How 3 Girls Ate Their Way Through the "Best" of Milwaukee/Chicago

It's Sunday morning. Drove down from WI at 1AM from a very fun wedding of a dear high school friend. Picked up Matthew at 4AM. Fell asleep at 5AM. Still in my pajamas. The early fall breeze from the balcony is mingling with the waft of turkey bacon broiling in the oven. I'm catching up on Anthony Bourdain on my DVR. So...do I really want to be typing away on my laptop? I promise, the word count on this post will be kept at bare minimum.

 

Here are some photos of the chow-down that went on last weekend when my college friends Samantha & Crystal visited the Midwest for their very first time.

 

I've yelped XOCO before, and I will be yelping about the other joints as well...so more details on the visit then!

 

Night 1: Crazy Water - Milwaukee, WI

chorizo stuffed medjool dates with apple wood
smoked bacon and chipotle pepper
tomato sauce

Yuzu marinated pork belly w/ summer salad

Pistachio crusted veal tenderloin with potatoes au gratin and summer squash(?)

grilled flat iron steak with blue cheese fritters, port wine balsamic sauce,
sweet potato gratin and wilted spinach 

Cranberry panna cotta

Day 2: Pequod's to Go - Morton Grove, IL

Deep-dish sausage pizza w/ extra caramelized crust

Day 2: Hot Doug's - Chicago, IL

Chicago style dog & venison dog w/ fig goat's butter and Raclette cheese

Duck fat fries

Night 2: XOCO - Chicago, IL

Ahogada - pork carnitas torta

Special of the Day: lime marinated pork w/ tomatoes from their rooftop garden w/ avocado & crema

Churros rolled in sugar and their homemade chocolate

Day 3: Apple Holler Orchards - Sturtevant, WI

Country hast w/ over easy egg & chicken apple sausage

Buttermilk pancakes w/ chicken apple sausage and scramble eggs

 

Day 3: Brewer's Tailgate - Milwaukee, WI

- No super pictures for this... but we grilled Wisconsin's very own Klement's Bratwursts. My favorite way to enjoy them are super charred/almost burnt, on a toasty bun, w/ some diced raw onions, sauerkraut and mustart. YUMM. Oh, we also had New Glarus, WI Spotted Cow. :)

 

Night 3: Stack'd Burger Bar - Milwaukee, WI

Grass-fed beef burger w/ fries and dill pickle "coins"

Bison burger w/ jalapeños and fresh fruit

I have yet to recover from the amount of food consumed from that weekend since I've been munching on the girls' leftovers (not to mention yummy buns from Chinatown). My new "challenge?" 10 Meatless Days starting Tuesday. Why Tuesday? C'mon. It's Labor Day tomorrow, it's a legitimate excuse to procrastinate.

PS. I don't know why my paragraphs are uber double-spaced. Too lazy to fix, it's a lazy day y'all.

The Ahris Fried Rice

What is the "Ahris Fried Rice?" Well... such a thing doesn't exist. By the name I actually mean the traditional Korean Kimchi Fried Rice. When my youngest sister was much smaller (she's now 14), I used to trick her into thinking that the kimchi fried rice was my very own creation hence the name "Ahris Fried Rice." She used to believe me until she was old enough to realize it didn't exist!

Anywho, I grew up on this stuff. This was, believe it or not, my very first meal I was able to make for me and my sisters when I, being the oldest, was often in charge of lunch when my parents were away. The best variation of them are usually found in Korean BBQ eateries- where they will use the same pan that was used to cook the meat, to make the fried rice. The bottom gets all crunchy with the meaty bits that were left over, and the whiff of deliciousness that hits your nose as the cook throws in the chopped (or seldom just torn) nori into the mix...? Out of this world! I actually saw an amazing variation of the dish that was featured on Cooking Channel's Foodography where the Good Fork in Brooklyn NY features "Steak and Eggs, Korean Style" which is "grilled skirt steak, kimchee rice, fried egg."

No two kimchi fried rice can taste exactly the same, because the key ingredient to the success of the dish is in the kimchi itself. And as many of you might already know, no two kimchi taste the same. In addition, it also depends on what kind of protein you choose to cook it with. Some go completely vegetarian without any meat at all, some use up left over kalbi (Korean Barbecue) or bulgogi (Another Korean marinated beef), but I... I proudly choose none other than the almighty SPAM.

