Tootsie Yr2: Grand Rapids, MI
It's going to be a long post because I LOVE Grand rapids and there's a LOT of good food here.
You've been warned.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
It was an early flight, with the bus leaving around 7am for a 9:30am takeoff.
I have been SO EXCITED to see Grand Rapids again!
The circus came here several times ( 2012, 2014, 2016) and it quickly became one of my top 10 US cities.
At the last minute they switched all our seats around (I think we got a different plane?) and I got L-U-C-K-Y!
Exit row baby! How bougie.
We arrived in Detroit a little early and began our epic 2.5-hour bus trek to Grand Rapids.
Our bus did not have AC unfortunately, so it got pretty uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.
Coming off the bus I lucked out again, somehow my luggage got shoved out early so I was one of the first to my room
(and subsequently out the door to hit the grocery.)
The nearest grocery is Bridge Street Market, which is really a Meijer masquerading as a "local business".
That said, it was a REALLY good grocery store because of all the local products!
Locally butchered meats, and locally roasted coffee, locally-made snacks and pastries and breads and ready-to-eat meals.
I got my weekly basics of fruit and veggies and base proteins, but then had a good long oogle at all the foods I wanted to try.
Blueberry-infused maple syrup!
Plant-based tamari "jerky"!
Peach habanero chicken sausages!
I picked out some goodies and escaped before I could bankrupt myself.
Pretty much all of these beverage brands (Olipop, de la Calle, Aura Bora) are nationally available, and I've had them before, just not in these flavors. Different parts of the US get different flavors, isn't that interesting?
But most of the food is very local, either to Grand Rapids or to Michigan.
A friend of mine pointed out how appealing and "joyful" the packaging on these products looks, and I think she's right.
I think that when a small business owner invests in appealing packaging, it shows that they care deeply about their product.
And that definitely makes me want to support that business!
I had some of the Big O' Smokehouse salmon jerky for dinner and y'all...
It was so good that I SWORE.
I mean look at this.
They had several flavors to choose from, but this one is "Dragon's Milk", so named because the salmon is brined in Dragon's Milk stout beer with brown sugar and vanilla before it is smoked using bourbon barrel oak and tossed in cracked black pepper. I'll swear again: holy HELL, it was so good. Like, I've had the "salmon candy" from Whole Foods, and this is MILES above and beyond better than that. This stuff belongs on an upscale charcuterie, and on Michelin star menus.
With that, I unpacked and did some meal planning before watching Halloween Baking Championship with Jameson and then heading to bed.
Welcome to Michigan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning I enjoyed a cup of the cherry-flavored Michigan coffee with my breakfast. Yum!
Then I got to work cooking some tilapia filets in the Itaki. I don't like having raw meat in a hotel fridge for long, and fish especially.
Simply seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil, and cooked for about 15 minutes each.
I threw some asparagus in with the last filet as well. We have microwaves in our rooms, so now I'll have a lot of good food to heat and eat :)
My loaf of local bread came from Field & Fire Bakery, about a mile walk from the hotel.
The weather was gorgeous and there were lots of people out walking or jogging or playing in the parks.
There were several men fishing in the Grand River.
A lovely blue pedestrian bridge with some colorful polar bear statues (the bears are facing away from me):
This tree caught my attention because it is so vibrant!
Soon I was at Downtown Market. So many wonderful treats inside!!
Pastries and cakes, spices and teas and oil and vinegar.
Fresh fish and meats, sushi, fresh hot food and local wares.
I could have spent hours in there, there was so much to see and so much that I wanted!
But not today! The bakery counter:
They had quite a few types of bread, but the clerk said if I was looking for an interesting flavor I should try the herbed Halkidiki olive bread. I don't normally care for olives but he convinced me and wrapped one up for me.
Next was Field & Fire Cafe, which was about a mile and half back the way I had come.
Their pastry counter had many of the same treats, but fewer bread options, and of course they were a full-service cafe with lunch options.
I got their house-made falafel with spicy carrot hummus and pickled fennel on seeded bread.
For $12 you could do a half-sandwich with soup, so I got the acorn squash.
It was incredible. I will say the soup was spicier than expected, I was sweating a little haha.
Didn't stop me from eating all of it though! And the sandwich was just amazing.
Homemade falafel is really awesome, the texture is so great, and then with the hummus and pickled fennel it was an explosion of flavor.
Very much enjoyed this!
I took the riverwalk to get back to the hotel, enjoying the lovely weather and scenery.
All in all, with walking to the market and bakery and cafe and then the theater later at night, it was about 6.5 miles.
