The convention center was predictably packed for the Food and Wine show this weekend. I managed to skulk through the aisles and saw some good stuff: Top Bite: the Hope Creamery salted butter on a cracker. One simply beautiful, creamy bit of elegance. Thousand Hills cooked up some crazy-good grass-fed beef hotdogs and burgers. You … Read more
About the last thing I expected to see when I walked into Pi Bar & Restaurant on a Monday night was a table and a half of middle-aged guys playing 500. That’s the old-timey card game we play with Carol’s folks down on the farm in Iowa. Pi , which opened last year in the … Read more
Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) Game #54, Home Game #29: Dallas 99, Minnesota 83 Season Record: 11-43 1. Really Kidding As someone who was contemptuous of how much the Dallas Mavericks gave up to secure Jason Kidd, let me sheepishly report that the clearcut MVP of tonight’s game was…Jason Kidd. … Read more
BOOKS & AUTHORSThe Legend of Faust Co-produced by SF Minnesota and Intermedia Arts, the Speculations Readings Series for science fiction and fantasy works presents local author and photographer Terry Faust tonight at Uptown’s DreamHaven Books. Faust, who’s been shooting at community newspapers, non-profit publications and weddings for over 25 years, lifts the curtain on his … Read more
It struck me as inconsistent when I discovered this: You can gamble away everything you have at Mystic Lake Casino. Your savings, your kids’ college funds, the church collection you were supposed to deposit. You can eat 10,000 calories in a single sitting at the Mystic Lake buffet for the nominal price of $9.95. But … Read more
Good thing we are not in old school Japan and that most elder Japanese/Japanese-trained chefs in the U.S. have adopted our ways. I could care less how you eat your sushi at the bar or at a table, but with some chefs it could get you kicked out! Basic sushi bar etiquette: Oshibori (hot towel) … Read more
In an article about Charles Billington, a University of Minnesota endocrinologist who also happens to be one of the nation’s leading obesity researchers, I mention that when Billington himself dines out, he goes mostly to Heartland, the little storefront bistro on St. Clair Avenue in St. Paul. Why? Because Heartland’s gourmet Midwestern fare embodies just … Read more
First of all, I swore that I would never move back home. I was city-bound and the suburbs could eat my dust, for all I cared. And I had a cute little house in Tangletown and lived a happy life with a 5-10 minute trip to an endless amount of food choices. Funny how life … Read more
The Signal, which opens today in theaters, is an ambitious survival horror film. Written and directed by newcomers David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry, and starring a no-name cast, The Signal does a lot of things well, but loses itself in its pointless brutality and aimless plot. It’s a genre film, so pick your … Read more