The Rake Magazine

As I get older and balder, I have come to appreciate the t-shirt legend that proclaims, "Only a few heads are perfect - the rest are covered with hair." Something similar is true of barbecued ribs - the best way to serve mediocre ribs is smothered in sauce - but to serve ribs naked, they have to be done just about perfectly.

North Minneapolis has been home to a lot of great barbecue joints over the years - Amos & Amos, Levy's, and others that came and went so quickly that I can't remember their names. The half-life of restaurants in north Minneapolis seems to be a matter of months, so if you want to try the terrific ribs at the Brickhouse BBQ, 4330 N. Lyndale, you probably should go sooner rather than later. There's not much in the way of ambience, but at good barbecue joints there never is.

The Brickhouse opened about a month ago and the grand opening pennants are still fluttering outside, but the place doesn't seem to be getting much of a new restaurant buzz. I stopped in last night around 7:30 for the rib and chicken combo, and for the whole time I was there, only three customers walked in the door - and they seemed to be friends of the owners.

It's a family operation - Brad Bigger, his wife Blanca and their son Franklin Zumba-Deleg all share the cooking duties, while daughter Karina Zumba-Deleg works the front of the house. A note on the menu mentioned that the cooks have 45 years of cooking experience between them. The Biggers asked me not to mention their previous employer by name, but it's one of the oldest and best barbecue restaurants in the Twin Cities - a market leader, you might say - and it's famous for serving its bones naked - with sauce on the side.

The Brickhouse ribs are served the same way, but rubbed with a spice blend before cooking. You have to be a pretty good and confident cook to serve ribs naked - a pool of sauce can cover a multitude of sins, and make up for a lack of flavor if the ribs have been parboiled to speed up the cooking time. These were firm and meaty and full of flavor, with just a hint of smoke - Brad Bigger says he uses oak and hickory chunks in his smoker, and occasionally adds a little maple or mesquite. The barbecued chicken was also quite good - meaty and not too dry.

The homemade sauce ("a special recipe I don't give out to anybody") was a perfect accompaniment - tangy, and not too sweet - but it added to the flavor of the meat, it didn't cover it up. My combo of half a chicken and three pork ribs cost $16.95, including coleslaw, Texas toast and fries.

There is a lot more on the menu that I would like to try, including the beef ribs (Bigger says his customers call them the Flintstone bones), the ribeye steak dinner ($16.95-$21.95), and the barbecue beef brisket sandwich ($7.95 with salad or coleslaw and fries.)

The Brickhouse is open daily for breakfast, and offers an $8.95 breakfast buffet from 8 to 12 on weekends.

My how time flies. It is almost August, the days are getting shorter, and the evenings of patio dining will soon be a distant memory. I still haven't made it back to my all-time favorite outdoor dining spot, the patio at the Black Forest Inn, for a mug of Pilsner Urquell, a pair of bratwurst with sauerkraut and potato salad, and a big slice of Apfelstrudel. Speaking of which, next Sunday, August 3, the Black Forest will be celebrating National Bratwurst Day (who knew?) with brat specials, brat prizes, and a special bratwurst day menu cover contest. Accordionist Mark Stillman will play from 6:30 to 9 p.m., which make it worth the trip even if you are a vegetarian.

But there are more outdoor options than ever these days, including several of my favorite Asian restaurants. Jasmine 26 at 26th and Nicollet has a few sidewalk tables - and a great all-day drink special: your choice of Kirin or Sapporo tap beer, or a glass of Lizard Flats chardonnay or cabernet-merlot blend for $3.

Tin Fish also ranks pretty high on my list of favorites - the seafood is fresh, prices are very reasonable, and the view overlooking Lake Calhoun is one of those quintessential summer experiences. Seafood prices have crept up over the years, but you can still get a fried cod taco for $3.95, or a mini-tin fish sandwich for $2.75.

The view isn't quite as scenic at Minneapolis's other seafood restaurant in a park concession stand, the Sea Salt Eatery at Minnehaha Falls, but the food is just as good, and the menu is just a bit more adventuresome, with offerings like a Thai yellow shrimp curry soup or a crawfish etouffe. And if you walk a few feet from the tables, you get a lovely view of the Falls.

My favorite Indian (actually Indian/Tibetan/Nepali) place these days is the Namaste Café, 2512 Hennepin Ave. S., which offers both a shaded porch and a terraced front patio. I am absolutely addicted to one of their appetizers, the paapri chaat, a street snack concocted of crunchy chips, chickpeas, yogurt, potatoes, tamarind chutney, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and more. They also have a great selection of teas and chai - from the family tea plantation in Nepal, as well as wine and beer.

Right next door, duplex has followed suite with its own patio. I stopped by for brunch this morning - the Argentine chorizo hash with poached eggs and tomato béarnaise ($9.49) was no great shakes, but the crab scramble with cream cheese and orange crème fraiche ($8.99) was delicious, and I would gladly go back to try some of the items on their dinner menu, like the house made fettucine with chicken confit, pancetta, shiitake mushrooms, capers, and thyme, ($13.99).

The first time I visited Gandhi Mahal, the new Indian restaurant at 27^th and E. Lake St., was before it was actually open for business. I introduced myself to the owner, which seemed like the right thing to do at the time, since I wasn't reviewing the place, and I wanted to ask a lot of questions.

