Sabor Latino Ecuadoran Restaurant

Cute place! I went in, and the ‘tron seemed a little scared of the gringo wandering in off the street. Luckily, some of the diners there knew English, and got me started. I ordered Seco De Gallina, listed as chicken, tomato, onion, cilantro, green pepper, and rice.

What I received was that, and much much more. They basically brought me what the Ecuadorans at my cook job make for themselves when given the chance. It was aquartered chicken covered in a light but tasty tomato sauce, servedwith rice and a little dressed salad, for about $8. It was servedwith a large container of some kind of verde salsa. Although itlooked like mexi style verde, it sure didn’t taste like it. It packeda little heat and was really good, with a certain savory undertone that set it apart from the typical tomatillo action. I ended up dumping the works on the rice. Awesome. I could drink something like that.

Although I lamed out and ordered the chicken, they have a lot of fish on the menu, all in the $8-$9 range, including fried bass. The Ecuadorans at my job go NUTS over fish, so I am going to go ahead and make the assumption that they have a long tradition of fish eating.

I will go back and return with a full report.

Palm Court Caribbean Bar and Grill

They had a nice curry on special, so I ordered, and enjoyed that. I will have to go back, as I am not at all sure what exactly they are doing. It is Guyanese Cuisine (who knew?), home of the Jim Jones suicide free-for-all. Apparently, the population of the tiny nation is half EastIndian, so it makes for some pretty interesting food… Kind of a mix of traditional Caribbean standards with some Indian dishes cooked by defectors from Taste of India. Owner Rudika Gangapersaud cooks the traditional Guyanese dishes, stuff like fish stew and beans and rice.

Also, according to the Star Tribune article I am shamelessly pillaging, the Guyanese have a tradition of serving Chinese stir-fries on special occasions. Huh. I just saw the tip of the iceberg this visit… Another place I’ll have to get back to soon.

Another plus: they have a great tiki drink selection, and everything on the menu is pretty much under $10.

Mayslacks-

Something is afoot at Mayslacks. First, they had the bathroomsredone. Now, I don’t know about you, but I sort of liked the old fashioned urinal with buckets of ice dumped in the bottom. So old-school. And yes, I do know that I am usually in the minority when it comes to issues like this.

But I digress. Apparently, starting June 10th, they are going to serve the roastbeef the way Stan Mayslack used to… sliced to order. Your intrepid writer will certainly be reporting back on this momentous happening.

Psycho Suzi’s-

This place has good pizza. I mean Really Good Pizza. You not in themood for Pizza? Have a salad with the Wasabi Dressing. Man, I would buy the stuff by the bottle if they would let me, and I don’t ever buy premade salad dressings.

Note to Suzi’s: DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER

DELIVER DELIVER

Holy Land Deli

Northeast Minneapolis has one of the highest concentrations of Middle Eastern and Indian Restaurants to grace our Twin cities. One of the cornerstones of this tradition is the venerable Holy Land Deli. This large establishment has some of the best Gyro, Shawarma, Tahini, samosa and falafel balls you’ll find anywhere. I am not kidding about the falafel balls.

Oh, and they have the undisputed best Gyro in the city. Yes, that is a challenge. Bring it on! If there is better, I am in.

That’s what I’ve got for today. Next time: Zander Café.

Sabor Latino Ecuadorian Restaurant- 2505 Central Ave. NE 612-789-1754
Palm Court Restaurant & Bar- 2424 Central Av. NE., Minneapolis, 612-789-3373
http://www.mayslacks.com
http://www.psychosuzis.com
Holy Land Bakery, Grocery and Deli- 2513 Central Ave NE 612-781-2627

This will be a quick lesson right out of the Arrogance is Bliss category. It is time to turn my pretentiometer to 10!

I would like to address something that
many perfectly nice people don’t seem to understand. If you are eating at a restaurant that has a half way competent chef, you order what they make, and you eat it, onions and all. Think about it- if you bought an album, would you ask the band to mix out one of the lead guitars for you because it is
too hot?

If you are the sort of person that asks to leave the onions off- EAT
AT HOME. Or, go someplace like Subway that caters to people who have
no idea what good food tastes like. Another idea would be the Old
Country Buffet.

