When Monique (Nikki) Sasser was a child growing up in Kentucky she would often come home to find her father hunched over a stove, on which sat a pot of steaming, slowly swirling tea made from the roots or bark of something unusual. Sometimes it was sassafras others it was birch or sweetfern.

Then one day, it was ginger.

“Daddy brought home a big chunk and boiled it up and said,  ‘here, taste this.’ I loved the flavor so much that I became fascinated to the point where I wanted to get the maximum possible flavor out of it,” Nikki said.

That she did, after a lot of trial and error. She would serve it at dinner to friends, who loved the sweetly pungent liquid and began requesting more. “I had so many jars in the fridge, my daughter told me she couldn’t find the food,” she said.

The Church of the Messiah, where she worships, agreed to let her basically begin her company in the basement kitchen. Around the mid-’90s the single mom became a certified fitness instructor working with various organizations. Then, as that began to dry up, she started to concentrate more on the tea.

Nikki’s efforts included hustling tea from a pedestrian bridge overpass close to the Eastern Market. “The road for me has not been an easy one,” said Sasser, 46, who returned to Detroit, where she was born, in 1979. “That was a tough time.”

But soon, with a lot of help from her daughter, who is company vice president, Nikki’s Ginger Tea nabbed its first commercial placement — Cafe Kemet on East Jefferson. Now she’s found a home at Hiller’s. We’re delighted to have her AND that delicious elixir, which comes in various flavors and sizes ranging from pints to gallons. The stuff has a kick, and is, yes, great for you. Ginger is loudly touted by Dr. Oz the current TV medical guru and has long been used homeopathically to treat chicken pox, bronchitis, coughs, colds, digestive disorders, headaches, and more. It has also been used on things like snakebite.

Anyway, Nikki was recently, and very deservedly honored as one of Crain’s entrepreneurs of the year at an event where I had the honor of giving the keynote address. It’s not hard to see why. A portion of her company’s proceeds go to support an exercise program at her church and she’s mentoring a young lady who wants to go into the retail business.

Nikki also spends as much time as possible with the area’s youth. Teen girls who live in her church’s rather hardscrabble neighborhood often wander in while she’s working, wanting to help. She takes them up on it. “I’d rather let them do that, be around here, than getting into things that they shouldn’t,” said Nikki, whose company is based in the Russell Bazaar, a converted art space in a revamped building along I-75 in Detroit. “It’s important to treat people with respect, and now these are young people who are now growing up in the church,” she said, adding that her brother also works for the company.

The woman is damned inspiring, listen to her: “All the things I dealt with as a single mom, it’s been very, very difficult but I want to be with the winners, it’s in my bones. I’ve always wanted to be the best I can, and to give as much as I can. That’s what I live by.”

I’ll sip to that. Nikki’s Ginger Tea. By the way… I drink it every day.

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don’t fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide-open country that I love,
Don’t fence me in.
–Bing Crosby, “Don’t Fence Me In”

For all you claustrophobic types, or maybe just folks who love ethereally amazing food, I’m taking you out of a box; figuratively that is.

Hiller’s Outside of the Box, a moveable feast, available now in the West Bloomfield store.

Open from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, the two food carts set up at our 15 mile and Orchard Lake road market near the bakery are positively stuffed with toe-curling fare whose flavors waft in from the door. Good luck walking by without stopping. I can’t.

The menu changes daily so check out the chalkboard. The offerings typically include five different hot dogs with toppings, one hot entrée, and a handful of way-scrumptious salads.

The revolving offerings include, oh! I’m waxing faint just from listing: Vietnamese Curry, with chicken and eggplant, green beans, and potatoes served over Jasmine rice, or sometimes Korean Bulgogi fried rice; Chicken/Apple Sausage with mango chutney and feta; chicken sausage with lime Roulade and Wasabi Pea Crumbles, a Kosher all-beef hot dog with New York-style Kraut, Banh Mi, (Vietnamese baguette sandwiches), filled with Veggie Pate, Roasted Chicken, and Marinated Shreds of daikon and carrot, Grilled Colored Peppers and Portobello Mushrooms with a Balsamic Glaze, and a Spicy Asian Cabbage Salad.

