FuzzyCo

Evidently, even if I make my Untappd profile public, people who are not me can’t see more than my last 20 beers. There was a request for a reason and so here’s the list of the 357 beers I’ve checked into so far:

• #9, Magic Hat Brewing Company
• 1888 Bock, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
• 2° Below Winter Ale, New Belgium Brewing Company
• 2011 Belgian Independence Day Saison, Brewery Ommegang
• 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• 400 Pound Monkey, Left Hand Brewing Company
• 5 Lizard, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria
• 60 Minute IPA, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
• 90 Shilling, Odell Brewing Co.
• A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale, Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Abbey Grand Cru (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• Alpha King, Three Floyds Brewing Company
• Amber, Abita Brewing Company
• Amstel Light, Amstel Brouwerij
• Anchor Porter, Anchor Brewing Company
• Anti-Hero IPA, Revolution Brewing Company
• Apple Raspberry Hard Fruit Cider, Lehman’s Orchard
• Arrogant Bastard Ale, Stone Brewing Co.
• Ayinger Ur-Weisse, Brauerei Aying Franz Inselkammer
• Bald Eagle Brown, RJ Rockers Brewing Co.
• Baltika #3 Classic, Baltika Breweries
• Barfly IPA, Barley Island Brewing Company
• Batch 10,000, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Batch 19, Coors Brewing Company
• Beck’s, Brauerei Beck
• Berghoff Sundown Dark, Minhas Craft Brewery (USA)
• Big Bison Ale, Crown Valley Brewing
• Big Flats 1901, Genesee Brewing Company
• Big Red, Southern Tier Brewing Company
• Bitburger Premium Pils, Bitburger Braugruppe
• Black Hole Barrel Aged Tequila, Mikkeller
• Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager, Great Northern Brewing Co.
• Blackberry Pear Cider, Fox Barrel
• Blanche de Namur, Brasserie du Bocq
• Blonde Ale, Redhook Ale Brewery
• Blue Moon Belgian White, Coors Brewing Company
• Blue Paddle, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Blue, SweetWater Brewing Company (Georgia)
• Bohemia, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.
• BottleTree Blonde, Thomas Creek Brewery
• Bottom Up Wit, Revolution Brewing Company
• Brewer’s Whim Series IPA, Flossmoor Station Brewery
• Brewluminati, Independence Brewing Company
• Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Brewery
• Brown Ale, Brooklyn Brewery
• Bud Light Lime, Anheuser-Busch
• Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch
• Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch
• Cabin Fever Brown Ale, New Holland Brewing Company
• Cabin Fever, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Cali-Belgique IPA, Stone Brewing Co.
• Captain Fantasy, Short’s Brewing / Half Acre Beer Co.
• Censored Rich Copper Ale (aka The Kronic), Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Cerveza La Playa Lager, Cerveceria Mexicana SRL
• Cherry Chocolate Beer, O’Fallon Brewery
• Cherry Stout, Atwater Brewery
• Cherry Stout, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• ChoTokkyu, Crispin Brewing
• Christmas Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Christmas Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Christmas Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Company (USA)
• Circus Boy, Magic Hat Brewing Company
• Classic Amber, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
• Cockeyed Cooper, Uinta Brewing Company
• Conway’s Irish Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Company (USA)
• Coors Light, Coors Brewing Company
• Corona Extra, Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.
• Corona Light, Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.
• Cubby Blueberry Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Cutthroat Porter, Odell Brewing Co.
• czechvar, B.B.N.P.
• DAB Original, Dortmunder Actien-Brauerei
• Daisy Cutter Pale Ale, Half Acre Beer Company
• Dancing Man Wheat, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Dank Tank Ghoulash, SweetWater Brewing Company (Georgia)
• Dead Guy Ale, Rogue Ales
• Demolition, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Detour Double India Pale Ale (IPA), Uinta Brewing Company
• Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale, Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• Dos Equis Ambar (Amber), Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.
• Dos Equis Special Lager, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.
