Special Gift for G3 Readers at Zingerman’s Warehouse Sale

I’ve long wanted to write a post about how to shop at Zingerman’s on a shoestring budget. At times, this felt like trying to write about how to fill your closet with Manolo Blahniks while working at Target.

Now, however, they’re making this task very easy for me: for the next 20 or so weeks on Fridays from 11am – 7pm, Zingerman’s is holding a Warehouse sale at 610 Phoenix Drive [Google Map] in order to move some inventory at generous discounts, which you may have already heard about it in The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Tomorrow — Friday, March 20–everyone who stops in will receive a free gingerbread coffeecake. And best of all: there will also be a free gift–with a purchase–for readers of this blog. Just mention that you heard about it on Gastronomical Three.*

Ann Arbor, our affordable gourmet-grocery-dreams are coming true.

The stock will be different each week, but to keep up with what’s on offer, you can send an e-mail to warehousesale@zingermans.com.Here’s what will be available tomorrow for purchase:

• English Farmhouse Cheddar – C-EFC – reg. $38/lb, sale price $20/lb.
• St. Marcellin – C-STM – sale price $5 each
• Jowl Bacon – M-JWL – reg. $10, sale price $5
• Marina Colonna Orange oil – O-COL-ARA – reg. $25, sale price $12
• Moutere Grove olive oil – O-GRO – reg. $35, sale price $15
• Vosges Mini Book of Bars – P-9VS – reg. $35, sale price $15
• Anchovy Paste – P-ANP – reg. $7, sale price $5
• Mathei Biscotti – P-BIS – reg. $14, sale price $5
• Michel Cluizel 85% bar – P-CLU-85 – reg. $9, sale price $5
• D. Barbero Torrone – P-DBT – reg. $60, sale price $21
• Al Dente Land & Sea pasta – P-LSP – reg. $9, sale price $5
• Tutto Calabria Miscela Esplosiva – P-MIS – reg. $15, sale price $8
• Bagna Cauda Warmer – P-MKR – reg. $15, sale price $10
• Il Mongetto Spicy Marmalade – P-MSM – reg. $15, sale price $8
• Pomodoro Chivaso Jam – P-OMO – reg. $11, sale price $5
• John Macy’s Cheese Sticks – P-PUF – reg. $6, sale price $3
• Keemun Tea – T-KEE – reg. $24, sale price $12
• Zing label Horseradish Mustard – sale price $3 each
• Rustico Red Pepper Cheese – $7/lb

*G3 is not benefiting from this promotion in any way; we’re just spreading the foodie love. We will always be transparent about relationships between local businesses whose food and services we’re promoting.

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A Great Way To Start the Day

A couple of weeks back, there was an email in my inbox from my friend Scott inviting the G3 and any and all friends to Diner for A Day, a fundraiser breakfast to support local farmers and producers and the completion of Chris Bedford’s latest film “Coming Home”, as well as providing seed money for a future edible schoolyard program (to be announced). Now, I’m always happy to attend an event where Scott cooks, so I rallied the troops and signed up the lot of us  (three bloggers, three partners, one three year old). Only later, when I began to see posters for the event around town and realized that it was to be held in a not-overly-large house not too far from my west side neighborhood did I begin to think “how will they pull this off?” And though I would not want Scott and his good compatriots such as Eve Arnoff and John Roos, and, most notably, the intrepid hosts, Jeff McCabe and Lisa Gottlieb, to think that I doubted them . . . well, I sort of expected to arrive and find a sign on the door that said “never mind, go home, get yourself some Lucky Charms.”

How did they pull it off? With both efficiency and style. The house was packed with people, many eating, many cooking, many serving, and all were in a great mood. We lingered long and could have lingered longer except for some sense of guilt at holding on to our seats when there were hungry masses to be fed. Scott told me they served 160 meals out of Jeff and Lisa’s kitchen that day.  All-American breakfasts, big waffles and fruit, elegant smoked salmon strata (Scott had smoked the salmon, Eve had assembled the strata) and wholesome AND delicious granola. And lots of John Roos coffee (and apple cider and tea for those of us who wimped on the prospect of more than one cup of that particular joe).

