The Rake Magazine

Author: Jeremy Iggers

  • Better Eating Through Chemistry: Foie Gras Pop Rocks

    The New York Times had a fascinating story last week, Food
    2.0: Chefs as Chemists    . Cutting edge chefs like Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 in
    Manhattan, and Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago are experimenting with
    ingredients like hydrocolloid gums to create combinations of flavor and texture
    not found in nature, like a fried mayonnaise, or Mexican mole sauce turned into
    little lentil-shaped pellets.

    I haven’t seen a lot of that kind of experimentation going
    on locally, maybe because it runs counter to the whole
    natural-sustainable-local-organic ethos that has been embraced by most of the
    top local chefs in town, from Lucia Watson of Lucia’s Restaurant, J.D. Fratzke
    of Muffuletta (soon departing for the Strip Club), Scott Pampuch of Corner
    Table, Brenda Langton of Café Brenda and Spoonriver, Lenny Russo of Heartland,
    etc.

    But the one local chef I’ve found who seems to enjoy
    tinkering with molecular gastronomy is Ryan Aberle, executive chef at North
    Coast     in Wayzata. His most original concoction is foie gras poprocks. The
    recipe is simple: he starts with unflavored pop rocks, available from
    www.chefrubber.com, and rolls them in a mixture of liquefied foie gras and
    tapioca maltodextrin. (Kids, don’t try this at home.) And in another recent
    experiment, Aberle created a 21st century version of the bacon-wrapped pork
    tenderloin – after rolling slices of pancetta through a pasta sheeter, he brushed
    them with transglutaminase, an enzyme that chemically bonds proteins together –
    and then wrapped the pancetta tightly around the tenderloin. Instead of the
    bacon cooking more quickly than the tenderloin, it becomes the outer edge of a
    single cut.

  • Worship Brett Favre for the Price of a Brewski

    Update: An earlier version of this post said that the Suburban World Theater would be serving brunch today (Sunday, November 11). That’s what I was told when I stopped in yesterday, but there was an unannounced change of plans: brunch service is tentatively scheduled to start next weekend, with a limited a la carte menu, plus kiddie cartoons, followed by a live broadcast of the Green Bay Packers game on the big screen. Check the theater website for details, or call 612-822-9000.

  • Buster's

    What would happen if somebody smart decided to reinvent the
    neighborhood tavern? If they were really smart, they might come up with
    something like Buster’s on 28th Ave, at 4204 28th Ave.
    S., in south Minneapolis. Outside of northeast Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s
    West Side, the old neighborhood bars have largely disappeared, replaced by
    coffee houses and wine bars. And those few that remain tend to look like the
    forlorn relics of a bygone era, serving up frozen pizza and watery beer to a
    clientele that has, like the taverns themselves, seen happier days.

    What’s so smart about Buster’s is that it remains true to tavern tradition– it still looks and feels like a tavern, complete with multiple tv sets and $3 pints of Miller Lite on tap, Budweiser and Michelob on tap. You can get a basic half-pound burger or a pulled pork sandwich for $8, including a generous side of fries, or a walleye sandwich for a buck more. All the breads come from A Baker’s Wife, right around the corner on 42nd
    Street. But the menu, and the beer list both offer a lot more, without getting fussy or yuppified. Okay, maybe a little yuppified, but not too bad: a bison burger ($11), a roasted garlic and pear pizza ($8), shrimp fettucine Alfredo ($11).

    I was a little disappointed by the pan-fried half-chicken ($13), but only because I expected the traditional southern version, breaded and fried in lots of fat. Buster’s version is lighter – boneless slices of chicken sautéed and served over a mound of sweet potato fries with a lively ginger-apple chutney. There’s also a smart selection of beers – nearly sixty bottled brands, plus 20 brews on tap, ranging from locally brewed Surly, Summit and Flat Earth beers to Delirium Tremens from Belgium. Most are described in considerable detail, but the description of Miller Lite is short and to the point: “It tastes like Miller Lite.”

    Buster’s on 28th Avenue, 4204 28th
    Ave., Minneapolis, 612-729-0911.

