Beer Tour de Milwaukee

At the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, they take a certain pride in their hedonistic and comical approach to beer. "The Miller Tour was described as the Harvard of beer tours" says the tour guide, quoting an article by an east coast newspaper writer sent out to review the breweries in Wisconsin. "We were called the 'Animal House' of tours" quips the guide as he finishes the quote, which draws applause and calls of "cheers" from the audience. As he continues to low-brough his way through the brewing process, most notably calling attention to the purpose of the yeast to "eat, have sex, and fart all day", you can't help but wonder how these surly jokers actually manage to turn out the quality beer they do.

The brewery, started during the microbrewery revolution of the 80s, has grown steadily over the past 2+ decades, recently being upgraded to "craft brewery" status after meeting the 15,000 barrels in sales threshold. But despite their success in the world of artesianal beer they maintain an everyman attitude about their business. The tour guides, usually several beers deep themselves, pepper their narratives with crude jokes, stories of run-away beer kegs, and a lengthy explanation of the use of bungs and bung holes in older style kegs. The tour finishes with the bottling process, which is performed to the theme song of "Laverne and Shirley".

On the Lakefront Brewery tour you may learn something about brewing beer, you may not, but you will have a good time and you will drink plenty of beer. Its this attitude which made me realize how great of a representation the Lakefront Brewery tour was of Milwaukee itself. The obsession with beer, the happy-go-lucky attitude towards drinking, it really reflects the city where brewing beer has been an important way of life for generations.

But that's only part of it, because at Lakefront they also have a damn good fish fry to go along with their tours. Yes, after you've stumbled your way through the tour, you'd be missing out if you didn't head upstairs for some battered, fried fish that is a staple to Milwaukee's large Catholic population. While Friday fish frys occur all over the country, usually sponsored by churches, in Milwaukee they are a mainstay of the restaurant industry. The Catholic population in Milwaukee comes from a diverse background (German, Polish, Irish, Italian), but at Lakefront their fry has a decidedly German flair. With the sounds of the polka in your ear, a large glass of dark beer before your eyes, and a plate full of battered fish and potato pancakes, you may or may not be in Heaven, but you will definitely be in Milwaukee. Myself, never a fan of heavily battered and fried dishes, went with the lightly battered fried perch, and found the balance of flavors to be almost perfect.

If I sound particularly giddy and excited over my experience at Lakefront, it's because after 5 months of living in Milwaukee, I now have something to put on my "must do" list for visitors, and that something happens to involve copious amounts of drinking. My goal is to develop a list of "must do" items for any friends, family, or couchsurfers that may come to visit me in the future, and now I have the first item. Visiting Milwaukee for the weekend? You need to get your reservation for a tour at Lakefront and then stick around for a fish fry dinner afterwards.

Don't even think about eating at Culver's.

What no gravy?

Ah Thanksgiving. America's finest secular holiday, where we give thanks to the Indians for helping our ancestors survive that first harsh winter and honor them by recreating the splendid feast they created (and possibly by making a quick trip to the local casino as well...). If you're family is anything like my family, it means a meal with enough food to feed 50 that is then served to a gathering of 15 is the centerpiece of the holiday.

Really, Thanksgiving is the one true holiday we have in America where food takes centerstage in every home across the country. And not only that, but the ubiquitous array of dishes is amazing given the vast cultural differences that encompass our country. My family, most likely similar to yours, does it pretty traditional. There's the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the cranberry sauce, the green bean casserole, the sweet potato casserole, the mashed potatoes, the pies (and a ham just for the hell of it), a true feast of feasts. And all across the country, at least as much as I can tell from friends and television, everyone else is enjoying almost identical dishes.

I would love to be there with someone from a distant country whose first visit to America just happened to fall on Thanksgiving day, and who was lucky enough to be able to join a family for his or her first meal in the states.

"So is this a traditional American meal?"

"Well sort of, its kind of been adapted for modern times, but the basic concepts are there"

"So it is more similar to how you eat now?"

"....yeah....well we don't actually eat any of this stuff at any other time of the year"

"so it's neither traditional nor contemporary?"

"actually I would call it a half-assed combination of the two. Which is what makes it all the more American in the first place"

So yeah, it amazes me how ingrained these dishes are in our culture....for one day a year. How do the turkey, green bean, and yam manufacturers cope with such a spike in demand? And even beyond that, the dishes are not exactly representative of what the pilgrims ate at the original thanksgiving either. There are inspirations there no doubt, but I highly doubt that Squanto brought along a of Cream of Mushroom soup for the green bean casserole, and Pocahontas probably didn't pull a bag of marshmallows out of her purse for the yams (I know she wasn't there, but you try naming another Indian).

What we have today is some crazy concoction that mixes 17th century ingredients available at the time and mid 20th century Betty Crocker culture into a tasty, but curious feast. The turkey is perhaps the one true, unchanged element throughout the years, but even so, back then he wasn't the busty, roided-up specimen he is today.

In my family we've experimented with some deviations in the past, but this year the meal stayed pretty true to form. I had intentions of trying to do a take on these, something you should really try if you're in Milwaukee, but laziness got the best of me and I ended up contributing a 12 pack of Wisconsin's own Spotted Cow to our family meal.

I'm guessing everyone else had a similar meal last Thursday, and a toast to those who prepared the food and put in the time. Its a meal with lots of prep to make dishes that we wouldn't actually ever request to have made in the first place at any other point in the year, but yet somebody's got to do it. And hopefully they did the dishes justice, as my family did.

"This time we DIDN"T forget the gravy" is the
traditional family blessing at our house


Some traditional asian slaw and my Grandma's world famous
butterhorn rolls finished off the plate.

From Pittsburgh to Chicago with fries

I've had a string of eating at establishments featured on the Food Network or Travel Channel going lately, not that I'm particularly proud of it, but hey, things happen. This weekend featured a trip to Lucky's in Chicago (specifically Wrigleyville), which has played host to Adam Richmond and his Man vs Food show on The Food Network. Interestingly enough, the place isn't even really a Chicago-style establishment, but rather sells sandwiches inspired by the famous Primanti Brothers shops in Pittsburgh. I hadn't even realized this until I saw the them coming out from the kitchen and realized I recognized them from my trip to the steel city. Stacked tall with a layer of prime deli meat, french fries, and topped with slaw and a tomato, they make for an impressive sight. The sandwiches were first invented as a way to sell a meal to truckers on the go in Pittsburgh, but they have found a place in the hearts (and bloated bellies) of Americans because well....that's exactly the sort of thing that Americans would love.

But it wasn't just the way the sandwiches were made that helped bring them to prominence. Being an establishment that catered to truck drivers, they opened at 3am and found a secondary market in the remaining public that was up at 3am for various reasons (all of them noble I'm sure) and was in need of a late night snack. Looking back, the transition from working man's sandwich to drunk munchies seems so obvious, but at the time I think they just caught a case of being in the right place at the right time.