The food was great — well prepared, hot, efficiently served. And there was granola, milk, bacon and eggs to take home if you wished, as well as some very stylish t-shirts and dish towels to commemorate the event. But even greater was the good fellowship and the sense of being connected to my community and the way in which the room buzzed around the shared love of food and place (at least, I think that was it, not the coffee. Ok, the coffee probably helped).

Jeff and Lisa and friends are doing great work (and seem to be having great fun) with the SELMA co-op, reaching out to neighbors and organizing around sharing resources and skills, from lawn mowers to loaves of bread. I’m delighted to hear they’ll be  continuing the good work and fellowship (and food!) in a regularly offered Selma Cafe, a place for friends, neighbors and those of us interested in our connections to the land and to each other to gather to trade talk and toast.

And their biggest fan? Young Nick, who after 5, count ’em 5, pieces of bacon, two whole waffles and a heap of raspberries said “Mama, I don’t want to stop eating!” Later that day when I asked him what was his favorite part, he declared “all of it!” And for me too.

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Good Read: Arbor Vinous on Ann Arbor Wine Bars

Interested in finding out more about Ann Arbor’s wine bar offerings? Joel Goldberg, editor of the MichWine website and author of the Arbor Vinous column in The Ann Arbor Chronicle, saddled up his wine-tasting posse and set out to review Ann Arbor’s four downtown wine bars–The Earle, eve, Vinology, and Melange. The result is a thorough, informative, and I think fair assessment of the four spots. Check it out!

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All Sorts of Celebration

Sometime in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the streets begin to empty, the stores shut down, the lights go on in houses, and we are in the quiet of Christmas week.  I love this point in the holidays, when silence falls upon the town and the hustle and bustle fall away. We snuggle, we settle in,  we celebrate.

At my house there’s feasting of various sorts, butternut squash soup, smoked duck breast, good cheese, dark beer, or, another night, crab cakes and lamb and scalloped potatoes and chocolate souffle. For some, there is  time for running and saunas and reading. For others, “Peter in the Pan” ( a misnomer I like to think indicates my three year old’s culinary interests) and more trucks than we know what to do with. And, for one of us, the unalloyed joy of chasing ducks. For all of these, we are most grateful.

Here’s wishing that our readers who celebrate Christmas had a merry one and that those who don’t find this quiet time rich in pleasures. Whatever form they take.

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December at G3: Deals, Discounts, Dining Out on a Budget, and More

Well, we made it: a post everyday in November. I was skeptical, but we did it. [Raise glasses, *clink*!] Thanks to my fellow bloggers and to you all who checked in on our progress. Even though challenges such as NaBloPoMo are a bit of a contrivance, I have found that they do put into place a necessary structure and shape for blog posts. In order to ride this wave of blogging productivity, and to capitalize on the current obsession with all things related to the economy, I’ve been planning a series of posts this month about cooking, eating out, and entertaining on a budget, focused mostly (though not exclusively) on the Ann Arbor area. If there is something you’d like to know about on this topic–where to find the best selection of local products, who has good deals on sparkling wine, etc.–feel free to send us an e-mail at gastronomical3@gmail.com, or leave a note in the comments and we’ll do our best to track down some answers. We look forward to hearing from you.

To kick us off, let me share a note from our friends at Everyday Wines, apprising us of new offerings and services, as well as upcoming deals and events.

75 years ago, on December 5th, the collective consciousness of this country heaved a sigh of relief and reached for its corkscrew. Yes, Prohibition was repealed and we are celebrating that glorious moment this Dec 5. We will be open till 10pm (yes, it’s Midnight Madness around town, we know) and we will give you 15% off all the wine accessories in the shop.

In the immortal words of the Home Shopping Network: But wait! There’s more! All through the month of December, our loyal everyday-wines bag-toting customers will also get 15% off case purchases (that’s 12 bottles to a case). What’s that, you walked here and can’t carry a case home? We’ll deliver it for you. You want all the whites chilled before we drop it off? We can do that too, talk to us.

We have flowers now. Yes! Fair trade roses from Ecuador, Amaryllis and Ranunculus (totes, dude!), all manners of bouquets. All of this from Lisa Waud of Pot & Box. Come in, take a look, a sniff, a rose. Until you do, go visit her at htp://www.potandbox.com
.

