#35 SOUTH DAKOTA - Stuffed

Joe's Cafe

Alexandria, South Dakota

Joe's is a stone's throw from Exit 344 of Interstate 90, the longest interstate highway in the United States. The cafe is attached to a Sinclair gas station. In the photo, the cafe is over to the right. I have fond childhood memories of Sinclair mainly because I was a big fan of "Dino"its brontosaurus logo. Sinclair gas stations exited the East many years ago so it was fun to see them in the Midwest.

I knew I wasn't going to be entering any foofoo cafe from the sign on the roof of the restaurant. Bud Light, a motorcycle, and a pheasant spoke volumes about the typical customer one might find in Joe's. We didn't match up with any of that but  nevertheless bravely approached the front door.

AMBIENCE: Upon entering the restaurant you find yourself in a narrow room that had three small tables strung across one side and three bar tables placed directly across a narrow aisle from the small tables. A few locals sat at the bar tables drinking coffee and wondering who the hell were these strangers. I spotted what appeared to be a large dimly lit dining room attached to what had now become apparent to me as the social center of Joe's. We headed to the dining room. All the tables were empty. We were the only ones in the room. Or were we? Many eyes were staring at us in the muted light. We were being observed by a number of steel-eyed and hushed local characters. All of them were dead.

Coming out of the wall, one after the other, on all four walls, was the prolific work of a local taxidermist.  I counted 14 male elk and deer, a fox (gender unknown), and a fish. The Healthy One let it be known that "this is sort of creepy".

Under the gaze of 32 glass eyes we chose a table. It is a little disconcerting to have a couple of large animals peering over your shoulder as you peruse the menu. I decided that instead of feeling ill at ease I would treat these South Dakota fauna as my breakfast companions. 

To my right was this guy who had had an unremarkable life but seemed content and was a good listener.

To my left was this fellow who was a bit on the rambunctious side and liked to talk politics.

I felt pleased with my new found friends as I began to decide what I would order for breakfast. The Healthy One wondered if South Dakota had any mental institutions.

Toward the end of our meal there was considerable noise coming from the room we first entered. It looked like all the seats were filled on each side of the aisle, the locals were sipping their Midwest coffee, and a rapid crossfire of conversation about farm machinery was taking place. 

The Healthy One had to visit the bathroom which was on the far side of the building. "Looks like your going to have to walk the gauntlet" I said. She left for the bathroom and I heard the cacophony of talk and laughter suddenly and completely turn off. And then it switched back on for 3 or 4 minutes. And then there was another dead silence and soon after The Healthy One appeared back in the room of dead animals. "That was uncomfortable" she said. Yes, we were strangers in a strange land.

 4 1/2 out of 5 stars for its unconventionality (at least to us).

FOOD:  I was now on my 35th state and I hadn't had chicken fried steak. The dish is closely associated with the state of Texas but I had opted for something else when we had our Texas breakfast.  This was a dish that should make any gastroenterologist shudder. My tolerance for fried food has been steadily going downhill since I turned 45. I had been avoiding fried food as much as possible so I could sleep at night without chugging anti-acid tablets. Still, I felt I needed to eat chicken fried steak once to broaden my culinary breakfast experience. This seemed as good a time as any to take the plunge. I looked for affirmation from my friends on the wall and they all seemed noncommittal but I decided to go for it anyways. 

Chicken fried steak contains no chicken. It is usually a cheaper cut of steak, like cube steak, that is battered and pan fried and then topped with gravy made from the pan drippings. It is so named because the cooking process is similar to how southern fried chicken is prepared. Chicken fried steak is not health food. The chicken fried steak served at Denny's has 940 calories and 56 grams of fat. The smaller chicken fried steak at Cracker Barrel has 600 calories and 45 grams of fat. I knew I was treading on dangerous health ground but that hadn't stopped me before. Just to totally pile on, the dish came with a couple of scrambled eggs, toast, and hash browns. 

The chicken fried steak was as good as you would expect something laden with calories and fat. I thought the batter to steak ratio was a little on the high side. The meat was a little tough but the gravy did an outstanding job of covering up the lesser quality of the steak.  The hash browns were awesome. Even though they covered almost half the plate, I could have eaten another portion. The eggs were eggs, nothing remarkable.
 

Joe's menu wasn't doing The Healthy One any favors. The best she could do was french toast. She declared her order as "pretty decent". 

  

4 out of 5 stars. 

COFFEE: 

It was Midwest coffee (see Ohio report).

