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Mugshot Monday: Special Guest Amy Rea

March 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

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Help me welcome special guest Amy Rea to this edition of Mugshot Monday. As I mentioned earlier, she’s one of my favorite writers. She’s a fellow wanderluster who writes about food and traveling off the beaten path at WCCO’s Wander Minnesota and The Heavy Table. She actually wrote one of my favorite pieces possibly ever about enlisting the help of residents of the Mala Strana Assisted Living home to taste-test kolacky from New Prague, Minnesota-area bakeries. Here’s her mug and story:

A few years ago, while traveling around MN doing research for my book Backroads & Byways of Minnesota, I stayed a couple of nights in Grand Marais, one of my favorite places in the state. The first morning there, I ate at the (now sadly defunct) Wild Onion Café, which at that time was just across the highway from the harbor. It was a beautiful August morning, and I sat outside, watching the sailboats bob in the water, the gulls flying about, and ate the best blueberry pancakes ever. The blueberries and syrup were both local, and so delicious. It was such a great breakfast that I broke one of my self-imposed travel rules: while conducting research, never eat at the same restaurant twice. Always visit as many as possible. Which makes sense, right?

Amy Crea Mugshot Monday
However, at the point at which I’d gotten to Grand Marais, I’d made several road trips for research, and they’re always insane. I’m usually on the road before sunrise, covering as many miles while making as many stops as possible (in a kind of “if it’s 2 p.m., this must be Two Harbors” kind of way). It’s not uncommon for me to drive 400-500 miles a day, with as many as 30-40 stops each day. By this time, I was getting very tired and cranky about not having time to actually relax and enjoy myself.

So my second and last morning in Grand Marais, I returned for more of those blueberry pancakes. I sat outside again and was rewarded with a dramatic change of scenery, as the brilliant blue skies from the day before gave way to a fast-moving fog that covered everything in the harbor, making tall sailboats not much more than shadows—and then the fog disappeared as fast as it had come. I had pancakes and a show. After breakfast, knowing I had to get going if I was going to see everything I needed to see on my way to Ely, I went back into the Wild Onion and bought this mug. It never fails to remind me of a few calm, beautiful moments on an otherwise hectic journey.

Amy C. Rea is writer and author who lives in Minnesota. Check out her book Land of 10,000 Lakes: an Explorer’s Guide and Backroads & Byways of Minnesota and read more of her adventures on www.wcco.com/wandermn and Heavy Table. Connect with her on Twitter at @Amycrea.

That Time I Was On The Radio & A Recipe For Korean Tofu-Pork Patties

March 29, 2015 / / 10 Comments

Cooking Korean food in North Iowa is often an adventure.

This weekend, Twin Cities food critic, James Beard award-winning writer and author Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl invited me to pop into her radio show/podcast Off the Menu to talk about food and community in North Iowa. She is one of the first food writers I ever followed and her writing inspired me to be curious about exploring our local dining scene. The invitation was very much an honor.

I felt like a North Iowan ambassador. We discussed ham balls, the low ceilings in the Frank Lloyd Wright hotel, Greek influence on our culinary scene, Casey’s gas station breakfast pizza, and North Iowa blogging community. You can actually download the podcast on iTunes later this week.

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Our conversation made me reflect upon the challenges that arise from having access to a smaller variety of multicultural grocery stores and food products.

On one hand, I can’t just make Pad Thai or vegetable korma on a whim. Obtaining the ingredients to make these dishes requires enough forethought to grow the ingredients (such as Thai basil) or purchase them online or while visiting a bigger city. Don’t try to find tamarind paste here, it’s basically impossible. On the plus side, I’ve learned how to be more creative and replicate certain flavors with the ingredients that I can find.

We may not have an Asian market or Indian restaurant in town, but friends continue to eagerly introduce me to their favorite food traditions and restaurants. Ham balls, pork burgers, pork tenderloins, loose meat sandwiches, old school supper clubs like Half Moon Inn in Clear Lake, Iowa, gas station breakfast pizza, it’s all been fun. As Deb Brown, the Executive Director of the Webster City Chamber of Commerce said, “We make magic out of small towns because we have to.”

