Food

Is this the best cookie ever?

Filed under: Food

The other day, I was at Kopplin's Coffee in St. Paul and decided to pick out something sweet to go with my cappuccino. I was about to go for the standard chocolate chip, courtesy Rustica Bakery, when this homely, bittersweet chocolate one caught my eye.

One bite and it was all over. Seriously, I think this may be the world's greatest living cookie. Here's why:

1. It has a deep cocoa flavor that's not too sweet.
2. And a hint of salt, which gives it a little edge.
3. Though the cookie wasn't hot, it had the textural qualities of fresh-from-the-oven: a crisp edge and crackled surface, and a center that's soft, pliable, and studded with chocolate hunks.
4. I'm a sucker for anything sprinkled with sugar on top.

Within seconds, my friend and I devoured the cookie, then immediately went back to the counter and bought another. And ever since, I've been finding excuses to plan my routes past Rustica. The bittersweet chocolate cookie is the best way to spend a dollar in this city.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at April 30, 2008 1:42 PM | Comments (2)

 

Don't be afraid, it's just Thai green curry

Filed under: Recipes , Recipes

I know, homemade curry sounds really complicated, but I promise you, if you can throw ingredients in a food processor/blender then transfer those ingredients to a pot on the stove, then you can make this dish.

What’ you’ll need: Lots and lots of green stuff. No, really.

Curry:
2 serrano chilies
2 jalapeño peppers
2 teaspoons of coriander
1 teaspoon of cumin
teaspoon of pepper (white pepper if you have it)
1 tablespoon of lemongrass (I used dried, but fresh works too)
1 tablespoon of ginger (I used the stuff from the jar, but again, fresh is classy)
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of cilantro (I often use more so I don’t waste the bundle)
2 teaspoons of lime zest
1 cup of chopped shallots (a restaurant vegetable you should try at home)

More stuff:

Fried tofu or mock duck
Red bell pepper
Red onion
squash
A can of coconut milk
Maple syrup (to taste, but probably a tablespoon or two)
Lime juice
½ cup of basil

Really though, you can use any vegetable you want, and if you don’t like tofu you could probably swap chicken or beef strips or whatever instead. Though it is pictured, you will not need a bottle of tequila.

Chop up the chilies and jalapeños. Seed them if you’re a wuss and are afraid of spiciness. Add them to a half cup of boiling water. Cover and let them sit for fifteen minutes.

With a food processor (or a blender, if you feel lucky) add the spices, the shallots, garlic, zest, and ginger. Give it a twirl. It’s ok if it’s still pretty chunky.

Add the cilantro, pepper mix (with the water) and spin until it’s completely paste.

Meanwhile, at the stove, add your chopped veggies and protein to a pan and cook until just slightly tender. You can also completely skip this step if you’re willing to let the raw veggies stew longer. Sometimes I do this when I plan eating the curry the next day rather than that evening. Your call.

Dump the paste mixture into a pan on low-medium heat. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring constantly. No matter how good things might smell right now, don’t stick your head over the pot and inhale. Your eyes will burn with the wrath of the chili pepper.

Add your can of coconut milk and turn up the heat. Stir to incorporate the paste with the milk, and bring to a low boil.

Add lime juice and maple syrup to your sea of green. Sometimes I use a tablespoon of maple syrup, sometimes more. Two squirts tends to be the right amount overall.

Add the veggies and stir everything together, for about five minutes (longer if you went the raw route). Remove from heat and add the basil, and let everything sit for another 5 or so minutes.

Aaaand serve. I often just eat it straight, but naan or rice also make tasty additions. Not too stressful, right? Unless you add chicken to the mix, this dish is vegan, and it tastes even better on the second and third day.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at April 26, 2008 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

 

Lunch at TropicWorld

Filed under: Food

Standing at the intersection of Lake Street and 31st Ave. earlier this week, I was struck by the fact that I was hungry. Available options: McDonald's, Subway, and TropicWorld Jamaican / West African foods.

TropicWorld it was. Home was close at hand, so I picked up a box of two Caribbean Food Delights Chicken Patties ($3.50).

The patties consist of an empanada-style crust (buttery, a little crunchy, not subtle but tasty, regardless) filled with a paste of ground chicken and spices. Heated in a 400-degree oven, the effect is not unlike a Jamaican chicken pot pie, with a warm, nourishing core surrounded by pastry.

The chicken has a pronounced spicy bite that attacks halfway through each mouthful and lingers, assertively but tactfully, until well after you're through chewing. If you're in want of something with which to wash down the pattie, grab a D&G Genuine Jamaican ginger beer ($1.50); it's got enough fight to battle down the lingering chicken spice while bringing its own gingery brand of tomfoolery to the party. The two flavors are natural dancing partners. Swallow some soda, and you'll want some more pattie. Eat some pattie, and you'll want some more soda. Pretty soon you're done with both, full, and quite contented.

Posted by James Norton at April 24, 2008 1:12 AM | Comments (0)

 

Must-Haves for Spring

Filed under: Food

Bell’s Oberon: The summer seasonal from this Kalamazoo, MI brewery is a light wheat ale that’s a perfect sweet-and-spicy warm weather brew. Leinenkugels’ makes a Summer Shandy, but I’m partial to the homemade version, of equal parts light beer and lemonade (steeping fresh ginger in the water used for the lemonade makes it even better).

Sea Salt: The casual Minnehaha Falls Park eatery is open for the season and it’s the best place for seafood in town. The new crawfish po-boy is a real sandwich eater’s sandwich--I was so distracted by its deliciousness that I nearly ate the whole thing before remembering to take a picture.

