The Rake Magazine

Author: Jeremy Iggers

  • Logging Those Frequent Diner Miles

    What’s next, green stamps? With the cost of food and dining
    going up, and the economy going down, restaurants are scrambling to find new
    ways of keeping diners coming in the doors. Both Parasole, Inc. and the Twin
    Cities Originals     have recently introduced customer loyalty programs that use
    member cards to track purchases and reward customers. With the Twin Cities
    Originals reward card, you get a point for every dollar you spend at a
    participating restaurant, and once you reach 150 points you get a $10 credit.

    Over 30 independently owned restaurants are in the Twin
    Cities Originals, ranging from the Dakota, Saffron and Murray’s to Vescio’s
    Cucina, The Herkimer and Broder’s Pasta Bar. For a complete list of TCO
    restaurants, click here. The TCO rewards card is also good at participating
    restaurants in other cities, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Tucson, and
    Birmingham – see www.PowerCard.com for
    details.

    The Parasole Club program adds another wrinkle: if you spend
    $1,000 to $2499 per year, you get 1.25 points per dollar, and if you spend
    $2500 or more, you get 1.5 points. The Parasole chain includes Manny’s Steakhouse, The Living Room and Prohibition Bar
    (all in the Foshay Hotel), Chino Latino, Figlio, Salut Bar Americain,
    Muffuletta, Pittsburgh Blue Steakhouse, and the Good Earth.

    Twin Cities
    Originals has another money-saving offer: gift certificates for 30 percent off, available for purchase on the PowerCard site. Only a limited number of certificates are available each quarter, and right now most of them are sold out, but a few are still available for The Herkimer, Great Waters and Birch’s.

     

  • Cocinero Karimi at the Bedlam Theatre

    Robert KarimiOkay, here’s a quick tip for foodies: the "The Cooking Show Con Mero Cocinero Karimi," playing this weekend
    and next at the Bedlam Theatre is very, very funny. I saw the show last year
    when Robert Karimi performed it at Pangea World Theater. I won’t spoil the fun
    by giving away too many details (actually, I don’t remember too many details), but Karimi combines politics, humor and a cooking class in a fast-paced show that
    concludes with a tasting of the Iranian-Guatemalan performer’s multi-cultural
    cuisine. With the Republicans coming to town, I am sure Karimi will add some
    topical twists to the show. When I saw the show, the tasting was nearly a meal,
    but if you are still hungry, you can order from the Bedlam’s dining menu, which
    ranges from pizza to Polish sausage.

    The show runs tonight, Saturday, August 30, and next Friday through Sunday, September 5-7. "All shows at 8:00 pm. Everyone strongly encouraged to come early at 7:30
    for an extra taste, and to BYOB (Bring your own bowl)."

    The Bedlam Theatre is at 1501 S. 6th St., on the Minneapolis West Bank.

  • Las Mojarras – Seafood Mexican Style

    Every time I have set foot inside Las Mojarras, in the
    former Me Gusta space on E. Lake St., the place has been completely empty,
    which is a shame, because it’s one of the most ambitious and attractive Mexican
    restaurants in the Twin Cities.

    Which might actually be part of the problem. Prices are very
    reasonable by Uptown or Downtown standards, but not as low as the other Mexican
    restaurants on Lake Street. It might be a little too upscale to attract the
    working-class Mexican clientele that frequents La Poblanita and El Mercado, and
    a little too far from Hennepin Ave. to attract the Uptown diners.

    (Maybe things are livelier on Friday and Saturday nights, billed as salsa nights.)

    SirenaToo bad, because the food – at least what I have
    sampled so far – is really quite good. On my last visit, I brought my wife and
    niece, and we only sampled two dishes between the three of us. The Sirena
    ($16.95), a seafood cocktail, was fresh
    and lively, and brimming with staggering quantities of shrimp, oysters, squid,
    octopus, (and a little imitation crab) in a sweet tomato sauce topped with pico
    de gallo and avocado. (See picture of my niece, Tess, above, to get a sense of its size.)

    Parillada de mariscosEven more impressive was the parrillada de mariscos ($48.95),
    a big tabletop grill piled high with delicious shrimp, clams, mussels, snow crab legs,
    octopus, a split lobster tail, and a whole fried tilapia, over grilled peppers,
    nopales cactus strips and grilled onions, served with tortillas on the side.

