Indiana Amish Country

Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties
-Eating like an Amishman in northern Indiana

As much as I love the summer, I am a big fan of the fall. It's the time when the Midwest is at its most scenic with the changing of colors in the plants and trees and the crisp air is refreshing and it becomes a great time to take a cruise and take in the views. A great place to do this is Amish Country in Northern Indiana. Located in Elkhart county it's about 130 miles east of Chicago and a great place to spend the day or the weekend. There is no doubt that its prime time is in the fall when the apples are fresh, the pie is abundant and people are taking in the sites and views of The Heritage Trail. It's a 90 mile ride that takes you on a winding loop thru the various towns of Amish country and the region. In seeing places like Middlebury, Goshen, Shipshewana and Elkhart you will be taken along rural highways, scenic byways, have to yield to the horse buggy's still used by the local Amish communities and ride down small town Main streets and get a feel for what life used to be like. They're still living in a past part of time here and it's a great experience to get a feel for and see the way of life in these parts. Check the website HERE for info on the trail. It was selected among the "100 places to see in your lifetime" by Life Magazine.


A beautiful drive especially in the fall


The colors are splendid and there's a smell of smoke in the air


Historic building along Main st. in Elkhart, IN


You'll see many buildings, houses and farms from way back when


along with some amazing scenic stops where you have to get a picture


The trip is a relief from the city life while it lasts

Of course your going to get hungry taking in the views, and it wouldn't be a great ride unless there were some great food stops along it so you know there are. When I did this trip last fall we hadn't really planned to do the trail so we didn't start it until later in the afternoon and by the time we were getting done the sun was setting. So we didn't have the option to stop at a bunch of places and decided to eat when we were finishing up the drive. That came around Middlebury which is home to one of the areas more popular attractions the Das Dutchman Essenhaus. Seen below it is a huge piece of property with a restaurant and buffet (pictured) which extends into a large giftshop and bakery. They offer many food options to take home including pies and a huge amount of homemade products like apple butter and pickled veggies which are made on site in the wholesale food facility and sold on the premises and shipped around the country. About 3/4 of a million people visit each year and there is an Inn with a conference center and other non food related shopping options in the village.


A tourists favorite in Middlebury, IN

The size of the restaurant/bakery/giftshop is unexpected and thus huge. The restaurant offers family style dining and includes a buffet and a takeout menu and can seat more than most. The menu of the buffet on the night we visited was tempting but we didn't have the time to dine in and ordered a few menu items some to consume quickly before we hit the road along with some other stuff to take home and eat later that night and the next day. I enjoyed the stuff I got and while it wasn't blow your taste buds to new proportions good, it was very comfortable. Just some good home cooking like they do in households around Amish Country. Here's a look at what I got and what I thought.


Chicken pot pie

^Classic comfort food it was perfect for the night we were there. It was the end of October and the cold was coming in and you could feel it in the air and the pot pie did the trick. Not the best one ever, it was filled with a minimal variety of ingredients but those were the right ones. Lots of chicken and a real nice gravy inside the pie were its strong points.


Chicken noodle soup

^Everything I said about the pot pie holds the same for the soup. Lots of chicken and noodles in a real clear tasting chicken broth. Nice stuff on a crisp cool fall evening.


Meatloaf sandwich


Its a case where simple works great

^The meatloaf is said to be one of the more ordered menu items and is made fresh daily the same way the recipe was made by the owners mother. Since I was going to be ordering some other things that caught my eye to take home, I thought the meatloaf sandwich would the perfect thing to get before I took the drive back. It's offered with toppings of choice but I went with just the sauce. Very comforting it took me back to my youth when it was one of my favorite wintertime meals.


Beef and noodles

^This is a dish I have loved since a kid and if I see it at a place like this I'm going to get it. Classic Amish comfort food. It became a no brainer when I asked the waitress what the most popular ordered item was and she told me the beef and noodles. I thought they were really good, great for comfort food. Hidden beneath the pile is a layer of mashed potatoes and gravy. They don't hold back size wise so for $7.99 along with a bunch of rolls it was a great deal. I'll get it again.