• Double Daisy Cutter Pale Ale, Half Acre Beer Company
• Double White, Southampton Publick House
• Downtown Brown, Lost Coast Brewery
• Drifter Pale Ale, Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
• Dripping, Half Acre Beer Company
• Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout, The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
• Dunkelweiss (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• Duvel Gefilterd (Green), Duvel Moortgat
• Duvel, Duvel Moortgat
• Dynamo Copper Lager, Metropolitan Brewing
• ESB Special Ale, Ska Brewing Company
• ESB, Fuller, Smith & Turner (Fullers beers)
• Estrella Damm Inedit, Damm S.A
• Estrella Galicia, Hijos de Rivera, S.A.
• Fat Squirrel Ale, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Fat Tire, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Fischer Amber, Brasserie Fischer
• Fistmas Ale, Revolution Brewing Company
• Forbidden Wheat, Brickstone
• Foster’s Lager, Foster’s Group Limited
• Four Loko Lemonade Flavor, Drink Four Brewing Company/Phusion Projects LLC
• Framboise Raspberry Hard Apple Cider, Doc’s Drafts
• Framboise, Brouwerij Lindemans
• Frambozen, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrüb, Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe
• George Killian’s Irish Red, Coors Brewing Company
• Georgia Brown, SweetWater Brewing Company (Georgia)
• Ginger Gold, Windy Hill Cidery
• Glacial Trail IPA, Central Waters Brewing Company
• Gold Label Special Beer, Bedele Brewery
• Golden Cap, New Holland Brewing Company
• Golden Wing, Finch’s Beer Co.
• Gossamer Golden Ale, Half Acre Beer Company
• Guinness Extra Stout, Guinness Ltd.
• Harp Lager, Guinness Ltd.
• Harpoon IPA, Harpoon Brewery
• Härtsfelder Helles, Family Brewery Held
• Harvest Ale, Founders Brewing Company
• Harvest Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• He’Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale, Shmaltz Brewing Company
• Hefe Weiss, Sprecher Brewing Company
• Hefe Weisse, Hacker-Pschorr Bräu
• Hefeweizen, Yard House
• Heineken, Heineken B.V.
• Hen’s Tooth, Morland Brewery
• Henninger Kaiser Pilsner, Henninger Bräu
• Hex (Ourtoberfest), Magic Hat Brewing Company
• Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale, Kiuchi Brewery
• Hitachino Nest White Ale, Kiuchi Brewery
• Hobgoblin, Wychwood Brewery
• Hoegaarden (White-Wit-Blanche), Brouwerij van Hoegaarden (InBev)
• Hofbräu Original, Staatliches Hofbräuhaus München
• Holiday, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Honey Weiss, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
• Honker’s Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Hop Head Red, Green Flash Brewing Co.
• Hoppe, Southern Tier Brewing Company
• Hopslam Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Hoptober, New Belgium Brewing Company
• House India Pale Ale, Yard House
• Howl (Black-As-Night Winter Lager), Magic Hat Brewing Company
• Hub City Brown Ale, Hub City
• Hub City Oatmeal Stout, Hub City
• Ichiban (Shibori), Kirin Brewery Company
• India Pale Ale (IPA), Goose Island Beer Co.
• India Pale Ale, Summit Brewing Company
• IPA, Westbrook Brewing Co.
• Irish Red, Brickstone
• Iron Works Alt, Metropolitan Brewing
• Jaipur, Thornbridge
• Jimmy’s Red Farmhouse, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Jockamo IPA, Abita Brewing Company
• John John Juniper, Rogue Ales
• John’s Locker Stock, Rogue Ales
• Julius Echter Hefe-Weiss, Würzburger Hofbräu
• Kick (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• König Ludwig Weissbier Hell, König Ludwig Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg
• Krankshaft, Metropolitan Brewing
• Kriek, Brouwerij Lindemans
• Krystal Witt, Goose Island Beer Co.
• La Citrueille Céleste de Citracado (Bruery/Elysian/Stone), Stone Brewing Co.
• La Fin Du Monde, Unibroue
• La Folie (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• Lansdowne, Crispin Brewing
• Lazy Mutt Farmhouse Ale, Minhas Craft Brewery (USA)
• Le Merle, North Coast Brewing Company
• Liberty Ale, Anchor Brewing Company
• Lion Stout, Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC
• Lobster Lover’s Beer, Rinkuškiu Alaus Darykla
• Loco Lager, Hub City
• London Pride, Fuller, Smith & Turner (Fullers beers)
• Lone Star Beer, Pabst Brewing Company
• Long Hammer IPA, Redhook Ale Brewery
• Long Haul Session Ale, Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• Magners Irish Cider, Magners
• Magners Pear Irish Cider, Magners
• Maibock, Fort Collins Brewery
