Stuffing our Faces in January

Jerky!

Way back in January, Naomi and Bill from the Cities graced us with their presence for a visit. Based on the pics, all we did was eat, but we did also hit a few thrift stores and N. + B. attended a Father John Misty concert.

Bloody Mary at the Old Fashioned

Thanksgiving in Chitown

First, we went to the Christkindlmarket, a German open-air market, for a snack. Now, a snack at the market consisted mostly of meaty bits.

Christkindlmarket

That evening, we saw a great production of A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theater.

Goodman Theater's stage

After the play, we went to Quartino, a lovely wine bar, for a light dinner, and then on to a local jazz club.

Recent Greatest Hits from the Kitchen

Sesame-encrusted salmon

Chicken schwarma with stuffed mushrooms and grilled asparagus

Memorial Day weekend in Milwaukee

With The Fonz along the River Walk

The great Art Deco doors of the Hotel Metro

On Memorial Day weekend, Bubbler Land hosted us. Leaving Madison at 1pm deposited us in the city at 2:30 or so, and after checking in at the Hyatt Regency and unpacking a bit, we ventured out to explore.

Interior of Loyalty Building

Loyalty Building exterior

Loyalty's staircase with a cute little grrrl posed next to it

The historical display in the entryway caught our eye, and from it, we learned that the Hyatt Regency was built on the site of an attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Roosevelt was in town campaigning for the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party, and stopped at the Hotel Gilpatrick--demolished in 1941--to eat before his speaking engagement at the Milwaukee Auditorium (now Milwaukee Theatre). When he paused outside to wave to the crowds before getting into his car, John Shrank shot him in the chest at close range with a .38. Roosevelt got into his car, and Shrank was promptly arrested.

Cool bowling ball sculpture along the river

 Despite being wounded, Roosevelt insisted on fulfilling his speaking engagement that evening, speaking for 80 minutes before going to a hospital. He announced to the audience that he'd been shot, saying, "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!" Clearly, Teddy's photo resides next to the definition of tough old bird in the dictionary. The speech manuscript and a metal glasses case absorbed most of the force of the bullet, but still. I still would not appreciate being shot at close range, and I wouldn't want to speak for 80 minutes without a bullet hole in my chest.

City Hall

Musssels at Milwaukee Public Market

That afternoon, we shared an appetizer at the St. Paul Fish Company at the Milwaukee Public Market. At $7.95, the steamed Prince Edward Island mussels in white wine and butter were a wonderful deal, especially since we got about 20 of them.

At Hinterland

Brisket burger with arugula salad at Hinterland

Salmon with Chinese black rice and bok choy at Hinterland

Since we had saved ourselves by only having an appetizer for lunch, we indulged in dinner at Hinterland. I had the pan-seared wild Alaskan sockeye salmon with wasabi pea emulsion, bok choy, Chinese black rice, and lump crab-radish salad. It was the first salmon of the season, and it was deliciously fresh and firm. J. had the wood-fired, 1/2-pound ground brisket burger with Carr Valley six-year cheddar, Nueske's bacon, whole grain mustard, and arugula salad. I had a bite, and it was truly decadent and rich.

After dinner, we took a cab to Angelo's Piano Lounge. Since it was still early, we walked down Brady St. for awhile and happened upon a great cigar shop. Even with our stroll, we were egregiously early. When we walked in at 9pm or so, the only people in the joint were there for a birthday party. The music started at 10pm. While his daughter played most of the evening, Angelo himself graced us with a few songs.

After breakfast at the Michigan St. Diner, we spent a chunk of Saturday at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Ceviche at Cubanita's

Cubanita's funky chandeliers and orange walls

Roasted pork

Tropical chicken

That night, we met a friend who lives in Milwaukee for dinner at Cubanita's, a Cuban restaurant right around the corner from the Pfister. To start, we tried their ceviche (shrimp and mussels with green and red peppers, onions, garlic, and lime juice), prettily served up in a martini glass. I sampled their mojito, which was grand. My main dish--tropical chicken--was the most disappointing, but I should've known better than to order chicken in a Cuban joint. Pork is the the obvious specialty, but I stupidly didn't want to order the same entree as one of the others in my party. I'd hoped to feel like I'd been transported to a tropical island by the flavors, but instead, I just got bland, tough chicken. J. was the smart one who chose the lechon asado (roasted pork with a side of mojo). E.W. had the black tiger camarones (shrimp) in garlic-white wine sauce and yellow rice. Those were just ok.