Here’s a simple recipe for pork-tofu patties. I riffed on a recipe from The Korean Kitchen: Classic Recipes from the Land of the Morning Calm. I served the patties with a soy sauce dip, marinated zucchini strips, steamed rice, and kimchi.

Korean Pork-Tofu Patties
Adapted from the recipe for Gogi Chun (Bean Curd and Pork Patties) from The Korean Kitchen: Classic Recipes from the Land of the Morning Calm 

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Ingredients:
1 package of firm tofu. Crumble, squeeze out in towel
1/2 pound ground pork
1 egg
Handful of finely diced onion
1 clove of garlic, minced or grated
1/3 teaspoon salt
Black pepper to taste
Panko break crumbs. Enough to bind mixture, about 1/2 cup.

Dipping sauce:
Soy sauce
Grated ginger
Crushed garlic clove
Brown sugar
Vinegar

Instructions:

  1. Remove tofu from package. Crumble with your hands. Wrap tofu crumble in a clean towel and squeeze out excess water.
  2. In a large bowl, combine crumbled and drained tofu with ground pork, one egg, handful of minced onion, minced garlic, salt and pepper.
  3. Add enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before adding more breadcrumbs. It will tighten up as the breadcrumbs absorb the moisture.
  4. Form into small patties.
  5. Fry on each side in a thin layer of hot vegetable oil (I used peanut) until the pork is cooked through. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in the oven on a cooling rack set on a sheet pan until you are ready to serve.
  6. To prepare the dipping sauce, season soy sauce with grated ginger, crushed garlic, brown sugar and vinegar. I did not have rice wine vinegar, so I used a splash of plain vinegar.

Webster City, Iowa: Grid Iron Grill & La Perla Jarocha

March 26, 2015 / / 3 Comments

Disclaimer: On 12.13.14 Deb Brown, Executive Director of the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce invited me to spend the day in Webster City as part of the “Seven Bloggers on a Saturday” tour. Grid Iron Grill provided lunch. All opinions are my 100% my own

It’s bittersweet to write about Webster City again.

Last December, I spent the day touring the city with seven North Iowa bloggers. One of them was Amy Hild who recently died in a car crash late February. Thinking about the Webster City tour makes me feel sad because we miss our friend, but it also makes me happy because the day holds more warm memories than any other day I’ve lived in Iowa.

Beth and I actually returned to Webster City in January to explore at a more leisurely pace. Our bloggers tour had moved at a rapid pace in order to fit in as many businesses and attractions as possible. Between both of our visits, we enjoyed meals at a few restaurants. Here are highlights from our meals at Grid Iron Grill and La Perla Jarocha.

Grid Iron Grill & Sports Lounge
This sports bar served as our big lunch stop on our original Webster City tour. Owner Burk Risetter greeted our table and surprised us by treating us to our meals. Before he opened his own restaurant, Risetter worked in the food service industry. He spoke of taking pride in the fact that his kitchen hand breads most of their appetizers such as their onion rings and fried pickles and cuts their own steaks and salmon fillets.

appetizer Collage

We split several appetizers and most everyone ordered a different entrée. My favorite appetizer was the fried pickle chips.

Fried Pickles WM

I didn’t mind that the chips were softer because I liked their light coating. Of course, they were served with ranch in true Iowan fried appetizer style. I found these pickle chips addicting and kept returning for more during the entire meal. Grid Iron’s ranch passed my ranch test, meaning it did not taste like a pre-made product.

For my entrée, I ordered six wings with bourbon sauce and a side salad.

Wings wm

Chicken wings are one of my top three favorite foods. My parents rarely served meat on the bone and so wings were a treat I’d order wings at restaurants every chance I got. Grid Iron’s wings were larger and plumper than what you’ll find at chains like Buffalo Wild Wings. The cook fried them so that the skin was crispy and the meat was tender. Typically I prefer spicy wing sauce, but chose something milder since I was on a bloggers tour. I’m not sure if the world is ready to see me devour hot wings yet.