Apple Pie

^The bakery was pretty amazing. They had all sorts of homemade pies and baked goods along with 100's of canned goods made and then jarred on site. Pretty much anything you can think of. I didn't know what to get, I wanted it all. They had every baked good you could want so I settled for the most loved, half an apple pie and a package of dinner rolls I used later in the week. The prices were noticeably cheap compared to most places like this I have been. The pie was an excellent treat the next day and I cant wait to get back.
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-Exploring NW Indiana


Demotte, IN

On another trip thru Northern Indiana I found a place that I fell in love with upon my first visit. It was in Demotte, IN and it was an old school butcher shop in the heart of the town. Yestermeat's is what the sign said with "The way it used to be" underneath to let you know how they run their butcher shop business. So I parked the car and went on in to see what was up.


Meat case with housemade sausage

I was very much impressed with this place. In fact its still one of the best butcher shops I have been to anywhere and if this is how it used to be than that's how I want it to be again. The meat display case was filled with everything and it's all fresh and expertly butchered. The beef was ground that morning and I went ahead and got a couple pounds of ground beef and a few pork tenderloin patties. All pork products are locally raised and top notch in quality.


Pork is plenty at Yesteryear


Next time I stop in I will get the chops

Along with their wonderful selection of fresh meats they had other stuff like bread and buns and jarred items like hot peppers and pickles along with most everything else you need to make a complete meal. Despite theirs doors opening in 1992 this place has all the charm of a business that's been around for generations. They run a catering business that specializes in outdoor parties so you know the grilling is good. They will make party trays to your liking and process wild game for all the hunters of the area and make the sausage and jerky on site.


Picked up one of each on my visit

It's not just butchered meats at Yesteryear, there's also plenty of homemade baked goods. You can get fresh bread, cookies, cakes and of course pie. I'm a sucker for any dessert with apples and cream in it and when I saw the fresh made apple slices on the counter I had to have some.


My type of treat

I'm not exactly sure what the history of apple slices are but I'm interested in knowing. I think that these are a dessert of yesteryear. They were fantastic having just come out the oven I ate a piece on site and order three more to take home. I wish we had a place like Yesteryear Meats in my neighborhood.


Apple Slice from Yesteryear meats
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Das Dutchman Essenhaus
240 U.S. 20
Middlebury, IN 46540
(574) 825-9471
Website



Yesteryears Meats
116 8th St SE

Demotte, IN

(219) 987-6644
Website

Mexican Inn

-Grubbing in Chicago
Where the locals eat.

Were going back to the eastside of Chi to the Mexican Inn, a staple of the area, its been at the corner of 95th and Ewing along the Lake Michigan Circle tour route since 1961 and owned by the same family since then too. This is a spot I have been intrigued with since my high school days of going to Michigan City and taking US Route 12/20 and passing by this locals favorite that always caught my eye with its past era looks. A food friend of mine from LTH who knows more about southside Chicago and its food history than everyone else combined said the place is "a culinary museum, dishing up food exactly like they served in the '60s and '70s" and that's exactly how it looks from the outside when cruising by. I cant verify it but I've also heard that this might be Chicago's longest running Mexican restaurant which is impressive since we have as many as anyplace outside Mexico. I stopped in a while back to the triangular building to finally knock this spot off my list and I am glad to bring it back to my readers.


a locals favorite in Hegewisch/Eastside of Chicago

When I stopped in here with another buddy of mine we got the same feeling the outside gives you upon walking inside. It feels like stepping back into time with the classic Tex-Mex cafeteria feeling to it. Its hard to believe that Mexican food didn't really become popular in the US until the 60's and even then the food we called Mexican was more like Tex-Mex and yes there is a difference and both are very good in they're own right. Since then we have seen not just Mexican food like tacos and tortas pop up all over but been lucky enough to have all sorts of selection with different regional variations served at different restaurants throughout Chicagoland. Today however we visit one of Chicago's old school Mexican joints that very much has that Tex-Mex flare in both the menu and ambiance. You wont find anything you've never seen or eaten before on it's menu but that doesn't mean its not worth a mention.


Inside the Inn

I've mentioned it on here before but I'll say it again in case your not familiar with the neighborhood Mexican In is located in, it is very old school and one of the few neighborhoods in Chicago that feels like not much has changed. This goes for both the houses and businesses as well as other things that make the eastside a place I enjoy going to. We visited the Inn around 430p one evening and when we entered we were the only two people in there under 30. There was nobody in the 31-59 age range and everyone else was over 60 most eating dinner. Like I said about the neighborhood, not much has changed including the people, lots of old timers. Like any good sitdown Mexican joint your a started with chips and salsa on the house as you are given your menus. The salsas arent pictured but were what you would expect them to be like back in the 60's. They are housemade and I enjoyed them and so do regulars who buy containers to go. The menu has expanded over the years but we were there for the Tex-Mex like menu items for the most part and that's what we were going to order. Here is a rundown of our meal, eat by eat.


