Cookies!

It's been a while so today I resolved to bake some cookies for my stepson and his father. I decided to eschew the usual chocolate concoction and went with banana bread cookies.

They turned out well with a few of them featuring bits of dried cherry that I threw in just to get them out of my pantry.

I did a bit of sampling and was pleased. They have a cake-like texture and a wonderfully rich banana flavor. I hope the recipients are happy with them.

Hello bub, I'm your wild rub/I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb

The time had come to give that BBQ rub I got from WAMP last month a go.

I opened the jar and inspected the contents with my eyes and then took a sniff.

I figured those larger dark bits were dried cherry. I wasn't surprised to take a whiff and smell cherry and a general sweetness along with a fair dose of smokiness which I believe came from smoke flavoring as well as chipotle. The aroma was quite pleasing. As was the taste with its combination of sweet cherry, smokiness, and peppery goodness. The heat factor was low - just a mellow, low-level heat.

I rubbed the stuff on some small country style ribs and braised them with a generous pour of Ayinger Maibock. I finished them off under the broiler with half of them having been given a moderate dose of Georgia mustard BBQ sauce.

I think they turned out well. The cherry flavor was in the background and I enjoyed the smoky flavors as I wasn't able to put them in a smoker nor on a grill. Plus the rub had the customary pepper-paprika combo. Some tasty stuff. I wanna put it on chicken next.

The Pennywise of Potatoes: Mrs. Fisher's Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips

I have been a fan of the Dark potato chips from our neighbors in Rockford, IL, Mrs. Fisher's, for a while now. They just taste extra rich and roasty and I have lamented that I've never found a salt & vinegar chip from them. Until now. Or rather a recent shopping trip at the Woodman's in Sun Prairie.

For as long I have been a fan of their chips I have been a fan of their packaging as it features an anthropormorphic potato who knows a fine milliner dancing with a couple of kids. It's something of a Rorschach test as the look on the spud's face can be interpreted as being gay & mirthful or simply menacing. Personally I see it as the latter because, to my eyes, he looks like he's about ready to throw the children into a cauldron of hot oil and kettle fry them up before salting them down.

And I love the company motto: "VITA SEALD". Who needs that second E? The life essences of potatoes are sealed in each bag. Or the life essences of children? Hmm...

The bag notes that these chips are "thick sliced" (not thickly) and so they were. They were also of a fairly narrow diameter. By and large these chips were lightly colored - yellow - but there were brown bits to be had as well including an occasional brown edge. The surfaces were well-bubbled and featured plenty of large salt crystals which raised my blood pressure just by looking at them. They looked very deer-friendly. A delightful earthy-sweet potato flavor was up front on the nose followed by oil and a touch of vinegar. Usually oil is most prominent so this was a nice change of pace.

The thick cut yielded a nice, big crunch. Those salt crystals kicked up the salinity as expected and there was plenty of vinegar tang to match. Truth in labeling here. As for the potatoes, they provided a rich, earthy-sweet taste that I liked because it was earthy tasting first.

Mrs. Fischer's has another winner here. These are on par with Vitner's as far as the salt & vinegar go. Eating them I thought I was pickling my viscera. The difference is that these are thicker and crunchier than Vitner's. A very fine chip. Highy recommended.

M & J Jamaican Kitch'n: First Impressions

Sadly Rue Bourre is no more but in its place has risen M & J Jamaican Kitch'n.

The interior was colorful and inviting.

Dinner came after grocery shopping rather than the other way around as it should have been. Hence, when co-owner Donnet Joseph greeted my co-shopper and me and regretfully informed us that, since it was late, the not all items on the menu were available, we weren't surprised. Fiar. I had jerk pork, my Jamaican standby.

It was tasty. I gobbled up all the cabbage along with a good helping of the beans and rice. The pork was delicious but the serving was about 50% chunks of fat. Hmm. The jerk sauce at the table had a nice burn to it along with a good allspicey-onion flavor.

A bit disappointing at the fatty chunks but I will definitely return.

Day Tripping: Wherein Your Humble Narrator Makes a Trek to Chicago To See a White Hen...er...see White Rooster

Having successfully inveigled someone to accompany me to Chicago to see a play, we headed out on a chilly Madison morning. I had no desire to try to find/pay for parking near the Magnificent Mile so we parked (for free) out in the exurbs and took the train into the city. A day pass for Metra and another for the CTA was less than $10, much cheaper than parking downtown would be. Plus the commute would be less stressful and more fun since we could just relax and watch the scenery go by. Or read. Or do a crossword puzzle.

We boarded at a terminus so the car was fairly empty.

