[Real Detroit Weekly] Burger Bonanza

Attack! Slows' Special Purpose. (Photo by Nicole Rupersburg)

Eat It Detroit's own Nicole Rupersburg along with the Hungry Dudes' Joe Hakim ingested a grand total of 13 burgers in two days for Real Detroit Weekly. This not even a month after we went Coo-Coo for Cupcakes.  We would like our next feature to be about salad.

[From RDW]
There are few things more 'merican than hamburgers. And what do we, as Americans, do better than anything else? Make things bigger and better! Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, John Goodman and Super Bowl commercials. You get the drift. Well, we did a small-scale burger tour of metro Detroit, and here's a few unique (and some mammoth) burgers that we sought out. Sit back, loosen your belt and feast your eyes on the following. (It was a pun, just roll with it.)

Read the rest of the story here.

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

[HOT LIST] Beer bars

Berkley Front (Photo by Nicole Rupersburg)

How much does Michigan love beer? Enough that our local brewers guild throws not one, but four annual festivals – the bare minimum, really, to accurately showcase the state's best suds. Perhaps you made it to Beer Fest in Ypsi this past weekend; maybe you're holding out for the fall event in Detroit (October 22, mark your calendars). Then again, who needs a festival to celebrate beer? Metro Detroit is filled with bars that show off the good stuff every day of the year. Here are five spots to sample.

#1 Roast Detroit
Downtown Detroit's best restaurant is known widely for top-notch cooking and cocktails, but it also happens to be one of the best places around town to drink beer, thanks to the expertise of Joseph Allerton, the restaurant's sommelier, He is prone to packing the very serious list with plenty of Jolly Pumpkin, which means we get to take all the gas money we used to spend driving over to the brewpub in Ann Arbor and spend it on beer, right here at home.

#2 Grand Trunk Pub Detroit
We'll always know it as Foran's, but they can call it whatever they want, really, as long as they keep more than a dozen awesome Michigan beers on tap at this perennially popular little bar that occupies an old railway station at the bottom of Woodward Avenue.

#3 Slows Detroit
One of the city's best-loved restaurants also doubles as a great beer bar, thanks to an incredible selection of taps that focuses on Michigan but doesn't mind wandering off the reservation to all sorts of places where good beer is made. At off-peak times, it almost feels like a friendly neighborhood hangout.

#4 Cadieux Cafe Detroit
The rumpus room of Detroit's Belgian community for decades, this old shoe-comfortable East Side spot is always a good time, whether you stop in for a bottle of Duvel on a rainy afternoon or drop by Tuesdays and Thursdays to watch the very serious league night action on the featherbowling lanes. Bonus: $8 pitchers after 10pm, Monday-Thursday.

#5 Berkley Front Berkley
There are places that have a lot of taps and a wide range of choices, and then there is The Front, a downtown Berkley staple known for having dozens of selections -- sometimes up to fifty -- on draft, plus a cask or two, if you're lucky. Local they've got, sure, but this is best treated as a place to come when you're in the mood to drink your way around the world from the comfort of your barstool. (The bottle selection is pretty ridiculous.)

BUBBLING UNDER Ye Olde Tap Room (Detroit), Woodbridge Pub (Detroit), Oak Cafe (Wyandotte), Sidetrack (Ypsi), Ashley's (Ann Arbor)

[EID Feature] Mootown Creamery: Making History at Historic Eastern Market

(All photos by Nicole Rupersburg)

Eastern Market, the largest historic public market district in the country, has been in its current location for 120 years. And in 120 years, it has never has an ice cream shop.

Jaw>>>>floor. Sounds absurd, right?

That was, of course, until Mootown Creamery opened on May 13, 2011.

Located in a primo spot on the same little strip as the über-popular Supino Pizzeria and Russell St. Deli, Mootown Creamery is a perfect post-pizza destination for a summertime snack (and baby, it’s hot outside).

Mootown Creamery is a family-owned and -operated business. Sisters and first-time partners Chris Kelley and Leslie Hayden opened the place, and Chris’s daughter Brittney Mabry is the smiling face you’ll usually find behind the counter. Even Grandma’s involved – in the back you’ll find a selection of her pretty hand-made greeting cards, T-shirts, flip-flops, and other gifts. If they don’t have your size in stock, she’ll make it for you.

If I didn’t already know that it was a group of females behind the place, I’d assume it: the inside looks like every young girl’s fantasy dollhouse. Pastel greens, purples, wrought iron café tables painted white, candy-colored plaster ice cream displays (even the logo features a “sexy” cartoon cow) – the look is definitively “girly” and cheerily charming, giving it that old-fashioned soda shoppe appeal. The staff is also unflappably friendly, which makes this simply a nice place to go to put a smile on your face.