Steak tacos

^We started out by ordering two steak tacos with the traditional condiments of onion and cilantro on its customary corn tortilla just to compare what those were like to other authentic Mexican taquerias around town. While they weren't awful they were nothing special. Steak was made on a griddle as opposed to the favored way of a grill and not something I'd get again.


Shredded beef taco with lettuce, tomato on flour tortilla

^I enjoyed these tacos which are regularly made by mothers all throughout Texas and other places where AmeriMex is popular. Pretty typical with its toppings and flavor and served on a flour tortilla which is the more common used tortilla in Tex-Mex recipes. While they weren't order yourself a few more good they were homey and the taste came without the slaving and cooking in the kitchen.


Crispy hard shell ground beef tacos

^My favorite item of the visit. Another Tex-Mex staple you just cant find these many places anymore and the spots that do have them use those awful store bought hard shells and are too lazy to fry them fresh. Sure just like the taco above its a simple recipe and the ground beef could be seasoned up a notch but the combination of the beef with the lettuce, tomato and cheese on a fresh fried hard shell taco does it for me. Yes they're easy to make at home but I would eat these there too just like the locals do if I lived in the area.


Tamales with gravy

^Once again we have a menu item that's more Tex-Mex than Mexican. Yes tamales are Mexican and made everywhere in Mexico, these tamales were made like those served at Tex-Mex joints and made with a corn meal batter and had a thin and almost crumbly outer layer. I'm not an exert in real Tex-Mex from Texas but I do make alot of recipes using Robb Walsh's Tex-Mex cookbook which is legit as it gets. I liked these but thought the gravy could have been better. Again it wasn't seasoned enough and blander than I like but also again they weren't bad.


Ground Beef enchiladas

^Well, well once again we have a popular item in Tex-Mex cuisine. Although enchiladas are eaten in various parts of Mexico the style of Mexican Inn's version was in the style of enchiladas I would put in the Tex-Mex category. The gravy was pretty much the same stuff they used on the tamales so they didn't wow me but they were eaten.


Soft Cheese (tortilla w/ choice of filling topped with their special cheese sauce)

^I thought these were interesting, I wouldn't have them again but then again I didn't grow up on these since I'm not from the area. The family that owns Mexican Inn is from Mexico but when they opened the restaurant it was these type of dishes Americans recognized as Mexican and were going crazy for so most of these items were on the original menu and are not what most Mexicans eat. As time has gone by and Chicago has seen its Mexican population rise they have been able to add more authentic items they make for family dinners to the menu but have kept the original ones and the original customers have kept coming back. The family travels back to Mexico each year so the place is closed from January thru March. I love it for its character as much as anything. There arent many places like this that have survived time. If you ever drive by the triangular building and see the "Mexican Inn" neon, stop in for a hard shell taco or two.


It might not all be authentic Mexican but its a real locals type spot

Mexican Inn
9510 South Ewing Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60617
(773) 734-8957

Morty's Pub

Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties
-Fresh Whitefish in a Wisconsin tavern up north

I got to spend a week way up north in and around Bayfield, Wisconsin over the summer. It was my second trip to the little quiet town of Bayfield which is on Lake Superior is the gateway to the Apostle Islands and has been named the best small town in America by numerous publications. Like they say on the website "How far away is Bayfield? Just far enough" Its actually about eight hours from Chicago but your taken to a place with pristine beauty and a total stress free environment. Its a very popular spring/summer/fall getaway destination and a place I love going to so I can sit back, relax and catch a contact. Your going to have to wait for my full on report sometime this spring. I'm so backed up in posts and thought it should wait since winter is almost here. But the busiest weekend in Bayfield I learned on my visit was the annual Applefest when the small town becomes a huge party with every hotel room within a 30 mile radius reserved for the weekend of fun. So if your heading up there this year or in the future I got a bar for you that's a great little place to eat and drink in the heart of the town.


Morty's Pub in Bayfield, WI

We stopped in here on my visit over summer one night for some food and drink and ended up having a great night and it was one of our favorite easy going meals of the trip. The menu here for drinks was nice and they had a pretty damn good mojito and some nice WI micros on tap. We ended up drinking both of those and started with an order of fried pickles off the appetizer section of the menu. The entree part and the rest of the menu for that matter isn't all that big but it doesn't matter because its the Lake Superior whitefish your going to want to get. Its a popular eat in these parts and they do it up in a variety of styles at Morty's.