I've eaten at Primanti Bros in Pittsburgh, and though its hard to compare given that it was several years in between eating there and at Lucky's in Chicago, my memory tells me I liked the original better. The fact that I was fighting a nice little hangover and struggled to finish my sandwich at Lucky's might have influenced my decision as well (and then I remembered why I try to avoid hard liquor at bars). Either way though it was a pretty faithful recreation, so I imagine the rust belt would be proud of their Chicago imitators.

Full disclosure: I'm not a huge fan of the sandwiches. I can write plenty about their history and cultural significance, and how they are a Pittsburgh area staple, which is usually something I really get into when I visit places, but something about them just doesn't work for me. And sandwiches are even my favorite food. . Perhaps its the cole slaw, which seems a sad compliment to such good deli meats. And while I like fries, I also enjoy them with ketchup, something I don't like on my sandwiches. So I was a little lost as to how to complete the sandwich and keep it from tasting so dry. On the table was a bottle of ketchup and some hot sauce, but neither seemed like a good option. I really wanted some deli mustard or something of that sort. What's the proper procedure with these things? Either I am missing something or I just don't have the right tastes to enjoy these sandwiches as they are supposed to be eaten.

Anyways, if you're in Pittsburgh (or Cleveland for that matter I'm told) its a required stop, despite what I might have said in the previous paragraph. And get yourself some Yuengling while you're at it, one of the best non craft brewery beers in America. In fact, writing this post makes me want to make a trip back to Pittsburgh right now, a closer visit to see if it should indeed make the list or not. It seems odd but I honestly believe Pittsburgh enjoys a fairly good reputation right now. People speak kindly of it as a place to live, and the news media loves to play the "town re-invented" card when chronicling the rise of the Bio-Tech industry there. I have a hard time putting it on the same plane as the other cities I wrote about, but am struggling for an east coast entrant. Perhaps its a case of lowered expectations: the fact that Pittsburgh somewhat avoided the path that Cleveland and Detroit have taken is reason why its often celebrated as a success story despite having lost about half its population in the last 50 years. The list doesn't matter in the end though, just the experience. Pittsburgh was good to me, and I thank it for that.

And what was Mr. Richmond's challenge while at Luckys? He had to down 3 of those bad boys in under an hour. A truly amazing feat. As I struggled through my lone offering, I could suddenly see why it looks like he's put on quite a few pounds through the course of hosting such a gluttonous show. But hey, at least he can go on one of those celebrity weight loss shows now.

COA Milwaukee

One of my favorite cuisines, both to eat and to cook, is Mexican. It's a cuisine based on flavorful, inexpensive ingredients that were accessible to the masses. It's full of dishes that take lots of time, care, and expertise to make, yet are still made best by little old grandmas (abuelitas) rather than by professional chefs. In terms of bang for your buck, I don't think you can do any better than some good Mexican. I love Mexican. You love Mexican. Everyone loves Mexican.

Now, when you think Mexican you usually envision some hole in the wall taqueria complete with nostalgic pictures of ole Mexico and red, white and green themed everything. You definitely don't think of some trendy, modern sit down restaurant with servers dressed in all black, situated in a new "mixed development" mall in suburban Wisconsin. But this is exactly what COA in Glendale is. The decor speaks almost nothing of traditional Mexican, and the location screams fauxburban. Yet on the front, right above the entrance is a sign that says "The Heart ofMexican Street Food". What? I don't want to generalize too much, but this place had all the signs of the places I love to hate. In short, I was ready to walk into the place, order their crappy food and then rip them apart for being expensive, inauthentic, and generally just trying too hard.


But that all fell apart once I took a bite of my carne asada taco, which to my disappointment, was pretty solid. The meat was well cooked and flavorful, and the toppings, while a little more extravagant than you would normally find at a taqueria(the roasted jalapeno was a nice touch though), were still fairly authentic. Aside from being served with a minuscule slice of lime that no self respecting Mexican would find acceptable they actually did a pretty good job. Damn, and I was so ready to hate this place too. On the flip side, my dining companion ordered a lamb torta that did not meet the same standards. I was intrigued to see the lamb offering on the menu, as it's not something you see very often in Mexican cooking, especially in Mexican street food. Perhaps there's a reason as the overcooked lamb was rubbery and very off putting. I think we both decided to stick with the tacos next time around.

I guess this post turned into a sort of restaurant review, in that I think COA does a pretty good job for what they are. They take some inspiration from Mexican street food, glamour it up a bit, tack on a couple bucks on the price and some shiny decor and call it a restaurant. It's not a bad concept, and if it gets more people to accept eating corn tortillas and tacos with no cheddar cheese then perfect. My real point is just that I'm struggling with the lack of hispanic culture on the north side of Milwaukee. In Chicago you almost expect there to be a taqueria on every other street corner, even in the nicer parts of town. And if you live in the right neighborhoods, you can find a Mexican grocery store stuffed with fresh produce a prices a fraction of what your local conglomerate super market offers. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for Milwaukee.

It's not that there is not a sizable Hispanic population here, it's just that its more concentrated into one area of town, and that area unfortunately is neither where I live nor work. I would kill for a good neighborhood taqueria somewhere around me, and if I've picked up any Hispanic readers in Milwaukee then please make this happen. And if you live next to a taqueria in Chicago, or where ever, please savor and appreciate what you have, even if it's not the best one ever. The thing about them in the states is that while they're not always fantastic, they are rarely bad, and usually a great source for cheap, convenient meals.

Milwaukee's Best Wings

Ranking food and food establishments is a popular subject these days, especially among city "readers" a la Chicago's Red Eye and Milwaukee's Shepherd Express (ed note: what kind of name is Shepherd Express for a reader?). Most of them now have an annual "best of" list that attempts to rank local establishments and declare winners in a variety of categories. Milwaukee's best fish fry, Chicago's best deep dish pizza, Brooklyn's best Vietnamese Sandwich shop and so on. While I applaud these papers for promoting the local places and giving them some much needed press, I often question whether one can truly be better than the other, oftentimes when a straight up comparison is difficult to make. It's hard to take some of the categories, such as "Best Mexican", too seriously when Mexican food in Mexico can mean a variety of regional cuisines, let alone the variations and deviations that occur here in the states.

Usually when I see these lists, I prefer instead to just make note of the finalists and attempt to get there and try their offerings for myself. Being new to Milwaukee, I've been using these lists from the Shepherd to get a lay of the food landscape here and come up with a list of places I want to frequent. I'm skeptical of whether the number one place in each list is truly better than the number two, but given the fact that they made the list, there's a good bet they both offer some good food.

