Kid Rock's Detroit Tour

On a recent trip to Detroit, I had the pleasure of being taken to a local favorite in Clarkston, MI. If you ever make it to the Detroit area, Clarkston Union Bar and Kitchen is not a place to skip out on.

The atmosphere is unique. It's an old church converted to a restaurant, and by all means, the food is righteous. The macaroni and cheese was absolutely phenomenal. The combination of thick and creamy cheeses topped with a savory and crunchy layer amount to nothing short of awesome. It might have had me thinking about it most of the 4 hour drive home I had the next day.

Check out the link below to see their recent feature on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4mrgJCEcPQ

Lent!!! Bring on the Fish!!!

Let me start by saying that I am not Catholic. I am not originally from the Midwest and it is okay to eat meat on a Friday in my religion. But I LOVE LENT!!! Why? Easy: FISH FRIES!!! I remember when my wife and I first started dating. We spent a long time in a "long distance relationship" and I travelled many times to her home state of Wisconsin to visit her and her family. I love the Milwaukee area. It offers so much for someone who loves food and beer. Not the least of which is a the Friday night tradition of Fish Fry.

For those of you who don't know, in Wisconsin (and probably in a lot of other areas as well I am assuming) most restaurants offer an all you can eat fish and chips dinner on Fridays. I am guessing it is due in large part to the overwhelming amount of Catholics in Wisconsin and the fact that eating meat on Friday used to be a hell worthy tresspass. Well not so much any more... but the one glorious thing they have kept from those days is the Fish Fry. One of the best in the area is the 5 O'clock Club in the Pewaukee area. Most restaurants offer two different kinds of fried fish (baked and grilled fish too but why would you do that?). My favorite are the predictable cod fillets and lake perch. The latter is my absolute favorite. My father-in-law introduced me to it years ago and I absolutely love it now! If you get the chance to try it, go ahead.

Back to lent...

So here in St. Louis, we don't have Friday Night Fish Fry. It is a sad and somber thought that I have come to grips with. When I moved here, I remember actually wondering if we would have it here since it is a Midwestern city like Milwaukee. Imagine my disappointment. Except for Lent! During Lent, all of our local churches have Friday Night Fish Fries! True, they aren't at restaurants. They're at churches so there are tons of kids running around and it is LOUD, but most of them have "to go" areas for takeout and they do serve beer and wine so really, not a big deal. The best part is that most or all of our churches do it so there is always one nearby. The worst part is the crouds. I will literally stand in line for 30 minutes to pick up my carry out order.

Well tonight is the first Friday night of Lent. So around 5:45 or so, I will be heading over to Holy Infant Catholic Church with my daughter to pick up some fried seafood goodness. Whether you're Catholic or not, you should too!

The Importance of Knowing People

I know that's a weird title for a blog entry on a site dedicated to food and drink, but it is applicable. As I've stated before, I am an enthusiast of the distilled spirits; mainly Whiskey. Being from Kentucky and growing up less than 20 minutes away from the Bourbon Trail, I have grown to love Whiskeys, Bourbons and Ryes. I fancy myself a collector (although my "huge" collection is about 12 bottles strong right now). Still, I am not one of those collectors that never opens his bottles of Whiskey. Quite the contrary. I believe no one ever made a bottle of Whiskey to keep and never be openned. They're made to enjoy. So I enjoy them (although not nearly as often as I would like to... as it stands right now, I probably have 1 a month and that is being liberal).

I got off on a tangent there... sorry. I do that when I speak of Whiskeys. Back on track...

I heard recently through the internet that Woodford Reserve was coming out with a new permanent line extension of their already great stable of products. I was elated to hear of this (Woodford is my go to "everyday" bourbon). The new expression is Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. It is just that, a twice aged bourbon and I must say that I cannot wait to try it. To that end, I sent a note to the Spirits Manager at my local liquor store (Lucas Liquor). In the note I simply asked about ETA on availability and whether or not they would be doing a reservation process (like they did with another offering that I wanted in late 2011). He replied almost immediately telling me that it will be there in early March and he would be happy to put a bottle aside for me and call me when it came in.

I tell you this because there is an important lesson to learn here. It is good to be able to say, "I've got a guy" or "I know somebody" when it comes to procuring things that may be in high demand. It also helps to get to know people who work at the places where you shop and dine so that you may be able to get the insiders scoop on certain products or events. This is a good lesson to learn if you are into food and drink but also in most any other situation as well. It is invaluable to have a person that you trust "on the inside" when it comes to finding or buying things that are hard to find or buy.

