Sharmwar's Pakistani Yeti Grill: Wisconsin Trip, Day Two (part two)

After being greatly disappointed at both my inability to think about checking hours at Taliesin and the hours at Taliesin, Derek and I made our way back to Madison proper. We had determined that no trip to Wisconsin was acceptable without dedicating an obscene amount of time to cheese and cheeseries, so we found a cheesery to head to and charted our course. 

On the way in to The area that somehow houses House on the Rock AND Taliesin, I laughed at a building that I had initially thought was abandoned...and very horror movie looking.

Nice try, MURDER HOUSE.

I made a joke about the pumpkin stand luring in easily duped white women, and I just kind of enjoyed the general empty, creepy vibe of the place. 

....of what?

Oh.

But as we were slowly cruising the murder building, we heard a dog barking furiously at us, and assumed it may not be operational as a museum, but it is for sure not abandoned. I yelled a hello to the doggie (I'm still VERY white) and we drove through the small town to get pictures of a restaurant sign that we were perplexed and delighted by. 

What Derek and I could not determine was what was the worse reality for the image: that this place was owned by Asians who knew that the city is super racist and only wants to see white folks making "ethnic" food, or it was owned by white folks who were like, "we don't need inclusion in our logo!". We also mused over whether it would have been WORSE if there was an Asian cartoon image....how racist would that have been? We for sure chuckled over this in a way that made...at least me...feel slimy. 

We had about an hour drive back to Madison proper, chatting about this and that thing, I think I mostly complained about being tired. 

Hello, Madison skyline!

Don't you just hate the theater?

It didn't take long to spot the place where we were heading, it's pretty much right in the capitol district. 

We chose Fromagination as our cheesery destination for two reasons:

1) the pun;

B) it's queer owned and operated. 

How fucking CUTE is this little cheese shop????

I was immediately taken by this place. It is so warm and inviting when you walk in, and the people are every  bit as warm and inviting. 

Oh mylanta. 

All of the jams and jellies looked so delicious, but we didn't end up buying any. Derek correctly pointed out that I would be buying things based on what I wanted to eat, but would barely be able to have more than a tiny little taste. And while I love supporting local artisans over corporations, I feel desperately ill when I eat sugar. So. The jams and jellies remained untried and unpurchased. 

I was basking in the glory of allllll the cheese. 

We were matched up with a cheese monger who reminded me of Gianmarco Soresi, we very much enjoyed their company and I was super impressed by their monger knowledge. We started with the cheddars. Derek was SUPER intrigued by the 20 year from Hooks. 

That cheese is older than my youngest child, and almost as old as my oldest! 

...Unfortunately, I think my children would have tasted better. I fucking HATED the 20 year cheddar. I thought it tasted like a fucking belt that someone buried in fresh hay and then farted on. Dreadful taste. Very indelicately I asked for a napkin and spit out the cheese, politeness be damned, Ms. Manners can suck it. Derek loved the cheese, but didn't end up buying any for reasons I cannot recall. We both liked the 8 year, though. That was an incredible cheese, and wound up being the oldest cheese we purchased. I just could not fucking hack an older than 8 cheddar. Derek was like, you're on your period, you know it fucks up your taste buds! He's right...but I think that cheese was just gross. Like, full stop. I will not enjoy it on any other part of my cycle. No thank you. 

Notably absent from the tasting notes are leather belt, hay, and farts, but I promise you they're there.

My oldest love love LOVES tinned critters of the wet variety, and I so badly wanted to buy them some! But I think I'm going to grab them some from The Brown Derby in Springfield a little closer to NYE. But look how cute!!!

We mostly had the place to ourselves, so I felt ok to be my authentic self and openly hate the cheeses with boldness instead of trying to seem refined and polite. When I hated a cheese, I wore that hatred on my face proudly. 

I also cannot control things like that. 

BUT I didn't have to feel my usual embarrassment about it when it happened!

They sold local boozes, too, and Derek and I decided we would come back and purchase a few, as is our wont when we travel. Spoiler: we did not do that, we forgot, remembering only on our way to Milwaukee and by then it was too late. Sorry, booze makers of Wisconsin!!! Next time. 

Derek and I tried so many cheeses, and honestly, we could have done SO MUCH MORE financial damage to ourselves when we left, but we left with a very modest 100 dollar price tag and just a few of our favorite cheeses:

I couldn't POSSIBLY love cheese more. 

This really is a very modest outing for us. You'll see. 

