Weary dinner at Lucca in Des Moines

In October, I traveled to Des Moines to attend the World Food Prize activities. My company, Land O’Lakes, helped sponsor a panel discussion on women in agriculture in the developing world. (Click here to read about the panel. Click here to view a video of an African woman who formed a dairy cooperative to help her family and her village succeed as dairy farmers.)

My trip to Des Moines was one problem after the other. It’s only a four hour drive from the office. But when I checked airfares, there actually was a pretty favorable fare available, so I decided to fly. However, when I went to the gate at the time to board the plane, all the passengers and I learned that our plane had a mechanical problem. They didn’t have a spare part in Minneapolis. So they had to fly in a different plane from Detroit. So the four-hour drive that I was avoiding turned into a five-hour delay at the airport.

When it became evident that I was not going to arrive in Des Moines in time for our group dinner, I started thinking about where I would have dinner when I finally did arrive. First I pulled up the address for my hotel (Embassy Suites) on Google maps. Then I searched for restaurants in walking distance. After I’d identified a couple interesting ones, I checked the reviews on Yelp. And that’s how I ended up at Lucca.

Des Moines is an interesting city. They have this nice, clean downtown on the west side of the river and this absolutely beautiful state capitol on the east side of the river. But in between is about 12 blocks of gritty industrial buildings. They’re trying to give the area some cache by rebranding it Historic East Village. As I walked to Lucca at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, with hundreds, if not thousands of visitors in town for the World Food Prize, East Village was a virtual ghost town. I saw several interesting shops. But there were no other pedestrians on the sidewalk and very few cars.

My research showed that Lucca serves dinner until 10 p.m. When I walked in, there were only two other tables of diners in the place. I decided to be charitable and asked the person who greeted me if they were still serving dinner. He looked uncertain and asked the hostess. She assured me that they would serve dinner.

I’m glad they did. I had a great meal. Lucca has a very interesting menu concept. Everything is prix fixe. The menu lists several ‘primi’ courses and several secondi courses. It’s $30 for a starter and entrée, $7.50 more for dessert. The other thing about the menu – most of the items are designated by a one or two word listing. You have to ask the server to describe the preparation. It reminded me of Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis. In a way, it’s kind of annoying. But I guess it serves the purpose of stimulating a discussion with the server before you decide what to order. For me alone at 9 p.m. in Des Moines, that was all right. But it could also be distracting if you wanted to focus your attention on a discussion with dining partners or a date.

I started with the gnocci. Several Yelp reviewers raved about them, and I agree. They were light and flavorful, dressed in burnt butter with sage. For my entrée, I ordered scallops. These were four beautiful, large scallops, seared and served with mélange of crisp sautéed vegetables. I realized that both courses consisted of pillowy food. I guess after my distressing travel delays, I needed something comforting on my plate.

After I finished, I asked the woman who appeared to be the hostess about the menu concept. “What if a diner doesn’t want to order both a primi and a secondi course?” She said it hasn’t been a problem. Sometimes people will share, and she assured me that they could accommodate a diner who really didn’t want to order both courses. I also asked about the particularly enjoyable music mix that was playing through dinner. She told me it was a jazz ‘station’ on the internet radio service Pandora. Cool.

I hope East Village thrives and Lucca survives until the next time I’m at loose ends in Des Moines for dinner.

Lunch on the road at Wendy’s in Clear Lake, IA

There must be something between me and fast food and Clear Lake, Iowa. I’ve written before that I’m not a big fan of fast food, nor a frequent consumer of it. In fact, I haven’t eaten at a fast food joint since spring of 2007. But a strange thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I was driving home from a meeting in Ames, Iowa. It was around 1 p.m., and I was feeling a little hungry. The next stop was on the freeway was Clear Lake. I decided to stop at the Wendy’s restaurant for a quick lunch.

The last time I ate fast food was at an Arby’s in Clear Lake. Now, here’s the freaky thing. Earlier this year, the same company that owns Wendy’s bought Arby’s. Whoa! What are the odds? I even ignored my own advice. In my posting from my visit to Arby’s in Clear Lake, I suggested taking an extra few minutes to drive into town and eat at a real café. I totally ignored my own advice and swung into the Wendy’s off the freeway.

So I had a BBQ Flavor-Dipped Chicken Sandwich value meal. It wasn’t too bad. The barbeque sauce was a little sweeter than I normally like. But it had a nice tangy flavor. And the chicken was a real chicken fillet. It was tender and juicy, not at all dried out or tough. The small value meal came with a small order of fries and a Coke.

The fries were nice and crisp. Very tasty. And the Coke? What can I say? It was bubbly and sweet and gave me a jolt of caffeine. And get this – absolutely no fat! Wow! What a nutritional deal.

So here’s the nutritional stats for that lunch: Calories = 930. Fat = 28 grams (12 from the sandwich and 16 from the fries). Sodium = 1720 milligrams. The meal provided 2% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 40% of the RDA for vitamin C, 10% of the calcium and 20% of the iron.

By the way, when you check the nutritional analysis of this meal, the standard serving size for the chicken sandwich is two (2). If you had 2 sandwiches, add another 450 calories and 12 grams of fat.

I still would rather eat Wendy’s or Arby’s than McDonald’s or Burger King. But I still would recommend driving into town for a lunch at a real café.

The Café, Ames, Iowa

By Guest Blogger Patty Miller

When I was a student at Iowa State University in Ames, Aunt Maude’s was THE place to go for a special dinner – especially if the parents were paying. With its funky, Victorian charm, fabulous strawberry daiquiris (made with fresh berries) and well-prepared classic American fare like London broil and au gratin potatoes, Aunt Maude’s kept us coming back for more than 30 years.