Need a drool cup yet? I understand. Here’s more temptation: hand sliced Japanese Cucumber Salad speckled with black sesame seeds (one of the world’s healthiest foods), Bulgogi (Korean, thinly sliced Marinated Beef) hoagies topped with onion, green peppers and mushrooms, Buckwheat Soba Noodle Salad with broccoli and other veggies (best served at room temperature), and one of my personal favorites, the Spicy-hot Bison Dog topped with Sriracha* and Pepper Jack Cheese. (Sriracha is a type of Thai hot sauce made from sun-ripened chilies and garlic ground into a paste).

These heavenly bites come in white, Chinese-style take-out boxes, and nearby are always: chopsticks, forks, and napkins – along with condiments, including little containers of Sriracha, plus most anything you’d want for your hot dog. All the foods are prepared daily, and on site.

And the creator of all this goodness? None other than, Ruth Mossok Johnston – author, food columnist, consultant and culinary educator. I sought her out, and thankfully, she obliged. We’re absolutely thrilled to have her, and apparently, so are our customers, some of whom have taken to cheerfully eating while they shop, although we’ll soon add a couple of tables. Lunchtime is jammed from carry-outs. The Anticipation Queue.

“Everything is fresh, healthful, colorful and delicious,” said Johnston, adding that she’s always padding her repertoire, and tracking what people love most.

I’m telling you, these meals alone are worth hitting the store. Just look for the big red umbrellas, and prep for nibbling nirvana.

Of strawberry wine and seventeen

The hot July moon saw everything

My first taste of love, oh bittersweet

The green on the vine, like strawberry wine

-From “Strawberry Wine” by  Deanna Carter

I really do love strawberries, especially just popping them out of hand. As I thought of them, though, my male mind wandered to the “clinical” term for a certain kind of abrasion, usually attained during sports or playful roughousing. (Haven’t had “a strawberry” in a while. We do mellow, I guess. Somewhat wistfully).

Anyway, what I really want to share is something I’ve recently learned, and that’s that daily consumption of strawberries can do a body good — more than has been widely thought, apparently. Looks like an expansive, reputable study by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that the flavonoids inherent in strawberries are good for lots of stuff, including the effects of diabetes and nervous-system disorders. And even the prevention of cancers.

The study explains that fisetin, a top-dog flavonoid most abundant in strawberries, markedly mitigates the complications of diabetes. Basically, when tests were done on mice, it was found that fisetin helped keep alive culture-grown neurons, and improved tailed critters’ memories. Since fisetin can apparently multi-task organ wise, one day a single drug could be used to eradicate or lessen multiple complications of diabetes. (Other trendy flavonoids are found in blueberries and red wine).

For the first time, injection of fisetin in mice prevented both kidney and brain complications from Type 1 diabetes. The studies also revealed the likely molecular basis for revealing the therapy’s efficacy. In other words, scientists can track how the stuff is working.

That’s a lot of science speak, I know. But these are not frivolous illnesses. Fisetin might actually benefit a wide range of disorders presented by diabetic patients, including kidney disease, retinopathy and neuropathies.You know, there have been reports suggesting that diabetes is linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s, so if great-tasting strawberries could help… The fruit also has been shown to slow the onset of motor problems associated with Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

And… previous studies have shown that fisetin decreases some cancer cells — a big incentive to indulge, if you ask me (but ask your doctor, too). Overall, strawberries boost red blood cells, thereby improving antioxidant capacity. Heck, one cup contains roughly only 45 calories, and is an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, folate and other phytonutrients.

So whaddya know, another good-for-you food that’s damned tasty, to boot. First bred in Britanny, France around 1740, the oval, speckled strawberry improves almost any dish or beverage. Strawberry daiquiri, anyone? Or how about a simple relish that can be spooned onto grilled meat or fish: the berries, a li’l sugar, some OJ, dash of balsamic, pinch of allspice, a cinnamon stick, tablespoon olive oil, li’l salt and pepper, and some orange zest. Fabulous and healthful.  And all ingredients in my stores, natch.

Course, you can always make the berries into preserves; dry them for, say, cereal bars; or toss them into yogurt or ice cream.

Bottom line: No knockin’ an apple a day, but strawberry du jour is a great idea, too.

Let’s stay healthy, people.

Whole Foods, the organic grocery chain, is putting bars in some stores that will serve beer and wine. Their goal is to get you so drunk that you don’t notice their prices — Jay Leno, The Tonight Show.

Oh, relax. Not dissing the competition, nor editorializing about booze. Just making a segue into this blog’s topic – eating well without going broke in the process.

