Irish Cheese Curds at Dublin's Irish Pub, Oshkosh, WI

Last week I ventured out to Dublin's Irish Pub for some fish and chips, and while I was there I decided to try their Irish Cheese Curds. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. These little nuggets of cheesy deliciousness were absolutely wonderful.

Now these cheese curds had a very unique batter.  It makes for a different than normal taste, but one that is surprisingly good.  The curds were browned to absolute perfection.  There was enough crunch to not be greasy, but they were still delicate enough to not be tough.

The cheese was a very good flavor, creamy and salty.  However the cheese didn't stretch as well as I would have hoped and seemed just a touch on the chewy side.  But the flavor was absolutely exceptional.  

These curds can absolutely stand on their own, but with a bit of ranch sauce they are divine. 

Out of a ten point scale Dublin's Irish Pub's Curds score:

8 out of 10

They are definitely worth taking a trip for.

Your guide to the fried,

-Matt

Tom's Drive In

I ordered a large order of cheese curds at Tom's Drive In on CB in Neenah.  This is more along the lines of what I expect from a fast food restaurant, as in bland.

I'll start with the good:
The portion size was very good.  I ordered the large which was a bit more expensive I got quite a big load of curds.  The breading was cooked well, nice color and crunchiness.  The cheese was almost well melted, just a bit short.

Now the bad:
This is one of the first times I've ever had an order of fried cheese curds that I didn't want to finish.  The breading was overpoweringly bland.  Not just a taste of nothing bland, but a bland that sucks the flavor out of your mouth.  The cheese while having a decent texture lacked flavor as well.  When I peeled the breading off of a couple curds to get a gauge of what the actual curd tasted like I was still disappointed. This cheese doesn't provide much of a base.  I also tried the breading by itself, it tasted like flour and hot frying oil ( this is not a compliment).

Overall Score: 3 out of 10

I can't even imagine a dipping sauce that would save these.

Dairy Queen Oshkosh - Murdock

Upon prompting from one of my favorite readers I decided to give Dairy Queen's curds a try.

So I ordered 2 orders of cheese curds from Dairy Queen Wednesday night as it had been a while since my last blog post.

Fast food curds generally are almost in a different class as I don't expect much out of them, but for the purposes of this blog, I will rate all cheese curds by the same criteria.

These curds had a nice golden color to the breading and were cooked fairly well. They could use a bit more crunch in the breading, but were not soggy by any means. These curds had a nice saltiness to them, but I felt it might have been forced, like they just dumped a bunch of salt on them after they came out of the fryer. The cheese was very good for a fast food place. When I get up the courage to go to Culver's for cheese curds you'll read a good rant about how bad things can get. So Dairy Queen does well on the quality of cheese by fast food standards and even fairly well overall. My grading on these curds is a 6.5 out of 10. If there was a separate scale for fast food curds it would be higher.

On a side note I jokingly called myself a food blogger for the first time last night. While technically true, it was just a joke.

How I grade Mozzarella Sticks

So as part of this blog I will be testing and evaluating my perceived quality of mozzarella sticks, but if you are interested, I'll walk you through how I judge them. If you feel that I'm wrong or I'm missing something feel free to comment.

The most important part of a mozzarella stick is the quality of the cheese. There is no way to sugar coat this, if a mozzarella stick is made with sub-par cheese there is nothing you can do to make it excellent. A high quality cheese will be flavorful, a bit salty and when cooked correctly it will be stringy and have a slightly chewy consistency. For example a lot of chain restaurants tend to provide a mozzarella stick that "looks" like good cheese. By that I mean they will be stringy, but they will lack the flavor and texture.

The second thing I look at is the breading. Good mozzarella stick breading will provide substantial flavor to the appetizer (unlike cheese curds which shouldn't get too much flavor from the breading) however the flavor needs to compliment the cheese, and not mask it nor try to hide flaws in the cheese. The breading needs to add to the texture of the mozzarella stick again it needs to compliment the cheese by providing a slightly crunch counterpoint to the stretchy chewiness of the cheese. Breading also should not be too thick there isn't much worse than eating a doughy mozzarella stick it pretty much guarantees a bad result.

The third thing I look for is the quality of the cooking. While often appetizers are overlooked for quality, it is something I take a lot of notice of. If you nail the cheese and the breading you can still ruin a mozzarella stick by over or under cooking. A well cooked mozzarella stick should be cooked to a golden brown (color depends on the type of breading of course), but it should not be left undercooked and certainly shouldn't be burned. The breading should be crunchy and not soggy after cooking. Finally the cheese should be thoroughly and evenly melted.

Finally I want a good marinara sauce for dipping. This is really a whole separate conversation as to what makes a good sauce, and I will let somebody else discuss that. All that I look for is that the sauce compliment the stick and not fight it, hide it or ruin it. This comes in last, because I feel that a good mozzarella stick should be able to stand on its own and can only be enhanced by marinara. Also, you can find pre-made marinara that doesn't suck, so if you have bad marinara there really isn't an excuse. Great marinara is a different story, but again not my expertise.

So that's it that's what I look for in a Mozzarella Stick.

Stay Cheesy,

-Matt

Red Robin Mozzarella Sticks (Single Order)

Stringy cheese, but as with most things at large chains it's rather bland. The sticks were cooked nicely breading was browned well and the cheese was melted thoroughly. The breading was too thick and kind of bland. Overall rating 6 out of 10. They did a great job of cooking a bland product. Portion size was also very decent for the single order.