Roadfood

The final day of our trip restored some of my faith in Jane and Michael Sterns' guide to roadside eating. All three meals were at Roadfood sites and none of them involved hamburgers, barbecue or fried chicken.

We had breakfast in Ann Arbor at Zingerman's, a quaint little deli downtown that has become a major mail-order house for gourmet food. Granted you don't need the Sterns to tell you that Zingerman's is worth a visit, it was nonetheless among their listings for Ann Arbor. I had bacon and eggs and toast -- a decisive rebuke to the over-fussy efforts at B&Bs and proof that simple, high-quality ingredients with little adornment make for the best meals.

For lunch, we made a short detour to the New Sandusky Fish Co. in Sandusky, Ohio. It also gave us the chance to check off a fourth Great Lake, Lake Erie, for our roadtrip. I had targeted this Stern recommendation for lunch on our trip out, but the timing was off. The timing this time was not great since it came after our ample breakfast at Zingerman's, but the yellow perch sandwich we shared was really worth the detour. The amazingly fresh lake water fish had a lovely sweetness. Fried in a light batter on a roll with tartar sauce, it made a simple and satisfying lunch.

Although Hancock, Maryland is getting very close to home, we opted for an early dinner at the Park-n-Dine diner recommended in Roadfood. As promised, the restaurant offered a variety of tempting home-cooked Sunday dinners. I opted for the pot roast, which, though not as good as the one my mother used to make, was quite tasty and satisfying. The pie, however, was a huge disappointment. As Andrea said, if the Sterns don't specifically recommend it in their description -- which they didn't -- it's probably not worth ordering.

I still think the Roadfood focus is too narrow, but it is certainly reliable within those parameters.

Vinology

This trendy restaurant in Ann Arbor has really good wine but the food was too fussy and complicated in a way too typical of wannabe gourmet temples.

The avowed philosophy at Vinology is to carry the best representative of each varietal -- surely an ambitious goal and open to discussion. But in fact they had some novel wines and everything we tasted was very good to excellent.

In particular, Andrea's flight of "The Whites Less Traveled" had some very crisp, flavorful wines, including one from Turkey -- who knew? My flight of reds, "When Dirt Tastes Good," was, well, a little muddier, but I got what I was looking for.

The white flight was 3 oz. each of Arneis, Riofava (Italy); Emir, Kavakledere 'Cankaya' (Turkey); and Gruner Veltliner, Turk (Austria, in spite of its name). The red flight was Pinot Noir, Arnoux (Burgundy); Cabernet Franc, Couly Dutheil ‘les Gravierres’ (Chinon); and Tinta de Toro, Familia Solana (Spain).

The food was not at all bad, just tricked out too much. The homemade burrata, for instance, was wrapped in some leathery casing and had too many herbs. A truly fresh, homemade burrata can stand on its own. I ordered the Radishes 3 Ways as a starter for the simple novelty of it, but the raw radishes were tough, not crunchy and juicy the way they should be, while the pickled radish was pretty good.

My main course, a Lombatello (hanger steak) alla caprese, was a tender enough piece of meat, but smothered in a balsamic demi-glace and some sort of pesto and surrounded by the tomato and mozzarella, while the crispy carbonnara pasta, baked into a crust, was heavy and probably superfluous. Too much stuff! Andrea's Alaska Sockeye Salmon was tasty but not exceedingly fresh. We were disappointed when our waiter said there was no ice wine for dessert, even though the online menu lists one and one of the Tripadvisor comments singled it out.

The restaurant had a warm cave (in the sense of wine cellar) like atmosphere, which was fine on a hot summer day and must be great in the winter. Service was prompt and efficient. It was full on a Saturday night and extremely noisy. All in all, especially for the novel wines, a good find.

Our first choice was Logan's, a New American just around the corner from Vinology, but when we called ahead the recorded message informed us they were on vacation just that week.

Fish boil

A terrifically simple yet oddly satisfying culinary experience, this practice of Wisconsin lumberjacks turned into tourist attraction is really a must-do for a foodie in Door County.

