Krik's Picks

On our recent trip to Chicago , we had lunch with our daughter at Heaven on 7 which boasts “Best Louisiana Cookin’ Outside of New Orleans .” That’s a pretty big boast, but it is a pretty good restaurant. We ate at the Rush Street restaurant on a Saturday afternoon while shopping. It’s a fairly large restaurant. Their web site says they have seating for 170. The room where we were lead had a wall filled with different brands of beer. On the table was a selection of 15-18 different kinds of hot sauce. Right next to us was a keyboard player singing solo blues music. I had a cheese omelet. It was very served with what they call breakfast potatoes. They were diced potatoes sautéed in oil with onions and peppers. The omelet was good, but not as good as the omelets served at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown (where my son works). In fact, there wasn’t anything really Louisiana about my meal but I had fun trying a couple of the different hot sauces on my egg and on the potatoes. ...

I’ve mentioned before that my daughter’s fiancée works for foodlife in Watertower Place in Chicago . When someone first describes it to you, your likely reaction will be: “Oh, it’s a fancy food court.” They’re actually a little sensitive about that. And to the extent that the term “food court” implies over-salted greasy fast food, they’re probably right to be sensitive. It’s actually a pretty interesting concept. foodlife consists of 13 stations, i.e. kitchens that prepare different kinds of food. When you enter foodlife, you’re taken to a table and you’re given a credit card. Then you wander around, see what’s being prepared at the different stations, and then select what looks good to you. After you’ve made your selection, the cook at the station swipes your credit card. After you’re all done with your meal, you exit past a cashier who swipes the card one more time and tells you now much you owe. I think the thing that makes foodlife work is the freshness of the food, the training ...

(Submitted by my friend, Patty Miller) I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog. Not only do I get news about what you're up to, but ideas for future eateries. As an FYI, we went to W.A. Frost for my mom's birthday. The atmosphere was exceptional, with the Victorian Christmas decorations and a real-wood fire blazing near our table. The food was very tasty, but it was a little upscale for my mom and aunt (age 86 and 84). And frankly, for me, too. I don't eat venison or duck, which seems to feature prominently on the menu these days. However, Mom and Aunt A. had the vegetable Wellington , which was flavorful, beautifully presented and not too much to eat, which is a big factor for them. I had the squash ravioli, which were tender and filled with a smooth, cinnamon-tinged squash puree. But there were only 5 ravioli, each about ½ the size of a Post-It note, which I thought was a little skimpy for an entrée, not a side. I was hungry (anticipating a festive birthday meal) and ended ...

A holiday tradition in Minneapolis is the Ballet of the Dolls dance troupe production of A Nutcracker (not so) Suite. After a three-year hiatus, the troupe did a new production for the 2006 season. For most of the readers of this blog, it will be too late to catch this year’s production. But for someone like me, who doesn’t care much for classic ballet, this is a fun, creative, and humorous production. Earlier in 2006, Ballet of the Dolls moved into the newly renovated Ritz Theater in the emerging Northeast Arts District. It’s located just north of Broadway on University Ave. NE. It’s exciting to visit the area. There are many new galleries, pottery studios, antique shops. There also are creative new restaurants opening side-by-side with the old neighborhood bars. We decided to try Erte Restaurant for dinner before the show. I was very impressed. The service was very prompt. When we sat down, the server filled our water glasses and delivered a plate of bread and butter and assorte...

We have a tradition in our family called the cookie factory. It started when our kids were little. Every year before Hanukkah , we would mix up a batch of gingerbread cookie dough and bake cookies cut into many traditional shapes – a shofar , stars, dreydls , an oil jug – as well as a gingerbread boy and a cow. (I got the cow cookie cutter at a dairy convention once. I told the kids that the cow is an essential shape for any kind of cookie baking. Because, of course, the cow produces milk, and we make butter from the milk, and how could we bake cookies without butter?) As our kids got older and eventually left home, we started inviting my nieces and nephew to our kitchen to continue the cookie factory tradition. During this time, the tradition took on a new twist. The kids started decorating the cookies with unusual combinations of colored icing and with modern-art styles, so some of our cows and gingerbread boys started looking pretty bizarre. They also started cutting their ow...

½ cup butter (OK, the original called for shortening, but I can’t do that) ½ cup sugar ½ cup dark molasses ¼ cup water 2½ cups flour ¾ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon soda ¾ teaspoon ground ginger ¼ teaspoon nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon allspice Cream butter & sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, soda, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough ¼ inch thick on a lightly floured, cloth-covered board (or on a silicon mat). Cut to shapes using cookie cutters. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from sheet, cool, and decorate.