However, at the first stop oodles of baseball fans boarded as the Cubs were playing the Mets that afternoon. When we disembarked at Union Station, the platform was full of people who were no doubt headed to the nearest Red Line L station where they'd catch a train that would deposit them just outside Wrigley Field.

This reminded me of something I heard several years ago when I inquired as to why Madison Metro Transit does not advertise its services as a way to get to Badger games. (This may have changed since then.) If you go to the Cubs' website you'll see directions for using public transportation for gameday. The CTA advertises itself as a cheap and convenient way to get to Wrigley Field.

On the other hand, the UW Badgers site avoid all mention of public transportation as far as I can see. What I heard several years ago was that Madison Metro is contractually obligated not to advertise their service as a way of getting to Badger games in order to lessen competition with for-profit shuttles. True? Still the case?

While there are bus stops on a couple maps at the Madison Foward FC site, their guide tells you how to get to Madison from O'Hare but nothing about using public transit to get to Breese Stevens Field from within Madison. Lame. Very lame.

Kudos to the Mallards for mentioning how to get to their games via the bus and for actually putting more - a lot more - than just "You can get to us via the bus - see Madison Metro's website for any and all info." They list the routes servicing Warner Park, the closest stops for each, etc.

While it was a bit cloudy out, it was much warmer than the last time we were crossing the Chicago River on Adams.

Our first stop was to be Elephant & Castle where my companion could indulge their love of meat pies with a flight of them just like last time. On the way there we again walked by The Rookery. It's a lovely building that was finished in 1888 and had its lobby redone by Frank Lloyd Wright 17 years later. I am told that my grandfather worked there.

Sometimes I get lost in thought as I walk around The Loop thinking about all of my family members that are no longer around who used to work and play and shop there. I can almost see my grandfather and great uncles walking down the streets clad in suit and tie wearing hats, taking puffs from cigarettes as they strolled along. I can recall many fond memories of my mother taking me to Marshall Fields at Christmastime when I was a boy, of my aunt taking me to the symphony as an adult, etc.

There is just so much great architecture in Chicago - downtown and elsewhere. We also saw the Chicago Board of Trade building with that statue of Ceres on top on our way to the restaurant. 

For lunch I had - quelle surprise - French onion soup.

When exactly I became enamored of this stuff has been lost in time but my love of it continues unabated here in 2026. Elephant & Castle has this faux English pub thing going on and regardless of the paucity of English beers on the menu it does seem to always have football on its TVs. That day all of the screens were showing a match between Manchester City and Arsenal. To one side of our table was a group of 20-something Americans enjoying themselves. Behind my companion was a table of two women from Aberdeen, Scotland who were very vocal about the game and let the TVs know what they thought of various calls by the referees. I am not a fan of soccer/football but it was made all the more tolerable with these two ladies and their loud, irate brogues nearby. And, I must admit that I kept thinking the crowd was going to start singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at any moment for the entire time we were there.

Also, I got some big Dolph Lundgren vibes from Manchester City's resident Norwegian player, Erling Haaland. Tell me I'm wrong.

When we were finished eating, we headed to the nearest Red Line L stop and caught a train to the ultima thule of the Magnificent Mile. Lookingglass Theatre is in the Chicago Water Tower Water Works building which means we got to walk by the Chicago Water Tower which survived the Great Chicago Fire. It had been decades since I had seen it in-person.

The north end of Michigan Avenue was well-populated with folks clutching many a bag from a Magnificent Mile retailer. While I don't know if the street's stores and restaurants have fully bounced back from their Covid lockdown nadirs, the street looked quite a bit more populated than other sections of it did a few years back. The pavements teemed with intense energy, one might say.

The Water Works building seemed to still be operational.

It also housed what I presume is the tiniest branch of the Chicago Public Library which consisted of just a few shelves and was smaller than my living room.

The play we had come to see was White Rooster.

When I read about its mix of Chinese folklore, the Western genre, and Americana along with a puppet thrown in for good measure, I was sold.

It takes place in an old mining town where the golden veins have dried up and ghosts quite literally share it with the living. After an introductory song, the play began properly with a sheet dividing the stage in half with a young lady named Min on one side and another woman who proves to be a ghost living in the attic of Min's family's home on the other. Backlighting throws their shadows onto the sheet to an effective and mildly unnerving, er, effect.

Min falls for a young man named Pong who dies in a mining accident along with Min's father, John. Pong's grandparents convince Min to marry Pong's spirit which is in the guise of the titular bird. This bit about marrying a white rooster which is inhabited by a dead lover's soul is apparently a bit of Chinese folklore.

Hilarity ensues.