Morels: Some like to forage for these musky mushrooms, but they also recently arrived on the shelves at the Wedge, if you’re inclined to cook them yourself (they’re great in soups, on steaks, or just sauteed in butter), and they’ll be on the Bayport Cookery’ s morel menu in May, if you’d rather have someone else cook them for you. Or hit up the annual Morel Mushroom Festival, May 16-17, in Muscoda, Wisconsin.

A CSA Share: If you love local food, buying a community supported agriculture share is like getting a birthday present once a week. Local farms deliver boxes full of whatever’s ripe--corn, carrots, peas, garlic, potatoes, onions, melons, salad greens, etc. CSAs vary in price, delivery locations, farming practices, and offerings (some include meat, coffee, cheese, etc.)--and a few have a work requirement. For more information, the Land Stewardship Project has a fairly comprehensive directory. *Note that joining a CSA is a commitment: When the box arrives, you’ve got to prep the produce (cook it, can it, etc.)--before it rots away in the bottom of the fridge--and you need to embrace veggies like kale and kohlrabi. If you’re a small household of busy people who will be out of town a lot, think about splitting a share or just shopping at the farmers market.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at April 23, 2008 10:00 AM | Comments (3)

 

There's No Place Like Third Place

Filed under: Food

The Washington Post Style section published an engaging opinion piece about the idea of the "third place" in our lives; home is the first place, work the second, and that special bar/restaurant/coffee shop the third. It's a place where you're emotionally rooted, even though you're out in public, among a mix of friends and strangers.

Writer Bruce Johansen moved to the D.C. area in 1994, but he uses his Post soapbox to recall some of his favorite Minneapolis eateries, starting with memories from a recent trip back to a Dunn Bros. Coffee shop, and moving on from there:

Opening the door to Matt's Bar in Minneapolis, I'm comforted by the dark exterior that never changes, and the knowledge that a "jucy lucy" — a burger with piping hot cheese in its center — is in store. It's a place where I've joined friends and co-workers for more than 25 years, so being there stirs memories. At the Bryant-Lake Bowl I know I'll be served a tall, cold Summit Ale — my favorite local brew — while listening to the crash of pins in the adjoining lanes. Stopping at the Band Box Diner, I'll be greeted by owner Brad, who will stop to chat in between flipping pancakes and refilling coffee cups. These idiosyncratic places are Minneapolis to me.

Speaking personally, that "third place" was/is Barbette, but now that I've moved to Longfellow, the search is on for a new home base... it's almost as though I need to move a second time.

Much as I loathe artificially "stimulating" questions at the end of blog posts, I would be curious if any TC Eater readers had places you consider to be your home away from home.

Posted by James Norton at April 22, 2008 1:03 AM | Comments (6)

 

Ten Things I'll Miss About Uptown Eating

Filed under: Food

Last week, my wife and I moved from 33rd and Dupont to a spot almost three miles due east. We're stoked about the new neighborhood, and we're a stone's throw from eateries including Town Talk, Manny's Tortas, Midori's Floating world and T's Place.

Still, there's a lot of Uptown stuff we'll miss, and that's only become crystal clear this week, now that the options are gone. If you're in Uptown or a frequent visitor, you might find a useful tidbit or two by poring through this list.

10. Campiello for entertaining parents and relatives.

Campiello does relatively simple, inventive, chic pasta in a way that is both urban and exciting and safe and accessible. It's not quite Broder's, but, then again, you can actually get a table.

9. El Meson for sangria and misc. tapas.

Outdoor tables. Hot summer weather. Sangria. El Meson.

8. Blue Sky Creamery for blue moon ice cream.

Blue moon ice cream used to be my standard go-to flavor when growing up in Wisconsin, and it's not universally available. It was nice to be able to pick up a cone after dinner, or after walking around Lake Calhoun.

7. Amazing Thailand for whatever.

As mentioned in a recent post, this place has heart, charming decor, and inconsistent but often excellent Thai food.

6. Chino Latino for happy hour.

Gotta love $3 tortas and cheap Leine's on draft.

5. It's Greek to Me for flaming saganaki.

Saganaki can be overly heavy or greasy, but the stuff at It's Greek to Me is like a light, lemony fondue. Served on pita, it's to die for.

4. Falafel King for gyros and/or falafel.

Earnest, solid interpretations of some of the world's most delicious fast food. Every neighborhood should have at least one decent falafelria / gyro stand.

3. Kitchen Window for conspicuous kitchen consumption.

As witnessed by my various gadgets posts on this blog, I'm a fan of Kitchen Window's expansive and eclectic collection of gear. If Kitchen Window doesn't have something, you probably don't need it. If they DO have something, even if you don't need it, you probably want it.

2. Lucia's To Go for breakfast.

Almond croissants! Budapest nut muffins! Light, delicate crepes! Excellent tea! Lucia's bakery offers a light, painstakingly prepared spread of ever-rotating but always spot-on baked goods that mean it's always a treat, even first thing in the morning.

And finally, coming in at the top spot...

1. Barbette for pretty much everything.

Bruch? Yes. Lunch? Yes. Happy hour? Yes. Dinner, hell yes, light or heavy, casual or fancy, romantic or platonically convivial. This joint is the Swiss Army knife of Minneapolis-St. Paul restaurants. And I liked being within walking distance of it. Dammit.

Posted by James Norton at April 17, 2008 1:17 AM | Comments (6)

 

Our own Food Network star

Filed under: Food

Congratulations to Nipa Bhatt, former owner of the Gypsy Curry House in Chanhassen, who has just been chosen as a contender on the upcoming fourth season of "The Next Food Network Star," premiering June 1.

