Eating across the midwest

I've been (a bit too) well-fed here in the midwest, especially when we hit the road.


Some of the lightest, fluffiest pancakes I've ever had can be found right here in Urbana, at Courier Cafe


In Green Bay, a rather dead town brought to life when footballs fans drop by their stadium, some recommendations online pointed us to Kroll's , where I chowed down on its 'broasted' chicken dinner, served with my choice of mac and cheese and a side salad. Comfort food indeed.



And on Mackinac Island, after recommendations by our hosts at the B&B, we tried the Village Inn for its Maple-Planked Whitefish, bordered with duchesse potatoes and its cherry cobbler.


The next day, it was the Yankee Rebel Tavern for pot roast

and a walnut and pear salad.

But I have to admit that some of the food I enjoyed the most on the island were the breakfast at the B&B.

Such as the lemon muffins and coffee bundt cake we had on the first morning. The coffee was always freshly brewed and not the crappy stuff one usually gets at diners here.


There would also be fresh fruit, cereal and bagels, and on the second morning, hardboiled eggs. And the soft chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, homemade of course.


The decorations on the breakfast table changed each morning too. This was the lighthouses of Michigan display.


In Milwaukee, we feasted on German food, at Mader's, where I had something not exactly German... the Almond Crusted Trout served with sauteed red potato, asparagus and baby vegetables in lemon thyme sauce. It was lightly crusted and just perfectly cooked.


The Sauerbraten Rheinischer, which was beef marinated for ten days and oven roasted, topped with toasted almonds and golden raisins, and served with red cabbage and spaetzel (a 'German pasta', or so the waiter explained)



And the next day, we toured the Lakefront Brewery, recommended by the hotel staff as more 'fun' than the usual choice of Miller Brewery. Why is it more fun? And why did we stand in line for about an hour just to get in (and pay $5)? Well, to start off, it was a small brewery, its employees were all cheerily drinking beer, and unlike other brewery tours, this one actually started with a drink (or two). And another (or two) in the middle, and more at the end. Your $5 entrance fee gets you 4 tokens in exchange for your choice of beer (they had at least 7 different beers on tap) and a free souvenir glass. Not a bad deal. Especially since they had this amazing seasonal cherry beer. Oh and the guide was insightful and funny, with some jabs at Miller but as he said first off, 'we know what you're really here for'.

And after all that hearty American food, it was nice to settle down for some Korean/Japanese at this little place called Nikko, not too far from O'Hare in Chicago.


We had some good chirashi


And bulgogi!

And ended the night with a quick dash into the Mitsuwa Marketplace (a Japanese supermarket) just nearby.


They have all kinds of Japanese stuff, from fresh produce to meat to rice crackers, but we picked up an pan for the next day's breakfast and some wafer ice-cream.



Courier Café
111 N Race Street, Urbana, IL 61801,
Ph: 217-328-1811,

Kroll's West Restaurant
1990 S. Ridge Road
Green Bay, WI 54304
(920) 497-1111

Village Inn
Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Phone: 906-847-3542

Yankee Rebel Tavern
101 Astor Street
P.O. Box 1880
Mackinac Island, MI 49757
Phone: 906-847-6249

Mader's Restaurant & Catering
1041 N Old World 3rd St
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203
Phone: 414-271-3377

Lakefront Brewery
1872 N Commerce St
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212
phone: (414) 372-8800

Nikko
282 E Algonquin Rd
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Mitsuwa Marketplace
100E Algonquin Road
Arlington Heights, IL

Somewhere in time

And I'm back from the week-long roadtrip up north with R and his parents.

Urbana-Green Bay-Mackinac Island (two nights)-Munising (on Lake Superior)-Milwaukee-Chicago (just to hit the outlet mall)-Urbana

Here's just one highlight for now:



The lovely Mackinac Island, where cars are banned and people get around on horses, bicycles, on foot, and in the winter, snowmobiles.

The first two days were rained out but we braved the cold and damp and took a horse carriage tour around the island. (That's the Round Island lighthouse in the background)


The B&B (Haan's) was a gorgeous old 1830s house and was being temporarily run by a lovely Californian couple.

The breakfasts were just amazing, with homemade muffins and cakes and nutty coffee. And those oatmeal raisin cookies left out in the parlour at teatime! Oh so good.

The Grand Hotel is probably a highlight for most visitors, especially those who are fans of the Christopher Reeve movie Somewhere in Time.

The hotel's grounds are very pretty but the hotel was closed for some women's group which had booked it, all 385 rooms.