So where am I going with this you might ask? Good question, let me make a stated segue across the street from my apartment to Points East Pub in Milwaukee. Points East is by definition, the closest bar to my apartment, as demonstrated by this helpful visual aid. Now, I didn't choose to live where I do because of proximity to this bar, but after moving I was happy to discover that Points is well known for serving some of the best wings around town.

Most of us are familiar with Buffalo Wings as a fried bar food, where chicken wings or drumsticks are fried, tossed in a "wing" sauce, and served to drunk, hungry patrons. Sometimes, we attempt to make them at home on the grill, where in our impatience and exuberance we spread the sugary bbq sauce over the wings almost immediately after placing them on the grill, which then forces us to take them off too soon as the skin quickly becomes burnt to a black, charred crisp (I say "we" because I've done this several times). At Points East, however, they do a little from column A and a little from column B, leading to a final product that is both delicious and unique. Their wings are prepared by first deep frying in the normal routine, but then after the initial fry the wings are coated in sauce and placed on the grill, where they are slow grilled to perfection, leaving a slightly charred skin and imparting a smokey, grilled flavor to them as well.

Now comparing these wings to your conventional wings would be tough, they tend to be a bit drier and the caramelized skin is not what one is normally used to on a wing. But they come packed with character in a sauce that's full flavored and moderately, but not overpoweringly spiced. And, if you're like me and enjoy some good blue cheese dressing with your wings (or ranch) then the drier wings make for a more balanced bite, rather than one that's just dripping down your fingers with sauce and dressing. You can actually eat these wings and maintain a sliver of self-respect rather than becoming a giant, sloppy, sticky mess. They really are some of the best wings I've ever had, and the people of Milwaukee agree, having voted Points East number one wings in years past (the category doesn't seem to exist in the Shepherd guide right now).

I would be hard pressed to say that they are truly the best wings in Milwaukee. Besides the point that I've only had wings from a few places here, it's just too hard to compare them to more conventional wings, or even the weird ass flavored wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. That's why I don't take too much stock in the final standings of those rating polls. But whether they are truly number one or not doesn't matter when you've recognized that they're some damn good and unique wings.

Fry
Sauce
Grill
Eat

Done. Come to Milwaukee and I'll show you what I mean.

Putting it on the list

This past weekend I was up in the Twin Cities area for a tournament, and while it was nice to make a trip to the land 'o lakes, and the 80 degree weather was a pleasant change from the normal mid-October Minnesota weather, I didn't actually get a chance to actually see any of the area, or even eat any good food for that matter. It's a shame, ultimate tournaments are really a terrible way to visit new areas, they just take up too much time. It did get me thinking about "The Cities" though, and how I really want to make a trip sometime soon to visit and really get to know the area. I have some family from the cities and have been there several times over the years, but never just as an adult to go and check out the neighborhoods, bars, and restaurants. Honestly, it feels almost as if I've never been there before despite having spent plenty of time there. Unfortunately with the weather getting colder I think I will delay my visit until 2011, but I will return with an open schedule and the hopes of finally getting to know the Minneapolis area that everyone seems to love so much.

And when I say everyone loves, I really mean it. Another thing I realized over the weekend as I pondered what my impressions were of this city that I can't decide if I've ever been to is that you almost never hear anything negative said about Minneapolis. Sure they complain about the weather, but really in Minnesota that just means its time for hockey and ice fishing. Everyone I know who is from there speaks proudly of the area, and I've heard many people speak of at least a wistful desire to move there. The Twin Cities have this buzz about them, like a cool alternative for the blase Chicagoan.

There are really very few cities that boast this kind of reputation, where they seem to offer a respite from the hassles and problems of America's more well known major cities while still offering plenty of cultural, entertainment and leisure activities.. I actually tried to come up with a list of the cities I thought met this criteria. American cities that seem to have a certain buzz about them, where people speak fondly of the things going on there and decry "once you're there you won't want to leave" or something to that effect. These are hardly scientific search criteria, but the best thing about compiling a list based on word of mouth and hype is that I don't have to do any real research, just kind of come up with what I think is appropriate in my head. *sips drink* OK and the list is ready.

Minneapolis, MN
Portland, OR
Austin, TX
Denver, CO

This is what I came up with, and the sad thing is I don't think I've ever really visited any of the cities on the list. Denver is similar to Minneapolis for me, I've been through the city for various reasons before but never really checked it out in a way that makes me feel like I truly understand what Denver is. The list is somewhat well balanced geographically, you have a Midwest, West Coast, Rocky Mountain, and Southern city in there. I'm struggling with an East coast equivalent right now. Pittsburgh could maybe be it, but I don't think it has the same draw that the other cities on the list do either. And yes, I don't think Austin really qualifies as Southern, but its at least from Texas. I could possibly include Nashville, a city that I really enjoyed, but that's based more on personal impressions than hype and word of mouth, which kind of defeats the purpose.

So the question is when can I get to these cities? Suffice it to say all of them are near the top of my "must visit" list, if they weren't already. Minneapolis should definitely happen soon, and I'd like to think one or two of the others could as well, but we'll see how things shake out. I'd love to come back in a year with some field research under my belt as to why people truly love these areas and have nothing bad to say about them. For now they remain on the buzz list though, and kudos for them for doing so.

Writing about places I want to go hardly makes for a compelling blog I'm sure. But with a new job, a new city and plenty of other things to worry about right now, I'm having a nice dry spell in my travel life. It's actually almost depressing to look at my travel schedule and see basically nothing. Sure, I have ideas and plans, but no plane tickets have been purchased, and no concrete schedules exist. My goal for this blog is to compile a series of posts that really reflect my thoughts, impressions, and perhaps recommendations for the places I go, and just as importantly, the food and drink that is consumed while there. I have also a new city at my fingertips, and I am continually exploring and learning more about Milwaukee. But for every post I begin to write, I realize that it's perhaps better to wait until I have a little more experience to draw on. I will say for now that I am enjoying the city, and that while perhaps it doesn't have the same hype about it as Minneapolis, it does give a nice reprieve from Chicago while still incorporating many of the same Midwestern influences.

With the ultimate season over and a new calendar year (and a full slate of vacation days) approaching, I'm already beginning to explore the possibilities for next year. A return trip to Europe could be in the works, as well as some other domestic trips and possible a venture to Puerto Rico. Unfortunately for now though I'll just have to keep dreaming about that trip to Minneapolis.

Who needs Lonely Planet anyways?

