I’m so excited. Why oh why am I so excited? Check out this picture. It’s a little grainy, but it looks pretty great right? This was taken with my iPhone 4 camera, only a little bit of post editing to correct the white balance, contrast, and saturation. Pretty amazing right? Now I can go to restaurants and take some great pictures that I won’t be ashamed of posting. Sure I can bring my big ol camera bag, but sometimes a girl’s gotta stay incognito you know? Ok really tho, I usually don’t have the foresight to bring my camera bag. :(
This is the New Zealand Lamb Chops with cous cous, tomato provencal, eggplant caviar and minted lamb demi glace at Town Talk Diner in Minneapolis. They were featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives about a year ago and it’s always been on the list of “lets go there!” and we finally made it!!! The lamb was delicious, well seasoned and leaves you with the craving for a few more… the portion size is a little small. I am very excited that we experienced this joint, the food is excellent, and it’s whimsical atmosphere is great. Sean really enjoyed their bacon manhattan – which I wasn’t a big fan of due to the strong cherry flavor. He had the Black Angus Ribeye with smoked mashers (potatoes), braised radish, haricot vert, and red pepper coulis. The ribeye was cooked and seasoned perfectly, but I didn’t feel like that dish was anything spectacular – in taste or in presentation – many restaurants can cook a ribeye like that these days.
At the end of our meal, Sean was a bit tipsy from his 2 bacon manhattans, so he decided that we should order dessert. He got the Apple Pie – which is a boozy adult malt with berentzen apfel korn liqueur, applejack brandy, and graham crackers. The graham crackers were amazing! I think I am inspired to make homemade graham crackers… because wow, so much better than the stuff out of the box. I got the Fried Egg on Toast – you are like “WTF Evie, I know you love breakfast but for dessert?!” But behold…
It’s not an egg, it’s not toast, but it is BACON. This is a lemon pound cake, creme fraiche, poached apricot and candied bacon. I do have to say this is an amazing dessert and I don’t even like lemon flavored desserts or apricots very much. The bacon was thick sliced – and I do mean thick, much more than your average “thick cut” bacon, like homemade and sliced THICK. Did I make that point? ok good. You can tell it was braised in the oven slowly over a long period of time and glazed with maple syrup goodness. Oh my that was a spectacular dessert.
All in all, we were very happy that we went there, and a little sad that it took us so long. We will definitely go back, and I think I will try the scallops – they were very popular when we were there and they looked amazing. Go there!
I found this little restaurant at chowhound, and from the reviews it sounded pretty delicious so we thought we’d give it a try. Other than the very odd and yet comical wait to get seated, it was a great experience.
About 15 minutes after they opened (we were hungry for an early dinner) we walked in, the whole place was empty, which is to be expected. Here is how it played out:
waitress #1: Hello! Have you been helped? Oh let me get the maitre d’ for you!
30 seconds later…
maitre d: Hello! I’m Eric, I’ll be right with you!
1 minute later…
waitress #2: Hi! Have you been helped? Let me go get Eric for you!
25 seconds later…
waiter #3: Hello there, Eric will be right with you!
1 minute later…..
Eric: Hi, sorry about the wait!
At this point, we didn’t see anybody else in the restaurant and it was almost comical. What is Eric doing back there?
a) Sewing up a rip in his new pants
b) Beating the last level of Super Mario Bros
c) It’s a portal to a parallel universe where he is also the maitre d’ OH MY GOD THAT BLEW MY MIND.
d) All of the above.
Eric proceeded to greet us, and spent about 30 seconds hacking the gibson typing on the computer, then run off again, I mean literally, he ran away. I think he went to get more menus. I didn’t ask.
1 minute later…
Eric asked for our names, and 30 seconds later we sat down.
I work for the government, and this whole process was very familiar to me so I didn’t really mind. I still don’t know if there’s another dining room or parallel universe in the back or what, but he seemed to really enjoy it back there.