So you can imagine our dismay when my college roommates and I made a pilgrimage to ISU in late July only to learn that Aunt Maude’s was closed for remodeling. Where would we eat? Ames is definitely not a hotbed of haute cuisine. More like hot dogs. The person at Aunt Maude’s who took our call must have sensed our disappointment and recommend Maude’s “sister” restaurant, a slightly more casual bistro called The Café.

First we had to find the place, which is located in a re-creation of a Midwestern downtown about 10 blocks north of Ames’ real downtown. The faux city center is the heart of a new housing development, which was a cornfield the last time we were in town. It’s actually kind of cool, and The Café is the attraction any downtown ― old or new ― needs to draw visitors.

Dark-red brick on the outside, it’s all dark wood, dim lighting, shutters and coziness on the inside. Just off the dining room is an order counter where you can carry out or eat in with minimal service. A long, narrow bar on the other side opens into an “alley,” an inviting space between two buildings to sip a well-mixed cocktail.

The Café touts its “local, in-season produce and homemade artisan breads and desserts.” The menu isn’t extensive, but offers a nice selection (featuring that local produce and artisan breads) of soups, starters, sandwiches, salads and entrees. Here’s where you notice the sibling resemblance between Maude’s and The Café – the food isn’t fancy or uber creative, but it’s well presented and delicious. And reasonably priced by Minneapolis standards – nothing was over $20.

Our group started with one of the simple appetizers – bruschetta served on house-baked flatbread. For entrées, we ordered the stuffed green pepper with a seasoned-just-right filling and dotted with tangy feta cheese; chicken drizzled with a rich, complex mole sauce and served with wild rice; and butter-knife-tender beef tournedos with garlicky mashed potatoes.

Of course we had to sample the desserts. It was refreshing that the portions weren’t gargantuan – just enough to have a little sweet at the end of the meal. The fresh raspberry tart was tasty, the tropical fruit tort was light and refreshing, yet moist and flavorful, but neither was anything to write home about. Our fave ― the dark-chocolate crème brûlée ― was velvety smooth with a crackly crisp sugar top.

Would we go back? In fact, we did – the next day when we dropped in and ordered hearty sandwiches at the counter. While our service in the evening – both in the bar and the dining room – was attentive and pleasant, the order-counter service was surly, bordering on rude. From other reviews of The Café, this unfortunately seems to be a pattern.

But next time you’re heading down I-35, make a quick detour into Ames and check out The Café, proof that you can find well-prepared food in the middle of corn country.

P.S. Aunt Maude’s is scheduled to reopen in the fall.

The Café

2616 Northridge Parkway

Ames, IA

515-292-0100

Lunch at Arby’s, Clear Lake, Iowa

I don’t eat at fast food restaurants very often, probably no more than five times a year. I usually find that it’s almost as easy and almost as quick to stop in at a café or casual restaurant and sit down to a quick meal as it is to swing through a fast food place. On the rare occasion when I do eat at a fast food place, it’s almost always when I’m traveling – like on a short layover at an airport.

When I do eat fast food, I have to admit, my decision where to eat and what to eat usually is driven by some kind of ad or promotion. Examples:

I ate at a Quiznos at the Denver airport because I wanted to see if a toasted sub really was better. I thought it was.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve eaten a fast food burger, maybe two or three years. The last time I remember eating one, Burger King had a promotion for three slices of natural cheese on the burger – cheddar, Swiss, and provolone. I always support serving natural cheese instead of processed cheese. But in this case, it didn’t really make much difference. Maybe this just goes to show that processed cheese really is the most appropriate addition to a fast food sandwich.

About a year ago, I stopped at an Arby’s while driving home from Wisconsin because they had their ‘two fish sandwiches for $4’ promotion. It was a pretty good bargain, but holy smokes; it was too much to eat.

In February, I was driving back from Des Moines and I stopped in Clear Lake, Iowa, to buy gasoline. While I was pumping the gas, I noticed an Arby’s across the road. I decided to get lunch there. Maybe you’ve seen the commercial that compelled me to eat there:

Three guys are in the cab of a pickup truck. They’re gazing out the window.

The driver says, “Are those real?”

The guy in the passenger seat says, “Oh, they’re real all right!”

The guy in the middle says, “They’re so big!!”

Of course, they’re at the Arby’s drive-up window, and they’re ogling the chicken tenders on the menu.

So I went in to try the chicken tenders. I ordered a value meal – three pieces of chicken tenders, a small serving of curly fries, and a beverage.

The chicken tenders were actually pretty good. The coating was not too heavy. More importantly, the seasoning was pretty well balanced – not too salty and not overwhelming. The chicken was moist and truly tender.

The curly fries, on the other hand, were awful. They were limp, not at all crisp. They were coated in a horrible, orange seasoning. Truly awful.

I don’t usually order soft drinks, and when I do, I prefer original Coca Cola. Fortunately, they had unsweetened iced tea! HOORAY! It cut the awful flavor of the curly fries.

All together (and taking them at their word that the tea truly was unsweetened), my lunch had 717 calories, half (347 calories) from fat – 39 total grams of fat, five grams of trans fat. It had 29 grams of protein, 67 grams of carbohydrates, and nearly 2000 milligrams of sodium. All for about $6.

Clear Lake postscript

If you’re driving by Clear Lake around lunch time, skip the fast food joints at the I-35 intersections. Drive into town; it’ll only take you an extra five minutes. You’ll find a local café or a deli where you can get a sandwich and a cup of soup and a slice of homemade pie.

I grew up in southern Minnesota, about 40 miles from Clear Lake. When my mom and dad were young, they used to go to dances at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” died when their plane crashed while trying to take off in a snow storm after playing a show at the Surf.

That was early in the morning of February 3, 1959. I was 7 years old.