    You can order the whole tilapia by itself for $7.77 a pound, or $12.99 for a1.5 pounder – with your choice of hot sauce, garlic sauce, chipotle cream sauce, grilled "a la plancha" or served "empapelado" – steamed in a pouch.

    There is a lot more on the menu I would like to try,
    including the fillete relleno, a fish stuffed with shrimp, cheese and ham,
    breaded and deep-fried ($17.95), the aguachile – raw shrimp marinated in
    jalapenos and lime juice ($12.99), and the costillas con camarones, a
    combination plate of spare rib tips and garlic shrimp, served with marinated
    cactus salad ($14.95).

    Las Mojarras, 1507 E. Lake St., 612-208-0120.

  • Best Tamarindo Deal in Town

    I
    was biking back from the office on the Midtown Greenway, when I ran
    across this young woman selling not just lemonade (or its instant
    equivalent) but four different aguas frescas, including lemonade, horchata (a sweet milky drink made with rice), and agua de tamarindo. (I can’t remember what the fourth was, but my guess is jamaica,
    a sweetened hibiscus tea.) I had a glass of the tamarindo, which had
    just enough sweetness to balance to tartness of the tamarind. On a hot
    summer day, it hit the spot – and at 50 cents a glass, it’s a steal. At
    local restaurants, it can cost three times as much.

    The
    stand is on the Midtown Greenway bike and running route, which runs east-west
    through south Minneapolis, just east of 5th Ave., and just south of
    29th St. The young woman told me that she’s there from noon to 6:30 every
    day. (Or was it 12:30 to 6 p.m.?)

    Speaking of good deals, there are still a few seats left for the Rake/KBEM World Flavors dinner tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the Bulldog Northeast. The menu includes a foie gras meat ball on fried wonton with flying fish eggs; deconstructed shrimp cocktail; a pyramid of cobb (salad), entree of salmon filet with marinated fingerling potatoes, summer vegetable and herbed vinaigrette, a Bulldog cupcake for dessert, plus three pints of beer, all for $35 (plus tax and tip). I hope you can join me; click here for reservations.

    **This was a great success; thanks to all who attended and enjoyed the fabulous food and drink offerings.**

     

     

  • Italiani's Family Restaurant Grill & Bar

    I got a hot tip recently – a sighting of a pasta making
    machine at Italiani’s Family Restaurant Grill & Bar, 3508 E. Lake Street.
    That’s pretty rare these days – making pasta by hand is very labor intensive.

    Back when I lived in the neighborhood, the place was known as the Lake Street
    Garage, and served up malts, burgers, pasta and pizza. I hadn’t set foot inside in years, but when I visited
    the other night, it looked pretty much the way I remembered it, except that
    some pictures of Ecuador have been added to the basic malt shop décor. (It
    turns out that the new owner is a native of Ecuador, who worked at Gianni’s
    Steakhouse in Wayzata and Lord Fletcher’s on Lake Minnetonka before opening his
    own place.)

    Italiani interior

    The menu still offers burgers, malts, shakes, pizza and
    pasta, but the new owners have added a few more ambitious daily specials, like
    a seafood pasta and a walleye entree. There are no Ecuadorian dishes on the menu,
    but the owner told me that they occasionally feature Chaulafan (Ecuadorian-Chinese
    fried rice) and Churrasco (steak with fried egg, avocado and plantains) as evening specials. The appetizer
    list is mostly State Fair stuff – onion rings, corn dogs, mozzarella sticks. We
    opted for the buffalo chicken wings (about a dozen for $6.95) -which were quite
    good – crisp skin, moist meat, and just the right level of spice.

    fettucine with sausageI didn’t see any pasta machines, but I was assured that the
    fettucine really is made from scratch. It’s offered on the menu as fettucine
    Alfredo, available with chicken, shrimp or broccoli, but the owner said I could have
    it with any pasta I chose. I opted for the pasta with Italian sausage and
    Bolognese sauce, ($9.75) which was served with feta, in a meaty tomato sauce, accented
    with feta. A very tasty dish, and much more satisfying than the usual Italian-American red sauce fare.

