Fresh Fish

Shad

While salmon gets the modern day mentions and Midwesterners are wild about whitefish or walleye, from an historical standpoint it’s probably shad that really should be our national fish. (It is, in fact, the state fish of Connecticut). To be convinced you need only read John McPhee’s marvelous book, “The Founding Fish,” or really any other work about early American food history.

It’s The Founding Fish
It was a fish that was native to the New World, it had (and …

What’s “Erster Purlo” Anyways?

by Ari Weinzweig

Speaking of Americana, here’s a dish I’ve been making it home that’s at the top of my cooking list of late. It’s easy, it’s great and it’s pretty quick to concoct. You know from the name that the dish has oysters in it. “Pilau” though you may not recognize right off, though when I tell you the other main ingredient in the recipe is rice, you’ll pretty quickly realize that pilau is likely an early American version …

Why Lauren Loves Oysters

By Lauren Kelly Bridges (oyster specialist, Zingerman’s Roadhouse)

It is quite an understatement to say that it was a brave man who first ate an oyster. A triumph of nature, a feat of gastronomy, the act of consuming a raw oyster is equivalent to skydiving in the food world. Picture it: You, gripping the shell, liquor spilling over the lip of the valve, the meat of the oyster calling out to be swallowed. But, as an adventurous eater, you take …

Greetings from Wisconsin’s World of Curd

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m biased towards Wisconsin in some way. My mother did go to college in Madison and I certainly like the Dairy state. But I mean, hey, we’re in Michigan and we make our own cheese right here in town.

Three things in particular that get my passion going for Wisconsin cheese right now. Basically, the way I see it—or should I say, taste it? —Wisconsin’s got it coming, going and everything in between. Plus, it is the home of fried cheese curds, seemingly, almost everyone’s favorite food at the Roadhouse.

Eating Oysters at the Roadhouse

On the Half Shell

by Ari Weinzweig

Freshly opened and eaten as is, this is still my favorite way to eat oysters. Order two or twenty. I’m happy to share my favorites in the moment next time you’re in. My personal recommendation for your next dozen is to try an all-coastal oyster platter – two each of East Coast, West Coast, Apalachicolas, Westcott Bay Flats (the European oysters raised in American waters), Kumamotos and Olympias.

BBQ’d Oysters
Prepared in the …