I mean, clearly the difference is dramatic from the mystery meat product to the taste of marinated short ribs (aka the real stuff), but who has kalbi laying around all the time? I find Spam amazingly economical with an unbeatable taste for the value.

I have many memories of this dish and many of them involve my family, more specifically my two sisters. I often whip up the fried rice when Kimchi is "overripe," and I make it in a huge pan where we're able to eat big portions not only for that one seating but more likely for lunch the next day also.

Sometimes I mold it into a small round bowl and do the old-fashioned trick where you "slam" the bowl upside down onto the plate to make a pretty dome of fried rice... but that can be tedious at times. :P


Kimchi Fried Rice (4-6 servings)
printable version

Ingredients:
- 1/2 can finely cubed Spam
- 2tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 cups finely chopped, overripe kimchi
- 3 tbsp butter (cold, cubed works best)
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 5-6 cups of cooked day old rice (don't use freshly cooked rice to avoid wet mess)
- 1/2 dry strips of nori (optional)

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-medium/high.

Brown the cubed Spam until you see a bit of color develop on each cube.

Remove the Spam and put aside. Cook the chopped kimchi in the same pan, this time with 1tbsp of toasted sesame oil.

The edges of the kimchi cabbage will slowly start to turn light brown. Add the cooked spam.

Stir together until it becomes on homogenous mixture then add the cooked rice.

Mix everything together so that the white rice becomes orange/red like the colors of kimchi.

Scatter the butter around the skillet and stir the rice so that all of it gets a good coating of the butter.

Sprinkle the brown sugar and stir. Also make sure you salt and pepper to taste. As long as you buy well-seasoned kimchi, you won't need too much salt since not only is kimchi salty but so is Spam.

For extra crunch, let the fried rice sit in medium/low heat for about 5-8minutes so that the botton develops a crust.

When ready drizzle the last 1tbsp of sesame oil and garnish with strips of nori and overeasy fried egg.

"And that's the way this wheel keeps on working now..."

After two months of much-needed time of contemplation and self-recovery, I am happily re-blogging. sigh.

The endless days and nights of pondering brought me to a very happy place -- a place that I haven't been for years. Not only did it change the outlook on my life, but also the role that my life plays in others' as well... Yowza, how is that for deep thought?

So what really happened in the last two months?

- As sappy as it sounds, I am now a firmer believer of the commonly coined phrase, "things happen for a reason." I'm not, by any means, happy that the crappy stuff happened...but I am definitely thankful for the lessons that I'm beginning to take away: one of them being the realization that I can't truly care for and love another without having done so for myself.

- I lost 8 lbs. Woo hoo! happy, happy, joy, joy!? I've been meaning to shed a few pounds just to feel better and reach a healthier weight goal- and having mucho time on my hands and myself, I finally did it! :) Now I have about 8 more lbs to go so we shall see how that unfolds...

- How did I lose those 8 lbs? I haven't been cooking = :( Well I actually have, here and there, but nothing extravagant. Lots of my cooking has been "healthy" meals that are low in carbs. I'm not badmouthing health foods here, but come on- nothing beats the taste of bacon or... fried chicken! And not being able to cook with fat and without any restraints?! tough = no fun!

-I deactivated my facebook account. GASP!? It's actually quite embarrassing that I had to go as far as deactivation, but I lost self-control and facebook become too addictive and toxic for my life. I became to reliant on this website and few things(or more specifically, few people) on there were just simply irritating. If you are able to use facebook in moderation, I applaud you! But me,... I just couldnt. My friend Frank actually deactivated his before mine... is this leading to a trend? Hmmm, we shall see.


I'm not a fan of lenghty, wordy posts without pictures, but here I am with the epitome of one. I have a few things on my camera with recipes on stand-by and also exciting things happening soon which will all be posted shortly! Some of them include: Burts Place & breakfast pizza, Big Taste MKE, Booby's & XOCO... but I'm most excited for this weekend's main event a.k.a. my friends Sam and Crystal's very first visit to the Midwest. Our itinerary is filled with food, so definitely a couple of posts on those! With pictures of course!