Quarantine Edition: Cook From Home

It has been about 2 weeks since we have been encouraged to stay at home, and so I have been doing a lot more cooking than usual.  My lunch today was a grilled cheese sandwich made with some pretty stale Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Whole Grain Wheat Bread, the last of my Sartori Montamore Cheddar, and Woeber's Reserve honey mustard, which I think I got in one of those corporate holiday gift baskets several years ago.  It has a "best by" date of January 2017 on the bottle, but does honey or mustard really go bad?

I am sorry to brag, but I have to be honest and tell you that I cooked this sandwich perfectly:  browned equally on both sides with melted butter, slowly grilled so the usually crumbly Montamore cheese melted beautifully.  The sweet honey mustard balanced the tanginess of the cheese.  I served it to myself with a sliced Honeycrisp apple and a glass of sparkly water from my Sodastream.  There was pretty nice ambiance in my kitchen too; no crowds, no noise, no wait.  Perhaps a little too much cat fur on the countertops to pass official health code ... but unlike Covid-19, that never killed anybody.

Right Bauer Brewing

Right Bauer Brewing in downtown Sun Prairie, Wisconsin doesn't have grilled cheese on their menu but they do have cheese curds, since it is a law that a Wisconsin microbrewery must serve cheese curds. Ok, that's not really a law, but if you are interested in Wisconsin law regarding cheese curds, see Wis. Admin Code § ATPC 81.40-42 (2016).

The curds are beer battered and the menu states that they are sourced from Silver Lewis Cheese Co-op.  They are pretty good, as is the aioli served with them. The batter is very rich. Perhaps the curds are a little bit big though, and my batch was bordering on overcooked, as some of the curds were a little hollow on the inside.

For accompaniment, I had a Restoration Cider Company Door County Cherry, and a Raspberry Beret brewed by Right Bauer. Both were perfect, light, and crisp for a warm summer evening. The drinks, the curds, the weather, all enjoyed on the Right Bauer's back patio, reminded me of why people live in Wisconsin.

Pop's Custard

Friday was the first hot day of the year so I invited a friend to have supper at Pop's Custard, a 30-some year institution in Menomonee Falls. 

We got the last table outside. The service was not exactly fast, but it was a pleasant wait in the early evening sun.  My friend had a jumbo butter burger, I had a grilled cheese, and we shared cheese curds.  The grilled cheese sandwich consists of American cheese, on your choice of white or wheat bread, soaked in butter.  Pretty basic, but cooked perfectly and well worth its $2 price. However, the cheese curds were too greasy for my taste.

We followed up dinner with sundaes.  Then a food coma.

The Tipsy Cow, Sun Prairie

Longtime readers will know that The Tipsy Cow in downtown Madison serves what I consider the best grilled cheese ever.  (Newer readers can catch up by clicking here.)  The owners opened a second location in Sun Prairie a few months ago and I checked it out today with my mom as a belated Mother's Day lunch.

The menu and the grilled cheese recipe is the same as the downtown location, but the service and the atmosphere is not.  The Sun Prairie location is in the urban sprawl area of the city's west side, a former wetland that was paved and built up with roundabouts, big box stores, and strip malls surrounded by enormous parking lots which are always full.  The restaurant's decor includes high ceilings, beaded chandeliers, faux-antiqued mirrors, tufted-back booths, long rows of tables nearly right next to each other, and crisp off-white walls sparsely dotted with statement pieces of cow-related art, like they were trying for a hotel chic vibe ... but it really doesn't mesh with their pub food served in plastic baskets.  Of course the result of that design is that it is SO LOUD INSIDE that it gives you a tension headache.

And they didn't finish cooking my sandwich. There was no "optimal melty gooiness" this time.  Without this texture, I'd merely call it "fine."  If you want to go to The Tipsy Cow, go to the one in downtown Madison. 

Mackesey's Irish Pub (St. Patrick's Day Edition)

St. Patrick's Day is this weekend, so naturally my readers are looking for a great Irish pub to celebrate the holiday with a nice grilled cheese sandwich.  May I recommend Mackesey's Irish Pub?  In business for over 35 years, this is probably the last family-owned, authentic Wisconsin tavern left on State Street in Madison.

With that kind of history, you know what kind of sandwich to expect.  Sweet white bread, grilled to a golden hue, with melty, stringy cheddar inside.  This is the kind of grilled cheese sandwich my grandmother used to make.  Perfect.  You get your choice of cheese, and it comes with either chips or potato salad on the side, along with a pickle spear and a mini Milky Way. 
 

Ancora Coffee

To paraphrase Jake Blues, we're putting the blog back together!

The re-inaugural repast took place at Ancora Coffee's new location in the King Street Arcade building in downtown Madison.  In the former location of The Kitchen Gallery, it is an airy but quiet space, with seating extending into the building's atrium. Ancora's grilled cheese has local roots, being composed of Hook's pepperjack and muenster cheeses on Madison Sourdough Company's rosemary bread. 

This was a very flavorful sandwich.  The cheeses were melted perfectly. The bread was hard and crispy, with the perfect amount of greasiness. The defining characteristic of this sandwich was the grilled tomatoes.  I am not normally a fan of out of season tomatoes, and when raw I think they are disruptive to grilled cheese but grilling them enhanced their flavor and did not make the sandwich soggy.  The pepperjack, muenster, tomatoes and rosemary melded together wonderfully to create a mouth-warming taste.  A cup of tomato soup is included as a side.  It was a really thick and hearty soup, almost like pasta sauce.  It stood up to the flavors of the sandwich.  Overall, a first-rate grilled cheese and an excellent way to bring back the blog. 

Sunprint Cafe

Sunprint Cafe recently moved to 10 West Mifflin Street, Madison, Wisconsin, after a long residency at One South Pinckney Street.  Famous for breakfast, and a Capitol Square staple for lunch, their menu now includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch, and drinks.

Their new space was previously occupied by Cameo Day Spa and is very elegant, but it seems like Sunprint isn’t quite settled in there yet.  The restaurant has multiple rooms and is arranged in a way that seems crowded and leaves little privacy for each table. 

Their lunch menu has a pretty good selection of soups, salads, and sandwiches - ranging from burgers to paninis, to vegan items, to grilled cheese.

The grilled cheese sandwich comes on your choice of wheat or rye bread (I chose wheat) and it includes sharp cheddar and jack cheeses on either side of tomatoes.  It comes with a side (I chose tabouli).  The bread was grilled very lightly and was not at all greasy. It was more toasted than grilled.  It was an uncomplicated wheat bread, with rolled oats on the crust.  The cheddar and jack cheese combination, along with the tomatoes, had a quite respectable flavor.  However, the cheese amount was skimpy -- the corners of the sandwich had no cheese coverage.  My side of tabouli was generously portioned and really fresh tasting.  Overall it was not a bad lunch, but not that special either.