Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Our challenge: Eating Milwaukee Eats Local



It is our honor to be one of the five Milwaukee area food blogs to officially participate in this year's Milwaukee Eat Local Challenge.

During the next two weeks, we'll be bringing you posts highlighting Milwaukee area establishments which have made a commitment to using local ingredients in their dishes. The rules are simple:

1) "Local" is not going to be another buzzword like "green." Restaurants do not cook "local" just because Dierks is based in Waukesha. The restaurants we've teamed with take local ingredients seriously.

2) "Local" means the ingredients used support our community. We don't grow mangoes or oranges in Wisconsin. We understand this. But the greater Milwaukee area has a number of suppliers who take raw materials and produce finished or semi-finished products, and using these ingredients still helps.

3) "Local" is not an excuse to be elitist. Just because a restaurant pledges to use local ingredients doesn't mean they have to serve haute cuisine. An omelette made with local eggs is just as important as veal marsala made with Strauss meats. Not that there's anything wrong with Strauss veal. Actually, everything is right about Strauss veal. Great, now I'm hungry again.

4) There is no number four. Actually, there was, but I forgot it when I went to grab a slice of cold Marco's pizza from the fridge. Yup. Still hungry.

We've already had a blast talking with restaurant owners, managers, and chefs about their passion for local and sustainable ingredients -- and the challenge hasn't even started yet. Keep checking back these two weeks, and we might just let you in on where the best Pumpkin Whoopie Pie in the city can be had. Made with local eggs, milk, and butter. Of course.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Triumphant (and much anticipated by 2 readers, my mother, and Dik Evenson) Return of Eating Milwaukee!

Oh, dear reader. How fickle and frustrating the fates can be. It has been since February that we've updated our fair blog, and that, my word (and tapas) munching friends, is too long.

Why so long? you ask.

Well, I'm going to assume you'd be interested in what's been keeping us from bringing you delicious details and palatable photos. If you're not interested, see our new restaurant review(s?) this weekend, and skip the rest of this post.

Not too put too fine a point on it, but one simple thing has been beguiling our blogging: life in general. Andy has been busy with his more-than-fulltime job, Lauren has been juggling multiple jobs teaching the youth of Milwaukee how to tickle the ivories, and I (Joe) have been finishing Mortuary School and finally (after four years) completed my apprenticeship, internship, and passed both of my National Board Exams. Hooray? Anyone in Milwaukee need a licensed funeral director?

Not to mention, I've been running myself happily ragged on paid photography gigs in town, and let's face it: it's hard to photograph a celebrity one day, then have to write about a hamburger the next.

We've eaten at plenty of new joints (and plenty of old favorites, mind you), and we even have some pictures to prove it. In the very, very near future (read: hopefully this weekend), we're excited to bring to you reviews on

Fortune (Chinese)



Ilija's Place (Serbian)



and a mini-review roundup of Kegels (German) and Stonefly Brewery (Brewpub)


But, perhaps the most exciting news of all is that the staff and friends of Eating Milwaukee will be taking part in the Eat Local Milwaukee 2011 Challenge.  We will be joining a group of Milwaukee bloggers who will go through the first two weeks in September eating, well, locally. How we define "locally" changes from blogger to blogger, eater to eater, so we'll be airing a post outlining exactly how we plan to "eat local," but we're really stoked to be taking part in a movement so near and dear to our hearts. 

We hope there's still a few of you readers still out there, and look forward to bringing you all new hidden-gems in this fine burg of ours!