    The nightly seafood pasta special ($15.50) didn’t quite live up to its
    billing – the menu promised linguine shrimp, scallops and calamari, but we got
    shrimp, bay scallops and imitation crab instead – but there were no complaints about the flavor. There are other dishes I would like to sample on a return
    visit – the ribeye with home-cut fries ($13.65) and maybe one of the pizzas,
    like the spinaci speciale, topped with spinach, parmesan, bacon, sun-dried
    tomatoes, smoked cheddar and mozzarella ($14.50/ $17.50).

    Italiani’s offers a limited, but decent, list of wines and beers. On Sundays, they offer an all-day brunch, served from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

    Italiani’s Family Restaurant, Grill & Bar, 3508 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, 612-729-8820

  • Hoang Thien Y Deli: Tastes of Vietnam

    Drive down Eat Street – Nicollet Avenue – and you can see
    the whole drama of restaurant existence in a block or two – life, death, and
    sometimes renewal.

    Last night, we headed out for dinner at one of my favorite
    Chinese restaurants, Relax (a really unfortunate choice of name), and
    discovered that Relax wasn’t relaxing, it was dead. (Sometimes, with the fish
    and crabs in the restaurant’s live seafood tanks, it wasn’t easy to tell.)

    The Relax signage was gone, replaced by signs for Pho Hoa
    Vietnamese Noodle House, and a note in the door promising that the new
    Vietnamese restaurant would be opening soon. Relax may be gone, but I will
    treasure my memories of their Peking duck.

    Just down the block,
    empty storefronts house the mortal remains of two more favorite eateries –
    Sinbad’s
    Market and Café, and the Saigon Express, which used to serve terrific banh mi
    sandwiches, steamed pork puns and assorted Vietnamese snacks and sweets. Rumor
    had it that the building would be torn down to make way for a hotel, but I
    haven’t noticed any progress on that front.

    Across the street,
    Vinh Loi, a Vietnamese BBQ and deli has a sign in its window saying that it is
    "closed for remodeling" from August 17-31. "Closed for remodeling" is sometimes
    a euphemism, but I am keeping my fingers crossed – Vinh Loi offers great banh
    mi sandwiches (the roast pork is especially good), plus a nice assortment of
    noodle soups and vegetarian fare.

    Hoang Thien Y

    But the best news from my recent tours of Eat Street is the
    opening of another terrific little Vietnamese eatery – Hoang Thien Y Deli,
    hidden away in the little strip mall at 2738 Nicollet – across the parking lot
    from El Mariachi and Marissa’s Bakery.
    The counter-top looked very familiar – the same rainbow display of
    snacks and sweets that Saigon express used to offer: steamed rice and pork
    wrapped in banana leaf, bright purple and neon green desserts of sticky rice,
    slender egg rolls and packets of coconut rice, and all the ingredients for
    making sandwiches, smoothies and che desserts. The face behind the counter
    looked familiar, too – it was Chee, one of the women who had worked behind the
    counter at the Saigon Express.

    But Hoang Thien Y has some added features that Saigon
    Express lacked, including half a dozen tables, and a much bigger menu, with a
    big variety of rice plates, noodle soups, salads and more. Chee recommended a
    durian smoothie – made from the notoriously stinky/ pungent/ sexy tropical
    fruit ($3.50), and the Hanoi style pork, a plate piled high with rice noodles,
    topped with succulent rolls of grilled marinated pork stuffed with onion,
    accompanied by fresh herbs and marinated carrots, cucumber and radish, and a
    pungent nuoc mam (fermented fish) dipping sauce – very light, and yet filling –
    perfect summer fare. I can also recommend the bun rieu, a savory soup of rice
    noodles, minced crab, tofu and tomatoes ($6.50).

    And speaking of delis, I noticed as I was leaving the strip
    mall that Marissa’s, across the street has added a cafeteria, offering a big
    selection of authentic Mexican fare – I haven’t had a chance to check it out
    yet, so if you get there before I do, drop me a line (iggers@rakemag.com) or post a comment below to let me how you
    liked it.

  • Vicky's Place

    If I hadn’t been surfing the web, I would never have run
    across the website of The Bush Chicken, the online magazine of Minnesota’s
    Liberian community, and then I also would never have heard of Vicky’s Place. The ad in the Bush Chicken looked promising, though – it promised
    fufu and soup, torborgee, attieke, fried rice and more. With a little more
    surfing, I discovered Vicky’s website,
    and a lot more interesting-sounding dishes – lots of standard American fare,
    ranging from pancakes and French toast to chicken wings and hoagies and daily
    Liberian specials.

