Category Archives: Eat – Restaurants

Nov 21 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

New York Bites – Day Three

There was only one thing I felt I missed out on during our first trip to New York City in 2011 — a proper New York City doughnut. A really, really good one, not a Dunkin Donut you find on every other corner there (and here in Minnesota, for that matter). We never found that New York doughnut. So, on our third and final day in New York City, we planned to hit the Brooklyn Museum and I found just the spot nearby for my perfect NYC doughnut.

Then something came along that Momofuku’d up my whole plan — the absolute best bite of our entire trip:

Momofuku Ssam Pork Belly bunThis looks like a simple sandwich, but I assure you it is not. This is a pork bun from Momofuku Ssäm. The “bread” is a cloud-like steamed bun from heaven. The sauce is a sweet and sticky hoisin with just a touch of spice. The pickles are fresh, crispy, tangy with rice vinegar and paper-thin. And the filling is a huge hunk of juicy pork belly with the perfect layer of succulent, melting fat. When you bite into it, the sky opens up, rays of sunshine fall upon your face and choirs of angels sing around you. They abruptly shut up the second you finish the last bite and that’s when you realize A) You should have just ordered an entire lunch of these so you could hoard them all to yourself and B) You will not have room for that perfect Brooklyn doughnut and you just don’t give a damn anymore.

This was just the prelude to lunch. K ordered the Duck Duck Noodles with a rich and scrumptious peanut sauce. If you think this looks like an ordinary bowl of spaghetti, shame on you. You’re on time out and there will be no Duck Duck Noodles for you.

Momofuku Ssam duck duck noodlesI went with the rotisserie duck over rice with both a scallion pancake and some lettuce to wrap everything up. The duck was absolutely perfectly cooked and the scallion pancake was a rare 50/50 blend of crisp and tender. With a little hoisin sauce and some crispy shallots, I had so, so many perfect bites.

Momofuku ssam Duck with RiceWe were fueled for our trip to Brooklyn where the streets are wider and there’s more room to breathe. We spent the afternoon touring the quaint and slightly odd Brooklyn Museum — the layout took you from a meticulously recreated period room from the 1800′s straight into a contemporary art installation featuring carpet-covered skateboards, then back again.

As we neared the end of our visit, we realized too late we should have lugged our suitcases with us and checked them at the museum. Instead, we had to schlep all the way back into Times Square to pick up our bags. But our reward for doing this? It was rush hour and a cab to the airport was not readily available. A stretch limo with a *hilarious* driver, however, was available at the bargain price of the same as we would have paid for a cab. In order to not be facing backwards or to the side, we sat in the limo’s only “proper” seat … and had a 45 minute shouted conversation with the seasoned driver allllll the way up front. There was a lot of space for just the two of us and it was pretty awesome to experience a stretch limo navigating Manhattan’s rush hour traffic — all in all, a ridiculously over-the-top end to a trip that was one heckuva treat!

Extra special thanks to Open Table for scheduling (then rescheduling) our trip, for putting us up in a hotel and for picking up the tab for dinner at Top Chef Kitchen. The takeaway lesson to all of you is to enter contests, you never know when you might actually win. Thanks to the staff and chefs at Top Chef Kitchen for a memorable and delicious meal. And THANK YOU NEW YORK CITY! We’ll most definitely be back.

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Nov 21 2012
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Drink, Eat - Restaurants, Life

New York Bites — Day Two — Top Chef Kitchen

During our honeymoon in New York City in 2011, we visited all the “big” museums and did all the major tourist attractions, so this time around we decided to visit a few lesser known places. We were staying close to Broadway and Times Square and, to be honest, the restaurant selections around there can be pretty slim if you’re looking for something outside of the chain restaurant zone (and no, we did not visit Guy Fieri’s restaurant). K did a search on LocalEats.com and found a highly rated Korean restaurant not far away so we were off.

