Greeting from the Pacific Northwest...

While I haven't been very active in posting from the road, rest assured: We are having a blast and have already amassed a noteworthy collection of memories and 'once in a lifetimes.'
We have completed the first leg of the THEMES FALL TOUR and are in Spokane, WA, where we are starting up with Minus the Bear and Annuals for the next 2 weeks. We are all really excited to see more of the country, experience great music, make new friends and, most of all in my case: Eat and drink everything I possibly can.
I have been collecting photos and videos from the road and hope to get more post from the cities we have already vistited (Fargo, Miles City, Missoula, Bozeman, Seattle, Portland and Spokane) as soon as possible. Highlights thus far have included but are not limited to:

• The realization that NOTHING is open on Sundays in Fargo, ND.
• Winning $8 at the Gold Dust Casino in Miles City, MT.. thanks Gina!!
• Pacific NW beer tasting session on Olivia's front porch in Missoula, MT.
• Making a terrific breakfast at Jade and Alejandros in Seattle, WA.
• The Rogue Brewery Pub and Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, OR.

...and then there was this bizarre night in Olympia, WA...


I miss you all and there will be much more to come soon!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO.

The 'Sconi' Run...

I've done it, you've done it. Were all guilty.
Careening purposefully down I-94 with only one simple goal in mind...

Beer on Sunday in Minnesota.

Maybe some day, a new leaf in Minnesotan political leadership might take it upon themselves to relieve us from the oppressive and archaic liquor laws that have plagued our fair (and highly liberal?) state for over 75 years.. Yeah, I'm looking at you Franken... you too Rybak!!

In the meantime Justin Burkhard, multi-intrumentalist in the MSP/PDX supergroup, THEMES, and myself will have to keep on keeping on, the best way we know how...

Chicone's Liquor Mart - Their cold beer selection is AWESOME...

Happy Trails!! Just remember the .08 limit!!

Cure to the Common Hangover...

Eggs Benedict.

Another shining example of the controversy that lies within the highest echelons of coveted food items. Derived from classic French techniques and practically limitless in it's variations, the key ingredients always come down to this: Bread, Eggs, Filler (meat, veg) and Sauce Hollandaise..

Historically, the dish was created to placate a finicky regular at one of the nation's first restaurants. Not much later, it was designed to aid in the relief of what is probably the single-most-common ailment in the history of all mankind as we know it:

The Hangover...

I have always been a major proponent of the healing powers derived from the delicate execution of these basic ingredients. In my younger, more idealistic vegetarian years, it began with Eggs Florentine, served with braised spinach instead of meat. Then, shortly after my introduction to the professional culinary arts, which barely preceded my abandonment of aforementioned idealogies, I was on to the big leagues. The vehemently satisfying addition of pork into the already perfect equation.

Like most of you, there have been mornings that I have been truly convinced that I was GOING to die. Not like, "there is a mild possibility that i may not make it out of this painful chasm of nausea, dehydration and unforgiving remorse..." I mean, I was CONVINCED that someone would find my cold, rigid body still in the clothes that I wore out the night before. When the initial shock wore off, the poor soul who had to find me in my final respite would drop to their knees and exclaim to the sky, "WHHYYY!!!! WHY COULDN'T HE HAVE GOTTEN TO BARBETTE FOR A BLOODY AND A BENNIE SOONER!!! IT'S NOT FAAAAAIR!!!!!"
With that said, it should be apparent that i really enjoy a good Benedict from time to time, especially after a long night of doing what i do best...

In the past few months, I have expanded from my usual short-list of the places in town that I know can do good justice to this beloved dish. In turn, I have come face to plate with some real disappointments. So with that in mind, and being on a bit of a budget with my departure for a six-week tour now eminent, i woke up today not necessarily hung over, but definitely late, and decided to throw together a little something to start off right...

I didn't have any meat around, but in the future i think i might try this with smoked trout or lox.

Eggs Benedict on Rustic Bread with Braised Frisee

2 eggs, poached
1 tbs white vineagar (for poaching water)

For Braised Frisee:

handful Frisee
evoo
tsp. white wine vineagar
s&p

For Sauce Hollandaise:

2 egg yolks
1 tsp. water
2 tsp. lemon juice (I like it more lemony.. deal with it.)
pinch of sugar
4-8 tbs. of melted, unsalted butter
pinch of salt

Start by filling a good sized, non-stick pot with water. The bigger the better as far as I'm concerned. Add about a tablespoon of the most plain and colorless vineagar you have around. This will help the eggs not to break. Once the water reaches a rolling boil (but not too rolling) break the eggs, one at a time, into a cereal bowl before dropping them into the water. This will also help to not let them break.

Make a Double Boiler out of a metal bowl and saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add egg yolks, water and lemon juice. Whisk 2 minutes then add sugar, whisk another minute. Remove mixture from heat. Slowly whisk in the melted butter, a little at a time. Make sure everything is properly emulsified, then add salt to taste.

For the Frisee, heat a small saute pan with good olive oil. Add the frisee and brown for a couple minutes. Next, add just a little white wine (or champagne) vineagar, toss and cover. Reduce heat and braise for 2-3 minutes. Season to taste...

