I started with the pumpkin ale, and the Brew Kettle definitely makes one of my favorites.  New Holland’s Ichabod is a little bitter for me, and Blue Moon’s is a bit thin. While Dogfish’s Punkin is a great beer, it’s very rich tasting. The Brew Kettle’s is lighter and very drinkable.  There’s a subtle and medium bodied flavor of pumpkin at the start with a clean, mildly bitter finish.

We decided on the buffalo chicken dip for our appetizer:

It was extremely good, packed with cheddar cheese, buffalo sauce, cream cheese and shredded chicken.  It can be almost dangerously addictive, though.  We probably shouldn’t have finished it between the three of us, but we did.

Sunita was waffling between the fish burrito and fish sandwich and chose the latter:

The fish was crisp and flaky, not greasy.  The tartar sauce was also excellent with a strong dill flavor, and the mac and cheese was really good — smooth, creamy, and not overly heavy.

For my entrée I had the Ultimate Mess Pulled Pork Salad:

It’s a romaine Caesar salad topped with a “mess” of pulled pork and coleslaw. The pulled pork was exceptional: tender and clearly smoked for hours. I’ve put pork in a smoker for 6 hours and didn’t get it this rich and smoky. The cole slaw was crunchy, sharp and with just enough dressing (some slaw tends to be drowned in it). And the Ceasar dressing went surprisingly well with everything else. 

Amy ordered the pulled pork sandwich.  She really enjoyed it and especially liked that pork wasn’t coated in barbecue sauce.  It was just on the side and lightly brushed on top, allowing the full smokiness of the pork to come through. 

Our final course was the Brownie Bomb, two large brownies topped with loads of ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate fudge sauce and nuts.  We dived into it so fast that we forgot about the camera.

Our lunch was very satisfying, and we’ll definitely return to the Brew Kettle.  Next time we might indulge a bit less, but that’s what birthdays are for, right?

Thanks to Amy and Sunita for lunch, the pictures and for input in composing this post.

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Witch’s Blood
(makes one drink)

1 1/2 oz. vodka
1 1/2 oz. pomegranate juice
scant 1/2 oz. triple sec
scant 1/2 oz. sage cordial (or other herbal liqueur)

Shake everything together with ice and strain into martini glass.

It seems only fitting for a Halloween drink that a central ingredient comes from a recipe courtesy of Gourmet (R.I.P.).  I doubled the amount of sage in the recipe to stengthen the flavor.

If anyone’s interested, my band, Hastings Refrigerator Company, just put up recent recordings on Reverbnation.  We’re likely (hopefully) playing the Grog Shop in December.

Bacon and Black Pepper Bread

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (or more bread flour)
1 1/2 t. instant yeast
1 1/2 t. salt
2 t. - 2 TB. freshly ground black pepper (to taste), plus more for bread crust
1/2 - 1 lb. bacon, preferably thick sliced black pepper bacon

(1) Combine 1 c. bread flour, 1 c. wheat flour, yeast, 3/4 t. salt and black pepper in food processor or stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Add about 1 1/3 cups water and mix until mixture resembles a smooth pancake batter, adding more water if necessary.

(2) Let stand at room temperature, covered, overnight (at least 8 hours) to develop a slightly sour sponge.

(3) Right before step 4, chop up bacon and sautee until most of the fat has rendered.  You don’t want it too crisp as it will be rendering slightly while baking.

(4) Add remaining flour to sponge along with enough water to make a tacky (but not sticky) dough.  Mix (using food processor, stand mixer or hands) until smooth.  Add bacon bits and mix well.

(5) Cover dough and allow to rise for at least an hour.

(6) Form dough into a boule by making it into ball and tucking the sides underneath (or form it into whatever shape you want).

(7) Preheat oven to 450 degrees for 30-45 minutes while the boule is rising.

(8) Slash boule a few times with a sharp knife, then sprinkle with black pepper.

(9) Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake until well-browned, around an hour for the boule.

This works well for grilled cheese, a lettuce and tomato sandwich or just on its own.

Thanks to Zingerman’s for inspiration and Mark Bittman for the basics of the recipe.

Warning: the full 2 TB. of pepper will give the bread quite a kick.