And a big thank you from A Knife’s Work to all you for your support, feedback and encouragement. They are now featuring weekly desserts, along with the soups, sides and entrees. And, for the month of
December, you get 50% off your second entree Sundays and Mondays. Check their weekly menu at http://www.aknifeswork.com.

Of course, there’s always something new and interesting (like a Champagne taste-off coming up) that slips between the email cracks, so do visit us and say hello.

p.s., You might notice a couple of new items in the right sidebar. Gastronomical Three has been listed in Alltop’s Food listings, as well as on the Delightful Blogs directory. They are both great ways to find out about other blogs, so if you’re hungry for new blogs, check them out.

p.s.s. Not all posts this month will follow this theme — just be on the lookout for a collection of such posts on these pages!

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Ann Arbor on Food

Photo credit: Flickr user John Baird, photographer and furniture designer extraordinaire

So far, so good. We’ve been dutiful food bloggers, posting every day in November like we said we would. It’s been fun and is definitely keeping us on our toes. But you want to know a little something? It’s exhausting. What’s more, you’re probably tired of hearing what we have to say about what we’re cooking and eating. Let’s hear from the rest of you, shall we?

While I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I also spend a lot more time on the Internets. There’s quite a bit of chatter out there about food in Ann Arbor and some lovely Creative Commons licensed food-related photos taken in our fair city. I’ve gathered up some of these words and pictures for you for this evening’s post. I hope they inspire, entertain, and inform you as much as they do me.

Photo credit: Flickr user nchoz

Here are some other good places to get food news / food porn in the Deuce:

• Over in the sidebar, there’s a list of links to Ann Arbor-area food bloggers. Lots of talented cooks and writers in the bunch: visit them.


Photo credit: Flickr user jhritz

• The Midwest Chowhound boards are abuzz with questions, recommendations, and evaluations. I typically go to the board and search on Ann Arbor. Be sure to chek out the recently updated discussion of the best restaurants in the area going on now.
• Join the annarborfood Yahoo! group. Lively discussion on all sorts of topics, like kid-friendly restaurants, recipe requests, and recommendations for sourcing various ingredients.
• Yelp – Ann Arbor has tons of restaurant reviews and food reviews. Folks sign up, comment, rate local businesses. Read and/or contribute as you wish.


Photo credit: Flickr user rebecca anne

• The Food column of the Ann Arbor Chronicle is sifting the web frequently and links to stories about local food-related news.

What are your favorite ways to find out about food-news in Ann Arbor?

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Ann Arbor’s Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery

It’s a big week in restaurant news here at G3. Just the other day, Maria declared us Ready for The Redding. Now I’m saying, All Aboard the Blue Tractor.

The Blue Tractor is a new BBQ & brewery restaurant that just opened Monday on Washington St., next door to Cafe Habana. Had I not known it was the restaurant’s first night, I never would have guessed; everything seemed to be running quite smoothly. Don’t let the rusty truck parts fool you: the Blue Tractor is ready to roll.

Ok, enough with the motor metaphors. Let’s get down to business: the BT is serving up some tasty BBQ fare, bar food favorites, and house-brewed beers at prices that are blessedly reasonable (main dishes between $11-$20 or so; sandwiches in the $8-$12 range), in a lovely space and with experienced staff. Folks, I’m excited about this one. While purists and those who have been lucky enough to live in Texas or North Carolina might not deem the Blue Tractor’s take on barbecue “the real deal,” I’d venture that it will more than suffice for those of us in Ann Arbor with an appetite for brisket, ribs, and beer-can chicken.

We ordered an array a plates to share, starting out with the Basket of Fried Goodness — fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and cornmeal batter-fried pickles. Yum, yum, and yummmm. These were served with a tangy buttermilk dressing for dipping — such a lovely improvement over plain ranch. I washed this down with a house-made cream ale, and liked how mild, smooth, and lightly carbonated it was.

In addition to the beers brewed in-house, beer by the can is also on offer for about $2.50 a pop. I thought this was a nice feature in a few ways. First, choice is good. Not everyone loves a microbrew. Some of us really love our Blatz or our Pabst, and if you find yourself in that camp, you’d be in luck at the BT. Second, the aesthetics of a beer can + barbecue are not to be underestimated. It’s an iconic pairing, like Gatorade and a winning football coach. And there’s a practical side of this pairing: barbecue is food you eat with your hands, and it’s a lot easier, I’d venture, to grasp a can with saucy fingers than a pint glass. But I digress.

