Enjoy a taste of the Midwest by trying these recipes from some of the Midwest's premier restaurants and homey cafes.

WALLEYE AMANDINE

Resorts in the Brainerd, Minnesota, area range from top-rated golf retreats to modest housekeeping cabins. Kavanaugh's, along Sylvan Lake, has grown from nine cabins to 52 units and a lakeside restaurant operated by four of the Kavanaugh sons who grew up here. Tom Kavanaugh, the friendly executive chef, rules the kitchen. He serves more than 200 pounds of walleye each week, with his signature artichoke tartar sauce on the side.

IKE SEWELL'S ORIGINAL CHICAGO-STYLE DEEP-DISH PIZZA

Texan Ike Sewell, eager to start a business serving the pizza he'd learned to love in Italy during World War II, founded Pizzeria Uno when he came to Chicago in 1943. The tiny eatery, now nearly engulfed by high-rises, still does a multimillion-dollar business. There also are 185 Uno franchises around the globe. This is the pie that made it famous.

TOASTED RAVIOLI

In 1947, when Charlie Gitto's in St. Louis's Hill neighborhood was called Angelo's, the chef accidentally dropped some fresh-made ravioli in bread crumbs and decided to deep-fry them. Thus, a St. Louis dining legend was born.

QUICK-AND-EASY PASTIES

Pasties were introduced to Michigan's Upper Peninsula long ago by the wives and mothers of the area's Cornish copper and coal miners. They're still a very popular comfort food that can be found just about everywhere on the UP.

CREAMY VELVET CHICKEN SOUP

This soup is the signature dish in the Crossroads Cafe and the re-created L. S. Ayres Department Store Tea Room (circa 1905) at the Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis.

HAYS HOUSE BRISKET

The Hays House in Council Grove, Kansas, is in a historic Santa Fe Trail building dating to 1857, making it one of the oldest continually operating restaurants west of the Mississippi River. This is one of the restaurant's most popular dishes.

EASY INDIAN FRY BREAD

Fry bread is a Native American tradition, known throughout the tribes of South Dakota. Our recipe uses frozen dinner rolls, but for the authentic Lakota Sioux taste, you can order bread mix from woodenknife.com.

GERMAN PUFFED OVEN PANCAKE WITH GLAZED APPLES

In Zoar, Ohio, The Cobbler Shop Bed & Breakfast, an antiques-filled 1828 retreat with a big, screened-in back porch, serves this Old World favorite as part of the full breakfast.

CREAMY PINK BORSCHT

The German-Russian immigrant legacy lives on in North Dakota, most notably in the food specialties.Sleek, shiny Kroll's Diner in Mandan serves a sampling, along with diner fare of cheeseburgers, fries and malts. One favorite is borscht, for which there are as many recipes as there are cooks. The chefs at Kroll's approved this version.

CHERRY-AND-CREAM-CHEESE-STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

The White Gull Inn, a 19th-century white clapboard Greek Revival resort restored as an elegant bed and breakfast, is a Door County, Wisconsin, landmark. At this first-class inn, the wonderful breakfast includes this house specialty.

CHICKEN-MUSHROOM STRATA

In Lincoln, Nebraska, a few blocks off the Cornhusker Highway on Stadium Drive, you can't miss fortresslike Memorial Stadium, where some 80,000 fans go bonkers rooting for the Huskers during football season. Long-tenured head coach Tom Osborne went on to represent Nebraska in the U.S. House. This recipe is adapted from one that his wife, Nancy, used to make for tailgating parties.

BEST-EVER BERRY PIE

Breitbach's in Balltown is Iowa's oldest operating restaurant and bar (dating to 1852). High on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, they serve 2,500 meals daily here during the peak autumn leaf-peeping season. The owner, Mike Breitbach, is the fifth generation of his family to run the restaurant. They serve a daily buffet, but they're known for their pies: gooey slices of walnut, Snickers, apple, cherry and this tangy sweet-sour raspberry.

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