After my trip last summer through Latin America with a friend from high school I did some writing about my experiences and thoughts over the course of our 2 month trip. It was part travelogue, part travel writing, taking more or less a novelistic approach, trying to imitate my favorite travel writer, Bill Bryson. In my never titled work I tried to correlate some major ideas and themes into the every day experiences of traveling for an extended period of time. I had always been amazed at how Bryson, hardly an adventurous or trailblazing traveler, could captivate readers with his narratives of traveling to the most ordinary of places. The stories he told and places he visited were always supported by rich exposition and thoroughly researched background information, that, combined with his quick wit and writing skills made for compelling reading regardless of the situation. But besides the stories he told, his books usually involved some sort of underlying theme that brought it to life. They became so much more than mere travelogues recounting the day by day activities that someone who had never met him, nor visited the places he was describing, could become enveloped in the pictures he painted on the page.

As I began writing more about my traveling I attempted to emulate this idea. I tried to move past the day to day descriptions (and then we ate at this place....and then we saw this building) that rarely mean much to anyone besides the author. I had some grander ideas of incorporating my unemployment into themes of traveling as a form of personal introspection and discovery, but that became extremely difficult to pull off without sounding like a whiny d-bag (I don't know what I want to be when I grow up....wah!). But beyond my own personal sob story, I continued to search for other themes, and one which became quite apparent was the way in which technology, most noticeably the information revolution of the past 20 years, has reshaped the way we travel.

The internet is global. Aside from extremely remote areas in the developing world, you can find access to the world wide web almost anywhere you go. In fact, as a traveler it's easier to do outside of the US than inside. The ubiquitous presence of home computers in the US has starved the need for public access, and though one can find multiple internet cafes in just about every town or village in the rest of the world, I'm not sure it would be so easy here in the states. Accessing the internet became a daily part of our routine on the road, whether through using the computer of our host, the one at the hostel, or finding an internet cafe, it was fairly safe to say we were online almost daily. This was done to contact friends and family, research destinations, travel routes, find lodging and keep up to date with all the happenings on Facebook.

In thermodynamics there is scientific value known as a state function, which is a property dependent only on the current state of the system and is independent of the path in which it arrived there.In searching for how the internet has influenced the world of traveling I was drawn to this description, something which could be independent of path seemed an appropriate way to describe how I preferred to traverse the globe. I realized that I like my trips to be path independent, in which I set a beginning and ending location, but otherwise am not pre-concerned with the path to which I will arrive at the end. My trip last summer was based around this mantra. We knew we were to fly into Caracas in the beginning of June, and I had a return flight out of Mexico City. In between we knew we had 10 countries to cover in 8 weeks, and we would work it out as we went along.

This is not a wholly unique way of traveling, as there are many people who have traveled, and will continue to travel, in this light. But this type of unplanned, "path independent" traveling as I like to call it, has become easier, and more accessible to the masses, thanks to the revolutionary amount of access to information we now have in the 21st century. Though we didn't plan our trip out more than one or two destinations ahead of time, we almost always had lodging arranged upon arrival, and had usually researched our destination beforehand in order to come to a decision about where to head to next. Yes, people have been able to do this for some time now, but it's only within the last few years that one can approach a trip of this manner with such certainty. I knew that no matter where we were headed, we would always be able to find access to any information we would need.

So why write about this now (aside from self-aggrandizing reasons)? As some of you know I joined the world of mobile internet access this week with a smartphone, a severe upgrade from my old flip phone with talk and text capabilities only. So now, a mere 14 months after my revelations about how technology had changed the way we cover the globe, I realize that most of what I had written is already outdated. Having the internet always just a few blocks away seems so irrelevant when you can have it at your fingertips instead. I'm exaggerating a bit as most of us don't have world wide coverage and accessibility with our mobile devices, but we're heading in that direction. The technology is truly amazing, and is only getting better. I think the thesis that I would rewrite now, is that traveling is whatever we want it to be anymore. It means I can continue to plan my trips by selecting arrival and departing cities and nothing more. It means people will be able to easier travel to lands of which they have little knowledge of the language and the culture. This could be a good thing, but perhaps a bad one as well.

I had ideas of comparing Bill Bryson's paragraphs where he extols the virtues of having quality, highly detailed maps, to me sitting at a computer, using Google maps to plan the route we would be taking. But you could almost make the same comparison of me, tied down to a computer look up a map, versus someone who has the information sent straight to their phone as they stand on the street corner, ready to head off in the direction of interest. Looking back, my musings about how fast the world was moving were already behind the times.

For now I will be glad to have access to my phone whenever I travel around the states. The ability to pull up maps, restaurant reviews, city information and so much more makes the task of traveling much easier. I don't foresee being able to use it internationally anytime in the near future, but I'm sure that day will come eventually. As I said before, it's almost more important here domestically because of the lack of public internet spots, but then again most of my trips around the US are not of the same scope and caliber as traveling internationally.

And what happened to my travel novel that was to feature said musings on the influence of technology on the way in which we travel? Well irony happened, and it was all lost when my hard drive crashed many months ago. I was not too broken up about though, as it needed quite a bit of work and I was beginning to get the feeling it wasn't going to turn out as I had hoped. But it was that experience of trying to document and narrate the life of a traveling soul that led me to begin this blog, so not all was lost.

Now I just need to be able to get away and start traveling again so I have something to write about...

Beersconsin

There's a fairly big brewing tradition here in Wisconsin, in case you haven't heard (they even named their baseball team, Los Cerveceros, after said industry). Much of the history can be traced to German immigrants in the 19th century, who brought with them a hard work ethic, a strong knowledge about brewing, and lots of funny sounding names.

Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, Leinenkugels, Heilleman; these were the titans of the Wisconsin brewing industry. Some guy named Miller was in there along the way too, but anyways, I think you get the picture. Once refrigeration took off and distribution became possible, the breweries of Wisconsin helped keep the Midwestern states well lubricated for decades. But the party didn't last long, and corporate America and the birth of the American "lite lager" repaved the brewing industry in America into a advertising driven, calorie cutting, flavor annihilating beast. Only Miller was successfully able to catch this wave and ride it into becoming one of the nation's powerhouse breweries. Not that this was a good thing, but they did it none the less.

But from the dust of the once giant brewing industry in Wisconsin has arisen a new class of craft breweries. Though the craft brewing industry has been on the upswing nationwide since the 80s, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of Wisconsin brewed beers that are available in the Milwaukee area. It's almost like a Colorado of the Midwest, which makes me believe there's probably a connection between the beer giants Miller and Coors, and the microbrewery industries that sprung up around them the last few decades.

I've had a chance to sample some offerings from a couple of the different breweries in my few short months here, and what has quickly become a favorite of mine in Capital Brewery, based in the Madison area. You don't have to be a computer hacker to figure out that these guys know what they're doing, the awards listed on their website pretty much give it away. I'm not sure how widely available many of them are, but still an impressive list nonetheless. Oddly enough, what has been my favorite beer from them, the US Pale Ale, isn't even listed. But then again I'm a sucker for anything with cascade hops so what can I say. Now that it is officially fall, I just picked up some of their Oktoberfest, which has proven to be a solid offering as well.

