Explore Where You Are – For us right now, Florida!

We had a great day yesterday! We ventured out of the house and jumped into activities wisely, but without reservations. After waking up early, we ventured to downtown Punta Gorda for the farmer’s market. The market just opened up last week, and there are rules to be followed. We wore a mask and tried to avoid passing by others too quickly. Sure, there were times when we were within 6 feet of each other but that’s OK as we need to get back out into the world. It was great to be able to purchase freshly squeezed orange juice and local produce.

We then ventured down to Pine Island as we found little french bakery in Yelp we had never seen — Pine Island Getaway Cafe. Very cute building with a solid assortment of backed goods. They also sell cafe con leche (we take ours with no sugar). But the star of breakfast was the very well done crepe. We enjoyed our food on their little screened in porch with other couple sitting on the other side. Again, we wore our masks to order, so not perfectly normal. But it still felt good to sit and enjoy a meal!

The reason we never saw this place is that it is in a commercial area off the main road. A very odd place to be, but reminds us of some of our favorite finds in Hawaii. Driving back, we ran into a seafood market that, again, was new to us. They provide produce to the restaurants and have a simple sign on the door with their availability. You tell the friendly worker and he brings it out with ice. We bought the largest blue crabs and soft shell crabs we have ever had!

Next up, mangos! We had driven by Stanley’s Mangos on the main road and stopped in. It is very early in the season, but they had multiple varieties in stock. A large, extended Indian family appeared to be negotiating the purchase on dozens of green mangos. We bought just a few that should be ripe later this week.

To continue our day of exploration, we decided to make the 45 minute drive to Sanibel, knowing that it would not be too busy given that the island has been closed to visitors. On the way, we ordered seafood on the way from Cape Cod Fish Co. They did a great job with the take out process and it all felt very safe. After venturing on island, we found a DQ to order ice cream and drinks and sat outside at a picnic table to enjoy our lunch, far removed from the other patrons.

We then did a little shopping as a couple of the stores that were open. Again, the employees all wore masks and social distancing was not difficult. The owners were very grateful to have customers. The most interesting stop is an amazing bookstore called Gene’s Books. They specialize in mysteries from around the world. To see their entire selection, you stroll between three cottages through gardens with reading areas. Very unique experience. And, a great day of exploring!

Our Three Favorite Take Out Place During COVID to Feel “Normal”

We have been doing our best to support our favorite businesses and restaurants. We wanted to list a few of our favorites that we keep going to every week to keep things feeling as normal as possible. And please tip generously so that we can enjoy they places when all of this is done.

Lagniappe Brasserie: This place was great before COVID forced take out, but it seems even better now. We’ve had amazing lamb, beef wellington, and seafood three weeks in a row. For not having done take out before now, it is amazing how well they box items up to go. It’s an amazing Saturday night treat! And the prices are cheap fore the quality.
Santorini Grill: This little place in the Mequon Public Market consistently delivers with great salads, gyros, and lamb chops. Friendly service and definitely family run.
Boulangerie Du Monde: We’ve written about this Cedarburg place in the past, and they have kept operating without missing a beat. Call ahead to order and pay on the phone. Then swing by and they’ll put your yummy baked goods in your car. And delicious as always.

Hello again!

It’s been too long since we last posted. Life gets busy. But part of our hesitation has been trying to determine the focus for this site. Is it too ambitious to try to cover all of our travels? It is too much pressure to post every week? Well, these are made up problems that are easy to solve – just post when we can! I see that we now have many subscribers to our little site, so we will try to post a couple of times a month. With COVID, look for lots of information about our finds around Milwaukee, Florida, and our trips over the last few years.

So far, I have not enabled comments. But, I am going to enable them for this post to find out what folks are interested in seeing on this site. Please let us know and we will try to deliver.

Lake Country in Milwaukee

Just like northern Italy (no, really, just like it!), Milwaukee has its own Lake Country about 30 minutes west of downtown. All you need to do is take I-94 West from downtown to find lakes with all kinds of interesting names: Pewaukee, Nagawicka, Okauchee, Oconomowac and more. And lots of interesting little towns, such as Delafield and Pewaukee. Of course, there are some great parks, including Lapham Peak State Forest. And, great golf (Naga-Waukee is a scenic public course) and bike trails.