Toast some good rustic bread, but not too toasty, and put it on a plate. Add the Frisee, the eggs and top with sauce hollandaise. I garnished with a little ground cumin.

Once again, boo-yah acheived..

from the ashes a phoenix will rise...

Popped by Bombay 2 Deli for curries and samosa to feed my hungry bandmates grinding away in the recording studio all weekend. Everything was insanely delicious (and cheap) as usual, but i was a bit saddened to have the owner inform me that they were closing that location in early October.

Sad news indeed...

But fear not, fellow hounds and lovers of all things curried!!!
They will be reopening in a new skyway location downtown this winter... Not the best news but certainly not the worst!!

On a not so related note, I was informed by a friend who recently took a new restaurant management position, that the owners of Al Vento's new project will be opening at the end of the month in the old Giorgio space... I believe he said September 22nd was the goal.

Awesome!! It will be a welcome turn of events to have another non-Parasole restaurant Uptown, and if it's anything like Al Vento i will be very pleased to say the least!

Now if we could just get an awesome NY style-meets-gourmet/local-pizza-by-the-slice-joint to fill the void of Uptown Rotisserie, i would feel better about my constantly inflating rent... I'm thinking somewhere between what the Rotisserie was mixed with Galactic Pizza, open late and by the slice...

chow on.

Late Night Adventures in the Realm of Vegetarianism... or "How I Learned To Love the Ravioli Maker..."

Last Sunday i lugged myself out of bed at 11 o'clock, with a paltry sum of sleep... I rubbed the sting of closing down the bar out of my eyes, hopped on my scoot, and hit up the (what seemed to once be...) "Good 'ol Minneapolis Farmers Market."
I managed to procure a few local staples and proceeded home... More on that later...
Needless to say, I bought some killer Golden Beets.
After a few days contemplation of how to prepare these luscious roots, I decided that a golden beet ravioli would be pretty solid. I get kind of tired of the old 'rosted beet salad w/chevre' served at EVERY neighborhood bistro in America lately; I wanted to try something a little different, so i did a little research to see what other people had come up with.
Surprisingly enough, there was very little surface information about the practices of using beets for anything adventurous. Even the Food Network website (one of my go-to sources) didn't have much besides a Mario Batalli recipe for Casumziei (poppy seeds... annoying?). I wasn't feeling the flow of inspiration yet so i continued to search...
Of the few others I found, one of the best was on (coincidentally) a fellow Minnesotan foodie's blog...
To be Mrs. Marv's Roasted Beet & Gorgonzola Ravioli
Although Kris' ravioli sounded delicious, and I was now curious as to whether or not Lunds sold pre-made won-ton skins (they don't as far as I could tell), I am a staunch believer in the marriage of beets and goat cheese... Its like a highly traditional caste-assigned union, never to be shamed or sullied by interference from any source... whatsoever.
Okay, so Im pretty much there, right? Yeah?
wrong. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours preparing my beet ravioli and didn't sit down to eat until about 11:30pm... but holy shit, it was worth it...

Golden Beet and Fresh Chevre Ravioli with Bastard Buerre Blanc

Pasta

2c organic all purpose flour
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
salt
evoo

Filling

5 medium sized Golden Beets (from MplsFarmersMarket - 8 for $3)
chevre
ricotta insalta (fresh at lunds in the cheese section... SO CHEAP and SOOO much better than the stuff that comes in water...)
sweet onion
shallots
garlic
white wine
champagne vinegar
evoo
s&p

Bastard Buerre Blanc

evoo
shallot
white wine
cream
butter (add it slowly)
season.


Saute onions and shallots first. Get them right about to carmelize and add garlic. Deglaze with wine. After the beets are cool, chop them up and put them in a big bowl. Add the veg mixture, the cheese and smash it up with a potato masher/fork/your hands. Season with vinegar, s&p. Cool it down and stuff that shit in some pasta, yo... don't forget the egg wash!
Once they are made, let them sit in the fridge for a little bit to get the dough a little more firm before cooking. Boil accordingly. Toss in buerre blanc and serve with chive and chili flake garnish.
I bought a Pinot Grigio that was pretty limey and weird, but it really brought out the goat cheese well... give it a shot?

BOOYAH!

ps- My photography sucks... Pretty ironic considering it's how i make my living? Someone buy me a digital camera, please?

Pizza at Broders' Cucina Italiana..

Every few months I get this bizzare rumble somewhere between my brain and my stomach that can only be wrestled into submission by one thing... a kick-ass, greasy slice of sausage pizza from Broders' Cucina Italiana.
Now, I realize that pizza by the slice is a very controversial topic for many Minneapolitans, both native and expatriate alike. One argument can be made that there is NO authentic, East-Coast-Style pizza anywhere near the Twin Cities. I believe that there are a SELECT few slice-slangers in town who's pizza could be awarded the honor of being considered good "East Coast" style, but of course, mostly due to their GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION!!!, they can never be easily classified as such.
By now you're probably asking the question, "All right you midwestern asshole, if you know so much, then what makes pizza "East Coast"-ish???" Well, lemme break it down for you...

