The Good, the Not so Good, and the Yucky
Yesterday was a big day: the inspection on our hopefully new house, discovery of a fab neighborhood liquor and food store near said new house, tickets to see Cirque D'Or at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, quite possibly the most disappointing Mexican food EVER, and... a visit to Ashley's!
Let's start with the most pertinent info: Ashley's. Since we were a bit short on time, we opted for a flight from the rotating taps. We chose Harpoon Brewery's Firth of Forth Ale, Stone's Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Avery's 14er ESB and Collaboration, not Litigation Ale. We didn't have time to take a lot of detailed notes, but managed to each rate our top 2 of the 4. The first thing we noticed is that all the beers needed time to "open"- as they warmed a bit, the flavors really came out. I ranked the Firth of Forth first, followed by Collaboration, not Litigation. M liked Collaboration, not Litigation best, then the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. Sadly, neither of us much cared for the ESB (I actually scrunched up my nose on first taste, but then realized it's a BITTER so that is a good thing!).
The neighborhood shop sucked us in as we walked by headed to get coffee for M- they had cases of Concha y Toro wine stacked up against the window. We wandered in to find heaven for people like us: huge beer and wine selection with a deli in the back! We wound up picking up some picnic food and scoring a special treat: their last bottle of 1800 Edicion del Nuevo Milenio tequila, in a commemorative wooden box. (sorry, couldn't find a good link with info- this is the best I could find) I imagine this bottle will be broken open to celebrate moving into the house!
As for the Mexican food, well... last week I was buying something at CVS and when the clerk learned that we are moving to AA from Cali, his response was: "You're going to be really disappointed with our Mexican food." I laughed, but was secretly hoping he was wrong. We chose a place with multiple "Best of ..." plaques in the window, but apparently the voters were primarily students or something. (how do you turn refried beans GREY? they weren't back beans or pintos, but some evil hybrid?) There isn't enough hot sauce in Michigan to make me eat there again. :-( Looks like we'll be buying some Rick Bayless cookbooks and making our own Mexican food!
Let's start with the most pertinent info: Ashley's. Since we were a bit short on time, we opted for a flight from the rotating taps. We chose Harpoon Brewery's Firth of Forth Ale, Stone's Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Avery's 14er ESB and Collaboration, not Litigation Ale. We didn't have time to take a lot of detailed notes, but managed to each rate our top 2 of the 4. The first thing we noticed is that all the beers needed time to "open"- as they warmed a bit, the flavors really came out. I ranked the Firth of Forth first, followed by Collaboration, not Litigation. M liked Collaboration, not Litigation best, then the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. Sadly, neither of us much cared for the ESB (I actually scrunched up my nose on first taste, but then realized it's a BITTER so that is a good thing!).
The neighborhood shop sucked us in as we walked by headed to get coffee for M- they had cases of Concha y Toro wine stacked up against the window. We wandered in to find heaven for people like us: huge beer and wine selection with a deli in the back! We wound up picking up some picnic food and scoring a special treat: their last bottle of 1800 Edicion del Nuevo Milenio tequila, in a commemorative wooden box. (sorry, couldn't find a good link with info- this is the best I could find) I imagine this bottle will be broken open to celebrate moving into the house!
As for the Mexican food, well... last week I was buying something at CVS and when the clerk learned that we are moving to AA from Cali, his response was: "You're going to be really disappointed with our Mexican food." I laughed, but was secretly hoping he was wrong. We chose a place with multiple "Best of ..." plaques in the window, but apparently the voters were primarily students or something. (how do you turn refried beans GREY? they weren't back beans or pintos, but some evil hybrid?) There isn't enough hot sauce in Michigan to make me eat there again. :-( Looks like we'll be buying some Rick Bayless cookbooks and making our own Mexican food!
Labels: Arrogant Bastard, Ashley's, Avery's, Cirque D'Or, Harpoon, Mexican food
posted by Beer Chick @ 7:44 AM
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