Each Friday at 8 am on 88Nine, Milwaukee Magazine’s dining critic, Ann Christenson, and 88Nine foodie Tarik Moody discuss Milwaukee’s culinary and restaurant culture.
On this week’s show, we talked about the food films that will screen at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival. We also talked about Silver City’s International Fest, EsterEv’s tribute to the steakhouse dinner, Mason Street’s Barrel-aged cocktail class, and the return of Good Eats.
If you are a chef or a restaurant and have an announcement or an event, please send any information or press release to thisbites@radiomilwaukee.org.
Food Films at the Milwaukee Film Festival
The 9th annual Milwaukee Film Festival will kickoff on Sep. 28. The festival will screen over 300 films. Six of those films will be about food as part of the Film Feast program. The films cover a wide variety of subject from eating bugs to chocolate to Israeli Cuisine and more. Check out the trailers below.
Bugs
With world populations on the rise, where will we turn when the time comes to feed these extra mouths? Enter: edible insects! Follow a food scientist and word-class chef on their globe-trotting journey to sample the savory slugs, artisinal aphids, and mouth-watering maggots that help sustain people across the globe. With no shortage of infectious energy, our tour guides show us a veritable bug buffet, a film whose slogan could very well be "tastes great, less filling."
The Chocolate Case
Some sobering food for thought the next time you crack open a chocolate bar: The majority of chocolate producers are in some way supported by child slavery utilized on cocoa plantations. Upon discovering this over a decade ago, three Dutch journalists took the first steps on a journey that led them into the chocolate business, attempting to prove that there can be such a thing as ethically made chocolate bars. Eye-opening, funny, and yes, a little sweet, The Chocolate Case showcases unrelenting journalism being used as a force for good.
Ella Brennan: Commanding The Table
Ella Brennan, the formidable female restaurateur considered to be the matriarch of southern cuisine, the woman who helped launch the celebrity chef phenomenon (Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse), and the exacting businesswoman whose unwavering sense of what people want gets the life story treatment from Emmy- and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks. Tracking Ella's story from her humble New Orleans origins to her current status as an American cuisine icon, the full thrust of a culinary force of nature is brought to energetic life.
In Search of Israeli Cuisine
Celebrity chef Michael Solomonov goes on a culinary expedition through Israel, traveling deep into the gastronomical heart of a country with a rich tapestry of flavor to its name, seeking out the family traditions that shape food culture and looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the prism of food. For those who can only conjure images of hummus and falafel when Israeli cuisine comes to mind, let this travelogue for the tastebuds open your eyes (and stomach) to a rich panoply of taste.
New Chefs on The Block
Although nearly half of all restaurants fail in their first year of business, two young chefs are willing to risk it as they break into Washington, D.C.'s burgeoning foodie market with their first restaurants: one a pizzeria, the other an eatery that sits between luxury and accessibility. New Chefs on the Block follows the pair over the course of their first year of business. The steaks are high (get it?) as these two restaurateurs work to balance budgets, keep employees and customers satisfied, and hope for the positive review that can make or break their dream jobs.
Tampopo
Dubbed the first "ramen western," Tampopo is the classic genre-busting exercise in hilarity that is a true feast for the senses. A gang of ramen ronin (a band of broth-ers?) help a widowed restaurateur seek the perfect noodle recipe, their efforts leading us down a madcap road of irreverent asides that range from a dying woman's efforts to craft a final meal to a gangster and his moll's sensual food-based foreplay. This food porn urtext remains as mouthwatering a confection as it was upon its original release!
Return of Good Eats
During this past weekend's DragonCon in Atlanta, Alton Brown announced the return of the popular show Good Eats in 2018. The name of the new 30-minute show will be called "Return of The Eats" and will air on Food Network. There will be also additional online content.
International Festival in Silver City
LBWN and Presenting Event Sponsor, Komatsu invite you to the 6th Annual Silver City InterNational Festivalon Saturday, September 9th from 12:00pm-5:00pm along West National Avenue between South 33rd Street and South 35th Street. This fun festival celebrates the cultural diversity of the Silver City neighborhood through food, the arts, and music! Nearly 2,000 neighbors and visitors traveled the world along West National Avenue between South 33rd and 35th street last year and sampled ethnic cuisine from countries spanning the globe while also enjoying live art performances, free live music, free activities for kids and displays from local businesses. Some fun things to expect;
Enjoy music all day from The Squeezettes at the Mamie’s Main Stage!
Enjoy a wide variety of cultural music and dances from Escamilla Entertainment, Lao Youth Dancers, Fox Valley Filipino Dance Group, Nefertari African Dance Group and more at the Silver City Main Stage sponsored by Premier Motors.
Enjoy listening to your fellow neighbors and Milwaukeeans perform at our Community Stage!
Take part in free art activities with the A.W.E. Truck Studio and other local artists from the neighborhood and Milwaukee.
EsterEv's 'Tribute to the Steakhouse" Dinner
EsterEv, the restaurant inside DanDan, will be collaborating with Chef Jarvis Willimas of the SURJ group on a dinner paying tribute to the classic steakhouse on Sep. 8 and 9.
The dinner consists of 10 courses and begins at 6:30. Here are some of the dishes that will be served:
- Chicken Liver Pate
- Pickles
- Bilini and Caviar
- Sliced Coppa
- Cheese Spread
- Smoked Char Pate
- Accompanied by Townhouse crackers
- Hashbrowns with lox, caviar, creme fraiche, horseradish, dill
- Spot Prawn Scampi
- Steak Tartar
- Lobster Bisque
The cost of the dinner is $80 per person. Wine and beverage pairings will cost an additional $40.
Barrel-Aged Cocktail Making Class at Mason Street Grill
To help Milwaukeeans take advantage of delicious barrel-aged concoctions at home, Mason Street Grill and Milwaukee master mixologist, Trip Duval, will be hosting Part 2 of the “Tricks of the Mix” series, Saturday, September 9 from Noon to 3pm. During the event, guests will have a fun, hands-on afternoon of learning about barrel-aged cocktails and will concoct their own recipe to take home in their very own 3-liter barrel.