If you have no respect for the chef, there is no reason for you to be
eating the chef’s food. Either order the chicken, or go to a
restaurant that has a chef you respect. The same goes for garlic. If you
are such a baby about your breath that you can’t even have a little
garlic, then why the hell are you even eating out? There are fancy
restaurants for people like you- they are called steak houses. They
serve meat with nothing but salt and pepper. They will also serve
you, at your request, the kind of mashed potatoes that have been
skinned, pureed, and mixed with several pounds of delicious butter. They’re
perfectly tasty and absolutely unchallenging to the palate.
These items have probably been on the menu since the Ford administration,
and there is no chance a place like this will attempt to get "fancy"
on you by adding such nefarious things as garlic, jicama, cumin or
chimichurri.

The reason for all of this is simple- when a menu item is created by
someone that knows what they are doing, they like to take the time to
balance the flavors. Sweet complimenting salt. Onions and garlic as
well as fresh herbs, citrus, and broth are balanced out to create
something that is designed to come together like a sympathy on your tongue,
until some arrogant know-it-all diner who is worried about his / her breath
messes it up.

Now, if you are stuck on a date at a place that doesn’t have "normal
food," order whatever looks the least offensive. Then, when you get
it, close your eyes, take a bite, and chew. Do not look at the the
crazy vegetables and onions in there. Just eat it. If you avoid
ordering anything that is called Sashimi, tartare, or is a
crustacean, you should be able to choke it down. That way you might
have a chance with the date. Trust me, people who like to eat "fancy" or
complex food want someone to join them in their enjoyment.

In summary, fake it till you make it! If you force yourself to eat
something a few times, you will acquire a taste for it. By the end of the
dish, you may even like it.

For those of you who have been waiting desperatly for POP! to post the new menu, wait no longer! It is here:

POP! A Neighborhood Restaurant

Ate at the Modern Café last night. Ordered up a hanger steak on polenta with mushrooms on the side. Not too shabby! The mushrooms doused in the gravy was actually tastier then the steak itself. They offered a pasta special that featured several different mushrooms… If that mushroom pasta was as good as the ones that came on my plate, I would have been better off ordering that.

Christie had a spinach salad with a side of mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were probably half butter, as they should be. Like buttah, Baby. The salad was very simple, just spinach topped with white beans and dried chorizo. These ingredients combined with the light dressing made for a surprisingly complex flavor combo for so few ingredients. Very good.

The two restaurants are different in other ways. Pop keeps its menu for a while, whereas the Modern swaps stuff around very regularly. For example, they took the sensational Duck Confít of the menu recently, much to my thrashing and wailing disappointment (aside to the Modern Cafe: If you are listening, you better bring that Duck Confít back one day, or I may have to resort to violence).

In the end, it may be unfair to compare the two places so closely. Perhaps it’s the casual atmospheres, both with creative, inspired menus of comfort food which lead one to hold them side by side. They both are strong in these areas, making Northeast a much more varied and interesting place to dine. Pop has already received much real estate on this journal, so to close with an endorsement of the Modern (not breaking any new ground here, as anyone who reads restaurant reviews in the Twin Cities should know): Go there. Love the haute-Northwoods décor. Love the friendly service. Mostly, love the creative take on the classics that raise comfort foods to whole new heights.

Shogunmoon and Christie

Whipped up some foods for Mothers Day!

My gift to my dear mother this year was a little grillin’, a little salad… and something else. I settled on Caribbean style pork tenderloin on the grill. To accompany that, I figured let’s do some shrimp with a funky mango salsa. I have also been hankering for a solid Greek salad for a while, and it seemed sensible enough to pair a bright strong salad with a nice fresh mint flavor with the Caribbean stuff. My beloved wife of course, being much more attentive than I, informed me that my mum would probably like some pasta with white sauce. Perfect. Why the hell not! It’s MOTHERS DAY!

Initially I thought that there would be a larger group, so I was thinking of grilling a whole chicken with a jerk rub. When it was revealed that the number of guests wouldn’t be the usual ballistic extended-family group I scaled back, removing the chicken from the menu. I seriously considered getting a few Cornish game hens and jerkifying them, but decided against that too. I instead doubled the amount of pasta just in case extra people showed unannounced.