• Malta Goya, Cerveceria Goya
• Mark’s Black IPA, Mark G
• Marty Stouffer’s Wild America, Half Acre Beer Company
• Märzen, Gordon Biersch Brewing
• Matilda, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Maudite, Unibroue
• McCarthy Red Ale, Emmett’s Tavern and Brewery
• Meat Wave, Half Acre Beer Company
• Metolius Damsel Blonde Ale, MacTarnahan’s Brewing Co.
• Michelob Amber Bock, Anheuser-Busch
• Midas Touch, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
• Mighty Arrow Pale Ale, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Mild Winter, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Miller Genuine Draft (MGD) Light 64, Miller Brewing Company
• Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Brewing Company
• Miller High Life, Miller Brewing Company
• Miller Lite, Miller Brewing Company
• Modelo Especial, Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.
• Moe’s Backroom Wheat Beer, Tap Room Brewing Company
• Moloko, Three Floyds Brewing Company
• Monarch White Beer (Anniversary Beer), Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• Monterey Bay Wheat, Monterey Bay
• Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale, Black Sheep
• Moon Man, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Moose Drool Brown Ale, Big Sky Brewing Company
• Mothership Wit, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Namaste, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
• Naughty Goose, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Never Summer Ale, Boulder Beer Company (CO)
• New Grist Sorghum Beer, Lakefront Brewery
• Newcastle Brown Ale, Scottish & Newcastle UK Ltd.
• Noël Des Géants, Brasserie Des Géants
• Northwind Imperial Stout, Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• O’Hara’s Irish Stout, Carlow Brewing
• Oarsman Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Oatmeal Stout, Mendocino Brewing Company
• Oberon Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Octoberfest, Harpoon Brewery
• Okocim Lager, Browar Okocim (Carlsberg)
• Old Brown Dog Ale, Smuttynose Brewing Co.
• Old Clybourn Porter, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Old Ruffian, Great Divide Brewing Company
• Old Style, Pabst Brewing Company
• Orange Wheat, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery
• Organic Cherry, Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)
• Organic Green Tea Beer, Ineeka
• Over Ale, Half Acre Beer Company
• Pabst Blue Ribbon, Pabst Brewing Company
• Pacific Pear Cider, Fox Barrel
• Pacifico Clara, Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.
• Pale Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
• Pepe Nero, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Perla Chmielowa, Perla-Browary Lubelskie S.A.
• Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale, Southern Tier Brewing Company
• Pig Tail Ale (Piggly Wiggly), Thomas Creek Brewery
• PILS Czech Style Pilsner, Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Pils, Krombacher Brauerei Bernhard Schadeberg
• Pilsner Style, Würzburger Hofbräu
• Pilsner, Radeberger Gruppe
• Poppaskull, Three Floyds & Dogfish Head Breweries
• Powder Hound Winter Ale, Big Sky Brewing Company
• Prickly Passion Saison (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• Punk’n, Uinta Brewing Company
• Purple Haze, Abita Brewing Company
• Quest, Green’s
• Ranger IPA, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Raspberry Ale, Dark Horse Brewing Co.
• Raspberry Tart, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Red Felt Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Red Lager, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
• Red Light, Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co.
• Red Racer India Pale Ale (IPA), Central City Brewing Co. (Red Racer Beers)
• Red Trolley Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Company
• Red’s Rye PA, Founders Brewing Company
• Resistance India Pale Ale, Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• Rince Cochon, Difcom
• Ris a la M’ale, Mikkeller
• Robert the Bruce Scottish Ale, Three Floyds Brewing Company
• Rye Pale Ale, Terrapin Beer Company
• Rye-Talian Rye Pale Ale, Goose Island Beer Co.
• S.O.S. (Save Our Shore), Abita Brewing Company
• Sahti, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Saison d’ Erpe-Mere, Kleinbrouweru de Glazen Toren
• Saison Dupont, Brasserie Dupont
