Sardine

How do I love thee, let me count the ways...

Sardine is my favorite place for dinner. Marigold Kitchen is my favorite place for lunch. I spend far too little time dining at either establishment. Here is a recent run-down of what I like about Sardine:

The Steamed Mussels and Frites. (I have ordered this every time I have dined at Sardine and it is amazing.) The mussel are perfectly prepared. The creamy broth with diced tomatoes and onions is flavorful and not cloying. The frites are crisp, hot and twice fried. The homemade mayonnaise is thick and tangy. I will continue to order it EVERY TIME.

The Warm Duck Confit Salad. I don't eat duck. But I eat it at Sardine. The duck is finely shredded, smoked and moist. The salad is crisp and although I don't like frisee per se (too tricky to eat) the sharpness really contributes to the overall taste. Add fresh green beans, tomato, lardon (bacon, bacon, bacon), crispy fried potato medallions and a poached egg and I am in heaven.

Potato Leek Soup. Best my hubby has ever had.

Various Entrees. All of the entrees are superb, but I really don't need anything other than the mussels. And I admit it. I will gladly eat the veal. I enjoy this restaurant so much, that I will eat things that I tell people I would never eat. Namely duck and veal. But I would gladly eat goat cheese stuffed chicken breast with a zucchini carrot cake, grilled pork chop with roasted peaches, or anything that you set in front of me. Because everything is that good.

Cafe Soleil

This entry veers off State Street two blocks to the east, on the Pinckney side of the square. Cafe Soleil is the breakfast/lunch eatery owned by L'Etoile and home to the remarkable chocolate sand cookie. Their pastries are always fresh and the coffee is a notch above the rest.

After walking to grab some coffee on a quick mid-morning break with some colleagues, I thought I should write this gem up. My latte was perfect and I left dreaming of brioche and the trout salad, even though I wasn't hungry. Here is the menu.

Add to all this goodness: they have recycled coffee cups. Cafe Soleil has gone green and switched all of their disposables to products that are made of either biodegradable/compostable materials, like corn, or 100% recycled content. Amen.

Mad City Crab House

The lump crab is in the house! I have been reading tons of reviews of The Mad City Crab House and although I did not order wisely when I was there, I will give it another go. I wasn't feeling like fried foods, so I wasted my crab on the Mad City Salad. The chilled Dungeness Blue Crab meat was plentiful and sweet, but the greens were just so so. There were carrots, tomatoes, dried cranberries and a tomato basil vinaigrette, which is close to my perfect salad, but it wasn't spectacular. I have heard over and over again, though, that the crab cakes and sweet potato fries ARE spectacular, so next time I will order that. Lesson learned.

Some reviews:
The Daily Page
Isthmus
Wisconsin State Journal

Contemporary Afghani Cuisine

I love Maza, where Saz used to be at 558 State. I used to like Saz just fine, the artichoke quesadilla being the only artichoke quesadilla I have seen on a menu before, but I love Maza. And truthfully, I couldn't remember the last time I had been to Saz.

Since Maza's opening this spring, I have been there a 1/2 dozen times and have ordered the same entree each time, mixing up the salad, soup and appetizers for variety. I order the Kofta every time. This is an amazing Afghani meatball dish (more like small seasoned beef patties) with basmati rice and served with a tomato based sauce with chickpeas, leeks and a million other spices that makes for an unbelievably savory combination. I have also sampled the lamb kabuli palow, which is a tender lamb dish served with a basmati rice pilaf with raisins, carrots and onions, as well as the beef and chicken kebobs (watch out, those metal skewers are hot, and the wait staff don't always warn the diners - one of my dining companions got a nasty burn).

The salad is decent - fresh leafy greens with a homemade balsamic dressing and the soup is good, too. A tomato vegetable soup with noodles and a comforting flavor.

The complementary flatbread is fresh and warm, and the Maza sampler is super yum - it comes with buryani (fried potato and leek dumplings), a chunky hummus (I am an afficianado of the creamiest of hummus - that found at Mediterranean Cafe or King of Falafel) but this hummus is excellent, and a giant vegetable fritter - I think with chickpeas, leeks and potato? The sambosa is also excellent - another fried dumpling filled with ground beef, onion, cilantro and chickpeas. All of the dumplings I have tried thus far are served with yogurt sauce and a zesty green chutney. Yum.

