes no effort to “reinterpret” Appalachian cuisine. 

The Moose Café sits atop a hill adjacent to the Western North Carolina Farmers Market, itself one of the region’s greatest treasures. Located near Interstates 26 and 40, the market is open year-round. In the spring, its vendors stock mountain-foraged ramps. In the summer, it’s a great source for Greasy Beans, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and Silver Queen corn. Any time of year, you can choose from a large selection of local chow-chow varieties, country ham, honey, sorghum syrup from North Carolina farms, and an amazing array of jams and preserves.

Across the road from the market is Jesse Israel and Sons, a well-stocked garden center that has been doing business in Asheville for nearly 50 years.

You can easily spend an entire day at these businesses, and we often do. There’s no reason to move the car. The Moose Café serves up three meals a day, and all of them are representative of the mountains that surround the restaurant.

Sit down for a meal at The Moose Café and a house-made biscuit of cathead proportions immediately arrives, along with a serving of chunky, spicy apple butter, a legacy of the German immigrants who settled in Appalachia.

For all three daily meals, the restaurant stays consistently full, with diners seeking the true and simple flavors of the mountain table. Much of the food is locally sourced, including center-cut country ham from Landis, North Carolina, and trout from North Carolina mountain waters. 

Country fried steak, baked ham, meatloaf, and chicken and dumplings are aptly listed under the menu heading “Southern Classics.” My favorite choice is the buttermilk-fried chicken breast. It’s boneless but cooked so skillfully that it remains moist, and it’s topped with a country-style white gravy with plenty of black pepper. Squash casserole of the farmhouse variety, potato casserole, and sweet potato casserole are often found in the long list of side dishes.

Many of the ingredients used in these classic Southern recipes are purchased just down the hill at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market, including the chow-chow for bowls of onion-topped soup beans.

High on the wall of the busy restaurant are rows of canned vegetables, jams, and preserves. It’s a shrine of sorts, reminding diners of the genius of the Appalachian people in preserving the goodness of the garden.

The Moose Café:

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