Our other family tradition is a Hanukkah party. We alternate years with my sister-in-law’s family (the nieces and nephew who help with the cookie factory). This year was our year to have it at our house. It was, of course, our granddaughter’s first Hanukkah party. At 4 months old, she was more interested in putting the gifts (and wrapping paper and toys and whatever she could grab) in her mouth. But we got pictures. Our daughter also came home from Chicago for the party. The only person missing was my future son-in-law. He couldn’t get away from work . Latkes , fried in oil, are a traditional Hanukkah food. We serve them with sour cream and applesauce. I made the applesauce from apples that my parents gave us from their farm. We decided to have a deli night with cold cuts, bakery bread, pickles, and all the fixings. My brother-in-law brought a salad. For dessert, of course, we had the gingerbread cookies from the cookie factory. We made two kinds of latkes – traditional and ...

6 medium potatoes 1 medium onion 1 tablespoon matzo meal (or flour) 2 eggs ¼ teaspoon baking powder 1½ teaspoon salt Pepper to taste Grate potatoes and onion using either a box grater or food processor. Squeeze excess moisture from potato-onion mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Heat vegetable oil on a skillet or griddle. We prefer small, thin latkes with crisp edges, so we place ¼ cup latke mixture in the skillet and flatten with a spatula. Fry until they begin to turn brown at the edge, then flip. Finish frying, transfer to cookie sheet lined with newspaper and paper towel to drain. Either eat hot, or warm latkes in oven before serving.

Make these savory-sweet pancakes ahead and reheat them on a baking sheet in a 425-degree oven about 7 minutes. Watch carefully because edges burn easily. Serve with sour cream or yogurt. Sun-Sentinel, December 14, 2006 1 1/2 pounds orange sweet potatoes (often labeled yams), peeled 1 medium onion 2 large eggs 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour Vegetable oil, for frying Grate sweet potatoes and onion, using grating disc of a food processor or large holes of a grater. Transfer to a large bowl. Beat eggs with salt and pepper and add to potato mixture. Add flour and mix well. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a heavy 10- to 12-inch skillet, preferably nonstick. Fill a 1/4-cup measuring cup with potato mixture, pressing to compact it, and turn it out in a mound into skillet. Quickly form 3 more mounds in skillet. Flatten each with back of a spoon so each cake is about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter, pressing to flatten. Fry over medium h...

A group of co-workers gathered at Tria recently on a Sunday night to send off our friend as she enters retirement. This is a baby-boomer retirement, mind you. She’s way too young to retire. Her husband is still working. She probably will end up doing something else. But she’s reached the magic number of age and years-of-service, so she’s leaving Land O'Lakes . Tria was a good place for this dinner. It’s a nice, comfortable space – lots of wood, three fireplaces, soft lighting, simple décor. On a Sunday night, it wasn’t particularly crowded, so our relatively large group of 14 got great service. Some of the reviews I’ve read indicate that Tria changes its menu frequently to feature fresh and locally available food. For our dinner, there was a nice range of selections – some pastas, three fish dishes (including the nightly special), several steaks including a buffalo steak, a couple of chicken dishes, a pork tenderloin, short ribs, and lamb. We started out with several ‘sharing di...

The Chambers Hotel opened recently at 9 th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis . It bills itself as an art hotel. Chambers Kitchen is the hot, new restaurant in town that’s attracting a lot of attention and a lot of buzz. It’s the brain-child of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten , specializing in Asian fusion. My wife and I chose it for my birthday dinner at the end of my Thanksgiving week vacation . Arriving at the Chambers is an experience. You can come into the lobby bar from an entrance on Hennepin Ave. , or you come into the hotel lobby if you use the valet parking service on 9 th Street . Either way, you enter a bright, open, and welcoming space. The hotel lobby and the lobby bar fuse seamlessly. In fact, the check-in desk for the hotel is slightly hidden between two white pillars. I suppose the owners of Chambers would object to me calling it a ‘lobby bar.’ They refer to it as a lounge and casual café. We had a few minutes before our reservation, so we asked to see the a...

For Thanksgiving this year, I volunteered to bring dinner rolls and a vegetarian entrée. I figured since I was taking the week off, I would have all day on Wednesday to do the cooking. I got the recipe for the dinner rolls from the New York Times Dining & Wine section online – Wheat & Cornmeal Cheese Rolls. It sounded interesting and calls for fresh sage. Since I still have sage in the garden, I couldn’t resist trying the recipe. Here are a couple of observations. First, this dough is very sticky when kneading it. I’ve had similar experience with other bread dough that uses cooked cornmeal as an ingredient with the yeast and wheat flour. I kneaded in way more white flour than the recipe calls for, and it still was sticky when I put it in the bowl for raising. However, after raising, the dough was nice and soft and not too hard to work with. Secondly, as noted, I made the rolls on Wednesday, then I stored them in plastic bags for transport to my sister’s house for...