• Sam Adams Light, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams East-West Kölsch, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Imperial White, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Infinium (2010), Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Octoberfest, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Rustic Saison, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Summer Ale, Boston Beer Company
• Samuel Adams Winter Lager, Boston Beer Company
• Santa’s Private Reserve Ale, Rogue Ales
• Santo, Saint Arnold Brewing Company
• Schlafly Pale Ale, Saint Louis Brewery (Schlafly beers)
• Schlitz, Pabst Brewing Company
• Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale, Sea Dog Brewing Company
• Shiner Bock, Spoetzl Brewery
• Shiner Oktoberfest, Spoetzl Brewery
• Shiner Ruby Redbird, Spoetzl Brewery
• Shiva IPA, Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co.
• Shock Top Belgian White, Anheuser-Busch
• Smithwick’s, Guinness Ltd.
• Smoked Porter, Stone Brewing Co.
• Snow Day, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Snowbunny Cream Ale, Hub City
• Snowshoe Red Ale, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Sofie, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Somersault, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Southern Pecan, Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
• Spotted Cow, New Glarus Brewing Company
• St. George Beer, BGI Ethiopia
• St. Pauli Girl Lager, Brauerei Beck
• St. Peter’s Grapefruit, St. Peter’s Brewery Co. Ltd
• Steel Reserve (High Gravity), Miller Brewing Company
• Stella Artois, Stella Artois (InBev)
• Sticke, Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei
• Stiegl Goldbräu, Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg
• Stiegl Radler, Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg
• Stony Face Red Ale, Hoppy Brewing Company
• Strawberry Harvest Lager, Abita Brewing Company
• Stroh’s, Pabst Brewing Company
• Strongbow Cider, H.P. Bulmer
• Stuntman Brown Ale, Asheville Brewing Company
• Style:
• Summer Bitter, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Summer Wit, Wild Onion Brewing Co
• Summertime Kölsch, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Supper Club Lager, Capital Brewery
• Svyturys Amber Ale, Švyturys
• Tecate, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.
• The Bitter End Pale Ale, Two Brothers Brewing Company (USA)
• The Chairman, Half Acre Beer Company
• The Doppelrock, Great Lakes Brewing Company (USA)
• The Saint, Crispin Brewing
• Third Coast Beer, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Thunder and Son, Half Acre Beer Company
• Tingly Tongue, Goose Island Beer Co.
• TNT Weizen Doppelbock, Left Hand Brewing Company
• Torpedo Extra IPA, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
• Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale (2011), Unibroue
• Trippel, New Belgium Brewing Company
• Two Hearted Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Two Women Lager, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Tyskie Grand Prix, Tyskie Browary Książęce
• Unchained #7: Honeymoon Saison, Summit Brewing Company
• Uncle Dunkel, Goose Island Beer Co.
• Union Jack, Firestone Walker Brewing Company
• Unplugged Abt, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Victory Pale Ale, Emmett’s Tavern and Brewery
• Vida y Muerte Muertzenbier, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria
• Viru, A. Le Coq
• Vrienden Ale (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company
• Wailua Wheat, Kona Brewing Company
• Warka, Browar Warka
• Warsteiner Premium Verum, Warsteiner Brauerei
• Weihenstephaner Korbinian, Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
• Weihenstephaner Original, Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
• Werewolf, Rinkuškiu Alaus Darykla
• Werewolf, Scottish & Newcastle UK Ltd.
• Wheat, Hunter-Gatherer Brewery and Ale House Columbia
• White Beer, Ginga Kogen Beer Co., Ltd.
• Wild Ride IPA, Sand Creek Brewing Co
• Winter Ale, Brooklyn Brewery
• Winter Solstice, Anderson Valley Brewing Company
• Winter Welcome 2010-2011, Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)
• Winter White Ale, Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
• Winterbraun, Lost Coast Brewery
• Wipeout IPA, Port Brewing Company
• Wisconsin Belgian Red, New Glarus Brewing Company
• Woodchuck Pear Hard Cider, Woodchuck Cidery
• Yellow Snow IPA, Rogue Ales
• Zhiguly Grande 12, Rinkuskiai
• Zipfer Urtyp, Brau Union Österreich
• Zombie Dust, Three Floyds Brewing Company

