Category: beverage (Page 3 of 4)

How Sambusas & Somali Tea Came To Taste Like Home

October 30, 2014 / / 2 Comments

I lived in Fargo when sambusas started to taste like home.

During our first year living away from home, I was homesick. By the second year, Fargo felt like home.

One experience that helped bridge the transition was finding Somali Tea & spicy sambusas at the Somali Business Center. The familiar taste of this sweet and spicy snack along with the community’s warm hospitality soothed my aching heart. I was reminded of visiting Afro Deli & Safari Express in Minneapolis and suddenly I didn’t feel so far away from home.

Last week, I felt caught off-gaurd when that familiar pang of homesickness hit during a brief, one-day work conference in the Twin Cities. It felt strange to return only for work purposes without lingering over coffee with friends or bantering with family. People asked, “Where are you from?” and I tripped over my words as I tried to explain I was currently from North Iowa, but (not quite) born and raised in the Twin Cities, having made a detour in Fargo-Moorhead.

I returned to the Twin Cities shortly after for an eventful weekend attending the Minnesota Bloggers Conference & connecting with family and friends. The heart pangs started knocking again I began my drive back home, so I stopped for some familiar comfort food. There was no Somali Tea this time, but I did find crispy beef sambusas at Shega Foods, an East African grocery store and bakery in the Seward Neighborhood.

These tiny triangle pastries are located in a little warmer near the cash register. They’re $.75 each and I wish I’d bought them all. I pulled a samosa from the crinkly paper bag as I drove, delighting in its spicy burn and lingering oily sheen left on my fingertips.

I dusted off my small mortar and pestle at home, determined to try my hand at making Somali Tea. I crushed the spices and steeped my tea while pondering what Dorothy actually meant when she said, “There’s no place like home.” It’s true. There is no place like home, but home is also like my ever-changing definition of comfort food; while the core may remain the same, its boundaries are constantly shifting to include new flavors and new places.

Home is my mom cooking Byerly’s chicken and wild rice soup. It’s my first bowl of knoephla soup and it’s Somali Tea and sambusas.

Sambusa and Tea

My North Iowan Take On Somali Tea

Adapted from recipes by Shaah Aday (My Somali Food), Suad (MN Council of Churches Refugee Services) & Adela Jung (Chow). 

The measurements for the spices and sweetener are approximate. There is a lot of room for variation according to your tastes. I have limited availability to whole spices in North Iowa, so I used ground spices. You can always use more whole spices, such as freshly grated nutmeg and cardamom pods. If you don’t have loose leaf tea, substitute tea bags. The versions of Somali Tea I have tried from cafes have tasted quite sweet. I chose to make mine less sweet.  

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 small piece of fresh ginger
4 black peppercorns
3 cloves
2 Tablespoons black tea
1/2 stick cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Pinch ground nutmeg
1/8 cup brown sugar
Steamed milk

Spices

Instructions:

  1. In a mortar and pestle, crush together the ginger, peppercorns & cloves. If you have a fresh cardamom pod, crush this too.

    Morter & Pestle
  2. Heat the water until boiling.
  3. Add the crushed spices, black tea, cinnamon stick, cardamom, nutmeg & brown sugar. Stir briefly until the sugar dissolves.
  4. Cover and steep for a few minutes.
  5. When the tea is as flavorful and sweet as you desire, strain into a jar or teapot.
  6. To serve, add tea to a cup and splash in steamed milk.

Tea watermarked

Tell me about what tastes like home. Has your definition of comfort food shifted or remained mostly the same?

Thanksgiving Weekend Tastes From The Twin Cities: Los Ocampo, Ward 6, Verdant Tea

December 3, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Jake and I are the only children from our immediate families who moved outside of the Twin Cities. This means that holidays at home are fun, though action-packed.

Our families do make a point to visit us, but, since we’ve the odd couple out, we do most of the driving. I hope to explore restaurants in the towns along I-35 just as I did when I drove to and from Fargo, ND.

When we return home for the holidays, we try to fit in as many visits to friends and relatives as possible. We feel like we have to rotate visits with people throughout the year since it’s impossible to see everyone during one trip. As we watch our family members and friends have children and our parents get older, we feel an urgency to return home someday.

This trip reminded me to be grateful for the friendships that have withstood the test of time and distance. When I reunite with these friends, we effortlessly pick up where we left off, no matter if a month or a year has passed. This is truly a special thing.

Here are a few tastes from our weekend in the cities:

Taqueria Los Ocampo, East Saint Paul:
After visiting friends on Thanksgiving Eve, we searched for a late dinner.  Most of the restaurants we passed were wrapping up for the night. Our options seemed limited to fast food or bars and we were in the mood for neither.

I convinced Jake to drive to Uptown, but when we hit the traffic on Lake Street, he exclaimed “What are we doing in Uptown? I’m too old for this!” I remembered the Los Ocampo location by his folks’ house in East Saint Paul which offers late night hours (open until midnight Mon.-Thurs. and 4 a.m. on Fri.-Sun.).

