Secrets of the City

The top reasons good chefs relocate to the Twin Cities, ranked in order of popularity:
1) Hazelden
2) Love / relationship
3) Job Offer @ a place that offers a ground floor opportunity / opening

4) Patrons can taste food, not smoke?

well, bob…they get the same benefit in Cali and NY, so while it may give us an advantage over Wisconsin, I wouldn’t call it a factor.

Dara’s succeeded in making me want to go to the MOA. Impressive.

Great idea for a post, Max. The food writing in this town has exploded, along with my waistline.

There are no good Thai restaurants in the Twin Cities. Your basic hole in the wall in a transient hotel in Chicago does a better job. Not to mention a grandmother with a single burner on a street in Bangkok.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Saloth Sar!

I have long contended that there are no good Thai places in this town either. Just NONE. PERIOD. I will say it’s easy to be a snob when you’ve been to Thailand, but it’s just as easy if you’ve been to any other major US city that has decent Thai restaurants. None exist here, and god knows I’ve tried tons of them.

Whenever I bring this up there’s a chorus of people who try to “recommend” their “favorite” places to me or act amazed (”you obviously haven’t been to *insert mediocre quasi-Asian with a Thai name* place”). And yeah, I know all about ’secret’ menus and such.

Every single “Thai” joint in this town I’ve been to has basically been a pan-Asian, fish sauce-n-MSG-palace with bland, watery noodle dishes and sticky rice n’ mango on the menu for dessert. Even the green papaya salads I’ve tried at a couple places have been awful, swimming in some kind of ‘dressing.’ And that’s a real Thai dish that’s hard to screw up, um, I mean Midwesternize.

Sorry folks, it’s something I feel passionately about.
I’d LOVE someone to convince me otherwise. But my hopes and expectations are llllllllow.

There’s something about people from Chicago needing to express their contempt for the Thai food options in the Twin Cities. I rarely meet a Chicagoan who doesn’t express that exact opinion within five minutes of arriving here, and yet, I have never heard a Chicagoan reflect on the quality of any other cuisine in the Twin Cities. I don’t know what it is. I think that Thai food just becomes that elusive urban amenity that symbolizes whatever it is Chicagoans think they have given up to move to a smaller city.

You eaten at all of them, Saloth? What is the area missing in your estimation? Not hole-in-the-wall enough?

Made a couple trips to Bangkok. Haven’t worked up the nerve to eat the street food. Probably just me. Maybe it tastes better than it looks.

Disagreeing. While I won’t put it up against the Thai street food, Krua Thailand on University holds up against any of the Thai joints that I’ve tried in Chicago.

I agree that most Thai in the Twin Cities is mediocre at best, but True Thai is up there with the best Thai I have ever eaten in any city. And some of the other Thai places around town have certain dishes that are wonderful (e.g., Tom Yum soup at Tum Rup Thai). You just have to dig a bit and you will find some good stuff out there.

Um, I’m not from Chicago. I’m from St. Paul, which is somewhat smaller.

No, I haven’t been to all of the Thai places in but I find it easier (and more funner!) to write in broad generalizations. I’ve been to Krua Thailand and need to go back and try some more as I wasn’t that impressed but I hear people raving. I had one of the worst meals in a long time at Amazing Thailand. Thai Bazil on University was OK, not earth moving but much better than a lot I’ve had.

I also have no idea why there are some really good tiny Thai restaurants in the lobbies on transient hotels in Chicago.

Bx, you really don’t like True Thai? I admit that being a veg, I haven’t had any of the meat dishes, but their wok fried fresh young ginger dish with tofu is so freaking good and I love their fried purple yam appetizer. Their massaman curry is also among the best I have had. It’s so thick and creamy.

it’s pretty difficult to have truly authentic thai food here because the chefs (thai, laotian, or otherwise) can’t get all the authentic ingredients in mn. even if they can, they can’t count on minnesotan diners to consistently and sustainably stock those items. big cities like ny, la, chicago do them better because there are larger thai population who would order those things and wouldn’t hesitate to move on to the next restaurant if the food doesn’t meet their standard…that option doesn’t exist here. there are, what, 20 thai restaurants here, tops?

haven’t tried amazing thailand (whose logo and name are pretty much lifted verbatim from thai tourism authority’s old campaign) yet, but my picks are: krua thailand, true thai, tum rup thai, king and i, chiang mai thai, chai.

and please do try bangkok street food next time you’re there; you didn’t travel half way across the globe to eat at burger king, surely? (though i’d be tempted to try region-exclusive items like mcrice burger at mcd.)