(From NYTimes, Nov. 15, 2006) 1½ c. milk 1/3 c. stone-ground cornmeal 1½ teaspoon salt 1 packet active dry yeast ¼ c. maple syrup 1½ c. whole wheat flour 1½ c. all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons melted butter 6 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded, or 8 ounces soft fresh goat cheese 2 teaspoons minced sage leaves Scald milk in 1-qt. saucepan. Stir in cornmeal, mixing constantly, and cook over medium heat about 5 minutes until thickened. Add salt and transfer to large mixing bowl. Place yeast in a bowl and add ½ c. warm water. When cornmeal is no longer hot, stir in the yeast and syrup. Mix in whole wheat flour and then 1 c. all-purpose flour, half a cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Knead about 8 minutes, adding most of remaining flour. Dough should be elastic and a bit sticky. Coat a bowl with some melted butter, place dough in bowl, turn so buttered side is up, cover loosely, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and...

2 red peppers, cored and cut into 1-inch wide strips 2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes 2 summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes 4 cremini mushrooms, halved 1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1-inch strips 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon salt, divided 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided 1 tablespoon dried Italian herb mix or herbs de Provence 1 pound penne pasta 3 cups marinara sauce (store bought or homemade) 1 cup grated fontina cheese 1/2 cup grated smoked mozzarella 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/3 cup for topping 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a baking sheet, toss the peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, and onions with olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and dried herbs. Roast until tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for ...

I got an interesting phone call from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She’s known me my whole career. In fact, she hired me for my first job after college. She called after she read my blog and had some observations about it. “I see you’ve got a new name,” she said. I didn’t know what she meant. At first, I thought she meant my username: SPKrikava. But when I tried to clarify, she said, “No, not that. I see you’re going by ‘Krik’ now.” “Oh,” I said, finally understanding what was behind her comment. “You’re right. I am re-branding myself. But Krik is a ‘heritage’ brand, not a new name.” In fact, I went by Krik all the way through high school. I checked my senior yearbook, just to make sure I remembered it correctly. It seems that only the guys called me Krik. Most of the girls who wrote in my yearbook called me Steve. A few called me Steven. One, quite inexplicably, called me Stevie. (If there’s any reason why, I sure can’t remember it now.) During my colleg...

I’m writing this at the beginning of Thanksgiving week. I’m taking the week off, which really means three days of vacation because the office is closed on Thanksgiving day and the following Friday. It’s a big week for me. At the end of it, on Saturday, I celebrate my 55 th birthday. So I’m taking time off to just relax, take time to do some fun activities, do some cooking, go to a few restaurants, and, of course, spend time with family. Here’s what I did yesterday, on the first day of my vacation. First of all, we went to the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus. My wife and I both graduated from the U of M, and we enjoy just going to campus from time to time to walk the campus and reminisce. As you may know, the Mississippi River flows by the campus. The East Bank campus is the main campus where we had most of our classes. The West Bank campus (connected by the Washington Avenue Bridge ) was the hippie, counter-culture hangout during the early ‘70s...

This hearty dish makes an ample amount of richly flavored white beans. Rather than serving the individual shanks as the entree and the beans as the side dish, consider stretching the meal by spooning the beans into shallow plates and shredding the meat over the top. From Barbara Kafka 's "Roasting" (William Morrow, 1995). Makes 4 to 8 servings 4 lamb shanks (1 to 11/4 pounds each), trimmed of visible fat 2 small onions, peeled 6 medium cloves garlic, peeled 1 cup water 2 pounds dried white beans, such as Great Northern or navy, soaked overnight in enough water to cover by 2 inches, then drained 1 bouquet garni (fashioned from a 2-inch sprig fresh rosemary, five 2-inch sprigs fresh oregano, six 2-inch sprigs fresh thyme and 1/2 dried bay leaf) 3 cups canned tomatoes with their juices, tomatoes chopped 1 cup red wine 2 cups chicken stock or broth About 2 teaspoons kosher salt Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven t...

In my October 18 post, I mentioned an experience at Cue at the Guthrie . While three of us at dinner that night enjoyed our meals, we all agreed that the service was mediocre at best, and one of our group was very dissatisfied with his meal. I went back to Cue later in October, this time for lunch. My brother and I try to have lunch together in between his birthday (mid October) and mine (late November). I suggested that we give it a try, and he was game. The modern, stylish décor of the restaurant works as well during the day as it does at night. At night, the lighting is all cool and dramatic. During the day, the floor-to-ceiling windows flood the dining room with light and reveal attractive views of the Mississippi river and the hip new development along the river. This was a birthday lunch, so we started with a glass of wine. We chose a Barbera d’Alba by Pio Cesare . We both started with the puréed white lentil soup with olive oil-baked croutons and heirloom tomato coulis. I...