Bhatt, 35, who has been working as a marketing manager since GCH closed, was selected from 150-some applicants who tried out at the Chambers Hotel several months ago. While the show's producers weren't very articulate about why they selected Bhatt, ("she naturally brought something different to the table...she brought with her a warmth and passion that we all responded to..."), based on my experience dining at the GCH, I think she was a great choice, both in terms of her Indian-influenced cooking repertoire and her effusive personality. If Bhatt is able to impress celebrity judge Bobby Flay and beat out the other nine professional and amateur cooks, she'll star in her own six-episode series on Food Network.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at April 16, 2008 9:11 AM | Comments (0)

 

Stuff White People Eat

Filed under: Food

If your friends hadn't already emailed you a link to Christian Lander's blog, stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, certainly you heard about it last month after Lander, an Internet copywriter, landed a $300,000 book deal from Random House to chronicle the tastes of privileged progressives. The site, and presumably the book, (which has been fast-tracked to debut August 12, before everyone loses interest), gives the lowdown on everything from Having Gay Friends to Yoga to Not Having a TV. (A friend who works at a major publishing house told me that within a week of Lander's deal, they received a proposal for Stuff Black People Like --and declined to make an offer.)

I was particularly interested in the food-related ones, which included sushi, breakfast places, coffee, microbreweries and bottles of water (Lander notes that metal water bottles have recently replaced Nalgenes, the previous icon of outdoorsy whiteness, due to concerns about chemicals leaching from plastics).

A common theme seems to be making food choices that reflect social responsibility, openness to diversity, refined taste, and exclusiveness--the more obscure and difficult to acquire, the better. Lander's explanations of the items don't really offer much more to the joke than just naming the fame, but I did think that this section from Being the Only White Person Around was pretty funny.

Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.

Here are a few other food items that I'd add to the list:



Growing your own organic produce--apartment dwellers are advised to reserve a community garden plot, or at least plant a window herb garden
Smoothies--extra points for wheatgrass extracts and antioxident boosters
Shopping at ethnic markets--evidence you respect and understand non-white culture


White Castle--just to prove you're not a snob
Taquerias--especially ones recommended by Calvin Trillin
Uncommon condiments--sriracha, hot mustard, homemade pickles


Artisan cocktails--must involve herbal infusions, artistic garnishes, and a certified "mixologist"

Posted by Rachel Hutton at April 14, 2008 2:08 PM | Comments (8)

 

Is bottled water tapped out?

Filed under: Food

Restaurant-goers no longer need to feel like cheapskates when responding to a server's "Sparkling or still?" with an awkward, "How about tap?": The faucet is hip again.

Twin Cities restaurants are joining nationwide efforts to eschew unenvironmental bottled water in lieu of tap through a campaign called Think Outside the Bottle,

which reports that producing bottles for the US bottled water market required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil last year--that's enough fuel for 1 million US cars for a year. Plastic water bottle production generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide last year and when bottles aren't recycled, more than 4 billion pounds of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills or as roadside litter.

I'm all for drinking tap water in lieu of wasteful bottled, with one caveat. When I dined at an upscale restaurant in downtown Minneapolis recently, the tap tasted so fishy, probably due to spring run-off that I switched to bottled..and felt like a total ass about it.

Think Outside the Bottle participating restaurants:
Annie's Parlour
Barbette
Birchwood Cafe
Bryant Lake Bowl
Common Roots Cafe
Ecopolitan
Egg & I
Kafe 421
Kitty Cat Klub
Sunny Side Up Cafe
Red Stag Supperclub
Restaurant Alma
Sapor Cafe
The Lexington
Cafe Amore

Posted by Rachel Hutton at April 10, 2008 1:34 PM | Comments (3)

 

An Amazing Moment

Filed under: Food

Those fortunate enough to dine at Amazing Thailand this past Saturday were able to observe a fleeting yet elegant spectacle: The restaurant's general manager performing traditional Thai dance, while appropriately costumed and holding two flowers containing lit candles. Her sudden, smiling appearance at my table was one of the most pleasantly striking moments* I've enjoyed in a lifetime of dining out.

Amazing Thailand (which I reviewed shortly after it opened) has become one of my favorite restaurants. This is not merely because of the food (which ranges from decent to excellent) or the decor (which includes an actual tuk tuk parked in the foyer), but because of its spirit. You can tell that this is a place that is fighting to do well, and winning over an increasingly large and loyal following in the process.

The idea of having someone perform Thai dance to traditional music in the middle of the dinner hour is not everyone's cup of tea, and it has to be somewhat nerve-wracking to perform while onlookers wolf down spring rolls and pad siew. Speaking personally, however: Sometimes taking this kind of a risk can give patrons an intangible but precious gift: a memorable moment of grace.

---

*(Least pleasantly striking moment: dining at Casa de Lara in Madison and watching a waitress drop an enormous platter of glassware onto the tile floor, and then have to pick up the pieces, sobbing quietly, while the entire restaurant gawked. I still sometimes wish I could travel back in time and help her pick up the shards, but then I think: Wouldn't that have just made it even more awkward? Then again: Is it possible for anything to have been more awkward? The whole moment was so riveting and terrible that it was like a ten minute one-act play about the nature of humiliation.)

Posted by James Norton at April 8, 2008 12:57 AM | Comments (2)

 

Your Pathway to Pizza

Filed under: Food

If you're plugged into the local blog scene, you probably already know that Aaron Landry blogs about pizza with an almost frenzied dedication. And you probably already know that Ed Kohler (of The Deets) is one of the most juiced-in dudes within several adjoining counties. But did you know that Kohler has assembled a Google map of Landry's pizza investigations?

