4 Days of Food in Wisconsin and Chicago

Well, this post is long overdue...  I went to Wisconsin and Chicago at the end of June for a wedding. It was a fantastic weekend filled with friends, laughter, lots of entertainment and some absolutely fantastic food.

The various cheese curds found in Milwaukee Public Market

I had never been to Wisconsin or Illinois before so I was super excited to try some of the traditional delicacies of the area.  When I asked my niece, nephew and half brother what you eat in Wisconsin they all said that we needed to try cheese curds.  But specifically we needed to try good cheese curd, that squeaks when you chew. It sounded a little strange to me honestly, but I'm willing to try anything once.
I tried 4 different kinds of cheese curd over the course of 3 days.  The first night we got a bag of mozzarella and cheddar cheese curd from Walmart (I know, I know, classy...).  They were pretty darn good, but didn't quite squeak the way everyone said a really good cheese curd should. So we kept trying.
The next day, in Milwaukee proper, we went to the Milwaukee Public Market where I found amazing cheese curd in different flavors. Plus so much more.
I was fascinated by the Public Market because it reminded me of the food markets in Florence, right near San Lorenzo and also San Ambrosio. It was fantastic. The first floor had countless small vendors of different Midwest specialties. Everywhere I turned there was something different and interesting to try. There were coffee places, cheese vendors (sooo many cheese vendors!), wine vendors, sandwich shops, an olive oil vendor and plenty of seafood options (which I thought was a little funny considering Wisconsin is no where near the ocean but  they are on a lake.. so maybe they had a lot of freshwater options...).

Love the cows!

There were so many great things to see.  I loved the cheese formed into different shapes, like cows and footballs. I tried some different cheddars and mozzarellas and it was all delicious.  I really did like the cheese curds. They were surprisingly good.

Olive oil galore

I also really enjoyed the Olive oil place, but I'll do a whole separate post on that as well.  I wish we had been there even longer because there were so many things I would have like to try, but I guess they'll have to wait till next time.
After the market we wandered around Milwuakee and the music festival before we headed over to meet our friends at a fantastic restaurant near the public market.  It was caled the Wicked Hop and I liked it so much that I did a separate blog just for it!  If you're curious, read my Review here.
We were pretty stuffed from the Wicked Hop so dinner was more cheese curd on bread with some tomatoes (basically snacks that we'd gotten for the road trip).



The next day was the wedding. It was outdoors and bbq style. The food was delicious and fresh: I loved that they chose to grill for some homey goodness. They had all sorts of fresh vegetables like squash and asparagus and the meats were grilled to perfection as well.

But by far my favorite thing at the wedding were the cupcakes!  They were delicious in several different flavors.  There were red velvet (my absolute favorite), carrot cake, caramel apple and a regular vanilla cake. I tried all of them except for the carrot cake (by the time I wanted one, there were none left!). The cake was moist and delicious and the fillings were sweet but not generally overpowering. I loved the red velvet and the plain vanilla but the caramel apple was a little too sweet for me.  Next time I'm in Wisconsin I need to find out where they got them because they were quite delicious.

Me enjoying my red velvet!!

The next morning we went off to Chicago where we got to experience even more great food.  I can't wait to go back to try even more since we were there for just the one and a half meals.  Some of the big specialties in Chicago are Chicago style hotdogs and deep dish pizza. I didn't get to try a hot dog but I did get to try my first ever deep dish pizza.  I love pizza and I really enjoyed the deep dish.  From what my Chicago friend told me, there is even better deep dish pizza than what I ate. I got my deep dish at a slightly fast food-esque place down at the pier so it certainly wasn't 5 star quality. But I liked it a lot and I'll definitely try it again. I wish I had taken a picture (and I could have sworn that I had, but I can't find it). My pizza had jalapenos, cheese, bacon, peppers and spinach on it and I loved it!
Later on in the evening, we found a great little brewery while we were waiting for the train. We missed one by ten minutes and therefore had an hour to wait. We found the Haymarket Pub & Brewery which was a ten minute walk from the station.  It was a great spot with a lot of great drink options so wrote a Review about it.


