Chicago Trip/Wisconsin: Day 5 - Culver's and heading back to Morton Grove

Culver's - Home of Butterburgers and frozen custard...and luckily for me, the words "Fried Cheese Curds" scrolled by just in time on the marquee...Although we didn't try the Butterburgers (still stuffed from our lunch at Himal Chuli), I was told by Wandering Chopsticks that they are just regular burgers except the buns are slathered in butter. Sounds healthy.
Drive Thru time! Culver's is like a Midwest In-n-Out. They're everywhere here! Culver's restaurants are also noticeable with their "trademark" blue roofs.

Their drive thru menu below. Their online menu here.

I love that, "Get Culverized"! OMG! They had a small size, a large size and a family size! The small was $3.50. We should have opted for the larger size! These delicious morsels of cheesy goodness were gone in less than 10 minutes! Okay, eight. All right! Five!

Delicious - 2 types of cheese (yellow and white)

Toll roads suck! Because the Midwest has such crappy weather conditions, their roads get messed up more easily. So, in order to have the funds to repair them throughout the year, everyone must pay tolls to drive on the freeways. Thank God we only have earthquakes to worry about! Ha ha. On our drive back to Illinois, we were prepared with loads of change, not like on our way up to the Dells! We were literally scrounging for coins, even asking our daughter if she had any. I felt kind of low asking my 9 year old for money for the damn toll road. She gave us two dimes and one quarter!

On another note...here's my new Converse One Star's from Target. This is the kid's size 6 which is equivalent to a women's 8. The kids' price was $19.99. The women's price was $29.99; same shoe but a different color (gray), so hell yeah, I got the kids' size! You know it's cold when you see me wearing socks. I normally don't even wear shoes that completely cover my feet. My fierce heels won't cut it here.

Here's a Meijer supermarket...

The Arlington Heights water tower...this was kind of different than the other ones we'd seen, which were tall and thin with a bulbous top,

After all that time driving...we were tired...but the day wasn't over yet! We still had dinner to go...

One more thing, if you can't get enough of Madison, Wisconsin, check out these past posts by Kirk!

