! Hashcapades

50 Cities 50 Hashes: Paola Mallucci in Madison!

I have had the honor of being selected to organize a hashcapade in Madison. I immediately decided to organize a hashcrawl. So I contacted some local yelpers and got an amazing response! We selected 4 very promising places in Madison that featured mouthwatering hashes on their menu and on a freezing colds Midwestern Sunday morning we set out to accomplish this feat!

First stop: Marigold Kitchen for Duck Confit Hash

Marigold Kitchen is close to the Capitol square and one of the best brunch places in town. Indeed, in a freezing cold morning where streets were virtually empty, Marigold Kitchen was teeming with life. We got in line and ordered the first hash of the day: duck confit hash.

We dug in as soon as the hash arrived and we immediately started enjoying the morning. Delicious potatoes, with tender duck confit sprinkled in and some oozy egg yolk to top and tie everything. Can still taste the melty deliciousness!

Could the next stops hold up to this amazing start?

Second stop: Graze for Corned Beef Hash

Next we went to Graze, Tory Miller’s amazing restaurant on Capitol square. The place is in a great space with an unforgettable view and has a mission of using delicious local ingredients as much as possible. We had high expectations!

We ordered the Corned beef hash, chicken and waffles and a couple of Bloody Mary. The corned beef is brined and cooked in house an it sets this hash apart from other corned beef hashes. You can taste the briny, salty deliciousness through the oozy, slightly sweet egg yolks and the comforting, tender potatoes.

The verdict was once again “delicious” with some people preferring the saltiness of this hash version and some other the silliness of the duck confit. Both hashes were winners in their own rights.

Third stop: Madison Sour Dough for Vegetable Hash Cooked in Duck Fat

At this point, we all expected something to go wrong: could we be seated once again almost immediately a she served yet another delicious hash? Seemed unlikely, yet, Madison Sourdough managed to wow us all. Their hash was a quasi-vegetarian one: no meat but cooked in duck fat.

The vegetables included tender potatoes, golden turnips and some perfectly caramelized Brussels sprouts. Now don’t know how that happened, but there were odes written to those Brussels sprouts, and we are still talking about them. Given that sprouts are usually not know as an inspiring vegetable, this should give you a measure of how good these Brussels sprouts were!

Also, special props to the owner! We had been tweeting all morning about the Hashcrawl and he followed us, tweeted back, invited us over and showed us around his kitchen. You should see those ovens and those proofing breads! Now I understand how their bread is my favorite in Madison!

Fourth stop: Bassett Street Brunch Club for Corned Beef Hash and…Sweet Potato Hash

For the last stop we got not one, but two hashes! Corned beef and sweet potatoes. Both were really good and nicely rounded off our crawl.

 

We rolled out of the last restaurant and started planning the next crawl and the next dish of hash. I’ll just say there might be pizza, dumplings and/or cheese in our future….

Paola is the Italian cooking in the Midwest. Her recipes are an effort to bring authentic, if not always traditional, Italian home-style cooking to the Midwest. You are most likely to find her on her blog, an Italian cooking in the Midwest, or on Instagram. Follow her on twitter, @PolaM.