We shared the following dishes for dinner: the Carolina Pulled Pork with grits and greens; a cornmeal waffle with creamed mushrooms (a nice vegetarian spin on chicken and waffles); some sliders with cheese and “special sauce” served in a basket with fries; and a side of uncommonly good mac & cheese. Despite the food not being quite as hot as we’d like, everything tasted fresh and homemade–delicious, even. This is not elegant fare, to be sure, and I like that the restaurant is not trying to be too fancy, retro, or cute. It’s laid back without being lazy.

I was able to snap a few decent shots of the sliders and the pulled pork. Take a look:

If we could make a few recommendations to the BT: while we generally are ok with a dark bar, the tables in the front room where we sat were oddly lit. (I offer the pictures above as evidence.) Two people were sitting in very dark seats, and the other two had a spotlight shining down on them; it was a little distracting. And we also thought it bizarre that there is nowhere to hang coats. Winter is coming to the SeMi (southeast Michigan, natch); we need hooks for our Patagonia and our Northface. We might be enjoying the Carolina fare, but we are regrettably not in a Carolina climate.

These minor things aside, we were in agreement that the Blue Tractor scored high marks on its opening night. Our server struck the right note between friendly and efficient; our wallets weren’t too much lighter when we left; and our bellies were very full. But don’t take my word for it: the buzz seems to be growing. Videos of the place have been posted on Flickr. (Check them out for a quick tour of the space and better shots of the food than my pics above.) The hoisting of the Blue Tractor sign was covered recently by The Ann Arbor Chronicle. And just this morning I noticed that someone already posted a missed connection on Craigslist. The Blue Tractor has arrived.

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Weekend Roundup

It’s Monday. Time for the (new) usual: the weekend roundup. Maria starts us off this week:

Let’s see . . . On Friday, John cooked up some ribs on the Big Green Egg and I threw some fries in the oven. This was at the beginning of the Weekend of Sickness, so we were still fairly energetic. We all sat around gnawing on the ribs, although Nick insisted on the meat being pulled off the bone. Then we watched Year of the Dog, which I thought was going to be cute and funny, and turned out to be horribly depressing. Saturday, I moped around the house all day except of a brief trip to Kerrytown when I could no longer stand being cooped up. We made a pizza margerita on the grill that night and watched The Wire. Sunday I . . . you guessed it . . . moped around the house all day, except for a trip from the front porch to the garage and back again. I did rally a bit on the cooking front, and we made some pumpkin risotto with sage and pan seared scallops for dinner. It was good, but my tastebuds are a bit off, so it wasn’t great. I couldn’t quite get the risotto creamy enough either. Perhaps I should have dumped another stick of butter in?

I think my best culinary experience for the weekend was actually Friday on the way home when John and I split a black bean soup and a chicken tortilla soup from Le Dog. That was just right.

Shana:

Thanks for the reminder: I’m all out of butter.

It wasn’t a total loss of a weekend, but I just had such high hopes for a cooking extravaganza (apple pie! marrow bones! more quick pickles!). I decided to throw my energy into rearranging furniture and redecorating instead.

What I did end up doing wasn’t bad, just no real well-thought-out meals came out of the kitchen. I made veg stock and roasted some butternut squash, to be used . . . somehow this week. I’m feeling a bit tired of winter squash soup, but maybe I’ll take a stab at risotto. Or some butternut squash-ginger muffins. Any suggestions?

I did make a really good sandwich for dinner Saturday night (too tired and too blue to cook for real). I took some day-old Café Japon baguette, which still had some life in it, sliced it in half lengthwise, and put it under the broiler with some gruyere cheese. Once it was melted, I added some cured duck breast that I had from Tracklements (which is truly beyond) and some apple-onion chutney that my friend brought back for me from London, and heated it all through for a bit. Très yummy, if super lazy.