Election Day this year was kind of unusual for me. For the past several years, I’ve hosted an Election Night party at our house. This year, business travel precluded me from putting on another party. I got up early, as I usually do on Tuesdays, and went to spinning class at the JCC from 6-7. Usually on a Tuesday, I go to the office from the ‘J.’ But this time, I went home instead and had breakfast. (Toasted challah , cheese, a pear, and coffee.) Then I went to the polls to vote. After voting, I went to the airport for a trip to Valencia , CA . Recently, my job has taken me to California more regularly. And I like California . But most of the time, I’m in Sacramento (see my September 11 posting) or the Central Valley . I rarely go to southern California , and honestly, I don’t really like the Los Angeles metro area. It’s too spread out and traffic is awful. It took me 45 minutes to get from the LA Airport to the Hyatt Valencia . Once I arrived, however, I have to admit – it...

A group of us from work recently went to the Sample Room in Northeast Minneapolis for happy hour. Most of us have worked together for many years. So we had a fun time reminiscing about past adventures and misadventures. The Sample Room was a great place for such an event. It’s fairly small with booths along the walls and tables on the floor. We commandeered a bar-height long table for our group of seven. The bar is located close to the Mississippi River in a historic part of town. The neighborhood is laid back and unpretentious. As the name implies, the Sample Room’s theme is small plates and selections – just right for sharing by a group. The night we were there, they offered half-price bottles of wine. They also have flights of wine – three small glasses of different varieties of red wine or white wine. They also have flights of tequila and single-malt scotch. For drinks, we did the half-price bottles of wine. A couple people had beer. Our guest of honor for the evening had martin...

Last week, one of our company executives told me about a dinner meeting he’d been to. After we covered the substance of the meeting, I asked him where the dinner was. He told me Bellanotte in downtown Minneapolis in the Block E entertainment district on Hennepin Avenue . “Not good,” he told me. “I won’t go back. You should write about it in your blog.” His main objection was very poor service. This was a small group of 8-10 people. It was a late evening dinner. People were tired. They just wanted to have a relaxing dinner and get out of there. The service was very slow and inattentive. My wife and I had the same experience at Bellanotte several months ago. We also decided that there are too many good restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul to waste time with a disappointing venue. And yet, it wasn’t easy for me to decide to write a negative review. I’ve never really panned a restaurant before on KriksPicks. It made me consider the approach by another restaurant blogger, RestaurantG...

I just spent a couple of hours in the kitchen chopping basil to bag and freeze. Actually, it was lemon basil . I harvested the last of my sweet basil over the weekend. You see, the weather forecast is for our first killing frost, either tonight or tomorrow. Some of the heartier herbs will survive. In fact, I’ll be using fresh sage until it’s covered by snow. But the delicate stuff, like basil, definitely is a goner. (No irony intended – preserving basil by chopping and freezing it before a frost kills it.) Same for tomatoes. My yard does not accommodate tomatoes well anyway. I always plant a few just to make a valiant effort. But my yard is too shaded for the plants to thrive. This year, with the heat in July, we actually harvested several handfuls of grape tomatoes and a few cherry tomatoes. But when the weather cooled off, they stopped ripening. So my lament for the end of garden fresh tomatoes is mostly theoretical, but it’s no less heartfelt. A friend of mine at work , a new reader...

My former boss, the one who rented a villa in Eze , France , after he retired, came to town for a meeting. So we decided to get together for dinner. He was staying at an airport hotel, and we didn’t want to go downtown. So my wife and I picked Cave Vin . I’ve provided a link to its web site, but it doesn’t have its menus posted. Open Table (the online restaurant reservation service) says that Cave Vin is located in the Armitage neighborhood. I didn’t know that was what the neighborhood was called. But it’s a pleasant residential part of town. The restaurant is located in a corner commercial area that includes a laundry and a convenience store. When my wife and I arrived, Bob was sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine. The restaurant has a few outdoor tables. But there isn’t any particular reason to sit outside except if the weather is particularly nice. Bob said it had a casual, comfortable feel of a French village café. Bob had ordered a Portuguese wine – Lisa Terras do Sado. I cou...

I arrived on Tuesday in Washington at 10:30 a.m. , on my usual flight. For this trip, I stayed at Hotel Rouge on Embassy Row, walking distance to my meetings on Wednesday. My lunch meeting was cancelled, so I was on my own. I wandered around downtown a little bit and decided on Olives at 1600 K St. NW . If you look at the web site, you’ll see that Todd English has six restaurants called Olives across the United States . I’ve never eaten at any of the others. But I have been to Olives in DC a couple of times. One of the cool things about the restaurant is that it’s two blocks from the White House . It’s impressive to just look down the street and see it as you arrive or as you leave the restaurant. I decided to have one of the daily specials – trout with a lemon caper sauce served with braised Brussels sprouts and pureed potatoes. The restaurant serves a nice bread basket to nibble on while waiting. The bread is served with a black olive tapenade, a green olive tapenade, and a small...