The Great Num Nums of the Twin Cities

La`-Mei Zi. A sneak peak in to Minneapolis' first Szechuan Restaurant

2010-01-14T20:15:00.001-08:00

In the Twin Cities, Chinese food is often identified with egg rolls, cream cheese wantons, lo mein, fly lice (fried rice), mushu this or that, sweet and sour chicken... YUCK! That's just plain wrong and does no justice to what Chinese cuisine have to offer. Most, if not all of the Chinese food in the Twin Cities area is predominantly Cantonese (some province of China) style, which is correctly exemplified by wanton noodle soup, beef chow fun, Char Siew (BBQ pork) and dim sum.

However, recently the Szechuan style of Chinese cuisine have been wildly popular among the dissidents of the Twin Cities. As a result, Szechuan restaurants have been spreading like wildfire in the suburbs and St Paul. Akin to Japanese, Thai and Mexican cuisine, Szechuan is here to stay.

Szechuan cuisine is unique and different from the cantonese style cooking that the Twin Cities is accustomed to. Its dishes are typically flavored by dried hot peppers, infused hot pepper oils, garlic, fermented beans and pickling spices. Therefore giving most of their dishes vibrant red color accompanied with a SPICY kick. In some dishes, a unique and novel (to the Twin Cities) spice called the Szechuan Peppercorn is used. What is brings to the dish is a mild lemony-zest and also a numbing-tingling sensation to your tongue! This odd feeling/taste is described as ma`la in Chinese, which literally translates to numb and spicy. Additionally, Szechuan cooking also involves a bevy of cooking methods such as steaming, scalding, deep-frying, double cooking which adds a tremendous variety of taste to the dishes.

For this piece, I would like to give you a brief glimpse of Minneapolis' very first Szechuan Restaurant (not takeout station...) that is about to open in a matter of days. How we came across this restaurant was a classic case of serendipity. It was a freaking cold day before Christmas and we were driving around looking for something to eat. So, we thought that we'd go to Zen, located on Lyndale and Lake St. (3016 Lydale Ave S.), which is a contemporary asian restaurant. We walked in and were greeted by extremely friendly staff and the most friendly co-owner on earth, Andy (a very charming young man). Andy provided us with two menus, the Zen menu and an introductory Szechuan Menu. Immediately we zeroed in on the Szechuan menu and flung the latter menu away. It turns out, that Zen WILL BE reopening as La` Mei Zi, a HARDCORE Szechuan restaurant (located next to Smitten Kitten) with fabulous food. We are truly excited about La` Mei Zi and cannot wait till they fully open. Anyway, here are a few dishes that we have tried.

Stir-fried Spicy Smoked Tofu. This is my first time having this fabulous vegetarian dish. The main ingredient here is the smoked tofu. The texture of the tofu is very firm and it is sliced into long strips and quick stir-fried with strips chinese celery, bell peppers, carrots and spiced up with ginger, garlic, dried hot peppers and some soy sauce. It is not overly spicy and is bursting with the fresh flavors of the crunchy veges and spices.

Our next dish was the Beef Slices scalded in spicy hot broth. One look at this thing and you will feel your sweat pores opening up in sync with your salivary glands working OT. This is a signature dish of Szechuan cuisine, and can be served with your protein of choice. This dish is uniquely prepared; first a bed of vegetables (napa cabbage and chinese celery) together with the meat is placed in a deep bowl. The chef then separately prepares an ultra hot chilli broth that is made of yummy spices and pours it into the bowl where everything gets cooked. It's somewhat like steeping a big pot of tea. Mmmm sooo goooood! I must warn you... it is spicy. For the weaklings, a solution to your bitching and whining that this is too spicy is to order your food less spicy.

Anyway, this is all I have for now and I will up more stuff after their grand opening on Friday (15th Feb). Please come back and see what more this place has to offer!