For many, the quest to fill the cupboard with good stuff is no laughing matter. I mean, domestically, wholesale food prices zoomed by nearly 10% this year. That was the largest such hike in 37 years. Most of it’s the price of fuel, but some of it’s crazy stuff like global politics, like when the Ivory Coast cocoa crop was held hostage some time back, affecting prices here. Anyway, a recent University of Washington study found that, yep, a healthful diet is difficult for the cash strapped to afford.

But don’t dispair, you can still eat well on a budget. Just takes patience, common sense and a few tricks. Cooking is, of course, cheaper than eating out. Groceries-wise, guess it would help to know what’s nutritious and what’s not. ChooseMyPlate.gov can assist with that.

Naturally, the more times you frequent a store, the more you’ll bag unplanned goods. So, make a list and stick to it. And if you plan your meals the less likely you’ll be to pluck extras from shelves. Check recipes twice so that all ingredients are gotten in one fell swoop (here’s a plug for variety at Hiller’s), efficiently using petrol. It helps to maintain a staples-packed pantry.

Is there a crisper or rotter in your fridge? It pains all of us to throw away good food, so consider freezing. Chop up and freeze veggies. You can also contain costs by buying in-season foods. While we’re at it, whole fruit is less pricey than fruit juices.

If you buy water, larger sizes are less expensive than single-serve packages (yes, you’re paying for the containers).

Shopping at one store saves you gas. Restrict the family to one large snack bag (if at all) each week. If you’re shopping frugally, avoid pre-cut stuff. Check our Web site for sales, of course, but try to know what to do with the food! We’ve got plenty of recipe ideas.

Vegetables and whole foods are more nutritious and less-costly than processed foods. If you shop with us, there’s no need to run to this store for meats, that store for produce, etc. The point is to go to one damned grocery store. But eat first; we know not to shop hungry, don’t we? Stock up on stuff like eggs, which are cheap and full of protein, and canned tuna. Ditto.

At day’s end, the fewer bucks we shell out for the bad stuff, the more dollars we have for what’s right. Greenback-stretching is no excuse for poor nutrition, if we are smart.

Indulge a joke: Little Johnny and his family lived in the country, and seldom had guests. He was eager to help his mother after his father appeared with two dinner guests from the office. When the dinner was nearly over, Little Johnny went to the kitchen and proudly carried in the first piece of apple pie, giving it to his father who passed it to a guest. Little Johnny came in with a second piece of pie and gave it to his father, who again gave it to a guest.

This was too much for Little Johnny, who said, “It’s no use, dad. The pieces are all the same size.”

My guess is you won’t want to read this, because some of it’s unpleasant. But I challenge you, yes YOU, whose problem is probably not having food, but finding the strength to stop swallowing it.

Imagine heading to work every day on an empty stomach. Bad enough, eh? Now imagine heading to work, poorly nourished, and having to learn new skills.

Oh, but I’ll go further: imagine not knowing whether there will be food when you’re home.

I probably just made you hungry. Sorry. But this is stuff we need to think about, because an unbelievably one in six American children are food insecure. In southeast Michigan, half a million children go to bed hungry — one in five live in poverty. That isn’t a problem, people, it’s a tragedy. It is well proven that hungry children cannot focus on learning. If they cannot learn they are condemned to a life at the bottom of society.

A central goal of Gleaners Food Community Food Bank of Metro Detroit, headquartered on Detroit’s east side, is to provide healthful food for those chidren. Doing so isn’t a charitiable gift, it is an investment in the well-being of Michigan and society in general.

I’ve seen what Gleaners does first hand. I’m there regularly just lending a hand. You see it’s common sense that hungry children are sick more often, more likely to be hospitalized, and more likely to suffer physical, emotional and developmental impairment.

And that sickens me.

Specifically, under-nutrition before the age of three fundamentally changes both the brain’s structure and the central nervous system, impeding a child’s ability to learn. Subsequently, many adults who experienced hunger as children are not well prepared mentally, emotionally, physically or socially to perform in contemporary work environments. Child hunger can lead to greater absenteeism and workplace turnover. That affects us all.

In southeast Michigan 40 percent of emergency food users at Gleaners’partner food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters are children. So I am particularly impressed by — and want to help — Gleaners’ KidSnack and BackPack programs, which target school-age kids, better enabling them to learn and thrive.

Today, KidSnack provides 70 low-income schools in the tri-county area with healthful snacks to distribute to hungry students during the school day, or at after-school tutoring programs. Gleaners’ KidSnack bags are filled with good stuff like granola bars, cereal, dried fruit and pretzels.