The Capital Brewery is now officially on my to do list when I finally get to Madison (which is near the top of my to-go list). Luckily quite a bit of their selection is widely available around the Milwaukee area. They list distributors in Illinois, though I'm not sure how widely available they are around the Chicago metropolitan area. Beyond that, you can find their beers in the Twin Cities and that's about it. Apologies to all my readers outside of their distribution area, you'll just have to come visit Milwaukee now.

I'm not claiming that Capital is my favorite Wisconsin brewery, its much too early to make that decision, but I will say that so far they are leading the pack. There are quite a few votes for New Glarus, another Madison area based brewery, out there as well I'm sure. Leinie's will always be a favorite, but I think I'd put that in a category above the craft brewers in terms of size. And in Milwaukee, Lakefront Brewery has impressed me quite a bit for a brewery that's so poorly named (it's on the river!). Supposedly they make a good fish fry too so if you're heading to Milwaukee now you're Friday night is planned out for you.

Moving to a new city where you don't know anyone is always difficult, but when that city just happens to be in a land where beer is celebrated, appreciated, and more importantly drank by the truckload, it makes everything just a little easier.

Bourdain behind the scenes

Last week I caught the "making of" episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, an episode in which they give a behind the scenes look at how the Kerala, India episode was planned, filmed, and produced. The episode featured commentary from several of the people who help make the show what it is, as well as lots of anecdotes and flashbacks to previous episodes.

Before I move on though I should probably back up and introduce my thoughts on the show. In a phrase, I think the show is amazing and one of my favorites on TV. I have loved it ever since I began watching it a few years ago, and has probably been the single biggest influence on my interest in combining the culinary and travel worlds. Perhaps you've seen the Egypt episode from season 4 where Bourdain casually glances over towards the pyramids off in the horizon and then remarks something to the effect of "We won't be going anywhere near those while in Egypt". Of course, he says it in the dickish way that has helped make him so famous, but regardless, the sentiment really struck me. I found in his passion for food a new focus for my need to explore the world. One can only look at so many churches, ruins, and monuments before they all begin to look the same. And besides that, most of the interesting landmarks are so crowded with tourists and trinket-hawking vendors that the real crux and purpose of why you're there is almost impossible to enjoy. Looking back at some of the trips I've taken lately, and thinking about how what and/or where I intend to eat has become the main focus point in my preparation, it's not much of a stretch to say that his show has markedly defined the way I travel now.

However, watching the behind the scenes episodes, it came as a great relief to see one of the biggest issues I have with the show addressed (albeit not directly). My biggest complaint with the show, and really its more of a frustration, is that the edited, produced series that is beamed to my television makes it appear as if Bourdain merely wanders the streets of each city he visits until he comes upon a food stand, restaurant, market or other area of interest and begins to chat up the owners, partake of the best offerings, and impart some wisdom as to why this place is so remarkable. He just makes it look so damn easy.

But thankfully, this new episode has shed light upon the tireless work of the many people who make the show work behind the scenes. In reality all the scenes are scouted beforehand, the shots planned and lighting set up, and the people are often prepped on how to hold their "spontaneous" conversations on camera. I guess this is nothing earth shattering, and most people reading this are probably thinking that this is more or less common knowledge. Maybe it was just the jealous, paranoid person in me who couldn't figure why he was so much better at traveling and experiencing the world the way I wanted to than I was. Now I can rest easy knowing that he has quite a bit of help in doing so.

This segues into my other complaint, which is that he often makes it appear as if the only way to experience a real culture is to go to some impoverished neighborhood, sample some local working class fare, and chat up the locals about their lives and how they represent the real country. I don't have a problem with this on the surface, its just that Bourdain makes it seem like we're missing out because we don't have the balls to go where he goes, when in reality it's because we don't have the security, camera and accompanying posse to make it possible. This particularly struck a nerve with me in the Colombia episode, a country that I have been fortunate enough to have visited. It's a great episode, but when he is partying on the rooftop on the outskirts of Medellin or eating with the locals in the poor fishing village across from Bocagrande my thoughts just kept returning the to the idea that there's no way that I could have gone to those places with out a strong local connection, some protection, and cameras rolling all the time to keep people from trying anything. Unfortunately my strikingly good looking German complexion means it's difficult to walk around in Colombia and blend in with the locals.

It seems a bit odd that my first post about a show I love is more or less just nitpicking at things about it, but given that it's already in its 6th season I think plenty of people know why it is an amazing show and therefore it stands on its own merits. In the end I was glad to see the behind the scenes show because it satisfied my general curiosity of how they make it all come together, and confirmed in me the suspicion that there is much more work involved that the finished product lets on.

For a while I worried that if Anthony Bourdain can get paid to just wander around, eat good food in front of a camera and offer sarcastic comments and vulgar quips then why can't I. But the truth is he has a lot of help to make the show what it is(That and he has a much better on-screen personality than me). They've done a couple interesting episodes this season, a few of which I still need to catch up on, but I'm glad to see that even after 100 episodes (I just watched the 100th episode special the other night with Eric Rippert who is a perfect foil for Bourdain) the show is still going strong and offering fresh perspectives on places both new and old.

I would assume that most of the people who read this blog already watch the show, but if for some reason you haven't then you have a lot of catching up to do. So get going already!

And then I ate some good southern food

Most often when we talk about regional or national cuisines, we speak of those which we really love. It's decidedly less common for people to talk about general cuisines they dislike outside of reasons having to do with "it's different and I don't like it". I consider myself a pretty open minded eater, and enjoy most types of food. However, I've never quite been able to develop and love and appreciation for southern food. I'm generalizing a bit here, as there's quite a bit of variation between food in areas of the south, but certain themes are prevalent more than others. I've complained about the lack of spices and seasoning, the heavy reliance on salt, fat and breading as the only way to enhance the flavors of ingredients, and the overall "heaviness" of the dishes. It wasn't that I particularly disliked those foods, but just that I had never been that impressed during the times I had eaten them, and found them far less appealing that many other types of food.

But I was determined to give it one more try on my trip to Nashville, and much to my surprise, I found some food there that I actually really enjoyed. To say "found" might be a bit inaccurate because the places we went to were by no means hidden gems. In fact on Sunday we spent over 2 hours combined waiting for our meals. But the thing about waiting is that it usually an indication of good food to come. Unless you're at Cheesecake Factory, then it just means the portions will be gigantic.

