I know, it’s sacrilegious to go to a Russian bar and not have a cocktail. But then, there are also days when I sagely prefer not to get kicked in the head. But don’t be fooled by the coyly innocent bubble of this cocktail.

Marusya Gold
Moscow On The Hill
A champagne cocktail with a kick
$7

Order up the Marusya Gold and it is hard not to squeal with delight at the pretty drink that arrives moments later: Its glow golden with warm pink tones, its playful bubble, it’s cherry winking at you from inside the small champagne flute like an exclamation point. It may have a sweet outward appearance, but this drink is not that innocent. Its ingredients can stand up to any martini: one and a half shots of homemade cherry vodka, topped with dry champagne, and a maraschino cherry. It might sound sweeter than a Cherry Coke, but it’s not. The champagne manages to offset any grenadine-effect the cherry vodka might have if it had been mixed with something sweeter, like 7-Up. See, girly drinks can be elegant afterall.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at July 11, 2008 4:47 AM | Comments (0)

 

The Hot Dish Preview: 7/11/08

Filed under: Hot Dish Preview

In tomorrow's edition of The Hot Dish, lots of openings: a Corona-branded high-drama Mexican place at the Mall of America, a new Eat Street establishment called Cafe Oliver that will be open from 6am until 1am, biodynamic and plain ol' organic beer and wine at Cafe Agri and the Soup Nazi's first Minnesota foothold.

Also, The Hot Dish chats with Scott Beck. He's the owner of Cafe Oliver, which opens next week, and he's dedicated to offering patrons food that comforts and soothes.

"If you think back to high school or college and you remember going home and your mom fixed you a sandwich — that is the feeling I want the food to have," Beck says. "Warm, gooey, and really good." In addition to comforting food and long hours, Beck's cafe will also offer pastries by Mel-O-Glaze and fair trade wine and coffee.

Not getting The Hot Dish? The City Pages email newsletter rounds up the latest restaurant specials, openings, closing, web-related wackiness and other gastronomic tidbits into one weekly short-but-sweet package. Sign up right here.

Posted by James Norton at July 10, 2008 1:59 AM | Comments (2)

 

Expert chef comes to play with the camp kitchen, deliciousness ensues

Filed under: Camping

Chef Chad Keever of the Mill City Cafe works the RVRL kitchen.

When Mill City Cafe chef Chad Keever goes camping, he brings an iron skillet and a cooler full of prepped food--no fancy stoves or lightweight cook sets.

All the same, he was eager to step inside the RVRL kitchen to feel his way through a meal for the lab volunteers.

After a dreadful lunch buffet of freeze-dried food, anticipating Keever's menu was a little like looking forward to the last day of 12th grade (if the last day of 12th grade was an insanely delicious meal).

It looked something like this: Black-eyed peas, collard greens, smoked pork and avocado on rice. And bananas foster for dessert.

Dang.

He brought the peas (cooked for six hours) and pork (cooked for 15 hours) ready to heat, just as he would have done were this his own camping trip. He still had to make rice and chop up onions, garlic and the collards to sauté. He worked our two stoves and four cook sets for the better part of an hour and he liked them all. "The heat is intense and the pots are good," he said. "I thought they'd be terrible. If I lacked anything, it was a bigger fry pan."

The meal did not disappoint. Looking for a recipe? No chance. Want your own Keever-cooked meal? Head for Northeast.

Here's the breakdown on the Recession Vacation Research Laboratory kitchen, much of which Keever employed in the service of his camp-magic:

GSI Camp Kitchen

If you haven't figured it out already, the Recession Vacation has little regard for weight. If you can pack it in a station wagon, it qualifies. This camp kitchen is the best thing to happen to car camping since the tent. It starts folded flat, roughly the length and width of the trunk of a car. When it folds out it has counter space, shelves, a rack, two shallow basins and two large cutting boards--and the option of pump-powered running water. We spent more time at this thing than we did in our sleeping bags.

Reliance On Tap Powered Sink
I was a bit sheepish about using a powered sink for camping. But it wasn't shame that caused us to ditch this thing on day one, it was bad design. When we first fired it up, it leaked from several places. We used wrenches to tighten everything up, and still it leaked. We did a load of dishes in it just the same, and the drain choked constantly on the smallest debris. By day two we were using buckets, and it was working out just fine, thanks.

Brunton Two Burner Stove
"He was sturdy and he burned hot." If I were a camp stove, that's what I'd want on my tombstone. Or you could just make this stove my tombstone. Come by, friends, and make yourself some oats or cowboy coffee. Do it in my name.

