The Rake: Down the Hatch

Survival of the Fattest

Lisa Pahl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:08:23 -0600

Dr. Charles Billington divides his obese patients into two distinctly different groups: those who have choices, and those who don’t.
“Demographically, we know that people in lower socioeconomic areas are greatly, disproportionately affected by obesity,” he says. “Folks in those lower-economic, lower-education situations have little or no access to whole foods. They also have a lack of options.”

Citrus Sensation

Lisa Pahl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:17:16 -0600

Some people have gone out of their way to make a perfectly good Fuji apple smell and taste like a grape. They call it a Grapple. There are also those who feel that plums should taste like apricots and that apricots should taste like plums, hence the booming pluot and aprium markets. Needless to say, when I first heard of Meyer lemons, I assumed they were a breed of fancy Frankenlemons created at some technologically advanced Meyer Institute of Frilly Fruit. Like a fool, I snubbed them.

Other Fish in the Sea

Lisa Pahl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:00:53 -0600

We seem to be in the midst of sushi mania. Two new restaurants—Seven and Musashi—opened recently, barely a block apart on Hennepin Avenue, which means that downtown Minneapolis now boasts at least a dozen sushi outlets. (The others; Koyi, Nami, Origami, Martini Blu, Wasabi, Ichiban, a sushi counter at Macy’s Marketplace, Zen Box, and two Tensuke Sushi locations.)

Swallowing

Lisa Pahl — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:28:51 -0600

It is an established fact that we human beings want what we cannot have. When exorbitantly priced iPhones hit the market—already in limited supply—people line up at 2 a.m. And by telling a couple they are not allowed to have sex for a week, therapists say they can cause even the most uninterested spouse to churn with desire.

So it is with absinthe, the drink preferred by Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, which supposedly drove each of them crazy and was outlawed in the United States in 1912.

The Sweetest Simmer

Lisa Pahl — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:34:58 -0600

Now we’re fully settled into the bland, grayest days of winter—a time when I seek to imbue my life with more flavor. After all, woolen sweaters and bestsellers can only go so far in fighting the battle of the blahs. If I’m to be trapped indoors, then the kitchen had better be sending forth seductive smells of warm, satisfying dishes that make me happy to be holed up at home. That’s usually why, particularly at this time of year, the Sunday meal becomes a big braising event.

White Wine for Men

Lisa Pahl — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:40:14 -0600

It is a pity there’s no reason to believe King Arthur actually existed. True, there was a sixth-century monk called Gildas The Wise who penned a wordy jeremiad that mentions a battle at a place called Mount Badon where the Celtic remnant of Roman Britain stemmed the tsunami of Anglo-Saxon invasion. It is also true that, long afterwards, Welsh monks with well-developed imaginations placed at Mount Badon one of the twelve victories they ascribed to Arthur. If you think that adds up to evidence for a historical Arthur, you probably also think that Saddam Hussein supported Al Qaeda.

Beyond the Obvious

Lisa Pahl — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:15:39 -0600

Some guys—and gals—get all the ink. If you are a devoted Twin Cities foodie, you know all about Tim (and Josh), Vincent, Alex, Stewart and Heidi, Lucia, Doug, J.P., Lenny, and Brenda—and you can pair them with their restaurants. Odds are pretty good that you have also heard of Tanya Siebenaler, Don Saunders, Scott Pampuch, Mike Phillips, and J.D. Fratzke.*

Hotcakes in Hell

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:14:46 -0600

It is a fact that I have never made a decent pancake.

A Great Big Flip

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:27:05 -0600

He’d been a groom before; I hated the idea of a puffy white dress. So we had a ceremony at the courthouse and left abruptly the next morning for Paris. I’d like to say it was impossibly romantic. But among the magical nighttime moments in the Louvre courtyard, there was plenty of bickering concerning the correct path to the Panthéon. After one particularly nasty exchange, I stormed ahead on the Rue Mouffetard, only to be halted in my tracks by the sweetness wafting from a street-side window.

Ripeness Is All

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:35:08 -0600

We all, they say, have one book in us. God knows what mine would be. How about Good Wine Needs No Bush: Political Maunderings of an Expatriate Oenophile? Or perhaps Latin Love in a Cold Climate: Memories of a Minnesota Classicist.