Tiny, spare and beautiful Danji was *exactly* what we needed after a night of fitful sleep punctuated by the honks, yells and sirens of the city that never sleeps. I want to *live* in Danji — it’s that pretty. From the crafty Edison bulb lighting fixtures, to the white brick, to the wall of spoons…

danji spoons …down to the amazingly clever menu drawers that conserve precious space.

danji menu drawer

Even more beautiful was the food. Simple tofu with ginger scallion sauce was simply the most exquisite bite of tofu I’ve experienced. It was clearly homemade, layers of light and fluffy beauty with a little crisp and a sprinkling of fairy dust. Seriously, I don’t know what this stuff was, but I would like to put it on everything I eat from now on because it’s magic.

danji tofuK had the dup-bob over rice with brisket bulgogi and I got the dup-bob over rice with spicy pork belly. Both came with kimchi (which tends to be a bit too spicy for my Minnesota palate) and a lovely, warm daikon beef soup. The pork belly was tender and the spicy sauce was just spicy enough for me, served over fluffy rice it was the perfect lunch in a bowl.

danji bulgogi dup-bobCelebrity spotting: As we were getting onto the subway, who else but Matthew Broderick was hopping off?! He’s starring in “Nice Work if You Can Get it” on Broadway — right across the street from our hotel — so we’re, like, practically next door neighbors. And yes, he’s still adorable.

We spent the afternoon exploring the New York Historical Society. They had an extensive WWII exhibit that was interesting and some lovely paintings of the Hudson River Valley, but the real score was on the fourth floor. Hundreds of years of art, artifacts and ephemera piled behind glass — statues, furnishings, medals, toys…history. It was wonderfully overwhelming and every layer you peered into you saw something new and amazing. Mind boggling fun. Then we took a chilly autumn afternoon walk through Central Park.

After a snack and a cat nap under 50 layers of blankets so I could warm up, we put on our fancy pants and headed to our big dinner at Top Chef Kitchen — the pop-up restaurant in Tribeca. The place was positively packed, but chefs Antonia Lofaso and Fabio Viviani circulated through the guests, greeting people and making sure everyone was happy with their food and beverages. The ceilings were high and flocked with stringy white chandeliers and the walls were lined in Top Chef orange. We kept it simple and I ordered Fabio’s tasting menu while K ordered Antonia’s tasting menu and we split each dish. We were also treated to the wine pairings that came with both.

Our amuse bouche was the opportunity to meet Fabio Viviani, who kindly welcomed us. Our first course was burrata, a sun-dried tomato and chipotle pesto (Fabio) and a crudo of fluke with grapes, pickled fennel and dill (Antonia).

Fabio Viviani Burrata Top Chef Kitchen

Fabio Viviani’s Burrata – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo

The cheese was fresh, smooth and filled with cream and was nicely complemented by the sweet tomato and the spicy, smoky bite of the chipotle. The bubbles from the prosecco sweetly cut through every rich bite. The fluke was delicate and the warm taste of the grapes paired beautifully.

Our second course was lobster ravioli with tarragon, tomato and a crispy squash blossom (Antonia) and gnocchi with duck sausage (Fabio). The gnocchi were tender little pillows of wonderful with the savory duck sausage ragout sauce coating every bite.

Gnocchi with Duck Sausage - Fabio Viviani - Top Chef Kitchen

Gnocchi with Duck Sausage – Fabio Viviani – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo TV

The ravioli were elegant and the lobster filling and tarragon played together gracefully. The crispy squash blossom was filled with herbed ricotta and was a delightful surprise.

Lobster Ravioli Antonia Lofaso Top Chef Kitchen

Lobster Ravioli with Tarragon – Antonia Lofaso – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo TV

Our third course was beef short ribs with carrots and braised pistachios (Fabio) and braised veal cheek with polenta and roasted mushrooms (Antonia).