Primus Atle BBQ Stove
At first, we missed the second burner. If we're going to BBQ, after all, we'll do it over the campfire. But the BBQ worked just fine as a second burner. We toasted pita for sandwiches on it too. Not necessarily tombstone material (how far can I carry this bit?), but a damn fine stove.

Optimus Stella+
Take this handsome number for breakfast at the nearest beach or riverbank. If you haven't sat by the water at dawn with the warm hiss of a gas stove for company, you really ought to. It doesn't matter what you put on that stove--coffee, oats, hot Tang. The warmth and the hiss is the thing.

MSR Duralite Cookset

Primus Stainless Steel Cookset

Brunton Vapor Cookset

GSI Gourmet Camp Cook System

Let's handle the pots and pans all at once. The four sets we tried had much in common: they pack up real nice, one pot inside the other with the fry pan as a lid. Two things stood out. One: Primus has a damn good fry pan, with an aluminum bottom for heat distribution. Two, the interchangeable pot holders made of plastic didn't have the strength of the metal grippers. We held a relay with pots full of boiling hot water to test them. No we did not. Finally, the GSI set had honest-to-god lids, which was kind of awesome. And that set came with these great nesting cup/bowl gizmos that we used all weekend long.

Guyot Squishy Bowls
You had me at squishy. But these things are functional too. Over the course of our 72-hour camp out, these things held instant cheesecake, oats, cut fruit and whiskey. They're easy to wash--just flip 'em inside out. Oh, and they're squishy.

Sea to Summit Xbowl and Xplate
These things are cool, but maybe a little gimmicky. Yeah, the bowls and the plates have walls that fold down for compact packing, but four nested bowls or plates would take up about the same amount of space. "A" for effort.

MSR Alpine Folding Utensils
I don't want to pick on this product particularly (though the spatula did melt a tiny bit in the service of our first pancake breakfast), but on camp cooking utensils generally. I can't figure out why you couldn't pack from your home kitchen--it'll save you a few bucks.

Optimus Titanium Cutlery
See above. But in fairness, this set is made for hikers. We loved these things. Strong and beautiful, but not enough of either to replace a fistful of cutlery from the drawer in the kitchen.

Guyoto Micro Bites
"Not enough forkiness," said one RVRL volunteer. Maybe so, but this little set is kind of genius. It's like the Swiss Army Knife of camp cutlery.

Coleman Camp Oven
I'll say this: you've got to want it, and we wanted it. Turns out the RVRL was a veritable amateur baker's convention. And thanks to this contraption, we had cornbread and strawberry shortcake and we could have gone on and on. It isn't easy to back off on the temperature if you heat it too hot, but there's a thermometer built into the top of the oven so you have only yourself to blame for the black stuff at the bottom of the cake pan.

GSI Vortex Hand Crank Blender
We wanted blended drinks, what? At least we wanted to work for them. And work for them we did. This blender holds its own against a jar full of ice once you coax it into the job. What does that coaxing sound like? Like this: "Damn. Oh man. I can't get this thing moving. Geez. Ouch!" But that's ice--a smoothie is a breeze. Whatever you're blending, you'll need a steady surface for the clamp that holds the blender in place.

Coleman Chargeable Blender
This thing is bulky as all get out, but it sure does blend. Ice wasn't a problem and the blender drinks were smooth and delicious.

GSI Stainless Steel Mini Espresso
I like cowboy coffee as much as the next camper, but ask yourself: are you in fact a cowboy or girl? Truth be told, I am neither. In the civilized world I'm an espresso drinker, and I see no reason to switch just because the bears--and maybe a few less delicate campers--are watching.

GSI Milk Frother
This thing was okay, but it didn't pass the fundamental test of all camp kitchen gear: is it easy to clean. It's not. And it didn't work. It leaked.

Stanley Classic Thermos
You've got to keep that cowboy coffee warm somehow. Might as well do it with style.

Reliance Aquatainer
The water supply. They say one day there will be wars over water. It's good to have a stash. That's big picture stuff, sure, but even a campsite can get ugly without sufficient water...

Reliance Hydroller
...but water on wheels? We're not there yet. We saw this thing and thought "brilliant!"--then we filled it up and took it for a roll. We were like those people you are always stuck behind at the airport--rolling a suitcase tipping over like there were live monkeys inside. I'll carry my water for now, I can use the exercise.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at July 9, 2008 2:37 PM | Comments (0)

 

Fresh Catch

Matt Oxford was working in finance in the Twin Cities untill he decided to bag it all and move to Alaska in 1989. While running a seafood bar, he would cash checks for crab fishermen...which made him decide to and start crab fishing himself. After more than a decade at sea, he's currently catching sockeye salmon in the Upper Cook Inlet--and air-freighting the fillets to the Mill City Farmers Market.

