Kopp's Frozen Custard, Jumbo Burgers in Milwaukee

When I went to Wisconsin, I flew into Milwaukee, and on the way back to the airport, we stopped at Kopp's for their famous custard and burgers.
When entering the place, you can't help noticing the all stainless steel kitchen with several custard machines making fresh custard flavors up front.
I started with a cheeseburger with the works and onion rings. The burger was not your usual piled high made to order burger that you can't get your mouth around. It was more like a Whopper- flatter and easier to bite into. It was also pretty greasey.
The onion rings were tasty as well. For my custard, one of the flavors of the day was the butter pecan.

Boys Weekend in Wisconsin, Pt. 2 - Lengua Tacos

While up in Wisconsin with the boys, we enjoyed delicious BBQ'd bratwursts and Hungarian sausages (with paprika) from Schwai's butchers and microbrewed pale ale and I.P.A. from Caldera Brewing smuggled in lickingpants suitcase from Portland, OR.
One of the highlights was our friend Steve making homemade tongue tacos. He started with a large cow tongue from the butcher, and then he proceeded to smoke it all day on the BBQ.
While waiting for it to reach the right temperature, he made homemade pico de gallo with fresh tomatoes, onions, fresh cilasntro, jalepenos, and limes. He also started to warm up fresh corn tortillas he brought from a tortilleria.
When the tongue was ready, he then proceeded to chop it up into little chunks, seasoned it on a grill, and then we all made our own tacos a la carte.

Boys Weekend in Wisconsin, Pt. 1 - Fish Fry

So I was up in Wisconsin this past weekend to have a boys weekend with some of my good friends including lickingpants. Luckily, we all like food!
Friday night in Wisconsin is all about the fish fry - perhaps a remnant of the Catholic tradition of eating only fish on fridays. We headed out to a local joint near the lake house we were staying at called The Red Fox.
We started with an appetizer of deep fried cheese curds, a regional speciality, followed by a trip to the bountiful salad bar. The best item was the BLT salad.
For the fish fry, I got to try the walleye (above) and the perch. In Wisconsin, you just have lemon and tartar sauce- no vinegar. The walleye was great. I thought the perch, because it was a smaller piece of fish, was too firm after being fried. My side of German potato salad was delicious.


Red Fox Food & Spirits
N5285 E Little Silver Lake Rd
Wild Rose, WI
(920) 622-5300

Cooking more farm share produce

Boy, I thought we were getting a lot of produce a few weeks ago from our farm share... it just keeps getting more and more each week.

After getting 2 lbs of squash per week for about 3 weeks, drastic measures were called for. I found this recipe for squash pancakes in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It was basically like a squash latke instead of potato. I grated several pounds of yellow squash and zucchini, mixed it with chopped onion, egg, breadcrumbs, flour, and parmesan cheese; formed it into patties, dredged them in flour and pan-fried them. They were good - less starchy than potato pancakes. Though if I make them again, I'm going to squeeze the liquid out of my grated squash before continuing -- my mixture was pretty wet and hard to work with...

I was quite proud of this week's inspired notion to make moussaka. One pan of moussaka and I managed to use up 1 regular eggplant, 3 Chinese eggplants, 5 potatoes, 5 small tomatoes, and 1/2 lb of onions, 1/2 head of garlic.


I oven roasted the eggplant and potatoes, just drizzled with a little olive oil. The garlic, onions and tomatoes were sauteed with ground lamb, seasoned with oregano, nutmeg and cinnamon. Then everything was layered in a baking pan, and topped with a low-fat bechamel that I got from epicurious.com.

To give you an idea of the haul we got this week, that still leaves me with 2 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, 1 1/2 pints of cherry tomatoes, 1 1/2 pounds of regular tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, 1 head of garlic, 1 stalk of basil, 1/2 pound of arugula, 3 bell peppers and more friggin' squash!!

Ice Cream: Gerenser's and Mary's Dairy

I have to admit it, we've been eating a lot of ice cream this summer. In Princeton, we're pretty lucky to have three great places -- Thomas Sweet's, Halo Pub, and the Bent Spoon -- and I actually do go to all three depending on what mood I'm in. My friends and I used to joke that just about all there is to do on a Friday or Saturday night in Princeton is get ice cream and rent a movie.















Another town that I can't go to without stopping for ice cream is New Hope, PA, where Gerenser's is the place to go. They have all sorts of exotic flavors on the menu like African Violet, but I'm always a little disappointed in these.