2 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  The woman who met us in the dining room was obviously not pleased we had arrived. She slapped down the menus on the table, asked if we wanted coffee, and left without saying another word.  The Healthy One leaned over and whispered to me that "we may have finally met a person in the Midwest who is actually grumpy". I didn't want to risk retribution by taking the woman's photo, but her demeanor looked like this:

I'm no Dr. Phil but I felt that I should address this situation head on. When she returned with our coffee I said, "You don't look very happy today".  That's all it took. For the next few minutes she unburdened herself of her woes. She was upset because she was working all by herself that morning; taking the orders, making the coffee, cooking the food, serving the food, and cleaning the dishes. Her husband (who may have been Joe) was off elk hunting for 7 days. This confession was catharsis. We also commiserated. From then on she was a different person; friendly and caring.

 4 out of 5 stars

.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT ALEXANDRIA:

Alexandria is very small with a population of 626. Its smallness is matched by its lack of diversity. According to the Census Bureau, the town is 98% white. Residents have to drive 15 miles for groceries or to see a doctor but the town does have a bank, post office and a couple of saloons. And yes it has a co-op grain elevator. This is pheasant hunting country and the local Granite Springs Lodge caters to the hunters. Perhaps the most interesting place in Alexandria is the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and its 14 or so Carmelite nuns. If you imagine that life in Alexandria could be a little boring, this convent magnifies the boredom outside its doors to an extreme degree. The nuns are not allowed to leave the premises. They have pretty much cut all ties with family and friends and live much of their life in silence.  They fast half the year, never eat meat and do other penances including sleeping on a slab of wood. To be fair, I suppose to the cloistered nuns, a life of prayer and devotion is not at all boring its just that I would rather be eating bacon.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

After saying our goodbyes to the crew in Joe's dining room we headed down to Yankton SD which lies on the Missouri River. We walked across the river on the lower deck of the Meridian pedestrian bridge to Nebraska and returned to South Dakota on the upper deck. The half mile bridge is the longest pedestrian bridge in America connecting two states. We then took a long walk on the Auld-Brokaw trail. The 2.75 mile trail was named for Yankton's most famous couple, Tom Brokaw and his wife Meredith Auld Brokaw. The Brokaws contributed a substantial sum of money to the building of the trail. Finally, we walked 3 miles round trip from our hotel in West Point, Nebraska to our dinner restaurant. When we first entered our hotel room it felt really stuffy so we were delighted we could open the windows and air the place out. The breeze was so pleasant, we left the windows open when we left for dinner. Sometime during our time away the wind turned direction and our hotel was in the direct aromatic path of a nearby feed lot. This wind shift resulted in a wind shit in our room. For once, the Healthy One couldn't blame me for these odoriferous emanations. 

October 13, 2017

NEXT UP: NEBRASKA

#34 NORTH DAKOTA - Cutting Corners


We didn't spend much time in North Dakota, driving only a total of 37 miles on the state's highways. Not that I have any aversion to the Peace Garden State, but we were making the big turn in the tour route from the north to the south. By just dipping our tires in the very Southeast corner of North Dakota we could cross the state off the list and minimize our total miles. Sorry North Dakota for giving you such short shrift. I have driven round trip from Fargo to Bismarck a couple of times in the past and was amazed at the beauty of your state.

The big problem with cutting through the corner of the state was finding a decent place for breakfast. There weren't many possibilities. In fact, I could only identify one restaurant serving breakfast so that is where we ended up.

Hot Cakes Cafe and Lodging

Hankinson, North Dakota

AMBIENCE: Hot Cakes has been around since 2005.  A motel with 7 or 8 units is part of the same building hence the "lodging" part of the name. We pulled into the dirt lot in front of the cafe and parked among a fleet of very large pickup trucks. We left our little cowering Camry sedan and proceeded through the front door into a mid-sized room with tables and a counter. We had seen plenty of license plates hanging on the walls of bars, coffee shops, and country restaurants but this is the first place we ever saw license plates lining the counter. The counter was really the only place in the restaurant that shouted ostentatious. The rest of the room was simple, comfortable, and with only a few pheasant hunting related items on the walls.

We chose a table with a good view of the kitchen. The cafe was about a quarter full; all men dressed in various degrees of camouflage or denim. They all seemed pretty laid back with plenty of time on their hands. A grizzled old farmer seemed very amused that I was taking pictures of our food. We with our fleece jackets definitely stood out as strangers in town. 