There was also an impromptu get-together at my newly rearranged apartment; friends Claire and Eric came over and we cooked a family supper, which we try to do as many Sundays as possible. Claire contributed a lovely spinach salad with roasted peppers, and Eric kept us from starving with bacon-wrapped figs for appetizers. I did up some roasted brussels sprouts with gorgonzola (who knew?) and pork tenderloins with some sort of sauce that I made up on the fly: apple cider, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and more of that chutney.

And a really nice rustic apple tart with currants and nuts. Recipe here (with lots of modifications, as is my method).

Maria:

That sounds like a lot to report! Can you send along instructions on the brussel sprout thingy? I have both sprouts and gorgonzola in my fridge this very moment.

I’ve been liking squash roasted, then packed into a little gratin dish with some butter, salt, gruyere cheese and sometims cream mixed in, and then baked for a bit.

We’ve been eating that duck breast too. It’s great. Did TR tell you to put it in the freezer for an hour and then slice on a mandoline? It works great.

Anne:

Friday night was lost cause because Lenny had a show in Ypsi and I am too embarassed to tell you what we got on the way home since we were starving.

Saturday we went to farmer’s market/Kerrytown and we stopped at Kosmos for Bi Bim Bop. Sat night we were tired from the night before so we had some snacks (olives, Lenny’s roasted chick peas with oregano, and we steamed an artichoke which we had with a mustard yogurt sauce), then we ordered our favorite NYPD pizza with mozzarella, ricotta, bacon, and mushrooms, and I made a salad with Tantre Farms arugula, roasted red peppers and toasted pine nuts. I bought pistachio gelato from Whole Foods for dessert but I was too full/tired to get to it that night.

We had bought a pork tenderloin from Sparrow on Sat, plus some squash and purple cabbage at the market. So I made this recipewith the squash, that I steamed and topped with butter salt and pepper and brown sugar, and braised cabbage with onions and thyme. We started with some roasted garlic, duck pate, and two cheeses – one was an aged gouda, the other was an English cheese that was some variation on a blue, but it was orange. For dessert I made roasted pears and we topped with crème fraiche. I have photos (decent not good) of the pears.

Maria:

Oh come on, spill. Taco Bell? White Castle?

Sounds like we were all very autumnal last night.

Anne:

yeah it was taco bell – not my choice but it was like 1:30 and Lenny just pulled in and I was so starving I didn’t argue. I gotta finish reading your post on the Scott place but sounds like it was awesome!

Shana (piping in with brussels sprouts “recipe”):

Clean, trim, and slice the sprouts lengthwise. Toss with olive oil, s+p. Roast at 375 until tender; if you can stand for some of them to get a little charred, do so — you will be rewarded with fantastic flavors. I think I roasted them for 15-20 minutes, shaking the pan once about halfway through. Then I crumbled a few tablespoons of gorgonzola over top, and mixed it through. Next time, I might add some toasted pine nuts.

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Food for the Soul

In Order to Form A More Perfect Union (Ann Arbor Polling Place Art)

In what may be the most surprising news of what bodes well to be a pretty momentous news day,  I’m not hungry.

I’m not hungry because I am wracked by nervous anxiety that manifests itself in random chatter, a tendency to leave my keys, wallet, phone and children strewn around town, and a stomach that has tied itself into a tight knot that may or may not come undone sometime in the next 24 hours or ensuing decade.

I was awake before six, and my busy mind was even more determined than the dog to disobey my stern injunctions to “go back to bed.” So dawn found me with the ingredients of the crisper drawer spread out around me and a knife in my hand. I made soup. I am not a woman to pray, and I’ve never been able to sit still for meditation, but I am almost always soothed by the rhythmic rock of a knife through a carrot or the swift slicing of a onion.

I have spent almost thirty years not voting because I simply could not bear to endorse a candidate I didn’t believe in, or voting with the taste of ash in my mouth, the taste of shame and regret that I voted only against and not for, voted with the aim of turning things from tragic to merely terrible. But sometime this summer, it came to me that I might indeed be voting for, that perhaps, this time, I would turn in a ballot because and not in spite of. And let me tell you, hope hurts.

Soup is so elemental, so unifying. We all eat soup. It warms; it nourishes. Despite 72 degree temperatures, I need to be warmed today. I would not presume a recipe for today’s soup, which may not be very good. In my distraction I kept forgetting both the thyme and the time and it was made at an oddly staccato pace. But as I made it, I felt gratitude for the plain beauty of the turnips in my hands and for the chance to be standing in my sunlit kitchen on a morning when things might start, finally, to get a little better.