The island's pretty damn touristy, with its main street filled with fudge shops and souvenir stores. But we were a little early in the season so we managed to miss the main tourist crush (although there were many schoolkids on field trip) and get a good deal on the room rates.

April reads

All this reading for the two term papers and now a dissertation had made me forget what it's like to read for fun, to read for pleasure, to read without thinking of making notes. So here in Urbana, while I've a stack of 9 books from the main university library (which has a glorious 10 floors and several half floors - very Being John Malkovich), I've managed to take some time out to do some reading:

Don Delillo – Cosmopolis
Alain de Botton – The Art of Travel
Marjane Satrapi – Chicken with Plums
Elliot Perlman – The Reasons I Won’t be Coming

Alain de Botton is always such a dream to read, whether he's writing about architecture or travel. He writes about such everyday things, things that most of us give nothing but a fleeting glance at. But he looks at them in a different light, and writes about these everyday occurrences in such a simple, beautiful way.

I gave up on the Delillo after about 20 pages. I see where he's going with it, but it's just not something I want to read right now - it's about a young billionaire taking a ride across town to get a haircut and various things interrupt him, such as encountering his new wife. It's supposed to be Delillo's musing about the 21st century but I didn't give him much of a chance to tell me about it.

Marjane Satrapi's work always fascinates me - she's an Iranian graphic novelist, who writes and draws about life in Iran. Her first two books (Persepolis 1 and 2) were about her childhood in Iran and studies in Austria when she was a teen. Chicken with Plums is instead about her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan, a musician whose instrument is damaged and he can't find one to replace it. In despair, he decides to die and takes to his bed.

Elliot Perlman's an Australian writer whose book Seven Types of Ambiguity I just loved. It was a story written from seven different perspectives and just beautifully written. The Reasons I won't be Coming is a short story collection and I was far less enamored with it but there were good moments, such as the first story, a man's late night conversation with his ex.

Other stuff I read last month:
Madhur Jaffrey – Climbing the Mango Trees
(recommended by mt and definitely a fun read - it's the autobio of the famous Indian food writer)
Kurt Vonnegut – Cats Cradle
(my first Vonnegut - yes, it took me quite some time and was a result of reading about his death)
Gary Shteyngart – The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
(quirky story. Russian immigrants)
Truman Capote – The Complete Stories
(It's Capote before In Cold Blood)
Amy Tan – Saving Fish from Drowning
(not entirely sure why I picked it up as I'm not really an Amy Tan reader but it was a nice easy read while working on papers. And a bit of a departure from her Joy Luck Club kinda genre, although it has been said that she should stick to what she knows)

oh no oh yes!

Thursday night, we caught Ok Go in concert at U of I! Yes, those 'assholes in the treadmill song' as lead singer Damian Kulash described themselves.

We really should've just turned up at 830 as opening band Living Blue sucked. Their nine too many songs all sounded the same and the sound was just really bad and distorted. I entertained myself by watching the audience downstairs as they texted other people (probably with the message 'this band sucks'). Was everyone just too polite to actually say 'you suck!' or did they actually like them? I really couldn't tell.

Finally, Ok Go came on, all snazzily dressed, in stripey shirts and suits. The best part was when they wandered off stage and appeared in the audience, doing an acoustic version of 'A Million Ways', making those in the front couple of rows sit on the stage to watch. So no, we weren't treated to the dance moves although some kids in the balcony apparently were doing them anyway.

Ok Go - A Million Ways live

And of course, they played the treadmill song, otherwise known as Here It Goes Again. The only treadmills in sight were part of the images on the screen backdrop. And many of their other songs like Invicible and one of my favourites, Oh Lately It's So Quiet (yousendit).

It was a fun but all too quick show. The band sounded great and more importantly, didn't take themselves too seriously.

airflown from Brighton

Yesterday it was goodbye Brighton, hello Illinois. Woke at 6, got on the National Express to Heathrow at 710, used those silly self-service kiosks to check in, only to go to another counter to check-in my bags (how is this supposed to speed things up?). I got bumped to Economy Plus (more legroom!) and made full use of it by dozing my way through the eight hours in the air (and only catching bits of Notes on a Scandal and Miss Potter, which both seemed like good shows, on the personal screen). Turbulence in the last 1.5 hours before landing made sure my migraine got worse but we finally landed in Chicago. And it was cold and dreary. R said I brought the English weather with me - the sun's been hiding and the dark clouds stewing. What a change from the many days of bright sunshine in Brighton (except for that very dreary and cold Monday).