At 10 p.m., the restaurant was relatively busy and felt like a late-night oasis. Jake had never been here before and seemed overwhelmed by the large amount of choices. It took us at least 10-minutes to decide on our order.
Jake ordered their monstrosity of a torta filled with many proteins including fried egg, beef milenesa, chorizo, and a bologna-like meat. And if the meats weren’t enough, its toppings included cheese, mayo, and avocado. This was too much for me, so I stuck with my taco combination and found the spicy ground beef tacos were much more compelling than the shredded chicken. Tacos are served Mexican street-style meaning they are topped with cilantro and onion and garnished with a lime wedge and blistered jalapeno pepper. You can choose from their creamy green salsa or red, both of which make my nose run.

In addition to tacos and tortas, you can also order a quesadilla made with a freshly pressed corn tortilla, huaraches, gorditas and alambres to name a few. Then, you have to choose from their large list of fillings that range from huitlachoche to cecina. There’s also posole, menudo, elotes, flan, and horchata.

Can you name a better, more affordable late night join in East Saint Paul?

Ward 6, East Saint Paul
Several months ago, Jake and I dined at Ward 6, but this was the first time for his family. We love Ward 6 and I think East Saint Paul loves them back because it’s always busy. Ward 6 isn’t the cheapest option along Payne Ave, but their prices are fair for the quality of food. It’s homemade, not reheated food supplier crap. Also, Ward 6 is not so elite or hard to access that it excludes its own neighbors.

I like the fish and chips so much that I can’t branch out.

Often times, I won’t order fish and chips for fear of a bad fry job sitting in a pool of grease. These have been pretty near perfect two out of two times. I drizzle everything in malt vinegar and then dip each bite in the garlicky, malt vinegar because that’s how I roll.

I also order this dish with a side salad ($5) dressed with homemade lemon vinaigrette to cut the fat.

Verdant Tea, Seward Neighborhood, Minneapolis
Verdant Tea is as wonderful as Andrew Zimmern and Heavy Table says it is. I stopped by for tea to-go when I had a free moment, though I wish I could have stayed for a meal.

The space is soothing with lots of sunlight and pots of poinsettias on each table. There’s a little stand offering tea samples and little glass cups. There are tea snacks like local, roasted peanuts, meals like curry noodles or congee, house made kombucha and kombucha floats, and sweets like ice cream and homemade chocolates. Verdant made me want to linger and next time I will.

I ordered micro-brewed chai with almond milk (their default milk) and honey and toasty Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha to-go ($8 plus tax and tip). Each was poured into a generous 16 oz. glass. My husband especially liked his first taste homemade chai, commenting on its spicy note.

For the rest of the day, I kept thinking that someday when I die, I hope I go to Verdant Tea heaven.

Shouldn’t Taste Good But It Does: Cocktail Edition

November 6, 2013 / / 4 Comments

The other night, I met some ladies for beverages and snacks at a local restaurant. One individual ordered a margarita. When the server delivered it, she seemed puzzled.

“Isn’t this supposed to come with an olive?” she asked?

I thought it was the strangest thing to expect a sweet cocktail to include a green olive garnish. I’ve always associated them with savory drinks like Bloody Marys and martinis. At that time, the thought of a green olive in a margarita sounded gross.

I’ve since changed my tune and learned that olives in sweet, fruity drinks aren’t so unusual. The New York Times article “Austin’s Very Own Martini” describes the Mexican Martini which originated in Austin, Texas. It’s a big margarita served in a cocktail shaker and garnished with green olives on a skewer. I’m not sure Mexican Martinis are popular in North Iowa, so I’ll brace myself for curious looks when I ask bartenders to toss a handful of olives into sweet cocktails.

Reading this article made me feel better about the sweet and salty drink I created at home. My inspiration came from clearanced cans of mango nectar I bought at Target for only $.16 each. An impulse buy at its best.

For three-four servings, fill a martini glass 3/4 full with mango nectar and add it to a martini shaker (2X). Then, add the juice from half an orange and half a lemon to cut the flat sweetness from the mango nectar. Add two glugs of vodka and two small splashes each of spiced rum and limoncello.

If you don’t have limoncello, substitute another sweet citrus flavored cordial or plain sugar syrup if you need some additional sweetness. Reduce the alcohol by omitting vodka.

Shake with some ice and garnish with as many green olive as you can handle.

Home Made Horseradish Vodka

November 4, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Last fall, Jake and I were inspired by Moscow On The Hill’s house made horseradish vodka.

It tasted drinkably smooth and we were surprised by how much we enjoyed this unusual beverage. I set off to make my own with local horseradish.

Learn how I made my own version of horseradish vodka in the High Plains Reader’s Cuisine section. While mine didn’t become as mysteriously smooth as Moscow On The Hill’s, it added zip to bloody Marys.

