Ramblings of an Eater

This has been an interesting week from a culinary perspective.

It began with a co-worker sharing a slice of the duck prosciutto that he'd made. It was quite delicious with the fat tasting all buttery. Mmmm….

Then a couple nights ago my friend Pete stopped by with some homemade lefse. A little butter, some cinnamon sugar, and I was all set.

The Dailypage added on with Kyle Nabilcy's "Madison eats trends in 2008 and wishes for 2009". While I was disappointed that Nabilcy generally avoided places that abet one's cooking activities in favor of restaurants, it did remind me of a couple eateries that I've been meaning to try but whose doors I've just never gotten around to entering.

This year I definitely want to head to Africana and have some West African cuisine and Doug's Soul Food for, well, soul food. Such are my modest culinary goals for the new year.

Not being a foodie, I don't have oodles and oodles of recollections from 2008 to give to you. But I do have one.

Last year I moved from the far east side to the isthmus. This gave me the opportunity to sample the pizza pies that provide relief for the newest generation of hippie stoners with the munchies. I'd had slices from Roman Candle previously and the first time I ordered a pie to be delivered it was good. However, the next one I got was horrible as the sauce tasted like someone had put 4 hectares of oregano in it. The stuff was more bitter than death. I haven't ordered a pie from them since. (Though I'm not ruling out doing so again.)

Moving near Willy Street meant being close to Pavlov's whose pizza I hadn't eaten in ages. I ordered a pie one night when neither I nor The Dulcinea felt like cooking. For some reason, they have always done a great job with feta, tomato, and onion. The problem is that the joint is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. (And they're open only from 5-10:30 or so which is blatantly odd for a pizza place.)

Then I ordered from La Rocca's. As far as I'm concerned, the folks there make the best pie in town. Thin crust, at least. The crust was crispy but not overdone while the sauce found a nice balance between tomato and herb flavors and it wasn't sugary sweet. And their sausage! It had fennel in it like it's supposed to. I could taste the individual ingredients instead of this bitter, mushy blah that passes for pizza at so many places. (I'm thinking of you, Glass Nickel.) This is how pizza should be done.

My final culinary note is to refer you to "White American culture is General Tso’s Chicken and Chop Suey", a nice little expose demonstrating that authentic Chinese food has nothing to do with what is to be found in Chinese restaurants here in America. (h/t to the Angry Asian Man.)