Haute Cuisine in Green Bay!

[Greg]

Visiting Green Bay for the weekend and had dinner last night in a restaurant owned and located in a local brewery (Hinterland Brewing Company). Very nice food and an extensive menu for a place that seats about 70. I'm talking 19 entree choices, including duck, wild boar, venison, quail, rabbit, lamb, beef, veal, 5 different fish and several pastas. They also offer wood-fired pizzas. Started with an app featuring grilled portobellas, polenta cake, wilted spinich with a porcini cream sauce. For an entree, I had an andouille crusted redfish with a spicy beurre blanc and chive aioli. My Mom had grilled pork tenderloin, nothing fancy, just a brown sauce. The pork was cooked medium, which is hard to get in Gren Bay (the talent pool in town hasn't grasped the concept of not cooking pork well-done yet). Strangest menu item had to be grilled sturgeon with foie gras; I just don't see fish and liver going together. I was disappointed that they hadn't done anything food-wise that featured their beer. Other than our very nice but either inept or over-sat server, it's a decent place. I just hope they can keep their food cost down and stay open; with such an extensive and varied menu, it's going to be difficult (there's not many cross-over items on the menu). Also, their desserts were nowhere near as imaginative as the rest of the menu.

[This message has been edited by Greg (edited 01-14-2001).]

[shroomgirl]

Andouille encrusted redfish?????how did they do that?

[Greg]

Funny you should ask; part of the reason I ordered it was to see how they did it. The dining room was somewhat dark and all I could see was what appeared to be bread crumbs. Maybe they mixed andouille filling with bread crumbs (which is one way I would do it), or what I thought were soggy bread crumbs was actually andouille filling. I'll bring a flashlight next time!

[Mezzaluna]

Greg, I get a picture in my head of a Scotch egg sort of thing. I hadn't heard of that place, but maybe it'll be worth a detour when we head to Door County in summer.

[shroomgirl]

Whoa the andouille I know and love is a chunky (coarse grind) pork, garlic and spicy smoked sausage....not raw and malible....

[Greg]

Which is how it should be! Unfortunately, up Nort' here, things change. Here at a diner in St Paul, I ordered the "Cajun Breakfast", featuring andouille, and it came out in in the form of a patty! You'd think with the huge German population in these parts, they would understand that sausage filling belongs in a casing, but...

What the heck do you expect when you order "Cajun" anything in St. Paul, MN?
Shure, you betcha, hey?

[Mezzaluna]

Who says sausage needs a casing?? I thought some homestyle sausage was free-formed links or patties. That's from my experience down here near Milwaukee. Doesn't seem strange to me. But you're right, shroomgirl, I'd agree that the meat would have to be finely-textured to be molded around a piece (or a whole) fish.

An addition to Mezzaluna's post would be to include "Brat"Burgers as a form of sausage served without casings. They are on some menus around southern Wis. & N.Ill. But then this item brings up the problem of ketchup VS mustard!!!!!!!!!