Both the veal cheek and the short ribs were fall apart/fork tender and luscious. Oddly, the braised pistachios were my favorite bit of the short ribs — I’ve never had them before and they had a distinct pistachio flavor, but were very soft and almost feminine.

Short Rib - Fabio Viviani - Top Chef Kitchen

Short Rib – Fabio Viviani – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo TV

The creamy polenta and tasty mushrooms paired with the veal cheek were darn near the perfect bite.

Veal Cheek and Polenta - Antonia Lofaso - Top Chef Kitchen

Veal Cheek and Polenta – Antonia Lofaso – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo TV

For dessert we enjoyed a chocolate torte with Nutella ice cream (Antonia) and a truffled Tiramisu (Fabio). The Tiramisu was rich and creamy and the torte was even richer and absolutely lush when paired with the ice cream.

Chocolate torte - Antonia Lofaso - Top Chef Kitchen

Chocolate torte – Antonia Lofaso – Top Chef Kitchen – Photo courtesy of Bravo TV

Special thanks to Bravo for use of the photos from their website. The lighting in the Top Chef Kitchen was very low and our photos certainly did not do the amazing food justice.

After we filled up on flashy food, we made a stop at Geoffrey Zakarian’s Lamb’s Club for cocktails — wonderful concoctions made with elderflower, gin, citrus, ginger, egg whites, bitters and more. Because an evening in New York City is certainly not complete without a stop for very glamorous, late night cocktails. Stay tuned for our final day in our whirlwind trip to NYC!

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Nov 20 2012
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Drink, Eat - Restaurants, Life

New York City Bites – Day One

To recap: We entered Open Table‘s Twitter contest and won a trip to New York City. They flew us to the Big Apple, they put us up in a hotel and the sent us out to dinner at Top Chef Kitchen. We didn’t want to waste a moment of our good fortune so, when we landed around lunch time, we were hungry and on the hunt for a great place for a midday meal in Manhattan. Fortunately for us, Lidia Bastianich’s restaurant — Becco — was just down the street from our hotel.

Becco is everything you’d expect a New York City Italian restaurant to be — rustic, small and intimate, bright, warm and friendly. We were led to the back, to a tiny table under a glass canopy. We were up early in the morning for our flight, we’d had a long cab ride from the airport, it was past lunch time and we were *hungry*!! Thankfully, a bread basket, some roasted red pepper hummus and olives were delivered to us right away. The crispy, skinny bread sticks were perfect dipped in that hummus and I’m pretty sure we ate about 100 of them.

K couldn’t say no to their veal Parmigiana and I saw all the tables around us getting served up course after course of Becco’s three daily pasta selections, so I went with that. While snacking on bread and olives, we made quick friends with the two gentlemen sitting at the table next to us (and by “next to us,” I mean about six inches away from us). They owned an Italian restaurant and event center in New Jersey and were in the city for a trade show. They were supremely kind and awesome and could have come directly out of Central Casting — bada bing!

Then…our lunch arrived. As you can see, K’s veal was quite literally dinner plate-sized.

veal parmigiana beccoJuicy, crispy, meaty, tender, not at all greasy — perfect Italian red sauce food with lots of gooey melted fresh mozzarella.

My daily pasta specials were penne with meat sauce, fresh pasta ribbons with a simple tomato sauce and mushroom ravioli.

becco pasta special Every single bite was phenomenal. The pasta ribbons were clearly very fresh as was the simple tomato sauce, redolent with basil. The meat sauce that accompanied the penne was elevated with warm spices (cinnamon definitely, possibly nutmeg as well). It was almost sweet, but was offset by the meatiness of the sauce (probably lamb, but I’m not 100 percent sure). The mushroom ravioli was just pure indulgence — thyme and butter — sweet, sweet butter. No seconds for me, I was conquered by one giant serving. We did, however, share a few scoops of frosty sorbet to cap off the meal.