  • El Meson and Cafe Ena get Happy – New Taqueria Planned

    El Meson, at 35th and Lyndale Ave. S., and its sister restaurant, Cafe Ena  at 46th and Grand, have both started offering happy hours. The details are a little different: El Meson is Sunday to Thursday 4-6, while Cafe Ena’s is Sunday to Friday 3-5. but the basic deal is the same: glasses of wine for $3, sangria for $4 and Mexican beers for $2.50, plus reduced prices on starters. It’s a chance to sample some of the new tapas on El Meson’s menu, like the patatas, chorizo, potatoes, onions and peppers in a sherry glaze, $4 (regularly $7.95). Chef Hector Ruiz has also added half a dozen new entrees to the menu, ranging from a chicken breast with tomato-asparagus-saffron risotto to Serrano-ham wrapped scallops with Manchego-caper mashed potatoes in a lemon butter sauce. 

    Ruiz and his wife/partner, Erin Ungerman plan to open a taqueria, Los Indios,at 910 W. Lake Street sometime next spring. Ruiz says he’ll serve the kind of food he grew up on in Axochiapan, Morelos, with recipes from his mother, Victorina Ruiz. The menu doesn’t really sound very different from what’s available at other local taquerias: tacos, tortas, chicken adobo, pork in tomatillo sauce, bistek encebollado, but it’s a safe bet that Ruiz, who trained at Brown Institute’s Cordon Bleu program, and interned with Alain Senderens in Paris, will add a few creative twists to those classics. 

  • J.D. Fratzke To Strip Club

    Got a call from J.D. Fratzke, talented chef at Muffuletta in Saint Paul’s Saint Anthony Park. He gave notice last Saturday, and after 10 years working for Parasole, is about to embark on a new adventure – he’ll be a chef and partner at the Strip Club, the new neighborhood steakhouse that Tim Niver and Aaron Johnson (owners of the Town Talk Diner) are opening in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood just east of Saint Paul. "Tim and I have been friends for a very long time," said Fratzke. "When I was
    the salad boy at Pronto he was the general manager there. He showed me the space (the former Pop’s Family Restaurant spot) and I just fell in love with it."

    At Muffuletta, Fratzke was known for supporting small farmers and using local, sustainably grown meats and produce, and he says he’ll do the same at the Strip Club. The steaks will be grassfed, from the 1000 Hills Cattle Company in Cannon Falls, and he’ll continue to serve Ledebuhr’s wild rice sausages, made at the meat market in his home town of Winona. Beyond steaks, Fratzke promises some midwestern touches on the menu: Swedish meatballs, walleye fritters and even a Braunschweiger sandwich.

  • Pagoda

    One of the great things about having a blog is that I get to post as much as I want about my own peculiar gastronomic obsessions. Of course, I don’t think there is anything peculiar about my love of little Chinese hole-in-the-wall noodle joints, or the fact that this is my third post on the topic in the last week, (after Relax and Keefer Court) but some of you might.

    This time, it’s Pagoda, a new restaurant and bakery at 1417 4th St. S.E. in Dinkytown. Actually, it doesn’t quite qualify as a hole-in-the-wall – unlike most of the cheap Chinese noodle joints, the owners obviously put some money and some thought into the build-out, which includes floor to ceiling glass, faux-slate floor, bakery counter, an exposed kitchen and lots of flat-screen monitors playing Chinese karaoke.

    The menu is mostly Chinese – barbecued pork and duck, rice plates, stir-fries, noodle soups, pan-fried noodles, fried rice, congees, but there’s also a little bit of everything else Asian, from Korean and Thai seafood hotpots to Indian style curry chicken, Japanese squid and regional specialties like a terrific Szechuan fish fillets in spicy brorh ($9.95, and big enough for two.) Nearly everything is under $10, and best of all, the place is open till midnight Sunday to Thursday, and till 3 a.m. on weekends.

    Pagoda, 612-378-4710.

  • Nick and Eddie: The Mystery of Hipness

    I just can’t figure it out. Doug Anderson’s new restaurant,
    Nick and Eddie, manages to radiate hipness — even uber-hipness, but I can’t put
    my finger on just what does it. It isn’t actually Doug’s restaurant —
    officially, he’s the head waiter. Seems that there were some financial issues
    that Doug isn’t at liberty to discuss, that led to the abrupt closing of his
    last venture, A Rebours, so Doug’s wife Jessica, and the chef, Steve Vranian,
    are the owners of record. But Doug seems to be the creative force behind the
    new Loring Park café and bar.