What’s cool is that these bags are packed by school children who volunteer at the Gleaners Kids Helping Kids program. School groups tour the food bank facility, participate in educational sessions on hunger awareness and nutrition, and also pack KidSnack bags.

Meanwhile, teachers are worried that weekends are especially hard on children who get free and reduced-price lunches during the week, but little to nothing at home. That’s where Gleaners’ BackPack Program steps in, offering a take-home bag of food each Thursday or Friday that will provide children at least six balanced meals until they get to school on Monday. “The packs really help the kids,” said Pamela Green of William Grace Elementary. “Our school is closing and one of our students is worried that he won’t get a BackPack at his new school.”

Last fall, more than 4,000 of our community’s children at 37 schools were sent home with food at weeks’ end to sustain them throughout the weekend. The BackPacks are filled with easy-to-prep foods that are safe and appealing to eat without cooking.

While Gleaners focuses on serving high-need students in Detroit and Pontiac, BackPack, in this economy, has expanded to communities like Waterford, Troy, Warren, Plymouth, Birmingham and Auburn Hills. Indeed, hunger touches everyone.

Gleaners has been at it for 33 years. But it can’t do it alone, If you can help, and every bit counts, call 1-800-Gleaner. You could hold a food drive, volunteer at one of five distrubution centers, join its speakers bureau, organize a benefit event or a Gleaners bus tour, or make a donation. Of every dollar donated, Gleaners uses 96 cents for food and food programs.

We’ve got to help our children. And don’t you love them? Here’s a recent conversation:

Child: I like trains better than teachers.
Me: Why?
Child: Because when I have gum, the teacher says, “Give it.”
Me: What about the train?
Smiling child: It says, “Chew, Chew.”

They are the future, folks. Let’s all do what we can.

Cleanliness is next to godliness.
– Hebrew Proverb

Okay so the diet du jour seems to be something called Clean Eating. Half the people I know are into it, and from what I can gather it’s more like a way of life, the kind of life I pretty much live anyway, if you want to know.

Essentially, eating clean means consuming foods that are closer to their natural state, their purest form. These are mostly unprocessed foods that are free of man-made additives. Folks who swear by the diet say they have better skin and hair, and enjoy easier weight management. Can see where it would be popular.

One early-early morning while out walking I thought about Clean Eating, especially the natural-state part, and what role Hiller’s might play. In particular, I thought about our meats, and how proud I am that ours are sold in their innate state, unlike some of our large multi-state and multi-national competitors who offer meats full of pumped-in tenderizers. Not only is that kind of gross, but the water-based, artificial enhancement typically amounts to a tenth of the package’s weight. You’re paying extra for that unnaturalness.

But what really sets us apart is that we still use and pick out whole cattle, and cut from that. Pretty cool, eh? About one-half of one percent of our competitors still do that. We do it chiefly because we can better control quality . The cattle are bought locally and delivered to our stores in quarters. Then, our skilled meatcutters turn the quarters into the various cuts of meat and ground beef you see in our counter. We’re proud of this tradition.

Ever notice recalls of large amounts of ground meats? You’ll never see that with us because we grind on site, and from the meat we bought whole. Even our frozen patties are produced in house. Daily. Same with our sausages. Our self-service packages also come from our own meats. Again, it’s overall cleaner and more natural, and always makes for better quality. Curt Ducharme, our magnificent meat director, sees to that.

Of course, we’re up to date on all the food items — I’d pit our selection against anyone’s — but we’re a tad provincial, a little smugly old fashioned when it comes to certain stuff, like our full-service butcher counter, which all of our stores have had for several decades now. We prefer that kind of operation, dealing directly with our customers. Want dark-meat skinless turkey? We can do that. Want us to grind your turkey breast? Why not? We’ll even mix the two. You can speak with a butcher nearly any hour we’re open. We’ll cut any special order until nine at night.

Am I gushing? Yeah, but what the hell. The stuff energizes me.

So your Clean diet? We’ve got the meat portion covered. All the other stuff too, but that’s another blog.

Meanwhile, here’s a “clean” joke:

An angry motorist went back to a garage where he’d purchased an expensive battery for his car six months earlier.

“Listen,” the motorist grumbled to the garage owner, “when I bought that battery you said it would be the last battery my car would ever need. It died after only six months!”

