Fish Fry Wisconsin Cont.

They Write E-Mails

I got this advice from chicagostylehotdog on some Wisconsin fish fries

In your hunt for a close Wisconsin fish fry, I suggest Beer Belly's on Layton in Milwaukee. Great pan fried perch & blue gill. Wegner's St. Martin's Inn does a nice Friday night fish fry too. If you're headed up north into Vilas County, Birch Lake Resort on County W in Winchester, just north of Manitowish Waters, serves a nice family style Friday fish fry.

Good luck!

Roadtripmania - Wisconsin Fish Fry

I promised last week to provide many roadtrip ideas in 2009. The road allows you to explore regional cuisines, and it allows you to find foodstuffs to take home. A prime part of the regional cuisine end of the equation is to go north of Chicago for the Wisconsin fish fry. This local family, like many a cheesehead, is never unable to eat fish on a Friday. There's many sites out there dedicated to Wisconsin fish fries. I've highlighted some of these sites before. Today in some, it's Saturday, I don't have to be the least bit productive combination Internet noodling-online poker playing, I ran across this site, on Classic Wisconsin Fish Fries.

All I had to do was go to one entry, to find this bit of blog on Jim & Linda's Supper Club, that's already got me dreaming of perch:

Jim & Linda cared enough to post a hand-painted sign shaped like an arrow along the highway. The sign said, “Jim & Linda’s.” This touched classicwisconsin deeply, as hand painted signs for supper clubs often do. Nothing says, “Eat our fish, fisheaters, and drink our drinks, drinking fisheaters” than a homemade sign shaped like an arrow inviting you into (insert name here) & (insert name here) Supper Club. You just know the drinks will be served in buckets, the décor will be Menards chic, and the waitstaff will be slinging fish like Favre throws pigskin.

What classicwisconsin did not anticipate was seeing a middle-aged woman in a sleeveless shirt casually sniffing her armpits while she sat at the bar.

I cannot speak to the palate of this blogger nor to the overall veracity of the information provided on Classicwisconsin. I also warn that the organization of the data is, well, limited. This is a blog that requires browsing; you do not get pin-pointed research results. Still, it is exactly the kinda of randomness that makes the 'net so damn addicting.

I fully expect to have a few new fish fries under the gullet in 2009. I hope you all find some good ones as well.

Vital Roadtrips - 2009 - Part I

To Bloomington

The more I wear a hole in my Priceline account, the happier I make my wife. She never tires of the road. We returned last night from various parts in Kentucky and Indiana (and almost Tennessee), and I know her wanderlust already brews. So, before recounting our experiences finding a water driven mill and eating amongst the chains, outposts, and hotels of Kentucky, let me start working on our next trips. Over the next few weeks (I swear), I will lay out some prospective road trips for 2009. Highest on my list right now, is Bloomington, IN.

We visit the lands around us, especially for the food. It allows us to sample and obtain regional dishes and specialities unavailable in Chicago. I mean how many places remark, like the Mammoth Cave Hotel, "we're out of chicken, it''ll take 45 minutes for more." We can meet our products, such as at the various distilleries in Kentucky. On the other hand, away from Chicago, we find communities much more advanced on the locavore path, e.g., Madison, WI. But we pick up dried beans in Michigan and bourbon ball candy in Frankfort, KY. Local is always where we find it. Bloomington seems like it will met our needs (extremely).

Farmers and artisans working for consumers fill Southern Indiana. Just look at this guide (pdf). At least two chefs have gained notoriety using this bounty. Daniel Orr though brought fame with him to Bloomington. He's no shrinking violet! He chef'd New York's La Grenouille to three stars many years ago. Now, he's back home in Southern Indiana, with the multi-complexed FARMbloomington. Orr combines local food with his well-traveled backgrounds. The menus sound about right, but I can easily relate to the skepticism raised on this blog. How much of a rivalry does David Tallent have for Orr. He's been on the high-end, local Bloomington scene since 2003 at his namesake restaurant. Buzz around his place is generally better or at least more consistent (typical). If we tire of dueling resume'd chefs, I can follow the advice of one of my favorite bloggers, Virtual Farmgirl and have big steaks and Yugoslavian foods at Janko's Little Zagreb.

We would not be hot on the Bloomington trail without a farmer's market in site. Bloomington reportedly hosts the largest farmer's market in Indiana. It does not pack up in the winter either. If the market carries half as much stuff as it did last year, it will be worth it. In other markets, Bloomingfoods seems worth a visit and maybe Sahara; I mean besides local food, Sahara prepares over 30 varieties of olives, olives being one of my favorite exceptions or exemptions or whatever we call non-local food these days.

A local brew would be in order, and Uplands sounds OK.

Of course we would be hot on the trail of regional specialities that may or may not be around when we visit Southern Indiana. The genius who thought to fry biscuits worked at the Nashville House (so they say), but they are at other places now too. The will be maple sugar a-brewin' around the end of February (cf). A good and decent Indiana persimmon is only ready to eat when it gets so ripe if falls off the tree. There are gathered from lawns all around in the fall. Because the fresh product would have a shelf life of a half-a-day, it usually frozen, with little effect for pudding or ice cream use. If American persimmons are under appreciated, what about Indiana's hickory shagbark syrup used by Wolfgang Puck and Rick Bayless. And who would leave without finding a pork tenderloin? It may not be served in a gas station, but Gnaw Bone still serves a famous version.

Bloomington, high on the Vital Roadtrips for 2009

A Bushel Here, Bushel There

Updates

The family and I remain very busy locavores. I blog and take the glory. My wife does the hard work. I'll be keeping track of our acquisitions over at the Local Beet. My last report was here. I expect to file a new report today at the Beet. The Beet also has its latest feature up, on some truly local food, by Michael Gebert. Gerbert's been on the weed trail as he prepares his next Sky Full of Bacon video. It won't make for as interesting TV, but Cassie Green of Green Grocer and myself are being interviewed for a cable show in Highland Park, IL today.

Driving through Michigan recently, we picked up a 1/2 peck of Red Haven peaches. She, with (the sometimes) able help of younger daughter, peeled all of these, a process involving much pots of water hot and cold. Some went into a recently baked pie. The rest have gone into the freezer for later pies and cobblers.

Chicago to Urbana on a Saturday morning, Interstate, took less than 3 hours. Urbana to Chicago via US 150 and Illinois 1, took most of the next day. 13 ears of sweet corn in Hooperstown; a bushel of crowder peas--actually we do not know exactly what type of beans these are within the family of Southern style fresh beans--from a man selling in his front lawn near Momence helped slow us down.

All four of us did some shelling, but as typical She did more. Most of the beans went into the freezer. We ate some last night. We also ate some of the corn last night; we will probably freeze the rest today.

We could not resist a brimming bushel of Michigan tomatoes for sale at Caputo's in Elmwood Park. I could say "we" expect to can them today or tomorrow but that would be a disservice to the Woman who will do all the work.

Another way to make your summer veg last is to cook them all down into a jammy, spreadish sweet n' sour, condiment, appetizer like thing called caponata. The version She made included eggplants, summer squash, onions, tomatoes, capers and chopped prunes. She did not seal the product, but it should last a good long time in the fridge.

You can track our put-aways here.

Where to Stop Between Chicago and Detroit

YES: Marshall

NO: Battle Creek