Posted by James Norton at April 3, 2008 7:35 PM | Comments (1)

 

Sunday Night Pot Roast at Pittsburgh Blue

Filed under: Food

Sunday nights can be slow in the restaurant business, so it's not a bad time to play around and try out some recurring, customer-building, weekly specials.

Few places in the area have approached the dead zone/opportunity with as much smarts and moxie as Pittsburgh Blue, the relatively new Parasole property out in Maple Grove.

For $8.95 — an amount fractional in terms of the restaurant's other offerings — you can get a share of a table-sized helping of old-school pot roast (two people are needed for a minimum order, and it scales up as needed). It's not much more than a humble cut of beef stewed until forkably tender and served up with carrots, potatoes and small (possibly Bermuda?) onions.

Covered in pan gravy, impeccably seasoned, lip-smackingly moist and flavorful; this is old-school home cooking, available, surprisingly and affordably, at an upscale concept restaurant. The craziest thing is that while the name suggests a load of heavy food, the actual portion sizes are modest and reasonable. The stuff sticks to your ribs, but doesn't bust a gut.

Posted by James Norton at March 31, 2008 10:05 PM | Comments (1)

 

Celeb-spotting at 7 Sushi Lounge

Filed under: Food

According to one of its waiters, the hot new nightspot 7 Sushi Lounge, upstairs from R. Norman's on 7th and Hennepin, is frequented by "lots of hockey players" and "minor celebrities." I, unfortunately, didn't see any on my visits. The only person I recognized was WCCO's Sue Zelickson (in R. Norman's, actually) whose fame may rank more on par with a player from the Junior Hockey League than the Minnesota Wild. Here's my tally so far:

R. Norman/7 Sushi Lounge
Sue Z.

Bellanotte
Rashad Mccants (check out his poetry)

Who have you spotted? And what constitutes a "minor celebrity" in this town, anyway?

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 27, 2008 7:07 PM | Comments (4)

 

James Beard nominees: 3 locals in the mix

Filed under: Food

The James Beard Awards, aka the restaurant world's Oscars, announced this year's nominees and we've got 3 Minneapolis chefs representing our region: Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery, Tim McKee of La Belle Vie and Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma.

In the past, local chefs faced stiff competition from those in Chicago, but, as of last year, the Beard Foundation split the region into two categories--now we're in Midwest and Chicago's in Great Lakes--giving our chefs good odds of taking home the prize in June.

In the meantime, the best way to congratulate these guys is to make a reservation.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 26, 2008 1:09 PM | Comments (1)

 

Knockout Punch!

Filed under: Food

I was at Punch Pizza in St. Paul this weekend, facing the usual dilemma: Could I will myself to resist ordering a favorite (the Borgata, the Vesuvio) and try something new? My friend recommended the Toto--melty goat cheese, cracked red pepper, toasty garlic, crisp bits of proscuitto, and heat-wilted arugula--and I think it's my hands-down favorite...that is, I suppose, until the next time I try something new. Any recommendations? What's your favorite knockout Punch?

Also, the restaurant recently launched a new blog to announce the winners of their "Capture our Fire" photo contest: They're showcasing the finalists in each category right now, by posting new photos every other day, to sustain the suspense...

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 21, 2008 9:38 AM | Comments (4)

 

The cheese (cart) does not stand alone

Filed under: Food

In a recent review of Meritage in St. Paul, I mentioned that they were the only restaurant in the Twin Cities that had a cheese cart. I just found out that's no longer the case: Heidi's in Minneapolis recently transitioned from serving a cheese plate to a cheese "trolley," under the command of maitre d' Frank Thorpe. (At Meritage, cheeses are sold individually, for $5 apiece; Heidi's offers an assortment for $17.)

If you're a fan of having your food wheeled out and served tableside, try the bananas Foster at R. Norman's, which offers a pretty fantastic flaming display.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 19, 2008 11:34 AM | Comments (3)

 

Govt stifles growth of local food

Filed under: Food

Farmer Jack Hedin of Featherstone Farms in Rushford recently published a New York Times opinion piece about his efforts to expand his production of organic produce being stifled by the Agriculture Department's commodity farm program.

If you buy local, organic fruits and veggies, you've probably eaten Featherstone's food as the farm supplies all of the Twin Cities co-ops, Whole Foods, Lunds/Byerly's, Kowalski's, plus restaurants like the Birchwood Cafe, Lucia's, and Common Roots. But the demand for local foods is growing to include a much wider distribution network, and when I checked in with Hedin this week, he told me that's why he’s been trying to expand his operations. When a wholesaler asked him to supply melons for large supermakets such Cub Foods last year, he says, he simply didn’t have enough product. "They wanted twice or three times what I could produce," he says. Hedin has been trying to raise awareness about the Farm Bill in the midst of trying to recover from last year's flood, which he estimates caused about half-million dollars worth of damage to the farm. "The Federal Farm Bill is something that anyone who eats in this county has an enormous stake in," he says.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 14, 2008 10:00 AM | Comments (3)

 

5 common coffee mistakes

Filed under: Food

Brothers Miguel and Aaron Meza of Paradise Roasters point out five common coffee-making mistakes and how to avoid them:

1. Over-roasted beans. While dark roasting can mask bad beans' imperfections, it can smother the subtle flavors of good ones. Also, coffee tastes bests within a week or so of roasting: some serious coffee drinkers have taken to roasting at home.
2. Pre-ground coffee. Once beans are ground, there's a lot more surface area that can oxidize and make the coffee stale. Be sure to grind just before drinking.
3. Too little coffee. Miguel recommends using 10 grams (about 2 T) per 6 oz. water--twice what most people are used to.
4. Water that's not hot enough. Most at-home coffee makers don’t get the water up to the necessary 200 degrees. If you use a French press, use water just off the boil.
5. Impure water. Tap water is usually too hard or contains minerals that can taint flavor. Use spring or drinking water instead.