So Erica and I have a new website that we've been quietly updating for a few months now. The design's not done (what around here every is?) but we've got a fair amount of content there already and so I figure it's time to be a little more public about the site. Please let me present Four Squirrels!

Erica and I consider ourselves adventurous eaters and drinkers and the site is a place for us to share those adventures. Sometimes that's going to be recipes, sometimes it's just "here's a thing you can drink" (or, "avoid this terrible beverage"), and sometimes just musings (as the thing I posted just today is).

(Oh yeah, the name doesn't mean anything -- I had the domain left over from a project that never happened.)

I had Korean BBQ for the first time last week at San Soo Gap San (5247 N Western) and I'm an instant convert. When you order any of the main meat dishes, a glowing brazier of real charcoal coals in placed in the middle of your table and your meat comes delightfully marinated, but raw. So you grill the meat yourself, which means that the entire meal is accompanied by the sounds and smells of grilling meat. It also, of neccessity, spaces out the meat through the meal, giving you plenty of time to enjoy the copious banchan -- the cornucopia of small dishes that accompany the meal. There were, seriously, 15 or so small dishes. We had very little idea what anything was, but that was half the fun. It all makes for a very social meal I'd recommend for 3 to 6.

(Originally posted on Chicago Metblog: San Soo Gap San)

There's one thing that makes the prospect of an early morning flight out of Midway bearable -- the thought of an Artopita from Pegasus On-the-fly. An Artopita is a tasty breakfast sandwich, fluffy eggs, cheese, and ham, spinach, or mushrooms in a flakey phyllo shell. It's the "Arto"-pita, because Pegasus is the Midway branch of Greektown's Artopolis(306 S Halsted). I've never gone to Artopolis for breakfast -- I'm not sure the Artopita is a delicacy worth driving across town for. But bleary-eyed at Midway at 6:40 am it's a much better way to wake up than McDonald's.

(Originally posted on Chicago Metblog: Artopita)

The tag line of Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer is "Beer so good it deserves… a wine glass!" I'd suggest a shot glass, because that's as much of this beer as you're going to want to drink.

"I like pizza and I like beer. So why wouldn't I want to combine the two?" you might think. And that, I guess, is the question the Seefurth family of Campton, IL asked themselves. The answer, unfortunately, is that you wouldn't want to combine the two because it tastes terrible.

And it's not that it doesn't taste like pizza -- this ale "brewed with oregano, basil, tomato, and garlic" certainly has the aftertaste of a big bite of pizza. The problem is that it's the wrong order. You'd take a big bite of pizza and then a swig of beer to cleanse your palate for the next bite. WIth this beer, all you've got is the lingering taste of pizza. Drinking it on its own is unsettling -- all the aftertaste of a greasy slice without the actual pizza. And the only food I could imagine pairing it with would be... pizza, in which case it would be overkill.

(Originally posted on Chicago Metblog: Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer)

Our dear Wisconsin friends at Leinenkugel's have a new summer brew showing up in bottles and at bars that have "Leinekugel's Seasonal" on the menu -- the Summer Shandy. Leine's are making their Shandy as a wheat beer with "lemonade flavor". Erica and I have been drinking and enoying it, especially on these recent scorchers, but it was reminding me of the Shandies I had as a youth* in Australia.

In my recollection, the Shandy in Australia was half beer and half English-style lemonade, which is halfway between American lemonade and Sprite. And a quick peek at the Wikipedia entry for Shandy showed that around the world a Shandy can be just about any kind of soft drink mixed in with beer. Perhaps the biggest difference between that style of Shandy and Leine's premade one is that the mixed ones dilute the alcohol, which means that on a hot summer day, you can drink more of them without getting quite so sloshed**.

So the only thing for it was to pick up a bunch of Shandy fixin's and have an old-fashioned Shandy taste-off.

Since we were comparing to Leine's Summer Shandy, I wanted a comparable beer without the lemonade flavor and so I grabbed some Leine's Sunset Wheat***. All the Shandies were half-beer and half-mixer:

We started out with some solid American lemonade: Simply Lemonade-brand:
Fuzzy: Smooth, light, very refreshing and almost frighteningly drinkable.
Erica: Awesome and delicious.

I thought R.W. Knudsen Spritzer Jamaican Lemonade might be something like the Austalian lemonade I was remembering (but it's not):
Erica: Tastes more artifical -- I'd rather just drink the spritzer.
Fuzzy: Pretty weak and watered-down.

The Wikipedia entry had mentioned a number of variations of ginger ale or ginger beer, so we thought we'd try Canada Dry Ginger Ale:
Erica: Like watered-down beer.
Fuzzy: Yeah, also pretty weak.

Since regular ginger ale seemed too weak, we tried some Sprecher Ginger Ale, which claims on the bottle that it's "icy-cool and spicy-hot with real ginger". In fact, by itself the Sprecher Ginger Ale doesn't have that strong of a ginger kick and it isn't much better mixed with beer:
Erica: Maybe it'd taste good with some fruit in it. It's a little bitter.
Fuzzy: Blah.

I'm a big fan of Limeade, so why not:
Erica: I'd rather drink Limeade on its own without messing it up with beer.
Fuzzy: The lime doesn't mesh as well with the beer as the lemon did.

Another entry in the maybe-it's-like-English-lemonade was Trader Joe's French Market Pink Lemonade:
Erica: Uh-oh, this might be my favorite. It's sweet and fizzy. Plus, anything pink you can't go wrong with.
Fuzzy: I'll give it a close second after the regular lemonade.

After trying all those variations, we gave the Leine's Summer Shandy another taste and frankly it came up short:
Erica: Huh, this is now my least favorite. It's kind of bitter.
Fuzzy: Weird, I really liked it yesterday.

So, the regular lemonade and the Trader Joe's fizzy pink lemonade were both favorites. And if the weather stays this hot, I think we'll be drinking plenty of both.

