February 17, 2008 - February 23, 2008

Critic's Notebook: Hyderabad House

Filed under: Food

I grew up in Madison, WI, understanding only about four different kinds of cooking: home cooking (lasagna, casseroles, chicken and green beans), Door County lodge food (fish fry or fish boil, cherry pie, ice cream cream puffs) German food (bratwurst from the Brat und Brau or Union Terrace), and Italian-American food (the red-sauce and pasta at Paisan's).

So when I entered my late teens and started to go out to restaurants with friends, everything seemed new.

Going to Hyderabad House took me back to some of my first restaurant experiences in college. Though I attended UW-Madison, one of my closest friends went to school in Chicago, and I'd drive down to visit her whenever we could get our schedules to click. She'd take me out to little Thai and Indian places around Hyde Park or on Devon Street, and my mind was blown by how different food could taste. At that point, everything — pad siew, samosas, chicken tikka masala — was a revelation, no matter how well (or poorly) executed it might be. It was just off of my very limited little experiential grid.

One place she took me was (if memory serves) called Hima's Kitchen. It was tiny — maybe 8 or 9 small tables — and it functioned as part restaurant, part daycare. Indian toddlers ran at high speed from table to table, and you felt very much as though you'd wandered into someone else's home, and that they'd decided (for reasons unknown) to feed you. Sure, you paid a bill, but there was an informality and chaotic feel to the experience that made it highly entertaining. Hyderabad House had the same kind of vibe; our waitress (who I'm guessing is the owner's wife and/or co-owner) kept knocking my spoon when she set down various dishes, and by the end of the meal it had become a running joke: "That spoon is broken!" After running my card at the end of the meal, she thanked me by name: "Thank you very much, James." You're not supposed to acknowledge that you know a customer's name after you run their card. It's not local custom. And yet... hell, I left the restaurant with a silly grin plastered on my face. I was acknowledged as a person, not just a financial unit.

And I as I drove back down Central Ave. to Uptown, I thought a little bit about what I'd eaten, and thought that the food tasted... for lack of a better word, real. Not processed, not picked-over for perfect consistency, not checked against any kind of measurement of what people in Minneapolis-St. Paul at large would want to eat, but checked, instead, against what people from the cook's family would want to eat. There's an intimacy to food like this.

I don't mean to over-romanticize the experience. As I mentioned in my review, I didn't much care for the handling of the meat in the main dishes. I tend to like my meat tender and well-organized, broken up into little bite-sized pieces or chunks. Call it a cultural bias, or call it my personal taste, or what have you, but there you go. And I know there are people who like their food to mildly spiced, or just plain "mild"; as a general rule, the cooking at Hyderabad House wouldn't be for you. But there are so, so, so many places where you can get your main meal exactly how you want it (or how you think you want it, or how you're conditioned to want it) that hitting a place that does things differently — hell, in a truly foreign manner, without compromise — is really a joyous discovery. At the very worst, it's fun to talk about what's different, what's "wrong," what's new about this kind of eating. And at best (here I think of the keema paratha and the samosas), it's a visceral thrill.

Posted by James Norton at February 22, 2008 10:00 AM | Comments (2)

Chef Shack Preview

Filed under: Food

Damn, it's cold outside, which means it's a great time to start thinking about summer. I'm really looking forward to the reappearance of Chef Shack, which serves up some of the Twin Cities’ best street food. I was lucky enough to catch Lisa Carlson and Carrie Summer, the chef and pastry chef from Spoonriver, test-driving the Chef Shack at the St. Paul Winter Carnival a few weeks ago. The trailer was topped with a hula-hooping go-go dancer and was blasting music to lure parade goers to gourmet takeout fare, including pulled pork sandwiches, vegetarian chili, chocolate mousse, torched-to-order creme brulee, and those awesome cardamom-spiced mini-doughnuts Carlson and Summer were selling last summer at the Mill City Farmers Market (which is where they plan to park the Chef Shack this summer, so stay tuned…)

Posted by Rachel Hutton at February 21, 2008 5:55 PM | Comments (0)

Introducing A la Carte

Filed under: Food

When I began chatting with City Pages about food writing, I was concerned that my own style of dining (which leans toward "humble" — some of my favorite meals have involved beer-boiled bratwurst, authentic tacos, or old-school slices of pizza) might not click in a metropolis where the high-end restaurants bump so confidently up against a national scene.