We went to the Old Post Office in Ephraim, one of a handful of places that do a real fish boil more or less daily. We sat on benches in a circle out back where a wood fire kept a big black kettle boiling. Earl, the "boilmaster," came out and tossed in the potatoes and onions. After a while he came back out with a big pan full of Lake Michigan whitefish, trimmed and cut into serving portions. After explaining that the fish are added about 20 minutes into the boil and that they must cook 8 to 11 minutes, he set the pan, which had holes like a steamer, into the kettle and amused us with corny puns while the fish cooked.

The dramatic moment of the fish boil is when they throw kerosene on the fire at the end, making it flame up, enveloping the kettle, and causing the contents to boil over, removing all the scum and detritus that may have floated to the top. They take the kettle contents -- boiled fish, potatoes and onions -- and serve it remarkably efficiently, with drawn butter, cole slaw and bread.

I thought the fish was great -- very fresh, with a delicate flavor more robust than from poaching. They come along and remove the center bone and the most obvious pin bones, so I encountered only one or two smaller bones. (Andrea took the fried chicken option because she doesn't like bones in fish.) The only drawback was that Ephraim turned out to be dry so there was no wine or beer unless you brought your own.

L'Etoile

L'Etoile is unquestionably a wonderful restaurant with great food, a lovely ambiance and excellent service. We had a great dinner there that was a real event for the eight family members who could attend. I would definitely go back. A special shoutout to the maitre-d, Nick, for taking my reservation well in advance of the normal time limit and thoughtfully seating us in a long booth partially shielded from other diners.

All that said, the restaurant is a bit caught up in itself. The food and service both are borderline pretentious. While my pork belly starter, a special, and the duck breast were both excellent, the menu choice was severely limited. For entrees, there was a whole branzino, a turbot fillet, the duck breast, a vegetable dish, and two steaks. Since none of us are vegetarians and my brother was grilling steak the next day, that left us with three choices for entrees. There was no pork entree, no lamb entree, no chicken entree. Why on earth not?

On top of that, the two fish entrees in this city less than a hundred miles from Lake Michigan were flown in from the Mediterranean and Chile respectively. Really?

None of this of course detracts from the actual dining experience, which was on a level equal to any place here in Washington. It's not for nothing that L'Etoile was named one of the country's top 50 restaurants by Food & Wine.

We tried all three of the entree choices available to us. I enjoyed the duck breast with creamy polenta, and my brother welcomed the chance to once again have a starter of the fresh sea scallops not available in Kansas. The turbot and branzino got a big thumbs up from those who ordered the fish. The chocolate cake and the creme brulee ordered at the table were both excellent, as well as the cheese platter, and some of us enjoyed a cognac.

The wine list, while not enormously imaginative, had a varied selection in all price ranges. Because it was Bastille Day and that was one of the reasons for us choosing a French restaurant, we stuck with the French wines and found a Muscadet and a Burgundy pinot noir moderately priced enough that we could enjoy several bottles over a leisurely dinner.

Grain-fed vs. grass-fed

During the power outage, we went with some family refugees for a nice dinner out at Ray's the Classics, where the waiter made a big point of telling us that some of the steaks on special were dry-aged and grass-fed, as opposed to the regular menu steaks, which were wet-aged and grain-fed.

So three of us ordered the "specials" -- two Delmonicos and one Porterhouse, all bone-in -- and one ordered the ordinary, a "cowboy" bone-in ribeye. It would be interesting, we decided, to compare.

So we sampled each other's steaks (I had a Delmonico). First of all, they were all delicious! The other three people all thought the ordinary wet-aged, grain-fed steak tasted better. I thought all of them tasted good, equally good, but were different. Philosophically, I think grass-fed is better. I suspect that the others -- all great steak eaters -- preferred the grain-fed because that's what we are more used to. Does it have more flavor, less flavor? Who knows? De gustibus non disputandum!

Dry-aging is generally considered superior because it concentrates flavor and creates a natural crust. Also, it usually involves superior cuts of meat. I think it may be an acquired taste in the sense you have to be willing to let go of your previous experiences.

This Silver Spring offshoot of the Virginia Ray's has never quite matched the original. The steaks are good, though in the meantime there are other places which have very good steaks at the same moderate prices. It was not a great atmosphere and the waiter, while not exactly surly, was terse and cold. The cap came when we ordered coffee and he came back to inform us they had no coffee, so sorry, their shipment didn't come in. There was the power outage and things in general were disrupted, but there were supermarkets within walking distance and there's no excuse for such a lame explanation. The desserts were also lackluster.