2010

The Food Train's final adventure for 2010 was a day trip to Wisconsin. We hit a lot of places, did a lot of things and had a lot of fun!

We started out the trip with a reservation at Franks Diner in Kenosha, WI for 7:00 am (reservations required for parties of  5 or more). www.franksdinerkenosha.com  Needless to say we had to leave fairly early, so we picked up a fellow Food Train traveler at 5:00 am and set off in the snow for Kenosha. 2 hrs later (for what should have been a 1 1/2 hr trip) we arrived at Franks Dinner.

Franks Diner is a DDD place, and it is in an old train car, (fitting for the Food Train)  with a dining room added on one side and a kitchen added to the back.

I had the Cinnamon Swirl French Toast: Three pieces of cinnamon swirl french toast dusted with

cinnamon sugar and a big slab of butter.

Cinnamon Swirl French Toast.

My husband and our friend had the Homemade biscuits and gravy. My husband said they were the best biscuits and gravy he's ever had. He gave me a bite and it was very good, and I do not like sausage gravy. The biscuit I had on the side was O.K. not great though, but the bite I had of his was real good. Our companion said her's was very good also. Oh yeah, and both of them had monster Bloody Mary's that were very good also.

The people working there were really fun and ready with a snappy come back for anything you might ask or be talking about. It was a really fun time!

We had caught up with two other Food Train members by this time, that had been delayed by the snow, and we headed for Milwaukee

Destination, A.J. Bombers. We arrived in Milwaukee to early for lunch, so we found a place to park and wandered around in a Little Italy type neighborhood for a bit. The first place was a bakery. www.petersciortinosbakery.com

 We sampled many items and they were all very, very good! Biscotti, Twists (apricot), Apricot Tea cookies, some lemon puff pastry and many, many more!

Snacking right outside

Then we happened to see this sign that said "wine", never being one to pass up the chance to find a good wine we decided to pop in. It was an Italian food market.

This place is very nice. It's like an Italian "Fresh Market". They do have quite a selection of wine, and cheese and interesting meats. We decided we needed to do some sampling. We had some candied nuts, sweet and delicious, and some spiced olives and Peppadew peppers, very, very good. If you have never had Peppadew peppers I must say you really, really, REALLY need to try them! They are so sweet and have a very interesting spiciness, and they are very versatile. We also had this awesome cheese that is so nutty and flavorful! This is now our favorite brand of cheese. Sartori Bella Vitano

 We had a blast and are still on our way to lunch, at A.J. Bombers. www.ajbombers.com/

photo by A.J.Bombers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

A.J. Bombers is a burger joint that air-lifts peanuts and beer to your table.

photo by A.J.Bombers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

The Barrie Burger.

The Barrie Burger is a "1/4 lb burger with bacon and natural chunky peanut butter. Sounds weird but the two people in our group who had this burger both said it was very, very good. The peanut butter is a strong flavor in the burger but complements the meat and bacon very well.

Milwaukee Burger

The Milwaukee Burger is a 1/4 lb burger that has double WI Colby cheese, double Nueske's bacon and Schlitz onions. Very tasty!

Stuffed 'Shroom

Stuffed 'Shroom

 Stuffed 'Shroom: "crispy fried or baked portabello stuffed with WI cheddar and muenster cheeses,with lettuce, tomato and Bomber sauce". This is a very unique portabello sandwich, the cheese is stuffed in the cavity of the portabello mushroom and it is breaded and deep fried. This keeps the cheese in and makes it very crispy and delicious! The two of us who ordered this "burger" really liked it. It was very crispy, and cheesy delicious.

Bomber Burger

My husband had the Bomber Burger: which is the AJ Burger and Stuffed 'Shroom stacked together. The AJ Burger has American cheese, tomato, lettuce and bomber sauce, then it is topped with a stuffed 'shroom to make it the Bomber Burger. He thought it was great, the crispy of the deep fried 'shroom with the burger and the cheese was just fantastic!

We had a great time.

If you are in Milwaukee and have a taste for a burger check out A.J. Bombers! On to the beer and cheese pairing at Sprecher Brewery! http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/index.php

We had reservations for a Beer and Cheese Pairing so you get a tour of the brewery and tasting of the sodas they make.

Then you go into a special tasting room for a pairing of 10 beers with 10 cheeses. 

The sheet with the descriptions of the beer and cheese.

This was very fun, some good beer and surprising how the cheese changes the taste! It really does.

