Cod doesn't taste like bacon

We meet Dr. Mike at the Norske Nook!













The Norkse Nook is a small, local chain famous for its Norwegian snacks and pie. Of course, before we can get to the pies, we must order dinner, so I get the cod lefse.



What is lefse, you ask? It's a Norwegian tortilla, made from potatoes (I think). It's typically served buttered & sprinkled with sugar, but it can also be used for sammies and such.














The cod version resembles a soft taco, filled with baked cod, lettuce, tomatoes, and tartar sauce. It's not bad, but baked cod reminds me of Pennsylvania cafeteria food, which is not a happy memory, in the culinary sense.

Someone else had meatball lefse. With gravy. I console myself by drinking three cups of coffee and looking at the pie list:

















































We each pick one to try. I'm torn between the rhubarb & blueberry crunch.



After much soul-searching, I go with the blueberry crunch.

Turns out they were out of the rhubarb, anyway.

So how were the pies?








































They were solid.











I liked the blueberry the best. Rich, intense blueberry-ness without making your teeth hurt.

Grand, indeed

PJ, Yurika, & I go on a lunch-search in downtown Eau Claire (population: about 60,000).

We find a local foods co-op, buy a few snacks, and ask if there are any good lunch places nearby. They send us around the corner to Grand Ave Cafe, a tiny place with homemade soups, muffins baked in-house, and (much to Yurika's consternation) lots of coffee.

It's around 11:00 on a Tuesday, but the place is packed to capacity - families with babies, middle-aged ladies in Halloween costumes, retirees trying to out-chat each other over bottomless cups of joe.



I like that.












Yu & I both get the tomato-veg soup.


It's loaded with al dente veg and all perfectly seasoned.












PJ gets the chicken & wild rice soup and an orange muffin that had emerged from the oven minutes before.















Is there anyone who doesn't like a freshly baked muffin? No, there isn't. And if there is, that person needs to be slapped.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Someone decided it would be a good thing for each of us to give up one vice. Just for five days. And to do it cheerfully.

Now, five days may not seem like a long time, until you realize that one of those days is Daylight-Savings-Time-Day (or the opposite, I can never keep them straight), which I used to think just meant you jumped back an hour, but what actually happens (at least this year) is that you jump back about a month which makes this Lose-A-Vice game last for-EV-er.

What did we give up, you ask? Things like booze, coffee, meat, chocolate, bread, and staying up late. Doesn't seem so tough, you say? Then bite me. And gimme some meatloaf.

Hmphghrrr...

Serious Eats

We arrive in Eau Claire and immediately start looking for dinner. Preferably a place that doesn't have burgers or fries as the star items on its menu.

So we go to Haymarket Grill in downtown (such as it is) Eau Claire. Haymarket Grill specializes in local ingredients, including quite a few types of game and lots of local beers, which means...


...the return of the Beer-O-Meter!

Guest judge Pear tries the Fat Squirrel ale from New Glarus, WI.

It's a medium ale, kinda like Bass but with more hops & a little richer flavor.

I like it alot.







But Pear says "Bhleh."













Franco gets bison tenderloin wrapped in bacon with roasty veggies.

I get his Brussels sprouts.














I order the gnocchi with walnuts & sage, served with butternut squash & wild rice.

Isn't it pretty?






Fabulous presentation, perfect portion size, and tastes really good, but the squash needs some serious salt.


Wisa gets prime rib with super-tasty mashed potatoes.

Alex looks sad because he gave up red meat for a week (I'll explain later).














But enough of that. Onto dessert!

Creme brulee with bruleed strawberries.













They were frozen strawberries (it is almost November, and we are in the frozen tundra), but the fact that they were sugared & torched makes up for it.

Again, wonderful presentation. And it's bruleed really well, with just the right amount of sugar.

But there could've been a wee bit more vanilla in the custard, and I would've used a touch more cream and baked it maybe 5 minutes less.



Pear eyes Alex's bread pudding. She gave up white wheat flour (again, explanations will follow).









Berry Napoleon.

I think it's all whipped cream, no custard. Hmph.









(By the way, I think Pastry Girl on Top Chef is giving us a bad name. We're not all like that, you know.)


Verdict: All of the food was beautifully plated and pretty darned tasty, and the local beers rock.

If you are in Eau Claire, go to Haymarket Grill!


.

Return to Iowa

Concert at Iowa State U, Stephens Center: Pretty good. The hall seats nearly 3000. Good grief.
















Eats: The Stephens Center provides breakfast, lunch, and post-concert dinner. The menu is varied, with plenty of selections for the vegetarian & the lactose-intolerant. Very, very thoughtful.

Ron & Dan come to the concert!

Ron is one of the lovely, lovely chaperones from the U of Iowa/Hancher Auditorium who led us all around Iowa last May/June.


And they bake us frosted brownies!



Now that is love.

Thanks, Ron & Dan! And please come visit us in San Jose!

Still alive

Iowa.


Drove 2 days. From North Carolina.


Details later.


Hmghph...

Charlotte Eats

The concert in Charlotte was okay - the hall was a refurbished church (pretty, but a weirdly shaped stage with inconvenient pillars) in a very metropolitan area, so lots of coffee, snacks, etc.


A summary of Charlotte eats:



Yurika doesn't get her giant pie. So she consoles herself by stealing a bite of Alex's cobbler.