And it doesn't hurt that Lucas Liquor has the best staff of any liquor/party store that I have ever run into. They are always friendly, knowlegable and attentive to their customer's needs. In a world where the art of customer service is dying quickly, Lucas Liquor and their staff just plain get it.

Consequently, if you live in St. Louis and are in need of any information on any knowledge having to do with alcohol (or you just want to buy some good beer), go to Lucas on Manchester. You'll be happy you did.

And I'll let you know what I think of the new Woodford Reserve. It sounds outstanding.

McDonalds (that's right... a post about McDonalds)

I definitely don't want to belittle my post yesterday about the most amazing restaurant in St. Louis (if you read it, good. If not, what are you waiting for?) but last night brought about an obsurd phenominon that I, like many people I bet, have dealt with their whole lives. A craving for McDonald's.

You see, my wife was home sick yesterday and it became apparent to me around midday that my services were not going to be needed in the kitchen for dinner last night due to said illness. Enter: the craving. Ever so often I get a craving for certain foods much like we all do. Usually it is for something that is as far from "good for me" as possible. Afterall, that is why they call them cravings right? We CRAVE something that we usually don't allow ourselves. The question is: why? Is it something that they put into the food? I doubt the FDA would allow anything like that. Is is it the convenience? Perhaps. Or maybe it is just the fact that we have convinced ourselves that these things we deprive ourselves are so bad that they should never be touched thus rendering them forbidden. And we all know what we do when something is forbidden right? We want it more! Probably not a good thing but really not all that bad when you think about it.

Sure eating a McDonald's Big Mac everyday is going to make you fat and cause some serious health problems. I'd go as far as to say that one a week will do the same thing although much more slowly. We've learned nothing if not that from movies like Super Size Me and The Nutty Professor. But having one ever so often couldn't hurt right? And that is why the cravings are good things. If we crave something, it just shows that we are heading down the right path I think. When I crave a Big Mac, my body is saying, "hey we don't usually have this and I know you've had a long day so why don't you treat yourself big guy?" Is that so wrong?

The answer is no. I think we've become too fixated on the things that are bad for us to realize that sometimes the things that we think are bad for us, are good for us. They're good for our soul. Does that mean that you should go out and eat a double quarter pounder every time that your boss yells at you? Well that's up to you and your belt, heart and blood pressure but I am guessing that's a big NO too. It just means that it is okay to treat yourself to the things that you like or love or crave from time to time. And tell your boss to suck it! Yelling at someone never did any good anyway.

I've always said (even in a recent post about my "diet") that life is way too short to torture yourself with dietting and obsessing about what you eat. It is too short to not enjoy the things you enjoy. If you like a scoop of ice cream, or a ribeye steak, or God forbit a greasy cheeseburger; go ahead. Just don't do it all the time and make the times you do treat yourself count and make sure they're worth it. I think you'll be much happier at the end of the day if you do.

Okay, so this is more of a post about treating yourself good than a post about McDonalds. But seriously though, what is up with those fries? They must put nicotine in them or something...

Happy Corporate Manufactured Holiday!

Okay, I'm a self admitted Valentine's Day cynic. There's just something about a holiday that makes you shovel out money to two major companies exclusively (florists and Hallmark) that just gets under my skin. But, since I have a wife and a daughter, I suppose I need to just suck it up and deal with the extortionistic holiday that is today. Consequently, over the weekend, we went to our favorite St. Louis restaurant to celebrate early. Having a 2-year-old means that weeknight meals almost exclusively need to be at home. It was a great meal in every way, shape and form. Our restaurant of choice, Mosaic Tapas and Modern Fusion, never disappoints.

We started with the Crab Salad. It was wonderful. Chuncks of lump crab meat atop microgreens with a citrus dressing. Fasntastic. We moved on from there in tapas fashion (IE, you order a bunch of stuff and they bring it out as it is prepared). Because we ordered so much stuff, I will just give you a brief summary of each items:

1) Korean BBQ Pork Apple (pictured above, best thing on the menu bar none!)
2) Pot Stickers (close 2nd)
3) Creole Lobster and Crawfish Risoto (spicy but outstanding)
4) Limoncello Mussells (decent, but not my favorite mussells)
5) Short Rib Mini Burgers (very good, and suprisingly tender --- the smoked ketchup is the star)

For dessert, my wife, daughter and I shared the Chocolate Smore's Tart. It was phenominal. Picture the best candy bar you ever ate served with caramel popcorn, toasted marshmallows and peanut brittle. Fanstastic!

All in all, a great Valentine's Day dinner. Even if it was just to celebrate a Hallmark Holiday.