    So I jumped in my car and headed up to Brooklyn Park for
    lunch – I almost drove past Vicky’s – from the outside, it looks at first like
    an abandoned gas station. But the sign in the window said open, so I walked
    into a brightly lit little dining room with silk flowers on the table and a big
    flatscreen TV tuned to As the World Turns. The only person in the restaurant
    was Vicky Pour herself. I told her that I wanted to try some Liberian food, and
    she told me to have a seat.

    Within a few minutes, she returned with the first course – a
    dish of parboiled rice, and a bowl of mixed meats (chicken, beef and smoked
    turkey) in a thick green palaver sauce. Vicky said it was a mixture of okra and
    spinach, which comes close to describing the texture, but I am not sure about
    the flavorings – except that it reminded me a bit of a Creole file gumbo
    (another dish with west African roots). It was delicious.

    Wikipedia describes palaver sauce as:

    "a type of stew widely eaten in West Africa,
    including Ghana, Liberia, Sierra
    Leone and Nigeria.The
    word palaver comes from the Portuguese language and means a talk, lengthy
    debate or quarrel.
    It is unclear how this led to the name of the stew.
    One theory is that when the stew was first made, with long, ropey greens,
    people would start quarrels by slapping each other with the greens from their
    stew."

    Next came a bowl of fufu, a rubbery white ball of cooked
    starch (made from plantain, according to Vicky) accompanied by a bowl of pepper
    soup, a clear but very flavorful broth with the same meats as the palaver
    sauce. Vicky explained that in Liberia, it’s actually quite spicy, but she
    serves a milder version in Minnesota, with hot pepper sauce on the side. Not
    knowing any better, I ate the fufu with a spoon, spooning a little soup into
    the bowl with the fufu, then cutting off a little fufu, and eating them together.
    I later learned (again thanks to Wikipedia) that it is more customary to pinch
    off a little ball of the fufu, make an indentation in the dough, and fill it
    with the soup.

    At any rate, definitely worth a visit – on Sundays, Vicky
    offers an all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch for $8.99.

    Vicky’s Place, 7648 Humboldt Ave. N., Brooklyn Park, 763-560-9912

    If Brooklyn Park is too far a drive, you can find some
    similar West African dishes at Three Crowns Nigerian restaurant, 2817 Lyndale
    Ave S., Minneapolis, (612) 813-4444. Also recommended.

     

  • Dining Adventures: From Bangkok to Buenos Aires

    Boat SoupI finally made it to Krua Thailand to try their famous Boat Soup
    – famous enough at least to have a banner outside the restaurant advertising
    it. Turns out boat soup is basically the Thai answer to pho, the Vietnamese
    beef noodle soup – but with one important difference – boat soup is made with
    beef blood. How was it? If you like pho, and aren’t squeamish, I think you’ll
    like it – the blood gives it a little extra kick. There is lots more on the menu that I would like to try, including the Kaeng Dang (red curry ($8.99-$12.99 depending on protein), and the pla rad prik, (tilapia with ginger and chili, $13.95).

    Krua Thailand, 432 W. University Av., St. Paul, 651-224-4053.

    Couple of cool dinners coming up:

    • The next Rake World Flavors dinner will be at the
      Bulldog Northeast on August 26, with a menu that goes way beyond typical bar
      burger fare: Foie gras meat ball on fried wonton with flying fish eggs,
      followed by a deconstructed shrimp cocktail, a "pyramid of Cobb" (with a
      confit of chicken thigh and, presumably, a dramatic presentation), a salmon
      fillet with fingerling potatoes, plus a Bulldog cupcake for dessert. All this,
      plus three pints of beer for $35. Click here to sign up.

    • The World Flavors Dinner is co-sponsored by Whole
      Foods, Peace Coffee and KBEM- Jazz 88 FM which has its own gastronomic event
      going on this Sunday, August 17 – A Celebration of the Ports – From New Orleans
      to Buenos Aires      , featuring chef Rachel Rubin,
      at Alexis Bailly Vineyards in Hasting. Cost is $75 per person, and space
      is limited – for reservations or more information, click here.
    • By the way, Rachel Rubin, is leading a food tour of Peru October 12-19 – for gastronomic adventurers, it sounds like a great trip.