I spent a few hours resting and cooking my pork chops in the Itaki, cutting them into little pieces and coating them in teriyaki sauce.
I did overcook them a little, so will reduce the cook time next time around.
I had a slice of the herbed olive bread with dinner, and the clerk was right: it was very good.
The amount of olives was just right, complementing the herbs and not overpowering at all.
The bread was light and fluffy, and the olives were a fruity, tangy, savory accent that was absolutely lovely.
Glad I took a risk on this bread, because it is delicious!
Eventually it was time to get to the theater.
The DeVos Performance Hall is the exact opposite of the theater in Wilmington, DE.
Instead of a crawl space, we have a real door! And a massive pit with plenty of space.
Here, have a tour of the pit!
Sound check went well though it was a huge adjustment to the larger space.
And the show went very well too, lots of enthusiastic people in attendance who laughed their heads off and had a great time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wendesday was chill for me. It was drizzy out, so I did some data entry work and filled out my MFP nutrition for the week.
I planned to eat out three times here in Grand Rapids, and incorporating those meals into a calorie count allows me to balance other meals around them so I can enjoy without overeating.
Also, the food scale is coming in very handy. I measured out 4oz of tilapia for lunch instead of having to guess, and 120 calories' worth of avocado. It might seem silly to nitpick it so much, but it does make a difference; if I had assumed my avocado was "medium-sized" for calorie counting purposes, I would have eaten about 100 extra calories today without knowing it. Those differences add up, especially when you're having to guess at some of your other meals.
Anyway, I went to the theater a little early to give my trombone a bath since there are showers there.
"Trombone bath" in this case means washing the slide with dish soap in the sink, and swabbing it out with a snake brush to get buildup out (not to be gross but brass instruments are just like plumbing in that whatever is in your mouth will build up in the pipes.)
The show went well, really lovely and appreciative crowd.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is Thursday and I'm working on some more data entry this morning.
Plan for the rest of the week is
- Today: sandwich from Two Beards and a visit to Grand Rapids Art Museum
- Friday: my new in-ears are supposed to arrive + thrifting + dinner at The Electric Cheetah
- Saturday: two shows
- Sunday: two shows
- Monday: off to Wilmington, NC for one day only!
Other stuff:
Brianna (management) has updated the internal Tootsie site to give it a spooky Halloween feel!
You've been warned.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
It was an early flight, with the bus leaving around 7am for a 9:30am takeoff.
I have been SO EXCITED to see Grand Rapids again!
The circus came here several times ( 2012, 2014, 2016) and it quickly became one of my top 10 US cities.
At the last minute they switched all our seats around (I think we got a different plane?) and I got L-U-C-K-Y!
Exit row baby! How bougie.
We arrived in Detroit a little early and began our epic 2.5-hour bus trek to Grand Rapids.
Our bus did not have AC unfortunately, so it got pretty uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.
Coming off the bus I lucked out again, somehow my luggage got shoved out early so I was one of the first to my room
(and subsequently out the door to hit the grocery.)
The nearest grocery is Bridge Street Market, which is really a Meijer masquerading as a "local business".
That said, it was a REALLY good grocery store because of all the local products!
Locally butchered meats, and locally roasted coffee, locally-made snacks and pastries and breads and ready-to-eat meals.
I got my weekly basics of fruit and veggies and base proteins, but then had a good long oogle at all the foods I wanted to try.
Blueberry-infused maple syrup!
Plant-based tamari "jerky"!
Peach habanero chicken sausages!
I picked out some goodies and escaped before I could bankrupt myself.
Pretty much all of these beverage brands (Olipop, de la Calle, Aura Bora) are nationally available, and I've had them before, just not in these flavors. Different parts of the US get different flavors, isn't that interesting?
But most of the food is very local, either to Grand Rapids or to Michigan.
A friend of mine pointed out how appealing and "joyful" the packaging on these products looks, and I think she's right.
I think that when a small business owner invests in appealing packaging, it shows that they care deeply about their product.
And that definitely makes me want to support that business!
I had some of the Big O' Smokehouse salmon jerky for dinner and y'all...
It was so good that I SWORE.
I mean look at this.
They had several flavors to choose from, but this one is "Dragon's Milk", so named because the salmon is brined in Dragon's Milk stout beer with brown sugar and vanilla before it is smoked using bourbon barrel oak and tossed in cracked black pepper. I'll swear again: holy HELL, it was so good. Like, I've had the "salmon candy" from Whole Foods, and this is MILES above and beyond better than that. This stuff belongs on an upscale charcuterie, and on Michelin star menus.