 4 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:  For such a small town and such a small restaurant the menu was rich in its variety of choices. I couldn't help but notice a dished called The Peterson Omelet which was described as a 12 egg omelet with sausage, ham, and cheese and toast on the side. It was tempting, but I was trying to dial things back a little after yesterday's Spam experience. I settled on two blueberry hot cakes with sausage. I thought about it, but decided to spare the waitress my razor sharp wit by asking her "if they sold like hot cakes".  

The hot cakes were nothing spectacular but very good with an ample amount of tasty blueberries. I sure did wish they had pure maple syrup to pour over the handsome couple but our waitress was bluntly honest about the syrup being of grocery shelf quality. The pork sausage patties were terrific. They didn't taste as greasy as they looked and I gobbled that twosome in short order.

The Healthy One ordered the"Hot Cakes Special" which was actually one large hot cake with blueberries grilled inside and topped with two scrambled eggs. That's two mornings in a row with eggs! She thought it was a decent breakfast but I get the feeling she misses her granola and yogurt. Unfortunately for her, these small town cafes never have the healthy stuff on the menu, fearing I think, the locals would turn their noses up at such blasphemy.

  

4 out of 5 stars. 

COFFEE: 

It was Midwest coffee (see Ohio report). The good news was that the coffee was only a dollar with refills.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  We thought our waitress was wonderful. She said that it was only her third day on the job. What she lacked in experience she more than made up for with friendliness and enthusiasm.

 5 out of 5 stars

.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT HANKINSON:

Hankinson only has a population of 900  If you could stand the bitterly cold winters and the torrid summers, it might not be a bad place to live. For a town of only 900, it has a surprisingly number of services: a bank (and its corporate headquarters), a grocery store, a pharmacy, a bar/restaurant, a hardware store, a dental office, a health clinic, and a funeral home. Hankinson also has a good size lake for fishing and swimming. Citizens have their extracurricular fun, hosting an Oktoberfest, a Polka Fest, and a Fourth of July parade. There is also a high stakes casino as well as a Franciscan Sisters convent where the stakes are different but still high. And of course, there is a grain elevator like in most small towns we drove through in the Upper Midwest.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

After breakfast we drove into South Dakota and took a long hike in Sica Hollow State Park. Sica is an oasis of elevation, trees, and streams in a vast ocean of corn fields that stretch to the horizon. Sica is a Dakota word meaning "evil", so called because of the iron-tinted water that looked like blood. Sica Hollow is said to be haunted. We walked along a path named the Trail of Spirits where supernatural forces have been reported. I did not experience anything supernatural but we did stumble upon an old overgrown graveyard where we did not linger.

October 12, 2017

NEXT UP: SOUTH DAKOTA

#33 MINNESOTA - Lotta Spam

More than mere food, SPAM is for me
a hedonistic expression of gluttonous glee.
Mottled with pork fat, the pink cube engrosses.
My mouth takes it in, my intestine disposes.

                                      - Excerpted from a much longer poem by Charlie Johnston


It had to be done. I had eaten scrapple in Delaware and livermush in North Carolina. We couldn't drive by Austin, Minnesota without having a Spam breakfast experience. Spam is produced by the Hormel Food Corporation in Austin. Spam is to Austin MN as chocolate is to Hershey PA. According to the New York Times, Austin has 13 restaurants with Spam on the menu. A few of these serve breakfast. I picked one that had a number of Spam options on the menu and had the added advantage of being within walking distance of the Spam museum.

Kenny's Oak Grill

Austin, Minnesota

AMBIENCE: Kenny's Oak Grill was purchased back in 1965 by a young man with the Minnesota-worthy name of Kenny Knutson and his wife Joanne. I believe that Kenny and Joanne are still in charge and a couple of their children appreciably participate in the operation. It is the oldest family run restaurant in Austin. The original restaurant sat across the street from the current location. The Knutsons were forced to move in 1993 when the high school needed to expand.

Kenny's has "classic diner" written all over it. It has neon. It has the glass cabinet with the humongous pies. It has the register up front and the large pass through opening to the kitchen. It has tables, booths, and counter service. The counter is a little different than most diners in that it is built low to the ground with chairs in place rather than stools.