While there were many darkly comic aspects here there were also some really dramatic scenes too. The one where Min's mother Maria tells a ghost story was quite intense with its use of shadow puppetry, changing light colors, and backlighting which projected action onto sheets. I mean it was seriously good. It drew me into the dark tale with its visual splendor and its rhythmic dialogue in a frenzied manner similar to the juke joint dance scene in Sinners.

If a rooster puppet appearing at the end of act 1 wasn't enough, a rooster-man chimera is introduced in act 2. Is he Pong? Or another man from a couple centuries ago whose actions still hang over the town?

Just as the mines are tapped out, so too are the townsfolk. They are ragged and weary and it felt like the youthful Min was the only sign of life in a dead town where the past will not let go.

White Rooster was simply wonderful. "Amazing!" declared my fellow theater goer. I've gotta keep an eye on this Lookingglass Theatre Company.

After the show we grabbed dinner at a little hole in the wall Thai joint, Silver Spoon, over on Rush Street near Superior. It was a really nice little place in the basement of a building that had a sushi joint on the first floor making for a pan-Asian experience on the 700 block of N. Rush.

I loved the cucumber salad as it was not overly sweet.

My main course was Nam Tok Salad which proved to be much the same thing as the Crying Dragon at Thai Boat Noodle in Sun Prairie, though the beef was cut differently. It too had cucumber in the mix and, all told, I think I ate about 4 cucumbers at that meal. But I am not complaining.

Since we had plenty of time before our train left, we walked back to Union Station and took in the sights.

"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" popped into my head as we walked by Marina Towers.

Walking west on Adams we were bathed in the warming rays of the sun but blinded too.

Water taxi!

The drive back to Madison was uneventful. My companion and I chatted about the play and how we both adored it. And now I am contemplating my next trip to Chicago.

Like Prince spaghetti night. But different.

I made my stepson and his old man some lasagne today.

It turned out fairly well. I know this as I sampled it. Just a little bit.

I also baked them a loaf of herb bread.

This I did not sample but I have made it before so I trust it's at least edible.

The Georgian People Really Love Garlic and Other Scenes from Dining Out

Since being driven from my house, I have done more cooking than I did while still living there. However, I have eaten out a fair bit this year. Much of my dining at restaurants can be attributed to being out of town or simply going to a show closer to home and choosing to grab a bite to eat beforehand with a fellow concert-goer.

The Great Dane's French onion soup has long been a favorite of mine. I believe they make it with a brown ale which is odd in that they rarely have a beer advertised as being a brown ale on tap. Hmm...?

I attended a couple puppet shows in Chicago back in January and the first was preceded by a meal at Elephant & Castle - the one on Adams. French onion soup once more, wings, and their meat pie sampler. There was a table of genuine Englishmen behind us so I guess E&C's take on the venerable English pub isn't too bad/inauthentic. Either that or they have a wide selection of soccer, er, football games on their TVs.

I ate at Forage Kitchen for the first time a couple months back. My Cobb-like salad was tasty and I appreciated all the kombucha on offer. Methinks the restaurant's owners also own a kombucha factory.

Madison's Mexican dining options used to be Pedro's and Chi Chi's. Now you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a taqueria. I stopped in at El Gran Taco Gato after a movie and had a tasty burrito. Bonus points for having "cat" in the name. The Big Taco Cat?

My second trek to Chicago for a puppet show included a stop at Athenian Room in Lincoln Park. My companion and I split a Greek salad which came with a shingle-sized slab of feta while the pork tenderlion kabobs were nice and tender and delicious. Opa!

Before going to see the Paul McCartney documentary on the big screen, my fellow music doc lover and I had dinner at Buraka. I hadn't been there in ages. The chicken tibs were delicious and I ate every last square millimeter of injera.

Somehow I believe that I'd never eaten at Elie's Café until just a few weeks back. The omelet was tasty and surprisingly full of jalapeño. My mug was a bottomless well of that elixir of morning.

One chilly winter evening I took a companion to La Taguara as they'd never eaten there and I was looking for a little variation from El Sabor de Puebla which has become something of a go-to in times of evening hunger pains and a lack of desire to cook. The grilled chicken was simple yet highly delicious, although another gallon of guasacaca wouldn't have hurt.

As noted above, El Sabor de Puebla has become a semi-regular stop for me as they have locations on the north and northeast sides - close to home. I splurged one day and got a burrito poblano which is a rather large burrito smothered in rich mole sauce and covered in sesame seeds. OK, not covered but I was going for a Waffle House thing here.

On the way home from a puppet show in Chicago, my companion and I ended up in Wheeling and stopped in at Fresh Farms International Market. It has an Eastern European slant to it and the bakery was wonderful.

