Journeys for Yia Vang's Hmong cuisine, the best supper clubs and Limburger cheese
Welcome to the fall travel edition of Be Wisconsin! We wander the state looking for good food to eat, some good sights to see and explain why, while you are out and about, you might be traveling on a street, road or rue.
Because I lived in the Twin Cities for about a decade, and visit there quite often, I keep up with the goings-on there. I've been reading about celebrity chef Yia Vang, an Iron Chef and James Beard nominee, for a while. Then I discovered he was from Port Edwards and I immediately asked him for an interview. He said yes, also immediately, because he sincerely appreciates his teen years growing up in central Wisconsin.
It is not seemly for a reporter to go all fan-boy on a subject he is writing about, but honestly, Yia Vang is the coolest. I was in Minneapolis for a family gathering last weekend, and I dropped in at his Union Hmong Kitchen. I can report the food there is reason enough to visit Minnesota.
Meanwhile, for a vastly different kind of food experience, you may want to hit up a good old-fashioned (get it?) supper club. Readers have shared their favorites from around the state.
Finally, for still another vastly different culinary experience (unique, probably, anywhere outside of Germany), I wholeheartedly recommend traveling to Monroe (best by bicycle!) to eat a Limburger sandwich. I think Limburger is great, but I could be in the minority with that opinion (I also might be biased in favor of the cheese. Grandpa Uhlig loved it, and I want to be just like him). The people I was with were less enthusiastic for the stinky fare, but everyone should try it for themselves.
► Hmong chef Yia Vang grew up in central Wisconsin. Now he's taking the foodie world by storm. (Subscribers only)
► 14 of Wisconsin's best supper clubs, according to readers
► Biking from New Glarus to Monroe, all for the glory of Limburger cheese
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More travel tips
► Is it a road, a lane or even a rue? Here's how streets get their suffixes and why it matters. Now I have to go to Allouez. I expect the croissants to be parfait!
► When fall colors are expected to peak in Wisconsin in 2022. I recommend going out every day to make sure you don't miss them.
► New Ice Age Trail license plate could hit the road in Wisconsin soon. Not a travel destination, but cool plates for the car you use to get there.
Cool Wisco people doing cool things
Didja know? A Wisconsin fact drop.
Didja know that Hamlin Garland was born in West Salem? Do ya even know who Hamlin Garland was? Me neither, until I got curious about the name of Hamlin Garland School in Milwaukee. Turns out that Garland, who lived from 1860 to 1940, was the cat's meow of the American writing scene in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
He was, according to The Hamlin Garland Society, "intimately involved with the major literary, social and artistic movements in American culture." He was a Pulitzer-winning writer of more than 40 books, an advocate for the rights of Native Americans and a proponent of impressionism in art. Wow, I'm sorry that it took me 56 years to discover who he was, but I aim to learn more now.
— Source: The Hamlin Garland Society
Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Union Hmong Kitchen, Wisconsin's best supper clubs, Limburger cheese