At the time of it's opening, there might have been a question of whether or not State Street could support two Afghani restaurants (the other being Maza's parent across the street, Kabul) and I can say with certainty, yes. Even with relatively poor, slow service, the place is always packed and the food consistently good.

fromagination

I have been waiting for you my whole life! An artisanal cheese store opened on the square on Carroll St. next to Badger Office Supply this week. It is amazing. There are cheeses. There are organic crackers. There are chocolates. Frosted cookies. Chutneys. Mustards. Even some peppy ostrich sticks that quite pleased my hubby. I am in love with a pumpkin spiced cheese spread made with the milk from the happy sheep that graze in Wisconsin's driftless area (this might be Westby). Hidden Springs Creamery makes a Driftless cream spread to rival any spreads I have had since Madison Bagel was making a salsa cream cheese. (RIP Madison Bagel, I still dream of the whole wheat world, even with Gotham just down the block). But happy new day, for fromagination. I wish it all the best.

Mmmm, gelato

Suddenly, "Madison-Area" is exploding with gelato. Which is fine by me, but I don't spend that much time in America's best suburb (aka Middleton). State Street still only has one premier gelato joint and I am going to focus on that.

Hooray for Paciugo. I am working through all the flavors with my merry band of taste testers (thanks Veronica, Nancy, Kelly and Laura!). I always get the small cup with three flavors and have worked my way through: lavender, rose, violet, panacotta wedding cake, berry white, black pepper olive oil (amazingly fruity and delicious), chocolate almond, black cherry swirl, pistachio, coconut, chocolate coconut, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate turtle, cinnamon, dulce de leche, fondente, tiramisu, rum raisin, watermelon and strawberry balsamic. I draw the line at beer.

At 70% less fat than ice cream, I can eat there almost three times as much as Chocolate Shoppe and not feel guilty! And it is fun and delicious.

Back to the Beat

There have been so many changes on State St., I can barely keep it all straight. And I have been away from the beat for a year, so I will start with what I can!

The latest buzz is for Za's, which used to be the old Blockbuster. The marinara is just ok, but they have Cheesecake Factory desserts and if you don't want to order from the menu, you can create your own pasta, pizza, salad or panini. Which surely wins the award hands down for best variety.

I highly recommend the Italian Creme Cake and the decaf coffee was freshly brewed, instead of old and nuked, which, sadly, is the norm.

Next up: Maza, Mad City Crab House, Paciugo, and Mad Dog's.

Taste of Madison

Ok, the Taste of Madison was quite good this year - the weather was mild and not too sunny, the crowds on Sunday weren't too crazy, and most importantly, none of stands had run out of the food that I wanted to try. I do have a couple of complaints, though: why are there stands from Rio? I can see Fitchburg, and Middleton, maybe. But Rio? Why not bring in Janesville restaurants? Or Portage? Rio is 30 miles from Madison. I would also like to complain about the brochures - bring back the small, glossy brochures and have people handing them out! We hunted down the State Journal stand to find some, and were asked at least six times where we had found them. People want the brochures and they were too hard to find.

This is what I ate:
Spicy Beef Skewer with pepper dipping sauce (Kelly's Grill in Fitchburg)
Hand Dipped Halibut (Joey's Seafood)
Coconut Shrimp (Joey's Seafood)
Key Lime Pie (Joey's Seafood)
Berry Panna Cotta (Lombardino's)
Jerk Chicken Nachos (Bluephies)
Spinach Boat (West Side Club/Queen Anne's)

All in all, another fun Taste in Madison.

Import death or dearth

Yet another hootchie girl clothing store in the (seemingly) endless array of shops owned or masterminded by the import conglomerate that dominates the 100 and 200 blocks of State is "moving" or closing. The signs say "moving sale" but I have my doubts.

Cosi looks close to being done - the workers are going great guns, lots of hammering and drilling. I am looking forward to finding out what they have to offer.

Fancy Make-Up

There is a new store where Dick and Jane used to be on the 500 block and it is full of fancy make-up. The young woman at the counter said that they sell top brands available at stores like Saks and Neiman Marcus. I recognized Cargo and Bourjois (Oprah's favorite brand of lipstick), but I am a dedicated Sephora fan, and the high end brands I like, like Stila and Nars, are already available there. I wish they had Laura Mercier - then I wouldn't have to stock up on tinted moisturizer when I get to Nordstrom in Chicago. This new store is stocking what looks to be a slider tin of lip gloss like the Village Lip Lickers glosses by Village Bath from my childhood. I will have to do some checking on that.

