1. Order the Boricua Box at Las Virellas
CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
I’m old enough to know that I know what I’m going to like when I hear it, and when I read Ann Christenson’s compact review of Las Virellas Food Truck last December, I knew I needed it. I finally made it down to Zocalo Food Park (636 S. Sixth St.) to try it, and I already can’t wait to go back. The Boricua Box is a delight of Puerto Rican cuisine, featuring succulent roast pork (with a little butter-brickle-like fried skin on top), seasoned rice with pigeon peas, fried plantain cakes called tostones and crisp, simple salad that was actually much appreciated among the richness of the rest of it. I ate all of this in various combinations, ravenously, and didn’t realize until three-quarters of the way through the box that the side of chimichurri was missing. Everything was that tasty.
2. Listen to Scam Likely’s Yolk
EVAN MUSIL, ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
The second album from Milwaukee’s rambunctious indie punk bunch released last Friday, and it’s a fantastic follow-up. Yes, there are the up-tempo bangers you’d expect, like opener “Hips”, which fuses propulsive rhythms and infectious yells with melodrama and humor. (“This city has its seasons,” sings guitarist and lead vocalist Charlee Grider. “Summertime and death.”) But the group shows its growth in songs like “Nosebleed,” which begins mellow with acoustic guitar and a sweet melody that bursts into electric anguish matched with tumbling guitar riffs.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
3. Read Wellness by Nathan Hill
ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR
Life is short. The time we have to read books is painfully limited. With this in mind, I rarely read novels that were recently published. I’ve found that a high percentage of them are bad and a waste of valuable time – my usual weeding-out process is to wait a couple years and see if people are still recommending the book, or if it’s fallen on the ash heap of history like so many others. Well, I broke my rule for this one, and I’m glad I did. Wellness is a big swing of a social novel in the tradition of Dickens, by which I mean it takes on an intimidating number of giant social issues over the course of its roughly 600 pages (social media, political polarization, the rural/urban divide, middle-aged ennui, wellness culture, polyamory, Minecraft addiction, etc., etc., etc.). It does so through the story of Jack Baker and Elizabeth Augustine, a married couple who, in their forties, are starting to drift apart. The ambitious, far-stretching novel exemplifies a form that is unfortunately in decline, and I’m glad to see it still done well here. Hill tells a fundamentally human story of two wounded people, while also satirizing, critiquing and forthrightly observing modern American life in an insightful way.
4. Wander Around Downtown Books
BRIANNA SCHUBERT, ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR
Downtown Books isn’t a secret. It just so happens that this book-lover has never been. I’ve only heard legends and myths of the beloved bookstore (and it’s infamous cat… RIP little guy), but all that changed this weekend when I finally made my way into the beautiful, though quite crooked and slanted, book stacks. It’s fantastic – so many books from floor to ceiling, and strange and eclectic art throughout. I didn’t pick up any books because I was genuinely just enjoying the experience of being surrounded by it all that I kind of forgot to. That being said, I’m sure I’ll be back soon.
5. Get Creative With Your Instant Pot
ANN CHRISTENSON, DINING EDITOR
I don’t expect you to run out and buy an Instant Pot. I didn’t. But somehow I acquired one from a friend who decided that after three tries, it wasn’t for him. This electric pressure cooker does a lot of things besides pressure cook. It can slow-cook, steam, saute and warm. It can make rice. It can make yogurt. It can even make jam. I have a slow cooker that I have used probably as many times as my friend used his Instant Pot. (I tried to pawn off the slow cooker on a friend, and yet it found its way back to me.) But I’m ready to tackle pressure cooking. I could have christened this thing by making rice or pasta – something basic. But I decided to pressure cook a pork tenderloin. I had a 1-pound loin that I rubbed with cumin and salt and pepper and sauteed in the InstaPot just to get some nice brown color on it. Then I pressure cooked it in water-lime juice for 20 minutes. I’m no genius with this machine, but the pork turned out really tender and cooked through. It was actually a little over-cooked for my taste. To spoon over the meat, I made a really simple fresh salsa of cherry tomatoes, avocado, garlic, and lots of lime juice. Certainly some things to tweak, but not bad. An Instant Pot thread on Reddit got me thinking about risotto. I’m a little skeptical you can get the texture and consistency right without the constant attention and stirring. But I’m intrigued enough to try…