</grew up in bangkok>

well, bob…they get the same benefit in Cali and NY

Boy, make a simple comment on this site and they go “costal” on you…

I’m not a big Thai food fan, but my quest to find some good pad thai in Saint Paul last week had disappointing results, to say the least.

I agree about Amazing Thailand. My dish was nearly inedible; it was so bland. I went with 2 other people and all of our dishes were terrible and the service was poor, but I did go on the first weekend they opened, so maybe they have gotten better.

I think it’s all about cosmopolitan posturing and nothing to do with food, myself. Ooh, look at me, I’m so wordly and metro. Your food is not up to my high standards.

Kurtis, I’m not so sure about that. For the first year or so that I lived here, I was convinced that there was no decent Thai in the cities. I had tried like 10 places and they were all bland and unimpressive. Then I went to True Thai, and everything changed. Now I go there once a week and am a happy person.

And I’ve eaten at a ton of Thai place in Chicago, and none of them has ever really knocked my socks off. I’m sure there is great Thai there, but I haven’t found it yet. If anybody has any recommendations, let me know. I’m going there next weekend and will most assuredly be eating Thai at some point.

We eat at Chang Mai Thai in Calhoun Square every so often. Just fine with me. I’m not a big Thai food fan. I have yet to really warm up to Thailand after having been there three times.

I wouldn’t be qualified to know good Thai food from poor Thai food. I’m not a fussy eater. Taking Duke Ellington out of context in his comment about music (if it sounds good, it is good) Thus: If it tastes good it is good.

Food is so difficult to rank in any sort of formulaic way. What with intangibles like personal mood and atmosphere coming into play let alone the fact that some restos have off days, I can really only say when I enjoyed a meal and when I did not.

About that fear of street food in Asia: I loved every experience, but I sometimes paid the price. You kind of have to follow the crowd on that one. Or you can take the fear out of it and only eat the indoor street food in the hawker centres in Singapore. Oh and street food purveyors kind of have the unfair advantage that they tend to specialize in one or two dishes, while restaurants in the west have to serve most of their particular cuisine.

I think there are certainly fine Thai restaurants here, but if I mention them now, I’ll just prompt people to snort at my provincialism and tell me that place is the worst of the lot. Now, if someone said, “I haven’t found a place as great as the one I liked on _____ street,” I wouldn’t think it was snooty, but the flat-out statement that their worst is better than our best, strikes me as merely trying to shame Twin Citians with the blandness of their dining landscape. Yawn. So I think, yeah, yeah, yer from Chi. It’s a bigger city. You have superior taste and we can’t please your palate. So sorry to disappoint you. But thank you for continuing to grace us with your presence and contempt. Perhaps your complaints will compel the restauranteurs to be a bit more generous with the tamarind next time.

Anyway, since I’ll be in Chi next March, I’ll be sure to go to three randomly picked places near the hotel, and bring back a full report.

I’m not the least bit nervous about eating hawker market food it Singapore. Looking forward to the next trip. Very good stuff there and the places are clean and probably highly regulated.

P.S. The African food here is better than the food I had in Africa. I think it’s because the chefs have more access to quality ingredients. I would put the African food in TC up against any in the world.

I don’t eat Thai food a lot, but I’ve always enjoyed King and I, but I’ll be sure to check out True Thai next time. Thanks, Tara!

P.S. I agree with Kurtis, there is some outstanding African food here.

you didn’t travel half way across the globe to eat at burger king, surely?