Becco was so warm and homey, I didn’t want to leave, but we were soon off to unpack, explore a bit on foot then head off to visit cousins and their brand new sweet baby girl in Jersey City. We all enjoyed dinner at Thirty Acres, where K’s duck dish won the evening. The light was low and we were having too much fun and good conversation to document dinner, sorry. In fact, we chatted so long we almost missed the train back to New York City!

Stay tuned for day two and our dinner at Top Chef Kitchen.

 

 

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Oct 24 2012
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Drink, Eat - Cooking, Eat - Restaurants, Life

Squab with Soy Maple Stuffing, Mushrooms and Roasted Grapes

So…here’s a fun thing: We just won a contest from Open Table. They asked people to tweet something along the lines of “I want to win dinner in NYC at Top Chef Kitchen.” So I did. And I won. What are the odds of two people who’ve cooked their way through three years of Top Chef, have a blog about cooking Top Chef food and who honeymooned in New York City winning this contest?!? I’d say a kajillion to one. But there you go, we won and I’m so excited to go to New York City next week I’m like a little kid the night before Christmas. Top Chef Kitchen is a temporary pop-up restaurant in Tribeca and different Top Chef contestants cook each week. The evening we’re there, we’ll be treated with four courses (plus wine pairings) by Tiffani Faison and Jennifer Carroll. In eager anticipation of our whirlwind adventure next week, we did an adaptation of Tiffani’s soy maple-stuffing with quail, mushrooms and grapes (original recipe here). Here’s our version: Squab sous vide with soy maple stuffing, mushrooms and roasted grapes.

First things first, spatchcock. Not only is it fun to say, it was pretty necessary to make sure the squab cooked evenly, fit in the sous vide bag and was easier to eat. Spatchcock simply means to cut out the breastbone and backbone so the bird lays (relatively) flat. Use a super sharp kitchen scissors to cut out the breast bone. Then carefully and under the skin, cut out the backbone.

Our spatchcocked squab:

Heat the sous vide machine to 148 degrees F. Load the squab into a sous vide bag and add the marinade.

Squab marinade
3 TB maple syrup
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB sesame oil
1 tsp Aleppo pepper (or crushed dried chili pepper)

Seal up the bag and pop everything into the sous vide machine to cook for 6-8 hours.

Gather your ingredients for the rest of your meal.

Stuffing
2 Ciabatta rolls (or 1/2 loaf Ciabatta bread)
2 TB maple syrup
2 TB soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 eggs
1/8 tsp Aleppo pepper flakes (or chili flakes) (more or less depending on your spice preference)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 TB toasted pine nuts
2 TB fresh Italian parsley

1/2 pint baby bella mushrooms
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp thyme (fresh or dried)
2 cups seedless grapes (red or green is fine as long as they’re seedless)

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

To make the stuffing: Tear up and toast the bread until it’s golden on the outside, but still tender inside. Beat the eggs and mix into all the wet ingredients and spice. Put bread into a baking dish and pour the wet ingredients over. Mix until the bread is well coated (it’s easiest to use your hands for this). Sprinkle the pine nuts and parsley over the top.

To roast the grapes: Thoroughly wash the grapes and place individually (not in clusters) on a baking sheet.

Bake the stuffing and roast the grapes at the same time. If the stuffing is getting too brown, turn the heat down to 350.

Remove the squab from the sous vide machine and take out of the bag. Your home will smell like Thanksgiving at this point.

Place squab on a foil-lined baking sheet and put under the broiler until dark brown and crispy (8-10 minutes, but keep an eye on it — cooking time depends on the broiler).

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan and slice the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms with the thyme until browned.

When everything is ready, place the stuffing on your plate and scatter the mushrooms over it. Lay the squab over the stuffing and add the roasted grapes to the side of the plate. Salt and pepper everything to taste.

squab with soy maple stuffing, mushrooms and roasted grapes

Would we make this again? Mmm, ummmm, mmmmm…sorry, I was too busy enjoying this fabulous meal. The grapes were soft and sweet, the stuffing crunchy with layers of flavor. The crispy skin of the squab concealed tender and rich dark meat. It was like super fancy Thanksgiving dinner. So if we happen to have a few squab hanging around in the freezer, yes … we would make this again.

