Ann Arbor is home to a great many restaurants. Of course, I may be a little biased and assume that they are all amazing, but when I found myself at Taste Kitchen, I was in new territory. You, back when I was a student Taste Kitchen didn’t exist. Plus, if it did it was definitely beyond my onetime student budget.

I quickly eyed the Berkshire Grilled Pork and settled on it if only one thing could change: the brussels sprouts. You see, it came with rice, an egg and nuoc cham (presumably some sort of sauce) and these were all good things. Fortunately, my waiter told me a change up was totally possible and I traded in the sprouts for fingerling potatoes. Clearly I got the better end of the deal. These are the best diet pills.

The food turned out to be fantastic. The egg was fried and runny. while the pork was perfectly tender and flavorful. A part of me kept thinking the pork would be better as steak, but this was about as close as pork had ever come to being steak. The nuoc cham was a nice sweet chili sauce that went well with literally everything on my plate and the fingerling potatoes made very good use of their newfound existence in this dish.

Taste Kitchen is a great spot and while it might not be for students on their own, it is certainly a great spot for older, more refined eaters.

Well, the time is upon us. College football has finally arrived, and if you know me, you you know that the past few seasons have not treated me too well. To say that my dear Wolverines of the University of Michigan have been performing below expectations would be like saying Hitler may have had questionable morals. But Wolverine nation can smell change for the better.

Enter Brady Hoke, the man originally regarded as the Jim Harbaugh backup plan. Since his hiring, he has charmed the pants off of Wolverines worldwide. We’re all counting on him to restore the glory of Michigan football, and that starts tomorrow. But winning and being charming are not enough to become an Unvegan Hero. No, it certainly takes more.

The state of Michigan’s resident journalistic genius, Mitch Albom, wrote an article the other day that compares the coming of Brady Hoke to a person giving up veganism. He writes, “The three-year Rich Rodriguez experiment was like an avowed meat-lover going vegan because everyone says he should, until he finally spits out the bean curd and says, ‘Gimme a steak!'” Ok, so maybe that’s a little more appropriate than my Hitler analogy, but you get the drift. When Albom asked if Hoke was a vegan, he replied, “No, sir!”

Damn straight. As the article continues, Albom continues to compare Hoke to steak and I’m starting to like the analogy. In fact, it’s only appropriate that Brady Hoke should become an Unvegan Hero in the same offseason that Jim Tressel became an Unvegan Villain. You know, just another chapter in the storied rivalry.

So for being the steak, for not being a vegan and bringing hope to rabid Wolverines, Brady Hoke, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

Go blue!

(via Detroit Free Press and my dad)

As a lifetime Michigan football fan, Jim Tressel has been a villain to me since I first heard his name. Finally, much of the world is realizing how much of a villain he truly is, and not just in football. His villainy transcends sports and reaches into something very dear to me: meat.

But first, the football. For ten years as head coach of Ohio State, Tressel has played multiple ineligible players. Whether he knew this or not for most of his career is questionable, but there is no question that he knew about the players in the 2010 season. No one likes a cheater, except for some terrible humans in Ohio that would still jump in front of a bullet for the Vest, but his cheating has led to something much worse.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “The suburban Cleveland-based Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse served both a 14-ounce and 18-ounce version of the New York strip steak that carried Tressel’s name.” Operative word: served. Note the past tense, because that steak no longer exists.

Take away the ineligible victories, but come on, don’t take away my steak!

(Photo via mgoblog)

(Story via Chicago Sun-Times)

After an awesome Michigan Football game, I was a happy and hungry unvegan. Fortunately I had dinner plans outside of normal Ann Arbor at a restaurant called Carson’s American Bistro. Although it was still in Ann Arbor, it was far enough from the Big House that it wasn’t hard to get a table. The name, Carson’s, evoked thoughts of some sort of a cowboy steakhouse, but when I walked in, I found it was anything but. Also, there is no such thing as a cowboy steakhouse in southeastern Michigan. It was actually a pretty upscale place with a nice selection of food. I wasn’t exactly ready for something huge (having partaken in some cheap pizza while leaving the stadium), so I looked to the burgers.

The best looking burger to me was the Bison Burger. It came with lettuce, tomato and choice of cheese. The phrasing was a little bit ambiguous regarding the involvement of caramelized onions, so I brought them up while ordering to ensure they would not be a part of my burger. Then I chose their Vermont cheddar as my cheese. It also came with fries. PLAZA-ESCORTS

Soon enough, it arrived, but apparently the ambiguous phrasing had failed me. I found onions of the caramelized sort hanging on top of my burger and had to send it back. It came back a little too quickly, but at least there were no onions. Yet, I found something that had escaped my vision in the first place: a pickle. Gross, but at least it wasn’t on the burger. I brushed the vegetable aside and dug in to the burger. Biting in, I found that this wasn’t the best bison burger I’d ever had. In fact it was far from it. It was quite dry and definitely not the medium I had ordered. It actually kind of tasted like they had scraped off the original cheese and onions, tossed on a new slice and thrown it back on the grill long enough to re-melt the cheese. So the cheese was delicious, as was the bun, but the patty itself left a lot to be desired.