Los Ocampo

2010-01-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

What's for dinner tonight? Mmmexican!!! Yumm!!! No, we did not go to Taco freakin' Bell. Instead, my DodgeBall buddies (Yes... DodgeBall), Pablo (from Mexico City) and wife Erica (from the Midwest) brought me to this little place called Los Ocampo on the intersection of Lake Street and Chicago Ave. I've driven by this place multiple times but never bothered to stop because it kinda looks a like a fast food chain! Well, it turned out to be great and I learned my lesson once again to never judge a restaurant by its cover. When I first arrived, I got a little too excited snapping pictures of the restaurant's interior and quite immediately one of the staff approached me and told me that I cannot take pictures. I guess they were afraid I would capture their souls... :-( Anyway, Pablo talked to his peeps and I was able to take some really cool pictures of our food. No worries... no souls were captured.

Truth be told, there aren't many good mexican restaurants around here. They have a tendency not to be fresh, overly dry and just plain old Blah... Los Ocampo is neither Blah nor Bleugh... You can usually tell if an ethnic restaurant is authentic AND good with a simple question: Is the percentage of white people in this restaurant (in Minnesota) less than 50% in a given time frame of 15 mins? The result of this quntessential test is Ohh Hell No... Los Ocampo definitely passed with flying colors.

Los Ocampo operates like a fast food chain, but with superb food and authenticity. The menu is extensive, I might even say it is overwhelming-ish. They have 28 choices of protein (including vegetarian) to go with Huaraches (masa cake), Tortilla, Gorditas, Sopes, Burritos, Hurachazo, Quesadillas phew.... and Tacos. I got lost in their menu because I have no clue what most of the items were! So WTF... I had my John do the ordering for me. Anwyay, we ended up with 4 dishes: 1) Torta Cubana 2) Huarachazo with Al Pastor (I will elaborate on this later) 3) Enchilada Combo in Green Sauce with Chicken Tinga, and 4) Alambre with Al Pastor (I will also elaborate on this later). In addition, we had 3 giant things of Horchata (rice drink) and a bottle of Jarritos.

The food came pretty quickly and oh boy... my salivary glands were quivering hard so much so it was difficult to take pictures. I was really looking forward to the Al Pastor because it looked interesting and novel to me. Al Pastor is pork marinated in a bright red spicy concoction. It is cooked on a gyro grill and with a large pineapple in the epicenter of the meat barrel to give it more flavor. It does looks like the second coming of christ for meat lovers. Since it looked so good and interesting, we had Al Pastor in two of our dishes:

1) Huarachazo - This dish is a fried flattened masa (cornmeal) cake topped with Al pastor, cheese, boiled crush beans, cheese and fresh avocado. The texture of the masa cake is close to a pita but smoother, and it has a rich-nutty flavor to it. This is one rich dish.

2) Alambre - Quite different I might say. The meat is first stir-fried with bacon, onions and peppers which is then plated on a bed of soft corn tortillas and finally topped with cheese. With the cheese melted, it's a dish you have to get all your fingers down and dirty to stuff it in your face. It was also served with a roasted Jalapeno stuffed with spicy hooks that latch on to your stomach for a day. I strongly suggest the weak to stay away from that damn pepper.

There is good quality and taste to both of these dishes; cheesy, rich and flavorful. As for the Al Pastor, all I could get was a spicy and intense flavor. It was hard to completely savor it as there were many other things in the dishes that confused my palate. Nevertheless, they were tasty good.

Next... Tosta Cubana. Whoa, this is the motherload for meat lovers... ditch your 9 lb burgers, I don't think any burger can BEAT this MEAT sandwich and it just makes your quadruple burgers look like little bitches. Anyway, this thing is fillled with a fried egg, Milanesa (breaded beef fillet), mexican sausage, sausage, ham, chicken, cheese(s), lettuce, tomato, avocado, jalapeno peppers and onions. Perfect way to satisfy your meat craving and you can't go wrong with Pablo's choice...

The Enchilada combo came with a side of rice and refried beans that was not dry and fresh. John ordered it with Chicken Tinga and green salsa. Good quality! They had just the right amount of cheese and the green salsa was neither too acidic nor overpowering which allowed me to taste the flavors of chicken tinga and the tortillas despite being smothered in the green salsa. The side of rice and beans was nothing to shout about, but it sure filled me up.