And so we were up before 9am to stand in line at the Pancake Pantry, a Nashville institution known for....wait for it.....their amazing pancakes. We had to stand in line for almost an hour (not my favorite way to nurse a hangover) in order to walk in the place, but the 70 degree weather and complimentary coffee pushed things towards the tolerable side of life. The secret to ordering at the Pancake Pantry, we were told, was that all the other breakfast dishes come with pancakes as well. We all took this route, and while my dining companion's omelets looked delicious, the sausage and eggs I had were surprisingly mediocre. Eggs over easy without toast just doesn't cut it. But that's a side note, because the pancakes were fantastic. Being true to their "pantry" name, they have a wide selection of pancakes to choose from, but I settled on the sweet potato ones because I had never had anything like that before. I think I can honestly say were the best pancakes I've ever had. It's hard to describe them anymore than just to say the flavor and texture were perfect. I'm no pancake aficionado, but I had an instant appreciation for what I was consuming. While the other parts of my meal were not stand outs, the pancakes had definitely lived up to the hype.

But pancakes were really just a warm up for the evening's meal at Loveless Cafe, a country diner that has been serving travelers along the Natchez Trace Parkway for over 50 years, though the steady encroachment of metropolitan Nashville means it's no longer an out of the way destination. They weren't kidding when they said an hour and fifteen minute wait at 7pm on a Sunday evening, but as we walked through the entrance full of pictures of celebrities, athletes, and politicians dining there I had a feeling it was going to be worth the wait.

Family style proved to be the way to go, and so we ordered a couple meats and various sides to constitute our meal. It was a slight deviation from the authentic Meat and Three concept but the principles were still the same. Highlights? Well for me it was the meatloaf, which was flavorful and juicy, and along with Comet Cafe in Milwaukee, helped renew my interest in this famous but often brutalized dish. Biscuits with home preserves? Excellent. Creamed corn? Succulent. Pulled pork? Great and served with a tangy Carolina style BBQ sauce. Collard Greens? Not so much....I'm sorry but I still get their appeal. At the end of the day they still taste like bland, boiled down vegetables, even with a lot of salt and hot sauce. But all in all it was a very satisfying meal, and I left thinking that maybe my previous opinions on Southern food, while maybe not totally incorrect, were at least prematurely developed.

If I tried to tie these two posts together about my weekend in Nashville, some sort of summary as a real writer would call it, I think it would be that it is a surprisingly distinctive city with plenty of things to experience beyond the tourist traps that seem so tantalizing to the average American. I would come back to Nashville to see more music, eat more food, and perhaps make my pilgrimage to my father's Mecca....the Jack Daniels Distillery. Because we must always honor our parents wishes.

Down to Nashville

Quick apologies, I didn't intend to go this long between posts but got in between while prepping for a trip and next thing you know its been over a week. The good news is I actually managed to do some traveling that I can write about. Almost like a real travel blog.

It's always nice when a city surprises you in a good way. Maybe doesn't blow you away, but at least offers up more than you had anticipated. Of course this requires going in with preconceived notions, but most of us inevitably have them anyways. Most people would admit that it's hard to not plan on going somewhere without holding at least a small idea of what the experience might entail.

I had never been to Nashville before this weekend, only driven through it before on a couple road trips down to the dirty South. This was the first time I had made it off the interstate and caught more than just a passing glimpse of downtown Nashville. When I say I was pleasantly surprised by the city, what I mean was that somewhere along the line I had formed the idea that Nashville had entirely sold out to the idea of being the "Music City", and instead of really being a city where music is woven into the everyday fabric of life, it had become just some tourist trap filled with hokey theme bars and venues and lots of radio style country music. I envisioned myself sitting in some bar, large groups of overweight tourists in jean shorts and fanny packs stuffed into the booth next to us, with some girl from suburban Atlanta singing songs about growing up a country girl and loving life on the range.

Somehow I envisioned that Nashville wasn't really the "music city" as much as a city with a musical past that they had figured out how to exploit for the tourist dollars. I'm not trying to justify my preconceived notions, just state what they were going in.

But, thankfully, I was wrong. There was lots of real music there, and plenty of it good. What we found was a city where live bands, bands and musicians with actual talent, and a passion for creating something of their own, are a common sight. As we hopped out of the cab on Broadway you could immediately hear the music that flooded the street. From what I could see almost every bar in the nearby vicinity had a live band that night. It was a nice change of pace to see people, especially those of my generation, out at bars with live music instead of DJs and Ipod playlists. In retrospect I wish I had focused more on appreciating the music that evening, but the festive atmosphere and allure of tasty beverages and old friends proved too much. And so I woke up on Sunday with only a few memories: dancing to an alt-rock band, wandering the streets of Nashville at 1:30 in the morning, and trying to put money into a broken cigarette machine for 10 minutes. But with those also came the hazy feeling that I had had a good time in Nashville, and that it was a city with a personality and identity.

Now, one can't simply claim that getting drunk and catching a couple live bands is the best way to judge a city, but combine that with the people in our hotel warming up for the open mic night, and the bluegrass jam session we caught in The Gulch (in an old fashioned bar surrounded by the new trendy Nashville neighborhood), it formed in me an impression that music really is an important part of its identity. There's not too many places in America where you can say that.

Our stay wasn't long enough to get to see too much more of the city, though we did manage to check out the East End area of town as well, around the Five Points area that is becoming Nashville's new hip (read: hipster) neighborhood. It has a way to go, there was only one bicycle shop and not a ton of other bars and restaurants yet, but you could see it was on its way. We stopped by a bar and had some brews from Yazoo, the local brewery, though none of them seemed to be particularly noteworthy. But as always I was at least glad to see that they did have something local on tap to try, and I think if I lived in Nashville I would throw back a Dos Perros lager or the Pale Ale from time to time.

The food was another pleasant surprise, though not necessarily for Nashville but for Southern food in general. I'm going to do a separate post for this but I can say for now that the trip definitely improved my perception of Southern cuisine. I'm not a full convert yet, and I still believe it has its limitations, but damn did we eat well. And when you have good food, good drinks, and good music, its hard not to enjoy where you are.

Who wears an IRA hat to Irish Fest?

Maintaining a travel and food blog can be quite difficult when the demands of a full time job prevent you from actually doing much traveling. So instead I let others bring the culture to me by way of Milwaukee's ethnic festivals. This weekend's offering was Irish Fest, billed as the "World's Largest Celebration of Irish Music and Culture". Take that Ireland!

I should probably disclose that in reality I have a fairly skeptical view of "cultural festivals", especially the major ones like Irish, Italian and German. It's hard to imagine boiling down these diverse cultures and historical landscapes into about 5 or 6 main ideas. I can only imagine what an American Festival abroad would look like. Everyone would be walking around wearing baseball caps, eating hamburgers, listening to big band music and dancing the electric slide. And then after doing that you really feel like you know and appreciate the real America. On second thought perhaps that's a bad example cause after doing all those things you more or less do know the real America.

