Wisconsin Cow Carousal

This winter my family paid a visit to my Sister in Wisconsin, and found some surprisingly fantastic food while we were at it.



In Lacrosse we went to the Pearl ice-cream parlor. They make all their own stock and it was better than the usual specialty ice cream. Very good fat content and what I imagine was very good milk Lilly. We got some great malts.








Then in Madison we had dinner at Graze a delightful farm to table near the capital building. We got some excellent burgers on a english muffin bun that really worked well. It was on par with any burger in Atlanta.




But the real star was their cheese selection. Here is their menu...



We were so taken with the cheeses at dinner from Carr Valley we decided to go there ourselves. Right in central Wisconsin.






-


It was a modest operation but they turn out an impressive selection of cheeses. All the varieties are on the back board along with their fair ribbons for award winning cheeses. Their cases were also full of aged cheddars enrobed in black wax. They went from 1 to 10 years.







Our favorite was a blended goat, sheep, cows milk cheese called the Benedictine. But they were all good, and the folks at Carr Valley were very proud.




All and all a wonderful and delicious visit to Wisconsin. Hopefully I can convince Lilly it is not just a fly over state.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lacrosse, Madison, Mauston

Buford Highway podcast in the future

Chicago Supermarket

 Last weekend we laid the groundwork for a Buford Highway podcast. For all you non-Atlantans (and those that don't get out enough), Buford Highway is the epicenter of all tasty international things in the state of Georgia.

Represented are:

Chicago Supermarket

 Mexican

Chicago Supermarket

 Vietnamese

Lee's Bakery

Lee's Bakery: boba smoothies

 Columbian

Tijuana: tamale

La Churreria

 Redneck

Rusty Nail

I also wrote an article for Scoutmob about Chicago Supermarket which should be published next week so be on the lookout!

Antico Pizza///first bite

To differentiate themselves from the competition, they turn their boxes inside out. Effective disguise?

We spend a lot of time on the West Side eating.  Abattoir is our go-to for out-of-towners (the $10 tripe soup is the best deal in town and that chess pie is divine), West Egg's $10 Wednesday burger deal plus milkshake is a good go-to, and as time passes, more great restaurants keep popping up.  Not to mention, there's a decent coffee shop over there.

Because of this, it may come as some surprise that until yesterday, we had never had Antico Pizza (warning: if you click on the Atlanta section of the site it will play an insipid Dean Martin song, and loudly).

We've heard numerous times that Antico is the only pizza in town worth eating. So on the way home the other day I stopped and picked up a margherita to go.

The drive home was excruciating. My car smelled delicious. And there was road construction on 10th. The torture!

When I made it home, the pizza wasn't exactly fresh-from-the-oven hot.  But it was definitely still delicious.

Chewy, with a decent amount of char (though not as much as I like), a beautiful sauce and just the right thinness, we certainly enjoyed it for dinner, as well as breakfast the next day.

Next time I eat Antico, I'm going with a crowd to try that funghi pizza, and I'm dining in.  To be continued.

Atlanta Street Fashion

Finally made it onto Atlanta Street Fashion today!  it was great to meet Cameron Adams, the man behind the blog.  I'm looking forward to an Out There Atlanta collaboration with him in the future!

Monday night dinner

In the past, finals week for Alex and I has meant living off of cereal and not leaving the house for days.

Now that only one of us is suffering, the other is free to roam.  The one writing papers benefits.

Hanger steak, french fries, fried purple fingerling and dijon-roasted brussel sprouts.

 No meal is complete without dessert.

White chocolate pudding and raspberries.

Dim Sum /// Royal China Restaurant

A few weeks ago friends took us out to a dim sum restaurant off Buford Highway, called Royal China.

This was our first dim sum experience in Atlanta and we were pleasantly surprised.  For those unfamiliar with the style of food, dim sum consists of small dishes prepared in a Cantonese style.  It originates from Southern China and is typically eaten during the day with lots of tea.  The small dishes are usually pretty heavy, but man are they good.

The dining hall with covered seats is, for me, as key to the dim sum experience as the ladies pushing carts of food.  These women push carts laden with different items through the aisles, stopping at each table to see if the diners are interested.  The items are then marked off on a receipt to be tallied at the end of the meal.

We started with duck with hoisin sauce and crispy skin.  I'm sorry to say I have no idea what this dish is called; I'd never had anything like it before.   The skin was as crisp and thick as a cracker, with a toasted-rice flavor (possibly a coating?).  Anyway, delicious.

Lo mai gai, or lotus leaf rice, consists of stick rice wrapped around a meat or egg (or both) filling, all packaged and steamed within a lotus leaf for color and flavor. 

Taro dumplings, lightly sweet and crisp-fried on the outside.

Another new dish for me; shrimp wrapped in bacon, coated and fried, with a mayonnaise dipping sauce.

Daikon radish cakes with dried shrimp and sausage! a personal favorite

chee cheong fun, or shrimp wrapped in a rice dumpling, and green vegetables.

the fried taro balls again.

Here's the cart containing the daikon cakes, which the woman fried to order.

She also fried these shrimp dumplings for us.  Chinese restaurants are the best for taking photos.  I'll admit sometimes I'm shy about busting out the camera, but at Royal China the woman frying daikon cakes was an enthusiastic camera assistant, pointing out dishes to photograph and smiling the whole time.

Congee, or rice porridge.

Barbecued pork bun.

There were no misses at this meal; everything was delicious.  There's not much for vegetarians at a dim sum restaurant.  As you can see, even the shrimp dishes had plenty of pork!  

I was disappointed that the meal didn't include phoenix feet, aka fried chicken feet.  We saw other tables eating it, but I guess they ran out by the time they got to us in the third row!  I left satisfied however, and content in the knowledge that we'll return and get those chicken feet next time.