Scenes from the melee that was the Trader Joe’s opening in St. Louis Park. Seriously, it was packed. Anyone with a cart was nearly lynched. Everything is sold under the Trader Joe’s label. The cheese selection was good but not phenomenal. And I want phenomenal cheese forever more. Yay, gazpacho! A nice deal on frozen … Read more
Joey Chestnut, they muttered beneath their breath, Joey Chestnut could be the one. It may be too soon to talk about it, we may be jinxing the best chance we’ve had in a long time, but the world of competitive eating is a-buzz with Joey Chestnut. Last Thursday, in the Las Vegas qualifier for the … Read more
Art-A-Whirl makes me hungry. Maybe it’s walking around all the inspiring art that makes me think I, too, am a starving artist. Maybe it’s all the pondering and provoking of thought that starts my tummy a-grumbling. Or maybe it’s the wonderous lack of cheese curd trucks combined with the knowledge that I’m surrounded by some … Read more
When I first came to Minnesota twenty years ago, I had never taught a class larger than ten students—mostly I had conducted the one-to-one tutorials that are at the heart of the Oxford system. My first term here I was given a class on the Roman Republic that numbered some seventy souls. The learning curve … Read more
Last winter, over the holidays, a restaurant manager I know clocked what she wryly calls the “Best Five Minutes Ever” of her career. Just seconds after punching in, she was called to the bar to break up a couple of brawlers. While showing one-half of the drunken duo to the door, she came across a … Read more
Does anyone remember the House of Breakfast? It was this little counter-service joint run by two Eastern European women out of a house-front in South Minneapolis. The omelets were decent, the pancakes were fine, but that’s not why you went. It was the walls. Near the counter you could read the menu, which was scrawled … Read more
Tiffani is getting railroaded. I finally saw the “reunion” episode of Top Chef the other night, and I seriously couldn’t sleep afterward. Tiffani is being cast in the role of the villain. Don’t think for a minute that just because it’s Reality Television that there aren’t people behind the scenes working the events into “story … Read more
Nothing quite says “Thanks Mom” like a giant fruit peacock. Screw brunch. Seriously, don’t you think you’re pulling a fast one on your Mom by taking her out for brunch? First of all, there’s little or no effort put by YOU personally into the meal. Secondly, by making it the morning meal, it’s like you’re … Read more
This coming weekend might be a good time to join the lurkers in the woods. The mycologists are a-foot, stooping to look under fallen trees, brushing aside damp rotting leaves, all in search of their prize: mushrooms. Foraging for mushrooms, and other wild edibles such as ramps, can be a consuming hobby. Disregarding wet weather, … Read more
I have owned more than a few copies of this book. I can’t quite seem to to keep it on my shelf. Shortly after discovering it, a friend confided that she was terrified to cook, that she didn’t know where to start. She had been a Microwave Monkey for most of her life. I knew … Read more