SEO Appetizer: Hastings Cameron lived in Wisconsin for a while, wrote a bit about food and beer, but curiously, never about beer-battered fish fry
Hastings Cameron interviewed Neeta Saluja re: her book Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking for the Onion’s Madison A.V. Club. The Q&A’s mostly about “gastric discontent” and exploding pressure cookers.
“If it sits too long, they’ll run out of sugar and cannibalize themselves.” Last summer, Hastings Cameron binged on wheat beers and sort of anthropromorphized hefeweizen yeast in the process of writing about it for the A.V. Club.
This past winter, Hastings Cameron may have projected seasonal depression onto porters and stouts in a piece he cowrite with the saintly, and not quite so soused, local A.V. Club editor.
Consider Black Boss Porter, a Baltic import, as a malt liquor dessert substitute. It’s caramel-coffee notes completely cover up its 9.4% ABV—stronger than Olde English and Steel Reserve—and 16 oz. single bottles go for $1.79 at Woodman’s [grocery]. Grab two, and leisurely sip on a toasty stairwell. No need to rush: unlike your average 40 oz., porters don’t take like piss after they warm up.For the dark roundup above, he also interviewed the eponymous brewmaster responible for his favorite Wisconsin porter, who offered food pairing suggestions.
H.C.: You said it goes well with food—what would you pair it with?He also wrote a guide to ignoring the game and turning the neighborhood around the University of Wisconsin football stadium into one’s personal concession stand:
Tom Porter: Oh, red meat—absolutely. Steak with onions and mushrooms kinda thing—a really nice piece of steak, not overcooked. Remembering that it’s basically an Irish derivative beer. You’re looking at people with a fairly hard work ethic, meat and potatoes lifestyle, for food.
H.C.: But could they really afford red meat?
Tom Porter: Well I don’t know—[you] know, rats and squirrels are red meat.
If you have a nut allergy, seek out Stella’s, which recently supplemented its farmer’s market presence with a stand near Camp Randall’s southwest corner. The bakery’s Hot and Spicy Cheese Bread sounds one “y” short of a Little Caesar’s special, but it tastes like a wondrous 24oz spicy challah roll, packing a monterrey jack and provolone paunch, which will absorb incipient hangovers, but could also be used to smuggle a flask into the game.
Arbitrage with your gut: the guy with a Bluetooth headset frantically trying to flip tickets isn’t the only seller subject to dramatic declines in value as the day progresses. After the Indiana game, [this publication] passed a stand operated by an East High “Activities Committee” and couldn’t resist the clarion call of “clearance brats!” If you fast throughout the game, naming your own price will never be sweeter, or greasier.