Take the Chill Off

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:03:55 -0600

It’s winter. You’re cold, you’re broke, and you spent the entire month of December eating too much. You made a few New Year’s resolutions, and you want to keep them. You don’t need a bunch of fine dining recommendations.

You need soup: warm, filling, and cheap, it’s the perfect antidote to cold, fat, and broke.

Keeping the Faith

Cristina Cordova — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:43:45 -0600

I work out at the Y five or six times a week, so I see a lot of naked women.

There are very elderly ones who stand crookedly in the shower, bones protruding, washing their thinning, silver hair. Others have bodies so wrinkled, the folds of skin fall like ripples from their shoulders to their thighs. One woman of about 60 has had a double mastectomy; she stands facing out under the hot air dryer on the wall, scars running diagonally, like a geometry problem across her flattened chest.

These women neither frighten nor repel me. But there are many who do.

Food Police to the World

kristin harper — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:24:20 -0600

Jim Harkness never expected to return to Minnesota. A native of South Minneapolis who studied Chinese in high school, he started his career as an activist specializing in Asian birds, then giant pandas. His work took him to China often, and eventually he became a full-time resident of Beijing, working first with the Ford Foundation, then serving as executive director of World Wildlife Fund China.

Getting Your Fixe

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:26:33 -0600

The French figured out a long time ago that it isn’t just what you eat, it’s how you eat it: Slowly. In small courses. One course at a time. That might sound smart, but in the Minnesota marketplace, it can be a tough sell. The logic of the local restaurant economy is that if you’ve got to raise prices—as restaurants often do—the best way to make diners feel like they’re getting value for money is to dish out big portions. Enormous portions. The result? Diners eat too much, pay too much, and still take half of their meals home in a doggy bag.

Season's Eatings

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:29:38 -0600

One of the toughest questions I’m asked is “What’s your favorite restaurant?” You might as well ask me which specific taste bud I prefer. Instead of a quick reference, this question begs a full discussion of the weather, the season, the time of day/night, what I’m wearing, who’s paying, etc. But that’s the thing about being a foodie—our hunger is unusually complex and wide-ranging.

Strong, Rugged, Somewhat Sweet

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:31:31 -0600

On any list of the smaller enormities of modern life, other people’s Christmas circular letters ought to loom large. It is not the information itself that is so rebarbative. In the great scheme of things, knowing about the family’s new job/house/car/place at the lake is no more or less annoying than reading that Junior has scooped the Miss Joyful Prize for Raffia Work.

Protector of Pandas, Friend to Farmers

cristina — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:11:47 -0500

We’re sitting at a table in Rice Paper, the little Asian-fusion restaurant in Linden Hills.

Pro-Fusion

cristina — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:24:33 -0500

You can argue whether globalization is good for the planet or good for workers, but when it comes to gastronomy, the influx of foreign flavors has definitely enlivened the local dining scene.

Stage Mother

cristina — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:32:49 -0500

Patricia Olive has no children. So you’d think she’d be spared that dinnertime nightmare: This one hates vegetables, this one eats only bologna sandwiches with ketchup, this one weeps about dead animals every time you serve beef. But when the Guthrie Theater staged Six Degrees of Separation in 2003, the veteran props manager got a taste of what it’s like.

Bite-sized Sensations

cristina — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:41:02 -0500

What could be your key to fame and glory, the secret to a happy marriage, and the only way to make it through the entertaining season with grace and aplomb? Why, it’s the cocktail party, dahling. Libations aside, the best reason for hosting this type of gathering is that success doesn’t depend on a mass of properly roasted meat and a harmonious table. Scoring a hit is much easier when you can focus on the area your eaters care about most: the hors d’oeuvre.

California Dreaming

cristina — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:45:24 -0500

Last spring brought a nasty shock. I was walking down a leafy side street off Como Avenue, hoping to admire in passing the jolly gingerbread woodwork around the eaves of the tumbledown duplex where my POSSLQ and I shared our first Minnesota home. The place was in pretty poor nick when we rented it twenty years ago; the waste pipe for the kitchen sink (located for some reason on the landing) was held together by duct tape, squirrels nested noisily in the roofing felt. But in happier times it had been a boyhood home of Governor Floyd B. Olson.

Mastering the Art of Service