This sauce was a little sweet for me, but ideal for those who like honey BBQ. Donna ordered a burger glazed with this same bourbon sauce and raved about it. Her meal also came with crispy sweet potato fries served with an unusual marshmallow sauce. I would certainly order Grid Iron’s wings again with a spicy sauce. In terms of size and cooking technique, these are the best wings I can remember eating for a long time.

La Perla Jarocha
We noticed two specialty food markets along Webster City’s main street. On our second visit, Beth & I popped into a small Asian market that carried mostly South East Asian pantry items and La Perla Jarocha, one of Webster City’s two Mexican grocery stores. Chamber Director Brown mentioned that Webster City is home to a sizable Laotian community and that a Laotian family is in process of opening a egg roll and bubble tea shop soon.

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It’s hard to believe, but even though Mason City and Clear Lake are the biggest communities in North Iowa, we have no multicultural grocery stores. I’d love for someone to prove me wrong, but the closest Asian grocery store appears to be Yaw Asian Grocery Store located 40-minutes away in Albert Lea, MN.

At La Perla Jarocha’s grocery store, I noticed a hot food warmer on the front counter containing what looked like pork carnitas meat and found foil-wrapped tamales in the cooler. The owner shared that her mother prepares them with freshly made masa dough. She gently reminded me to remove the banana leaf before eating, which made me giggle as I thought of people trying to eat the tough leaves.

I brought two tamales home. The masa dough was light and fluffy and the chicken filling tasted delightfully spicy. I’m always thrilled when food makes me sweat.

Tamale

Spicy chicken tamale from La Perla Jarocha

The tamales from La Perla Jarocha reminded of eating my first banana leaf-wrapped tamale in Cholula, Mexico. Our friend Mario biked to his favorite tamale vendor early one the morning so he could share them with us at breakfast. We unwrapped them on a beautiful sidewalk cafe and enjoyed them with espresso and traditional pastries before climbing Mexican’s largest pyramid, The Great Pyramid of Cholula.

Until this moment, I thought I didn’t like tamales because the only ones I had tried were dry and heavy. Now that I know how delicate and spicy they can taste, I try them every chance I get.

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Mario unwraps a tamale in Cholula, Mexico

I later followed up with the owner of La Perla Jarocha who said they recently opened a restaurant across the street where they serve these tamales and more of their family recipes.

Soon after our last trip to Webster City, a Des Moines Register reporter contacted me (along with two other Iowan food bloggers) for an interview . Understandably, Torpy’s word count was limited and she couldn’t fit all of our replies into her feature, but her final question was my favorite to answer. I wrote my reply as I enjoyed one of these tamales: “What do you hope people will take away after reading your blog?”

I hope my readers will feel inspired to try a new food or wander into a new market. I also hope they’ll feel inspired to explore their own backyard and never stop searching for their new favorite dive bar or small town café. My favorite bloggers make me feel something. They make me laugh and cry, awaken wanderlust, or become curious about something new. I hope I do the same for my readers.

Be curious. Wander into new stores and don’t be afraid to ask the owners questions. Celebrate chicken wings with crispy skin and don’t be the fool that passes on someone else’s mother’s homemade tamales.

Thanks again to Grid Iron Grill for treating us to lunch during the December 2015 Webster City Bloggers Tour.

Mugshot Monday: 1996 Summer Olympics Commemorative Stein

March 23, 2015 / / 4 Comments

MugShot graphic backround

Mugshot Monday took a week off, and it’s back with another find from the 1990’s.

I found this gigantic mug at the thrift store House of Treasures two weeks ago when I joined a couple of blogger friends on a road trip to Belmond, Iowa.

mugshot monday olympic selfie

This mug is actually a beer stein produced by Ceramarte of Brazil for Anhueser-Busch, Inc. to commemorate the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. For as long as I can remember, I especially loved watching gymnastics and tried to mimic their floor routines in my backyard and parallel bar kips on the playground at school.