I write this in the living room, almost having forgotten what a living room is after eight months of not having been in one. How quiet it is. No sirens (I live on one of the main streets in Brighton), and what quiet nights - no crazed drunks or screamers, no thumping bass beats from the many clubs, no squawking seagulls and unfortunately, no waves crashing on the shores (the best thing about living in Brighton is waking up to a glorious sunrise and the sound of the waves). The quiet makes this a far better place to work on the dissertation and work I must as there are books that I need to get from here that the Sussex library does not have. But of course, the main reason for being here is to be with R and today we celebrate a year of being together, although most of it has been apart. And what a year it has been!

bits and pieces

When I got off the train from Gatwick to Brighton, I couldn't help thinking how odd it felt to be returning from a week's vacation, back to a place I hardly call home. It's like going from one hotel to another, not really completely rooted. I don't think it's just me who feels this way, my classmates were talking about how Brighton seems to be a very transient place, where people stick around for a year or two and move off some place else. Perhaps it's because we're students. And with two universities, there are many students in this town. In a few days I'll be off to Illinois for six weeks. Two hours in a bus, another couple of hours at the airport, eight hours in the plane, three hours in the car. And I'll finally be there.

Meanwhile, Brighton Daily Photo's been doing a series of posts on the locations of Quadrophenia, which I have to admit I have never seen. That cafe's just down the road from here!

And on the bus ride back from school today, a sign on a truck owned by Sussex Scaffoldings: 'Always a satisfying erection'. I wish I had a camera.

A visit to a hairdresser saw clumps of my hair wafting to the floor. It ended up shorter than I asked for, but I quite like it.

Today, a vicious mutant seagull (they're massive in Brighton I tell you) attacks my classmate's quiche when we were having lunch out in the sun. The nice cafe people hand over another. And we glare at the bird, which stares back, hoping for another sneaky attack.

That's it from Brighton for today.

Are you getting somewhere or did you get lost in amsterdam?

As always, let's start with the food. Dutch food isn't exactly world renown. It's like British food. Simple, not terribly mouth watering, it's more of a stomach filler.
Still, it's a good place to start, and after consulting my trusty library copy of the Lonely Planet, I discovered there was a little neighbourhood place just round the corner of the Hotel Hestia, which I should add is a great B&B near Vondel Park with a sweet cat named Gregory. It even has a lift for the stairphobic but it only fits two pieces of luggage and one person.


A choice of meat, potatoes and veg for under 8 euros at Hap Hmm. Not bad for a stomach filler.


Amsterdam's got great bakeries and some really good bread.


After finding our way to the De Pijp area, where the Albert Cuypmarkt (it's a flea market) is, we stopped at the Chocolate Bar for a light lunch, where I had fresh mint tea and a mozzarella toastie.


Then cake and coffee at the cheerful De taart van m'n tante


It's got an amazing window display!


And sometimes we just had cheese and wine in the hotel room - thankfully it was large enough for three beds and a little sitting area.


A typical snack - bitterballen. Must admit I didn't like it that much. Its got some meat and some broth and flour and rolled into a ball and coated with breadcrumbs. We ate at this in the town of Leiden, after visiting the flower show at Keukenhof. Unfortunately we were probably a couple of weeks too early as the tulips weren't out yet.


Still, it was pretty.


And the usual touristy thing is rijstafel or rice table. And we hit Kantjil and de Tijger in Spuistraat for that. Not too bad as it had a good variety. Of course the spiciness was toned down.


Another popular dish found at cafes - open faced sandwiches, this one is topped with carpaccio. Surprisingly a bit tasteless despite the dressing... This was at the lovely Cafe Rotterdam, in erm, Rotterdam.


The view of the Erasmus bridge from the cafe's painted windows.


Piet Blom's famous cube houses.


And what's a post about Amsterdam without pictures of canals?


And bicycles.


And windmills - this one's been turned into a house!

I would say it was a week well spent in Amsterdam - we hit the essentials: the Van Gogh museum, Rembrandt's house, Anne Frank's House, Albert Cuypmarkt, ate pancakes (too dark for photos), drank great Belgian beer, wandered the red light district, shopped at Dam Square, rode the tram, took a canal cruise, saw a concert at the Concert Gebouw, wandered around the Leidseplein. And even took trips out to Leiden and Rotterdam.

over and out

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have done it.
I have gleefully handed in my term papers. The weight is off my shoulders - at least for the next couple of days before it's time to start working on the dissertation idea to get some sort of approval before I disappear for six weeks.

