Thursday, March 27, 2008

Cheeseland then home

It was fortunate that we were planning to be in Chicago when the idea of a meeting for dh in Madison, Wisconsin came up. We both really like that city and a quick trip sounded great. I wish we had taken a pic of our usual valet at the Residence Inn. He was a cutie, from Bosnia, and we saw a lot of him with the amount of driving we did in Chicago.

But a relatively early start to Tuesday got us to Madison in time to meet dh's workmates for a working lunch at one of the hotels being considered for a conference, The Madison Concourse. Pics would have been nice but not too appropriate. I had a grilled flatbread with sliced steak, roasted onions and a cheese I had never heard of...carambazola, a German blue that is very creamy. (Googling it tells me it is very popular...who knew?) DH had a meatloaf sandwich which was great and all 5 of us shared chocolate tarts along with in house made chocolates. Boy what a good use for all that Wisconsin cream!! I highly recommend the food at the Concourse.

Madison is on an ithmus between two lakes and yes, there was still snow here and there. Winter records were broken in 2008 with over 100" of snow!! MD weather sounded pretty good when we heard that. Dinner? We finally decided on Restaurant Muramoto. omoigod kinda good! No pictures but fantastic food, and great atmosphere. (I suggest you read the dinner menu.)

I started with an Oyster Shot: Sunset Beach oyster in ponzu sauce garnished with chili daikon relish and quail egg. Yummy. Dh had a lamb curry with a roti type bread. We had both thought about the scallops but I ended up with them.. Pan Seared Scallop: over garlic mashed Satsuma potatoes, with mushroom ragout in a garlic butter soy sauce. The portions, while called small plates by our server, were really normal sized portions. Remember normal sized??!?! Of course this left us with room for dessert... heheh. We had the dessert sampler which included portions of each of the 4 nightly desserts which included Strawberry Spring Roll: with honey ginger ice cream, a gingerspiked chocolate brownie, a sponge roll with a filling I can't recall (sorry!!), and a peanutbutter chocolate mousse. I really fell for the strawberry spring roll.

We decided that this was the best meal of the trip. Madison and Portland ME rank way way up there in number of great restaurants, esp for cities of their size. I can see a cheese trip in my future (perhaps with a stop for Michigan cherries). That sounds like a 2 ice chest trip, so I better start planning.

Madison Skyline

A short walk round the Capitol before dinner, and a stop at a shop that wasn't there on our last visit. This one I would have remembered.! fromagInation . We left with 4 different Wisconsin cheeses - Chalet Swiss, Smoky Bear (goats' milk gouda) and two from Marieka Penterman's Goudas, one with cumin and one with fenugreek. I also got lots of ideas re fig jams and preserves. I'm thinking ahead to this year's (hopeful) bounty. Fig and balsamic sounded the best to me.

Earning $$s

DH usually manages to earn some $$s before a good night sleep, and then to Cranberry PA (outside of Pittsburgh) for one night and then finally home...to unpack, do laundry and plan the next trip!

Bye from me...
Sunset Goddess
See you on the road next time when we ....Get In The Car!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You need a felted bag, but maybe it will be better for winter. I use mine all year round.

One of our neighbours daughters is heading to Chicago at the end of the month for her Gap year before she goes to University, she will be nannying for a family.

Unknown said...

Maureen I don't know what variety of Chilli I photographed it was a small plant my mother grew for me, the chillies point skyward and a re black, green then red. My husband assures me they are hot. A friend in Florida called it a Thai chilli plant. Maybe I should find out.