Fleetwood’s Hippie Hash tastes like home

Lansing’s signature foods are all over the place. But from the tried-and-true olive burger to the controversial topopo salad to Meat BBQ’s aptly named Meat Mountain, a contender for Best Signature Dish in the 2024 Top of the Town contest, one unifying thread is this: Lansing residents really enjoy a tasty pile of diverse flavors and textures, where each bite is a different experience than the last. Nothing exemplifies this more than the winner of Best Signature Dish, Fleetwood Diner’s Hippie Hash.

I must have had at least 50 Hippie Hashes over the years. Introduced to the dish by my first boyfriend, I’ve had it for dinner on a first date, for breakfast after many a night at the bars, for lunch after pulling an all-nighter to turn in an eight-page paper I didn’t start until the last minute and so many times in between.

To the uninitiated, Hippie Hash is a pile of hash browns topped with sauteed mushrooms, broccoli, tomato, green peppers and onion, as well as a generous sprinkling of feta cheese. On the side you get two eggs, any style, and a choice of toast.

The beauty of this dish is in the customizations. You can have your Hippie Hash without protein, but there are a wide variety of add-ons available in this department, from gyro meat to turkey sausage to the regular breakfast meats. My original configuration of choice included gyro meat, but over time I’ve come to really appreciate the tempeh, a loaf made from fermented soybeans that the kitchen staff cubes up like ham and sautés with the veggies. It may not sound delicious, but it has a nutty, rich flavor and a satisfying texture. My stomach can be a little sensitive in the morning, and this option makes the whole affair less greasy.

The next choice to make is egg preparation. I prefer mine over medium, and this leads immediately to another choice: leave the eggs on the side or put them on top of the hash and break the yolk so it makes a sort of gravy with the condiments? I’m in the latter camp. As for sauces, I go with Louisiana hot and a holdover from my gyro days, tzatziki, which you have to ask for. It adds a creamy component to complement the hot sauce and tastes perfect with the feta.

The final choice is the toast. I usually splurge and pay the extra 49 cents for an English muffin, which is always crispy at the edges and, spread with strawberry jam, provides a sweet counterpoint to all that savoriness. Hippie Hash is a dish signature to Fleetwood, but it can be made even more deliciously signature to oneself.