We went to
We laughed. We made up silly words to Christmas carols as we
ate, shopped, ate, and saw the sights.
And most of the sights to see were food!
Different sides of the Zehnder family run the two famous
chicken dinner restaurants in Frankenmuth, Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth and The Bavarian Inn.
We arrived in Frankenmuth late afternoon. After a quick peek
at some of the shops, we ate dinner at The Bavarian Inn. I later learned that a
Zehnder 88 year old grandmother still cooks in the kitchen 6 days a week!
The dinner portions were bigger than we were hungry for so
Husband and I ordered off the lunch menu.
I went for a Germantastic almost all Paleo (no grains)
Frankenmuth Combination Plate of Famous Frankenmuth Chicken, Pork Schnitzel,
and Sauerbraten (marinated roast beef.)
I made all gone with my sauerkraut on the side.
This sauerkraut was actually on the sweet side as far as sauerkrauts
go.
This was Husband’s first trip to Frankenmuth. He went with a
Famous Frankenmuth Chicken dinner.
Either that or he's crazy. It's too close to tell.
Some people go to Napa for the wine. We go
to the Midwest for the craft breweries.
Our first stop was Frankenmuth Brewery for an informative beer flight (four ounce taste of all the beers they brew)
because they placed each pour on a menu with the name and tasting notes of each
beer we tried.
I didn’t drink all of these myself! There are two flights of seven 4-ounce
tastes on the table.
Frankenmuth Brewery brews German style beers and according
to the German purity laws. This makes their beers heavier on the hops and wheat.
Overall, I am not overly fond of wheaty beers, ales, and pilsners. It is no surprise
I preferred the seasonal beers with more spices and the dark Munich style Dunkel Lager because I love my
porters and stouts. Husband on the other hand favored the Hefeweizen Ale.
Husband is a wheat beer guy.
We ate our first locally made sausage of the trip. I had the
bratwurst sandwich. Husband had the bratwurst dinner, which looked my meal without the roll and on a
plate with mashed potatoes and a second bratwurst. Every single sausage we ate
during our trip put anything we can buy at home to shame.
The mayonnaise is for my French fries. Husband thinks it is weird I like mayo
on my fries instead of ketchup. I tell him I'm not being weird I’m being Danish.
We toured the local brewery museum too. It told the story of
the Frankenmuth breweries founded by the German settlers and how they made Malt
Extract ‘for baking’ during Prohibition to keep the business in business. Of course,
they went back to brewing beer after Congress appealed Prohibition. Sorry no
photos. I wasn’t allowed.
Our favorite craft beer of the trip is Sullivan's Black Forest Brew Haus & Grill.
The Indian Pale Ale (IPA) is missing in our flights because
they were out and brewing more.
Sullivan's brews a few German style beers but doesn't hold
themselves to the German Purity Laws so there is taste and variety in their
beers. Sullivan's also brews darker beers. Husband and I declared the Red Ale,
Pirate’s Porter, and Sully’s Oatmeal Stout the favorites of the flight.
I took a little break from all things German on the food
side too. Lake Michigan fish and chips!
Almost every other shop in downtown Frankenmuth is a
handmade candy shop. We sampled and bought goodies there too. None of them made it home for me to photograph for this post.
I have one little photo of handmade chocolate we tried during a wine and chocolate
sampling at Wolcott Winery. They paired their locally made wines with wonderful chocolates made right in
the shop.
Wolcott Winery’s blueberry and cherry dessert wines and chocolate came home with us.
We allowed ourselves something we rarely do on a vacation. We spoiled ourselves a bit because neither of us could
figure out a way to sneak back to any of the places we visited to buy it as a
gift for the other one.
We tried to take advantage of the shops in Frankenmuth and
the outlet mall in Birch Run to do some Christmas shopping. Mission not really accomplished. Most of the
things we saw were more impulse items like the wine glass (which is one of our old renaissance festival performer bits. We should have made and sold these glasses first! We would be hundredares by now!) than the type
of gift items we were looking for.
Sorry family! No gifts from exotic Michigan for you this year. We aren’t sure
how to keep the locally made food souvenirs we bought from spoiling under your
Christmas tree. We’re forcing ourselves to eat and enjoy them in your name.
From top left to right: Kerns Beef SummerSausage, Elk Summer Sausage, Metwurst. Bottom row:
Smoked Liver Sausage, Weiswurst, and Smoked Blood Sausage (we took a food risk.
Blood sausage is awesome!)
Husband went a little crazy at the Cheese Haus too.
I let him (and picked up more Lactaid on way home.)
Apparently, we have to have some sort of wine and cheese
party in order to eat Husband’s cheese frenzy before it spoils. It will give us
a chance to share our experience at the Grand Traverse Distillery shop. Grand Traverse Distillery makes craft vodkas and whiskeys. Craft
distillery? Husband and I were intrigued.
Grand Traverse Distillery’s craft vodkas are very smooth and
enjoyable. I’m usually not much of a whiskey drinker but I have to say, Grand
Traverse Distillery’s craft whiskey is my favorite. It is so smooth drinking it
is like giving your tongue a hug, particularly the Ole George 100% Straight Rye
Whiskey.
A little food tourism was just what we needed to relax and recharge for the holidays.
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