Stay tuned for a report on Top Chef Kitchen and New York City fun!

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Jun 22 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 22

Day 22: The Perennial Plate.

As I knelt down to take this photo — during the Perennial Plate celebration on the rooftop of Solera — I whispered a thank you to this pig for giving his life so we could have a magnificent feast among friends. Not a bit of this pig, raised on a local farm, was wasted. Its cheeks were even auctioned off to raise money for the Youth Farm and Market Project. Knowing where your food comes from is a central theme in our food philosophy and is the basis of the Perennial Plate.

If you’ve never seen the Perennial Plate web series, watch it. Now. Not only can it be fun and beautiful, but it’s educational and intriguing. It’s also often difficult to watch. But food isn’t easy. You work to put food on your table, of course, but others do too (like the people who pick tomatoes in Immokalee, Florida). It might feel like your life revolves around food, but for some their life is given to be our food (like our friend above). Daniel and Mirra focus on “adventurous and sustainable eating” and have, in fact, devoted their lives to it. Watch some episodes, take it all in and do what you can to make what’s on your table (and going into your body) better.

This celebration wasn’t about Daniel and Mirra — they’re both too modest and unassuming for that. It was about the food, the process of making it and where it came from. That pig fed a rooftop full of people. There were pickles and beets and a beautiful grain salad and a creamy potato and lentil salad with crispy onions and Fulton beer and sangria and more.

And it was a beautiful summer night with lots of friends and laughs. New people met, connections made. No matter where you are or who you’re with, food is always a unifying topic of conversation.

The Perennial Plate focuses on adventurous and sustainable eating. Our food philosophy is to make restaurant food and master chef recipes home cook-friendly using as many local, sustainable ingredients as possible. What’s your food philosophy?

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Jun 19 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 19

Day 19: Chef Shack.

We were privileged to spend the evening on an exclusive blogger tour of the kitchens of food truck pioneers Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson, co-owners of the Chef Shack. We checked out their stainless steel palace in southwest Minneapolis, we got a wink and a nod that you should keep your ears open for exciting news in Chef Shack’s future, we hung out among their fleet of trucks (they have three) and we enjoyed dinner and dessert.

While Carrie gave us the tour, Lisa cooked up some pulled pork tacos (tender with a nice, subtle char on the tortillas and a fantastic crunchy cabbage slaw) and spicy vegetable curry (subtle heat on the back-end, not blow your tastebuds spicy — my kind of hot). SO good. To balance the savory, we also got a sweet chocolate mousse over moist chocolate cake. Rich and cooling on a hot summer evening.

Between bites and sips of Surly and Crispin cider, we peppered Carrie and Lisa with questions and they shared their cooking, baking, food truck and business wisdom.

Chef Shack Tips for Being a Great Food Truck Customer

* Keep an open mind and try new things. Indian-spiced mini donuts and beef tongue tacos might sound scary, but if you take a taste you might find you enjoy the tender braised beef and the fried dough redolent with exotic “pie spices.”

* If something isn’t working, tell the chef(s)/owner(s) — preferably not over social media. If you had a dish that didn’t have the right taste, texture or temperature, mention it right there and then (politely and constructively, of course). If you’re not comfortable talking about it face to face, send a private email and give the chef/owner a chance to respond and resolve the issue and maybe even change the menu! This is especially important with new food trucks who may be trying things out and still learning.

* If you’ve got criticism, be specific so the chef(s)/owner(s) know how to make things better. “This sandwich sucks,” is not particularly helpful. “I think I’d enjoy this sandwich more if it were crispier and not so spicy,” gives people something to work with and improve.

