Krik's Picks

 "Omakase" - This is what the guest says to the Japanese sushi chef. It means "I leave it to you" or "I trust you." After saying it, the guest will receive a procession of plates all at the discretion of the chef. Kado no Mise - This translates as "corner store or restaurant." It's also the name of an omakase style restaurant in Minneapolis. As the name implies, the restaurant occupies the corner of north First Street and north First Avenue in the North Loop neighborhood. Shigeyuki Furukawa - The chef at Kado no Mise , a 2026 finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Midwest award.  My son and I scored a mid-week reservation at Kado no Mise. It was our second time dining there; the first was in 2021. The heightened attention from the Beard nomination provided the nudge to go again now. Also, my wife and I are planning a trip to Japan, and one of my goals is to have an omakase dinner there. I am eager to see how the meal in Japan co...

  We have some really great museums in the Twin Cities. They are interesting, engaging, and thought-provoking. Sadly, living here, I get busy with 'life' and don't make the time to visit museums like I do when on vacation.  But when my sister came to town this month, we planned a museum visit and lunch.  We both really like   The Museum of Russian Art . So that's where we went.  Our timing wasn't great. The museum had just finished a major exhibition called "Spies and Space: Cold War Artifacts from Both Sides of the Iron Curtain." They were still packing up the artifacts, so we were able to see some of them, even though the exhibition was technically over.  Still, the museum had several other exhibits that we enjoyed viewing.  Violins of Hope: A collection of restored violins that were played by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust. Say 'No' to War: A collection of political cartoons by Ukrainian and Russian artists conveying the traged...

Whenever my wife and I talk about going out for sushi,  Ama Sushi Edina is the first place we think of. The sushi is made from the freshest fish, and the presentation is beautiful. The price is reasonable and a great value. The only hitch - they don't take reservations, and it's so popular that we often have to wait to be seated.  I don't mind waiting. But the last time we went, it was bitter cold which made the wait very uncomfortable. We've kind of decided that in the future, we'll go when the weather is more tolerable so we can stroll the neighborhood while waiting.  When you do get seated, the first thing they bring you is a bowl of miso soup. When you place your order, it doesn't take long for the food to appear. On our most recent visit (when it was so cold), we accepted a seat at the bar. Not ideal, but it got us out of the cold. After the miso soup, we shared an order of squid salad. One word - Great! For my dinner, I had a sushi combo - 7 pieces of sus...

 I love finding a neighborhood restaurant that checks all the right boxes.  Family friendly Comfortable ambiance Good food Reasonable prices Risata Cucina in Robbinsdale (northwest Minneapolis suburb) fits that description.  My wife and I took our son and his family there for a Saturday night dinner. There were six of us - 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 teenagers. With a group that size, we were able to try a variety of items on the menu.  We started with appetizers - fried calamari and arancini. We were served a generous portion of the calamari; everyone could get some. An order of arancini is four; our server brought us an extra half order so everyone could get one. I liked the calamari, but my favorite was the arancini. They were mushroom arancini and the earthy mushroom flavor was great.  Everyone ordered from the pasta menu for our main dishes. My son and his daughter had casarecce scampi. The pasta was short, twisted noodles with smoked bay scallops, lemon...

On vacation, you really should have a personal chef. I offer that advice after having experienced the pleasure of professionally prepared meals in the comfort of a vacation rental in Palm Springs. As I noted in my post about our family vacation , my son-in-law is a chef. When we arrived at our Airbnb in Thousand Palms, near Palm Springs, he offered to do the meal preparations. I had expected that he might want a break. But, he explained, preparing exciting meals for family is different from running a catering kitchen. Besides, he was eager to use the fantastic backyard grill and outdoor kitchen.  My wife and I only have limited experience with vacation rentals. And when we have stayed at an Airbnb, we haven't done any creative cooking. We use the kitchen to heat up leftovers from restaurant meals, or to make coffee while lounging in the morning before embarking on vacation activities.  Grilled steak and asparagus, baked potato For this family trip, it was pretty much a forego...

 My wife and I have offered our son and daughter to take their families on a trip. It's basically an open invitation. We'll negotiate the specifics of when and where. But we want to take them where they want to go.  Our daughter was the first to take us up. So for Presidents Day weekend this year, we flew to Palm Springs for a long weekend. The plan was to get away from the Minnesota cold and do a bunch of hiking. My wife and I are in our 70s. Our daughter and her husband are in their 40s, and the grandchildren are teenagers.  For lodging, we opted for an Air Bnb . In case you don't know, vacation rentals in Palm Springs can be tricky, and short term rentals present a challenge. (As you might expect, a lot of vacation rentals in the area are aimed at snowbirds who want to stay for several weeks.) We ended up picking a house in Thousand Palms. It was well maintained, not large but roomy enough for our family. It had 3 bedrooms; my wife and I claimed the master suite....

 My extended birthday celebrations came to a glorious end in mid-December, nearly a month after my actual birth date. (That was Thanksgiving Day.) My daughter treated me to dinner at Terzo in south Minneapolis.  Unlike the other two restaurant birthday dinners, I had been to Terzo in the past; multiple times, actually. I've even posted in this blog about the restaurant twice - once in 2014 as we prepared for a trip to Italy and again in 2016 just before another Italian trip.  Terzo continues to be a favorite of mine. So it was an easy choice for a birthday dinner, especially since my daughter hadn't eaten there previously.  We started with a glass of prosecco and an order of arancini . Next we had salads. My daughter had 'misticanza' which was a beautiful mixed salad with baby lettuce, pea tendrils, fresh herbs, radish, celery, egg yolk and a light dressing. I had a seasonal salad 'autumnale'.  Smoked trout on pasta Terzo offers half orders of its pasta entre...