    At any rate, explaining the hipness: It certainly isn’t the
    décor — bare white walls, Formica-style tabletops and a few yards of velvet
    wallpaper thrown in. It can’t be the menu, which reads like the opposite of
    hip: chopped chicken liver ($5), potato pancakes with smoked whitefish salad
    ($5), braised beef cheeks with parsnip puree ($15), poached salmon with
    sauerkraut and brussel sprouts ($18) — you get the idea. My esteemed colleague,
    Ann Bauer, says it’s the sound system, which is supposed to be a high-tech
    wonder; but the night I visited, we could barely hear the tunes above the din
    of diners.

     

    Maybe it’s the staff. The servers, all dressed in black,
    definitely contribute to the cool factor. On my most recent visit, we were
    waited on by Daniela from Brazil, with a hint of samba in her voice, and Ian
    from Ireland, whose roguish charm and musical brogue was one of the prime
    attractions of the late, lamented Emma’s Café — especially for the ladies.

    Anderson has assembled a stellar team to run the new
    operation. In addition to Jessica Anderson, who doubles as baker and pastry
    chef, there’s chef Vranian, whose resume includes stints at the California
    Café, Murray’s, North Coast, and Jeremiah Tower’s Star’s in San Francisco,
    where Doug and Steve met. General manager Scott Ida worked with Doug at
    Aquavit, and has also worked at other top houses, including Goodfellows and the
    510 Restaurant.

    The food may not be hip, but what I sampled was impressive.
    Call it comfort food with a twist. The beef and cabbage borscht added just a
    hint of spice to a very flavorful meaty broth, while the Belgian endive salad
    with persimmons and hazel was refreshingly light and playful. And I loved the
    beef cheeks – the tenderest meat I’ve had in ages. My wife, who doesn’t eat
    meat, was less impressed with the only vegetarian entrée, billed as wild rice
    and hominy with parsnips roasted beets and Swiss chard. I actually liked that
    dish, too, but it probably would work better as a side dish than as an entrée. But we both loved the dessert, a chocolate
    Ho-Ho, that was just like the real thing, only better.

  • Wolfgang Puck: Eat Locally, Dine at 20.21?

    It’s really good to see that Wolfgang Puck has jumped on the
    sustainable, humanely-raised, locally-grown bandwagon, but when he came
    to town last week to promote his new food policies, I couldn’t resist
    asking him one tough question.

    The Austrian-born chef’s sprawling network of fine-dining
    restaurants, fast-casual outlets and catering operations around the
    country served some 10 million diners last year, so when a guy like
    Puck makes a well-publicized move towards humane and sustainable
    eating, it’s likely to have a real impact.

    The new program, created in partnership with the Humane Society of
    the United States, is called WELL (TM), which stands for Wolfgang’s
    Eating, Loving and Living. (Catchy, huh?) The standards include using
    and serving only eggs from cage-free hens, serving only all-natural or
    organic crate-free pork and veal, and chicken and turkey from farms
    that comply with progressive animal welfare standards, serving only
    certified sustainable seafood, eliminating foie gras, and expanding the
    use of organic foods, and increasing vegetarian offerings.

    The program hasn’t required him to raise prices at his upscale
    restaurant, Puck said, because they already use a lot of sustainable,
    locally produced ingredients. At 20.21, the restaurant at the Walker
    Art Center that Puck operates, the kitchen has already been serving
    local meats and produce, including pork from Fischer Purebred Hogs near
    Waseca, and poultry from Wild Acres near Pequot Lakes. But at his
    fast-food restaurants, he has had to raise some prices by 10 percent or
    so.

    Still, Puck volunteered that Americans need to eat less – and that
    they could eat less, and spend less at his restaurants by ordering
    dishes to share. "I would much rather that they come twice a week and
    spend $40 than come once and spend $80."

    So far, so good, but I had to ask: If people really want to eat
    locally and sustainably, shouldn’t they avoid restaurants owned by big
    national companies like Puck’s, and patronize locally owned businesses?