Cold Sunday, Warm Soup and Sandwiches!

I think it is safe to say that I have gotten about as far away from the low carb diet as I possibly can. First came my travel schedule (which didn't prove to be much of an issue... until Nashville) and then Super Bowl Sunday and now this past weekend, it was cold. Okay, maybe I was just looking for excuses to not diet, but as I've always said, "I don't believe in diets. Life is too short to not be eating the things that you love." I still believe that but let's just say that I am still trying to be mindful of my eating habits. Oh well... moving on...

Like I said: it was cold yesterday. Nothing in my mind sounds better on a cold day than a nice piping hot bowl of soup. Couple that with my outstanding panini's and you've got a recipe for a great Sunday dinner that comes together in no time.

Let's start with this wonderful soup recipe I saw/found. For those of you who know me, you know that when my TV isn't on something sports related, it is usually on Food Network. Yesterday morning was no different. I was taking in my first viewing of a show called Pioneer Woman (I know... enough with the jokes). I knew a little bit about this show because I read a bit about it on my friend Debi's blog. With this in mind, I made a mental note to check out the blog post show if I came across any recipes that sounded good. Indeed that is exactly what happened when I saw the Pioneer Woman making Cheese and Corn Chowder. As I looked at Debi's blog, I found that the Pioneer Woman herself had a blog where I could find the recipe for this tasty soup. Needless to say, I went to her site, found and printed the recipe. Since this recipe belongs to Ree Drumond (The Pioneer Woman) I will not repost it on my blog. If you want to make it, you can find it HERE. And I suggest you do make it. It has corn, bacon, cheese, half and half, chicken stock, onion and 3 kinds of bell peppers. It is great for a cold night!

Now, for a recipe I CAN give you in clear conscience: Cheesy Apple Bacon Panini. I made this to accompany the Pioneer Woman's soup and I sure was glad I did. It made a great accompaniment to the soup since there is cheese and bacon in both. Here goes...

Cheesy Apple Bacon Panini

4 Slices of Whole Wheet Bread
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese (anything will do, I like cheddar though)
1/4 Cup Melted Butter
2 Tbsp Apple Butter
6 Slices of Bacon
1 Granny Smith Apple

Plug in and warm your panini press. Cook bacon as you like it (I like it crispy). While the bacon is cooking, slice the apples thinly (about 1/8 of an inch if you can). Once the bacon is cooked and cooled, the sandwiches are ready to assemble.
Spread the apple butter on both sides of the bread. Sprinkle cheese on one of the bread slices, then a layer of apples, then the bacon, then sprinkle more cheese and place the top slice of bread on top. Do the same with the second sandwich. Then brush both sides of the sandwich with the melted butter and place on the panini press and close for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with the soup! Enjoy!

If you don't have a panini press, you can use any pan you want and place on medium high heat on your stove. Use another pan covered in foil to press the paninis while they cook.

That's all I've got for today. Later!

The Big Game... and a little indigestion never hurt anyone

Greetings! It's one of the hardest days of the year in America; the Monday after the Super Bowl. Hangovers are running rampant, indigestion has set in and we all have to go back to work and fight through it. Actually, an interesting fact is that the Monday post Super Bowl holds the title of the day that the most people call in sick to work during the calendar year. Not surprising given my current stomach ache for over indulging in the below mentioned food last night. Well, let's get to it!

I reserve one dish that I make as only being served on Super Bowl Sunday. My wife begs me for it but I rarely will break my rule. It is a wonderful recipe (if I do say so myself). It is the Black and White Truffle Potato Chips. You read correctly. I incorporate black and white truffles into my homemade potato chips and I don't mind saying that they are OUT OF THIS WORLD! It goes great with beer of all types. I enjoyed it with the new Bud Light Platinum (meh...). Here is the recipe:

3-4 medium sized russett potatoes
2 small bottles of peanut oil
1/2 Cup Shaved Parmesean Cheese
White Truffle Oil (for drizzling)
Black Truffle Salt (for sprinkling on the chips... that's right!)

Fill a large part (I use a cast iron one for even cooking) with the peanut oil and heat to a medium high (7-8 on a dial or around 325 degrees). Slice the potatoes on a mandoline or the slice slot of a grater. Soak the potato slices in a bowl of water for about 15 minutes. Lay the potato slices out to dry on paper towls and press down to dry as much as possible prior to dropping into the oil (this will ensure they are crispy). Once dry, drop them into the oil in 2 batches and fry for about 5-7 minutes. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and place on paper towl lined surface (I use a sheet pan). Drizzle the white truffle oil over top of them and sprinking with the black truffle salt. Do the same for batch 2 then top the whole thing off with the shaved parmesean cheese. Enjoy!

