MrSlippery's Profile
Meritage off Opentable in July
http://shefzilla.com/
A restauranteur's view, for what it's worth. I admit I myself am a frequent Open Table user. I find it especially useful when traveling but it is also fun to just browse sometimes.
Delivery Chinese exotica -- St Clair Broiler
Definitely a good choice in an area with few good choices. The Ma Po Tofu has a nice spicy kick and some of the cold appetizers are quite good. Would agree that the vegetable dishes are just OK. Usually I get take-out which is easy and convenient to do online. Perhaps not quite on par with the best the cities has to offer, but Bloomington awfully far away.
Raw Peanuts
Saw some last week at the Indian grocers that is in the same shopping center as Dong Yang. Can not remember the name of the store... Didn't get any so I don't know about quality.
Brunch before Beerfest
Caribe which is few doors down from Keys on Raymond serves a weekend brunch, but I have never been. Looks tasty though. Perhaps another hound has been? Sorry not to be of more help. The only other places I can think of besides those already mentioned are Good Earth near the Roseville Mall and Al's Breakfast.
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Al's Breakfast
413 14th Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Good Earth Restaurant
1901 Highway 36 W, Saint Paul, MN 55113
Bread in the cities
We happened to be near Sun Street last weekend and stopped by and purchased a baguette and a loaf of sourdough. Since we were in the area, we swung by Patisserie 46 and besides getting pastries, also got a baguette and a loaf of sourdough. At this point, we thought why not stop by Rustica, our go to bakery, and pick up a baguette and some sourdough. They didn't have any sourdough at Rustica, so we got a baguette and a levain.
Back home we tried all of the various loaves just sliced and untoasted. Of the baguettes, Sun Street had a very good texture and flavor and was baked to just the right point, crunchy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside. Rustica's baguette also had a good texture and flavor, but seemed a little too dry. Patisserie 46's baguette had a very good flavor. I think it was more a sourdough than the others, but the texture and baking was also more like a sourdough, not as crisp and light, more chewy and dense.
Of the sourdoughs and the levain, all different but not in a bad way. It just depended on what you were looking for in a loaf of bread that day.
The next few days, having days old bread, the Rustica baguette became less crunchy and you could taste the great flavor of the dough.
So what does that all mean... I guess we are just lucky to have a number of great bakeries in the Twin Cities. Sun Steet's baguette was the best that day but Rustica's had a great taste in the days to come, (I mean, how much bread can you eat in a week..). You can get great coffee at Rustica and delicious pastries at Patisserie 46. Also, the croissant from 46 was one of the best we have had in the Cities.
I just wish that one of them was closer to where we lived...
What's your fix when the Heat Index tops 95 degrees?
Cold noodles. Cold noodles with sesame paste, somen, soba with a side of tempura, cold spicy Korean buckwheat noodles, cold pasta tossed with celery and olives... Or alternatively, Surly and fried clams at Sea Salt.
Fancy-schmancy lunch ideas for Mom's birthday
Perhaps Meritage or Cosmos?
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Meritage
410 Saint Peter St, Saint Paul, MN 55102
single best pizza in MSP/ No Time To Research Chow Archives
Just pizza. Melted cheese on bread. Wow. That's the thinking that leads to Domino's.
With respect to immigration. The bigger issue is critical mass. Big enough populations keep the food traditions alive. Pizza with sauerkraut is not an Italian food tradition. Many of the top MSP pizzerias are not from the long ago Italian-american immigration, but are the result of rediscovery of the pizza styles largely lost in MSP. Sure you can still find some good MSP Italian food from the long ago diaspora, but mostly not.