I don't remember the name of this restaurant, but it was an Irish pub. I had a burger with chips & curry; it was adequate.









The best eats (in this blogger's humble opinion) were at Frankie's Italian Grille. PJ & I had rosemary chicken with spinach & roasty potatoes.


















And Yurika had an enormous bowl of Penne Arrabiata, and it was really good and had the perfect amount of heat.

I know this because I ate about half of it.













Thus ends our Charlotte experience.

As the Snack Turns

At the Blake Hotel in Charlotte:




Alex: "So, what do you want for dinner?"

















Yurika: "I want a big pie. This big."


















Alex: "Hmmm."













Will Yurika get her pie? Stay tuned...

The Great Snack-tini

Concert last night. The Executive Director of the USCB concert hall (who also made all of our green room food, btw) introduced us as "the greatest show you'll ever see." Well. I don't know about that. Anyway, the house was mostly full, and concessions sold a big, phat pile o' of stuff. So I guess they liked us.

Beaufort, by day, is quite gorgeous. Water, marshy grasses, pretty boats, and (so I hear) dolphins.

















Lots of quaint shops, including an indy coffeehouse on the water (not a Charbucks in sight), a bakery, and three ice cream places. Snack on.














And Beaufort is the home of Pat Conroy! Judging by the content of his books, I'm not sure I'd like to hang out & have coffee with him, but I do really like his stuff.

We have lunch at Panini's, an adorable place on the main drag.






















I have a prosciutto, roasty red pepper, & parmesan panini (panino?), which is loaded with salty prosciutto. Thumbs up.






After lunch, we drive to Charlotte, NC. Thanks, SC!

The temperature in Jacksonville: 90 degrees & armpitty-humid.
The temperature in Beaufort: 70 degrees, sunny, & breezy.
The temperature in Charlotte: 37 degrees & unreasonably windy-cold.

Beh.


.

Trees

Tree #1: The Chocolate Tree, a small chocolate shop near USCB.

We get benne (sesame) seed brittle, pumpkin fudge, a caramel apple, and various chocolate-covered things.

















Tree #2: Spanish moss. Hanging from trees.




This is weird stuff.

How does it get up there?













Spanish moss is neither Spanish nor moss.



Discuss amongst yourselves.

Byeeew-furt

We leave the 'gatorlands of Florida...
















...and head back to South Carolina - this time, to the coastal town of Beaufort, parts of which were seen in 'Forrest Gump.'


No wireless internet at our hotel!

If you stand outside, you can sort of get a signal from the nicer hotel next door.











Franco & Alex are in charge of pirating... I mean, legally obtaining the Project Runway finale & last week's BSG.





Will they succeed?

They had better.


While those download, we go to dinner @ Plum's, a cute, informal, seafoody bistro in the historic downtown area.
















The owner was there (with his adorable little boy), and he came to our table afterwards to see if we enjoyed our dinner (we did). The place wasn't super-crowded, but there were a fair number of diners there, including what looked like friends of the chef/owner/staff. Y'all know that I love it when you can tell the owner takes pride in his/her place, but I love it even more when their friends & family enjoy it just as much.

Anyway... I get the Blue Swimmer (?) crab cakes, which is nothin' but crab.













Wisa does, too.















It tastes nothing like Dungeness or King crab - the blue crab is more briny, not as sweet, and tastes just like the sea.

Good eats.

And afterwards, we watch both PR & BSG. All is well.


.

Elvis has left the building

In the morning - a school show. Uneventful.

Lunch @ sub place in San Marco. Again, uneventful.




After lunch - a preshow nap.














In the afternoon - back to the Florida Theater for practice & preshow prep.
















An interesting historical fact about this theater:








No juvenile court judges at our performance, I hope.



Carbo-loading before the show.



























The concert goes pretty well. There are lots of kiai-ers in the audience, some of whom are Japanese ladies who greet us enthusiastically after the show.

There was also a shinto priest who came from Naples to see us, and a haole guy who insisted on speaking to Yurika in Japanese, even though she was speaking English.

Afterwards, like Elvis, we head on out.

Thanks, Florida Theater!

Like addicts to a meth clinic...

...we return to Peterbrooke Chocolatier.

Oh, wait. We had brunch first. Let us go back an hour (this is so just like BSG)...

The Jacksonville weekly just came out with its annual 'Best of' issue, and it claims that the best key lime pie is at the Metro Diner. So we go.

It's a small, cute place, typically diner-y. Since it would be bad form to just order pie, we have other things first.


Pam has eggs & bacon with hasbrowns and sourdough toast. The bacon is thick and perfectly crisp. Nice.













Alex has the breakfast burrito. Lots of cheese on the outside as well as the inside. It's a good thing he likes cheese.





And for dessert, the key lime pie.

As you can see, PJ likes it.











































So now we go back to Peterbrooke Chocolates to taste even more samples & buy omiyage.

















































And then, since it's not about snacks all the time, we go to the Florida Theater to load in.





Pretty.

Historic.

Tiny wings. Agh.









Workin' hard...


















...or hardly workin'?















Turns our we're not the only J or JA thing in town.

Wonder who'll sell more tickets...






Load-in completed. And it's time to eat again...













You know, I have no idea what the name of this pizza place was, but these photos are pretty amusing, so I'm just gonna post'em.