SO, I had my list:

Greek Salad

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Grilled Shrimp with Mango, Lime and Radish Salsa

Pork Tenderloin with a Garlic Orange wet-rub.

My wife, ever the pastry chef of the house, kicked in with a flourless chocolate torte with a raspberry coolie on top.

So, it was off to get the groceries. First thing I did was go to Ready Meats, a cool little butcher near my house. I asked for the pork tenderloin, and was delighted when the guy cut the silver off for me. They even have DeCecco Pasta, the only kind I use. Great establishment.

Ready Meats 612-789-2484 3550 Johnson St. NE Minneapolis, MN 55418

Next up was a little visit to the cheese shop at Surdyk’s for my Pecorino Romano, parmesan, feta, olives and a hunk of nummy smoked gouda for the hell of it. For Mum, a special treat in the form of a package of B. T. McElrath Orange Snappers.

While at Surdyk’s, I went ahead and picked up a nice bottle of Big House Red, which is yummtastic blend that pleases pretty much anyone who tastes it.

Last stop: Produce.

My favorite place to get produce in my area is Eastside Food Cooperative. I like my produce fresh and organic. Yes, I am a big hippie about my food, but it tastes better. They had a variety of mango that I have never seen before, so I purchased them for my salsa in place of the standard kind.

And that was that. Time for the cookin’!

The cooking was pretty labor intensive in the chopping department, but once everything was ready, the stuff was smooth. My wife helped me quite a little bit, and a family friend tended to the grill so I could get my chop chop on.

I would like to take this time to reveal to everyone how sweet my razor sharp global knives are. When you are whipping through several pounds of vegetables, you gotta have sharp knives.

So, about the food:

Greek Salad. Tasted like a greek salad in the best way. Nice crisp romaine hears. I used a hydroponic cucumber just to be fancy. The happy imported Feta and olives added a little salty goodness. The recipe called for a lot of fresh mint and parsley and that made the salad.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara. Even better. In fact, decadent. 2-3 cups of cheese, probably a half a cup of bacon fat. A cup of wine. Hell yea. VERY EASY, people, I’m tellin’ ya.

Grilled Shrimp with Mango, Lime and Radish Salsa. The salsa is the deal here. mango mango mango. man. This was in a close race with the Carbonara for which dish got the most rave reviews.

Pork Tenderloin with an Orange-garlic wet rub. Very tasty. It’s hard to go wrong with a pork tenderloin, as long as the cooking keeps the meat moist and the spicing makes sense with the rest of the meal.

The flourless chocolate torte was a perfect finish to the meal, with a deep chocolate flavor and texture that was just one step past pudding. Melt in your mouth good, and with the sweet-tart flavor of the simple raspberry sauce on top, it was perfect. The torte recipe allows for liqueur or coffee to be added if desired, and Christie has vowed to try it that way next time, just to see if this amazing, three-ingredient cake (chocolate, eggs, butter) can be made better by the addition of a fourth element.

An excellent feast, and best of all, I think Mom was happy.

POP! A Neighborhood Restaurant

Anyone live in deep Northeast Minneapolis? Well baby, you better keep reading, because I have a treat for you. Rather, a guy with a penchant for the color orange, soda pop, and Warhol prints has a treat for you. Clark Knutson, who happens to be a NE Minneapolis native by way of CIA and several kitchens around the world, has set up shop in an idyllic neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis. Called POP! A Neighborhood Restaurant, this place is a happy complement to such august locations as the Modern Cafe and Erte.

Let’s start with the appetizers, shall we? The first trip to Pop, we ordered the Hot! Tamale! This dish consists of some tender spicy shredded chicken exploding out of a wonderfully supple corn tamale. It was served with tasty salsa and chipotle-lime sour cream. The fact that it was not drowned in sauce is a real d’état. It was, thus far, the best tamale I have ever had.

The next visit, I ordered the Chicken Posole Soup. The menu describes it as marinated grilled chicken breast with hominy, tomatoes and peppers in a chile-broth. This soup turned out to be quite tasty. It was good and delicate in a way that almost reminded me of miso soup at a Japanese restaurant. I recommend giving it a shot.