Oh, and if you like to dope your coffee with milk and sugar, the brothers definitely wouldn't recommend doing so with premium beans. “It'd be like going to Manny’s and ordering your steak well-done,” Aaron says.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 11, 2008 4:33 PM | Comments (4)

 

Strip Club: cheeky or offensive?

Filed under: Food

So far, at least, there's only been one incident of confusion regarding the name of the new restaurant, Strip Club, in St. Paul. Co-owner Tim Niver told me that one day two guys walked in with dollar bills in their hands and asked, "Where's the other room?" (The guys, likely non-native English speakers, apparently didn't realize the name is a pun on strip steak. Neither did my friend's fourth-grade son, who, when his father felt compelled to explain what strip steaks and strip clubs were, responded, "Why would anyone want to see somebody take their clothes off? That's gross.")

Niver says they chose the name because they thought it was funny and memorable and that, so far, only one neighbor has raised concerns about the name's appropriateness, citing concerns about the area's troubles with prostitution. We've seen this question raised in the past regarding Chino Latino's ad campaigns: Where's the line between cheeky and offensive?

Those who find the name in poor taste should at least be happy to know that googling "Strip Club" with "St. Paul" now brings up only mentions of the restaurant on the first page, which certainly wasn't the case when I tried that a month ago.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at March 5, 2008 11:14 AM | Comments (7)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Sarah Master

Filed under: Food

Barbette head chef Sarah Master (interviewed this week) had far more to say than could be contained within the puny confines of a 500-word print article.

ON THE INTOXICATING ODOR OF SEAFOOD

"When I started, I was doing a lot of Creole, fried green tomatoes, and oysters, and I worked at the frier station at my first cooking job down there. My husband used to complain that I came home smelling like oysters all the time — they call them "ersters" down there, you know, so I'd come home and he'd say: 'Oh, Erster Girl's home!'"

ON FORMER BARBETTE HEAD CHEF LANDON SCHOENEFELD'S DEPARTURE

"He wanted to open his own place. I don't know how that's coming along. He's over at Porter and Fry right now, line cooking. I think he's very creative, he's an excellent cook, and I think that this place was trying to rein him in a little bit to a certain style that he didn't really want to do. He parted on good terms. He decided that it wasn't for him, and he gave his notice, and said he would work out to the end of the year, but they decided to promote me."

ON SPOON RIVER

"Spoon River was good — it helped lead up into this. I was able to do a lot of specials there. I did the vegetarian special there, which is funny, because there aren't a lot of vegetarians in New Orleans. And everything there is really heavy. And Brenda [Langton] was always like: 'No no no no, we gotta keep it light... let's put some rice on here... brown rice on this and that...' And I was like: 'I don't even know how to cook brown rice.' She kind of reined me in a little bit, and showed me the ropes of vegetarian food."

ON THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT

"I really like how most new restaurants around here now are going local. There's so many places around here where you can get great local produce. A dude dropped off a whole lamb in my kitchen today that he killed last week. That kind of stuff is really neat to me. It was hard from me when I moved up here to not get the guy knocking on the back door with a huge cooler of shrimp, saying: 'I caught these this afternoon.' But now, it's like, I've got people who are bringing me these great heirloom tomatoes. And I get to order whole lamb and break it down myself. We use Fisher Farms pork here... I'm trying to start a deal with Sylvan Hills Farm, for our produce, starting early summer and running until mid-fall, just getting produce from them. I see that shift happening here, and that's really neat. That was something they didn't really have in New Orleans, even though there were farms all over the place down there, they didn't use a lot of local produce."

Posted by James Norton at March 4, 2008 6:30 PM | Comments (0)

 

My-T-Fine Bakery/Cafe closed

Filed under: Food

In case you hadn't heard, the tiny cafe at 43rd and Bryant has closed its doors, so Kingfield will have to do without its scratch-made dinners and light-as-a-bubble sugar buns. I spoke with owner Gretchen Bustin, who said that right now she's not sure what she's doing next. Let's hope it'll be restaurant-related.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at February 29, 2008 9:13 AM | Comments (4)

 

Pinkberry, we don't want 'cha anyway

Filed under: Food

Ahh, another New York Times article about the trendy frozen yogurt battles being waged in Greenwich Village, where Pinkberry and Red Mango face-off like dairy-based Jets and Sharks.

So should we expect this sort of thing coming soon to Hennepin Avenue? Not according to Pinkberry’s website, which states that store franchises are available to residents of certain states--and Minnesota’s not one of them.

Not that we’d want the overhyped fro-yo, anyway. I recently stopped in at the Pinkberry and Red Mango shops on Bleeker Street shops was, frankly, underwhelmed. Both versions tasted like the same TCBY we’ve been eating since the 80s. Pinkberry’s is a little creamier and tangier, but otherwise, it seems the only draw is for dieters using Pinkberry to satisfy ice cream cravings. With so many great local scoop shops (Crema Cafe, Izzy’s, Grand Ole Creamery, Sebastian Joe’s, etc.), if you can spare the calories, stick with the real thing.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at February 27, 2008 10:06 PM | Comments (12)

 

Now Open: Porter & Frye

Filed under: Food

Minneapolis got a mega-dose of luxe living when the new Hotel Ivy opened last Thursday: pricey penthouse, super-swank spa, and the year's most anticipated restaurant, Porter & Frye. One of the main reasons for the excitement is that the kitchen is run by chef Steven Brown, formerly of Harry's Food and Cocktails (and Restaurant Levain and RockStar), with the assistance of a number of other notable talents, including Landon Schoenfeld (Barbette, Bulldog NE) and Mark McGraw (Confluence).