View from my seat at the bar


Really nice mojitos, great on the hot summer day we were drinking them


Fried pickle spears

As you can read in the shot of the pub from the outside up above, Lake Superior whitefish is their specialty and its delivered fresh every morning from local fishers. This is about as fresh as you can get since the lake and the dock for the fishing boats is about a block away from the pub. They do an excellent fried version of whitefish which is what we had on our visit. Everything was fresh battered by hand including the fried pickles we had as an app. The fish didn't disappoint and it never has when I've been up there. The fries were well done and the slaw was a perfect accompaniment and was also homemade and really fresh. The skin on the fish was my favorite part due to its expert frying it was really crispy and crunchy. If you ever find yourself in Bayfield you'll know every restaurant and bar after a couple visits and Morty's is a great stop for lunch or dinner with some drinks and friendly chat with locals. Looking forward to my return visit.


Fresh fried Lake Superior whitefish

Morty's Pub
108 Rittenhouse Avenue
Bayfield, WI 54814
(715) 779-3996

Low & Slow BBQ

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

It's time to sit back, relax and catch a contact as we throw some meat in the smoker on low and enjoy the beautiful fall weather with some real deal bbq. As an avid smoker I have gone thru many trials and tribulations in trying to reach the top and get to to that point where the making of bomb ass bbq is as routine as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then I was enlightened with all the knowledge one needs to perfect the art of bbq along with top notch tips and dispelling of the myths. In come's Low & Slow. Written by the Godfather of Chicago bbq it is a book any and every bbq cook and connoisseur needs in his/her collection. GWiv is a friend of mine and his wealth of knowledge when it comes to smokin' is second to none in these parts.


Click HERE to order this must own manual from Amazon

I've been lucky enough to have done some smokin' first hand with Gary and it's always a blast capped off with some unbelievable bbq. His book will teach you everything you need to know to get perfectly smoked meat each and every time. It's broken down into five lessons and has instructions for smokin' with a offset smoker, a kettle grill and his toy of choice a Weber Smokey Mountain. In fact he likes the Smokey Mountain and knows how to use it down to a science that he wrote the manual for them. He's come to find that this product is the most reliable and easiest to use and once you get it down pat, it creates the best smoked meats. But it doesn't matter what you use as long as you follow the instructions exactly as he says too. This book is so helpful it will even tell you how to set a fire for your pit in the middle of a Chicago winter along with over 130 recipes and step by step instructions.


Smoke meat everyday...

Gary has spent years mastering his meats and has everything a pro at this game would have including his own rub. After years of playing around with different formula's he settled on his self named rub which is a wonderfully spicy mixture of seasonings that truly is some of the best rub I have ever used. You can find a similar recipe for this crazy good concoction in his book or if you can also get it from The Spice House where they make it fresh and a re sworn to secrecy with the recipe for fear of death. I always grab a few bottles whenever I stop in over there for spices. You can click HERE to go straight to their page for it. I highly recommend you put this in your spice cupboard. The stuff works great on all meats and in chili and anything else it sounds good with.


The bbq life coaches own bottle of his ridiculous rub

Now I'm not going to sit here and type out the entire book with how to make say the moistest most finger licking smoked chicken you will ever have. If you want to get yourself a life lesson in bbq for less than what it costs to have a meal of it at restaurant/stand your going to have to grab it and have it for whenever the craving for it comes along. Gary is a master of all meats and that's evident in the lesson for brines which includes a buttermilk version that when used with chicken thighs produces the best bbq chicken I have ever had from anywhere.


Buttermilk brined bbq chicken thighs

Gary has made 1000's and 1000's of different batches of ribs and so he knows what needs to be done whether were talking baby back, spare, St. Louis style. If you get the book and follow the leader and take it step by step to the exact instructions you can be a ribmaster in no time and the star of Sunday football bbq's. I prefer spare ribs and recently made a batch of St. Louis style following the coaches words. They turned out flawless with the perfect balance of smoke flavor and just the right amount of resistance of the meat from coming off the bone. I want some right now and just might make some for tonight.


St. Louis spare rib's done low & slow

Low & Slow Lamb Ribs

I do however have a recipe to share with everyone from GWiv. This is one I got to try when we were chilling over at Toons one night and he brought by some of his lamb ribs that he made earlier that day. Well they were so good I had to make them for myself a week or so later and did just that and am going to show y'all what the godfather showed me.