I picked up a fillet from the season's first shipment at the Mill City General Store, thawed it, and grilled it, and was impressed by how well it had retained its texture and flavor. I gave Oxford a call, and caught him on his way back from dropping off 500 pounds of Minnesota-bound salmon at the Fed-Ex station in Homer. He says he typically sets out at midnight, and is up the river by morning, catching fish, icing them and fileting them on board, and then having them vac-packed and frozen at a small processing plant that evening. "The fish you ate was probably caught about three days earlier," he says.

If you have more questions for Matt, he'll be at the market after fishing season is over, starting in late August.

Wild Run Salmon
907-299-0730
651-999-9410
alaskaorganic@yahoo.com

The fish, right after Matt catches 'em.

Matt filleting a fish on board his boat.

The way the fillets look when they've made it to the market.

The shot that will make you want to bag it all, move to Alaska, and start fishing.

**If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest food news, sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter, "The Hot Dish." Just click here to sign up.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at July 9, 2008 1:29 PM | Comments (4)

 

Merriam Webster picks up 'pescatarian'

Merriam-Webster added more than 100 new entries to its latest edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. Among the new foods listed, some surprised me, while others seemed long overdue.

Here are a few, with their definitions, and the year in which Merriam-Webster first found them used in an English-language publication:

Edamame (1951): immature green soybeans, usually in the pod.

Pescatarian (1993): vegetarian whose diet includes fish.

Phytonutrient (1994): bioactive, plant-derived compound (as resveratrol) associated with positive health effects.

Prosecco (1881): a dry Italian sparkling wine.

Soju (1978): a Korean vodka distilled from rice.

I was a bit surprised to see soju in there, as I don't know that it's a term in the common lexicon, while prosecco, edamame, and pescatarian seemed years overdue. The definition of pescatarian, in my mind, seems to be an oxymoron (they define a vegetarian diet as "consisting wholly of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and sometimes eggs or dairy products"). Might it make more sense to define a pescatarian as someone who adheres mostly to a vegetarian diet, yet eats seafood?

I've always thought it was easier to define those with dietary restrictions by what they don't eat (vegetarians--no meat--and vegans--no meat, eggs, dairy, and sometimes honey) by what they don't eat, not, as the dictionary does, what they do eat, so maybe that's the root of the problem. But, I also think Mirriam-Webster's inclusion of lacto-ovo (and/or ovo-lacto) vegetarian, "a vegetarian whose diet includes dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts," is clunky and confusing.

**If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest food news, sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter, "The Hot Dish." Just click here to sign up.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at July 8, 2008 12:39 PM | Comments (3)

 

You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb (Bratwurst)

Filed under: Shopping

Kramarczuk's was, is, and — if there's any justice — forever shall be the greatest place in the Twin Cities to stock up for a summer grillout. The Kramarczuk's curry brat can change (for the better) even a grizzled Wisconsinite's perspective on what makes a good grilling sausage; a subtle kiss of curry flavor adds a bit of depth and East-meets-West drama to an already top-flight grilling option.

Now Kramarczuk's is selling a new brat called, in a summer-appropriate turn of phrase, a Cherry Bomb. A classic brat in most regards, the Cherry Bomb also sports bits of dried cherry and hot peppers.

It's a well-balanced delight of a brat. Sweet and hot do battle on a playing field of adeptly-spiced ground meat, and everybody wins. While it's impossible to be tired of regular bratwurst (just like it's impossible to be truly tired of, say, milk or steak or fresh asparagus), the Cherry Bomb adds a bit of frisky excitement to any given summer.

Were I to plan a grillout for a dozen people, I'd stock up on the following:

Cherry Bombs, 4

Curry Brats, 4

Fresh Plain Brats, 8 (to be boiled in beer and onions before grilling)

Hebrew National Hotdogs, 8

Soy Hotdogs, 8

Maybe a couple of Moroccan Lamb or French Apple brats, too, for novelty's sake.

And remember: Toast the buns on the grill. It's a whole new dimension of flavor and texture.

Posted by James Norton at July 8, 2008 1:40 AM | Comments (3)

 

Pick This: Strawberries

Filed under: Food

Standing among the rows of strawberry plants at Natura Farms, just outside Marine on St.Croix, I popped a berry into my mouth: The fruit was an entirely different lifeform than its supermarket cousins, with a juicy burst worth waiting a season for. Finally, I'd had it: my first taste of summer.

Compared to other fruits and vegetables, strawberries contain among the highest levels of pesticide residues, so buying organic can make a big difference. Also, if you've never stopped to appreciate the struggles of the strawberry pickers, you certainly will after spending a few hours out in the scorching sun harvesting on your hands and knees.