But my complaints aside, they do make a pretty big deal of Irish Fest here in Milwaukee. I was pretty impressed that every stage on the Summerfest grounds was occupied, most but not entirely were populated with traditional Irish dance groups featuring about a dozen young girls and sometimes one lone awkward young boy. There were also some Irish folk musicians, and we even managed to catch a set from a group from Ireland. The friend I was there with and I both agreed that while Irish music might not be something you would want to listen to everyday, it sure does make for some great background music over a pint or five.

I didn't actually try any of the food there, but once again if you really want to experience the true food from a culture, a festival or fair is not the place to do it. I saw some Shepherds Pie from one of the stands but there didn't seem to be a whole lot else. In fact a lot of the food available seems to be there regardless of which ethnic festival was in town. I even witnessed a couple ordering from the Chinese stand, which seemed almost as ridiculous as wearing an IRA hat to Irish Fest. Then again I would've worn my Al Qaeda to Arab Fest but it was dirty.

We wandered around for a couple hours seeing some of the performances, looking at the kitschy festival trinkets you can purchase and laughing at all the people in stupid green T-shirts. I did enjoy a couple of delicious Irish Stouts while there (brewed by the traditional Irish-Wisconsin brewer O'Leinenkugel's, which is a big compliment considering I am not much of a fan of stouts.At the end of the day it was a nice experience to check out one of the festivals for which Milwaukee has become known. They are without a doubt hugely popular and by and large do about as good a job of promoting the culture as possible given the restraints. The main restraint being that as Americans we tend to prefer our culture nicely packaged in easy to digest portions and limited to areas we can comprehend and qualify. Wear green, play the fiddle, eat potatoes and dance without moving your arms. Throw in some booze and bam! You're in Ireland.

Taco Bell goes south of the border?

I made a startling discovery the other day during a stop at Taco Bell during lunch (and you thought this blog was all about expensive seafood and getting drunk on sailboats). They're actually serving something that resembles a real taco these days. Now, I'm not saying Taco Bell doesn't make excellent cheap food that tastes even better after a night punishing your liver, but by now I'm sure most of us are well aware that the Tex-Mex style tacos from Taco Bell are quite different from the tacos one would find in Mexico or taqueria in the States.

And yet there I was staring at the "cantina" style taco I had just unwrapped from Taco Bell. It was a carnitas taco topped with onions and cilantro....on a corn tortilla.....and even served with a little wedge of lime! I swear it looked like someone who worked at Taco Bell had actually been to Mexico! I couldn't believe it, they were actually trying to make real Mexican food. But while they get points for effort, the grade for execution remained disappointingly low. Someone apparently forgot to tell the Taco Bell employees that you have to cook corn tortillas, not just serve them straight out of the package. This meant my taco was served on a rubbery corn tortilla that promptly broke in half as soon as I tried to curl it up for consumption. While the meat was flavored decently, the onions, cilantro and lime were far from the freshest.

I'm not quite sure what is driving this product offering from Taco Bell. My guess would be an appeal to the growing Mexican and more importantly Mexican-American demographic in the US? Then again it could be a clever attempt to cut cheese out of the cost equation (always a pricey ingredient). Either way I was fairly shocked to see a major US restaurant chain move towards something more authentic.

They don't look like this at the restaurant

Dark 'n Stormy

Mike, a closer friend and adviser to Third Coastin', was insistent that the trip to Boston be filled with plenty of Dark 'n Stormys (ed note: stormies or stormys?), a drink he said he always had while vacationing in New England with his family. I had never heard of this drink before but if this was what the locals drink then I said I was all for it. So what is a Dark 'n Stormy? The recipe goes more or less as such:

8 oz Ginger Beer
1 oz Dark Rum
lime wedge

A simple drink no doubt. Now, you might ask yourself "ginger beer, dark rum and limes? How are those in any way New England drink ingredients?" And for the most part your instinct would be correct, it's actually a drink that traces its roots to Bermuda, and is more or less considered the official drink of the island territory. So how did it end up in New England? The answer more or less lies in the sailing culture that exists up and down the east coast, and the drink has spread to sailing hot spots along the coast. Even parts of the east coast of Canada are known to enjoy the tropical goodness that is a Dark and Stormy. Seeing as how I grew up in Iowa, it suddenly made perfect sense why I had never heard of a drink that is traditionally tied to the sailing and coastal cultures of the eastern seaboard.

But while it might be a native New England drink, it surely has been adopted by the region. We ordered them at the bar as well as picked up some ingredients to make during a day of sailing as well (check! I have now been sailing). Now try doing this in Chicago and see if they have Ginger beer at the bar or your local grocery store.

On that topic, this was the first time I had ever tried ginger beer. Not Ginger Ale (which I still only drink on flights), though the two both have misleading names considering neither has any alcoholic content. Ginger beer is exactly what it sounds like, it is a sweet carbonated beverage with a strong taste of ginger. Like I said, this isn't Ginger Ale. This tastes like you just took a big bite of the ginger at the sushi restaurant. I would have to assume its a somewhat acquired taste, cause one would have to have a true love of the ginger flavor to be able to take down an entire bottle. But as an ingredient in a drink, with the rum to balance the flavor and the lime to cut the sweetness, you actually have something you can sit back and enjoy.

Overall it's a solid drink, and in fact fit the mood perfectly after our group of travelers gave up on sightseeing after an hour and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon drinking on the deck of bar next to the harbor. Would I order it regularly? Probably not, but much like Mike it will probably be a drink I find myself for in the mood whenever I'm in New England, Bermuda, or on a sailboat.

Alive and Kicking Lobsters

As I wrote before, there was much seafood consumed in Boston. Mission Accomplished. I'm not going to write about every detail, but one of the best experiences was lunch at Alive & Kicking Lobsters in Cambridge. We hadn't actually sought the place out as much as decided on it because it was the closest place that the internet said we could go to get a sandwich. The fact that this place has been rated as one of the top places to get a lobster roll in Boston was a welcomed coincidence.

And by lobster roll I mean lobster sandwich, because that's how they do it at A&K. And they do it well, which they should seeing as its the only thing on the menu. This is not a sandwich shop, or restaurant, just a place where people come to buy lobsters and other fresh seafood. At first glance not where you would expect to head for a good meal, but somehow this is how it has evolved. My guess is that years back, someone told the owner Louie that his homemade lobster sandwiches kicked some serious ass, and that he could make some money by selling them. So Louie, ever the entrepreneurial lobster fisherman, started whipping them up right there in the shop and selling them to hungry passersby. Whether this is the truth or not I have no idea, but to visit the actual building the story I created seems entirely plausible.