We started off with an amuse-bouche, which I love because I love eating duh. It’s a shrimp spring roll garnished with grapefruit, in a mint basil pesto. Everything about this was delicious, except the wrapper was doubled and tripled over so many times that the outer layer seemed a bit gelatinous and thick. Don’t get me wrong, this was delicious and only $2.50, can’t go wrong with that.
Our next course was the SHEFZILLA SURPRISE. Yup, this is actually the picture on the menu. It’s a dinosaur, wearing a chef’s hat, if you can’t tell. You are not allowed to know what it is before you order it, because duh stupid, it’s a surprise. They do tell you the price, and today it was $11. You also have to let them know of any allergies you might have, like the table next to us, guy was all “I’m allergic to shellfish” – wow dude, sucks to be you. This idea is pretty genius, I mean how do you NOT order that? Just look at the picture!
And now… the surprise! It’s a seared diver scallop in a carrot foam with dehydrated corn. Also a very tasty dish, the corn was especially great because it gave the scallop some sweetness. The only awful part is that there is only one scallop and I had to share it with Sean. I ate really fast and I think I got most of it, sucker!
Our main courses, I had the Australian sea bass with parsley puree, parsnips, and creamy mussel foam, topped with some crispy wonton skins. This was amaaaaazing, probably the best sea bass I’ve had. And you wouldn’t think a parsley puree would taste good, but it had little chunks of parsnips inside that gave it a really sweet flavor and it complemented the sea bass perfectly. Although I do have to say, I’m not a huge fan of foam, just give me the broth ok, I really don’t need it to be bubbly and textured, it doesn’t add much to a dish.
Sean had a anise scented lamb shank on wild rice salad, with what looked like rice chips or something on top. I had a bite and it was mighty tasty as well, and it reminded me of a duck dish that my mom would make with that anise flavor. I’m going to have to get the recipe from her because the similarities are uncanny. Both entrees were just under $20.
For dessert, we had a tapioca pudding in coconut milk with mixed fruit. It was $6.50, and I probably wouldn’t order it again. Sean liked it tho but it was his idea to order it!
All in all, it was a great experience, with a bottle of wine, our bill was a little over $100 which isn’t bad for ordering appetizers and dessert. The dishes are smaller in portion, but very big on taste, which is A++ in my book.
I will sign off with a picture of their amusing bread. They have it coming out of a basket, like it’s a plant. It’s very amusing. Yes indeed.
Beer.
Get yourself to the town hall brewery, one of the seasonal brews is the jalapeno hefeweizen, it’s exactly what you think it is. A nice wheat beer with a very strong jalapeno kick. I had it with the open faced turkey sandwich – wheat bread topped with mashed potatoes, very tender turkey and smothered in gravy and served with a side of cranberry sauce. I would suggest ordering it with a side of extra gravy because it is delicious.
A new restaurant named L’ecosse moved into the neighborhood! It’s a Scottish (and a little French) place, owned by a guy who cooked for President Clinton. They are not officially open yet, but we’ve already been there twice in one week. Stacy recommended the place and mentioned they had meat pies, two words very dear to my heart. First time there, I ordered the meat pie (duh), the crust was fried (authentically Scottish) and there was ground beef goodness inside and all of it was covered by a delicious gravy and surrounded by hand cut fries. Too bad I was so hungry I ate it before I took a picture. I ate every last bite like a piggy.
We went again for brunch this morning and get this, I had an omelet… with a fried egg in the middle… and sliced hard boiled egg on top… AND it was slathered in hollandaise sauce. I ordered it with scottish sausage in the omlet, as well as cheddar cheese and peppers. It was so delicious and I think I ate 6 eggs total (2-3 egg omlet, 1 fried egg, 1 hard boiled egg, and 1 egg for hollandaise… right?) Sorry I only took an iphone picture. I ate every last bite like a piggy.
We met the chef too at the end of our meal, he’s a really cool guy. I suggested that he should top the ultimate omlet with a scottish egg, and he said that’s exactly what he’s planning! I can’t wait for more scottish goodness. He told us that haggis will be on the appetizer menu soon, I’ve never tried it so I’m excited to give it a go.
