La Tapatia ... maravilloso !!

Quick lunch stop today - and what beautiful plates we received.

We drove to La Familia Tapatia (translation: people from Guadalajara), such a tiny little place...only 3 tables.  It was full, so we circled the block (well, around a 2 mile circle) and returned when some of the cars had vamoosed.

The tables were still occupied, but we ordered knowing that someone would leave soon.   The wonderful cashier took a table and brought us chairs and made a place for us to sit...now that's service!

We split the specialty of the house...Torta Ahogada plus chips...we wanted either rice or beans...as we debated, the same great woman said we'll just split it half & half and give you both.   What is not to like here?  Wow!

The chips were there instantaneously, and the meal followed quickly.  The staff had divided it into two servings and arranged each portion on separate plates, with their own sauces and limes...attractively arranged.

Everything was excellent.  The tomatillo salsa had a range of flavors from the cilantro to the tart, citrusy tomatillos while the 'hot' sauce with the chips had a great smoky flavor.  The 'drowned sandwich' was full of carnitas, onions, avocado on a chewy roll accompanied by a tomato-y sauce in which to drown each bite.   Now that's a meat sandwich. The accompanying 'hot' sauce...was!

Great meal, great service (really, they made a place for us to sit)....we highly recommend.  4.4 stars

p.s. they have no sign--we'd tell you where it is...but there are ONLY 3 tables (heh, heh, heh, heh, heh).  The only clue is that it's west of Lexington on Larpenteur...sleuth away!

Hi Lo ... Quite sure that's "Hi expectations, Lo satisfaction"

Hi Lo Diner

Does it stand for 'Hi expectations, Lo satisfaction' or 'Hi prices, Lo value?'

We're not sure.   Our goal is always to illuminate...too many 'reviews' fail to describe why something is a 5 star or a 1 star or 'average'.

So, we're going to use our visit to Hi Lo Diner on Lake Street to show the factors we used in evaluating a food venue.  

The Venue: We love the concept of the Hi Lo Diner.  They moved a 60 year old dining car here from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and refurbed it into an inviting place.   Kudos for the effort. 
   
HiLo's turquoise seating with red highlights on the chairs, the great green and blue lighting in the coves, booths and bar stools---all create a throwback ambiance in a well-built, quiet dining setting.  It's a great backdrop for a meal.  Unlike the diners of our childhoods, they also offer a drink and beer menu, so you can have your Sunday 'bloody' with your breakfast.

We wish we could say glowing things about the experience after we stepped inside, but unfortunately we can't.   Let's go through it step by step.

The Service: First, the host/ess.   We have noticed that young people have spent way too much time on their electronic devices.   Verbal skills...does anyone remember them?   Our suggestion would be that the person greeting your most important visitors--the customers--should have the ability to:  greet people, form a sentence, and generally interact positively with the folks who will be paying the bills for your restaurant.  Our host/ess spoke barely audibly in partial sentences while looking at the floor.   Here, some training would be worth the relatively inexpensive investment in employee customer service skills.

The menu:  The 'signature' items on the HiLo menu are high tops---an assortment of 'fried dough' entrees.  I selected the Notorious P.I.G.--according to our server, an excellent choice.  Now, this 'genre' of items has been around for awhile---I recall my first 'donut burger' from a food truck way back in the day when I manned my booth at the SAV Farmers Market (in the olden days).   I recall that burger very well---it had a thick tasty burger on a wonderfully messy but perfectly fried glazed donut.   Rich burger, sweet soft pastry---a winning combo.

Fast forward to HiLo's version of the pulled pork on fried dough.   Night and day, day and night---a world apart from my donut burger.   Here, an oversized glazed dough ball sat in a pool of donut glaze, topped with a portion of the actual 'dish' ingredients equal to about a third of the volume of the dough ball.  This is where the 'lo value' proposition comes into play.   My immediate reaction was one of 'rip-off'---filling the plate with the giant ball of dough so that you only had to provide 1/2 cup of meat with a few shreds of other 'accompaniments' with a very badly fried egg on top.  

At this point, the meal could have gone two different ways.  It could have been a perfectly fried donut ball topped with sumptuous pork, with a  chipotle mayo that screamed layers of flavor, topped with a perfectly fried (or even poached) egg.   Unfortunately, none of that was the case.   It was, instead, a giant ball of underfried dough---this is your signature--don't screw it up; topped with a skimpy portion of average pulled pork in a chipotle mayo that was mayo with some ground chipotle in it.   And please, oh please--if you claim to be a diner, learn how to fry an egg.   The fact that I had difficulty cutting through the rock hard egg with a knife and fork indicates that the kitchen has gone way wrong in understanding 'diner' & 'egg'.