Chicago Trip/Wisconsin: Day 5 - Madison, WI - Himal Chuli & the Capitol Building

After leaving Mount Horeb, we followed the advice of the woman at the Visitor's Center..."Take John Nolan Drive" into Madison. Too bad it was a gray Morrissey type of day, but the view of the Madison skyline was still beautiful, with the Wisconsin State Capitol hiding in the background. The Lake in the foreground in Lake Monona.
Earlier that month, Wandering Chopsticks and I were exchanging emails about this trip. She recommended visiting a few places (like the Mustard Museum) and also visiting nearby Madison. I remember telling Bert, "Hey, what's so special about Madison? WC says we should really visit that city!". He just looked at me and said, "Uhhhh...it's the capitol of Wisconsin...."! Duh! I felt like such a dumbass. So, yeah, that's what we did. It was only 45 minutes away from Mount Horeb. We found parking off of State Street which is one of the main spokes that radiate out from the Capitol Building
This was also a college town, home of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Their mascot is Bucky Badger! Woo hoo! Actually, Bucky is cute. I ended up getting a college t-shirt for Fridays at work.
There were so many different types of restaurants on State Street - Kabul is Afghan/Mediterranean while Buraka was African/Ethiopian.
Here's a Lao/Thai place, Rising Sons Deli.
We were so hungry from our drive...The bratwurst wasn't enough!
Badger Liquor - liked the neon sign with the drops...(looked better lit up when we left). I think the sign should have a drunk dude with his mouth open catching the drops.
Too bad we missed most of the parade! That very same weekend was the start of Fire Prevention Week. We thought there was a huge accident because we saw all of these firetrucks. Turns out it was a parade. We caught the "tail" end of it, literally seeing the "end" of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Oscar Mayer was a native of Wisconsin, but is buried in Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery which we visited the other day.I was bummed we didn't see the Wienermobile pass by in all of it's shiny and happy glory.
After deliberating the night before about food choices , Bert and I narrowed it down to a Himalayan/Nepalese place, Himal Chuli. Other than the one time we had Himalayan food (at the Saturday Market in Portland, OR), we didn't consider it substantial enough to remember. So, Himal Chuli it was. In keeping with the multicultural food offerings, Himal Chuli was right next door to a Greek Place.
Menu :
The restaurant was tiny and narrow. The cash register and the kitchen are in the back. To your left and around the corner are the bathrooms.
View from our table...
TC had the Mango Lassi which I didn't care for since I do not like the thought of drinking yogurt. Well, I don't like the flavor either! It was kind of funky and sour.
For starters, we had dal (lentil) soup:
Bert had the "Special Himal Chuli Coffee" flavored with Chai spices which he found "interesting" (a nice way of saying he didn't really like it).
This was my choice - The Katahar Kabab (the description is lifted straight from their menu): Green jackfruit marinated with a special blend of Nepali spices and sauteed with onion, tomatoes, and cilantro. A rich vegetarian substitute for meat commonly served at Nepali weddings. Served with choice of rice or roti (a type of flatbread) and dal or tossed salad (no, not the kind Chris Rock talks about)". I really liked this - jackfruit is commonly thought of as a dessert when it is ripened, but when it is green, is eaten like a vegetable. In fact, I have a can of it in the cupboard that I'm dying to use for a Filipino recipe involving coconut milk.
Bert ordered the Palungo Chicken - "A generous slice of white meat simmered with fresh spinach leavbes and potatoes in our own mild tomato sauce. Served with rice and a choice of dal or salad". I think TC liked this better than my choice, especially since it had potatoes.
One of our appetizers - Momocha (4 pieces) - "Steamed vegetable dumplings flavored with a peanut sauce (it was quite subtle) spiced with Nepali herbs and served with tomato coriander sauce". These looked so cute and they were delicious...like little tiny bundles!
Another appetizer we had were the Samosas - " Two vegetable pasties stuffed with onions, poatoes and peas combined in a blend of Nepali herbs. Served with yogurt sauce and dal". I think these samosas were baked because they didn't seem to have the same texture or crunch as the fried versions I've had in the past.
After our delicious lunch, we headed down State Street to check out the Capitol building which was just looming in the distance.Cleanup after the fire truck parade. No more Wienermobile. : (
The Wisconsin State Capitol is the tallest building in Wisconsin. Although it is tiny in this photo and you can barely see it, "The "Wisconsin" statue on the dome was sculpted in 1920 by Daniel Chester French of New York. Her left hand holds a globe with an eagle on it and her right arm is outstretched to symbolize the state motto, "Forward." She wears a helmet with the state animal, the badger, on top. She is made of hollow bronze covered with gold leaf."Wisconsin" is 15 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs three tons. The statue is commonly misidentified as "Lady Forward" or "Miss Forward", which is the name of another statue on the capitol grounds." (source - Wikipedia)
Here I am trying to be like "Lady Forward"...
Ugh - I'm slouching so my stomach is sticking out!
TC and the Capitol Building:
I thought this was a funny painting. It was some sort of meat pie place. The cartoon character's shirt matched my daughter's hoodie.
The House of Wisconsin Cheese - We were looking to buy fried cheese curds. They only had fresh ones here. We wanted the fried ones. Another place we were looking for near the Capitol Square was a place recommended by the woman in Mount Horeb, the Old Fashioned. We were kind of pressed for time, so we passed on looking for it and looked here instead. Since they didn't have it, we figured we'd head back to my cousin's place in the 'burbs. They were planning to take us to dinner. It was already 3 pm'ish and Morton Grove was about 3 hours away.
Samples in the store:
The Orpheum Theatre- There's an upcoming concert by banjoist extraordinare, Bela Fleck of the group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Have you ever heard this guy play? He's a badass! Here's the Madison Museum of Contemorary Art (MMoCA)! I wished we had more time here!
Heading back to Morton Grove now!