Consider a trip to feel a bit like you’ve driven 3 hours up to the north woods of Wisconsin. You can be as active as you like or just relax on the patio at a Supper Club with an brandy Old Fashioned and watch the sunset on the lake.

Pewaukee Lake sunset on a crowded day
One of the many restaurants on Pewaukee Lake

Pink Mocha in Hartland

The Pink Mocha cafe in Hartland Wisconsin is the perfect example of the type of businesses we love to frequent. Like so many local, family run places, you will find Pink Mocha in an unassuming strip mall right off Highway 16. Once you enter, however, you will soon discover homemade goodness. Everything is delicious!

Starting with breakfast off the menu, the Pink Mocha has the best pancakes we’ve ever had in the Milwaukee area. They thin out towards the edge to give them that crunchy goodness. I sometimes just eat the outer edge of each cake and I’m full. If you accompany the pancakes with sausage, you will have a very good day.

The baked goods are all made by the owner and her sister. We’ve included a few photos, but the selections change day to day. Let’s just say we never leave without a bag of goodies to go.

We have only gone for breakfast, but they also serve lunch with cocktails. You have to love that range — eggs to old fashioneds! The excellent service makes this an easy place to recommend.

A bit of France in Cedarburg

In quaint downtown Cedarburg, the best french bakery (actually, we could just say the “best bakery”) in the area sits between an interesting gift store and a distillery. Boulangerie Du Monde is constantly cranking out treats hot from the oven all morning. We often go early on the weekends, order our staples, grab a cup of coffee, and then hit the counter at least two more times as fresh items arrive.

Our favorites are the pepito, which is a swirled pastry with a dark chocolate, and the pain au chocolate (sense a theme?). We also love the hot rolls, especially the raison walnut, and the baguettes. All with lots of butter, of course!

Ethnic Dining in Milwaukee: Chinese

We love all kinds of cuisine. We will pretty much try anything in the hopes of finding something new and tasty. Milwaukee, as an upper Midwest city, at first blush would not lead anyone to think that there are real possibilities for delicious ethnic meals. While we have small ethnic groups dispersed throughout the metro area, we are lucky that a few of the people from these groups have decided to share their food culture with us. This series of posts are all about some of our favorite ethnic restaurants in town.

We start this series first with local Chinese restaurants. We have good friends who are Chinese who recommend their favorite restaurants to us, and some of these are their yummy recommendations.

If you’re in the mood for spicy Szechuan, the best in town is Sze Chuan Restaurant (11102 W. National Ave., West Allis, WI 53227; 414-885-0856). You will find the traditional spicy dishes here but what brings me back is the hot pot. For people unfamiliar with hot pot, it’s like fondue but you cook your raw food in a soup broth instead of hot oil or melted cheese. The key to the meal is the flavor of the broths – and they have nailed it with the two broths that they offer. There is a mild broth that I think is chicken based but is more complex yet lighter than just chicken broth. The broth that I’m addicted to is there second broth – the spicy, slightly medicinal broth that will take your breath away if you inhale it wrong. I know that does not sound appetizing or pleasing but you will know why I’m obsessed with it when you taste it. It will also call you back for more of its slightly painful tastiness. We will normally get the combination hot pot which provides both broths so that we can give our tastebuds a reprieve from the spiciness throughout the meal.

You can order the hot pot as an all-you-can eat option for $25 per person or a la carte. We normally order a la carte so that we can take the leftovers home. After you order, they bring out a portable stovetop to place on your table. Next comes the shallow pot with your boiling hot broth and small plates containing all of the raw ingredients that you ordered. There is a large variety of items to choose from. We normally get the fish, their homemade beef meatballs, tofu, Napa cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, enoki mushrooms, and glass noodles. I knew this place was hard-core ethnic Asian when I saw that they offered huyet as an option (you can look this up).