The restaurant is located in the original historic Ivy Tower, that moody stone structure by the convention center that sat empty for years. It's set up similar to the Chambers Kitchen, with bar and tables on the ground floor, and a more formal dining area with VIP booths one story below. I haven't eaten there yet, but the menu looks formal with some rustic touches: hot potato salad and chowder with ham hock and rock shrimp for starters, lots of beef and lamb entrees. Review forthcoming, after it's been open a month.

Posted by Rachel Hutton at February 25, 2008 11:49 PM | Comments (2)

 

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)

 

Fast Food Menus

Filed under: Food

The New York City Board of Health unanimously voted to make chain restaurants (more than 15 locations) post calorie numbers on their menu boards.

The New York Restaurant Association sued to stop it from happening, but lost. It seems like they might have an argument that this law should be for all restaurants. Is there some special logic to only forcing chain restaurants to displaying the unappetizing information? Aren't your arteries being clogged if you eat a Big Mac (540 calories, 29 grams of fat) or a burger from a restaurant with one (or 14 for that matter) stores?

Posted by Ben Palosaari at January 22, 2008 5:06 PM | Comments (0)

 

Half Baked Holiday

Filed under: Food

Only in America: National Pie Day. Wow. Here are the six most valuable things I learned from the American Pie Council's Web site.

'By its very nature, pie is meant to be eaten with others.'

By bringing pie to work, 'You’ll create a lot of good rapport and maybe even get a raise.'

The best way to thank somebody is 'with a warm hug wrapped in a delicious crust.'

Most Americans believe chocolate pie to be the 'most romantic pie.'

'It’s great with lunch, dinner or as a late-night snack.'

You can get free pie on National Pie Day at Bakers Square.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at January 17, 2008 11:27 AM | Comments (1)

 

No reservations

Filed under: Food

Meant no chance to see Anthony Bourdain last night at the Triple Rock. He packed the joint and dozens more were turned away. But he's all over the local airwaves. Mary Lucia talked with him on The Current yesterday. Channel 9 had him in studio this morning. And Kerri Miller interviewed him on today's Midmorning show. (One stunning revelation from the Miller chat: he quit smoking!) Bourdain will also be signing books at MOA this afternoon.

Posted by Paul Demko at November 27, 2007 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

 

Reservations with Anthony Bourdain

Filed under: Food

One only has to tune in to the Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations to see that in the past two years the man has truly become a globetrotter. Hardly a regurgitation of the Zagat-approved restaurants of the cities, Bourdain dines on the street, with locals in hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and even occasionally at private residences. His show, much like his writing, can be hilarious, critical, and endearing—all in one segment.

Although he received a lot press for merging politics with food as war broke out in Lebanon, that special episode was hardly the first suggestion Bourdain has made that food and politics are intertwined. For example, recently while traveling through Texas and Mexico, Bourdain struggled with the concept of borders, citizenship, and the people who deal with these issues on a daily basis—all while dining in Texas on sushi prepared by a Mexican chef. Although he was traveling in Jamaica with a cold at the time of this interview, Anthony Bourdain managed to take a moment to chat with City Pages.

City Pages: How do you feel about the rise of the celebrity chef? Do you feel that it’s good for the industry? Is it detrimental in any way?

Anthony Bourdain: I think that on balance, it's a good thing. Even at its most annoying—if you're talking celebrity "chefs" and not including the industry created bobbleheads, the phenomenon has raised the hopes and expectations and prestige of working cooks. Kitchens have more pride and hope than when I started out—and that can only be a good thing. And almost anything that informs the public and raises their awareness and knowledge—aspirations and expectations for a meal is a good thing. The downside is the poor bastards who are taking out huge student loans to go to cooking school at age 35—without really knowing what they're getting into. Basically—if you're going to culinary school to be a "celebrity chef," you are in for a very hard—and likley very short ride in the restaurant biz. The industry will always shake out the unprepared, the uninformed, the weak, and the delusional. A lot of nice people are going to get shredded in the interim. Prestige may have grown for cooks—but the work itself is NOT glamorous.

CP: Has your cooking style changed since traveling extensively for your show?

AB: No. I cooked old school French bistro classics ‘til the end of my cooking days. Even I am not so arrogant as to think I could cook Thai food—or add anything to that glorious, centuries old tradition, after only a few weeks in Thailand.

CP:Have you ever been terrified of a meal (be it the situation or the actual food)? How did you get through the experience?

AB: Chicken McNuggets terrify me. That, and uncleaned warthog ass encrusted with sand, fur, crap, and redolent of undigested reflux. I won't be having that again. Oh yeah—I think those Cinnabon things are pretty scary. They're fucking huge. You see some Jabba-sized monster shoving one a those things into their face in an airport at six in the morning? That's the sort of thing that haunts your dreams.

CP:Do you have any theories as to why Americans are obsessed with food safety, yet continue to consume junk food?

AB: We're afraid of everything these days. We're quickly becoming a nanny state—and it's not just us. The EU is way ahead of us in building in and reinforcing the notion that the State owes you a guarantee that everything you could possibly shove in your mouth is "clean," "pure, " and without any risk. It has been decided that we are too stupid to make even the most basic of decisions about our lives—what to put in our mouths. We have essentially called for our own infantalization, and not without reason. One only need look at the current stats for expected cases of Type 2 diabetes, percentage of Americans currently considered "morbidly" obese, or unhealthily overweight, to see the point of view.

CP:If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

AB: Sushi. It's clean, it's light, it's delicious. I would, of course, want Masa Takayama preparing it for me.

