Schneier on Security

Sen Yai Sen Lek is the sort of restaurant where people become “regulars.” You find yourself heading down there a couple of times a month because you’ve got that craving for pad see iew gai. We’ve noticed on our visits a surprising amount of convivial chatting between the front house staff and the customers.

That pad see iew gai is perfect Thai comfort food, a better dish than the pad Thai, which too many of us default to when ordering in a Thai restaurant. The Chinese broccoli, marinated chicken, and wide rice noodles in sweet soy sauce is so good that some of the regulars never order anything else…

Domacin Wine Bar is in Stillwater, and that’s the one imperfection that keeps us from being regulars. For us Minneapolitans, it seems like a bit of a drive, even for great food and wine, a smart and charming staff, and the sort of musical playlist that makes us happy just walking in the door. But they’re good enough to make your “must-try” list anyway.

Expect a seasonal Mediterranean menu with a lot of twists. You’ll find a list of small plates that work as appetizers, for a nibble with a glass of wine, or to combine to make a whole meal. The risotto cakes, made with mozzarella and basil and served with tomato jam, were tasty if a bit overcooked. The scallops were a slight miss. They looked good on the menu—green beans, hazelnuts, and a saffron-lemon aioli—but the sauce didn’t quite work with the perfectly cooked scallops. Crostini, with more chevre and marinated tomatoes, were crisp, rich little bites, ideal if you’re in the mood for tapas. So is The Wine Lover’s Plate, with olives, cheese, and artisan salami…

A new restaurant finally opens to high expectations: much buzz, top talent, a beautiful space, and convivial atmosphere. And we’re not reviewing it. We can’t be objective, since our son is one of those cooks, and we’re down at Haute Dish pretty often. But we can’t resist telling you how much we like the Dish. So, Chef Emery and his mom had a serious sit-down meal, and herewith: a meal report.

Emery chose a bunch of dishes, so we’d have a sampling of the current menu. There’s always change in the works at the Dish, with new ideas and the turning of the seasons…

There’s nothing quite as nice as a brand new bike trail. Good smooth asphalt flowing towards your wheel as you pedal along through woods and fields, enjoying surprising drafts of cool air and looking for turkeys and turtles. The new Dakota Rail Trail runs from Wayzata to St. Bonifacius, and by the end of 2010 will continue all the way out to New Germany, with a bridge over Highway 7. Now it’s about 14 miles, beginning along the Minnetonka shore, down the thin peninsulas that separate all the bays of the lake and give the little towns a place to anchor. Once you clear Mound, ride the fine Minnesota countryside all the way to St. Boni, the last little town in Hennepin County…

Notice the African bazaars, Asian markets and Mexican panaderias around town. The white-bread woebegone Minnesota fare is being replaced by new tastes from far-off lands. We think this is the best idea anybody’s had in a long time, and want to make sure that—in our brave new Exoticland—you don’t miss this particular foreign treat.

It’s just seven hours away, give or take a Wisconsin trooper, but Chicago might as well be the moon as far as street food goes. Yet on the civilized streets of South Minneapolis, we found a little bit of Chicago, like a cyclone dropped down from Wrigleyville. Chris and Rob’s has it all: the tough but friendly counter crew, the Chicago sports stuff on every wall, the softball team trophies in the windows. It’s a Formica place, with a few newspapers lying around to read, and ESPN blaring from the TV bolted to the wall. The menu hits all the Chicago buttons. They serve hot dogs. They serve thin-crust pizza. (Ignore the pizza.) And they serve Italian beef…

We have four requirements for a perfect evening out with friends: interesting cocktails, good food made for sharing, comfortable furniture, and an ambience quiet enough for conversation. It’s easy to find places with some of these—La Belle Vie, the Independent, Psycho Suzi’s, the Red White and F’ing Blue Bar, the Angry Gnome, Prohibition—but only Bradstreet Crafthouse excels in all four.

You want interesting cocktails? Bradstreet is a serious cocktail bar, with premium alcohols and housemade mixers. These people even have four different kinds of ice. The Juliet & Romeo is made with Plymouth gin, lime, mint, cucumber, and rose water added with an eye dropper. The Bradstreet Cocktail is Jim Beam rye, lemon, jasmine syrup, an egg white, and special bitters. Cooper’s Union is Prairie vodka, lemon, St. Germaine—that’s an elderflower liqueur—grapefruit, orange flower water, and sparkling wine. We could go on and on…

After our dinner at Risotto, chef Gabriele Lo Pinto came out of the kitchen to ask how we had liked the meal. It was a praiseworthy meal, and we raved about it—but what was memorable about that moment was that Gabriele Lo Pinto is Italian. There’s some Italian on the Twin Cities restaurant scene, and what’s there is good-to-exceptional; but meeting an Italian restaurateur is not as easy as you’d think. Risotto’s authentic but small menu will delight you. Almost everything we tried was exceptional.

First courses are divided between antipasti and salads. Our favorite appetizer, the …

Pop!!—yes, the exclamation points are part of the name—is probably the best thing to happen to downtown St. Paul dining since the Great Waters Brewery. Situated in the old Fhima’s space, Pop!! has one of those eclectic Latin menus that takes you south of the border and keeps on going.

You’ll discover fish tacos from the Baja California peninsula and chicken posole soup, in the style of the pre-Colombian corn stew from Mexico. And before you know it, you’re slurping up ceviche like a Peruvian or Ecuadorian, and munching on empanadas like an Argentine. And that’s just the starter menu…

A conundrum of modern eating is that, in general, the more rural the town, the lousier the restaurant. One might think that, being closer to the land, one would find plenty of fresh vegetables and local delicacies there. But rural dining hasn’t progressed much since the 1950s.Things are changing, however. Farmers’ markets continue to expand. People want fresh or unusual ingredients, and this foodie culture is expanding the market for chef-driven, locally sourced cuisine from city to countryside.

And that’s why we drove to Lake City. The lovely lakeside Nosh Restaurant sets a fine standard in Southeast Minnesota. Expect farmers’ market-fresh veggies, including organics from small farms like Many Hands, meats from local producers like Au Bon Canard and Happy Hog Hollow, and cheese from area cheesemakers like Fenceline and the Upland Cheese Company. You can even find locally foraged mushrooms on the menu…

We all have a favorite neighborhood restaurant on that good corner or the busy street, that little café or bistro we can probably walk to even if we drive most of the time. After all, drive-by traffic keeps neighborhood places in business at least as much as word-of-mouth.

Now imagine a neighborhood restaurant with no drive-by traffic at all. Imagine a charming little dining room, with good art for sale on the wall, a pretty patio, all snuggled into a residential neighborhood. It’s so hidden that you’re sure you’re lost when trying to find it and think of it as a zoning mistake once you’re there. Oh, then you discover the food is delicious…