* By youth I mean 18, and that was legal for bars there. So there.
** That may, of course, be a positive or a negative for you.
***After all our tasting was over, I noticed that the label described it as "beer with natural flavors". WTF? Flavors? The whole test is ruined and we'll have to conduct it again (and again and again)!

(Originally posted on the Chicago Metblog: Shandy!)

So this picture made the internet rounds a few weeks ago, an old Rath Bacon/Aunt Jemima cross-promotion ad (seemly first posted here) and I forwarded it to Erica with a reflexive "want!"

But this last weekend I realized that unlike a lot of bacon extravagances, bacon strip pancakes are pretty achievable. And achieve them I did. Now, my bacon didn't lay quite as flat, nor was my homemade pancake batter quite as smooth as the ad:

And here they are as part of a complete breakfast:

That's right, I married a Southern girl.

When Erica and I were on our honeymoon in Sante Fe, we had an incredible BBQ Brisket Hash at the Cowgirl BBQ. It has, well, let me quote the menu, "Cowgirl’s spicy smoked brisket hash has potatoes and bacon and is
topped with two poached organic eggs, Hollandaise sauce and flour tortillas". So, pretty fancy. What I've been making at home is much less fancy, but fully 75% as tasty. So here's my recipe:

Order some BBQ for dinner and order a little too much—a full slab is almost always cheaper than twice a half slab. Saturday night we got Bar-B-Que Bob's delivered and got pork ribs, beef ribs, and a free small rib tips with a coupon. So we had almost all the beef ribs left over, and plenty of fries. In the morning, cut the meat off the bone and cut into bite-size pieces. Cut the left over fries into thirds or so. Heat up the meat and fries in a frying pan. When they're warm, throw in a couple eggs and scramble together. Serve.

Boom!

Claire asked "chicago eaters: what are your favorite BYOBs in Andersonville/Edgewater/Uptown?" and my answer was just a bit longer than 140 characters.

I didn't realize how few of the places we usually eat are BYOB; I guess we like alcohol provided with our meal. But a few selections:

Tanoshii (5547 N Clark) - a sushi place run by the inventive "Sushi Mike". The thing to do here is not to order off the menu, but just to tell your server your general likes and dislikes (and allergies, I suppose) and how much you want to spend and let the sushi chef go to town. They rarely disappoint.

Hama Matsu (5143 North Clark) - just a regular sushi place, but nice.

Icosium Kafe (5200 N Clark) - great Moroccan crepes, both savory and sweet. If you're trying to Google it, note that they seem to randomly interchange Cs and Ks (Ikosium Cafe, etc).

Pho Xe Tang - Tank Restaurant (4953 N Broadway) - big noisy Vietnamese.

Apart Pizza (5624 N Broadway) - This is a bit of a fudge. I suppose, technically, you could eat in and BYOB at Apart, but the atomosphere is nil. But I put it on the list because it's really good pizza and you could order in and drink whatever you want. I suppose under that criteria, Ras Dashen and Indie Cafe are both great fancy-order-in-and-drink-your-own (FOIADYO?) options.

I read about Rick Bayless' brand new Mexican streetfood(ish) place Xoco yesterday in the Trib and the Decider and my first thought was to wait a few weeks for the lines to die down. But then work got all busy and I didn't get out of the building to get some lunch until 2:30 and I took the chance that the lunch rush would be over.

I was correct. At 3:00 pm there was practically no wait at all -- there were just a few people ahead of me in line (two places ahead of me in line was restaurant PRer Ellen Malloy and Rick Bayless came running over to take a picture of her with his iPhone).

Rick Bayless was very much a presence in the open kitchen of Xoco -- snapping photos, clanging around with pots and pans, and doing an interview with a Spanish-language television host (above). I try not to get starstruck, but yeah, he's a handsome man.

For lunch I got a churo, a limonada, and the Torta Cubana. I had meant to save the churo for dessert, but my sandwich took a little while to come (I'll let it slide—it's the first week) and so I ate the churo to tide me over. The churo was delightful—sweet, cinnamony, warm, and just the right ratio of crispy and doughy. The limonada was similarly delightful -- thick with lime flavors and fairly tart.

The Cubana sandwich was good, but not the best Cuban sandwich I've ever had. Notably, there was no pickle, which I would consider a component that really makes a Cuban sandwich. Not to rag on it too much -- it was a good sandwich and the bacon on it was incredible. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have gotten a Cuban sandwich at a Mexican joint. I'll definitely be back to try some of the other offerings.