When this place first opened, it was filled with Chinese-speaking people. It has become so popular (probably due to the Yelp reviews), we are seeing more and more diversity – everyone waiting patiently for a table. While you’re waiting for a table, check out the only Chinese in-house bakery in town called Lucky Bakery & BBQ (11078 W. National Ave., West Allis, WI 53227; 414-329- 2688). It is located in the same strip mall. Through their swinging doors behind the counter, you can see the baked goods and barbecued meats being prepared. My favorite are the egg tarts, coconut mochi domes, cream filled yellow cake rolls and fresh rice crepe with shrimp or BBQ pork filling. They also have roast pork and roast duck. You have to come early for a good selection or leave sad and empty-handed. Before leaving this strip mall, poke your head into the Chinese grocery store next door. It has everything you’d need for an Asian recipe, including good quality fresh produce and fish still swimming in the tank. This is a heavily trafficked grocery store on the weekend so I can count on them having to restock their produce regularly.

If you are craving dim sum, try Fortune Chinese, which is within a few minutes of the strip mall (2945 S. 108th St., West Allis, WI 53227; 414-328-9890). This is where the large extended Asian families come together to eat. They have several large round tables that accommodate family feasts. I don’t know why they have two menus but definitely ask for the Chinese menu. For those in the know, they have steam pea tenders, which is not common in your regular everyday Chinese take-out restaurant. It’s like spinach but with a slightly medicinal flavor, which makes you feel like you’re eating exceptionally healthy as you gorge on more dim sum. They also serve salt and pepper shrimp, squid and fish, and the roast duck is tender and moist. Their stewed casseroles are also worth trying. If you like eggplant, try their spicy eggplant casserole with pork. I always order this dish to take home for leftovers.

If you’re north of downtown and have a craving for Chinese, try Asian Fusion (1609 E. North Ave., Suite C, Milwaukee, WI 53202; 414-273-6688). I don’t know why they call themselves fusion because this is solidly Chinese food. They have good Szechuan dishes. You will find lots of Asian foreign exchange students from UW-Milwaukee eating here.

If you’re south of downtown and you like dumplings, Momo Mee (101 E. Greenfield Ave., Milwaukee 53204; 414-316-9003) is definitely worth a stop. They are known for their xiao long bao, the Shanghai soup dumplings. Their version is delicious. We had recently stood in line for an hour for these dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Orange County, California, after seeing them featured in David Chang’s Netflix show, Ugly Delicious. Those dumplings were a disappointment. On a recent trip to Shanghai, I had to try the dumplings again. This time at the original Din Tai Fung. From my limited tastings of this dumpling, Momo Mee’s version is delicious, and without the long lines or long flight. We also recommend their salt and pepper shrimp dish.

If you’re in the Third Ward, just south of Milwaukee, Jing’s (207 E. Buffalo St., Milwaukee, WI 53202; 414-271-7788) serves Cantonese style Chinese food that relies on good fresh ingredients that speak for themselves and are not smothered in sauces. We love their small specials menu. Our favorites are the seafood tofu stew and Lion’s Head meatballs. Their hot and sour soup is a standout. The service at this small restaurant is fantastic.

If you’re west of the city, Meiji in Brookfield (2503 Plaza Ct, Waukesha, WI 53186; 262-717-9858), is a combination Chinese and Japanese restaurant. The restaurant is quite large, and the decor is clean and modern. The Chinese menu is extensive, with the usual dishes and also unusual dishes like Ma La Beef Tendon, which is cold marinated tendon, and Five-Flavor Beef Shank. The Japanese menu is also large, with exceptional sushi, and they have teppanyaki tables. This place is packed on the weekends so try to get a reservation.

There’s a tiny place in Pewaukee that is simply named Mr. Wok (2128 Silvernail Road, Pewaukee, WI 53072; 262-521-9780) that serves Chinese food and delicious Malaysian dishes. We tried it despite the name and were glad we did. There aren’t many decent ethnic restaurants in the western suburbs so we were pleased to find this place. Be warned that it is a very small, family-owned restaurant that gets bogged down with orders during peak dinner hours. Their Malaysian dishes are the standouts on the menu like Curry Laksa and Roti Chanai.