When I was waiting for my son to be born, my first wish for him, always, was that he would have a fearless heart. That he would all his life be open to the promise, the pain, the possibility of this rich and complicated world. I did not want to care about this election; confirmed pessimism carries very little risk. But if I want my son to grow up with that great courage, perhaps I have to be a little brave myself.

I did my time in line today, about eighty-five minutes of it. In that time, I did not hear any irritation, grumbling or complaint. I can’t remember when I could last say that after an hour and half in a public place.

It is heart-breakingly beautiful in south-eastern Michigan today. The light is golden, and illuminates the last of the fall foilage. It burns bright and gentle at the same time, with an extraordinary clarity of color. This morning, watching small birds in the leaves and red squirrels chase around the garden, each moment was marked with that peculiar poignency you feel when you know something is ending and you’re still waiting for something else to begin. I hope the weather is the only thing that breaks my heart today. But perhaps there’s a different kind of victory in allowing the possibility of  pain.

And those who reside in the 4810* zip codes might be pleased to know that in honor of the election, fries have returned to the Jefferson Market. Now that’s a sign of hope. Perhaps they’ll go well with soup.

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Food News You Can Use in the Deuce

I bet you think this post is about tomatoes. Anne already did such a lovely job with that topic that I’ll just flash you some tomato confit and dash off some quick notes to let you know what I’ve noticed going on in the Ann Arbor Food World these days.

New Good Local News

Looking to satisfy a craving for local food, prepared by talented local chefs, and rub elbows with other local foodies? The HomeGrown Festival is this Saturday from from 11am-4pm at Community High in Kerrytown. In addition to $2 “tastes of Ann Arbor” (including “Watermelon Soup, Spinach and Goat Cheese Pizza, Slow Roasted Pork, Michigan Sweet Corn Tamales, real BBQ Chicken Wings and PawPaw Gelato,” as the Farmer’s Marketer puts it) there is some free entertainment on offer as well. You know you’ll be at the farmer’s market already, and the festival is just across the street. What do you have to lose? Exactly. Read more about it on The Farmer’s Marketer.

Or perhaps you need a taste of your news served up with some talking-over-the-fence flavor? You can get your fill at The Ann Arbor Chronicle, a community-focused news website that just launched and includes an A2 Food category, about which I am enthusiastic. From A2C, I learned about good barbecue that’s available on football game days in the Morgan & York parking lot, which I’m dying to check out. Also, that the Cupcake Station opens next week (9/19), and will be handing out 500(!) free(!) cupcakes. Oh, yeah. Thanks, A2C!

Maria tells me that there is a farm cart with fresh produce at the gas station on the west corner of Packard and Stadium. Alli reports another farm stand a little further down Packard towards Ypsi, at the corner of Packard and Boston, between Hewitt and Golfside.

And the Observer reports that a fellow is selling homemade bread and poetry on Washington St., near the YMCA. The bread is making him some bread. The poetry? Not so much.

Old Not-Good Local News

Everyday Cook has closed. For real this time. And we’re sad. Read all about it on the Everyday Wines blog. We are thanking our lucky stars that Everyday Wines is still open. We’re awaiting news about what the erstwhile chefs are up to these days. Word has it that Aaron is cooking up some fine lunches at Cafe Japon on Liberty St., but we haven’t stopped by yet to try them. We do love their baguettes.

La Zamaan has closed. G3 reader Jeff mentioned it awhile back in the comments to our review of the restaurant. We’re also sad about this.

Weekly News, Good and Local

Tonight, and every Thursday night, is complimentary appetizers and music in the wine bar at eve-the restaurant from 9:30-11pm. It’s been going on for some time, but if you haven’t checked it out, I heartily recommend it. Our friend Forest will be spinning some records. I’m going tonight, and I hope to see you, too.

Just News (not sure yet whether it’s good or bad)

Chipotle is going in on State St., near the Theater.

On Main Street, The Black Pearl and The Melting Pot have seemed poised to open . . . but when?

Do you have any local food news you’d like us to report? Drop us a line at gastronomical3@gmail.com.

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