Excellent News On The MSP Kimchi front
Just checked in the fridge and the bottle I have is from Dong Yang with their own label on it. Some of it is in Korean (not Korean), so I don't know if they make it themselves or it's something that they relabel and sell. It's pretty good and they also carry other types of pickles that I'm pretty sure they make themselves. I like my kimchi old, sour and smelly, so I let it sit in the fridge for a while...
single best pizza in MSP/ No Time To Research Chow Archives
If you're talking NJ pizza, then the original epicenter was Newark. Of course almost all of those places are 40 years gone and none of the MSP pizzas are much like the old style NJ ones. There are still many great places to get pizza in NJ, and fair variety of styles. Of the top pizzas in MSP, Black Sheep fits very well into that school of pizza. Many of the other New York style pizzas mentioned in this thread do not have good dough. Without a good crust, it's not possible to have a great pizza.
Wolfermans english muffins
Lunds and Byerly's usually carry the Original Recipe. Costco Maplewood also had them last time I was there.
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Byerly's
1601 County Road C W, Saint Paul, MN 55113
The Ju(i)cy Lucy Dilemma - In Defense of Matt's
Wow, that Shish burger sounds absolutely delicious! Have been craving lamb lately, and will have to try this ASAP. Thanks for the heads up. There can be good gained from another burger thread : )
Restaurants/BBQ near Houston Galleria - advice needed
We are visiting Houston and have a question re: El Tiempo. Having read several of these Houston food threads, we decided to try El Tiempo on Washington for lunch today. We parked behind the El Tiempo Market, then noticed that there was an El Tiempo Cantina next door. We decided to look into the market first and ended up having a delicious meal of Plate #3.
My questions are, are the market and the cantina related, and is the cantina as good/better?
MSP - stone bowl source?
Dong Yang is a Korean market with a small lunch room type area in the back that serves various Korean dishes (like noodles. yum). You walk through the market (small, not like United Noodle), to the "restaurant". The market is mostly Korean with a few Japanese and Chinese items. It also has a meat area where you can get beef that is cut in various ways appropriate for Korean dishes. There is an aisle of kitchen-ware where I believe I have seen the stone bowls. (If I have sent beelzeboro on a wild-goose chase, I am sorry.) You can also get some home-made Korean side dishes in the refrigerated cases.
Om MSP
Any info, skuttlebutt, background on this place "opening summer 2009" in downtown?
http://omminneapolis.com/
Any idea on type of menu? Nouveau Indian? That would be nice.
MSP- Papa's Pizza and Pasta ??
Have had the tomato pie with extra garlic. Very garlicy (good), the crust was a bit bready and sweet. Sauce was plentiful and tangy. A good (not great) pizza. It is different from many of the other pizzas around town so it depends on what you are looking for.
MSP - stone bowl source?
I believe Dong Yang carries the bowls and you can also pick up all sorts of ingredients to put into the bowl.
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Dong Yang Oriental Food
735 45th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55421
Solera - Worth it please? [MSP]
All of the above are great choices. Vincent burger is very rich and quite reasonable during HH. Solera's seasonal tapas can also be very good. You can sit at the bar (food bar as opposed to alcohol bar) and watch the dishes being made. Can not remember if you have been to Be'wiched. The sandwiches are good and the daily special is often quite tasty.
MSP: New Restaurant(?) - Grand Szechuan in Bloomington
Has anyone been to Little Szechuan since the split?
nominations: weird food items in msp
Sauerkraut Pizza. Have not yet tried it, although I am very curious...
Gabriela's, Portuguese in Somerville, NJ?
Has anyone been? Could not seem to find anything about it using the search... Any info good or bad would be appreciated.
MSP- Tosca Review- Fantastic!
I hesitated to post as I have only been to Trattoria Tosca once so far, but it was good enough to make me want to reply.
I did not have either the bucatini or the salad but what I did try was very good and the bucatini looked and smelled delicious going by and made me decide to have it the next time I went : ). Simple? Perhaps. Easy to make? Maybe. But I have noticed that the easiest things to make are sometimes the hardest to get just right. Roasted chicken, steaks and pasta especially come to mind.