Cosi

There is a new restaurant called Cosi opening where Stillwaters used to be. It looks promising - a European bakery/cafe of sorts. They will be serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffees, desserts and are known for their flatbread. They also have a s'mores dessert. Lord knows I love coffee and dessert and we really don't have anything like this in the State St. area. I do enjoy Panera and this seems similar. Marigold is still my all time favorite place for this type of food, but they are only open through lunch and it is still quite a jaunt to get to the King St. neighborhood and back for lunch.

Sayonara Arcade

The State Street Arcade finally closed. It was about time. That joint has been a blight on the 100 block for as long as I can remember. It was embarrassing to take kids to get popcorn or pizza next door to that skeevy place and explain that it wasn't a "real arcade." I just hope they don't relocate to Midvale Plaza. ha! Or not so ha. Best wishes for a nice new business to fill that space.

Apple Pie

I am making my first scratch apple pie today. I have made the dough for the crust and it is sitting in the refrigerator doing whatever it needs to do for the next hour or so. I bought galas and pink ladies, for some crunch and flavor. We shall see. The dough did not form a nice ball before I divided it and may have been handled too much for consumption. Will it be as hard as a rock? Hmmm. I have been inspired after reading John T. Edge's Apple Pie book. I am going to add cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla to the filling. I am not experimenting with Red Hots or green chiles or anything fancy today. Just your basic apple pie. My own american story.

The Great Flood

Got caught in the great flood 06 near campus. Streets were flooded, the water kept pouring from the sky and up and over anything in its wake. Scary!

Caspian Cafe

In honor of the greater State St. area, I present the new location of the Caspian Cafe. It is even easier to get to now, the Persian tea is super and I just had a great lunch there. There are three daily specials offered in addition to the regular menu items and everything looks fantastic and tastes even better. Today's specials included enormous meatballs stuffed with peppers, currants, hardboiled eggs and more, served with a rice pilaf, a spinach phyllo entree and an eggplant tagine of sorts that had so many more ingredients I can't remember any. I had the cafe sampler that included falafel, hummus, baba gannouj, tabouli, fluffy bread and yogurt salad. A+++

Opera Rain

What a bummer. Opera in the Park got rained out. What's a little weather advisory? I had my bag chairs. I had my picnic basket. I had my Quizno's BLT and entertainment magazines. Very disappointing. Rescheduling on a Sunday night doesn't do it for me. Who wants to fight the crowds out of a filled to capacity park at 11:00 pm on a work night? So I went to the movies instead. Go see Wordplay. Cross Swords fun for everyone.

The Plaza

What could be more perfect than a Plaza burger with an order of fries and extra Plaza sauce on the side? I really do not know. Except maybe the tuna melt on whole wheat with fries and extra sauce. Or an order of fried mushrooms with extra sauce on the side. And a pitcher of Point beer.

Jamba Heaven

Beat the heat with my new favorite, Jamba Juice. I can't believe that I have never tried this nectar before - it is delicious! I had the Orange Dreamsicle. It was orange juice, soy, protein powder, orange sherbet and some other heroin that makes me want to have it three times a day. I also tried a protein pizza stick. Super yum. A bit spendy, but highly recommended.

Art Fair on the Square

Festival season! Art Fair, then Maxwell Street, Taste of Madison - the square is bustling and crazy. Art Fair this year seems busier than ever, tons of food stands and music in the streets.
Great weather this year, too.

On other fronts, green tea ice cream has been spotted at the new super-sized Chocolate Shoppe. Hooray.

Holiday Week-end

Happy 4th of July week-end! Even though the 4th isn't until Tuesday and I have to work Monday. State St. is all torn up and in total chaos, but as much fun and craziness as always. I am sure farmer's market today is just nuts and that there will be tons of events about town. Which is why I am at home, typing away at the computer. ha! Not much to report - except that I had forgotten how nice the Fanny Garver gallery is - needed a "ruby" gift for my parents 40th wedding anniversary and they had a wide variety of very pretty, useable art. Highly recommend.