It was disappointing, and although everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal, I felt like mine could have turned out much better. The bison burger is a very difficult burger to cook, and Carson’s was not the right place to keep that burger moist.

EDIT: Blimpy Burger has moved due to a rent dispute, but it is reputedly as good as always.

After four years of living in Ann Arbor and countless other trips to the city of my alma mater, I have finally made my way to Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger. Although I always knew of the place while I lived there, I didn’t realize just how big of a deal it was until I saw it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Since that time, it has been my goal to eat at Blimpy Burger and I can finally cross that place off of my list. But is it any good?

Yes, it sure is.

Let’s start with the look of the place. It’s tiny and the line to order runs through the eating area. The counter is for ordering only and behind that counter is one medium-sized griddle and a deep-fryer. The choices are on the wall, and you know it’s gonna be awesome when the menu has the quin burger on it (five patties!). The patties are small and slider-sized so that it takes 3 to be the size of the quarter-pounder, but still the idea of a 5-patty burger was pretty enticing. Yet, knowing I would be getting on a flight shortly after, I wimped out and only got the triple burger. I didn’t feel too bad, though, because on my triple burger I got cheddar cheese, bacon, fried egg and salami. Yes, salami! I had never seen this offered on a burger before and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity for meat on meat on meat action slip through my fingers. I also got me some fries.

The cook seemed pretty impressed with my choice and I watched as he grabbed three ground beef balls and tossed them on the griddle. He also grabbed a few slices of bacon and salami for the griddle as well. It was good to see that everything was cooked on the spot, especially the bacon, because I know a lot of places cook their bacon ahead of time, and then throw it on the griddle for a few seconds to heat up. After a little cooking, he flattened out the ground beef into a more burger-like shape and started getting my artery clogger into a nice stack, ready for the bun.

The cashier asked me what I had gotten on my burger and when I told him, he asked if I had a doctor’s note. I laughed and told him I didn’t, but I might need one tomorrow for work after this meal. I asked for a some BBQ sauce on the burger and then it was ready for eating.

I unwrapped the meaty monstrosity and it looked beautiful. I was almost afraid to eat the work of art, but my hunger for unvegan glory forced me to eat. I was glad it did, because this was one amazing burger. I mean how could it not be? There wasn’t one bad thing on there and t wasn’t simply a burger of excess like the one at Hamburger Mary’s. It was a carefully thought-through burger that was cooked with heart.

But what about the salami? Great question. The salami, like the rest of the burger, was awesome. I can’t believe this concept hasn’t spread to other burger places. The place has been around since 1953, so there has been plenty of time for people to copy the idea, but I just haven’t seen it. The salami slices were the perfect size for this burger and I loved every bite.

The fries were of the steak-style and although they were tasty, they weren’t at the same level as the burger. I’m a little disappointed in myself for not making my way to Blimpy Burger earlier in my life. I feel like I am a better person having eaten there now and it is sad because I could have been a better person much earlier in my life. Blimpy Burger is officially on my list of places you have to get to if you get to Ann Arbor. Assuming you don’t order any vegetables or make a similar mistake, you won’t leave disappointed.

After failing to grab a late-night snack at Red Hot Lovers (if your damn sign says you are open til midnight, I better be able to show up at 11:57 and get a hot dog), we headed to Backroom Pizza. As a college student, this place was the best. Slices of cheese pizza were a buck and pepperoni ran 1.50. No one would ever claim it was great pizza, but at 2:30 am, you don’t need great pizza. Now that I’m no longer a poor college student, I was wondering if it would still have the allure it once did.

When we showed up, there was a sign stating that the price of cheese slices had jumped to 1.25. According to the sign, it was their first price increase in 20 years. Is the oil spill to blame? Or Obama? More realistically, it probably has something to do with Rich Rodriguez (just kidding coach!). Still, the price of pepperoni remained unchanged. I walked into the hole in the wall and ordered two slices of pepperoni. They were handed to me instantly and I stepped outside to see if they withstood the test of time.

And they did.

Bear in mind that I never called this pizza great. It still wasn’t great, and to be honest if I hadn’t been drinking, I would have some trouble calling it good. But I had been drinking and that’s what Backroom Pizza is for. Why waste four bucks on a slice of pizza while drunk? You won’t appreciate it as much as you should. So for that drunken munchies niche, Backroom is exactly what it should be, even if a slice of cheese isn’t the same value it once was.