Why am I panning these folks?
First, remember that I worked every month with Jim Felger--a master baker with over 60 years of experience.  Let's just say the guy has fried a few hundred thousand donuts in his time.   A fried donut should have a nice browned exterior with an evenly cooked interior.   HiLo has gone wrong, I think, because they're serving a huge dough ball---very hard to get that thing cooked all the way through without overbrowning the edge.  Here, the far edges were browned, the flat edges were pale gold---too big a mass to pull off in an even way.  They would be better off frying it as a donut, with a hole in the center, so that they had a better chance of actually getting a fried dough. 

...and, if there had been a hole in my donut, there would have been room for the actual quantity of ingredients that would have made a balanced dish....not a dough ball topped with a garnish of pulled pork.

Let's talk chipotle mayo---the ubiquitous condiment of the current food world.   I described how we made chipotle mayo at Marianne's to a chef with more than 10 years of kitchen experience.   After I described just the making our of signature chipotle spice blend (made up of more than 10 ingredients), he stopped and said---you guys are a lot better than most kitchens---we just squirted some chipotle sauce into some mayo and called it chipotle mayo.   The problem at HiLo---it was mayo with some chipotle.  The mayo flavor was prominent, the rest was a smattering of ground chipotle.  Absolutely unremarkable.

Finally, the egg...if a diner can't fry an egg, you know they are way out of their element.

Let's go on to John's Tex-Mex burrito.  Oh boy.   Wrapping warm ingredients in a cold flour tortilla...means you're serving a cold doughy flour tortilla containing lukewarm ingredients.   A cold doughy flour tortilla is an immediate turn-off.  The tortilla was topped with a slighly spicy tomato sauce and a drizzle of the same mayo with chipotle.

So, the only way to approach it is to cut the ends off and look for warm food in the middle.   The warm food in the middle consisted of a lot of potatoes and corn chips, with a small portion of 'chorizo' and some scrambled egg.  At the end of the meal, the pile of limp tortilla filled the plate...so, once again, the portion of the Tex Mex ingredients did not add up to a reasonable quantity (it was skimpy).   A side of pico accompanied the burrito--it was flavorful enough--much better than the oversalted Chipotle version or extremely harsh Taste of Scandinavia version...but this was not enough to salvage the meal.

So, we're giving HiLo 4 stars for ambiance, 2 stars for service, 1 star for food and value.

In our 'reviews' we look for balance in what the establishment offers.  Balance of service and quality, balance of ingredients and flavors, balance of quality and price.   HiLo was way out of balance--high on price, high on expectations based on 'signature dishes' while low on delivering a flavorful, balanced product to the diner.  

A smaller donut with a larger, more balance proportion of the ingredients on top would be an improvement.   A chipotle mayo with chipotle as the forward ingredient would help.   Knowing how to fry an egg--elemental to a diner concept.   Balance in the ingredients in the burrito to the mass of the tortilla----warm the tortilla, serve the dish hot or at least warm, don't fill it with potatoes---a give-away that you're saving money on food costs.

HiLo could be great.  Our visit today was not.  We've tried to use this experience to show you how we approach a restaurant 'review'.   There are a lot of elements in the dining experience.   HiLo has it on ambiance...they just need to deliver the goods on their food options and their staff presentation.   These are some of the factors we utilize in evaluating our food experiences.

If it isn't one thing it's another..

After three days of being out of my head with a bad cold, the virus in my head decided to extend my pain.  We work really hard to find new and interesting  places to eat, drink coffee and ponder our next food business.  Today I suggested a drive to Hudson, WI.   

Our destination was the Wired Robin.  A recent ownership change had produced good reviews.  The Bird's Nest, an egg and goat cheese offering sounded fine for a Saturday lunch.  Downtown Hudson is very popular and was devoid of parking.  As Linda negotiated into a snow-filled spot I jumped out of the car and in a flash a Volvo pulled into our destination.  Had I not been under the weather this would have prompted a quick reaction and a direct man-to-man conversation (one way).  My head was cloudy and I stood there stupid-like.

We ended up parking a block or two away and walked into the brisk northwest wind.  Entering the Wired Robin it had that old building, sort of funky coffee shop feel.  That would have been fine but there are only four or five tables and each one was occupied with one person nursing their coffee and staring into their computer.  Other internet reviews have mentioned that same problem.  Turning to my chaffeur I offered "I'm out of here."