“Sorry,” apologized the garage owner. “I didn’t think your car would last longer than that.”

– From Monty Python’s “Life of Brian.”

Harry the Haggler: Haggle properly. This isn’t worth nineteen.
Brian: Well, you just said it was worth twenty.
Harry the Haggler: Ohh, dear. Ohh, dear. Come on. Haggle.
Brian: Huh. All right. I’ll give you ten.
Harry the Haggler: That’s more like it. Ten?!  Are you trying to insult me?!  Me, with a poor dying grandmother?!  Ten?!

I don’t buy it.

Well ultimately I do, of course, but there’s a guy, our Head Buyer, whom I trust to get the right goods in our stores, and at the right price to you.

He’s Larry Krispin, and we go way back. Hell I was still a teenager, and so was Larry, when he started to work at our store on 10 Mile and Greenfield. He’s family.

The Detroit native and Mackenzie High School grad began his grocery career at Wrigley’s as a bagger, as a matter of fact, pulling 65 cents a hour.

“When I turned 18 I got to be a stock boy, making $1.05 an hour,” he said with a chuckle. “I thought I was in heaven.”

He managed to save a chunk of that after-school moola and made his first significant buy, a growling ’58 Chevy in perfect condition. Black. The stuff of dreams, he said.

Then more life happened. He got married, had a kid, and mulled joining the Marines. But he didn’t want to leave his family. That’s when he heard of an opening at Hiller’s. Allow him to tell it:

“I went over there and said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ They hired me that day, stock boy, night crew. I was making more money than I had been, and I didn’t have to enlist.”

When he was bumped up to Assistant Manager, well that did it. Wasn’t long before he became manager, then manager of another store. And now he’s Head Buyer and Senior Supervisor for our seven stores, purchasing 30,000 different items from 1,000 different companies. That’s a load but Larry loves it. He handles all the basic groceries, from canned goods to pet supplies to juices and snacks. Did you know that we carry 170 varieties of olive oil and 300 kinds of salad dressings? Larry keeps track of it all.

Naturally, he watches for trends. Like he knows that sardines, because of their well-known (and well publicized) health benefits, have been sailing from shelves. (By the way, Hiller’s offers 100 kinds of those; a top competitor, 10). And Larry spends hours every day scanning our cost of products. He’s a very frugal man who wants to lower every price he can.

“In the mornings I go to stores and get with managers, and see what’s selling,” he said. “We sometimes order from wholesalers three months in advance, so we try to hit it just right.”

Indeed, Larry also writes our ads. Say he does a special buy, a hot deal for paper towels or something (Bounty in our stores is in big demand). Larry will handle the verbiage and we have someone do the art work. Then it comes back to Larry for proofing. Same routine for the special items, since we carry a lot of products that other stores don’t. How did the ads do? Well, Larry also helps track item movement and profitability.

To some of you, this is Groceries 101. But to Larry, after 45 years, it’s a passion. It’s what he knows, and does exceedingly well.

“Every single day — and they begin at 8, and rarely end before 7 — I enjoy  talking it up with vendors and manufacturers. But what I really love is talking to the customers, getting to the stores and seeing what people are buying.”

Even to the point of helping to bag, which he does when he can. A common touch that we like to foster. Not that Larry needs nudging. After all, that’s how he started out.

“I always try to put myself in a position where I’m a consumer. And I want to get them what they want, get them the best, and at the best price for them and the company.”

And yet he still dreams of his Chevy.

“We had a pasta course, then we had a meat or a fish. Paulie did the prep work. He was doing a year for contempt, and had a wonderful system for garlic. He used a razor and sliced it so thin … it would liquefy in the pan with a little oil.”

– A scene from “Goodfellas”

Python wontons. That’s what I got when I asked our store’s preeminent chef, Peter Julian, to whip up something “different” for a fete at my house.

My kinda guy.

Not that he’s “out there,” he just likes playing around with wild game. And he is awfully good at it. But most of  you know Peter from his regular appearances on Fox 2 News, where he whips up more-tame but just as delectable fare, such as the recent awesome pasta salad with grilled bratwurst (kindly get over to a Hiller’s this month and get some. Proceeds from the anabolic-free brats go toward Sparky Anderson’s CATCH charity, which benefits pediatric patients.  A wonderful cause, and a few days remain).