So when the word came down that my former Minnesota Monthly colleague Rachel Hutton was going to take on the haute cuisine stuff via The Dish — leaving me free to pounce on little neighborhood eateries and ethnic holes-in-the-wall — I flipped out. This new column, named A la Carte, was a perfect fit. I knew Rachel, and I knew her writing — she would be the paper's world-class fancy-pants ninja, freeing me up to do what I really dig.

I struggle (emphasis on struggle) to write about food in a way that is clear and free of pretense. My concerns typically run like this: Is this food delicious? Is this food delicious for the money I'm paying? Is this food delicious in some kind of new way?

So when you read "A la Carte," you're not going to get much sensual purple prose, or references to big-name chefs. (Although, to be fair to Rachel, she often beat selected bits of purple prose out of my MNMO stuff, so you won't see much of it in her column, either.)

What you will get, I hope, is writing that takes you somewhere new, gets you out of your neighborhood and/or comfort zone, and occasionally cracks you up. You'll get writing that is a critical celebration of that which can get overlooked in the bold-faced name / big restaurant group-driven food coverage that, necessarily, can sometimes dominate the media discourse.

And I'm going to shoot for honest writing, and look for your comments to keep me on the straight and narrow. I have biases as a diner, and if I'm not exposing them to you in my prose, I hope to be correcting for them behind the scenes. I don't want "A La Carte" to be an uncritical cheerleader; while I've had some life-changing meals in neighborhood restaurants, I've also had some crummy ones, and I won't ever knowingly peddle you a false bill of goods just because it makes a good story.

In conclusion, and with real feeling: Please — please, please, please — email me (jim@flakmag.com) with your ideas. This column will not succeed unless I'm able to keep an ear to the ground and ferret out the hidden gems that this city conceals and treasures by the dozen. If you're a chef and you've changed your menu, email me. If you're a diner with a favorite little place — or even just a favorite appetizer, or dessert somewhere — email me. If you're a purveyor offering something special that's being overlooked, email me. If you're a waiter or waitress, a PR flack, a talented home cook, whatever — email me.

And, when in doubt, eat somewhere new.

Posted by James Norton at February 20, 2008 11:04 AM | Comments (4)

The Dish on Dish

Filed under: Food

Sometimes the truth sounds too much like an Onion headline: Food Critic's Parents Celebrate Valentine's Day at Pearson's. When I found out that Mom and Dad spent the most romantic evening of the year at a place known for its 1970s decor, Cadilac-driving clientele, and lutefisk suppers, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

As the new Dish columnist, my goal is to help you make decisions on how to spend your dining dollars. When reviewing restaurants, I will always visit three times, sample a range of items across the menu, and give you an honest assessment of how well the restaurant delivers on its promises---not just on the meal itself, but the entire experience, from making the reservation to paying the check. Think of it this way: I spend City Pages' money on lousy meals so you don't have to.

A la Carte columnist James Norton and I will also be interviewing chefs, servers, artisan food-makers, and purveyors to give you more insight into issues and trends affecting how you grocery shop and dine. If you know things you think we'd like to know about---new restaurants, unusual ingredients, people or places overlooked and underappreciated---please, by all means, write and let us know.

With your help, we believe that as knowlegable, scrupulous critics, we can encourage restaurateurs to raise the bar, and challenge them not to just deliver good value, but surprise and delight us. Of course, what pleases us may not please you: Tastes are always, to some extent, subjective. If you disagree, you don't have to heed our advice. Though, next February 14, let's hope my parents do. ---Rachel Hutton, rhutton@citypages.com

Posted by Rachel Hutton at February 20, 2008 9:51 AM | Comments (9)

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