We started with the 60 minute IPA as an apertif.  This is the best tasting, most complex and most balanced IPA you can find, at least where I shop.  If you haven’t tried it, you should.

The Chateu Jiahu followed along with a duck crepe.  The hawthorne fruit was dominant in the beer’s aroma, and the fruitiness of grapes and honey (based on an 9,000 year old recipe) were very much brought out by the crepe.  I am not generally a fan of duck, but the beer pulled everthing together and made for an excellent starter.

The next beer was the Theobroma, a beer based on an ancient Inca recipe.  While cocoa and ancho chillies are in the beer, the dominant flavors are honey and alcohol.  The pairing with mole glazed beef tenderloin skewers and avocado cream really brought out the beer’s nuances.  I’m still not sure about this beer on its own, though.

Our final beer was Sah’tea, brewed with rye, black tea, pepper and other spices based on a 9th century Finnish recipe.  The flavors of the beer were excellent, and the black tea probably has something to do with my composing this entry at 11:49pm.  It was paired with pork loin, squash / sausage casserole, and stuffing.  Sah’tea struck me as the easiest beer to drink and perhaps the most versalile in terms of food (not a stretch with black pepper and tea).  The pork was tender and well-cooked, and the squash was a welcome vegetable addition to the evening.

The final beer was Midas Touch, a unique combination of mead, wine and beer based on molecular analysis of what King Midas likely drunk (all of the food-paired beers were from this kind of analysis).  While I typically find this beer’s sweetness a tad cloying, it paired wonderfully with baklava.  One of the baklavas seemed to have a strong roasted (tea?  coffee?  cocoa?) coating which was particularly suited to the beer.

Dogfish beers are always intriguing and typically very good, and all of the pairings were perfectly executed.  Wine is often considered an integral part of a meal’s flavor, but this evening clearly demonstrated that beer can be at least as important in the impact of a meal.

We started out with the pissaldiere.  Like everything else we ordered, it was a perfectly executed mix of contrasting flavors: briney olives, sweet carmelized onions, capers, and gooey rich melted cheese.  Even Jonathan liked it.

To drink I had a Duvel, a Belgian beer named for its a devilishly (and deceptively) high alcohol content.  It’s one of the best beers you can buy — rich, slighly sweet and nutty — and a bargain for $6 at a restaurant.

I ordered a smoked salmon buckwheat crepe.  The earthy smokiness of the salmon paired wonderfully with rich, garlicky boursin cheese, with everything kicked up a notch by fresh dill and capers.  The nuttiness of the buckwheat added a nice touch as well, and makes for a heartier meal than plain white flour. 

Sarah ordered the Chicken Croissant, which sounds like a basic sandwich but was made stellar by its preparation and ingredients.  The chicken was roasted to perfect tenderness while sweet mango chutney, sour cranberries and tangy chevre added depth of flavor.  The sharp mesculin and buttery croissant were good, too, as was the Israeli couscous and lentil salad on the side.

Le Petit Triange has a children’s menu, and Jonathan was happy with his grilled cheese.  The fruit on the side was very fresh as well.

For dessert we returned to the establishments’ namesake, a crepe (or does the name come from the layout of the restaurant?  Or both?).  After some waffling we decided on the orange trio.  The perfectly sauteed crepe filled with marmalade and topped with fragrant Grand Marnier and fresh oranges disappeared from our plates in a matter of seconds.

We really can’t recommend this place highly enough.  Not only is the food excellent, but the prices are extremely reasonable.  They should be expanding the space soon as well.

…where the old Platinum Dreams club was on the corner of Cedar and Taylor:

We started with the Goi Ga, a chicken and cabbage salad, and, as our friends told us, it was one of the best uses of cilantro one can find.  Everything is tied together with a sharp, fresh vinegar dressing.  Even Jonathan really liked it.

For our entree we split a large pho ga (a small would have been fine), a chicken soup with thin rice noodles. 

 The best part is the condiments and sauces you add to the soup.  It’s served with a large plate of bean sprouts, jalapenos, and fresh thai basil:

The soup also comes with a spicy red sauce and a smoked plum sauce (which was a bit like smoked hoisin).   You can make your soup as hot or sweet as you’d like.   I liked mine really hot, but Sarah preferred a milder version.