I love Peter, this big, gentle giant of a guy. He’s been running our prepared foods department for a decade now, a steady veteran of the hotel and restaurant industry who happens to be prescient: he saw the looming explosion of the prepped foods market some 20 years ago. Folks like convenience, see, but the difference with us is quality and variety. That’s where we’re lucky to have Peter, who would have it no other way.

As it is, he’s created about 500 recipes, including soups, salads and entrees, that rotate among our stores. (But if perhaps you’ve missed something, by the way, like our canapé turkey burgers, we’ll make it for you. It’s like having your own personal chef). He and I talk regularly, of course, and I’m often one of the first ones to try his recipes. Yeah I’m a guinea pig …  one  of the job’s perks, at least when it comes to Peter, who knows, for instance, that strawberries are hot, so he’s turned out good eats with those. He simply tweaks and tweaks until he has a winner. Research and development is a big part of what he does.

As quality goes – tooting our horn, yes, but just so you know – we have a kitchen in each of our stores, which  means freshness every day. Frankly, a lot of chain retailers prepare foods centrally and ship them around. Peter makes the rounds of our stores daily, making sure everything’s available and in order.

What’s popular at the deli? Of course this is still (as remnants of winter remain) wonderful comfort food season, so that finger-lickin’ stuff is still here. Soon we’ll be phasing in the colorfully healthful summer salads. And yes we’re mindful of  all the holdays … for Cinco de Mayo, por ejemplo, Peter’s already worked up some goat-meat tacos. Yummm. Can’t wait to try those. As usual, he had side dishes for Passover and Easter down pat.

But really, Peter’s days start alongside customers: in the aisles. He’s constantly combing to see what’s available, what he has to work with. Here’s what he said: “I worked at stores before but at Hiller’s I can really blossom, mostly because I have a lot of exotic ingredients at my fingertips, especially in the international aisles. I mean, we’ve got a half-dozen kinds of anchovies!”

Which brings me back to Peter’s love of exotica and wild game. The chef is from Pittsburgh but is in love with the hunting and fishing in Michigan (including morel mushroom hunting, for all our veggie friends). He and his wife and their first child, a little baby girl, have nine acres on a lake in Chelsea, plus a hunting lodge up north. So he’s very comfortable producing, say, individual little buffalo meatloafs, wrapped with apple-cinnamon bacon and ready now at Hiller’s.

“I’ve always been an avid outdoorsman, so our freezers are stocked with venison,” he said with a chuckle. “We just have more of a variety of things to try, like the occasional yak or rattlesnack.”

The wontons, by the way, were brilliant.

Compliments to the chef.

Ideally, we’d all be able to take some sort of elixir or pill that contained everything we needed to keep us healthy and alive for 120 joy filled years . Keep dreaming, right?

What we do have are superfoods, a variety of edibles that help us maintain weight, battle disease and likely live longer. They’re in their own special category. Found in nature — we cannot make these nutrients — superfoods are calorie-light and nutrient dense.

Besides offering myriad disease-fighting nutrients, these foods fill us up and are easy to use. They don’t include all the nutritious foods that should make up a healthful diet, mind you; you know that we should have a varied diet. And portion sizes matter too, even for the best foods.

But let’s get to what some of these foods are. Making the cut is yogurt, low fat or fat free. It is relatively high in calcium, and contains other nutrients like protein and potassium. It also aids digestion, and is cool in that it can be nutritionally enhanced with foods like fruit, and we can use it in other foods and as a veggie dip.

Next up: eggs. According to experts, the humble orb (actually ellipse) is inexpensive, oh-so versatile and a healthful way to get protein. Eggs also contains about a dozen vitamins and minerals, including choline, which promotes brain development and memory.

Nuts! Yep, although some folks avoid them because of their high fat content. But we don’t need a boat load at a time. They offer protein, heart-healthy fat, high-fiber and antioxidants. We can toss them in salads, cereals, whatever. Delicious too, no?

How about one of the homeliest fruits on the planet? That’s right, the hairy little kiwi is one bad (read: good) nutrition powerhouse, exploding with antioxidants, potassium, fiber and vitamins A and E. (Actually, the fruit is lovely once shorn and sliced). Would go great in some low- or no-fat yogurt.

Then we have quinoa (keen-wa), an ancient grain available at Hiller’s, and one of the best whole grains we can eat, experts say. Like rice it’s easy to make, and is high in protein and iron. It also offers lots of zinc, vitamin E and selenium, paring the risk for diabetes and heart disease. It can be eaten alone or mixed with nuts and veggies. Most of us need to eat more whole grains.