  • Big E is Back!

    Eric Austin, the talented chef behind the late, lamented Big
    E’s Soulfood on Eat Street, has resurfaced in South Saint Paul with a new
    upscale restaurant, the Bourbon Street Steakhouse, in the dining space formerly
    occupied by TreVina Italian Steak House. It’s a more suitable venue for fine
    dining than the little storefront on Eat Street, and Austin is now able to offer cocktails and a wine and beer
    selection to go with his cuisine.

    chef Eric AustinAustin, who trained at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans,
    offers a nice selection of Creole specialties, many of them upscale
    presentations of the classic Creole fare that he served at Big E’s. But the
    menu has a wider range, from beer can chicken with whisky baked beans ($16) to
    lamb chops with rosemary and parmesan cornbread stuffing, and a 20 ounce ribeye
    cowboy steak served with baked beans, chorizo and sauteed asparagus ($32). (The
    south Saint Paul stockyards are right across the street.)

    shrimp and crawfish etouffee

    shrimp and crawfish etoufee

    I was very impressed with the Louisiana gumbo, made with a
    proper brown butter and flour roux, and brimming with shrimp, crawfish,
    andouille sausage and chicken, and the entrée of shrimp and crawfish etouffee,
    smothered in a rich brown gravy. The
    blackened catfish, a nightly special, was also first-rate – moist and flaky and
    accompanied by a roasted sweet corn succotash. My smothered pork chop wasn’t
    quite as exciting as the Creole dishes, but it was enormous and quite tasty.

    With a day’s notice, Austin also offers a special Chef’s Table menu, made up to order, for $65 per person, including two glasses of wine per person. Austin says he asks diners three questions – whether they have any food allergies, whether there are any foods they absolutely won’t eat, and whether they prefer land, sea or air – and then he invents a menu.

    Bourbon Street Steak House, 200 N. Concord Exchange, South Saint Paul, 651-209-6854. Lunch – Tuesday through Friday; Dinner – Tuesday through Saturday.

  • Sawatdee and Hare Krishna

    Sharon Mollerus/Creative Commons

    Sawtdee

    To commemorate the lives lost in
    last year’s bridge collapse, Supenn Harrison, owner of the Sawatdee
    restaurants, has invited all of Minnesota’s Buddhist monks to participate in a
    commemorative service and alms
    offering in the parking lot of
    Sawatdee Bar & Café, 118 N. 4th St., Minneapolis next Saturday,
    August 16. The ceremony will be followed by a food offering and lunch, and the public is invited to attend.

    No donation is required, but Supenn says people are encouraged to bring gifts of dry foods, fresh
    fruit, or cash for the monks – you can give individual gifts to each
    monk, or make a donation to one or more of the temples that will be
    represented. Supenn expects 30-50 monks to participate, representing as many as
    four Laotian Buddhist temples, three Thai temples, and one each serving
    communities from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and possibly Vietnam.

    Lunch is at 11 a.m. – people are welcome to bring food to
    share, but Supenn says she will also provide plenty of food from the Café. The
    press release notes that the one can gain the "fruits
    of merit by offering meals to monks: one will have the five ennobling virtues; longevity, good
    complexion, happiness, strength and sagacity."

    Here’s the schedule of events:

    10:00 am: Requesting the Five Precepts and Sangkadana Offering
    Ceremony

    10:15 am: Buddhajayamangala chanting (The Buddha’s
    Auspicious Victories) by the monks

    10:30 am: Alms offering to the Monks

    11:00 am: Food offering & Lunch for all

    12:15 pm: Blessing by the Monks

    Dharma

    The young woman fronting the little band of Hare Krishna
    chanters outside the Wedge Co-op handed me a flyer for "Dharma," a show on
    Wednesday, August 20, 7 pm at the
    University of Minnesota’s Coffman Memorial Theater. The show, presented by
    Krishna Culture Tour, is billed as "blissful entertainment from the Krishna
    culture of India, performed by an international cast." But it was the food
    angle that caught my eye – the website for the event says that "at the end of the show, guests are served delicious vegetarian
    refreshments of savories, sweets and nectar drink in the lobby, created by
    gourmet Hare Krishna chefs. The food is prepared with love and is served as a
    complimentary gift to all who attend." Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for
    seniors, students and children. For more details, go to http://dharma.eventbrite.com