In the end the damage amounted to 50.00. Keep in mind that we had 4 dishes, 3 huge horchatas and a jarritos, so this is pretty darn reasonable. The food was great and I was stuffed! Before signing off I must admit that I am not well versed in mexican cuisine, therefore I don't really know what to expect how a certain dish "should" taste. Nevertheless, I can still tell if it is good or simply cow shit. Los Ocampo is certainly some good shit... it's worth checking out :-)

AMAZING THAILAND

2010-01-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

When I have Thai food, the first thing that comes to my mind is balance. The cooking is often a juggle between sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and spicy, which is why Thai restaurants can vary quite significantly in taste. Some cooks may like it sweeter or saltier and may even use different blends of spices. So, you may go to a Thai restaurant and absolutely effing hate it to a point where you want to close that damn place. But somehow they stay open long enough till you get married and have 5 kids, which leaves you wondering why they are still doing so well. It all comes back to balance and who's doing the balancing act in the kitchen. The restaurant that you hated may just be your poison but another's medicine.

For this piece, I will be writing up about a really cool Thai restaurant (1 of 4) around where I live. It's called Amazing Thailand and it's conveniently located across from Calhoun Square on Hennepin Avenue where everything is hip and happening. When they first opened, it was really mediocre in terms of service and taste. However, I have since returned only to find great improvements in their service and food.

First impression, the restaurant looks fabulous! Great taste for decor. It has a warm and cozy interior and really impressive sculpture. Inside, they have booth seating, bar seating, good ole table seating and even a private party room to meet the demands of any occasion. The servers are super fun and friendly and simply entertaining.

Here comes the menu... it looks great and has the right amount of items in it by not leaving you overwhelmed. And yes, they do have vegetarian options for extreme tree huggers and the picky eaters. Every item is well described with some okay pictures here and there. These guys certainly have all the goody deals in one little package, they have daily happy hour, cheap drinks, weekday lunch buffets (11.30 - 3pm) and 10.95 weekend lunch specials... awesome!

Getting to the point, we ordered 4 dishes: papaya salad, massamun curry with chicken, thai green curry with chicken and pad si yew with mock duck, we requested a spice level of 3.5 out of 5. When the dishes arrived, everything was so well presented: carved carrots, shredded purple cabbage and carrots, and interesting plates. The portions are definitely generous enough to have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. The papaya salad (below) was delicious and fresh. It was crunchy good and bursting with flavors, there was a right amount of pungence, acid and sweetness. However, I wish I had ordered it at a spice level of 4. Both the curries were good but my only criticism is that they were wayy toooooooo SWEEEET! The textures of the curries were spot on; Massamun curry was nice and thick, and the Green curry was on the light side. The blend of spices used was just nice where it did not overpower the flavors of the meat and vegetables... ding. Like I said, the only flaw... too effing sweet. Make sure you order your curries with less sugar.

The Pad Si Yew.... ooooh I love how this dish is prepared here. I'd like to say that Pad si yew is a thai version of the beef chow fun. The difference is that the Pad si yew (bottom left corner) is a little sweeter and stir-fried a little gentler with less grease. You may find that some restaurants use rice noodles, but these guys use my favorite Fun noodle which is wider and chewier. I can't say anything bad about this dish. The noodles were perfectly cooked, soft and chewy while holding itself, and it had right amount of sweetness. A must try! You can't go wrong with their noodle dishes because they are just simply gifted with noodles.

In summary, three of us ran away from this restaurant with a tag of 45.oo and tons of leftovers from four dishes. This is pretty darn good for a restaurant in the middle of Uptown. With their super deals, great staff and beautiful decor, you have to go check them out. It's one of those places where you will have a pleasant experience. On a last note, remember to order your curries less sweet.

Thai Green Curry

RUSTICA Bakery and Coffee Bar.

2010-01-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

As a graduate student I have spent a fair amount of time in coffee shops using their WiFi, plugging into their power outlets electricity, and feeding my caffeine addiction with the yummy coffee. Occasionally, I'll treat myself to a pastry... or two, but they're usually not that great. This lack of complementation repeats itself in bakeries. They may have great baked goods but their coffees tend to be okay and they have NO WiFi!