Food Blogger Tips for Being an Awesome Food Truck

* Offering free samples helps people understand your food/culinary perspective and is an accessible “foot in the door” to get people to try (and hopefully buy) your food. However, if you’re going to offer samples of hot food, don’t let the samples get cold (and vice versa for cold food served too warm).

* If you’re new to the scene, talk to veterans like the Chef Shack crew.  The food truck community is great and kind and they all seem to help each other. They can help you ease into a great start with your food truck instead of going it alone and potentially making lots of rookie mistakes that could kill future business.

* Be unique. Offer food we can’t get anywhere else and we’ll keep coming back for more.

* Good customer service goes a long way. Interacting with your customers shows us that you care and making a personal connection often means earning a lifelong customer.

A BIG giant thank you to Carrie and Lisa at Chef Shack for such a wonderful evening and tremendous props to the tireless Matt from Thyme In Our Kitchen for organizing the event. Remember to follow Chef Shack on Twitter for updates on their locations and the latest news — you don’t want to miss what these dedicated and talented women have planned for the future!!

Chef Shack’s Carrie Summer waxing poetic about her “retirement truck.”

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Jun 17 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 17

Day 17: Sushi stop. 

Minnesota can be beautiful during the summer. So beautiful, in fact, that people the world over flock here to have a good time. Case in point, we have at least five friends currently visiting this fair city from Albuquerque, Alaska, Tennessee, Seattle and Nicaragua (and probably others I’m either forgetting or not yet aware of). And we love to see everyone, so when we had a morning brunch with Seattle-ites (both tall and small) and an afternoon fiesta welcoming the tall and small home from Nicaragua, we forgot that we might need to later eat something for dinner. Well, we forgot until it was dinner time.

Sometimes you just need to stop for some good take-out sushi.

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Jun 16 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 16

Day 16: Dinner with friends at Mona. 

On Friday evening we went to dinner with friends at Mona — the restaurant located in the Accenture building in downtown Minneapolis. This is good knowledge to have because you’ll never stumble upon the place unless you happen to work in that building. There’s no signage and it’s not easy to find. Once we got to the building and navigated the parking garage (the elevators weren’t working and the stairway door was locked — an anomaly, we were assured), we were really happy to have made the effort. Mona is tough to locate, the decor is that of your standard hotel bar, but the service is good and very friendly and the food is fantastic.

Built on the small plates philosophy, the four of us each took a crack at ordering a dish and we all shared (each shared dish ends up being 2-3 bites per person, more if you don’t share). Round One: Rabbit and foie gras, fregola (pictured below), pork belly and shrimp on brioche (pictured above). My favorites from this round were the fregola made with tiny round pasta and fresh pea tendrils, feta, basil and lemon. Oh, and bacon. You can add bacon to anything and they cure it in-house. And it’s amazing bacon and the addition *made* the fregola. I also really enjoyed the shrimp on brioche with the buttery bread and the creamy dill mayo with just enough dill — a flavor that can easily overpower delicate food. The pork belly on the potato pancake I could have kept eating all night it was so savory, tender and fall apart fabulous.

Round Two: Marrow on toast, chicken and waffles, polenta (with bacon), the much-lauded elk rib eye and fries. Hands down my favorite was the chicken and waffles. We were afraid we might be disappointed (this dish is everywhere and not many places do it well), but the chicken was crisp on the outside, steamy hot and supple on the inside. The cornmeal sour cream waffle was the perfect vehicle for the chicken with roasted pears and a sweet brown butter honey jus along for the tasty ride.

We were kind of in foodie gluttony overload, so even though we were pretty full (if you’re counting we’re up to about  20-25*very* filling bites per person — a really good-sized meal) , we had to go with dessert. Saffron pots du creme and fresh donuts with hazelnut caramel sauce and … bacon. Our server guaranteed us the addition of bacon to these donuts would forever change the way we look at dessert. And she was right. The big, salty, smoky, chewy chunks of bacon were the Abbott to the hot, crisp and spongy donut Costello. The perfect match.

