Road Trip - Chicago Style!

I have been very lax in updating this blog recently, but now that the spring weather is here I will try to get back on track by talking about our trips so far this year.  We’ve been to Chicago, Las Vegas and Toronto in 2019 and we’re planning another short road trip soon!

Over the Christmas holidays we took a trip back to Chicago.  We like travelling over the Christmas holidays because we’re usually off work, and often lucky to have mild enough weather for a road trip.  

Chicago is a 6 hour drive for us, which is definitely manageable, but this time we decided to break up the trip with a stop in Kalamazoo, Michigan for a night to check out all the new craft beer places in the city since our last trip way back in 2013. There are a lot of changes!

We stayed at a hotel close to downtown and walked to the new HopCat Kalamazoo first.  HopCat has really expanded over the years from their first location in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you see one on your travels, it’s an excellent place to try local craft beer.  The Kalamazoo location is huge and in an old train station. We made it in time for happy hour and had some delicious beer, cider and snacks.

Next we checked out Bell’s Eccentric Cafe.  Last time we were here, it was just a bar with a food counter, now they’ve expanded to a full service restaurant as well as the bar.  Their beer is some of the best in North America, and we featured it in the Beer Baron’s first post on this site!

We had some more snacks and beer and moved on to the Kalamazoo Beer Exchange where they have a stock ticker and beer prices rise and fall throughout the night.  It’s a cute concept.

The next morning, we decided to make one more detour before Chicago and visited the famous 3 Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana, about 45 minutes outside Chicago. We picked up some precious bottles and had a really spectacular lunch in their busy brewpub. The food was outstanding and the staff was super friendly.

Finally, on to Chicago!  On the way into town we stopped at Marz Brewing in the up-and-coming Bridgeport neighbourhood near White Sox stadium.  The brewery is gorgeous and the beer is fantastic. It’s a great community place.  

Our hotel on this trip was the brand new Aloft Chicago Mag Mile.  We like Aloft hotels - they’re a little bit modern and usually have a bar and live music in the lobby on weekends.  This one was perfectly located and an easy walk to Michigan Avenue and all Chicago attractions. One of the reasons we love Chicago, other than the amazing food, drinks and shopping, is that hotels can very cheap!  Our hotel was less than $90 USD per night in the perfect location. In the winter and spring on weekends, we’ve gotten some amazing hotel deals in the city.

On our first night we walked to Headquarters Beercade River North.  Matt loves an arcade bar and this is one of the best we’ve ever been to.  The games are FREE to play and they have a great beer and cocktail selection.  

Afterwards we tried Rick Bayless’s new speakeasy, Bar Sotano. We’ve enjoyed his Chicago restaurants, Frontera Grill and Xoco in the past, so as soon as we heard about this new addition we made a reservation!  We’re so glad we did. The entrance is in an alley behind the restaurants and you check in at the front desk before being led behind a curtain and down the stairs (sotano means basement in Spanish).

The drink menu was spectacular and we tried several cocktails, including this mango cocktail served in a plastic bag!

The food menu is mostly small plates but Matt had the burger, which we were shocked to find was one of the best we’d ever tasted!

The next day we did a little walking and shopping and stopped by Millennium Park to visit the bean.  Matt had a Chicago Dog in the park.

That evening we hadn’t made plans but wanted to try one of Top Chef Stephanie Izard’s restaurants.  We ended up at the Little Goat Diner, We sat at the counter and had some amazing food!  Matt had the tallest burger in history!

We also checked out the Chicago outlet of one of Matt’s favourite San Diego breweries, Ballast Point, and played some more video games at Emporium Fulton Market.   The perfect end to a fun and filling trip.

Road Trip: Detroit

Last week we took a trip to Detroit.  Detroit is about two hours from home, about the same distance as Toronto, but in the opposite direction.  When we travel we usually fly from the Detroit airport and we've been to restaurants downtown and shopping in the suburbs plenty of times, but this was our first time staying overnight downtown and walking around the city.

We were there to see Jack White in concert at the Masonic Temple theatre, so we decided to spend about 24-hours in Detroit for the concert.  I have to admit, we were a little nervous at first.  People seem to think Detroit's not safe.  I'd read online that it is perfectly safe to walk around the downtown area, but we'd never done it and didn't know our way around. 

Turkey Burgers

Ground turkey doesn't really work the same as beef.  Since it is so lean, it can turn out dry.  But this recipe uses veggies to keep the meat moist, juicy and flavourful.  These burgers are delicious and very healthy too!

Here's what you need for these burgers.

Patty Melts

This may be obvious to many people, but patty melts are great!  I'd never had one before and was pleasantly surprised by how simple and delicious they are.  It's not a particularly healthy choice, since it's basically a burger crossed with a grilled cheese sandwich, but it really hits the spot. 

All you need is:
Ground beef
Rye bread
Swiss cheese
Onions
Butter

Water Buffalo Burgers

The other day the sun was shining and we went for a little drive.  We passed by the Arva Flour Mill outside London and noticed a sign advertising local and organic meats available, so we turned around and headed in.  We bought grass fed beef short ribs, organic pork chops and water buffalo, ground and sausages.  

We've had bison several times but we've never tried water buffalo. It comes from a farm in Stratford called Tenderbuff and it's supposed to be leaner than bison and even leaner than chicken!  

Grinding Beef for Amazing Burgers

This is my second Canadian Beef post this week because I'm hoping to win this great contest from Canadian Beef that offers bloggers a chance to win a trip to Eat, Write, Retreat in Washington DC.  This time - one of the most amazing beef experiences I've ever had!


I love my KitchenAid stand mixer.  It is just the basic model, but I have some pretty neat attachments.  One of the best is the meat grinder which easily grinds beef for amazing burgers.


We love burgers, especially in the summer time.  It is well known that the less handling you subject ground beef to, the more tender and delicious your burgers will be.  We decided to test that by grinding our own meat, loosely packing it into burgers and grilling them.


We did some research and based our project on Alton Brown's Burger of the Gods recipe that calls only for beef and salt!

We used 250 grams each of chuck and sirloin. As you can see in the picture above, the chuck has great marbling while the sirloin is nice and lean.  We asked our local butcher for these cuts but they're often available in the grocery store.  

We cut the meat into cubes and trimmed some of the fat, then put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up.  When grinding meat, everything, including the equipment, should be as cold as possible.

We put the plastic grinding attachment and metal cutting discs in the freezer as well.  

We alternated cubes of chuck and sirloin pressing them through the grinder.  


Tip:  Once the meat was ground we stuffed a damp paper towel into the grinder to get all the meat and residue out for easier cleaning.

Look how beautiful!  This meat needs very little handling and seasoning.  

We gently shaped the beef into four loose 1/4 pound patties (and one mini-burger with the leftovers).


We sprinkled the outside of each burger with kosher salt and no other seasoning.  

We heated our gorgeous grill until nice and hot.

Then grilled the burgers until done.  See the lovely grill marks?  


Normally I cook burgers at home to well done, but with fresh ground beef we felt comfortable grilling them to medium-well with a touch of pink inside.  

For me, the bun is very important.  I love a nice, crusty fresh white roll for burgers, but whatever bun you choose, don't pile too many toppings on these burgers.  The fresh, delicious taste of the meat is all you need!


(Maybe a little lettuce, onion and cheese as well.)


Grinding our own beef for burgers was an amazing experience.  The taste was really worth it.  I'd highly recommend this technique for special occasion summer barbecues.