Schneier on Security

Eden Prairie is shaping up to be the west metro’s best dining destination. One of the delights of the area is Little Sushi on the Prairie.

Even though Minnesota has a saltwater port, we cannot be said to be anywhere near the ocean. Happily, air freight from the coasts provides us with fresh fish on a daily basis, and sushi on the prairie isn’t an incongruity at all.

The menu lists 21 different rolled maki sushi, ranging from the familiar to the exotic. Everything we tried was fresh and good. We appreciated that the nigiri sushi was carved generously, and that we got a good thick hunk of fish on the rice…

If you like pizza, you’ll like a panino. If you like wrap sandwiches, a panino is exactly what you want. Imagine a good, and very thin, pizza crust, baked with your choice of dozens of ingredients, then topped with those items best uncooked—and the whole deal wrapped, cut, and served piping hot. Simple idea, delicious execution.

Panino’s menu features a mind-boggling 42 different paninos, with enough choice to please anybody we can imagine. Meat, chicken, veggie, ham, turkey—all the traditional sandwiches you can think of and a whole lot more besides. And if that’s not enough, feel free to design your own with exactly the filling you best like…

We think dim sum is one of the best Chinese culinary traditions. It’s a meal of bite-sized portions and small plates. When the Spanish do something similar, it’s called tapas. Dim sum is eaten in the late morning and early afternoon, and some people claim that dim sum is the origin of brunch. On any weekend lots of families, both Chinese and western, will pile into Yangtze for dim sum.

The presentation of the dim sum meal has no equivalent in the West. Servers push carts through the dining room and past your table. They are loaded with a variety of foods in little dishes and steaming containers. The diners look at the different dishes on offer, and chose what looks interesting. You’ll get an English-language explanation from the server as to what’s what…

If we could ask one thing of you, it would be this: Stop eating bad pizza. Give up on dreadful bready crusts, pale red sauces, and cheap cheese. Treat yourselves. Go with the good stuff.

The real deal must feature a hand-kneaded crust, no more than 14 inches across, and come out of a wood-fired pizza oven. Every detail about it, from the type of flour used to make the crust to the choice of toppings, is important.

Good pizza is so well-prized in Italy that they’ve passed laws describing what a true Neapolitan pizza must be. And rightly so; protecting their brand and image is important…

It’s lunchtime on Wednesday, and we’re sitting at Kabobi. We’re enjoying wonderful kabobs fresh off the grill, perfectly grilled sweet corn, and a delicious chopped vegetable salad. Our meals arrived less than six minutes after we placed our order. Outside, the national chain restaurants overflow with hungry Eden Prairie officeworkers: Chipotle, Culver’s, Ruby Tuesday. We look around at the half-empty Kabobi dining room and think: “Man, have we got news for you.”

Kabobi’s menu, and set-up, is simple. Go straight to the counter on the right and order. You can have a kabob sandwich with beef, chicken, or lamb. Whichever you choose, the seasoned meat comes with tomatoes, onions, cucumber and a creamy herb sauce, all in a piece of Middle Eastern flatbread. If you like gyros sandwiches, you’re going to love this, and if you’ve never tried any such thing, we invite you to discover how good they are…

Big Buck is a family restaurant with an upscale feel. The service is friendly but unpolished. There’s a reasonably-priced wine list, and some fun cocktail specials. The menu has options for both conservative and adventurous diners, as well as more casual burgers and pizzas.

Chef Eric Scherwinski, late of Lord Fletcher’s and the California Café, offers a number of dishes that will entice even the most widely-traveled diners. We expected to find something other than the usual beef-chicken-fish trifecta here, and we haven’t been disappointed. From leg of lamb to Cornish game hen to venison and buffalo, we’re delighted with the depth of this menu…

Oh, we miss the Lincoln Del. And Zaroff’s. We’re embarrassed to admit we haven’t wandered the skyways to find the Brothers, and we haven’t crossed the river to Cecil’s in much too long. But we do like the Jewish soul food served in delicatessen restaurants. We, like most of you, don’t even mind if it’s Jewish without being kosher, the sort of food called “kosher style.”

And so we go to Crossroads Deli. Serving soup and good sandwiches, breakfast any time, various entrees at dinner: it’s a family restaurant with a kosher-style kick.

The half-sour pickle slices and pickled beets on the table as we sat down are in the best deli tradition. But it’s the corned beef and pastrami that take the measure of a deli…

If we told you the best Turkish food in the Twin Cities is where the blue ball stallion used to be, we think a whole lot of you could drive straight to the place without directions.

But we’ll make it easy on you. On the frontage road for 394, on the north side, just east of Wayzata, in the little strip mall called Westdale, there’s a great Turkish restaurant called Istanbul.

Turkish cuisine is similar to what is served elsewhere around the Mediterranean, though naturally the dishes have Turkish names and so are perhaps unfamiliar. For example, pita bread is here called “pide bread.”…

What could be worse than heading out to your favorite restaurant, with your heart set on your favorite dish, and discovering that everybody else in town had the same idea and is standing in the lobby when you get there?

It’s maddening, we say. And we avoid any such problem by heading to Tea House late on the weekends. Go early or get there around 8 PM, and you’ll get seated pretty quickly.

The other thing to know about Tea House is that the Szechuan menu is far more interesting than the regular menu. Forget ordering standards like egg foo yung and lo mein; ignore the regular menu completely…

Korean cuisine is some of the best spicy comfort food on the planet. At the end of winter, when it’s hard to remember being truly warm, head to King’s for their soul-warming, substantial delicacies.

Two of the appetizers are exceptional. They call haemul pajun a pancake, but it’s far more interesting than that. Shrimp, squid, and other seafood are mixed with scallions and fried in an egg and flour batter. The patty is more substantial than, say, tempura—so delicious. It’s easily big enough to share with friends.

We also recommend the mandu, the Korean version of pork dumplings. Pan fried are better than steamed. Both the mandu and the haemul pajun are served with ginger soy dipping sauce…