Mitchell Building

Breakfast burrito at The National

French toast sandwich with ham at The National

On Sunday, before leaving town, we had breakfast at The National in Walker's Point. I had the breakfast burrito, which contained egg, cheese, sauteed veggies (onions, peppers), and black bean puree in a tortilla, and on the side, slices of avocado and a spicy salsa. It was substantial and satisfying, and the coffee hit the spot. J. had the special: French toast sandwich with ham. I had a bite, but it was too sweet for me.

Blurry, blurry night

Driving home in the rain

Mineral Point

Walt Whitman was wrong: April is not the cruelest month. January is, or it certainly feels like it is. And February's not much better. To escape the winter doldrums, Jason and I spent a few days at the Brewery Creek Inn in Mineral Point the weekend of January 14-16. The inn is a lovely three-story limestone structure built in 1854 as a warehouse. While a warehouse doesn't sound very distinctive, it was a point of civic pride because it represented early statehood prosperity. Over the years, it was used as a cold storage facility, an insulation factory, and a local veterinarian's stable. By the 1970s, the building was in disrepair: The roof and third-floor timbers had rotted away, the beams had collapsed, and the north wall had begun to crumble. When the owners undertook renovations in July 1997, the building lacked heating, plumbing, wiring, interior walls or stairways, doors, and windows. And it had a dirt floor. Yet, they opened in June of the next year, which, to my non-construction-oriented mind, is a feat of great proportions.

The innkeeper forewarned us that our room (#7) was the smallest, but it was perfectly comfortable. The bathroom--with its ceramic tiles, wainscoting, and heavenly whirlpool--was probably my favorite part of the whole place. I was less keen on the breakfast, which was billed as "continental plus." I'm not sure where the "plus" part came in. To me, it was straight-up continental: boxed cereals, store-bought sourdough for toast with butter or jam, yogurt, juice, coffee, hard-boiled eggs, and syrupy-sweet store-bought pastries.

This is supposed to be me faking falling into the mine shaft, but it doesn't really look like that.

After slogging through Madison's Friday evening traffic (made worse by the snowy conditions), we finally made it out of the city. At the inn, we settled in and then ate dinner at the inn's restaurant. I had a gigantor slab of salmon with ginger sauce and sesame seeds. It was pretty good, and it definitely surpassed Jason's cod. For it, they drizzled the gingery sauce over the batterfried fish, leaving a hunk of bland cod in a soggy shell. We also sampled the beer, which is brewed on site. I liked the porter, but the IPA was disappointing for Jason. The description misled in that it said the hops and malt were balanced. Alas, the malt was overbearing, whereas the hops barely made an appearance. (Personally, I liked the IPA, but that's because I despise hoppy beer.) Afterward, we walked around the hilly town.

On Saturday, we hiked around the old Merry Christmas Mine Hill. In the 1830s, copper and tin miners from Cornwall, England fled poverty and hunger to emigrate to Mineral Point, which was experiencing a lead boom. The boom lasted from 1827 to 1849--when California's Gold Rush lured many of the miners away. In the second half of the 19th century, zinc mining predominated.

View of Mineral Point from the mining hill

After hiking, we took refuge from the cold in a local bar. For lunch, I had chicken fingers with barbecue sauce (exotic, I know) and Jason tried the local specialty, the pasty. The Cornish traditional version is a baked half-moon pastry filled with beef, potatoes, onions, and rutabagas or turnips. I tried a bite and found it rather bland and heavy, but I guess they were meant to fill up miners who'd been doing backbreaking labor all day.

According to legend, pasties were originally made for Cornish tin miners who were unable to come to the surface for lunch. To eat it, they would grip the crimped edge to not soil the rest with the dirt (laced with the arsenic often found with tin) that completely covered their bodies. The dirty remainder was then offered to placate the knockers, or spirits thought to inhabit the mine and endanger miners.

Close-up of pasty contents

After lunch, we grabbed coffee at a local bookstore and then headed back to the inn for a nap. That evening, we went to see Feed the Fish at the Mineral Point Opera House. Feed the Fish is a sweet indie film about a children's book writer who tries to overcome his writer's block by accompanying his friend on a trip to northern Wisconsin. Tony Shalhoub, of Monk and Big Night fame--and who's also a Green Bay native--plays the curmudgeonly local sheriff, and Barry Corbin (Maurice on Northern Exposure) plays his sage father. Katie Aselton and Ross Partridge play the romantic leads.

It was at last year's Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison and has been touring the state. I couldn't get tickets then because it was very popular, so I was excited to finally see it. (Note: Netflix won't purchase it until a certain number of people add it to their queues, so take a moment to add it.) Plus, it was a treat to see a film  set and filmed in Wisconsin, and one of the producers answered questions afterward.

The next day, we headed home and extended our relaxing weekend by having brunch at La Brioche and seeing the Coen Brothers' True Grit. I was pleasantly surprised, especially by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld's performance.