It wasn’t on vacation and it’s not my first choice for a holiday. I did eat in Thai restaurants. I just didn’t eat the street food.

No one has mention Sawadee… Oh right. Anyway, one thing I like about Thai food is in the better places they ask you how hot you want it. I would like it a half step below lava please! Since ketchup is hot sauce to many Minnesotans, many restaurants are forced to tone it down. Thus, if you don’t say anything, you are going to get some bland stuff. It stems from so many Nordic types and their white foods.

Having said that, True Thai is good and so is Chai’s Thai. Make it 1/4 step below lava please!

Anybody have an african food suggestion? I went to the Red Sea restaurant about 15 years ago and haven’t been back – I thought the yeasty ace-bandage bread was nightmarishly bad.

I think the Red Sea is under new management now. It was pretty good the last few times I went there. Also, there is the Queen of Sheba in Sibley Plaza on 7th street in Saint Paul. The two times I ate there was really good! (Better than the Red Sea.)

The new chef at Napa Valley Grille is married to one of my oldest friends. I was glad to see the great review Dara gave him.

I second getting a rec on a good African place.

Fasika on Snelling, just north of University, is THE BEST Ethiopian you can get in the cities.

Safari is pretty good (on Eat Street) or Safari Express (in MGM), sort of Somali and East African.

I hear there is really good West African in Brooklyn Park. Anyone know where.

I’ve had good meals at the Blue Nile, but I’ve had good meals at the Red Sea, too. There’s a nice place on East Lake I don’t remember the name of… I think it’s across from the Poodle Club (or near there, anyway.) There’s also a great place on Brooklyn Blvd run by a Liberian family. I think it’s just called African Food or something obvious like that.

Blue Nile is pretty darn good. And the nights they have DJs make for great people watching as well.

And despite being from out east originally, it actually annoys me when someone makes blanket statements like “the Thai food in Minneapolis sucks.” Not only are you knocking the efforts of people from those countries and taking a parochial attitude by saying that you know what their home cuisines are supposed to taste like even better than they do, but it’s usually painfully untrue.

Most restaurants, Thai or otherwise, have some dishes that work and some that don’t. And given the regional variations throughout Asia, it’s also likely that your idea of what Pad Thai should taste like and what a Thai chef from northern or southern Thailand believes it should taste like are two different things. Bottom line — there aren’t many cuisines the TC doesn’t have covered fairly well these days. And whining that the Drunken Noodles here don’t taste like the ones you had in Chicago (which, seriously, if you’re going to pick a city to mark as a culinary mecca, you can certainly do way better), is a load of crap.

Now, if you want to bitch about how early dining establishments here shut down, that’s another story altogether.

I also love True Thai. The owner has a blog, and if you know you’re going there for lunch on Thursday, you can e-mail and request that a certain dish be put on the buffet. And they’ll put it on the buffet. Pretty cool.

Not sure about Minneapolis Thai, but I can vouch that there’s some very delicious Vietnamese in Milwaukee.

There’s no shortage of excellent Thai places in the Metro…

1. True Thai -Green Bean Curry!
2. Grand Pad Thai -Egg Rolls!
3. The King and I -Curry Mock Duck & Tofu!
4. Chang Mai Thai -Yummy Appetizers!

What I think is funny is that this is the same haughty argument people were having here 20 years ago while debating the merits of the scant Vietnamese Food scene. “The Lotus? You gotta be kidding me!”

20 years from now my kids will be bitching about all the bad Somali restaurants no doubt…in the meantime why not embrace what we have (as long as they bring me extra peppers to put on it, I am golden).

Jason, I always thought the older white lady that works the front desk during the day was the owner, but from the profile on the blog, that doesn’t look like it’s the case. What’s the story with that lady? She cracks me up. She is always super nice when I come in, but she grumbles under her breath about the rest of the staff. I imagine that they all plot her demise when she leaves the room.

Yeah, I don’t know what her deal is, but I think every restaurant should have someone like that working at the front of the house. Too funny.

(Here’s the blog entry on requesting buffet dishes, by the way. I’m fairly sure I first heard about it from Taylor.)