Ingredients

-Lamb Breast (1 breast serves 1-2 people)
-BBQ rub
-Mustard
-apple of cherry wood chunks (combo works too)

Note: Fresh farms in Niles sells lamb breast which is essentially the ribs and part of the breast.

Instructions

1) Start off by removing the tips from the lamb breast so that you have a rack of ribs like those seen in the pic below. Save the tips for an appetizer.

2) Take your rub (I used GWiv's) and rub it into the ribs and follow that up by squirting a line of yellow mustard down the middle and then spreading it around. Doing this vice versa is fine too.


Lamb ribs cut and ready for smoker

3) Set your smoker for low and slow cooking so that its around a constant temp of 250 degrees which is what we want the temp to be when the ribs are going in. Take your lamb tips and season them up with whatever you want and put them in a aluminum foil cooking pan and put those on the bottom rack and the ribs on top (we want the fat from the ribs to drip onto the tips).

Prepare your mop using the ingredients below under the picture of it.


Mop made of olive oil, lemon juice, pressed garlic, salt and fresh pepper

4) After about 2 hours on the smoker at a steady temp of 250 the tips should be done. Mop them up a few minutes before taking them off and enjoy while waiting for the ribs to be done or save them for part of the full meal when the rest of it is ready. Make sure your sides are taken care of.


Lamb rib tips


I made baked 'tatos with a tzatziki cole slaw and fresh sliced tomatoes

5) After three hours in the smoker at 250 the ribs should be ready. remove them and let sit for a few minutes while you dress up plates with the sides and proceed to put a rack on each plate for each guest.


Smoked lamb ribs
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So if you too want to master the art of BBQ. What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE.

Chick-fil-A

Regional Fast Food
-Finally! Chicagoland gets a Chick-fil-A

Most everyone already knows that the Chicagoland area is now the home to a Chick fil A. The first store to open in the area is in Aurora with another opening in Orland Park next month and then the city gets its first in the fall of 2011 when a location open in Lincoln Park. It's said the company is scouting a third location along Michigan ave or in the Water Tower and they will hope to have a dozen in the area within the next five years. Until the opening of these recent ones the closest locations were in Racine, WI and South Bend, IN. To give you an idea of peoples passion for Chick fil A you can click HERE and check out video of people camping out at the Aurora location so they can have free chicken sandwiches for a year (a promotion they run).


Location in South Bend, IN

Birthplace: Atlanta, GA
Type: Private
Founded in: First Chick fil A opened in 1967
How Many Today: Over 800 units
Locations in: Most American states
Menu item that made them: The Chicken Sandwich
My personal take: If you get to an actual store (not a unit at the mall, hospital, food court etc..) the chicken sandwiches are great and the chicken biscuits served in the morning are my favorite fast food item.

The companies history according to its website

Click HERE to find out (their site wouldn't let me copy it).

My Take

I've been waiting for Chick Fil A to make its way around my parts for a while now. Even though I am a little freaked out by their religious obsession I cant say their chicken sandwiches arent great fast food. They have the right model in that they pick something (chicken) and they do it well. No burgers or non chicken choices on the menu. They have a chicken sandwich and it comes on a biscuit in the morning and a bun in the afternoon. You can get a few other choices in chicken form which include chargrilled sandwiches and salads and wraps, strips and nuggets which are all made fresh. The iced tea is also brewed fresh daily and really refreshing and when the peach shakes are on the menu they are must get, one of the best shakes from anywhere.


Chicken nuggets are the best in fast food

If I'm traveling a major interstate or I'm stuck in chainland USA I have no problem taking my ass to Chick fil A. I think that their original chicken sandwich (with mayo and pickles) is better than most fried chicken sandwiches I have had. The fries are waffle style and nothing special in my book but people love them. They also offer it served deluxe with lettuce and tomato which I tried once (when I took these pics) and never again. You gotta get it traditional and its my observation that the full restaurants/drive thru's like the one seen above are better than the units in mall food courts and places like that. One reason is they serve breakfast at the big locations and not at all of the smaller units. The chicken biscuit available in the morning is my favorite fast food item and something I want regularly. Its just awesome and I haven't found anything like it anywhere else. I'm not a big fast food eater but I stop when I see a Chick fil A.


Chick fil A deluxe chicken sandwich (get it traditional, better than deluxe)

Click HERE for IL locations.