Finally, if you like the texture and bite of homemade noodles, our friends recommended Fusion Cafe (1427 S. 108th St., Milwaukee, WI 53214; 414-257-1199). Again, I have no idea why the owners use the term fusion in the name because this is definitely a Chinese restaurant. The reason you come to this restaurant is to order the Beef Stew Noodle Soup. If you crave spicy foods like I do, this will hit the spot. Be forewarned that the beef is chewy – that’s the way it’s supposed to be. After you slug through a bowl of this spicy soup, the heat sweats and cleared sinuses are so satisfying.

Enjoy!

Our Top 5 Milwaukee Restaurants

We love to eat. And, we love to eat local. So, we wanted our first post to be the “top 5” places we like to go to in the Milwaukee area if we are just going to grab a delicious meal in an easygoing setting. These are not necessarily the top 5 best restaurants in the area (although all are great) – just our “go to” list from north to south that always runs through our minds. We’ll keep the descriptions short for now as we’ll write more about each one in later posts.

Trattoria Stefano’s in Sheboygan

OK, we will admit that it is perhaps a bit of a stretch to call Sheboygan the Milwaukee area, but we are willing to make the easy 45 minute drive north on I-43 to have an amazing meal. Also, we are cheating a bit as this entry covers four restaurants because it is hard to pick just one of Stefano’s places — it all depends on your mood. If you are feeling like a slightly higher end Italian experience (although jeans and shorts still work – isn’t the Midwest the best!), you’ll want to try Trattoria Stefano. For the best pizza in the area, it’s Il Ritrovo. (Even looking at the pizza on the website to copy the link makes me hungry.) I had one of the best multi-course tasting menus of my life at his British pub, Duke of Devon. Finally, only open for breakfast and lunch, is Field to Fork where I had an incredible lamb sandwich on a random Thursday afternoon. How is all this possible in tiny Sheboygan? Hint: It’s only 15 minutes from Kohler and the beautiful golf resort (including Whistling Straits which will be hosting the Ryder Cup in 2020), so a steady stream of hungry golfers helps!

Brandywine

Our current “go to” place (in that we were there every Friday night for a month this winter) is Brandywine in Cedarburg. It is nestled at the end of the historic district of Cedarburg in a renovated building with a great atmosphere. It feels like you are living in a Hallmark movie, especially when the snow is falling outside while Cedarburg is hosting its “Winter Festival”. But, of course, the important thing is the food, which is some of the best in the area. They always have multiple specials and we have not gone wrong yet. Finally, a special note about the service — fantastic and very welcoming.

Falafel Guys

Falafel Guys is in Mequon/Thiensville, right next to the bike trail. Don’t let the converted Pizza Hut building fool you. The food is great, and the service is fantastic. One of us loves the chicken liver sautéed with onions (the other is not a fan of liver, but to each their own). The lamb is also great, as well as the typical selections of hummus, kebabs, etc .

Zartetti

We are finally in downtown Milwaukee. Zarletti has been one of our favorites for celebrating special occasions for years. The atmosphere is cozy, the food outstanding, and the service great. And the desserts, homemade by the owner’s mom, should not be missed. And, they are open for lunch and dinner.

La Casa De Alberto

La Casa de Alberto is on National on the south side of Milwaukee. The area has many interesting Hispanic restaurants, groceries, and stores. But Alberto is always our top choice when looking for a solid meal. Yes, it is Americanized Mexican like so many other places on the South Side, but the quality is high and the margaritas are strong. Always great service makes it an easy choice on a Saturday afternoon.

Here we go!

Welcome to A Yummy Life! Our goal with this site is to highlight the many interesting and local places we find in our own backyard and while traveling. You will see lots of entries for Milwaukee and Florida initially, but we’ll add others as we travel. Some will be right here in the Midwest (so many great “under the radar” locations!). Others will involve long flights from Wisconsin — Hawaii, Iceland, Europe, and more. The common theme will be highlighting the local flavor to find the commonalities that connect all of us. Enjoy!