Great Lakes Cities

[llamaorama]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

Yeah not sure what he was trying to imply with that but being that it was taken in May the water would definitely be cold.

The water is cold, duh

The beach is just not the same if the water feels so frigid that its literally not safe. I like swimming out into the surf and floating on the waves. Without that its just wet sand and sunburn.

[Chef]

Originally Posted by Razor

Agreed on the French having Walleye.

Pan seared with morel beurre blanc. That is how they would do it. In Minnesota, morel season and ramp season overlap a bit and are just a little after the Walleye opener. It is a dish that nature writes for you, it is gourmet and you can make it out of stuff from your back yard.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by Chef

I was already a head chef in the Twin Cities when that story broke so I know it very well. Out of curiosity I did a side by side taste test. Zander is similar to walleye in look and texture but the taste, while similar, isn't as good. I was testing it against the frozen walleye that comes from Manitoba, the zander tasted like walleye that was a bit off. And that was compared to commodity frozen walleye. The best walleye I've ever had came from two sources, in both cases it had never been frozen - one source is a commercial fishery run by the Red Lake Ojibwe in northern Minnesota. The other came from Georgian Bay in Lake Huron and was caught and sold by Plitt Seafood which is a fine dining seafood wholesaler based in Chicago. In both cases that walleye, when pan seared (in 50/50 butter and grape seed oil) had the surface of the fish turn caramelized and savory/crusty even when cooked without being floured. That is the version of walleye that is a delicacy. It is insanely delicious like that but for some reason it won't cook like that if has been frozen. I think it is because frozen walleye purges liquid when it is cooked, probably because the freezing broke all the cell walls.

Posts like these are why I love SSP still - thanks for sharing, now I really want to get my hands on some fresh walleye. I've never had it before. All the lake fish I've ever ate struck me as having the type of fishy flavor and smell people who don't like fish assume all fish tastes and smells like.

Non-sequitor alert: I caught giartia from a freshwater lake when I was 7 and spent two weeks hooked to a drip in a hospital. Another silly reason why I'm not a freshwater fan.

But wow, some of the pics in this thread really put to rest the notion that the Midwest is geographically boring. Those lakeside cliff pics especially. That's some amazing scenery there.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

The water is cold, duh

The beach is just not the same if the water feels so frigid that its literally not safe. I like swimming out into the surf and floating on the waves. Without that its just wet sand and sunburn.

I don't know for sure, but I imagine the water gets warmer in mid-summer off certain beaches on Lake Michigan.

Water temps off of Presque Isle on Lake Erie are high 70s to low 80s July-Sep. It's pretty perfect for swimming out and floating on the waves on a hot summer day.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Non-sequitor alert: I caught giartia from a freshwater lake when I was 7 and spent two weeks hooked to a drip in a hospital. Another silly reason why I'm not a freshwater fan.

You can easily get nasty bacterial infections from saltwater too, you know.

Fresh or salt, warm dirty water can harbor some really nasty bugs.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Silly as it sounds, sometimes it's all about the food. Seafood is just better than lakefood, period. I want mekajiki/swordfish, wild salmon, cod, halibut etc. over rainbow trout or whatever else passes as a freshwater steak fish. Same deal with shellfish. Growing up in coastal New England and then living in Tokyo instills high standards for seafood. So when I see what my eyes are telling me is an ocean - no horizon in sight - but the food coming out of the water isn't seafood, I'm slightly disappointed?

(it's a reach, I know)

Lol, silly coastie, freshwater treats are for Sconnies.

Seriously, Walleye is the tastiest fish I've ever had. Also, if you are patient and lucky enough you can get a Sturgeon. If you are an asshole you can get a Lake Sturgeon with caviar which is literally where all caviar comes from (sturgeon that is). Seriously though, smoked sturgeon is where it's at. Whitefish is good too, but Lake Trout is even better, but again more rare. Then there's or species like pike or channel cats that are bony, but fantastic. You can also get other euryhaline species like salmon which have been stocked to the great lakes to replace collapsed populations of fish like lake trout and taste far better than saltwater raised brethern of their same species. Something about living in freshwater makes fish taste less "fishy".

Then you have the spread of land beasties are also tasty eating like turkey, deer, elk, etc which are all frequently eaten in the upper great lakes. I've been to thanksgivings where the spread included fried
Walleye fillets, bear sausage, venison sausage, and smoked Sturgeon... To suggest the eating is not good in the upper Midwest is pure folly.

[the urban politician]

The Midwest, like any region of the country, has its share of boring scenery.

What I do love is the wide open vistas here. Wisconsin and parts of Michigan are really beautiful about that. In Wisconsin it's rolling greenery for as far as the eye can see. And of course the endless lakes. Sure, it's not mountains, but then there are other forms of beauty out there.