CP:How do you feel about people that say they search for “authentic” food—people that expect to eat Thai food in Minnesota as if dining in Thailand, for example. Does the addition of the cream cheese wonton to a menu destroy any attempts at authenticity? Is authenticity important?

AB: Authentic first. I'm willing to try and occasionally enjoy improvs on the classics. But just as chefs should know and respect the classics before expanding their horizons, I think diners should know the "real thing" before they start eating cream cheese, crawdad, and avocado novelty hand rolls at Cajun Sushi Dome.

See Anthony Bourdain read, sign, and discusses his latest book, No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach at the Triple Rock tonight. The event is all ages, free, and starts at 7:00 p.m.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at November 26, 2007 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

It's Minnesota Beer Time!

Filed under: Food

It's no shocker that the Midwest, often referred to as the Grain Belt, makes great beer. And though lately Minnesota has experienced a beer renaissance of sorts with brands such as Surly and Summit, as well as notable brewpubs like Town Hall, Minnesotans have been producing beer as far back as colonization. Doug Hoverson, a beer judge, teacher, and drink enthusiast, has meticulously reconstructed the history of Minnesota beer, from homebrews to Hamms to the present, in Amber Water: The History of Brewing in Minnesota. He took a moment in his busy schedule to chat with City Pages.

CP: What originally peaked your interest in Minnesota beer and its history?

DH: When I was at college I had some friends that got me interested in beer other than the readily available, heavily advertised, light beers, and when I came back to Minnesota it was just as Summit and James Page was starting to bring out their new beers. From there I started experimenting with different types of beers to see what was out there. I didn’t really have the idea for writing a book for another 10 years— I was looking at some old newspapers from Morehead back in the 1880s to for a paper I was writing on the Northern Pacific Railroad, and I came across some ads from old breweries I had never heard of. At that point I started to look around to see if there was a book on MN breweries There wasn’t. I thought it might be a fun book to write so I got started.

CP: I see that you’re a beer judge. How does one become an expert in the subject? What are some of things you look for during competition?

DH: The process for training is basically, local homebrew clubs put on a 40-hour class usually 3 hours a night over 12 to13 weeks. At the end you take a three, three and a half, hour and a half test where you describe beer styles, write sample ballots on mystery beers, and describe the brewing process. It’s a fairly tough test. You have to know a lot of trivia about types of ingredients and particular styles. Judging it, it’s really more like a dog show than anything else— it might be the cutest dog ever, but if it doesn’t look like what that particular type of dog is supposed to look like, it can’t win. With beer it’s the same thing—it might be your absolute favorite beer, but if they’re claiming it’s a pilsner, and it doesn’t have the right characteristics, it’s not a winner.

CP: Have you found you have a greater understanding and appreciation of chemistry through your beer research?

DH: Definitely! When I was working on the book, as well as training to be a beer judge, I had to learn things about amino acids and temperatures of reactions—things that I paid no attention to when I was doing chemistry in high school and college.

CP: What are some common misperceptions about beer—be it historical inaccuracies, or just general beer misperceptions that irk you?

DH: One of theories that comes up is what exactly bock beer is. There seems to be a perception that bock beer, because it’s much darker, is whatever is left in the tank at the end of the year, and they scrape that out and turn it into bock. There’s never anything left in the tank at the end of the brewing cycle, it’s absolutely clean afterwards. Bock is simply made stronger, with a darker grain mix. It would be like saying you made a pot of tea, and whatever you scrape at the bottom is coffee— you have to make coffee, and bock is an intentional product.

CP: It’s curious that the beverage industry often reflects trends in society more so than many other products. Why do you think that is?

DH: Beer is ultimately a luxury product. I think because of that it is more sensitive to trends. You don’t have to have it, so you’re going to choose it for enjoyment and the types of things that cause enjoyment change with the culture. There’s a big move with organic beers for example, because that has become important to people. For some, being accepted by a big group is what’s important, so Miller Lite, Bud Lite, and Coors is what you are looking for in a luxury product.

CP: It sometimes seems like we are moving away from local and independent businesses—bookstores being an obvious example. Yet the exact opposite seems to be happening with beers—Surly, for one, has become quite a local superstar.

DH: I think one difference, especially in the case of bookstores or small independent newspapers, is that it's hard to enjoy beer over the internet. There's something about the place where you're enjoying the beer. A lot of the enjoyment is the setting. One of the reasons Coors was so popular in Minnesota in the '70s, and Fat Tire is so popular now, is that it's a beer that people had out West on vacation, and so it has a good association.

CP: Are there any recent local beer developments that have you excited?

DH: Surly brewing is one that has to be mentioned. They’re products are always creative. I think it’s interesting that they decided to start canning instead of bottling. That way, it also finds a different customer group—people that play ultimate Frisbee or take it to the beach— the outdoorsy set The scene around the Twin Cities is quite active with Surly, Flat Earth, and the old standbys. There’s a lot of good beer being made—raising the standards so hopefully we can get away from people having to have 12 Miller Lites to have a good time, how about 3 or 4 nice beers. We’re not quite Milwaukee or Denver, bu we do have a lot of good people. It seems like all of the brewers really get along. There’s competitiveness at tasting events and festivals, but they’re all friendly and complimenting each other.

CP: I’ve noticed a certain stigma amongst beer snobs with canned beer…

DH: Which is another misconception. Let’s face it—the inside of a keg is an aluminum can. Most of the negative association comes from that when people drink straiggt from the can, they can taste whatever was on the top of the can. Plus, the beer hasn’t had a chance to get rid of the excess carbon dioxide from being poured into a glass.