With stained hands and seedy teeth, I brought my gallon pail of berries home, and debated what to do with them. First, I washed all the berries, sorted out those that were bruised or overripe, hulled them and cut off the blemishes (those scraps went into my bin of red wigglers), and spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze them for smoothies (that way they don't all stick together in a clump). The rest are destined for strawberry jam, strawberry pie, and strawberries bathed in half-and-half.

To search the MN Department of Agriculture's Minnesota Grown directory to find strawberry growers in your area, click here.

**If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest food news, sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter, "The Hot Dish." Just click here to sign up.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at July 6, 2008 9:57 PM | Comments (1)

 

Freeze-Dried Hutton

Filed under: Camping

It's been years since City Pages food writer Rachel Hutton last indulged in freeze-dried camp food. She was camping with a friend who was dating a guy in the military so they packed what the military calls Meals Ready to Eat (or MREs). Each meal had a snack-sized packet of Skittles and a Barbie-scale bottle of Tabasco.

What does this have to do with camp food? It's all the same damn thing. The people who make the freeze-dried camp food make the MREs. The "chicken or beef slime" Hutton remembers from her Boundary Waters adventures ages ago is the ancestor to the gruel we put before her at the Recession Vacation Research Laboratory.

Hutton submitted herself to 13 varieties of just-add-water delights. As she choked it down, she told us a bit about how she does camp food. Here are some highlights:

Rachel is joined by RVRL volunteers Laurel, Melissa, Daniel, and me.

ON THE TABLE: Mary Jane's Farm Wild Forest Mushroom Couscous

Rachel Hutton: I just tried a mushroom and I couldn't bite it.

Me: We cooked it beyond the suggested time.

Rachel: The couscous is a little sticky, not fluffy, like it should be. Couscous is really the ideal camp food. You just need hot water. If you want to have organic wild forest mushroom couscous, couldn't you just assemble it yourself? Isn't this like nine dollars?

ON THE TABLE: Backpacker's Pantry Italian Beef Pasta

Rachel: Oh, I don't like the dehydrated peppers--reminds me of those boxed salads. Remember Suddenly Salad with that little spice pack of the dried herbs?

Maybe if I had been hiking all day I'd be happy to eat this.

When I hike, it's never far enough that I care if I'm lugging a few extra pounds. Usually, I just pack say, angel hair pasta, and instead of tomato sauce I make a Thai peanut sauce with peanut butter, garlic and soy sauce. Sometimes I'll just bring leftovers, like roasted vegetables--or I'll pack a can of garbanzo beans. Oh, and I always have instant oatmeal for breakfast.

ON THE TABLE: Backpacker's Pantry Organic Pesto Tofu

Melissa: What's the pesto part? Those tiny green flecks?

Rachel: This has absolutely no flavor.

ON THE TABLE: Mountain House Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Rachel: (Looking at the ingredient list) Huh, this has zero trans fats.

Laurel: That's more than you can say for many of these.

Rachel: Oh this is very Chef Boyardee. The meat is unnecessary. It just makes it worse.

Me: I cannot lie, I could finish this.

ON THE TABLE: Mountain House Chicken Breasts & Mashed Potatoes

Me: Well this is just plain nasty.

Melissa: You have to eat it because I fished the chicken out of its dirty water.

Rachel: (Looking at two complete chicken breasts, just re-hydrated) I went to a live bird market where you actually kill the chicken yourself and this is more disgusting.

Laurel: Do they chop off the head?

Rachel: No they just go for the jugular.

Laurel: I'm kind of digging this in a processed food kind of way.

Rachel: (Taking a whiff from the package) I think this one most resembles cat food.

ON THE TABLE: Natural High Beef Enchilada

Rachel: This tastes like a combination of Textured Vegetable Protein, leftover oatmeal, and corn tortillas.

She leans over and plucks a few blades of grass, then puts the grass in her mouth.

Let me compare...yeah, about the same.

Melissa: You know we have dogs here, right?

Rachel: (Unfazed) The packaging makes all of this food look so good. Look at this imagery. I'm getting lakes and flowers and llamas--like I'm going to be transported to Nepal or something.

It's funny--one would think with the strides we've made in the American culinary scene that it would have trickled down to camping food. The market of consumers for this stuff probably overlaps heavily with people who spend a lot of money on food and wine. Oh my god, they don't have dehydrated wine do they?*

* Answer: yes.

**If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest food news, sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter, "The Hot Dish." Just click here to sign up.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at July 6, 2008 8:31 PM | Comments (4)

 

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