You know the saying, “Seek and you shall find”? Seek out Mona. The food is really good, they support local farms and food purveyors and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. You get to try a lot of things you won’t get anywhere else. You may think, “Small plates? I’ll need to order everything on the menu and eat it myself.” Not true. You’ll leave so full you may not want breakfast the next day. Or have a snack, it’s a great place for that as well (happy hour goes until 7:00pm). Bonus: If you park in the Accenture underground ramp, your parking is free. This is definitely a place worth seeking out and supporting.

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Jun 14 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 14

Day 14: Soup and salad from Wise Acre Eatery. 

We celebrate the 13th of every single month. Why? Because 13 is our lucky number. We met on a Friday the 13th, K proposed to me on my birthday (April 13) and we got married on November 13. So the 13th of every month is our first date-a-versary, our engage-a-versary and our weddingversary. That’s a lot of “versary,” so we celebrate. Sometimes we celebrate big and fancy, sometimes small and comfortable.

To celebrate our 19th month-a-weddingversary, we stuck close to home and visited Wise Acre Eatery, next door to Tangletown Gardens at 54th and Nicollet in Minneapolis. We’d never been before, but we’ll most definitely be back. It was a beautiful night. The restaurant had their garage door “walls” open to the sun and the breeze and there was a happy vibe that flowed through the entire place. Most of the food comes from the Tangletown Gardens farm in Plato, MN, so the food is really fresh and really local.

We shared a plate of the goat cheese and curry fritters and they were UH.MAZING — light, crispy and so fluffy and flavorful. I had their chowder of the night, which happened to be veggie chowder with ham and bacon. It was filled with warm summer flavors and punctuated by the occasional salty, chewy chunk of pork. K had the dill pickle-brined chicken and liked it a lot. I’m not a fan of pickles, but the brine tasted like my grandma’s homemade pickles, not like a scary grocery store shelf pickle brine. I also had the incredibly fresh Strawberry Fields salad with farm-fresh greens, pickled strawberries, maple pork hock vinaigrette (with some shredded pork hock in there for good measure) and goat cheese-smudged cornbread. Drooling yet? If not, you should be.

Over our sun-dappled dinners, we clinked our glistening wine glasses to mark more than a year and a half of marriage. Every day has been a new adventure and every day I look forward to more delicious and inspirational celebrations.

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Jun 12 2012
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Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 12

Day 12: Sweet treats from Saffron. 

The other night we went out with friends to the Minneapolis restaurant Saffron. I love Saffron because it’s not too fancy, but not too casual. It has great food, really interesting food — not just twists or a chef’s take on a traditional dish, but new and inventive cuisine dotted with French influence and Middle Eastern flavors. I *love* that they offer “little sips” or smaller versions of some of their cocktails. My “little sip” featured garam masala spices and it was deep and mysterious.

My intention was to take photos of our delectable dinner — K had the Parisian gnocchi and I made a dinner out of small plates of deep fried cauliflower, asparagus with feta flan and chicken bisteeya. But between the lively conversation and a voracious appetite, I plain old forgot until dessert. But what a lovely dessert it was. K and I shared the traditional pastry plate featuring Middle Eastern cookies, baklava, a fig bar, an apricot bar and goat cheese-stuffed apricots. I *adored* the baklava, but I’d order it all again in a second.

While we were there, we caught a glimpse of one of the hardest working teams in the local restaurant biz  – brothers Saed and Sami Wadi — who were coming in from a day in their World Street Kitchen food truck. If you’ve not been to Saffron, get yourself there and be prepared to be delighted by comfortingly exotic food redolent with warmth and spice. If you haven’t been to Saffron for a while, get back soon! They’ve recently retooled their menu and the updates are lip-smacking good.

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