The walls are covered with just about everything imaginable, from musical instruments, to antique metal advertising signs, to posters, to old license plates. We sat in a comfortable booth underneath an autographed picture of the Blue Angels. The place felt "new" and I subsequently learned that the diner underwent a renovation in 2015 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

 5 out of 5 stars 

FOOD: Kenny's has an extensive breakfast menu with some intriguing items. The Healthy One pointed out that I could have "Two Eggs, Fish, and a side of Spam". Did she seriously think I might order that? Probably, but fish had no appeal for me at 8 in the morning. Another unusual item on the menu was an omelet named the Northlander that contained chicken, wild rice, and Hollandaise sauce. I was here for Spam so I ended up ordering a Spam and Cheese omelet, made with three eggs, three kinds of cheese, and of course, Spam. The omelet came with a choice of a side and I choose a slice of french toast, trying to erase the memory of the lame french toast I had the previous morning in Iowa.   

The omelet looked as delicious as it did sumptuous. You could see that there were about 4 or 5 little chunks of Spam decorating the top. This was merely the tip of the iceberg.  It wasn't until I peered inside that it became apparent that I would be having a total Spam experience. There must have been at least 6 ounces of the glistening pinkish meat stuffed into the pinata of an omelet.
 

I can't recall if I ever had the pleasure of eating Spam before. I may have tasted it as a youth. I do remember Spam cans sitting on a shelf with other eternally preserved food items in our basement room/bomb shelter. The early 1960s were a scary time to many, both in terms of hydrogen bombs raining down and the prospect of eating Spam slathered with Skippy peanut butter (also made by Hormel) for days on end.

Although a little on the salty side, I loved my omelet. The Spam tasted pretty much like ham. If this omelet had dropped out of the sky and someone asked me to taste it and guess what it was, I would reply without hesitation that it was a ham and cheese omelet.  I've had a few ham and cheese omelets in my day, but never had anywhere near as much ham in those omelets as I had Spam in this one. The abundance of Spam did not detract from the wonderful gooey cheese and savory eggs.

Did I have a healthy breakfast? Not. I did a few calculations, and assuming there was 6 ounces of Spam in the omelet, I received 96% of the sodium, 39% of the cholesterol, and 84% of the saturated fat of my daily dietary allowance. And that doesn't include the three eggs and the three kinds of cheese. I planned on rice cakes for lunch and salad for dinner.

The single piece of french toast, or should I say the butter with a side of french toast, was delicious.

The Healthy One ordered a very traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon which also came with a single pancake. She said that the eggs were good and the pancake was fine. It was the bacon that stood out as a treat to her taste buds. No surprise. After all, we were only 12 miles from the border of Iowa with its population of 20 million pigs.     

5 out of 5 stars. 

COFFEE: 

It was Midwest coffee. (See Ohio report.) 

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  Kenny's website stated that the restaurant has two servers who have been there since the early 1970s and two servers who have been there since the mid-1980s. I am fairly certain that we had one of these veterans as our server. She approached us wearing a tie-dye T shirt with SPAM written across the front. I thought, given her attire, she might provide a fun interaction. I was wrong. She greeted us as the "outsiders" we were, which was to say formally and with little warmth on this chilly, overcast morning. She certainly displayed the skills of someone who had been on the job for decades. I have no complaints about how the basics of the service were provided. I would also add that she was doing more than going through the motions, but nevertheless seemed to be on automatic pilot.

 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT AUSTIN:

Austin or Spamtown USA has a population of almost 25,000 people. Hormel is by far the largest employer with 2,700 employees. Quality Pork Processors which supplies the main ingredient of Spam to Hormel employs an additional 1,500.

If for some odd reason, you happen to find yourself in Austin and have an hour or two to spare, the Spam Museum is worth a visit. We were greeted with a enthusiastic "good morning!" by a "Spambassador" at the front door. The museum, which had just reopened in 2016 after an ambitious makeover, is bright and colorful. Everything you would ever want (or don't want) to know about Spam is shown through visual history displays and interactive exhibits. At times, you feel like you are attending some sort of surreal cocktail party as a Spambassador cruises the rooms with a tray of complimentary Spam samples stuck to the ends of a pretzel stick.

Some things I learned about Spam:

-  Since Spam was launched in 1937, the Hormel Food Corporation has sold over 8 billion cans in 44 countries.

-  Spam sales took off during World War II when it became a staple of soldiers' diets. Smithsonian Magazine also reported that Spam's grease was used by soldiers to lubricate their guns and waterproof their boots.

-  Hawaii leads all states in current Spam consumption. Seven million cans a year are purchased in Hawaii, that's three pounds of Spam per year per Hawaiian.

-  Spam only has six ingredients: pork (both shoulder and leg), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate. The potato starch was added in 2009 in an effort to eliminate the gelatin layer.

