(July 15, 2016) Middleton, WI
I have become enchanted with Wisconsin. Since my
little girl went off to the Windy City to attend College a generation ago, I
have routinely raced across the Badger State looking at the beautiful scenery
at seventy five miles an hour; rarely stopping for more than a sandwich, milk
shake, to fill up the car, or buy a lottery ticket. Fall’s changing colors in the
Mississippi River valley near La Crosse are gorgeous at high speed and are always a
marvel.
Over the generation on the many trips to see my
daughter and family I did slow down for stops at Circus World Museum in
Baraboo, Wisconsin Dells, Grandparents University at University of Wisconsin in Madison, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Estate,
home, and studio in Spring Green.
On this mini–vaca Susan and I stopped for dinner
and overnight in Wisconsin’s Capital City, Madison. We had a pub dinner at
Great Dane Brew Pub starting with Wisconsin cheese curds; Susan had the Chicken
Pot Pie (she reports “not very good”) and I had the Smothered and Covered Fried
Chicken (wonderful, yummy, and too much!) The menu described the Fried Chicken
as: hand breaded fried chicken breast cutlets topped with shrimp, Andouille
sausage, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and tomatoes, in a Cajun butter sauce.
Served with jalapeno cheddar mashed potatoes and market vegetables (broccoli
and cauliflower).
In the morning we headed out to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton. Middleton is a suburb of Madison perhaps
twenty minutes from downtown Madison, the State Capitol and the Goliath
University of Wisconsin.
The founder and curator of the museum is Barry
Levenson who wanted to assemble the world’s largest collection of mustard. My
Grandma Rosenthal’s maiden name was Levenson; maybe we are cousins?
We arrived at about 10:00am, the museum’s opening
time and parked right across the street. The Mustard Museum is unique,
informative, whimsical, and tourist trap combined. Inevitably all museum
exhibits end in the gift shop, not exactly at the NMM. You walk in the front
door and you are in the museum shop (there is no admission). The entire first
floor is shop and mustard tasting station. Surprisingly the enterprise must be
profitable, there were five or six employee/docents working the institution.
Down the stairs and into the basement I descended
to see the exhibits and learn about the mustard seed and its progenies. There
was several exhibit panels explaining the planting, growing, harvesting, and
processing of the mustard seed. The exhibits are very neat, well organized and
well presented. Canada is the world’s number one producer of mustard.
I learned Mustard is referenced in the New
Testament, Book of Matthew 13:31-32
The Parables of the Mustard Seed
and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like
a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it
is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and
perch in its branches.”
I particularly liked learning mustard’s spicy
cousin is the horseradish. I am not sure I understand the nuances or biology of
a root versus a seed but I’ll take their word for it.
Besides a small makeshift theatre that presented
mustard videos, there was an extensive collection of prepared mustards (almost
600 products). There was a collection of mustards from each state and many many
foreign countries. One of the more interesting collections were the mustard
pots or serving pieces that are filled with the mostly yellow condiment and
placed on the dining room table. Many were sterling silver or porcelain not
glass or plastic.
A factoid I enjoyed was reading about the merger of
the mustard preparation businesses of Maurice Grey and Auguste Poupon in Dijon,
France in the 19th century. Who knew?
After about an hour of perusing the museum, I went
to the mustard tasting station to sample mustards and make a purchase to give
the museum some token financial support. I was asked what my preference was and
I said, “I like spicy, I’m a Texan.” The mustard maven said, “You’re in
Wisconsin.” Defensively I replied to give me something “spicy” and is the best
for bratwurst. After several spoonfuls of mustard I settled on Kelly’s Gourmet
Stoneground Mustard with a horseradish bite. It is really good on brats but now
I wish I would have looked for something for those fried salami sandwiches.
(Maybe on my next trip?)
The Museum was very touristy; an interesting
enterprise on several levels and it did cut the mustard.
I liked it.