Now we were hungry and headed into the next food stop immediately across the street to the north.  The Agave Kitchen is branded as Tex Mex.  Our waitron

was very good but it's standard bar food.  Linda had the pulled pork.  The seasoned pork was fine, but like most barbecue outlets they serve it up on the cheapest white-bread bun on the planet.  It was accompanied by coleslaw which was primarily dressing, bad tortilla chips and salsa on a par with stewed tomatoes out of a can.

I had the BLT salad which was featured on their

'winter specials' menu.  The flip side was the 'March specials' which featured a Mexican Cobb Salad; that may have been better.  Beyond being big the $9 BLT salad was unremarkable, overdressed and somewhat salty with far more bacon than one should eat in a day. We like to give a place a couple of visits...perhaps the April Specials will up the ante.

Leaving Hudson we headed up WI 35 to enjoy the rolling hills and farmland.  As we neared Osceola I was reminded of another WI destination that I wish we'd not visited.  The Watershed Cafe is cute and beautifully situated over a deep ravine.  During that visit we ordered at the counter and I took the employee's recommendation of the Reuben sandwich.  I did not finish it.  Actually I stopped eating it after three or four bites.  Had we been sitting outside on the deck mine would have gone into the ravine...actually 'down in the holler' as they say.

My mother used to say "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."  I've said far too much...it was not nice but it was true.  I'll wrap this review up with "the drive through the rolling farmland of Wisconsin was very nice." 

Mayday! Mayday!

Mayday!! Mayday!!

We love May Day.   We've noticed that there are a lot of places around the Twin Cities that turn out the best food with very little equipment and in miniscule spaces.   These folks really know how to cook/bake/create.

Birthday 'brunch' for me at May Day this week.   Before you pick your meal option, you ALWAYS start with a jalapeno cheddar scone if there is one available.   Pieces of jalapeno in a moist, bumpy-textured scone that is baked to perfection with a crunchy 'outside'.   These may be one of the more outstanding scones ever on the face of the Earth.

....and a nice, smoooooooth cold press to wash that down.

Oh, and we get meals, too?????

I went for the spinach and feta quiche with greens in a light vinaigrette.   Always get quiche at a

place where they know how to make a crust....this is the place.   A huge slice of quiche filled with spinach, great texture...crust like something Jim Felger would have made...sigh.

John opted for the breakfast burrito...smothered in a flavorful sauce.   Brimming with fine-cut rectangles of assorted veggies, it's the right balance of a bite of filling with some tortilla all dipped in a bit of tomato-y sauce.    It's hard to stop reaching for the next bite.

We find that having a bite of scone in between bites of breakfast is heavenly perfection.

You can't leave without a bag of baked goodies 'for the road'.   The chocolate croissant was perfectly baked and encased wonderful rich chocolate.  The seven layer bar skipped the usual graham cracker crust for a pastry crust topped with pecans and chocolate and ... sorry, have to stop to take a bite.   The bar is thick and GIGANTIC.

...and you need one more jalapeno cheddar scone.....for later.

We have never been disappointed in anything we've ordered at May Day (May Day baked goods are also available at Matchbox in NE, a little bit shorter drive from Shoreview).

May Day is a neighborhood place, always bustling with activity.....because the quality is consistent...consistently outstanding.  Like at the former Marianne's Kitchen, the clientele were talking and having conversations and laughing.

The jaunt from here to Powderhorn takes a little while.....but always worth the drive.  Outstanding.

Oasis Cafe / Stillwater

Driving in Stillwater is a breeze now that the new bridge has eliminated downtown traffic.  Of course one of our favorite stops is the Oasis Cafe which is on the southern fringe of Stillwater.

We really like their breakfast salads but tonight opted elsewise.  Linda had the Mexican Haystack of two eggs over hashbrowns with a nice complement of green peppers, tomatoes, onions, pepperjack cheese, pico de gallo, chili con carne and sour cream.  She was kind and shared.  John went with the pork belly street tacos and a side of mixed fruit.  Two tacos were presented, very amptly

filled with most and flavorful pork belly, pico de gallo, pineapple, Mexican cheese and onions.  Tortillas often make the taco and that 'make' was missing tonight.

Recently undergoing a major rennovation, more of a tear-down and build,

The Oasis now has a new full-service bar with a opening overhead garage door which will enhance outside dining as winter winds down.

Steams & Treats #2 ...WOW!!