Their soda was good too.

Now on to Dinner at The Comet Cafe! http://www.thecometcafe.com

This is a DDD restaurant, the food looked really good the place seemed pretty cool.

I started the meal with a big hot chocolate and the Veggie Chili.

Yummy hot chocolate

The chili was great good seasoning and just as thick as I like it.

Ever since seeing the show I have been dying to try the AJs Compact Turkey Dinner. I was not disappointed!
It is "Three battered balls of roasted turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy". They are just as awesome as they sound!

My husband and one of our friends had the Meatloaf Sandwich.

"A tower of meatloaf, bacon-chive mashed potatoes, grilled onions and tomatoes all on two slices of rye bread covered in beer gravy". They both said it was fantastic.

Our other two friends both had the Reuben sandwich. Grilled corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing on rye. They both liked it very much.

Their hand cut seasoned fries are also very good, they also have regular hand cut fries and are served with spicy mayo or cucumber sauce.

 

It was a great trip and we all had a great time!

Do you like sweet potatoes?

There is this place on the south side of Chicago where everything is made from sweet potatoes. Jimmy Jamm Sweet Potato Pies. They don't have a web site but here is the yelp link.
www.yelp.com/biz/jimmy-jamm-sweet-potato-pies-chicago

 I don't like sweet potatoes but my husband does. When you go in there they give you a sample of Sweet Potato Ice Cream. It was great!

Sometimes they also give you tastes of the Honey Cream Cheese Frosting that they put on the pies. That frosting is outrageous! They also make a Banana Rum Cream Cheese Frosting, you can pick which kind you would like on your pie. We have not tried the banana yet, the honey one is just so awesome!

The frosting is put on pretty thick too! I liked the pie, and I must say the crust was very good. Even the bottom, it was flaky and crisp not soggy at all!
They also have a Chocolate Honey Cream Cheese Frosting. They put it on their cupcakes.

They also offer some entrees like a "Loaded Sweet Potato" and Chicken and Waffles. We have yet to try any of these but are looking forward to trying the Chicken and Waffles. I really think the sweet potato waffle will be really good!

 Harold and me.

Jimmy Jamm Sweet Potato Pies is a great Bakery with very friendly people. We even ordered a Honey Cream Cheese Sweet Potato Pie for Thanksgiving this year! They have lots of other great looking things, you should go check them out!

Checking out some Street Food in Madison, Wi

My husband and I took a weekend trip to Madison, WI for food and hockey! We had a fun time wondering around downtown Madison window shopping and looking for interesting things and food.

There were some street carts, like mini campers around selling food. This place looked good so we thought we'd try some curry!

So we tried the Squash Curry.

Squash Curry

It was very, very good! A couple of pieces of the squash were cold or even frozen in the middle, but the flavor was FANTASTIC! The vegetables were good and the curry sauce was fantastic!

Don't be afraid to try new things, even if it's on the street. Use your common sense, what's the worst that could happen?

Yassa an African experience

This was a first for us, we had never had African food before. It was just the two of us, none of the Food Train members could make it. www.yassaafricanrestaurant.com

This is a Check Please Restaurant. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpOogdWpvds 

We started with a shrimp appetizer. It was a special and not on the menu- Shrimp Lajawab.

It is fried shrimp with strips of egg roll wrappers for breading. Served with a very good tomato based sauce that is a little spicy.

I had the House Tiebu Djeun- a whole fried Tilapia with cabbage, carrot and yucca served over Djolof rice.

This was very good, the fish was so tender and flaky. It was so much food.


My husband had Yassa Lamb- lamb marinated in lemon and "secret spices" cooked in an onion and  mustard sauce served with white rice. The flavor was great, the spices were fantastic, and the lamb was extremely tender.

We also ordered a chicken dish (we wanted to try it as long as we were there). Thiou Curry Chicken- marinated chicken with a mixture of spices, onion and curry, served with white rice. The chicken was very tender and the curry flavor was great! The two pieces of chicken had different flavors. One was baked and very tender, the other one was grilled and had an extremely good grilled flavor.

It came with curry sauce with some vegetables to put over it. The sauce was a good curry sauce.

 We also tried the beverages prepared by the Chef- Ginger and Bissap. Nether of us cared for these though. The ginger one was very gingery and the bissap reminded me of massage oil.

If you have never had African food you should definitely try here. The owners and staff were very nice and helpful we had great food and a fun experience.