Eating Our Way Through Madison, Wisconsin (Mostly)

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Another reason we went to The Old Fashioned is because they are known for their Fish Fry, which was another Wisconsin “thing to try” on my list. You can get it made with cod, perch or walleye, and I went with the traditional cod. To be honest, it wasn’t very exciting.

Doug got The Old Fashioned house burger: “1/3 lb. Burger grilled over a live fire and topped with fried onions, Bavaria Kitchen’s hickory smoked bacon, Wisconsin aged Cheddar, garlic sauce and a sunny side up egg on a buttered and toasted Classic hard roll.”

In 1977, Elvis’ limousine was stopped at a red light in Madison, when he looked out and saw a young man getting beaten by two others. Elvis jumped out, got into a karate stance, said “I’ll take you on,” and performed a few karate moves. The stunned youths agreed to stop fighting, and Elvis was soon on his way. Here is a plaque to commemorate the occasion!

Remember that time when Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings, then kept those children as slaves? Eston Hemings was one of those children, who was freed at age 18 when Jefferson died. He eventually moved to Madison and changed his name to Jefferson. We visited his grave.

Miners came from Cornwall, England, to work the lead mines in southwestern Wisconsin in the 1830s and 1840s. They brought along their culinary delight, the pasty. We got somefrom Teddywedgers, and they seemed to weigh a few pounds each. Doug got one with bacon and mine (just a half, thank you very much) was a “southwestern.” They were very good, and provided a few meals for us!

I don’t even know how flower pictures wind up on my phone, it just happens.

If you make me go to a mustard museum, you’re gonna be taking pictures like this.

How Doug walked out of the Mustard Museum without making a purchase, I’ll never know.

Of course we went to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton (a western suburb of Madison). I can’t say it was very exciting–mostly a bunch of mustard jars from around the world to look at and an aging documentary film. The mustard tasting opportunity was fun, but that’s the highest praise level I’m going. To be fair, the museum does not take itself seriously at all and has a stock of mustards for sale from all over. (The cover photo is obviously from the Museum, as well.)