As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, come playoff time I really have very little allegiances. I do my best to root for former Michigan players on teams (Tom Brady, Chad Henne, Jake Long, Charles Woodson and Steve Breaston to name a few), which sometime results in those players playing against each other. Now, though, I may have a new reason to root for teams: How unvegan are they?

A friend of mine recently sent me an article in the New York Post about Rex Ryan. First off, Rex is a pretty awesome name because it means king, but being named king is not enough on its own to become an Unvegan Hero. Luckily, Ryan, has what it takes. Sure, his 350-pound body is nothing to be desired, but the guy loves his eating. According to the post, he celebrated his most recent playoff victory with a cheese steak and a beer. “I have never heard him order a Cobb salad,” a source told The Post.

Living this meaty lifestyle has certainly not affected his ability to coach. At the beginning of the playoffs, no one expected the Jets to even win a game. Now he is leading a rookie quarterback (and fellow Unvegan Hero), Mark Sanchez, into the AFC Championship. Because of this, I will be hoping for a Jets victory on Sunday (and it doesn’t hurt that former Michigan receiver, Braylon Edwards, is on that team).

So for being yourself, not eating salads and doing a pretty good coaching job in the process, Rex Ryan, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via New York Post)

Every year, the University of Michigan alumni group of Los Angeles gathers together for the Taste of Ann Arbor. This year, it took place at a bar called South. To make the event work, they bring in foods all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that people miss dearly. These include brownies from Zingerman’s, ice cream from Stucchi’s, pizza from Cottage Inn and special chapati dressing for salad from Pizza House. All of these are staples of the Michigan college student’s diet, but the biggest reason I go is for the Cottage Inn pizza. Opened in 1948, Cottage Inn takes credit for being the first place in Ann Arbor to serve pizza. That’s a pretty huge deal for a college campus and the fact that the restaurant has lasted so long is a testament to how good their pizza is.

At the event, I grabbed a couple slices of their pepperoni pizza and some bread sticks to join them. Cottage Inn pizza isn’t like your typical pizza. It comes in a rectangular shape, with slices cut into similarly proportioned rectangles. For the event, these slices were further divided into triangles so participants could get multiple varieties. Unfortunately, as the pizza had been frozen, shipped and reheated, the pizza wasn’t as good as it could have been. It was still really good and brought back great memories.

Plus, it was a whole lot cheaper than buying a ticket back to Michigan.

Check out the film below.

If you look closely, you can see that he has chosen not to put any ugly vegetables like relish or onions on his hot dog. Instead he has simply chosen mustard, keeping things unvegan. For some reason, people in the media were upset at Sanchez, and to appease these people he made an even greater unvegan decision and donated 1,000 hot dogs and hamburgers to a local soup kitchen.

For eating a veggie-free hot dog to help your football performance and donating meat to the needy, Mark Sanchez, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via Drovers)

Perched on the corner of Detroit St. and 5th St. in the little town of Ann Arbor is the seat of an international empire. It is the Zingerman’s Delicatessen and the little nondescript building that houses it has spawned an entity known by lovers of good food and business everywhere.

When I went to college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, I knew of Zingerman’s, just like everyone did. I knew it was good, too, but I really never comprehended the magnitude of it until I left Michigan. Since then I have learned that they are nationally renowned for their mail-order service, business practices, overall quality of their food and more. So when I returned to Ann Arbor recently, I knew I had to revisit the wondrous little deli and reacquaint myself with its delectable foods.

Zingerman’s has scoured the globe to find some of the best foods in existence, but they don’t just try to convince you that something will taste good, they give you the chance to decide for yourself. Everything in the deli can be tasted and the people working there are all-too-eager to serve you some samples. On this trip, I tried multiple cheeses (awesome), pretzel bread (also awesome), bacon chocolate (not as bad as it sounds, but still not very good) and some aged balsamic (which was great despite the fact that the guy wouldn’t let us eat it with bread). After the exploring was finished, it was time to get some lunch.

The menu hangs over the deli, but I already knew what I wanted: #74, also

known as Dave’s Open Road. This delicious sandwich is filled with grilled Amish chicken breast, applewood-smoked bacon, Wisconsin muenster cheese and ranch, on grilled challah bread. The only down side is that it also comes with lettuce. I ordered it without and also made sure to ask for it without a pickle, then I headed outside to sit at a purple picnic table under a tent to wait.

Dave’s Open Road arrived just as I remembered and tasted just as perfect. All the components blended together in perfect harmony, yet were all distinct in their delicious flavors. Using Zingerman’s for mail-order purposes alone does not do justice to the original deli. The sandwiches, atmosphere and overall glory are something that everyone stepping foot in Michigan should behold. The prices are a bit steep, but well worth it for the experience, especially if you take your time to enjoy the samples.