We tipped our cheese monger handsomely, and left with our spoils. I'm fast-forwarding a bit to talk about the cheeses:

This was hands down my favorite cheese buy. Canela sounds like a super simple cheese, but it really packs a flavor whollop. I took one bite of this at Fromagination and said, "yeah, I'm gonna want a fucking pound of that." Derek was not terribly enamored on this cheese, but that's a boon for me, as I got to eat every last crumb. 

I'm writing this literally weeks after being home, and I am getting a little depressed that I ate all of this cheese already. This is Roelli's Little Mountain, an alpine style cheddar that I gasped audibly over at Fromagination. My second favorite cheese from our bunch. 

I had to really dig to recall what cheese this was, because I am not always consistent in checking my work when it comes to making sure I have all labels accounted for to credit the things I buy. But I found it after about 20 minutes of checking. This is St. Isadore's Bandaged Cheddar Cheese, an absolutely WILD cheese experience. The mouthfeel has all the hallmarks of an exceptional, aged cheddar...the old wax sensation highlighted by the crystalline crunch a tremendous cheddar gets as it ages, but the taste is like eating a caramel stuffed full of Fruity Pebbles. In the cheesiest way. I cannot explain how it works as a cheese, it should be disgusting because it borders on cloyingly sweet (for a cheese, that is. It isn't ACTUALLY sweet, but comparatively it is), but it's fucking incredible. I should have bought more. I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT MORE. 

Derek got a bleu (they're one of his favorite types of cheese, if not his favorite) for himself. This is Roth's Blue Affinee, a buttermilk bleu, that I cared not one whit for. 

Up next...

Hook's Eight Year Cheddar, which borders on delicious and not my thing. I was alright with it in the cheesery, but I haven't tried it again since getting home and finishing my period (does anybody else's period fuck with their sense of taste and smell?). 

And the last cheese we have I don't have a picture of, because I fucking HATED IT in the store, but Derek was super convinced I would love it when I was finished bleeding. 

Blakesville Creamery's Shabby Shoe is a soft goat cheese with a geotrichum rind, and that's the least of its problems. One of my favorite soft cheese is from Cypress Grove Farms, the Humboldt Fog. I find it juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust funky enough with the grassy tartness of goat cheese to balance out the sharp edge of toe jam taste, and I get a little bit every year for our NYE bash. Derek and I shared this with our cheese monger and we were presented with Shabby Shoe. I instantly fucking hated it, Derek found it quite lovely, and he said I really needed to try it another day, because he was dead set on the idea that I would LOVE IT. I have not yet gone for it again. I hated it that much. 

We gathered our spoils and made our way to Global Market and Food Hall, highly recommended by my SIL. The light was so pretty, and I know it doesn't translate in this photo, but I'm posting it, anyway. 

There was one place I saw that I could reliably eat at there, and so many places Derek could try, so off we went. 

Looks promising to me!! 

No self-respecting international supermarket and food court can be without a tchotchke area that also includes huge vases and art pieces. 

And additional gift areas. 

This is where Derek ended up getting his food from, despite me telling him to get stuff from the African restaurant so he could FINALLY try fufu (I've been after him to try fufu for AGES, but every time I suggest we head to Levels for dinner, he sweetly chastises me about how I literally cannot eat anything on their menu), but I was GAGGING over this customer's seafood boil. I could smell it, it smelled amazing, and I fuckin' knew they meant god damn business when they handed over a bag that was double knotted. They were not fucking around. 

I was pretty surprised that this place was as empty as it was, the parking lot looked pretty full. That dark little restaurant? That's the place I could have gotten food from. Oh well!

So here's the place Derek got his food, he didn't get his from the Seafood Boil place they share a kitchen with. I actually think they're the same vendor. I'm not mad at it. 

And here is where Derek SHOULD have gotten his dinner from. I just wanted to snag a bite of plantain and fufu!!!! Can't do the simplest thing for his wife. SELFISH. 

After Derek placed his order, I wandered around the market to see if there was anything for me to get myself to cook when we got back to the townhouse. There was not, but there WAS AI Slop products!

I ALMOST bought these for the kids because I rolled my eyes so fucking hard at the pictures, and was practically dead with curiosity over what the biscuits actually looked like, and to top it off they were only 4 bucks a box, but then I decided better against it. 

I wandered around the grocery area, found myself missing Pan Asia and GW, and headed back over to Derek, disappointed in my lack of food options. Derek got his, though, and they smelled AMAZING. 

He ate a little bit in the car, said it was super salty, and then drove me to the store so I could pick up my own food and he could eat his in the car while I shopped. And then back to the townhouse we went. A pretty uneventful rest of our day.