The key to the lobster sandwich at A&K is all in the ratio. Heavy on the lobster, easy on the mayo. Its a light and fresh take on serving that can at times become bogged down with other gooey, soggy ingredients that do nothing more than dilute the flavor of the lobster and ruin the texture of the bread. As I said, lobster is beautiful in its simplicity. After whipping up the lobster salad they put it between two pieces of toasted scali bread and you have your sandwich. It's served with a bag of Cape Cod potato chips and you can pick up a bottle of their own brand of soda to wash it all down. Of course at almost $15 this is by no means a cheap lunch, but for what you get its worth the money.

I loved the fact that the guys working behind the counter looked like people who made their lives catching seafood, and that the sandwiches just seemed like a good way to make some extra beer money. In a way I'm sure the surroundings probably influenced my opinion of the food a bit, but at the end of the day it was still a damn good sandwich.

The one downside? They didn't shuck oysters there (couldn't tell if this was by law or by choice) so we couldn't get a half dozen to compliment the meal, but if that's your biggest problem in life then you're doing alright.


(ed note: I just lifted the pictures from the internet since I still can't get to mine. But you can pretend I took them if it helps you respect me more)

Back to Boston

The launch time of Third Coastin' was set more or less around a long weekend's trip to Boston, as it seemed a great opportunity to begin the whole thing off with fresh material. So this past weekend I set out to Bean town with a group of friends, this time making sure I paid really good attention to everything I did there so I could write about it when I got home. Or something along those lines. I had been to Boston before, but this was the first time both in the summer and as an adult, arguably the best way to see the city.

What struck me this time was how small the city feels, something I heard both as a compliment and a criticism. It may be a major metropolitan city, but walking around I felt at times that I was just strolling through small New England towns, ones that happened to all be located adjacent to each other to form the city. Not only the size and scope of the neighborhoods, but the architecture, the simple colonial style housing found in many parts of the city bears a sharp contrast to the stone and brick row houses and apartments that dominate so much of Chicago (the Third Coastin' city of reference for pretty much everything).

We spent some time in Cambridge as well as the North End of Boston, but I think my favorite part of the city was South Boston. Nothing against downtown Boston and the more touristy areas of town (in fact I think Boston does a great job of embracing this and that the Freedom Trail is wonderfully done) but at the end of the day I go looking for neighborhoods. Now South Boston is nowhere near the middle class Irish stronghold it once was, and the signs of gentrification were clearly visible as we strolled along Broadway. But at the same time it felt pretty authentic. We were less than a mile from downtown Boston, but with much of the neighborhood located away from the 'T' we found the streets devoid of other tourists. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in South Boston and everyone seemed to be moving at a relaxed pace. We even managed to stumble across an international pick up softball game (it was Venezuela vs Boston Irish with Venezuela coming out on top). It was a great afternoon of exploring and almost immediately I started to picture what it would be like to live there.

Long story short, I've always liked Boston and this trip only helped reinforce that idea. It's one of the few true cities in America and has a strong identity well known around the country. Sure I got screwed over by the T multiple times and prices made me miss Milwaukee already but it's a simple reminder that things are more crowded and cost more when you are somewhere people want to be.

Speaking of prices, wow did Third Coastin' drop some cash on food and drink "research". I will be going in depth into this more in some other posts but suffice it to say I boarded the plane home with my craving for fresh seafood fully satisfied. I will say this though after gorging myself on the gifts of the sea for the first time in a while. It is amazing how little must be done to seafood to achieve great taste. In the heartland we spend hours and hours marinating, seasoning and slow cooking our meats to achieve perfection, but yet these ugly, unappetizing creatures plucked from the murky depths need nothing more than to be boiled and dipped in butter or even better just shucked, hit with a squirt of lemon juice and hot sauce before shoving it in.

Unfortunately no pictures to share as of right now due to issues with camera gear still being located in Chicago, but going forward there should be more visual accompaniment with the posts. Bear with me as I get this thing up to speed.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Hello and Welcome to Third Coastin'

My name is Alec, and I am back. And by back I mean back to the world of blogging. I've done some writing before, most notably co-authoring a music blog with my buddy Kyle for a few years, and even managed to get my words into print some time ago (where I was told by a reader that I hate fun). After being away for awhile I've decided that I missed writing and sharing my experiences. And, having now moved to another new city, I am also in need of a way to connect with friends I have made across the country and around the globe.

This time I've decided to cover a couple subjects that have become increasingly interesting and important to me: food and travel. Yes I realize these are extremely trendy topics these days, and I am not claiming to be starting anything revolutionary here. Really, I am just attempting to document my experiences as I try to see and experience as much of the globe as I can.

Traveling, especially internationally, has been a passion of mine ever since a high school trip through Europe, and already at the age of 25 I consider myself lucky to have visited over 15 countries. It is something that I think about constantly, and aside from putting food on the plate and a roof over my head, it is the number one reason why I work hard for the money.

But a travel blog is, in my opinion, a little thin of an idea. Everyone has a different version of how they like to travel, and where they like to go. And this is in addition to the fact that when you work a 9 to 5 job in the city it's hard to get away to enough places to make the blog worthwhile.

Towards my senior year of college I also began to take a little more interest in cooking and started paying attention to the things I was making. It was at first just a desire to learn how to cook more things, but since then it has become something that I really enjoy doing and talking and learning about.

Several years later, I began to realize the amazing connection that exists between the various peoples of the world and the cuisines that define them. As I attempted to venture further and further off the beaten path, I found in food (and drink!) a perfect medium to learn and understand the cultures of the places I traveled.

So what is Third Coastin'? I guess I would answer that first by what it's not. It is not a foodie blog. I don't claim to have a great palate, and I am not an expert by any means in preparing and eating the highest quality food. Nor is it a travel blog. You don't care about my trip to the Uffizi and the great Botticellis I saw there, and I don't have any desire to write about it either.

Third Coastin' is my attempt to fill the space in between these two areas. It is my attempt to learn about the myriad of places and people that fill this planet, to figure out why they eat what they do, and to discover how they make it so much better than I do. If you want, you could probably use Anthony Bourdain's award winning show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel as a template, but I hope to carve out and identity that is distinct from his show. That and I'm not a self-proclaimed asshole.

And why call it Third Coastin'? Well first off I really struggled to think of any name, and more or less had to pick one if I wanted to get going. Having just moved to Milwaukee, and with frequently planned trips back to Chicago, this blog will probably feature quite heavily on these two great cities on the Third Coast of America: Lake Michigan. I cleverly thought that by using the word Coastin', I could make use of coast as a homonym while lightly referencing the traveling aspect of the blog. Did I succeed? Nobody cares, the name is just a name.

So bookmark Third Coastin' and use it to kill time at work. Please follow along and be sure to share your thoughts, critiques, experiences and recommendations!