Drinking Milk in Public

“So what’s the deal with all the milk drinking in Minnesota?” That’s what a friend asked me the other night after returning from a week long fishing trip to Canada. Apparently they had stopped at a restaurant on the way back home and witnessed two macho looking men with beards and steak dinners order milk to drink, and thought it was odd. I lived in Minnesota for a couple of years and in Wisconsin most of my life, and it also struck me as odd. You just don’t see adults drinking milk in restaurants--in the Midwest, the Southwest, anywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered milk at a restaurant, have you? It’s always been water, soda, or alcoholic beverages. So, I told her I didn’t think this was a more common occurrence in Minnesota or Wisconsin than anywhere else. However, I do think more milk is consumed at home in that region of the country, if only because that’s where all the dairy farmers live. And they aren’t afraid of 2% or (God forbid) whole milk.

There is one dish that I would consider ordering milk with—meatloaf, with lots of ketchup. Milk tastes great with that.