Back in 1996, I was 12. I don’t remember a lot about that summer. I searched for information about this mug and was reminded about a terrible bombing that occurred at the Centennial Olympic Park. The explosion killed two people and injured many, and the perpetrator wasn’t caught until 2003.

I also learned that the city of Atlanta was chosen to host the games over Athens, Greece. According to this NPR article, the Olympics “launched $1 billion dollars of construction projects” in Atlanta and contributed to its population growth from 3.5 million-5.5 million between 1996-2011 leaving a legacy of triumphs and challenges for its residents.

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It’s fascinating to imagine how this commemorative mug ended up on the shelves of a thrift store in the tiny town of Belmond, Iowa. The mug cost $1 at the thrift shop, and is selling for anywhere between $7-$40 online.

Next week, I’m excited to welcome another Mugshot Monday guest. Amy Crea is another one of my favorite writers. You can find her wanderlusting at WCCO’s Wander Minnesota and writing about food at The Heavy Table. She wrote one of my favorite pieces possibly ever about enlisting the help of residents of the Mala Strana Assisted Living home to taste-test kolacky from New Prague, Minnesota-area bakeries.

Jeni vs. A Coconut: Reviewing Melissa’s Coconut Punch

March 21, 2015 / / 15 Comments

This kitchen gadget review was a tough nut to crack.

Beth of It’s Just Life found a display of lovely Midwestern coconuts and Melissa’s brand Coconut Openers at one of our local Mason City grocery stores and sent it to me to review. I’ve lived in the upper Midwest my entire life. Although I have traveled to warmer states where palm trees grow free, I honestly don’t recall ever touching a coconut before. Coconut curries are some of my favorite foods in the entire world, but I can’t get into the coconut water trend. I’ve tried at least three different brands of coconut water and can’t stomach its flavor or texture. I won’t even tell you what I think it tastes like. This gadget is supposed to make it easy to punch a hole in the coconut for easy coconut water sipping.

This particular product is called a “Young Coconut Punch.” I’m guessing it’s intended to be used on young coconuts, making me wonder if there was an “old” coconut punch, too. When I searched for this product online, I only found one version of this product ($5.49) that looked like this punch.

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The package depicts a coconut with all of its skin shaved off, however the instructions don’t offer any information about removing the skin or requiring that it’s removed. I even found this article on Melissa’s website demonstrating how to open a skin-on coconut with their opener.

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Here’s a close-up of the “Quick Crack Coconut.” Again, the instructions say to use a Melissa brand opener to punch a whole through one of the eyes which are supposed to be softer.

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The tool consists of a handle and a sharp, hollow screw with a safety cap. One is supposed to puncture the coconut by pressing the sharp end into an eye and wiggling the tool.

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Here’s a close-up of the instructions:

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First, I tried to use the tool as demonstrated on the website. My attempts to puncture the tool through one of the coconut eyes were unsuccessful. All of the eyes were as hard as rocks and my tool slipped causing me a scare. Seriously, do not try this at home without safety gloves and/or a towel to stabilize the coconut! I should have known better.

Still 1

I tried puncturing the coconut a second time, but wrapped it in a towel so it would have less chance of slipping.

Still 2

Still, I had no success even when holding the nut with a towel. I Googled how to remove the coconut skin and articles instructed me to freeze or bake the nut, neither of which I had the time or patience for this day. I was afraid that even if I did attempt these methods, I’d still end up sending myself to the emergency room with coconut injuries.

I gave up on the coconut punch tool and took it outside with a big, rubber mallet.

Coconut Cracking Still watermark

Without too much effort, I easily cracked the coconut. unfortunately, I lost most of the water. I collected enough in my hand to take a sip. If you watch the videos, you can hear my garbled. “ughhhhh yuck.”

coconut water still

This kitchen gadget review pitted me against a coconut and the coconut almost won. A broken coconut sits in my fridge. It looks like I still have to bake it in order to separate the meat from the shell. Once I do so, I can toast the coconut meat or even grate it and make it into coconut milk.

Do you have any tips for easier coconut peeling and opening? What would you do if someone gave you a whole coconut?

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