-  In April, 2017 the museum hosted its first Spam themed wedding. In case you have any doubts that many of the British are slightly wacky, the lovely couple traveled 4,000 miles from Liverpool to be married at the shrine to Spam. The groom's name was Mark I LOVE SPAM Benson and yes, Mr. Benson had legally changed his name.

-  Hormel claims that the name Spam was coined at a "name that mystery meat" contest during a New Year's Eve party. Supposedly it is a blend of the words "spiced ham", though many others have come up with their own word origins; some not exactly G-rated.

-   The term "Spam e-mail" derives from a 1970 Monty Python skit where a couple is having breakfast in a restaurant where Spam is an ingredient in every item on the menu much to the chagrin of the wife who absolutely hates Spam. Spam in a sense becomes unavoidable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

The museum has a store with hundreds of Spam related items. I bought a T-shirt and a can of Spam. I was curious as to whether Austinites actually eat Spam so I asked the young woman who was my cashier whether she liked Spam. "Oh yes!" she answered "I have it every day, either for breakfast, lunch, or dinner". I should report that the Mayo Clinic is Austin's third largest employer.

As we left the museum, a Spambassador wished a "spamtastic" day. By then I had had my fill of Spam both literally and figuratively. We headed north.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

After breakfast and before the Spam museum opened at 10, we walked the quiet bike path along the Cedar River. After we left the Spam Museum we stopped in lovely Northfield, Minnesota and walked on the campus of St. Olaf College followed by a stroll through Northfield's compact business district. The day ended with a walking tour of Carleton College led by student extraordinaire Laura.

October 11, 2017

NEXT UP: NORTH DAKOTA

#32 IOWA - This Batter Struck Out

At some point during the Breakfast Across America tour I wanted to eat the first meal of the day in a hotel restaurant. It held a certain amount of appeal. I imagined rolling out of bed, jumping in the shower, getting dressed, and then leisurely making my way to a stately dining room where we would be met by the welcoming aroma of coffee and served a scrumptious breakfast by a competent person with a morning personality.

I certainly didn't have in mind the typical budget-priced hotel's "free breakfast" with its canisters of dried cereal, its waffle maker that only makes a mess, its toaster that takes 10 minutes to barely brown an English muffin, and its plastic transparent cabinet full of stale bagels, muffins, and unidentifiable pastries. Below is a photograph of one such breakfast setup at a Best Western we stayed at in Nebraska. I find it humorous that the proprietor strung a banner across the counter with the words "beware". It may have been a Halloween thing but I think it's a terrific unintentional blunder. 

After some research, I thought that I had found a good prospect for a great hotel breakfast in Northeastern Iowa.

Restoration

Decorah, Iowa

AMBIENCE: The Restauration restaurant resides in the Hotel Winneshiek in the tidy town of Decorah, Iowa. The hotel, named after a notable Winnebago chief, was finished in 1905. It was acclaimed for the octagonal three-story lobby with its large stained glass skylight. A glorious cherry grand staircase led to the spacious guestrooms upstairs. The hotel impressed with its elegance. Fifty-five years later The Winneshiek fell on hard times and stopped being a hotel. For the next 35 years it sat empty or served as low income apartments. The structure was bought in 1997 by Decorah native Helen Basler, who began restoring it, and no expense was spared. Hotel Winneshiek reopened in April, 2000 looking much as it did in 1905. President Barack Obama stayed here in 2011 during a Midwest tour (it was not a breakfast tour). We were not given the same room where Mr. Obama slept but we were very happy with the spacious and beautifully detailed room where we spent the night.

Given the history of the hotel, I thought that the name of the restaurant was some sort of play on the words "restaurant" and "restoration". But later that day, in the Vesterheim Norwegian-American museum, I learned that The Restoration was a small sloop that carried 52 religious dissenters from Norway to America in 1825. These "Sloopers" represented the first organized group of Norwegian emigrants to the U.S.

The entrance to the restaurant was just steps from the grand staircase.

The large dining room contained a mix of tables and large booths. Only 3 tables had diners on this overcast Tuesday morning. We sat ourselves at a table next to a huge plate glass window overlooking Water St., the primary commercial street of Decorah. People walking by on the sidewalk looked in at us and we looked out at them. The room exuded simplicity and peacefulness. It was quiet, maybe too quiet. No background music was playing, and the other occupants' tables were far enough away that their conversations were muted. I felt I could go back to sleep.

