We hit basically the same joints as we have in the past: Andy's Deli, Eli's Cheesecake, Lincoln Quality Meat Market, Argo Georgian Bakery, and New York Bagel and Bialy. In order to save time, my mother had made a run to Serrelli's a couple days previously and bought us a whole lotta Italian Beef and garlic sausage.
However, we also made a trip to an Ethiopian store called Kukulu Market. I'd read about it and the tasty snack food chechebsa they have over at the Chicago Reader and just had to go. This is it:
It's flat bread fried in clarified butter seasoned with berbere and the stuff is just excellent. A bit on the spicy side too. I don't know squat about Ethiopian cooking so I decided it was time to try to make doro wot, an Ethiopian chicken stew that ranks as one of The Dulcinea's favorite foods of all eternity. If Buraka were to ever close or leave town, I think she'd be compelled to leave Madison.
The first photo shows the injera bread I bought. They had 3 or 4 different varieties. One of the rounds above is made with the traditional teff while the other is with another grain that I don't know the name of. Below that we have containers of spices. The red one on the right is berbere while the other escapes my mind. Truth be told, the gentleman behind the counter was incredibly helpful and willing to explain everything to us Cheeseheads. Unfortunately, I just can't remember everything he told us. Our first batches of Ethiopian stews may or may not be edible.
Another interesting item for sale at Kukulu was green Ethiopian coffee. I favor African coffees. I mean, coffee originated in Ethiopia so we're dealing with the ur-stuff here. According to the Internet sites I've read, roasting coffee isn't particularly difficult. It just takes a little patience and some good ventilation. Perhaps this weekend I'll give it a shot.
We hit the Lincoln Square area and found that Delicatessen Meyer had closed. In its place is a second location of Gene's Sausage Shop. Unfortunately, remodeling was still apace. Not sure when it is slated to open. Unlike our last meat run, however, the Paulina Market was open. Walking in you are nearly overcome with the sweet scent of pork a-smokin'. Their selection of smoked sausage is enormous. I bought more linguisa, a Portuguese cured sausage, than I probably should have. My shopping basket also held a smoked goose breast, some apple breakfast sausages, mettwurst, a small slab of hickory smoked bacon, and probably a few other things that I'll discover when I dig around my freezer.
At Eli's, I got a lingonberry cheesecake as well as a chocolate chip. They had these four or five inch chocolate volcano cakes on sale for $2 apiece and I couldn't resist.
For lunch, we stopped at Psistaria Greek Restaurant on Touhy Avenue which was conveniently located right across the street from New York Bagel and Bialy. Jason and I both went for the combination platter and I nearly had a lamb overload. The mousaka was fantastic with just the right amount of cinnamon. The platter also came with a dolma, a roasted chicken quarter, rice, and peas. Everything was just delicious. And they kept the basket of bread full. Oh, the avgolemono was also quite tasty.
One lowlight of the trip was that my favored store for Indian sweets on Devon Avenue is now a pizza joint.
I had my camera with me the whole time but completely forgot about it so we're stuck with photos taken at home. Here are a few more.
That's a hachapuri from the Georgian bakery. It's a puffed pastry dough concoction filled 3(?) kinds of cheese. I also bought some pelmeni there which we had for dinner last night. I think they put just the right amount of pepper into the beef/pork combo filling.
Those are rugula, a Jewish sweet. I went with raspberry & cheese and chocolate chip. New York Bagel and Bialy is open 24/7/365 so I can run down there any time when I have an onion bialy itch that needs to be scratched.
Above is the Polish version of Playboy that we bought for our co-worker. I read the articles on the drive home. (Ahem.)
A few parting thoughts:
1) I must find barfi soon.
2) Someone in the Madison area must learn how to bake a decent loaf of light rye bread. I couldn't bake my way out of a paper bag and shouldn't have to drive to Chicago to get a good loaf of the stuff. I generally shop at the east side Woodman's and occasionally at Jenifer Street Market and have yet to find one. Silly Yak make a decent dark eye, I give them that. But most folks need to understand that rye bread doesn't necessarily mean pumpernickel. Can anyone suggest some good stuff around here?
3) I forgot to buy Gonnella bread for the Italian beef. D'oh!
4) I'm getting really hungry right now.
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