This morning I turned in two 13-page papers (and three pages of bibilography, yikes!) on Friday the 13th. Unintentionally of course. I had no idea it was the 13th until I picked up a copy of the free paper someone had left on the bus. And usually I dont glance at the date, but today I did. I glanced at the date and thought, how about that for coincidence. I would like to believe that is somehow a good sign. 13 isn't always unlucky, is it? Anyway, fingers and toes crossed. Will be out of the country when the results come in so have to rely on a classmate to pick them up for me and decipher people's handwriting.

And oh, big plans for the weekend - it will be a weekend of reading. I have been sorely neglected the big bookworm in me and some of you might have noticed that the list of books on the left hand side of this blog has barely changed over the past few weeks, and indeed, I have only been reading a few pages a day. Sad, but true. And this weekend, i will change all that with a trip to the library later this afternoon to bring back a haul of books. And to accompany all that will be several DVDs from the school library including Clerks (the 10th anniversary edition!), Guess who's coming to dinner and The Children's Hour. I'm sure other people's faces will fall when they read my big plans, but hey, it's my weekend, I'll do whatever I want to do with it. Go party someplace else.

Meanwhile, here's some cheese pictures.


This is the truly delicious slab of cheese Yukiko and I got from Amsterdam. Gouda. Need I say more?


And this is the mini indoor picnic lunch we had on Easter weekend.


And this is the kinda food that I'll be eating from now on, cos it's spring and it's 15 deg and, (here's the best time to harp on about how the sun is out, but today, it really isn't. It's a cloudy cloudy day), the stripey deck chairs are out!

Reality bites

After passing through rainbow fields on the train ride to Rotterdam, the greens and browns and greys of England just were so, well, blah.

And after this,


And this,

And this




You'd understand.

(Although first I'd have to tell you all about it - look for the next installment!)

back in 10

This blog has been neglected for a while, and it will have to be for a while longer as I'm off to Amsterdam on Wednesday and then back next week to slog again, rewriting, editing, fact-checking my 10,000 words and bibliographies. Then when that's all handed in, the work doesn't stop as the dissertation titles need to be confirmed and approved, and an outline and proposed references laid out.

But for now, after a long day working at the university library, it is time to relax and take a breather for the sun is out, and the last of that arctic wintery week seems to be over - the sun's out, the coats are off and sunglasses on, people were lazing about on the grass on campus, cafes have dragged their chairs and tables outside. It's a lovely warm 14 deg evening. I'm just glad to be out of the library.

Meanwhile, the class had its all too occasional dinner, this time with pre-dinner drinks at The Font and then tapas at Casa Don Carlos in the Lanes.


Lighting was bad but the food was good!


The most delicious (and dramatic) dish of the day - chorizo flambed in rum.



Casa Don Carlos
5 Union Street,
The Lanes,
Brighton

addicted

Besides pulling out my hair while writing 10,000 words, I have been watching odd British game shows, such as The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006, hosted by Jimmy Carr (watch part one here). One must learn to watch the telly of the locals, after all.


Never Mind the Buzzcocks (part one) hosted by the brilliant Simon Amstell.

My (nick)name is olduvai and I am a TV addict (without a TV).
Yes it is but one of my many addictions, alas, I am easy.

Report card

My plan:
To get as much reading done as possible, and then to start writing next week.
To get most of the essay out before I leave on the 28th - as in, whacking two papers out in a week (doesn't have to be 5000 words each, but at least to get the skeleton out with some flesh on it)

My worry:
At today's class, sitting out on benches and dazed by the brightness of the sun, the sudden fear that I don't read critically, don't read enough, don't read critically enough.

My neck, my back:
Pain. (Lugging the Macbook to school in a backpack that already has several books is no joke)

My head:
Full. Overflowing from every pore is everything I've been reading so far. What if it all seeps out overnight?

let's go to brighton on the weekend

My cousin came down to Brighton on Saturday, and it seemed like she took the rest of London with her as the streets were full of wanderers.

After poking around the North Laine with its always fascinating mix of shops (and people), we had a quick stop for lunch at the packed Dumb Waiter Experience.


We sat upstairs in its cheery stencilled room.


It's popular with kids.


I had a vege burger and she had a breakfast of egg, sausage, bacons, beans.

Every trip to Brighton must include the Royal Pavilion, but you've seen that already so here's more food pictures.


The window display at the Bar du Chocolat where we were part of the window entertainment for passersby as they watched us eat....


the slab of cake. One gran even knocked on the glass and played 'you eat the cake and you'll turn into a big fat slab yourself' charades with us.


The aftermath: we handled the monster quite well, I reckon.


Oh and ching brought CNY goodies with her, delivered from Singapore! Bah kwa, pork floss, love letters, my mum's home made peanut cookies and oddly, prawn rolls. Thanks everyone who helped in Operation CNY Loot.