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.
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.
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...
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.