But it was a case of Not Thinking Ahead, since I should have predicted what would happen the next time I visited the restaurant, a few days after it opened. The owner greeted me with an effusive welcome, and proceeded - with the best of intentions - to send one dish after another to my table. This created the kind of dilemma I try to avoid: I still believe in paying for my meals, even though I no longer have a lavish expense account - or any expense account, actually. I didn't want to be rude, so I insisted on paying for a lot of food I hadn't ordered. And I took a lot of pictures.

When I went back with some friends yesterday to sample the lunch buffet, the same thing happened again, but this time the owner insisted that he just wanted to show me some of the new dishes on the menu. Since the platters didn't arrive until after we had finished our lunch, I didn't sample the dishes, but just took some more photos.

At any rate, based on what I have sampled so far, my verdict on Gandhi Mahal is mixed, but there are a couple of options on the menu that make it definitely worth a visit.

The owner is trying to create an image for Gandhi Mahal that sets it apart from the many other Indian restaurants in town that all serve the same three-pot repertoire of rogan josh and chicken tikka masala, etc.-- but the efforts aren't entirely successful. The names of some of the dishes are a bit more elaborate, but much of the menu is basically that same stuff you get everyplace else.

On the plus side, they have done a very nice job remodeling the space, which is now adorned with Indian arts and crafts, and a lot of photos of Mahatma Gandhi. The menu finesses the fact that Gandhi was a strict vegetarian by noting that portions of the menu are dedicated to "a strict Gandhian diet" - which, translated into English, means that, just like every other Indian restaurant in town, they have some vegetarian dishes on the menu - but not as many as some of other local curry houses.

I wasn't impressed with the lunch buffet - at $9.99, it's more expensive than most, and the quality and variety were only average. But the individual entrée items I sampled were actually quite good - including a shrimp coconut curry ($17), and (if I remember correctly), chicken tikka masala ($12) and lamb korma ($14).

One thing I really like about Gandhi Mahal is the entrée sampler - you get to choose sample portions of up to six different entrees (the selection varies from day to day) - for only $3 for the first sample, with rice, and $2 for each additional sample. The portion sizes seemed generous, and it's a good way to explore a variety of dishes. The appetizer sampler is also a good deal - five different appetizer for $5.

"Probieren Sie mal, Herr Professor," says the guy behind the counter at the market stall, as he holds out a freshly fried felafel ball. "Have a taste." (I guess the beard and glasses make me look like a Herr Professor.) A few feet away, another vendor holds out a green olive on a toothpick. Strolling through the Naschmarkt, Vienna's open air market, is like running a gastronomic gauntlet. The market stretches out for about a mile through the heart of the city, with scores of vendors on either side of narrow pedestrian walkways.

On loan from the Minnesota State Fair: The Vegematic guy!

Most of the fruit and vegetable vendors seem to be Turkish, but you can also find bakeries, cheese shops, wine merchants, doner kebab vendors, Oriental markets, and stalls offering everything from artisan vinegars to fresh pasta, fish, meat and sausage. There are also a lot of little cafes in the Naschmarkt, offering everything from traditional Austrian Wienerschnitzel and brathaendl (roasted chicken) to palatschinken (crepes) to Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine.

**Click here for more pictures from the market and take a look at the video (below).**

Zum Alten Fassl, a typical Viennese tavern-restaurant. Image from Zum Alten Fassl website.

Greetings from Vienna, one of the great food cities of the world. Americans may lump Austrian cuisine together with German cooking, but Vienna has its own distinctive cuisine, and it's a lot better and more interesting than German cooking. In part, this might be because the Austrians are Catholics, and the Germans - or at least the northern Germans - tend to be Protestants. The farther south you go in Germany, the more Catholic it is, and the better the cuisine. I have a whole theory about this, that I will have to save for another time.

photo by Kobako, used under Creative Commons license.

At any rate, there's a lot more to Viennese cuisine than Wienerschnitzel and Wiener wurstchen, (hot dogs, not to be confused with wiener dogs.) The classic Wienerschnitzel is made from veal, and is actually an adaptation of Italian veal scallopine, but most Wienerschnitzels in Vienna nowadays are made from pork, followed by chicken or turkey. A proper Wienerschnitzel is supposed to be pounded very thin, breaded in egg, flour and breadcrumbs, and then pan-fried. Done right, a Wienerschnitzel should be so un-greasy that you could sit down on it, if you were so inclined, and not get grease stains on your pants. Wienerschnitzel is about as ubiquitous in Viennese restaurants as hamburgers are on Twin Cities menus - even Turkish and Italian restaurants seem to feel the need to offer a schnitzel for less adventuresome diners. Another popular variation is the schnitzel semmel, a chicken or pork schnitzel on a bun, which has a strong resemblance to the classic Minnesota pork tenderloin sandwich.

Vienna is the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which made it a cultural crossroads for centuries - and besides, emperors usually like to eat well, and tend to do a lot of high-end entertaining. Today, Vienna is still a crossroads - you can hear dozens of languages on the streets, and find restaurants serving practically every cuisine in the world. Thanks to an influx of Turkish immigrant "guest workers" starting in the 60s, the most popular street food in Vienna is the doner kebab, the Turkish cousin of the gyros sandwich, sold on practically every street corner for about $5. Pizzerias are nearly as popular.

Last night, I took my son and his girlfriend out to Zum Alten Fassl, a typical Viennese beisl (tavern-restaurant), for some traditional Viennese cooking - he had Zwiebelrostbraten, roast beef with crispy fried onions, and I ordered one of the classics, Tafelspitz, tender boiled beef in beef broth, served with carrots, parsnips, applesauce and creamy horseradish sauce (it's a lot better than it sounds), all washed down with local Gosser beer.