But there was this house fly. It seemed to be circulating around the restaurant, stopping for a few minutes at each table where there was food and then going on to the next table, and then repeating the pattern. After the other customers had left, and their tables were cleared, the fly was more than happy to just hang out at our table. It landed on the tablecloth. It landed on the silverware. It landed on the coffee cup. It was a pain in the ass. After about 10 minutes of making swatting motions, the fly disappeared, probably into the kitchen. 

 4 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:  I ordered "Grandma's French Toast" which was described as Gran Marnier battered sourdough with bacon. I felt the  bacon was essential because we were in a state with a population of 20 million pigs. The Healthy One ordered two al carte items: the Winneshiek granola and Greek yogurt with berries. She was obviously feeling guilty about all the pizza she ate the night before. The first sign that something may have been amiss in the kitchen was when the waiter returned and said that there was no granola "because it was made in-house" as if that explained everything. But aren't we "in-house" I wondered? It seemed someone maybe didn't wake up in time to make the granola.

The second sign that the kitchen was having a tough morning was my order of Grandma's French Toast. It was a huge disappointment. The bread was pretty tasteless and unsatisfying. I could detect only the slightest hint of Gran Marnier in the batter. Grandma must have been having a grand time back in the kitchen drinking the Gran Marnier that should have gone into my batter. 

To add insult to injury, one entire side of a slice of the sourdough had no batter whatsoever covering the surface! It was naked as the day it came out of the bread package! How could a cook forget to batter one side of the bread?  

In retrospect, I should have sent it back but I didn't. We were in a town, that although not in Minnesota, mirrored in many ways the fictional Lake Wobegon. I guess I had been indoctrinated by listening to all those Prairie Home Companion shows where the resident Norwegian-Lutherans never complain, suffered quietly, and just took what life handed to them.

On the other hand, the bacon was fantastic. It had a great smoky taste and was cooked up exactly the way I like it.  I realize that how people like their bacon cooked is totally subjective. I believe that I am in the minority of folks who are not particularly fond of crispy bacon. On a Bacon Crispness Scale with one being practically raw and ten being as flat and brittle as a saltine, I'm a four. Not that I would ever turn down a piece of crispy bacon, but I find it curious that when you order a steak or hamburger the server always asks how you would like it cooked. I've never been asked how I would like my bacon cooked.  It's always a crap shoot. This bacon arrived at our table as a perfect four. It was fatty, soft, and springy with just the slightest bit of crunch. I was in porcine heaven in a state with a pig population of 20 million.

The Healthy One declared her yogurt and blueberries "excellent". She was especially fond of the blueberries which tasted fresh and succulent.     

2 1/2 out of 5 stars. Big deduction for the french toast.

COFFEE: 

I didn't have coffee at Restauration. Earlier that morning, as the Healthy One was preparing herself for the day, I went down to the lobby to catch up on my e-mail. Sitting on beautiful antique buffet table was a coffee station. I helped myself to a cup and  found the coffee to be outstanding. It was very enjoyable sitting in an oversize sofa, in front of a large marble fireplace with its natural gas fed flames, reading the Ipad, and drinking 2 1/2 cups of perfectly brewed coffee.

The Healthy One did ask for the de-caf. She said it was awful. I took a taste. She was right. It tasted like Sanka or worse. It was de-covfefe. How could the coffee in the lobby taste so good and the coffee in the restaurant so horrible? 

1 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  Our waiter was a polite, no nonsense young man. He was not particularly engaging but got the basics of the job done. He took our orders, delivered our food, and came by once to check on how we were doing. He never came by with a pot of coffee to refill The Healthy One's cup, further bolstering our suspicion that the de-caf was of the instant variety.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT DECORAH:

Decorah has a delightful downtown, a reputable college, and a world famous museum. The town's population is just under 8,000 but swells to 60,000 for the three day Nordic Fest in July.

Decorah was named after a Winnebago (also known as the Ho-Chunks) chief. It was a Pyrrhic honor because the Winnebagoes were forcibly removed from the area to a reservation in Minnesota. The first white family settled near what is now the Hotel Winneshiek, in 1849. The family was not Norwegian but English. Nevertheless, Norwegians began showing up in large numbers beginning in the 1850s as severe economic distress forced them to look for a better life.  I learned that the number of emigrants who left Norway between 1825 and 1930 was nearly equal to Norway's total 1825 population. Only Ireland gave up a greater percentage of its population to America. Large numbers of the Norwegian immigrants found the upper Midwest, including the Decorah area, similar to the farmland, and waterways they had left behind.

