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...