On a third visit, my wife and I shared the POP!Fritters- Shrimp and black bean fritters with chipotle and gusaca (a Venezuelan avocado condiment) dipping sauces. The fritters were somewhere between the consistency of hush puppies and falafel balls, and spiced southwestern style. Dipped in the accompanying sauces, I was able to create a more complex forkful layered with the mixed textures and flavors. I enjoyed each blissful bite.

Right about when we finished with your appetizers, they roll out the bread. Now, normally bread is not a newsworthy item, but in the case of Pop!, it is. They serve up cornbread southern style- it is cooked and served in a round six inch iron pan topped with whipped butter, fresh out of the oven. They make bread, frequently a boring afterthought, into something truly noteworthy in it’s own right. It is absolutely moist, and not crumbly at all. Did I mention smothered in butter? Yes I did! Sometimes, just preparing simple things to perfection can elude a chef busy focusing on using truffle oils and exotic spices in the money maker dishes, but this dose not happen at Pop!

The last time I ate at the restaurant, I ordered the Shrimp Cous-Cous- Sautéed shrimp and chorizo in a saffron tomato broth with cous-cous and an olive relish. It was pretty good, and not entirely unlike a less heavy classic gumbo. The big difference is the cous-cous and the olives… there was olives relish literally covering the plate. Although I did enjoy the entree, I found myself picking out the olives after a while, in an effort to avoid being up all night downing water by the gallon. If you are an olive fanatic however, this dish is definitely for you.

The same night, we also tried the Seared Chicken Breast with Potato puree, sautéed spinach, arugula, olive relish, and truffle pesto. This more basic dish included a stuffed bone-in chicken breast over a mouth watering potato puree. Unlike the Shrimp Cous-cous, the olive relish was applied around the edges of the plate, and did not dominate the dish like the cous-cous. This let the more subtle truffle pesto work its magic on our already highly stimulated taste-buds.

Next, a simple dish with a simple name: Pork Tenderloin. Remember the wonderful cornbread that I mentioned? Well, take that cornbread, add chorizo, and make polenta out of it. Layered on top of the polenta is the tenderloin, marinated in achiote, sliced and arranged in a fan. It is marinated plenty long enough to keep it tender during grilling, and it fell apart with only the gentlest nudging from the fork. Next, take the whole thing and smother it with cranberry relish and ancho chili sauce- everything you need to give your palate a nice large dose of succulent flavor. Every bite has a heavenly mix of cornbread, chorizo, pork, mild chili sauce, and cranberry. Cranberry! We have ordered it several times just to make sure, and it is a knockout every time. I even brought my dad and brothers in one day just to make sure, and they tore into it as if they had been living off spam and ramen for the past several years. It is easily one of the top dishes available in Northeast Minneapolis, something I say with confidence.

Finally, I would like to talk about is the specials. Once when I was there, my dad wanted to order the hanger steak special. When he did this, the waitress asked him how he wanted it cooked, then ran off, leaving us wondering if something was amiss. Turns out, nothing was wrong at all, we just happened to have a wonderfully diligent waitron. She knew that there was only hanger steak left, and wanted to make sure we got it. It was a solid steak, cooked medium rare as ordered, and marinated in a rich wine sauce. Though Pop! is not by any stretch of the imagination a chop house, they were certainly able to make something temptingly toothsome out of this normally tough cut of beef.

Oh yea, and Pop! has a selection of a few dozen or so odd bottled sodas, and wine list that starts at $19. It is the sort of place where the servers do not look down at you for ordering one of the cheaper bottles, always appreciated. Besides, they serve a some half way decent bottle at the low end. This is also someplace that you can get away with bringing children. The wait-staff is extremely knowledgeable about the menu, and aim to please. It is clear that they believe in the cause, and want you to be able to enjoy the wonderful creations coming out of the kitchen with as little hassle as possible.

Pop! has a lot going for it. In addition to the items I have covered, they also sport several great looking and inexpensive sandwiches, as well as a walleye dish we regrettably have yet to try. Clark Knutson and the staff take the mission of being a solid Northeast Minneapolis restaurant very seriously. Indeed, The chef has shown quite definitively that he has a keen grip on how to create a menu that is simultaneously comforting and adventurous, perfect for a neighborhood bistro.

-shogunmoon