The Norwegians brought their Lutheran religion from across the sea and built a number of Lutheran houses of worship. They also established Luther College in 1861. The college today has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and is an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Luther College is Decorah's largest employer.

The commercial section of Decorah mostly stretches along a single road called Water Street. It is lined with coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, banks, and a fantastic food co-op. The western end of Water Street is anchored by the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Vesterheim in Norwegian means "western home". The museum is the number one reason a tourist would visit Decorah. It is the largest in the United States devoted to one single immigrant group. Vesterheim has over 33,000 artifacts and 12 historic buildings including a rural Lutheran church built in 1901 and a 1879 schoolhouse. Ironically, thousands of Norwegian tourists come to Decorah to learn about their own heritage. It is said that tourists from Norway have commented that the Decorah locals are more Norwegian than themselves.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We walked quite a ways on the scenic Trout Run Trail that completely circles the town. We also completed a thorough walking tour of the Luther College campus. Much of the afternoon was spent at the Vesterheim museum.

October 10, 2017

NEXT UP: MINNESOTA

#31 ILLINOIS - Chillin Out

Me: "We're headed for Illinois this morning!"
Healthy One: "Weren't we in Illinois a couple of days ago?"
Me: "Yes, but we didn't have breakfast."
Healthy One: "I'm so confused"
Me: "It's only going to get worse."

Otto's Place

Galena, Illinois

AMBIENCE: Otto's Place is a two story building sitting pretty much by itself across the Galena River from the downtown area. It's literally on the other side of the tracks from most of Galena. The building is old by Midwestern standards. I didn't have to do much internet research on the history of the building because some of it was explained on a card at our dining table. It was built in 1899 by a man named Otto Sallman whose intention was to open it as a restaurant. Otto lived upstairs while the restaurant was to take up the first floor. Otto suffered a financial set back and the restaurant never got off the ground. He could only sit upstairs and listen to the trains rumble by the restaurant dream that wasn't. Ironically, Otto was killed by a train in Chicago. People have seen his ghost walking up and down the tracks by the restaurant.

The building has since hosted a handmade basket store, bakery, grocery store, pizza parlor, furniture store, record store, antique shop, and sandwich cafe until the current owners bought it, refurbished it, and opened the current eatery in 2011. No one lives upstairs now, it is part of the restaurant with a few tables and a lounge area. We did not see the upstairs, but the downstairs area is very handsome with a tin ceiling and lots of wood. It was obvious, that the building was lovingly restored, possibly to Otto's original vision.

We arrived at about 9 AM and the place was packed. I was really surprised at the size of the crowd on a Monday but then realized it was the Columbus Day holiday and tourists were still in town. There did happen to be one empty table available. Often, the last table available means sitting next to the bathrooms or the door to the kitchen. This two-top table looked great as it was placed next to a window overlooking the fall foliage of the yard next door. I felt that the ghost of Otto was on our side.

Soon after we were seated at our table, I began to feel chilled. It felt like there was a very cool, almost cold breeze coming from somewhere, possibly Canada. It wasn't just me, the Healthy One was keeping her jacket on. I checked above me and the ceiling fan was off. I ran my hand along the window trying to feel a draft. Nothing. Then I saw the problem. On the floor, by my left foot, was a 6 inch by 12 inch vent shooting arctic air up my left pant leg. This problem had to be addressed before certain extremities lost all feeling. When the waitress came over, I mentioned the problem. "Oh that" she said, "I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do to turn it off". There was also no other free table for us to relocate to so I asked for a towel to place over the vent. She graciously brought me a kitchen towel,but when I placed it on the vent, it blew off. I tried again but no go. Soaking the towel in hot water in the bathroom was one idea, but carrying it through the dining area, back to the table, might have created a buzz that an accident had taken place. I finally found the perfect solution. The heavy ceramic container of NutraSweet and the pepper shaker made perfect towel weights. And yes, I left it that way upon exiting the restaurant. 

 The building and dining room were beautiful but minus one star for the discomfort.

 4 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:   On the chalkboard we saw that the special pastry of the day was something called the Apple Sconut, which I suppose is some combination of scone and doughnut. We ordered it and the waitress said that we were really fortunate because there was only one left. In retrospect, I am thankful that there was one left but I would have felt really fortunate if there had been two left. I am now salivating as I remember this sweet hunk of pure goodness. The sconut was perfectly baked, almost melting in my mouth, and the warm icing made be forget my iced left leg. It was simply magnificent. Here it is, pre-demolishment, with two forks poised to attack.