And ice cream in your belly, no doubt. Mootown Creamery carries Michigan-made Hudsonville Ice Cream, which is trying to expand more into the Detroit market: this is one of the only places in the area that you’ll find them. They make such Michigan-themed flavors as Sleeping Bear Dunes Bear Hug (chocolate ice cream with chocolate-covered cashews swirled with thick caramel), Michigan Deer Trax (peanut butter cups and thick chocolate fudge with vanilla ice cream), and, of course, Mackinaw Island Fudge. (And also classic flavors like strawberry, chocolate and butter pecan too, natch.) You can get your ice cream on a cake cone, sugar cone or waffle cone; in kiddie scoops all the way to triple scoops. They’ll make you extra-thick milkshakes, ice cream floats, gooey sundaes and loaded banana splits, or you can also try their Moo…Zerts (their version of a Blizzard).

They want to keep things local inside Mootown, so you’ll also find Better Made chips, Vernors, Faygo pop (POP!), even Ice Mountain bottled water (which is bottled in Michigan).

Originally the sisters were planning on opening a garden supply store, but after walking around the market and seeing that there was no ice cream there they decided to open an ice cream shop. And so it is that the 120-year ice cream embargo in Eastern Market has been lifted, and those 40,000+ people who descend upon the market every Saturday can now enjoy a cold, creamy treat on a blistering hot day. July…National Ice Cream Month…record-high temperatures….coincidence? Well, no, it’s always hot as Hades in July, which just means no time like the present to go check out Mootown Creamery! (They have air conditioning and lots of seating, too.)

Note from the Powers That Be: Our Eastern Market tours will be starting soon and we'll be hitting Mootown during the summer months; stay tuned!

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

[Real Detroit Weekly] Cooking With Beer

Beer. Wonderful, nourishing, health-sustaining BEER. (Seriously, its health benefits have been studied and proven, it’s even better for you than red wine, look it up.) We all love to drink it, but did you know you can also cook with it? Everything from citrusy wheat beers to robust stouts can be used to add a flavorful depth to a variety of dishes. Here’s some of our favorite beer-based recipes.

Beer cheese soup at Detroit Beer Company, Detroit. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Beer Cheese Soup (8 servings)

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
• 1 1/2 cups diced onion
• 1 1/2 cups diced celery
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups beer – we suggest using an IPA for its sharp, bitter flavor, like Short’s Huma Lupa Licious
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 4 cups milk or half and half
• 6 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• Salted butter popcorn

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, simmer carrots, onion, celery, and garlic in butter until soft. Stir in hot pepper sauce, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Pour in chicken broth and beer; simmer until vegetables are tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, heat butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Stir in flour with a wire whisk; cook, stirring until the flour is light brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Gradually stir in milk, whisking to prevent scorching, until thickened. Remove from heat, and gradually stir in cheese. Keep warm.
3. Stir beer mixture into cheese mixture. Stir in Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and dry mustard. Adjust for hot pepper sauce. Bring to a simmer, and cook 10 minutes. Garnish with popcorn.
Double your beer food delight by serving with a generous chunk of rye beer bread.

[HOT LIST] Ice cream

(Photo by Nicole Rupersburg)

Did you know that the popular American locution "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" originated from a 1927 jazz song of the same title? So next time you see that as the lede in a story about ice cream, go ahead and say "1927 called and it wants its peculiar expression back."

We'll cut to the chase: it's July, it's as hot as Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis as FWBs, and it's also National Ice Cream Month. In metro Detroit you can get your licks of homemade gelato and custard, hand-packed ice cream made from local dairy cows, and quirky flavors with multi-culti twists. Here's five of our faves and a few more for good measure.

#1 Shatila Bakery Dearborn
This place is one of the many reasons you should make yourself more familiar with Dearborn. Just 15 minutes from downtown Detroit and you're in the epicenter of the largest population of people of Arab descent outside of the Middle East. AND their food. Shatila Bakery serves sweet and savory Middle Eastern pastries, from fried kibbie to endless variations on baklava, but they are known best for their super-premium ice creams: rich butterfat ice creams in traditional flavors like chocolate and unique flavors like kashta (a Lebanese dessert similar to a super-rich vanilla). Whole fruit is combined with cream for intensely-flavored apricot and mango, but the pistachio might actually change your life. Try it once and you won't bat an eye at $9 for a quart - it's that good (and they deliver worldwide!).

#2 Nevería La Michoacana Detroit
Let's stop talking taco carts for a second: over on Vernor, this place is the real deal for summertime treats. Yes, they have ice cream. They also have a wide array of Mexican popsicles in flavors like cajeta, or caramel, which is more like a caramel-flavored fudgesicle; and frozen fruit bars made with REAL fruit in flavors like guava and pineapple. Get a chocolate-covered frozen banana, or have one of the several flavors of homemade horchata - a Mexican dessert drink made from rice milk and nuts. One of their house flavors is bright pink with chunks of strawberries, mangoes and pineapple and tastes like a strawberry milkshake. Oh, also, it's a buck for a fruit bar and two bucks for a very LARGE small horchata. Even the prices are authentically Mexican.

