Vacation Food Edition

About a week ago you may or may not have noticed my absence for a few days. We took one last small minivacation before school started by driving to Madison, Wisconsin, a town we have visited a few times over the years. This vacation has a few goals. It was meant to let the kids burn off some coped up Covid steam, to allow us to try some new to us foods and restaurants, and just to spend some time walking and relaxing. 

This post is all about the food and our first meal was at Dotty's Dumplings which is known not for their dumplings (aren't even on the menu) but for their burgers. Above was my burger which besides the cheese had all the fixings and a garlic mayo sauce. It was quite delicious. 

Old readers will know that we like to hit up farm to table restaurants where ever we go and do we made a stop at the Heritage Tavern which is a well known one in the area. Above was the appetizer of deviled eggs three ways.

My entrée was heritage pork snitzel from the pigs the owner of the restaurant raises. It was served on spaetzle and braised red cabbage and sprinkled with pickled aronia berries. 

My wife ordered the pork belly with rare ahi tuna served on a mango chutney.

The slightly blurry photo is of the best carrot cake I have ever had bar none. 

On another day we had some Japanese Ramen for lunch. Mine above was spicy pork with veggies.

My wife had a non spice version with sliced pork and other veggies.

For supper, we tried a Russian restaurant which unlike Dotty's above, IS known for their dumplings. I never knew Russian dumplings were a thing but these were delicious.

I thought I would give everyone a bit of background that in the age of Covid and rising case loads, we chose to eat all of our meals either at odd hours so that we were mostly the only patrons if we ate inside or we took them back to our motel room and ate them there. This way we could maintain social distancing while still enjoying new foods.