We got Jonathan some fried pork spring rolls, which he enjoyed, plus we gave him as much as he wanted of our food.  We also mistakenly ordered another type of roll with heavily smoked beef wrapped in rice paper.  Both rolls came with a sweet and hot vinegar sauce.  I enjoyed everything, but the smokiness of the beef was a bit much for Sarah.

#1 Pho also has a nice beer and wine selection.  I had a 33 Export, a Vietnamese beer, which was, like our food, strongly flavored, with plenty of sweetness, astringency and hops.  I’m not a bit lager fan, but it wasn’t bad.

We’ll definitely be returning and maybe trying out Superior Pho as well.

Orange, Sage and Honey Ice Cream
Makes 1 pint

¾ cup cream
1 cup milk
3-4 large strips orange peel
3-4 TB. coarsely chopped fresh sage
pinch salt
1/3 cup honey
1 TB. Sugar
3 egg yolks

(1) Heat the milk, cream, orange peel, sage and salt together in a small saucepan until boiling. Remove from heat and let steep 20 minutes.

(2) Beat together egg yolks and sugar until thickened slightly, about 2-3 minutes. Gradually whisk in about half the cream mixture, then the honey, then the rest of the cream mixture.

(3) Return mixture to saucepan and heat on medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened a bit and coats the back of a spoon, around 180-185 degrees.

(4) Pour mixture into a bowl (preferably metal) and chill.

(5) Churn in an ice cream maker.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, another method with rock salt, ice and ziploc bags can be found here. This works especially well with kids, as they can toss the mixture around for 15-20 minutes until it’s done.  David Lebovitz has a freezer method here that doesn’t require any special equipment, but you do need some time after you put it in the freezer to remix it every half hour or so.

The serving size for this ice cream can be pretty small as the flavors are so intense.  I was also thinking a couple teaspoons of black peppercorns during the initial steeping could add a pleasantly sharp counterpoint to the floral overtones.  If anyone tries this, I’d be interested in your results.

You can serve this with candied sage if you’d like.  My attempt tasted really good, but it doesn’t want to dry out and wasn’t photogenic.

The beers at this place are definitely not what you’d expect. I started with the vanilla sour barleywine, which was outstanding. One wouldn’t expect sourness and vanilla together, let alone in a beer, but they paired very well. Seeing my enthusiasm, the bartender offered me a free sample of their other barleywine, “The Exception” which includes pilsen malt, smoked malt, wheat, corn, local honey and maple syrup. Again, one wouldn’t necessarily expect this to work, but it did so beautifully with every flavor coming through distinctly.

Because I would be traveling back to Ohio in a couple days, I took a growler of the Ancho Chile Chocolate Porter to go after requesting a sample. Like everything else, the flavors worked wonderfully (it wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy or sweet).

Later that night I decided to bike back to try some of the beers I’d neglected. I ordered the basil honey, which was very good but made me a bit sad that they don’t serve full entrees as it would be a perfect food beer.  They are BYOF (bring your own food), though, so ordering in a pizza could be a good plan.  They also gave me a sample of Scarborough Fair (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme); I could smell the herbs wafting over from a couple feet away. Like everything else, it didn’t disappoint.

One might think that this kind of crazy flavoring would lead to a “malt beverage” a la Mike’s Hard Lemonade. This is not the case: each beer I tried had a “real beer” character with plenty of roasted malt and complex hop flavor. The brewmaster seems to approach beer in a very unique way, looking at the hops as just another herb to be paired with other flavors and aromas.

The brewery also serves root beer for those who want something non-alcoholic, and it was very good as well. I picked up a growler for Sarah on my second visit.

I’m sad that I’ll have to wait until my next visit to Traverse City to have another Right Hand beer. In the meantime, I’ve got my own version of “The Exception” in bottles right now, which may be the subject of a future blog post.

Thanks, once again, to The Cage Free Tomato for his recommendation.

…I started looking for good recipes to utilize it.  This was a particularly good one:

I substituted a sweet hungarian pepper for the yellow pepper (I sauteed it with the onions) and jarred roasted red pepper for fresh.  I also used sourdough rye (3/4 of a loaf sliced into three large pieces) instead of pizza crust.  This may seem odd, but isn’t the best pizza dough slightly sour?

All told, the changes made for a much quicker (and still really good) recipe.