We have been hearing, if not singing, the praises of broccoli forever.  It’s all true. We are talking vitamins A, C and K in spades, and plenty of fiber. Plus it, too, is versatile (take that George Herbert Walker Bush, who truly craved the veggie. Not).

Ah, the lowly sweet potato, once viewed as peasants’ fare. I personally love them however they’re prepared. They’re a member of the dark orange vegetable family, which means a blast of vitamin A, not to mention vitamin C, calcium and potassium.

We know about berries, don’t we?  They are simply packed with nutrition, antioxidants and phytonutrients, are low-cal and high in water and fiber content, which helps control blood sugar and keeps us full longer. Blueberries rule this group.

Couple more. Beans, which actually are good for the heart. Their insoluble fiber helps lower cholesterol, while their soluble fiber fills us up and rids our bodies of waste. They are a low-fat source of protein, carbs, magnesium and potassium, and can easily sub for meat. If you’ve not considered edamame you should; they are tasty and contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

We’ll round this out with salmon, a superfood because of its awesome omega-3 fatty stuff. And we get protein and iron. And, it’s also versatile.

Some experts put other foods in the “super” category, stuff like seeweed, Acai, leafy greens, garlic and onions, hot peppers, bee products and even dark chocolate. Others say mostly every brightly colored fruit or veggie is a true superfood.

Anyway, let’s have some “Superfly,” by Curtis Mayfield:

Darkest of night
With the moon shining bright
There’s a set goin’ strong
Lotta things goin’ on
The man of the hour
Has an air of great power
The dudes have envied him for so long

Oh, superfly
You’re gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don’t ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die

Hard to understand
What a hell of a man
This cat of the slum
Had a mind, wasn’t dumb
But a weakness was shown
‘Cause his hustle was wrong
His mind was his own
But the man lived alone

Oh, superfly.

I’m still kvelling over Chrysler’s Imported From Detroit commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl. I bet a lot of you are, too. That spot was magnificent, not only because it was well done, but because it told the world the truth. That’s what was so moving. It perfectly captured our very essence. Hell, it even prompted me to buy a Jeep Cherokee.

But we Detroiters – yes, all of us here are Detroiters – already knew that despite all our problems, we are a proud, resilient people, bloodied but unbowed, shaken but never-say-die.

Sometimes I feel like we’re one of those characters on the Jerry Springer Show, crying “You don’t know me!” to a jeering audience.

We are so misunderstood.

But for every naysayer there’s a Rudy Hendrix, a small-business owner who looks forward to each new dawn. Hendrix is the spirit of Detroit, a gentleman and brilliant entrepreneur who happens to produce some of the best victuals around.

Hendrix (yes, brother of Freman Hendrix) is the proprietor and pit master at Lady Louisa’s Place, a warm, cozy restaurant on McNichols near Greenfield. I stopped in there some months ago and enjoyed some really outstanding comfort fare. I’m craving some fried okra and tomatoes right now (it’s not really fried; more like sautéed).

Yummmm.

And the man is self-taught. He started cooking for his family 15 years ago, just holidays at first. His grub became so well received – particularly those tender ribs – that he went and expanded his kitchen into his own restaurant. He goes the extra mile with all that he does. “Quality and consistency have to be just right,” he said, “and customer service will always come first.”

Hendrix could have gone big and opened a big-box spot, but he wanted Lady Louisa’s to be a neighborhood kind of place. He takes pride in serving his neighbors, who hail from all over Metro Detroit, comfort food cooked fresh daily, using the best ingredients.

“We cook with love and affection the same way your mother and grandmother did,” he said of his restaurant, named after his late paternal grandmother. “This is food you remember from your childhood.”

I liked Rudy’s stuff so much that we’re carrying some of it in our stores. The creamy mac and cheese – recently rated by the Free Press the area’s best – can be found at our Union Lake, Haggerty and 14 Mile and Haggerty and Five Mile stores, along with oh-so delectable fried cabbage, fried corn and those lip-smackin’ okra and tomatoes.

“This truly gives us a presence in suburban communities that we otherwise would not have,” he said. “We are so pleased.”

The pleasure is all mine. You see, this is how we’ve gotten by, in the face of all manner of adversity: by helping each other, extending our hands across boundaries and, time after time, rallying back, lifting each other up and urging each other on.

After all:

This is the Motor City.

And this is what we do.