#3 World's Finest Frozen Custard and Family Fun Center Chesterfield
Lots of places claim to be "world's finest" this-or-that; World's Finest Custard might actually be that. Their handmade custard (available in standard flavors like chocolate and vanilla as well as rotating special flavors) is thick, creamy, rich, decadent, smooth, velvety, wonderful. You will NOT find a finer custard in all of metro Detroit - this place seriously makes a roadtrip to Chesterfield worthwhile. For hard-packed ice cream purists, they also carry Michigan's own Ashby's Sterling Ice Cream. The mini-golf course at the "Family Fun Center" is cheesy even by mini-golf standards, but full-grown adults can still enjoy sitting on the swings with some of the best old-fashioned frozen custard in the ... well, world.

#4 Treat Dreams Ferndale
They're still pretty new but have already made a name for themselves as one of the most unique ice cream parlors in metro Detroit. Why unique? Some of the flavors they've had include honey lavender, hot jalapeno, purple yam, and Sunday breakfast (maple syrup ice cream with bacon). They also serve extra-huge scoops, so come hungry and not just snacky. (You're an adult; you can eat ice cream as a meal.) Salted caramel ice cream is their specialty, and they also carry a variety of baked goods including cake pops.

#5 Calder Dairy and Farm Lincoln Park
If you want the best ice cream possible, get it from the source. Milk for Calder Dairy's New England-style hand-packed ice cream comes from their very own dairy cows at their farm in Carleton, Michigan. Stop by the Dairy in Lincoln Park to try one of their 34 homemade flavors (which include a few seasonal, as well as their new soft serve) on one of their homemade waffle cones, or drop by the farm and take a tour while enjoying your dairy treat.

Bubbling under Ray's Ice Cream (Royal Oak), The Chocolate Bar/Alinosi's (Grosse Pointe), Guernsey Farms (Northville), Zingerman's Creamery (Ann Arbor), Wally's Frozen Custard (Harper Woods), Dairy Twist Cafe (Wolverine Lake), Sweet Earth (Birmingham), Mootown Creamery (Detroit)

[EID Feature] Frita Batidos: Street Food Meets Street Art

(All photos by Nicole Rupersburg)

When Eve Aronoff first emailed me to let me know about the vintage Coca-Cola cooler featuring work by Detroit street artist SinTex that she introduced into her dining room at Frita Batidos in Ann Arbor, I thought it sounded like a cute story or a fun factoid. It also recalled some work done by Antotnio “Shades” Agee last summer at Ann Arbor’s Grizzly Peak Brewing Company, a huge mural on the side of their building unveiled at a fundraiser to benefit the Ann Arbor Art Center.

Then just this past May vitaminwater introduced VitaminWater Uncapped LIVE at 1500 Woodward. When they took over the space from Vain Nightclub they completely redesigned the interior, bringing in well-known, renowned urban artists like Shades, SinTex, Tony Roko, Mike Han and Cedric Tai. The space-defining art became the highlight of this temporary venue – which, much like street art in its original form, was designed to be fleeting. The uniqueness of the space and the utilization of street art in this more “corporate” setting (it may be a nightclub but VitaminWater is owned by the Coca-Cola Corporation) became a hot topic of conversation.

[Concentrate] What Food Carts Say About Ann Arbor

"Mobile vending (food trucks and the like) in metro Detroit has  become a popular topic of conversation in the local media as of late. While the city of Detroit has come under heavy scrutiny about its barriers to entry, in Ann Arbor, Mark's Carts, the new food truck courtyard located on a private parcel of land on East Washington Street, has attracted the attention of mobile vending advocates, foodies, journalists and bloggers -- even Congressman John Dingell (whose visit in June was well-publicized).

'What differentiates Mark's Carts from other attempts at food truck operations is the fact that the trucks themselves are stationary and are located on private property owned by Mark Hodesh, who also owns the adjacent Downtown Home and Garden garden supply and kitchenware store.

''We had a small lot where we were just parking cars and an empty building that [for various reasons] we couldn't rent out,' explains Hodesh, who first became interested in food trucks after visiting his daughter in Brooklyn and witnessing the diverse offerings possible with mobile vending. The idea came to him to turn this lot and building into a food truck courtyard and kitchen.

''First, I have to say hats off to the Ann Arbor City Planning Division,' Hodesh says. 'My basic approach was, "Here's what I want to do; what do I need to do?" and they told me.' Because it is privately-owned property, Hodesh says there were no specific zoning ordinances he had to contend with.  The city doesn't really have a say in food sales on private property (just the Health Department). He also had a full commercial kitchen installed in the on-site building where the vendors prepare their food (as opposed to preparing the food inside the trucks themselves). Because of this highly unique (not to mention serendipitous) situation, Mark's Carts was rather easily made into a reality.

'The real question is: how do we create more places like Mark's Carts? ..."

Read the rest of the article here.