NOTE: a little of the truffle oil and salt goes a long way. It doesn't take much.

You can also season these however you like but I challenge you to find a better more flavorful topping than the truffle oil and truffle salt. INCREDIBLE!!!

3 Cities in 1 Week and Some Outstanding Restaurants

Actually the title of this entry doesn't even begin to describe the amount of miles I put up in the air and at hotels in the past 12-14 days (I lost count and don't care to go back and see how many days I've been gone... it depresses me). I already posted about my trip to Naples and, as I stated before, while Chicago has thousands of great restaurants and things to discuss from a food/drink standpoint, I literally didn't leave the O'Hare Airport for my dining so I won't write about that. No, this entry will be about 2 of my favorite cities in America and the delightful meals that I had while traveling there this week.

First, let's start with Nashville, TN. I love the atmosphere in Nashville; especially downtown. To walk down Broadway is like walking down the Las Vegas Strip of Nashville. If you like Country music, this is obviously a good place for you. Lots of great bands play at "honkeytonks" like Tootsies (seriously check this place out for an awesome time) and the restaurants don't disappoint. Well... a lot of them don't. I say that because the first restaurant I ate at was one of my favorite specialty chains: Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I had the Mahi Mahi with pineapple chutney and steamed veggies. It was NOT GOOD AT ALL. That's what I get for trying to keep to a diet. My colleague and I did split an appetizer of Brisket Quesadillas which were quite good and of course the maragaritas were decent. Overall, this particular location of Mr. James Buffet gets a 5 out of 10 for me.

The next day after work, we found a great place that was visited by a favorite TV show of mine. Drinking Made Easy. We went to Whiskey Kitchen in the artsy part of Nashville. This is far and wide the best restaurant I've been to in Nashville. The name of the restaurant says everything. They use A LOT of Whiskey in their cooking and have a TREMENDOUS list of Whiskeys that they carry for imbibing. Which I did. I had 2 of them that evening. The first was the William Larue Weller 18 Year and it was phenominal. If you wish to read full tasting notes on this Whiskey, click here. The second was not very good in my opinion. It was the Old Potrero from San Fransisco (click here for tasting notes). It was a recommendation from a family member who I consider an expert on Whiskeys and I could see where some would enjoy it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Now, to the food... Our dining experience was a shared one between me and my coworker (who may be in the future blogging on this site as well). We started with the BEST Sweet Potato French Fries that I have ever had. My coworker (Ashley) agreed. It was served with sea salt and brown sugar on top and a side of house made jalapeno ketchup. The ketchup is really what made the appetizer. We moved on to our main course (again shared) of sliders and Makers Mark BBQ Chicken Pizza. The pizza would have been outstanding if we had ordered it on it's own but unfortunately for the pizza, it was ordered with the sliders that were LIFE CHANGING. First, these sliders are served on buttermilk biscuits. Let me say that again, THESE SLIDERS ARE SERVED ON BUTTERMILK BISCUITS. In addition to that revelation, there were no hamburgers served on these sliders. There were 4 slider on the plate and they were: southern fried chicken breast, fried green tomato, marinated hanger steak and country ham. They were served with three different sauces to dip/spread: maple syrup, remoulade and strawberry balsamic jelly. I cannot describe to you how awesome this dish was. It was fun, tasty and just fantastic all at the same time. Ashley agreed that this is one of the best things she's ever eaten. My mouth is watering right now just thinking of it. The sliders alone are a reason to go back to Nashville.

After returning home for 1 whole day, I was off to The Queen City of Charlotte. My company is based out of Charlotte so I do go there a few times during the year and consequently have a few usual watering holes that I frequent due in large part to the proximity to the office and my hotel. One of these places is Eez. Eez is an asian fusion joint located in Berkdale Village in the suburb of Huntersville. I've typically only eaten sushi at Eez but when I went there for lunch yesterday, I decided that one of my favorite Thai dishes sounded better to me. I ordered the shrimp pad thai thanks in large part to my head cold and the spiciness of this dish and the hopes that I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone in satisfying my hunger and my need to breathe through my nose. I'll say this: while it wasn't the best pad thai I've ever had (click here to see my favorite) it was definitely the freshest tasting pad thai I've had. And the spiciness did not disappoint. I actually had to stop about halfway through my plate because I was done with the heat (which I usually can take). All and all, it was 6 or 7 out of ten. But if you get a chance to go to Eeze, I highly recommend the sushi. It is out of this world!

That's all for now! Cheers!