A Tasty Twin City

Our cousins, Christy and Brian, invited us to visit with them in Minneapolis, Minnesota while we were in the area. During our stay, they acted as great tour guides and hosts, taking us to and suggesting great places we should eat and see while in town.

Our first night, we all ate at Pizza Luce. Here, they serve specialty pizzas to people with unique dietary needs, and everyone else is welcomed in too!  They offer a large variety of vegan and vegetarian options including soy cheese and mock duck, which we had on our barbeque pizza! This pizza is covered in a generous amount of sweet and sour BBQ sauce, banana peppers, onions and cheese.  This was a great combination!  We also shared a mashed potato pizza which featured creamy potatoes spread on a crisp pizza shell and sprinkled with scallions, tomatoes and feta cheese. We all really loved this one!

During our second night in the city, we went searching in the uptown area for a nice place for dinner. One place that was recommended to us was the Tin Fish, which specializes in fresh fish served many different ways; the most popular are the fish sandwiches which are fried to perfection. Not only is the food popular here; they also have an amazing location! You can sit right on the edge of the lake, and even dip your feet in the water while you eat.

That night we ended up at a small restaurant just a few blocks from the water called Barbette. It is an America bistro with a French and Italian influence. The dimly lit dining room seemed very cozy and communal, as though everyone was eating as one. For starters, we had the “fundo” appetizer, which is a rich Wisconsin cheddar cheese sauce served with raw button mushrooms, Granny Smith apples, and crusty french bread. The warm cheese nicely coated the apples, complimenting the tartness of the juice for a very good combination.  The mushrooms were to be left in the hot cheese to cook slightly before being savored.  And of course, the chewy bread we used to sop up all the rest of this fantastic foudue.

I had the special dish of the night, a sautéed Corvina (mediterranean bass) with ratatouille and braised romaine lettuce hearts. The fish was nicely cooked with a thin, crisp sear on one side, and covered in the ratatouille sauce, which really made the dish. The ratatouille included squash which still had some snap to it and tomatoes which were cooked until only their sweetness remained, creating a robust summer flavor that really brought out the subtle, creamy, and mineral tones of the fish.

Brian had a beef flank steak au poivre served with fries, green beans, and saffron aioli for dipping. This was incredibly flavorful and delicious piece of beef which was naturally raised by Creekstone and Myers Farms; we could really taste the quality in every bite. The sauce of peppercorn and cognac was a great complement to the rich, grassy flavor of the meat.

We shared a salted croissant chocolate bread pudding that was served was nice and hot.  I asked them to add a scoop of cinnamon ice cream which really was packed full of flavor and made this dessert great.

The next morning, we rejoined our friends and ventured to breakfast at one of their favorite places in town, the Steward Cafe. To place your order, you write it down on a ticket, give it to the cook, and then wait to be called to pick it up. I had the buckwheat pancakes and the chai tea. The pancakes were sweet with a hearty grain flavor and the tea had a nuttiness and spice that went very well with the earthy pancakes.

Brian and Christy both had “earth bowls” that were scrambled eggs topped with beans, broccoli, and salsa all covered with cheese and hash browns, Whoa…that’s a lot of food!

In addition to our great finds during our trip to Minneapolis, there are still many more food co-ops, great restaurants, and variety of cuisines left to explore, and we are already thinking of when we can come back to taste more of the food this beautiful city has to offer.