Chicago Trip/Wisconsin: Day 5 - The Mustard Museum and the Mount Horeb Fall Festival

[Update 10/16 - Another marathon post! Scroll down for the newest 5 posts]

Yay! We came on a good weekend! It happened to be the Mount Horeb's Fall Festival which also celebrated their largely Norweigian heritage.
Main Street (or the "Trollway" as townspeople call it) is only a few blocks long.
After walking past the red truck, there was a row of antique tractors. Check out the name of this thing...
Sounds painful!
Well, here it is folks. The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum. I'm so glad we went here because this is exactly the shit I live for! Thanks again for the tip Wandering Chopsticks!
See their official site http://www.mustardmuseum.com/. Below is the entrance to the store. To your left is the actual musuem, which is FREE! Another plus in my book!
Ketchup is not appreciated here.
I'm so juvenile - I was making the mustard effigy grab it's own mustard crotch.
Antique mustard tins (when mustard used to be sold in powdered form):
More mustard tins:
Mustard used to be a main condiment - here are some antique mustard containers which also included salt and pepper shakers. Look at the pig one!
Antique mustard jars:
Mustard, mustard everywhere!

Some more antique mustard tins:
aaaaaand....more jarred mustard! These were foreign mustards I believe.
Check out this huuuuge wall of mustard jars. They are arranged alphabetically by state. Wisconsin mustards have their own separate display and are not included on this wall.
A few of the varieties on that wall...

Warning!
The mustard squeeze bottle held liquid soap:
More mustards from foreign countries:
Here are some t-shirt designs:

Mustards that you can sample...Actually you can sample any jar in the store.
Mustard references in literature:
They are dead serious about mustard here!
Russian mustard:
You can kind of see it, but all along the tops of each wall were more jars of mustard. The selection was quite vast and to be frank, mind boggling. I don't even like mustard, but will tolerate it once in a while as long as the flavor is sweet and hidden in the food and not a prominent flavor.
A mustard vending machine. Yes, it's real and it works.
The mustard sampling area in the back. Hot Doug's also has the Lichenstein'ish poster at their restaurant.
All right! Candy from the Baraboo Candy Company! They are famour for their Cow Pie! I ended up getting all three varieties of their candy.
I thought this shirt was amusing...
I have to say, that was such a cool museum! I loved it! I'm so glad we went here and on a festival day too!
Here I am on Main Street. We were going to have a little snack before heading out to Madison. Plus, I was going back to the jewelry vendor I met earlier. She was making a bracelet for me that matched these earrings with beautiful lampworked glass beads.
Bert on Main Street. You can see a funnel cakes vendor in the background.
Bert bought a brat from the Mt. Horeb Boy Scout booth.
TC got a hot chocolate from the booth next to the Boy Scouts.
Here's that brat with mustard, onions and sauerkraut. The hot chocolate was perfect for this coldass day.
Cross section of the brat:
There were horse drawn carriage rides...llamas rides and local business people hawking their wares and services. TC was especially enamored of the horses but felt kind of sad when she saw the horses' split hooves.
OMG - A Viking Ship float!!! I wish it had the very hotAlexander Skarsgard on it!
Imagine a hot Viking like this (Alex Skarsgard in full on Viking gear for a flashback episode in True Blood Season 2, Episode 5). Technically, Skarsgard is not Norweigian; he's Swedish. But WTF, he's Scandinavian and they were Vikings too!
Here's the Viking flashback scene here...(starts at 0:26)
Okay, he doesn't look so good all bloody but damn! Fur, leather and armor!

I love these water towers!
TC bought a trio of mini pumpkins for $1.00.
The gentleman at the booth was so kind and even gave her an extra mini yellowish green gourd, which was all bumpy and warty looking. Kind of like a squash with a raging case of venereal disease. Same colors too.
Velkommen! ("Welcome" in Norweigian)
Festival Poster in their visitor's center:
They are really into trolls here.
The people here were so very nice and friendly. When they saw me taking a photo of TC and Bert, one lady offered to take photos of all three of us in front of their Chamber of Commerce and the town sign. She also gave us a few recommendations for our drive to Madison.
Here's some candy I bought at the store - note: they are from the Baraboo Candy Company. The "Badger" is the mascot of the University of Wisconsin; his name is Bucky! Go Badgers!
A pair of mustard jars (plastic, thank goodness, not glass) we bought as edible souvenirs.
We had such a fun time here. I wished we could have stayed longer but we had to take off for lunch in Madison, which was 45 minutes away! Onwards the state capitol!