Xoco is only open for lunch and dinner right now, and they're not offering takeout (which is a wise choice, given the time it took for my eat-in order). The breakfast offerings already on the menu look incredible and I can't wait for them to open earlier.

The cow knows. Red wine and Coke. So delicious. Yes, yes, you all think it's gross. Maybe I just need to move to Spain. (The above available as a wallpaper from Kukuxumusu.)

Here was the plan: a Saturday afternoon with nothing important to do, two couples, four places known for margaritas. Each person would order an appetizer and take care of the bill at one restaurant, so that it all evens out.

Stop 0: Sotol

It's important to be properly fortified before you set out on a journey like this, so we had a sip of Hacienda de Chihuahua Sotol before we took the train south. Hmm... smooooth.

Stop 1: Uncle Julio's Hacienda, 855 W North Ave

We all were going to mostly stick with traditional (or at least, non-frozen) margaritas, but the Swirl is the signature drink at Uncle Julio's and I'm a sucker for a signature drink. The florescent flamingo lets you know you're not in for subtle flavors, but I did enjoy it.

Everyone else got the Julio's Gold margarita on the rocks and we got a bowl of Chile con Queso for the table. Hmmm... cheeeese.

Stop 1.5: Borders

When you're traveling with a world famous author, sometimes you have to stop by any Borders you happen to pass to check out the goods and make sure it's filed properly right next to all the Twilight books.

Stop 2: Adobo Grill, 1610 N Wells

At Adobo the signature dish is the Guacamole which is prepared fresh, tableside. (I'm also a sucker for food that's a show) so that had to be our appetizer. And we had the Adobo Margarita all around. None of us were brave enough to add a "smoky floater" to our Margarita (an extra shot of del Maguey Chichicapa), which in retrospect I regret.

Stop 3: El Nuevo Mexicano, 2914 N Clark

We had a lot of choices when we were assembling the route for this tour, and Cesar's, just a few blocks north, was a strong contender with, if nothing else, their huge neon sign proclaiming that they have "killer margaritas". So I'm not sure how El Nuevo Mexicano made it onto the list, but it turned out to be a good choice if for no other reason than that it was getting to be dinner time and Cesar's was pretty packed. (Margarita tours can't wait!)

I was starting to feel the alcohol by this stop and so I ordered a pomegranate margarita under some sort of mistaken impression that the fruit juice would be healthier or something. Instead, it was a bit too sweet for my tastes and so it was the only drink I was unable to finish on the tour. We had a plate of Garnachas with ground beef which were tasty, but a small portion for four people.

Stop 4: La Fonda, 5350 N Broadway St

I was back on my game by the time we got to La Fonda. It was my turn to order the appetizer and I was feeling a bit noshy so we got two kinds of plantains (hmm... plantains) — the Tostonachos Caribenos and sweet plantains, and some rice and beans. We got the Gold or Special or whatever (I forget their name for their Top Shelf margarita) all around. I think it might have been my favorite of the tour, though that may have been the 4 previous drinks talking.

Like I said, there are plenty of places that didn't make the cut just because of time and not drinking-ourselves-into-oblivion. Next time maybe we'll hit Frontera Grill, Cesar's, and wherever you suggest in the comments…

A couple of weeks ago we saw a Good Eats episode about punch that really struck our fancy and so we decided to have a genteel little get-together to try out the recipe (since it involves whole bottles of champagne, it's not really something you can just make a glass or two of). It was also a good opportunity to make some fancy appetizer recipes we'd been eyeing.

The punch was even tastier than I'd hoped, but it had a kick to it for sure.

Here's the menu with links to the original recipes, and I've also included the recipes with any variations we used after the jump, for my own future reference.

• Cafe Fear Punch, from the Good Eats episode "Feeling Punchy".
• Cheese Ball, from Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.
• Lemon Bars, from the Highland Baptist Church (Vicksburg, MS) Cookbook
• Artichoke-Olive Crostini, from Smitten Kitchen
• Sober Weinies
• Vienna Beef miniature Bagel Dogs
• Assorted chocolates

And it wasn't a fancy appetizer, per se, but we did also have some leftover Green chile pork stew with potatoes from the night before, recipe from Making Light.

Anthony Bourdain's food travel show No Reservations was set in Chicago tonight (they obviously filmed sometime in the summer). He did a good job of covering the wide range of food in Chicago -- from gut-busting street food to adventurous-but-not-fancy like Hot Doug's to high-end places like Blackbird and L2O. There's a complete list of the restaurants visited on the show's website, but for my own benefit I'm going to add these places to my to-do list:

Calumet Fisheries
3259 East 95th Street, Chicago, IL 60617

The Publican
837 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607

Silver Palm Restaurant
768 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622

Yeah man! Score some of this Acid and you'll be seeing frogs and fried eggs and cokes and alien egg pods just floating in the air, dude. And everything is, like, electric. Whoa.