With that, I unpacked and did some meal planning before watching Halloween Baking Championship with Jameson and then heading to bed.
Welcome to Michigan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning I enjoyed a cup of the cherry-flavored Michigan coffee with my breakfast. Yum!
Then I got to work cooking some tilapia filets in the Itaki. I don't like having raw meat in a hotel fridge for long, and fish especially.
Simply seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil, and cooked for about 15 minutes each.
I threw some asparagus in with the last filet as well. We have microwaves in our rooms, so now I'll have a lot of good food to heat and eat :)
My loaf of local bread came from Field & Fire Bakery, about a mile walk from the hotel.
The weather was gorgeous and there were lots of people out walking or jogging or playing in the parks.
There were several men fishing in the Grand River.
A lovely blue pedestrian bridge with some colorful polar bear statues (the bears are facing away from me):
This tree caught my attention because it is so vibrant!
Soon I was at Downtown Market. So many wonderful treats inside!!
Pastries and cakes, spices and teas and oil and vinegar.
Fresh fish and meats, sushi, fresh hot food and local wares.
I could have spent hours in there, there was so much to see and so much that I wanted!
But not today! The bakery counter:
Click to viewThey had quite a few types of bread, but the clerk said if I was looking for an interesting flavor I should try the herbed Halkidiki olive bread. I don't normally care for olives but he convinced me and wrapped one up for me.
Next was Field & Fire Cafe, which was about a mile and half back the way I had come.
Their pastry counter had many of the same treats, but fewer bread options, and of course they were a full-service cafe with lunch options.
I got their house-made falafel with spicy carrot hummus and pickled fennel on seeded bread.
For $12 you could do a half-sandwich with soup, so I got the acorn squash.
It was incredible. I will say the soup was spicier than expected, I was sweating a little haha.
Didn't stop me from eating all of it though! And the sandwich was just amazing.
Homemade falafel is really awesome, the texture is so great, and then with the hummus and pickled fennel it was an explosion of flavor.
Very much enjoyed this!
I took the riverwalk to get back to the hotel, enjoying the lovely weather and scenery.
All in all, with walking to the market and bakery and cafe and then the theater later at night, it was about 6.5 miles.
I spent a few hours resting and cooking my pork chops in the Itaki, cutting them into little pieces and coating them in teriyaki sauce.
I did overcook them a little, so will reduce the cook time next time around.
I had a slice of the herbed olive bread with dinner, and the clerk was right: it was very good.
The amount of olives was just right, complementing the herbs and not overpowering at all.
The bread was light and fluffy, and the olives were a fruity, tangy, savory accent that was absolutely lovely.
Glad I took a risk on this bread, because it is delicious!
Eventually it was time to get to the theater.
The DeVos Performance Hall is the exact opposite of the theater in Wilmington, DE.
Instead of a crawl space, we have a real door! And a massive pit with plenty of space.
Here, have a tour of the pit!
Sound check went well though it was a huge adjustment to the larger space.
And the show went very well too, lots of enthusiastic people in attendance who laughed their heads off and had a great time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wendesday was chill for me. It was drizzy out, so I did some data entry work and filled out my MFP nutrition for the week.
I planned to eat out three times here in Grand Rapids, and incorporating those meals into a calorie count allows me to balance other meals around them so I can enjoy without overeating.
Also, the food scale is coming in very handy. I measured out 4oz of tilapia for lunch instead of having to guess, and 120 calories' worth of avocado. It might seem silly to nitpick it so much, but it does make a difference; if I had assumed my avocado was "medium-sized" for calorie counting purposes, I would have eaten about 100 extra calories today without knowing it. Those differences add up, especially when you're having to guess at some of your other meals.
Anyway, I went to the theater a little early to give my trombone a bath since there are showers there.
"Trombone bath" in this case means washing the slide with dish soap in the sink, and swabbing it out with a snake brush to get buildup out (not to be gross but brass instruments are just like plumbing in that whatever is in your mouth will build up in the pipes.)
The show went well, really lovely and appreciative crowd.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is Thursday and I'm working on some more data entry this morning.
Plan for the rest of the week is
- Today: sandwich from Two Beards and a visit to Grand Rapids Art Museum
- Friday: my new in-ears are supposed to arrive + thrifting + dinner at The Electric Cheetah
- Saturday: two shows
- Sunday: two shows
- Monday: off to Wilmington, NC for one day only!
Other stuff:
Brianna (management) has updated the internal Tootsie site to give it a spooky Halloween feel!