As I explained in my previous post, I turned 70 years old on Thanksgiving Day 2021. That being something of a milestone, I ended up enjoying four birthday dinners. Thanksgiving dinner was the first. Two weeks later, my wife and I had a special dinner at Italian Eatery in Minneapolis. You can click here to read that post, or simply scroll down to it after you read this post.  Both my son and my daughter gave me the gift of having dinner with each of them individually. They actually did pay for those dinners. But I would have been happy to pay just to have the time alone with them.  Just four days after Birthday Dinner No. 2, I picked up my son and we went to Kado no Mise , a Japanese restaurant serving a fixed price "omakase" tasting menu. The restaurant's website explains that Kado no Mise translates as "corner restaurant." (The restaurant is located at the corner of N. 1st St. and N. 1st Ave. in Minneapolis.) The website further explains that "omakase...

 In my previous post - The Story So Far - I noted that one of the things that happened during 2021 was that I had a birthday. Not just any birthday. I turned 70.  When I was a kid, my parents (or at least my mother) usually made a big deal about birthdays for me and my siblings. But Mom and Dad never made much of a big deal about their own birthdays. So I suppose it's not surprising that in my adult years, I also never made much to-do about my birthday. While I was still working, I usually would still go to work. My wife and I would have a nice birthday dinner out at a restaurant sometime in the relatively close vicinity of the actual birth date.  But, 70 is a bigger deal. So it justified having multiple birthday dinners. (Stay tuned for Nos. 3 and 4.) When I rebooted this blog, after a 14-month hiatus, I decided to give up any pretense that my restaurant posts are actual 'reviews.' Restaurant reviewers have standards and a process for evaluating a restaurant, its ambian...

In case you haven't noticed, it's been more than a year since my last post. I considered pulling the plug and just putting an end to Krik's Picks. But I took time to reread some of my old posts, and it reminded me of a couple of things.  1.  I mostly am writing this for my own amusement.  2. It's been amusing. And so - The Story So Far ... * I started Krik's Picks 15 years ago. My first grandchild had just been born. (Yes, I have a 15-year-old grandchild who's eager to take drivers' ed and get her license.) Also, at the time, I had responsibility for member communications at Land O'Lakes , where I worked until I retired (in 2013).  At Land O'Lakes, we had cake (For those who don't know, Land O'Lakes is a farmer-owned cooperative. So my job was to manage the communications to keep the farmers (i.e. co-op members) informed about the company, the industry, and things that affected them as farmers. I felt that we could use a blog and social media...

 I like to garden. For me, it's quite satisfying to walk into my backyard and pick something ripe and fresh to eat.  The trouble is, my yard is not very conducive to growing a prolific garden. My yard is blessed with an abundance of tall, leafy trees. But they cast so much shade that it stunts most garden plants that I'm trying to grow. Example: tomatoes. I can't resist trying to grow tomatoes. But because of the shade, the plants put all their energy into trying to grow tall, and I end up harvesting just a couple of handfuls of small tomatoes. If they didn't taste so good, I'd quit trying.  The other problem is wild animals. We have deer, raccoons, squirrels, and rabbits galore. They like to feast on my vegetables as much as I do.  So each summer, I plant a few tomatoes and other items and just hope to be able to harvest enough to make it worthwhile.  First batch of ripe serranoes There are a few things, however, that usually thrive in my yard. Herbs, for examp...

I see the world differently now. I don't mean psychologically. It doesn't have anything to do with the COVID pandemic or the Black Lives Matter protests. I mean physically. I had cataract surgery and am amazed by what a change it's making in my vision. I have bad eyes. My ophthalmologist says "very bad eyes." I got glasses when I was about 10 years old. My school teacher must have told my mother that I couldn't read things on the blackboard. So we went to an eye doctor. He checked my eyes and confirmed that I am very near-sighted. He put on a pair of sample glasses that approximated my prescription. I looked out the window and saw people walking by. "Am I supposed to be able to see people on the sidewalk?" I asked in amazement. Before cataract surgery So I wore glasses for about 8 or 9 years. During my freshman year in college my parents agreed to let me get contact lenses. I wore contacts for a long time. But eventually, probably about 20 ...

When the coronavirus pandemic struck America, and we all retreated to the sanctuary of our homes and practiced social distancing, it seems that a lot of people took up home baking. I've been a baker for a long time, really since I got my first apartment in my sophomore year at the University of Minnesota. That would be in 1972. I grew up eating homemade bread, so it was natural for me to try my hand at it when I was on my own. I'm sure that my mom gave me bread for the apartment when I'd go home for a visit. But I also started baking some on my own. I liked it. My roommate liked it. And probably more significantly, my girlfriend (now my wife) was impressed. After college, and when we got married, I continued to make bread for our home. It became a ritual and something of a family tradition. I used to make bagels very often. But since our kids are grown and it's just the two of us, I haven't made bagels in quite a while. I have a handful of recipes that I turn to...