Well, here comes Rustica. Tucked in a strip mall (Calhoun Village) across Lake Calhoun, Rustica represents the best of both worlds, and I mean it literally. It has the best bakery (which i will further elaborate) and a unique, one of a kind coffee shop. Ohh yes...they have free WiFi :-)

The Rustica bakery has been around for a few years, and I have not heard of them until my friend told me how good they were and that they have moved to a location close to where I live. In addition to their relocation Bull Run coffee (locally owned and operated business) teamed up with team Rustica, which is absolutely BRILLIANT! (seriously... not all bakers know how to make good coffee and vice-versa) Bull Run coffee also introduces a novel and unique concept to the Twin Cities area, single-cup coffee bar. Which means, every cup of coffee is made to order by well trained Hawt baristas. Nope, they don't brew big batches of coffee and serve it all day , and they roast their own beans (http://www.bullrunroasters.com). They have a great variety of roasts and they sure have unique ways of preparing your cuppa joe. My favorites, Siphoned coffee and cuppcino.

Ohhh I'm saving the best for the last, the BAKED GOODIES!!!!! Their pastries and breads have not failed to impress me each time I drop by. My emotional response after eating: Ohh ehMm Gee!! Here's what I think really think about their breads and pastries. Everything they have there is FRESH FRESH FRESH and I believe they only sell what they make that very day. At 6.30 am bread and pastries are stacked all over, by evening only a few pastries remain and you'll be lucky to see a loaf of bread sitting around.

What caught my attention was how their pastries have an amazing texture of being crunchy and flaky on the outside and a firm chewy on the inside. The Chocolate Pistachio Danish for instance is a perfect example. As I take my first bite, the crust has the perfect thickness and flakiness where it is neither too thin nor thick. Then I sink into the core of the pastry... mmm buttery soft and chewy, then comes the flavors of the chocolate and the pistachios. Whoa... I'm melting and wet. Not to mention, It's perfect with coffee. There are more pastries and desserts you HAVE to TRY!

Chocolate Pistachio Danish

The Bread... TO DIE FOR. The quality of their bread is out of this world! Crunchy/chewy crust, rich/soft/dense and mmm chewy inside. Ohhh... simply amazing. My favorites so far are the traditional baguettes (long and skinny) and Rustic baguettes (in picture below). It goes so well with anything you have sitting in your fridge! I once had it like a hoagie with some leftover Carnes Asada, topped with some salsa... perfect. The bread soaks up the juices of the meat and it was like having beef au' jus at home.

In summary, this is a place you have to go once or twice before you freakin die. I love the atmosphere in there, the staff are super nice and chill. Some people might even describe the staff as crunchy-granola or hippie. When you walk in, there's certainly a hint of world peace in the atmosphere and I love it. Nevertheless, they have set up a business that has everything working for them. They are cheap as hell (most costly pastry: 2.50, Baguette: 2.25). Rustica has Free WiFi and relatively kid free so you can do your work in peace. There's also lots of space for you to lay your crap. I guess I have no negatives for this place. Enjoy@!@

sites:

http://www.rusticabakery.com/

About This Blog

2009-12-29T21:11:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Malaysia I was exposed to a wide variety of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cuisine. I remember my childhood enjoying meals in restaurants, coffee shops, hawker stalls and food courts. It was atypical for us to have home cooked meals because outside food was simply cheap and good! (billig und gut). It has been 9 years since I left Malaysia and I do miss the food (friends and family of course...) dearly.

Fortunately, the The Twin cities is packed with gastronomical surprises. There is so much good food here and I wonder if this is the Midwest. Interestingly, this city is how randomly the ethnic restaurants are located, there really is no Chinatown or Little Tokyo. It may seem daunting to some, but the fun part is hunting down these little hole in the wall restaurants where it is Nummy and Cheap!

The places I go to generally fit the criteria of being: REASONABLY PRICED, CHEAP, AFFORDABLE, VerY GOOD, STUFF I CANNOT MAKE AT HOME, VERY INTERESTING, NON-DiaRRhea causing and NOT Managed by ASSHOLES. Yes... price is very important, because I am a poor graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and now that I am all but dissertation I think it is fair to share my dining experiences through my camera lens and my stories.