So that was our Adventure in the mid-west.  There wasn't quite as much food as I would have liked but it was a fun trip with some new flavors.  I can't wait to get back to that region to try even more good stuff.

Too full...

I think I may be too full to ever eat again... I managed to get to the wedding this weekend even though I went to Middlebury on Friday... Apparently I was given the undergrad schedule and they had to be there friday, grad students need to be there on Monday, Tuesday.... soooo yeah, came home for the wedding, going back tomorrow... Yay for 5 hour drives!!
In any case I ate an incredible amount of food at this wedding, and once I load up my pix I'll post some of the delicious delicacies... But it all started with Cocktail hour, in which not only did I have champagne and an apple martini, but I had a ton, and I do mean a ton to eat. I ate a little bit of rice with my Mexican tapas and chicken fajita with guacamole, sour cream and cheese. I had pasta with broccoli rabe sprinkled with pepperoncino. I had fresh mozzarella and tomatoes with some broccoli on the side. I had a rice ball and fresh focaccia bread, one pizza style the other, whole grain goodness... I had some calamari and some other random stuff that the waitresses brought around. I only ate a little of each, but it filled me up sooooo much!! I am sooo glad I hadn't eaten beforehand... I skipped breakfast and lunch, so I do have a small amount of foresight....
Then as if that wasn't enough food, real dinner began. There was a salad that I barely touched, although I did eat a piece of bread with it... And I had a glass of champagne and maybe 2 glasses of red wine... Then there was some dancing, then came the rigatoni pasta with tomato sauce a ricotta cheese. Don't know why I ate it, but I did... Then there was more dancing and we came back for our main courses, filet mignon and a potato croquet with string beans and carrots on the side. I ate the string beans, had some of the potato (not much though) and most of the filet, quite tasty!! seriously though at this point I thought I was going to bust!!!
Then of course there was more dancing, and a mini tribute to michael jackson, a mini medley of jackson in which the singers came out onto the dancefloor and performed some moves... the best mimicker turned out to be a white guy in the audience. Hilarious by the way!! Then we did the wave and numerous other silly things.... Just so we could make room for dessert...
Because then, it was time to cut the cake!! sooo pretty by the way!! and it was vanilla cake with a cream with fresh strawberries in it!! OMG it tasted amazing like strawberry shortcake!! ahhh I was in absolute heaven!! Oh but it didn't end there, oh no, as if that wasn't enough food to kill a baby elephant, no there was more. We had the mother groom dance and the father bride dance, even a tribute to the parents song, and then it was time for dessert overkill!!
A Viennese table. I don't know if you've ever heard of this setup, but it's very very Italian... Basically in this case it wasn't a single table, but six... There was a table of very indulgent cakes, of which I chose not to taste even though they looked fabulous... There was a table with ice cream and toppings, and then another section with three chocolate fountains, milk, white and dark, and various things to cover. Then there was the table with fruits, a table with traditional italian desserts, a table with cookie like things and a final table that I didn't really see because there was too much of a crowd and I really just wanted to eat my ice cream...
Of all of this, I had chocolate ice cream with some m&ms and an oreo, 1/2 a marshmallow covered in milk chocolate, 5 strawberries covered in the dark chocolate and then an actually chocolate covered strawberry that didn't come from the fountain. I had a cannoli as well... There was more in my plate, but my eyes were definitely bigger than my head at that point....
And then I danced some more to burn off all of the excess calories, and never once did i take off my awesome bronze gladiator sandal stilettoes... So yes, I rock...
And feel so full, that I could burst...
but it was a lot of fun, and therefore worth it... I'm hoping my stomach will be empty and feeling tranquil by the time I get in the car for my 5 hour drive tomorrow!!

~Raspberry Truffle