I had also ordered "Otto's Pigs In a Blanket" partly because the word "blanket" really appealed to me at the moment. It came with eggs which I ordered "over easy". I hadn't had "pigs in a blanket" since I was a kid eating at IHOP. I fondly remember them as three sausage links rolled up in three separate pancakes. These were different. Otto's pigs were bacon and not sausage. Additionally, the "pigs" were integrated into the batter and not sleeping in a rolled up pancake. The other surprise I got was that the over easy eggs arrived on top of the pancake!  I had never seen that before. This was certainly a maple syrup deterrent. Finally, I believe I saw the apparition of Otto Sallman staring up at me from the plate. 

        
























It all tasted fine. The pancake was perfectly cooked and the crispy bacon in the pancake provided a nice tasty, porky crunch. Nevertheless, I don't think I have been converted to being a devotee of eating egg in the same bite with pancake, but as my Dad use to say, "it all goes to the same place". 

The Healthy One ordered the "quiche of the day" which came with a bowl of fruit. That day, the quiche happened to be bacon, onion, and Gorgonzola cheese. The Healthy One was ecstatic about the flavor of the nice sized slice she received. She predicted that this was going to be her favorite breakfast dish of the Midwest tour and possibly the whole 48 states.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE: 

We thought the coffee was terrible. Even worse than the typical Midwestern coffee (see Ohio rant) we had been drinking recently. I need a word to describe this grade of coffee. How about the coffee is covfefe? Thank-you Mr. President.

1 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  Given that the restaurant was at 100% of capacity, our waitress was incredibly busy. Still, she maintain a friendly nature, didn't get rattled, and was helpful in guiding us through the specials. She also snagged us that last apple sconut.

5 out of 5 stars

.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT GALENA:

Galena is a tourist town. Although the population is listed at only 3,255, it hosts more than a million visitors a year.  Why do people flock to this small town that sits on a tributary of the Mississippi River? It is quaint, historic, and beautiful with plenty of shopping and eating opportunities. If one wondered what a city in 1850 looked like, this is the place to come. Approximately 1,000 of Galena's buildings are on the national Register of Historic Places. Eighty-five percent of Galena has been declared a national historic district. The town's most famous resident, Ulysses S. Grant, who moved here in 1860 to work for his father, would recognize most of the buildings standing today. Galena is called both the "outdoor museum of the Victorian Midwest" and "the city that time forgot".

The Fox and Sauk tribes first mined the area's rich deposits of lead to use as body paint. The white man then butted in and by the early 1800's, Congress had established the Upper Mississippi Lead Mine District. This resulted in mining companies flocking to the area and establishing the city of Galena in 1826. Galena is Latin for lead ore. In the 1830s, Galena had a population of about 1,000 people. Chicago had a population of 100.

The Galena River provided access to shipping along the Mississippi River. By 1850, Galena was the busiest port between St. Louis and and St. Paul. The prosperous city's population grew to 14,000. As the demand for lead declined, as mining companies moved to California for gold, and as railroad traffic supplanted the river's steamboats, Galena went into a long economic downward spiral. Fortunately, no one tore down the federal style storefronts nor the Greek Revival and Italiante mansions built by steamboat captains and mine owners on the steep bluffs overlooking the river. Artists in the 1970s and 80s began to move in as they saw the beauty of the architecture. Then the tourists started arriving and a large hospitality industry developed. Today there are numerous B&Bs, dozen of art galleries, craft shops ,live music venues, and restaurants. U.S. Grant, who was known as being fond of the bottle, would be pleased at the number of watering holes on Main Street.

The Grant home sits on the opposite bluff of the city. It is open to the public except on Mondays and Tuesdays when we were there. Oh well. He didn't spend a lot of time at the house, being off to fight a  5 year war and living in the White House, but when he was in Galena, he enjoyed sitting in his favorite chair and smoking cigars. Purportedly, Grant smoked 50 cigars a day. Not surprisingly, he died of throat cancer at the age of 63. I took a picture of a statute of his wife Julia, located just outside the front of the house. She looked pleased to be away from all that cigar smoke.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We took a long walk after breakfast over the Galena River via the pedestrian bridge and through the main part of Galena. We then drove up to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. These sacred mounds are ancient Native American burial sites. The large raised piles of earth are in the shape of an animal such as a bear or a bird. We hiked the 7 mile round trip to Hanging Rock where we were greeted with a magnificent view of the Mississippi River.

-        

          




















October 9, 2017

NEXT UP: IOWA