((in order of importance.))

1. Size to Cost Ratio - When i get a plain slice in New York City, even if it's shit it should always cost UNDER $4, and it should be bigger than my head. Seems to me, a few 'gourmet' or 'new york style' places around town tend to be less than generous with the size of their slices. I don't want two, i want one that's as big as two, thank you very much. In my opinion, pizzas should NEVER be made smaller than 16", and should never be cut into more than 8 slices if they're gonna be doled out under the heat lamp...

2. There are only a few appropriate varieties of pizza by the slice... The most important of which is... PLAIN. And that's plain as in 'cheese' for us midwesterners. Pepperoni or sausage are also acceptable. However, 'Veggie' or 'Meat' are bullshit and should be abolished. Perhaps, for the sake of my vegetarian friends, we could allow a vegetarian pizza with NO MORE THAN 3 TOPPINGS!!! Too many toppings on a pizza kills the crust, and distracts you from the flavors of the basic ingredients... Dough, Cheese, and Sauce. I can't stress how important this is... Pizza by the slice should have the LEAST amount of toppings whilst maintaining it's kick-ass-ness.

3. Crust. The literal foundation of a great slice of pizza. A good, 'east coast' style crust should be snappy, a little crisp on the bottom, and for god's sake, THIN!! If you want a half pound hunk of uncooked dough underneath your cheese and sauce, move to Chicago!! Not in my back yard!!! Fo' REAL!!!

Now, with that in mind, look in your wallet/purse and see if you have $4.17 (plus tip). If you do, proceed to the northwest corner of 50th St. S. and Penn Ave. S., there is a small lot in back but i always park on the street. Use the new entrance (not too thrilled about this...), go up to the counter and simply ask for a slice of pizza. Historically, I usually have them heat it up and i eat it right away in my car, but if you prefer to eat like an adult, you can sit down at one of their cafe tables of bring it home to reheat. Like I mentioned before, i believe the most sincere gauge of a pizzeria's slices is the 'plain(cheese) slice,' but i will say that Broders' ingredients are top shelf. The pepperoni especially. It has more of a skunky, authentic flavor characteristic of good Italian cured meats. The sausage is also bangin'. Extra finely ground and full of fennel and grease... amazing...
Hopefully you will have left the chair in front of your computer spinning by now, in pursuit of a south Minneapolis delicacy, but in case your still reading, here are a few more things to keep in mind...
If you're not in the mood for pizza, i recommend their 'South Jersey Hoagie'($7.50) or as i like to call it, the 'quadruple bypass inducer...' You guessed it, salami, capicola, onion, lettuce, tomato, vin, and provolone... Warm, salty goodness. For the most comfortable of comfort binges...
If you are planning ahead, do yourself a favor and retrieve a bottle of their olive oil... Very rich flavor and only $7.50, much better than what you'd get at Lunds or Kowalskis for that price. They have some other more expensive opitions, but i've never really subscribed to over-paying for olive oil... While I'm sure it can be worth it, it just never seems to fit into a budget that also contains good, fresh meats and veg... Spend your money on a piece of fish, or some heirloom tomatoes, not the olive oil. They also carry a small selection of vinegars, dried pastas, rice, cheese, olives, etc. I'm pretty sure i saw Vialone Nano (really high-end rice for risottos) there once, and they usually have bulk pignoles, dried wild mushrooms, various other gourmet ingredients.
If you're in a pinch for a dessert, you can also pick up various tarts, cookies, tiramisu, biscottis and cannolis for CHEAP...
While Broders' is 1,200 miles from Famous Joe's in Greenwich Villiage, i feel confident in saying that Broders' thin crust slices may teach even the most finicky New York Pizza aficionados how to spot Minneapolis on a map...

le premier...

In 1999 I took a job as a garde-manger at a now defunct wine bar in St. Anthony Main. Within three months I abandoned my vegetarianism, learned how to prepare whole trout, ate an eel, and learned the precarious art of drinking Pernod and ice waters for 4 hours, in a 3 x 6 kitchen full of knives, open-flames, and hot tempers... Then, rewarding myself with an underage shift drink at the cozy front bar.
After learning the ropes, i threw myself at the mercy of Minneapolis' culinary underbelly. After a few years (and a more than one abrupt dismissal) i made my way up to the line, then to the grill. It didn't last long...
After graduating from college, i waved an insincere goodbye to making lazy/rich people dinner 5 nights a week, and began cooking for myself instead.
Then i got a decent day-job, and became one of the lazy/rich people... For a little while... At least long enough to sample some of the finer culinary enclaves in the Twin Cities.
Now it's been nearly a decade since my introduction chopping mirepoix and unpacking live lobsters in seaweed... and i decided i should give back a little bit of the pain and misery, along with the absolute bliss, that food and alcohol have provided in my life.
The goal of this blog is whatever the hell I want it to be.
If you don't like it go read Zimmern's column and "fuck off out my kitchen!!!"

xoxoxo.

enjoy