Tuesday 19 April 2011

Ann Arbor: a food tour

Welcome to our extensive food tour of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Prepare to feel hungry.

First night: falafel. For any Bristolians reading, the Jerusalem Garden beat Magic Roll. Oh yeah, seriously good.



I didn't get a photo of the actual wrap because we were walking and eating, but I did get hummus all over my jeans (which I didn't realise until we came out of the orchestra recital). A worthy souvenir.

The next morning we slept in, so we skipped breakfast and headed out to Zingermans. People, this place is SOMETHING ELSE. It's a Jewish deli-cum-restaurant, and they make pretty much everything inhouse - even the olive oil and cheeses. It was just as well the line was long to get in because we needed about 20 minutes so choose from the massive menu. Eventually, I narrowed it down to the pastrami on toasted rye. Ad and Allie had the fish and Mike went for a wonderful meat combo I think.



When we got to the front of the line, this was waiting for us.


The pimento cheese, made with olives, was incredible. And that was just the beginning of the experience.






Oh, pastrami sandwich. I love you. We also had some mac and cheese. Never again will we be able to eat m&c from a can. This was so tasty.

Unsurprisingly, we were full till dinner (when we went off to explore the musical realms of our MiNDs) so we packed a little picnic to eat in the university union. We're not going to New York on our mini American adventure, but this is one Big Apple.


On Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast made by Mike...



...we wandered downtown to look in the shops - oh, and to eat even more. Micro breweries are pretty big over here, so Allie and Mike took us to one of their favourites, the Jolly Pumpkin, which has been brewing since 2004.



What you see here are two lots of nine samplers of beer between the four of us. The Siren Amber was a smooth, creamy, yummy beer. The Madruga Obscura was a beast of a poisonous stout. Uck!

It was about 1pm and we (well, me at least) were starting to get a bit tipsy. It was okay, though, 'cause we washed it all down with truffle fries (OMG, so good), a truffle pizza and a delicious margerita with succulent sun-dried tomatoes.




Just a few hours later, after adventures in the awesome record shop and a neverending book store called the Dawn Treader, we went to Blue Nile, an Ethopian restuarant where you use the pancake-like bread to pick up the spiced lentils, cooked cabbage and collard greens and other yummies.



You'd think we'd have collapsed if we so much as looked at any more food... but I couldn't resist dragging us to Cupcake Station on the way home for some treats to have later on.

Here's the Bumpalicious (the chocolate one on the right) and a delish caramel-y little guy whose name I can't remember. Both were hiding a gooey marshmallow filling.



Greedy? Absolutely. But after all...



A sweet end to a super sweet weekend.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my goodness, this post made me so hungry all over again!!!! YUM.

    Love,
    Allie

    ReplyDelete