We discovered a Georgian restaurant across the street from the supermarket - Kitchen House Cafe. I hadn't been to any place that served Georgian food for many years - since a visit to the now-closed Argo Georgian Bakery on Devon which had extremely delicous khachapuri. The ones on the menu here looked great too but I tried other dishes that night. I began my meal with a bowl of Chikhirtma, a.k.a. - Georgian chicken soup.

A dinner roll on one side and little cups of vinegar & diced garlic on the other. A rather generous portion of garlic too. It was all delicious but I had no idea that garlic was served with the soup and the meal ended up being a total garlic festival as I had also ordered Chkmeruli, Georgian garlic chicken.

The Chkmeruli was great and I think I ended up eating about 40 cloves of garlic with that meal. I could still taste it the next morning no matter how much coffee I drank.

Before the Los Lobos show at the Stoughton Opera House a fellow music lover and I dined at Water Street Tavern. The French onion soup was excellent. It was hot and didn't taste like it had been sitting in a stock pot for hours. There were about 2 pounds of cheese on top so it was a bit of a messy affair.

The Bún bò Huế at Saigon Noodle quickly became a favorite of mine since trying it last year and has filled a soup gap in my diet riven open when Wah Kee closed. Different soups, I grant you, but this Bún bò Huế satisfies that mid-winter noodle soup lust. One of my dining companions that night is Hmong and they highly rate this stuff so we are in accordance on its deliciousness.

Back in the early 1990's when I was a denizen of Witte Hall, the mother of one of my new friends would occasionally take us out for dinner. These occasions not only meant a free meal and one not from Gordon Commons, but also an opportunity to get away from campus and see more of Madison. One of the places we dined at was the late Smoky's Club. R.I.P. Another was Smoky Jon's #1 BBQ. Smoky Jon's has a special place in my heart for being the first north side joint I ever went to and a special place in my stomach because they have the best BBQ in town.

I now live fairly close to the restaurant and have been there a few times this year. The shorter, middle-aged fellow who runs the counter - that guy is great. He gave me and my dining companion burnt ends samples one time and he has the dryest, drollest sense of humor in all of Madison restaurantdom. I was relieved to find out after Smoky Jon died that they still pipe blues music into the dining room. A Madison classic.

When Piper died, I needed comfort food which meant Italian beef which meant Portillo's.

Miss you, Pipey!

I try to meet a friend who lives in Middleton for dinner once a month or so. One recent excursion saw us at Taza, a place that serves Mediterranean cuisine. The beef shawarma was excellent.

One of the reasons why I chose the apartment I did was its proximity to the home of a friend. When we're both working from home and our schedules allow, we like to take lunch together and usually wander down the street to dine. The Tip Top Tavern serves a fine salad and my friend has high praise for their mac & cheese.

For one trek to Chicago this past winter to see some fine puppet action my traveling companion and I decided to park in Elgin and take the train into the city. That night we dined at Zaab Thai in the Chicagoland exurb before returning to Madison. The food was excellent though they were a bit stingy when it came to turning up the thermostat. It was chilly in there.

To start, their cucumber salad is probably the best I've had as it wasn't overly sweet like every other version I've eaten and had fresh jalapeño slices to boot.

The glass noodle salad was great too. Lots of vegetables and not just a little here and there atop a mound of noodles. I asked for very spicy and, for my sins, they gave me very spicy. Woo doggy! It was hot. As in endorphin rush hot. My scalp got all tingly. Despite the heat, it was very flavorful.

A real gem of a place tucked away in a mall tucked away on Elgin's southwest side.

On a recent stop at the Great Dane I acutally didn't order the French onion soup and instead got a tasty salad laden with shrimp. My dining companion ordered beignets.

Earlier this week I took my stepson out for dinner. He had a hankering for Pad Thai so we went to his local Thai joint, Thai Boat Noodle. Thai restaurants used to be rare as hen's teeth in these parts but no longer. Perhaps not as numerous as Mexican restaurants, nonetheless Thai places are now rather common. The spring rolls and chicken satay were fine, though I think the dipping sauces could use less sugar and more fish sauce.

I had Crying Tiger with a medium level of spice. It is a bit like larb but the meat wasn't ground. Slices of beef mixed with green onion and cilantro. And either their medium heat level is the equivalent of high elsewhere or the cook made a little mistake because this stuff was hot. Not blazing, not deadly but I did feel it. If I'd gotten their hottest level of spice I think I would have cried. As it was, very tasty.

And those are some of my gustatory exploits of 2026. I have gone to the cinema every day since last Monday and have either eaten at a restaurant or just prepared something quick at home like a salad or some Buona Beef. Today I am making lasagne, most of which is going to my stepson and his father, and baking a loaf of bread for them. Hopefully this is the start of more cooking at home. 

But not before another trek to Chicago where I'll no doubt be dining somewhere in the Loop.