Instead, I stick with chocolate peanut butter. Redneckhunter's brother (above) is enjoying Turkish Coffee, and redneckhunter himself stuck with the classic vanilla chocolate chip.












The last time I was in the city, I stopped into Mary's Dairy. I did not indulge, but petitesoeur ate herself into ice cream coma with a scoop of Dulce de Leche and a scoop of Killer Chocolate. The Mary mascot is cute too -- what she's saying in the sign is "Bipolar? Bicoastal? Bisexual? Who cares... BUY ICE CREAM!"

Gerenser's
22 S Main St
New Hope, PA 18938
215-862-2050

Mary's Dairy Greenwich Village:
171 West 4th Street (Between 6th and 7th Ave.)
NYC, NY 10014
(212) 242 6874


Mary's Dairy East Village:
158 1st Ave (Between 9th and 10th Streets)
NYC, NY 10009
(212) 254 5004

Back to Gertrude's at the BMA

I went back to Gertrude's at the BMA this week. The last time, I ate there was on a Tuesday when they run Gertie's Cafe with a reduced price menu.
This time, I got to try some other entrees which included seafood and crab now that it is in season.
My main entree was the Chesapeake style gumbo which was delicious- it included blue crab, crawfish, mussels, clams, scallops, shrimp, and spicy Andouille sausage.




I also got to taste the Chincoteague oysters. They were dusted with cornmeal and lightly fried- really nice.











For dessert, went a little over the top with the Nougatine Glacee.

Restaurant Week at Bicycle in Federal Hill

So the past week was Baltimore restaurant week. I went out a few nights with friends, but by far my favorite meal was at Bicycle in Federal Hill, just a few blocks walk from my home.
I had actually been hoping to eat here since I moved back to Baltimore, and with the prix fixe meal, it was an incredible deal for great food.For a starter I had the Sashimi Tuna and Avocado Tartare- it had a delicious dressing that included chili sesame oil - really good. I also tried the Spicy Corn Soup with Blue Crab which was hearty and nice.



My entree was a Grilled Ribeye with a goat cheese and shallot butter topping. The side though was my favorite- goosefat roasted fingerling potatoes with leeks and bacon- amazing.
I got to try all the tasty desserts on the prix fixe menu. The Boca Negra cake was like a chocolate truffle cake.










Then there was the Strawberry Shortcake.












Then, the item I ordered was the Mango-Strawberry Bread Pudding.

Kampuchea Noodle Bar, NYC

Petitesoeur has given up on the W. Village, and we've decided that the East side is the place for us now to lunch and shop. So on our last excursion we went to Kampuchea Noodle Bar.

We started out with the pickle plate. I love when food is explained to you (unless it's at the Macaroni Grill or something - oh really, the olive oil goes with the bread...). Anyway, the waitress went around and described the pickle plate - the daikon were the sweetest, the watermelon rind was spicy, the cucumbers were sour, and my favorite the red cabbage started out sweet and ended up spicy.

Then we had a Crepe with Peppercorn, Honey Soy, and Sesame Seed Catfish (above).This was served with lettuce leaves, and the requisite mint, basil, lime, beansprouts, and sauce. Again, the waitress explained the idea was to tear off part of the crepe and filling, and make a lettuce wrap so that you could eat cleanly with your hands. So many flavors blending together - the crepe was slightly coconutty, the catfish nicely marinated, tender warm fish with crunchy cold sprouts, the mint and basil, the fishy sauce - oh so good!

It being a 90 degree day in the city, we opted for cold noodles. Chilled Rice Vermicelli with grilled berkshire pork, chinese sausage, over easy egg, sprouts & fresh herbs, sautéed shallots, crushed peanuts. Mixing the noodles up brought out all the flavors.

The pork wasn't as lush and fatty as that at Momofuku, but on all other accounts, I liked this place worlds better (more on that later). What the pork did add was a richness to the broth, the egg as well, and the toasted shallots (now I understand the reasoning behind the charring in pho broth). Petitesoeur bit into a dried chili pepper and had to ask for a bowl of rice. Lucky for us, because we used the rice to sop up all the remaining yummy broth!

As I said, I would much rather come back here than the much-hyped Momofuku. 1) Airy uncramped space, 2) pleasant wait staff, and most of all 3) such fresh delicious flavors. We've decided we need to come back in the winter to try a noodle soup, pulled oxtail, and seared sweetbreads. The also have Num Pang sandwiches. Petitesoeur wants to bring 1000yregg along so we can basically order everything on the menu.

Kampuchea Noodle Bar
78 Rivington St- At Allen St
New York, NY 10002
212 529-3901