    The question seemed to catch Puck a bit off-guard. "I think that’s
    stupid," Puck replied. "Why exclude somebody if they do the right
    thing? We do something for the city, so the city supports us. I think
    it makes everybody better. If there is more competition it makes
    everybody work harder and think twice about what to serve. If you only
    had a local scene, it would make everybody stagnate. We are a country
    of different origins different cultures and that’s what makes it
    exciting."

    I mentioned the Cheesecake Factory, and the other national chain
    operators at Southdale as example of big chain restaurants that take
    millions of dollars away from locally-owned independent restaurants,
    but Puck didn’t buy it:

    It is true, but we are a free country. "There is a reason why people
    go to the Cheesecake Factory. If I lose a customer, there’s a reason.
    They might get a better deal there. The food might be better. The
    service might be better. The environment might be better." If the small
    operations want to stay in business, says Puck, they have to innovate.
    "You cannot today just have a little restaurant and keep it going and
    going like it used to be. People today are fickle; they want new
    things."

  • Relax! – the Food's Still Yummy

    WolfgangPuckfix.jpg

    I got this sinking feeling the other day when I drove past one of my favorite Chinese restaurants, the former Yummy at 25th and Nicollet, and discovered a new sign above the door. The sign said Relax, which made me worry that the place had been turned into a sauna/ massage parlor, until I read the rest of the sign, which promises Exotic Chinese Cuisine. My doubts returned when I saw the restaurant’s new menu, whose cover promises authentic Chinese cuisine, but features two hula girls in grass skirts and bikini tops (actually, one wore only a lei), undulating under palm trees. Has Yummy gone Polynesian? Will I find pu-pu platter on the menu?

    Luckily, it turns out that not much has really changed. Employees told me that the former owner, Mr. Chang, moved to Florida and sold the restaurant to his head chef, Jackson Liu. The menu has added a few new dishes, not including a pu-pu platter, but it’s basically the same as when the restaurant was Yummy. The food has actually improved, the employees insisted: the new owner has hired a professional dim sum chef from New York, whereas Mr. Chang used to make the dim sum himself. I tried a few of the dim sum yesterday for lunch (they’re available every day, but the selection is bigger on weekends), and I don’t know if they are any better than before, but they were quite good, and very reasonably priced.

  • Hurrah for Heidi's

    The real test of a chef’s talent isn’t what they can do with foie gras or fresh black truffles. Those ingredients can make any chef look good, and the less you do with them, the better. The real test is what you can do with more mundane ingredients like beets, brussel sprouts and beef short ribs.

    By that standard, Stuart Woodman’s work at Heidi’s (named after his wife and co-chef) is impressive. An appetizer billed as beet variation 13 combines a beet sorbet with roasted beets, topped with fennel and shallots, scented with juniper. The originality of the combination commands your attention, and then the subtlety of the flavors rewards it. Another appetizer, seared ahi tuna, breathes new life into the most over-exposed ingredient currently to be found on local menus: Woodman serves it over a thin slice of marinated roasted eggplant, and tops the fish with fried leeks, creating a delightful interplay of textures.
    Woodman built his reputation at two high-end restaurants, Restaurant Levain and Five, both now out of business. Heidi’s, in the former Pane Vino Dolce space, is a much more modest venture, with minimal decor, and entrees priced from $9-$19. You can get a decent glass of wine for as little as $5 (a rarity nowadays), though the list of wines by the bottle ranges all the way up to $109, for a 2005 Justin Isosceles Paso Robles.

    My favorite dining companion, who doesn’t eat meat, was delighted to find four acceptable options on the entree list: barramundi in a mussel broth; steamed halibut with kale, artichokes and fingerling potatoes; turnip ravioli with brown butter and pea greens; and (her choice) a vegetarian bolognese with firm, al dente pappardelle and an intensely flavorful mushroom chard sauce.

    Lots of restaurants serve a pretty standard version of the molten chocolate cake, but Heidi’s version (actually made by Heidi, unless I miss my guess) adds a flavorful seasonal twist: a hint of gingerbread spice.

    My only gripe is about the decibel level. I only went to Pane Vino Dolce once, though I liked the food, because I found the decibel level painfully loud – like being trapped inside a steel drum. It’s much better at Heidi’s, but there is still room for improvement.

    Heidi’s Minneapolis, 819 W. 50th St., Minneapolis, 612-354-3512.