I think that Tosca is not trying to be anything other than what it is, a nice neighborhood (very nice neighborhood) restaurant with an Italian bent. This means not only an Italian menu but also an emphasis on local, fresh ingredients prepared simply, (relatively speaking), so that you really taste their flavors. I'm not sure what you require in a salad and as I said, I did not have either of the salads, but from your description, it seems you were meant to enjoy the crunch and green, earthy flavors of the vegetables?
This way of cooking was perfectly embodied by the side dish of local snap peas that we had. It was "simply" a dish of snap peas and pea tendrils in brown butter with a taste of lemon. But, the peas were incredibly sweet and tender, slightly browned on the outside for a carmelly flavor while still crisp to the bite. The brown butter gave a richness to the dish that was balanced by the citrus of the lemon. If I were a pea pod, I would have been very happy to be prepared with such care.
Also, although the menu is simple in terms of number of items (which I like), some of the dished are far from simple or unimaginative. The melon soup was complex, with many layers of flavors, from the cool tartness of the soup, to the cold sweetness of the sorbet, made even more interesting by the addition of a small sprinkle of homemade duck pancetta. Oooh, that pancetta... I hope they will incorporate it into one of their pasta dishes someday. This chilled melon soup would not have looked or tasted out of place at any of the places (which I have enjoyed) that you mentioned.
And not to beat a hopefully dead horse, perhaps not the best phrase to use, but I was lucky enough to have the tagliatelle from the on-line menu, Tagliatelle with horseradish, pistachio, rainbow chard, local garlic scape and brown butter. I have a pretty good food imagination but I could not picture what this combination would taste like. It looked interesting and I love horseradish and pistachio... and garlic scapes and brown butter, so I ordered it and was very happy that I did. The tagliatelle was cooked to a perfect al dente, seemingly not an easy thing to do with fresh pasta. The horseradish added a subtle refreshing bite to the richness of the butter and the crunchiness of the pistachios. It was also beautifully presented, with small yellow flowers (pea?) sprinkled on top. I actually took a photo, something I have never done before, because it was so pretty.
Well, I will now get off my exhausted horse. Sorry for the long post. I will try to attach the photo. Perhaps not the best but hopefully you will get the idea.
Is there frozen custard in the Minneapolis area?
Also Adele's Frozen Custard in Excelsior. A bit of a drive, but worth it.
Looks like they have a snazzy new web site. And a new location... Will have to make the drive!
http://www.adelescustard.com/
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Adele's Frozen Custar
Excelsior mn, Excelsior, mn
Japanese Curry Twin Cities
Oo... Curry Udon.... Did not know they had that! Are the udon noodles thick or thin? (Please say thick :))
Japanese Curry Twin Cities
Obento-ya also has Japanese-style Curry as a special sometimes. Fairly often I think.
http://www.iption.com/bistro/jbistro-home.html
The MN Monthly's "Pizza Personality Type Indicator"
Pizza Nea has a Pizza Bianco con Uovo.
http://pizzanea.com/menu.html
Restaurant Week ... [MSP]
Have been to Lurcat, Cosmos and D'Amico Cucina so far. Lurcat, good food, good service and a very nice space. Cosmos, very good food and service.
D'Amico unfortunately fell into the "bad restaurant week experience" category. I actually heard a waiter telling a couple that RW was not really their thing. (?!) If the aim of RW is to entice people to try new places so that we can get a taste of what a restaurant is about and come back for more or "give you a hint of what defines and distinguishes their culinary offerings in the local dining scene" as the MSP Mag site says, I would have to say that D'Amico was about semi-competent food and incompetent service. It's a shame not only because we had invited others there but we love Italian food and eating out and would have liked to add this restaurant to our list of go-to places.
On a less unhappy note, we really enjoyed Lurcat, another D'Amico restaurant. This was the first time we have eaten in the restaurant (as opposed to the bar), and we will definitely be back. Pot Roast! Mini-donuts!
As for Cosmos, this was our second visit in two weeks. 'nough said :)