CP: Amber Waters lays out a timeline of beer brewing and consumption in Minnesota that actually predates Minnesota as a state. What were some of the methods you used to reconstruct this history?

DH: There were a fair number of limitations because a number of the documents from the time are long gone. Sometimes I knew a brewery was in a town before the town had a newspaper, sometimes I would discover just by luck that someone else had recorded it and that info made it into a history book. Sometimes I would find references in family histories to someone starting a brewery. A lot of the earliest material was really tough to find. Once we're into the 1850s, almost every town had a newspaper, and at that point I could track info on a much more reliable basis. By 1862, the excise taxes were collected by the federal government, so I had incredible details on who brewed how much and when because the government needed their money.

CP: What are some of the more interesting examples of breweriana you came across in your research?

DH: I hadn’t realized that some of the first beer had been packaged in stoneware bottles. There were a number of early brewerina (items produced with beer logos on it)— and really early, it’s few and far between, but by the 1880s, breweries were buying taverns and stocking them with extremely fancy signs, and furniture with the logo on it.

CP: Do you keep a hefty collection yourself? I noticed that a lot of the pictures in the book are credited to your collection.

DH: Not particularly. Most of my stuff is fairly cheap. I collected mostly because I knew I would need them for the book.

CP: Do you anticipate another bust in small, local breweries in the future? Do you view the new era of microbreweries and smaller brewers as a progressive success, or is the industry cyclical?

DH: In this particular case, if there's a bust it will be a long ways away. There was a little bit of a shake-out in the craft breweries in the mid-1990s, but there weren't too many Minnesota breweries affected by it since there weren't too many at the time. Minnesota breweries have been creative and smart about making sure that they aren't duplicating each other's product. Schell is famous for their pilsners, wheat beer, and Octoberfest. Summit is more famous for their pale ale and porter. Surly makes beers that defy style guidelines.

CP: What do you think have been the strengths and weaknesses of MN beers, both past and present?

DH: Well, I think the brewers that function in Minnesota are as good as any in the country. We have some really top-notch people doing really creative work. One of the limitations of Minnesota brewing is that some of the laws are more restrictive than in other states. So, some people interested in starting a brewery somewhere might not pick Minnesota because of the tangled laws that they have top cut through, and there are a few that were interested in Minnesota, and they just discovered that Wisconsin was easier to deal with.

CP: Any tips for people interested in getting into homebrew?

DH: The best tip would be to check in with people at homebrew stores, and join a club. We have an upcoming event—on Saturday November 3, a bunch of homebrew clubs will be meeting outside at Barley John’s Brewpub in New Brighton. We’ll be encouraging anyone interested to watch ask questions and watch a series of batches being brewed.

Come see Doug discuss all things beer in Minnesota at several lectures through the city, including one at the Summit Brewing Company (be sure to get there early). Free. 7:00 p.m. 910 Montreal Cir., St. Paul, 651.265.7800. Also 5:00 p.m. Sunday at Magers & Quinn Booksellers (3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.822.4611). Check out calendar for other related readings and talks.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at October 25, 2007 1:08 PM | Comments (0)

 

3Qs with apple scientist David Bedford

Filed under: Food

For David Bedford, a fruit crops research scientist at the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center, a single apple has all the power of Google and all the health benefits of a nicotine patch. At least according to the Association of University Technology Managers' "Better World Report," which listed the Center's signature invention, the Honeycrisp, among those other world-changing innovations of the last decade. The U's Apple Research Exhibit is up now through October 31 at the Landscape Arboretum.

City Pages: The U of M has crossbred such famous apples as the Zestar!, SnowSweet, and Honeycrisp in the last few years. Are there any ethical dilemmas to consider while playing Apple God?

David Bedford: As nice as it is to be called an "Apple God," we don't really wield that kind of power. When we develop new varieties by crossbreeding or hybridization we are actually doing the same thing that occurs in nature, except that we are choosing specific parents. Ultimately we can't determine how the genes from each parent will be combined in their offspring, however. That is determined by a "higher" Apple God.

CP: The U of M's Honeycrisp apple was honored in the "Better World Report." Aside from the fact that it has "explosively crisp flesh," how did an apple really change the world?

Bedford: As proud as we are of Honeycrisp, it's hard, even for us, to say that it is comparable to Google, the V-chip, and the nicotine patch. But maybe in the smaller context of the apple world its effect has been fairly important. For apple growers in the U.S., especially in the East and Midwest, it has been a shining star for a struggling industry. Has it really changed the world? Maybe not in the same sense that Google has, but until you try one yourself you'll never know for sure!

CP: Is it good luck if I find a worm in my Honeycrisp?

Bedford: Honeycrisps are best eaten worm-free. Save the worms for your tequila.

"Apples with A-Peel," the apple research exhibit at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, is up now through October 31. 3675 Arboretum Dr., Chaska; 952.443.1400. Weekend apple tastings noon to 3:00 p.m.

--Molly Priesmeyer

Posted by Chuck Terhark at October 20, 2006 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

And the Lord said "deep-fry that puppy!"

Filed under: Food

The Minnesota State Fair may be head and pork shoulders above its competitors when it comes to deep-fried oddities on a stick, but some folks at the North Carolina State Fair take their cue from the Fryer Upstairs. "I had a vision from God to do the banana," declared Vincent Thomas, 49, of Creative Catering of Raleigh. Thomas introduced fried banana puddin' bites at last year's fair and will be showcasing fried strawberry cobbler, fried apple cobbler, and fried pina colada strips this year. The North Carolina State Fair runs through October 23 if you've got frequent flyer miles and are feeling peckish.

Posted by Corey Anderson at October 17, 2005 5:30 PM | Comments (0)