With these wide vistas you feel truly at peace, especially when the sun is starting to come down and the sky turns that orange color.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Lol, silly coastie, freshwater treats are for Sconnies.

Seriously, Walleye is the tastiest fish I've ever had. Also, if you are patient and lucky enough you can get a Sturgeon. If you are an asshole you can get a Lake Sturgeon with caviar which is literally where all caviar comes from (sturgeon that is). Seriously though, smoked sturgeon is where it's at. Whitefish is good too, but Lake Trout is even better, but again more rare. Then there's or species like pike or channel cats that are bony, but fantastic. You can also get other euryhaline species like salmon which have been stocked to the great lakes to replace collapsed populations of fish like lake trout and taste far better than saltwater raised brethern of their same species. Something about living in freshwater makes fish taste less "fishy".

I don't want to derail this thread, but I'll talk fish all day with anyone who will listen. I need to try walleye, clearly. But I have to strongly disagree that freshwater makes fish taste less "fishy" - it's the exact opposite in my experience. Granted, I'm buying ocean fish that was alive a few hours beforehand - if you're exposure to ocean fish is through Red Lobster or your local Midwest supermarket, you might not be getting the freshest stuff.

To be clear, I'm strictly talking about fish and shellfish here with my critique. The rest of the stuff you've listed off is all fantastic and generally better than can be had in the Northeast (we don't have a lot of Germans so we missed out on the good cured meats). The two things Boston does really well are Italian food and super-fresh seafood. Everything else is meh (too many Irish).

But we can all agree that fish is awesome, no? Man I love fish.

[Centropolis]

i’ve been to beaches in...a few places, including nz a few weeks ago. few places compare to northern michigan in summer in my opinion... sleeping bear is a favourite..,the water is exceptionally clear, beaches clean, dunes titanic. it gets warmer in places (water) in later summer than the entire us pacific coast, for instance. kayaking out of rivers into the vast freshwater sea, up giant stretches of empty beach...it’s like a lost coast fantasy. i feel sorry for all of the midwestern suckers who go to nasty fire ant and jellyfish ridden southeastern ocean beaches in high summer. northern michigan is at the latitude of maine so the sun isn’t going to completely shred you, either. i spent my childhood summers being cooked alive in the southern sun so it's something i appreciate.

sleepingbeardunes.com

res.cloudinary.com


www.nps.gov

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Chef

Pan seared with morel beurre blanc. That is how they would do it. In Minnesota, morel season and ramp season overlap a bit and are just a little after the Walleye opener. It is a dish that nature writes for you, it is gourmet and you can make it out of stuff from your back yard.

Yes..Simply Pan fried in just butter and maybe rolled a bit in salt and pepper and flour is the way I'm used to growing up with it in Northern Ontario.
Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe there is some science to it, but it seems to me that Walleye always tasted sweeter when ice fished in the winter.Ditto for Northern Pike which to me is a very tasty and overlooked fish..There is a way to cut Pike (5 cuts I believe), where the bones are removed...Anyhow both are tasty and seemed to be better when ice fished...Okay back to Great Lakes Cities.Ha! It always amazes me when I visit any of the Great Lakes and not being able to see the other side..Literally inland freshwater seas..I love the view of Toronto from the lake..I Never seen Cleveland Or Chicago from their respective harbours but would like to some day.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I don't know for sure, but I imagine the water gets warmer in mid-summer off certain beaches on Lake Michigan.

Water temps off of Presque Isle on Lake Erie are high 70s to low 80s July-Sep. It's pretty perfect for swimming out and floating on the waves on a hot summer day.

I think it's pretty easy to find swimmable water that's as warm if not warmer in the Great Lakes in mid-summer than the ocean beaches are in, for example, Los Angeles County.

If we're talking the SE US then it's a different story.

But if the beaches of legend in LA are considered swimmable in the summer with the average temperatures there, then the Great Lakes are definitely swimmable too.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think it's pretty easy to find swimmable water that's as warm if not warmer in the Great Lakes in mid-summer than the ocean beaches are in, for example, Los Angeles County.

Yes, but this is misleading. The Great Lakes under discussion are not the swimmable Great Lakes.

Lake Erie, in particular, is very warm and swimmable much of the summer, but is easily the crappiest, least scenic and most polluted lake. The "pretty" Great Lakes (basically Lake Superior and northern third of Lake Michigan, and a bit of Lake Huron, arguably) as depicted in this thread are generally pretty cold.

As a general rule, you can have scenic Great Lakes, or you can have swimmable Great Lakes. Pretty rare to have both.