Linda has been in pursuit of great food finds in one of the 'world cities.'  No doubt nary a drive-thru window, microwaved 'entre' or 'fast food' establishment experienced her visit.  Certainly details will appear in the next couple of days.

After two days of toiling away on a rather ofscure IT challenge I needed a break.  As I walked into Steams & Treats, the owner,  Angie, greeted me.  "Aren't you Linda's husband?  Tell her to come in!"  During our first visit we more or less ordered one of everything.  Not everyone does that.

Today I ordered the potsticker combo of three potstickers and a choice of salad.  From visit #1 I knew
the potstickers were large with wonderful pork filling and the dough was very nice.  This is a potsticker that sets a real standard, not the crusty (or disintigrating) version found in the steam tables of oh so many buffets.

Becca's Sweet Ginger Salad was the choice in Visit #1 and it was tempting to go for a repeat but consideration had to be given to the other two options. Ida's Garden Salad would have been fine but Angie's Cold Noodle Salad spoke out..."pick me pick me pick me!"  The wonderful egg noodles, head lettuce, spinach, pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro, scallion onion, shiitake mushroom and sesame really made the day.  Angie asked me how I liked it and said she makes this for her friends who come to visit.  In the theme of "pick me, pick me, picke" I responded "this is excellent this is excellent this is excellent."

A few minutes later a woman walked in for a donut kick and asked me if I'd have the food.  Without a moment's hesitation I stood and did my Vanna White best pointing out my favorites on the menu on the wall.  The customer looked at my plate and said "that is beautiful that is beautiful that is beautiful."

Not that I needed it but the apple fritters also called out to me.  Over the years I've been disappointed in
a lot of fritters but this was outstanding.  My plan was to carry it home in a bag and eat it later but really...if 'later' never happens this fritter is what you missed, that would be bad.  Nicely done and full of apples and huge.

Visit #3 might be tomorrow for lunch (or dinner...open until 7:00 PM).

"Steams & Treats"... a great lunch!!

Hats off to Angie!!!  

Angie, owner of Donuts Deluxe  (East of Cafe Cravings and Highway 61 on CR E) has  added food  and renamed it as Steams and Treats  (not that donuts aren't food---I can make a meal out of a fritter or chocolate iced fried cinnamon roll--and those are the calories of a WHOLE meal each!!).

Two major food categories...savory and sweet...one location...awesome. 

  

Potstickers

Everyone who walked in today for their regular apple fritter immediately developed a dual-personality disorder.   One guy came in specifically for the pot stickers.  The next 2 guys were there for their donut fix...one for his grandkids.  After showing them our food (we had quite the variety on the table) they ordered food to-go (hey, we're here to serve, market, pitch...).

Seating is limit...you might have to take it to go when they're busy.  This is a recent change in offerings.  They're just getting the hang of this, so be prepared to wait a few minutes for your order.

Kale Mushroom Tofu Bao

Angie makes the potsticker and bao doughs--the bao dough is a little thicker than the potsticker dough.  Choosing what to put inside...well...all options were tempting...teriyaki pork, curry chicken, ground pork and scallion, kale mushroom tofu (our selection), and Chinese chive and egg.  Potstickers are pork (classic) or kale (vegetarian).   

Sweet Ginger Salad

Platters are accompanied by fried rice or one of three salad choices (Ida's Garden with romaine, cranberries, parmesan and more; Becca's sweet ginger salad (our choice) with granny smith apples, romaine, avocado, red onion and more with a mild ginger dressing; or Angie's cold noodle salad (that's our first choice next time) with egg noodles, pickled carrots and daikon, shiitake mushrooms, scallions....... 

Banh Mi

We also opted for a pork Banh Mi (choice of chicken, pork or tofu)...generous portion of pork and cucumber...the jalapeno was not overpowering and the daikon carrot slaw was delish.   We'd say quite close to the Banh Mi at Pho 400 in generous ingredients--this one doesn't have the great smoky flavor of the Pho 400 sandwich, but it more generous than the Trung Nam Banh Mi...we had quite the conversation with other customers discussing the virtues of each of the great Banh Mi's available to us folks on the east side of the Mississippi.  Steams and Treats holds their own in this category.

John devoured the slaw---absolutely great.  We loved the sweet ginger salad, the kale mushroom bao was incredibly good as were the HUGE potstickers, and we already noted that the Banh Mi is solid.

The only problem.....no room left for a fritter or chocolate frosted fried cinnamon roll.  Life is just so darn hard.