I don't remember how we got it in our heads, but Erica and I decided that a cassoulet would be the perfect dish to make for our first Christmas together in Chicago. When I'm making something rustic, I hate to trust just one source (recipes like that are made to be adapted) so I looked at both the Les Halles and How to Cook Everything recipes, but ended up going (mostly) with a recipe from the website of the Amateur Gourmet.

I'm a big fan of duck and so I was really excited to try making duck confit as step one of the recipe. Top Chef Chicago had lulled me into believing that I could walk into any Whole Foods and have a great selection of duck. Maybe so if I had gone to the same one on Halsted that the contestants were always going to, but we went to the one up in Evanston that used to be a Wild Oats (in the middle of Tuesday's snowstorm, so I was not inclined to dash about town searching for ingredients). The only duck they had was a whole, frozen Muscovy duck that was going to set us back $90. We picked up some chicken legs instead. And their selection of sausage was also pretty slim, so I picked up some Dominick's brand Italian sausage on Christmas Eve.

The cassoulet was in the oven about an hour longer than I thought it would be, but since it was just the two of us, there was no one waiting on the dinner and we just had some toast and jam to tide us over. And I left it under the broiler (to brown the bread crumbs) just a hair long and burned the very top layer of bread crumbs and had to scrape it off. But otherwise it was perfect. The three meats (the chicken, sausage, and bacon) infused the beans with so much flavor it was ridiculous.

I also made a chocolate hazelnut tart (from the Les Halles cookbook) and it didn't firm up quite as much as I thought it would, but even melty chocolate and hazelnuts is still chocolate and hazelnuts. And it went especially well with Intelligentsia espresso (I finally got the stovetop espresso maker working right-- thanks Becky and Andy!).

When it came time for some dinner, we both thought that that leftover cassoulet might be a little rich for a second meal in the same day. Tuesday night we had gone out to Laschet's Inn for German food with Kate and Dan. With the memory of that still in our heads, some spaetzle and gravy seemed like the perfect sort of capper to the day. We had some Chachere's instant gravy in the cabinet and spaetzle can't be that hard to make, can it? Indeed, it isn't. Yum.

Man, "Earthquake" flavor. Oh, I'm sorry "Earthquake brand flavor". That's got to be some sort of flavor explosion! What's that you say, California Chips? "A perfect blend of all our flavors shaken into one!" Sounds great.

Orrrrr.... maybe they just taste like regular BBQ chips only with about 1/4 of the flavoring. Boringest earthquake ever.

Dan kindly forwarded the Onion AV Club's new "Taste Test" of Jeppson's Malört. To an old Malört hand, there was little new in the article, save a link to a Flickr group: Malört Face. Ala the First Goatse group, it's just photo after photo of people grimacing in horror at what has just happened in their mouth.

(Photos by _nickd)

John Hodgman drank Jeppson's Malort* when he visited Chicago last week. Poor son-of-a-bitch.

I was first forced to drink Malort as the last shot of the night at my bachelor party at The Sovereign. It tasted, let us not beat around the bush, like ass. But maybe, I thought, my taste buds were off from the cigars, and it has that cute little Chicago flag-shield on the label, and it's made in Chicago (well, in Florida, but for Chicago), and the little pamphlet the bartender handed me (yes, there's a booklet) challenged my manhood: "Most first-time drinkers of Jeppson Malort reject our liquor. Its strong, sharp taste is not for everyone. Our liquor is rugged and unrelenting (even brutal) to the palate. During almost 70 years of American distribution, we found only 1 out of 49 men will drink Jeppson Malort after the first 'shock-glass.'"

So, I bought a bottle. And we had a little tasting.

Kate: "Nail polish remover. It's a little sweet, you know like they add that scent to nail polish remover."

Shaun: "Bug spray, with Robitussin. Because bug spray on its own would probably be a little thin, so they mix in the Robitussin to thicken it up."

Fuzzy: "Varnish remover. With herbs."

Erica: "Why did you make me drink that!? I can still taste it!" (From the pamphlet: "It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor. The taste just lingers and lasts - seemingly forever.")

* It clearly says "Malört" right on the bottle, but everyone spells it "Mallort". Probably, after one shot they see double Ls.

(Originally written for the Chicago Metblog>)