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by Razor

Yes..Simply Pan fried in just butter and maybe rolled a bit in salt and pepper and flour is the way I'm used to growing up with it in Northern Ontario.
Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe there is some science to it, but it seems to me that Walleye always tasted sweeter when ice fished in the winter.Ditto for Northern Pike which to me is a very tasty and overlooked fish..There is a way to cut Pike (5 cuts I believe), where the bones are removed...Anyhow both are tasty and seemed to be better when ice fished...Okay back to Great Lakes Cities.Ha! It always amazes me when I visit any of the Great Lakes and not being able to see the other side..Literally inland freshwater seas..I love the view of Toronto from the lake..I Never seen Cleveland Or Chicago from their respective harbours but would like to some day.

Yep

CN tower observation deck at 1200 ft and you still can't see the other side. Lake Ontario is the smallest lake by surface volume also.
CN Tower, view of the Lake Ontario byAnna Riboldi, on Flickr

All of this explains why I was completely underwhelmed the first time I saw the ocean.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

All of this explains why I was completely underwhelmed the first time I saw the ocean.

This is bizarre to me, IMO. It isn't unusual to "not see the other side" of a body of water. Has nothing to do with Great Lakes.

There are countless lakes, and many rivers, where you don't usually see the other side. Basically a normal person, in normal circumstances, can see 4-5 km across the horizon. So if you're on, say, the Amazon River, you generally aren't seeing across. But it doesn't mean the Amazon is like an ocean.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Yes, but this is misleading. The Great Lakes under discussion are not the swimmable Great Lakes.

Lake Erie, in particular, is very warm and swimmable much of the summer, but is easily the crappiest, least scenic and most polluted lake. The "pretty" Great Lakes (basically Lake Superior and northern third of Lake Michigan, and a bit of Lake Huron, arguably) as depicted in this thread are generally pretty cold.

As a general rule, you can have scenic Great Lakes, or you can have swimmable Great Lakes. Pretty rare to have both.

the documented average temperature for ALL of lake michigan in mid to late summer is still warmer than the pacific at malibu. i've swam at santa barbara, malibu (and other places on the coastline west of there to point mugu santa monica), hermosa beach... and as a matter of course western michigan water temps during the second half of summer have always been eminently more swimmable from experience. i've definitely been in warmer water at sleeping bear than southern california, no question. theres also plenty of scenic enough beaches with sizable dunes south of there.

point being, nobody usually talks about how unswimmable the pacific is in southern california. people get in the water anyway.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

As a general rule, you can have scenic Great Lakes, or you can have swimmable Great Lakes. Pretty rare to have both.

Indiana dunes national lakeshors.

The southern 3rd of lake michigan is remarkably shallow, just like lake erie, so it has very warm and swimmable water in the summertime.

[Acajack]

Ontario beaches like Wasaga (on Georgian Bay which is part of Lake Huron) and Sandbanks (on Lake Ontario) also have warm water (70-80F) in the summer and they're clean and have dunes and nice scenery too.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

This is bizarre to me, IMO. It isn't unusual to "not see the other side" of a body of water. Has nothing to do with Great Lakes.

There are countless lakes, and many rivers, where you don't usually see the other side. Basically a normal person, in normal circumstances, can see 4-5 km across the horizon. So if you're on, say, the Amazon River, you generally aren't seeing across. But it doesn't mean the Amazon is like an ocean.

Having grown up in chicago, I never encountered a single body of water that I couldn't see land on the other side of (other than lake michigan itself) until I saw the ocean for the first time in new england at the age of 8.

So I find the great lakes to be much more ocean-like in appearance than lake-like, compared against the 8 billion little lakes that speckle the entire upper midwest.

I find your claim of there being countless lakes and rivers you can't see to the other side of to be incredibly dubious. Yeah, maybe the amazon, but the amazon is an outlier among rivers just as the great lakes are among lakes.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

the documented average temperature for ALL of lake michigan in mid to late summer is still warmer than the pacific at malibu. i've swam at santa barbara, malibu (and other places on the coastline west of there to point mugu santa monica), hermosa beach... and as a matter of course western michigan water temps during the second half of summer have always been eminently more swimmable from experience. i've definitely been in warmer water at sleeping bear than southern california, no question. theres also plenty of scenic enough beaches with sizable dunes south of there.

point being, nobody usually talks about how unswimmable the pacific is in southern california. people get in the water anyway.

It does get more swimmable down around San Diego though.

[Centropolis]

chicagokitesurfing.com

https://www.harborcountry.org

https://cdn.thecrazytourist.com

yeah...this is the southernmost state park in michigan directly across from chicago. i've been there many times...it's not shitty...