How to get Laid with Food (again, rated G)

When we arrived on the island our first meal was lunch at Hotel Iroquois.  This is one of my favorite places to have lunch.  The food is great and the alfresco atmosphere is absolutely perfect.  Luke had "Mackinac Whitefish Sandwich with Homemade Cheese-Dill Bread and French Fries" and I had "Vegetarian Focaccia Sandwish with Grilled Portabella Mushroom, Provolone Cheese, Roasted Red Pepper and Lemon-Basil Aioli Sauce".  It was delicious, but I was so excited to be there that I forgot to take pics.

For Dinner our first night we ate at the Cuhady Steakhouse located in Michael Cuhady's library at the Inn at Stonecliffe.
Michael was originally from Kilkenny, Ireland and left during the potato famine.  He became a gazillionaire as a butcher and later as the first person to ship meat on refrigerated wagons.  His summer "cottage" was finished in 1904.  It is a beautiful ride up into the island to eat here and while the food was amazing, again, I did not take pictures.  It was mouth-melting steaks, as promised.  And the atmosphere is romantic.  We made friends on the way up.  They were celebrating their first anniversary.  Imagine our surprise when champagne was delivered to our table, compliments of the newlyweds!!

Breakfast the next morning at the Bay View.  Oh wait!!!  First, when we got back to our room after dinner at Stonecliffe, we had a lovely surprise....an adorable chocolate cake for two from the Bay View to celebrate our 10 yrs!!!  Ok, so now on to breakfast.  Fresh squeezed orange juice...you know, like from a real piece of fruit.  Rose, the kitchen Goddess of the Bay View makes everything from SCRATCH.  And every morning, you get a 3 course breakfast.  Every evening, she has bistro style desserts that would put some well-known big city bakeries to shame!  Breakfast is served in a sunny solarium with a view of the fort and the bay.

Lunch the second day consisted of the Taste of Mackinac.  For $15 we got more food that we could ever eat and all the drinks we could manage.  There were representatives there from most of the major MI microbreweries and wineries...handing us cup after cup.  I loved sampling the best of all of the eateries of the Island.  I will say that everything from Millies was FABULOUS and we also really liked the food from Mary's.  Both are really good lunch choices.

Dinner this evening is brought to us by The Grand Hotel.  We were seated by the window.  Sigh.  You pay a flat rate upon entering the dining room.  This includes your 5-course meal and gratuity.  A bottle of MI wine is extra! 

The main dining room is done in kelley green and white and aqua.  Holy Smokes!  I LOVE this color combination.  I have been given many confused looks when I try to explain my love of these colors together...I guess the Grand Hotel and I get it!

Again, I forgot to take pictures of our appetizer.  I had "Vegetable Spring Roll, Duck Leg Confit, with Five Spice Cream" and Luke had "Chilled Jumbo Shrimp with Farro Verde and Sweet Chili Sauce".  There are not words.  For the soup course I had "Wild Mushroom and Onion Soup with Artichoke Tapenade" 

Luke had "Roasted Chicken Broth with Vegetable Mirepoix and Cheese Ravioli"

My Main Course "Braised Veal Osso Buco Milanese with Crispy Grits Cake,  Lemon Parsley Gremolata"

Luke had "Roasted Rack of Lamb with Pistachios, Chickpea Ragout, Rosemary Port Glace"

My Desert....um, chocolate cream tart

Luke's desert...

Here are some pics from inside the Grand.

The size and scale of this is hard to capture on film, er, um, phone.

The carpets are AMAZING!  Whimsical and sophisticated at the same time!  After dinner, we wandered through the Grand's Museum of Art.  There were also drinks and dancing to a live band in the ballroom.  We met a very fun family on the way back from dinner and they paid our carriage fare, much to our surprise.  So we hopped out, told Dorris and Larry (our noble horse-power) goodbye, and went into the Bay View.  Dessert this evening was homemade strawberry shortcake.  Oh my gosh.  Desert after desert...well, this is VACATION!

Breakfast our last morning at the Bay View.  Then we were on our way off the Island to Bellaire, MI.  Bellaire is in the Traverse region.  It is full of cherry and apple farms.  My favorite things about this area, though are the hills and lakes.  There are lakes every where.  Huge, Huge lakes.  Torch Lake and Lake Bellaire are BEAUTIFUL.  They make our dirty little, drunk filled, cottage stacked Lake fill-in-the-blank seem like the ghetto.  This is our favorite area to ski in the winter as well, it is right outside of Schuss Mountain.  The next blog will tell more about our amazing accommodations in Bellaire, but this is about food, so lets get on with it...

If you are ever within even an hour of Belliare, you MUST eat at LULU's.  You MUST.  We had the best food of our entire trip here.  Really.  Even better than the Grand.  Yes.  This was the most fabulous thing I ate the entire trip...appetizer  "GOAT CHEESE CAKE Watercress, Tomato Pepper Conserva, Fig Jam, Grilled Baguette"  I had already split it and so you cannot see the amazing presentation, but trust me, it was mind blowing.  And that paled in comparison to the way the goat cheese melted in your mouth.  The accompaniments were the perfect pairing of acidic and sweet.  It was perfection.

I had a nightly special of Halibut.  I cannot find the description anywhere, but they use local produce and it was again, the best of the entire trip.

Luke had "GRILLED HANGER STEAK
Parsnip Whipped Potato, Shiitake Mushroom, Brussel Sprout, Butternut Squash, Bacon Onion Jam, Rich Demi Glace"  I am not sure why the presentation is such a mess, but this must have been after he started devouring, because everything comes out of the kitchen looking like a work of art.  Also, we had a few cocktails (seriously, I only had 2) and we could barely walk home.  So be careful of the sneaky bartender!

That Completes our Culinary Tour!  I will wrap up the series with a look at the architectural drooling that I had time for in between all of the eating and hiking, in How to Get Laid in a House!  Until then, enjoy your peanut butter sandwich and cheetos for lunch...haaa!