Minnesota State Fair Visit 2012: Great Balls Of Fire!

September 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I look forward to going to the Minnesota State Fair like I look forward to Christmas.  Possibly more.

Like many other Minnesotans, I grew up making my annual pilgrimage to this Great Minnesota Get-Together.

The fair reminds me of an old high school romance who took me to ride the Sky Ride cable and read me a poem asking me to be his girlfriend.  It rhymed and was illustrated with stick-figures that depicted us holding hands.  The fair brings to mind my first taste of cheese curds.  And it makes me think of my mom’s last visit to the fair, during her last summer on earth.  She managed to rally for an hour, so we could push her around in a wheelchair and collect some of her favorite foods. These usually included a cream puff, skin-on french fries, a pronto pup, and cheese curds, of course.

For years, my running favorite treat were Australian Battered Potatoes doused in both ranch and cheese sauces.  One year, my mom and I ended a fair outing with these potato planks which inundated us with enough grease to result in horrible stomach aches.  I remember curling up in bed and praying for daylight.  And thus, I never ate Australian Battered Potatoes again.

As an adult, my visits to the fair are brief, but no less anticipated.  The crowds and the heat drive me batty.  Now that we live out of town, a weeknight jaunt was no longer an option so we gritted our teeth and visited on the last Saturday of this year’s run.  The day hot and the sun relentlessly beat down on us as we ran between un-air conditioned buildings and scouted for spots of sidewalk shade.  We bumped into the people who randomly stopped mid-step, avoided collisions with massive strollers, and waited in lines for bathrooms.

During our 2012 State Fair visit, we shared a couple of old favorites and a few new foods, referencing Heavy Table’s definitive 2012 MN State Fair Food Tour.

By 10 a.m. we had already laid a base of coffee within our stomachs and added $5 cheese curds from the Mouth Trap in the food building.

I’ve had the curds from the Mouth Trap and I’ve had curds from the stand on Dan Patch.  Personally, I choose to just go to the Mouth Trap.  There’s nothing significant that I can add to the MN State Fair cheese curd conversation so I will end by saying I like these.  I always like these, and I don’t visit the state fair without these.

Next, we stopped at My Sausage Sister & Me, a vendor also located in the food building.  I have never visited them before, but read many positive reviews of their Great Balls Of Fire, $5.50, a new offering.

These meatballs were by and far, the best thing we tasted at the 2012 fair, if not at any fair.  They were notably juicy and compellingly spiced.  Not quite like traditional sausage, not quite like jerk, and pleasantly spicy.  They brought to mind Spoonriver’s flavorful lamb burger.  My Sausage Sister & Me offers a variety of squirt bottles of sauces.  We chose the creamy cucumber sauce which jived well with the strong flavors.

We tried another frequently mentioned new food, Famous Dave’s Ragin’ Ankles, $6.

The pork was tender and moist, and cleanly fell off the bone.  They were fatty in a pleasant way and we enjoyed the sauce which was slightly spicy and sweet without being too sweet.  Overall, we enjoyed the BBQ ankles, but thought the meatballs were better.  I wished the ankles had a little crust or crunchiness.

Saturday’s beverage breaks included Lift Bridge’s Hop Dish, $4.50, from the Ballpark Cafe.  Jake thought Hop Dish tasted a lot like Bell’s elusive Hopslam, his favorite beer, adding that it had a “similar start with a smoother finish.”  He enjoyed it so much that he tried to find it in the stores that evening only to learn it’s not available, yet, in bottles.

We shared a refreshingly cold Black Cherry Soda, $3, from the Spring Grove Soda Pop stand.  We both thought it was pretty tasty with no complaints.  I was satisfied with a few sips since it was so sweet my lips were sticky.

The third new food we tried was a cannoli from Ole’s Cannoli.  Cannoli’s happen to be one of Jake’s favorite desserts.

Jake ordered a plain cannoli with its ends dipped in chocolate chips, $4.50.  The cannoli was generously sized.  Its shell was crispy and the filling was thick and slightly tart, reminding me of cheesecake.  Jake had no complaints.  As an individual who doesn’t routinely seek out desserts, I found two bites enough.  I have a low threshold for desserts that are rich and sweet.

My last bite at the fair was a fried onion blossom.  Ever since Fargo’s Ribfest debacle in June, I’ve had a hankering for an onion blossom.  I forked over $8 for this large monstrosity.

The batter was crispy in a mouth-puncturing way and tasted like it was seasoned with nothing in particular.  The ranch dip tasted cheap and at least one, heaping tablespoon of grease pooled on the bottom of the plate.  The only redeeming qualities of this onion blossom were that it was fried, the onion was tender and sweet, and it wasn’t the $1 shrimp cocktail.

And with this terrible onion, our brief 2012 Minnesota State Fair visit came to a close with little nausea, stomach discomfort, or ailment that couldn’t be cured with a good nap.

Our closing words of wisdom are to go for the balls, my friends.  Go for the balls.

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