Author: Ann Bauer

  • Damn, This Woman Really Cooks

    So why is it that the bad boys of the kitchen get all the good press? Take Anthony Bourdain — a foul-mouthed son-of-a-bitch whom a good friend of mine (an attractive, intelligent woman) told me just today is "her ideal guy." And Gordon Ramsay, the British chef who hosts a show called The F Word.…

  • A Surge in Spanish Wines

    A correction. In my last entry, I mistakenly listed the old — last week’s — Happy Hour wine at Sapor. Rather than the Austrian Gruner Veltliner, the Washington Avenue wine bar is now featuring a Spanish Protocolo Blanco (in addition to the Luzon Mourvedre-Grenache). I’m not famliar with this wine — a blend of Airén…

  • Food Police to the World

    Jim Harkness never expected to return to Minnesota. A native of South Minneapolis who studied Chinese in high school, he started his career as an activist specializing in Asian birds, then giant pandas. His work took him to China often, and eventually he became a full-time resident of Beijing, working first with the Ford Foundation,…

  • Sapor: Be Happy For TWO Hours

    Last time I went to Sapor Cafe, it was with a man who used to say things like, "Don’t you think that dress is a little low-cut?" and "I don’t think I could ever marry a woman who’s as smart as I am." Also, he was a Republican who lived in the suburbs and went…

  • Take This Bread

    Back on October 23, a reader wrote to tell me that she and a friend had gone to Blackbird and while the overall experience was wonderful ("Both our meals were quite good — [my friend] nearly licked her plate — and I like that it’s in my neighborhood, friendly service, etc."), they were soured by…

  • The Forever Marriage

    We meet weekly for wine. At Alma, Erté, Heartland Wine Bar, Zander, jP American Bistro, and Barbette. Lesser known places, too. Once, when everything else was packed, we went to the Herkimer (this was a mistake) and once we drove an hour and a half for flights of Amarone at a rural wine bar called…