their white fish is 'famous' ...

look what i saw on the menu of a fave downtown establishment:

Baked Door County Whitefish Olive Crumbs, Mustard Potatoes, Green Garlic Sauce 24

palm springs -- more to come

i'll be posting more, but i have blogs to read and catch up on first!

palm springs bound

leaving work early for the california desert.
need. pool. now.

yessssssssss.

fish boil

A fish boil is a Great Lakes culinary tradition in areas of Wisconsin (USA), with large Scandinavian populations, particularly Door County, Port Wing and Port Washington, Wisconsin. The meal consists of Lake Michigan or Lake Superior whitefish (though lake trout can be used), with other ingredients.

The fish is typically caught by local fishermen, cut into small chunks and cooked in boiling water with red potatoes. Some boilers add onions as well. Salt is the only seasoning used, and used only to raise the specific gravity of the water.^[1]

The cooking of the fish is an elaborate presentation. Restaurants typically ask that patrons arrive a half hour early to witness the boiling. The fish and potatoes are placed in a cast-iron kettle. When the water comes to a boil the potatoes, kept in a wire basket, are lowered in.

The fish are then placed in another wire basket and lowered in. When the fish oils rise to the top of the pot, the boiler will add a small amount of kerosene to the flames. The increase in flames causes a boilover, the fish oils spill over the side of the pot, and the fish is done. [Wikipedia]

me on the porch swing in shoes that are really leslies that i've had for at least 4 years.

so the white gull inn does their own fish boil and we decided to watch from our porch swing. of course, we were served beer first. which was nice because not that much really happens. but it's still fun standing around the fire; it smells good.

after the fish was done, two young fellows carried the kettle inside, and we waited in a line to get a plate of huge chunks of fish and red potatoes. we were then seated at our table with lemon, tartar sauce, butter, and cole slaw, followed by cherry pie for dessert. maybe simple foods just taste better in wisconsin, but we were so happy after that meal!

aside from boiled fish, we also enjoyed sampling the local brews. this included new glarus spotted cow and the shipwrecked sampler. i thought i would love the cherry wheat ale, but it was 'eh. we brought back wisconsin beer (although tempted, we passed on the glorious milwaukee's best) to nikolai's bday bbq, including a growler of the blonde ale we picked up at the shipwrecked microbrewery in egg harbor. it was gone in two seconds. good bbq drinkin'.

the race course

so we weren't just in door county for the heck of it ... i went up with Chicago Endurance Sports to run a half marathon at peninsula state park!

course elevation map
(remember chicago is FLAT)

it was a tough course for me, but a fun race! i ran with two of the people i trained with for an entire 12 miles, but admit i was really slow for that last mile and they blew past me! i thought my foot survived the ordeal pretty well, even with all the hills (although though this week i thought about asking my doc if i could get some more of those steroid things). my time for this race was many minutes slower than the last one, which i was expecting. but at least i can try to beat it next time!

driving somewhere along the course the evening before the race.

views from the course. but imagine it as 10am instead of 7pm.