I used to carry out from True Thai quite a bit (especially when we were homebound with newborns), but I got tired of the Mr. Hand-looking dude behind the carry out counter copping an attitude with me every time I tried to confirm my order.

Well, I don’t know at this point what is more distasteful. The shitty Thai food in the Twin Cities or the Twin Citian’s apparent inability to discuss it without having a coronary over the horror of the fact that other, larger cities might have better offerings.

If you look at my post I said “I’d LOVE someone to convince me otherwise”………….

……..NOT “I’d LOVE a bunch hyper dinks to offer up a small-town temper tantrum when their crappy Thai joints get taken to task by someone who has eaten better Thai somewhere else.”

Once again Tara, you win the prize for offering a useful, thoughtful post in response. And staying on topic. This was about Thai restaurants, not provincial mouth-breathers versus asshole urbanite ethnic food snobs.

I have eaten at True Thai, several times, and their spicy tofu dishes are great. Their curries are creamy, just like Midwesterners like ‘em. I’m not saying it wasn’t good food, it just wasn’t good Thai food. I am betting that if I called ahead and requested something they’d do it and do it well, but the point is that I wouldn’t consider a place that great if I had to call ahead and order good food….it should just be on the menu in the first place.

I’ve also tried Krua and the half dozen or so times I did, it was pretty darn Thai, but SO not fresh. I mean, SCARY-not-fresh, and this is coming from someone who *has* braved Bangkok street food.

Once again, if anyone can offer a recommendation I haven’t tried, or can make the case for decent Thai in the TC that isn’t force-fed directly from Chowhound, I’m all ears.

I had a TERRIFIC African beef stew-type dish at a little joint called “Kemba’s Place” or something light that (University & Victoria), it has since closed.

I agree with you on that one grote. That dude is kind of a prick. I think he’s the Owner’s hubby. I have heard he even declines take-out orders when they get too busy. The place can get pretty swamped at times but that’s no excuse for rudeness. Mr. Hand should know better than to bite the Hand that feeds. (Wacka Wacka)

PS. By far the worst dining experience in my life was waiting in the tiny lobby of Origami for 90 minutes to get a table and then after we finally did, and we placed our orders and they brought it to us you remember: “This shit is raw!!” I know they have that bar they added now but I will never go back -but we had to stay because our stubborn friend was getting pissy (it was her birthday) when we pleaded with her to leave.

Just found out that we will be hosting 10 members of a delegation from Thailand (looking at our biofuels program) in a couple of weeks. If they get homesick for more familiar food, we can offer some suggestions now.

I agree with Bx: Nothing wrong with people saying they’ve found better Thai food elsewhere. (Incidentally, True Thai will put special order food on their lunch buffet. I find that pretty cool: as with most buffets, you get whatever they put out.)

Hey……peace, Brother Jason. Maybe we need to get together over Thai buffet. Your treat. Tara can be moderator.

You two pick the date and I’m in.

I suppose that being Bx means never having to say you’re sorry.

I’m not a foodie by any stretch, nor have I been to Thailand, but I do quite enjoy Taste of Thailand on Selby in St Paul.

Order the soup, Bx. I’ll make it extra creamy for you.

Personally, I don’t think anyone could convince me a place was good if I believed it sucked so I think that whole exercise is rather pointless. I think it’s also not surprising that people would stick up for their favorite local joints. As a rule we can be pretty defensive about the stuff we like here. Bx would get along great with Al Milgrom, he loves to rant about how provincial we are here. But deep down he loves us. But my question is..do you Bx?

Do you love us?

Define what you think of as good Thai food, Bx. It’s pretty pointless to offer suggestions without knowing what you’re actually looking for, given that Thai cuisine isn’t really a monolithic entity.

But I’m all for buffet. Mmmmm…True Thai buffet.

I went to Amazing Thailand with 3 other friends and had a HORRIBLE experience. I ordered the basil something rice with medium level spiceness. It was SO spicy i had to literally go to the restroom and wash my mouth. I am from mexico so spicy is not a foreign concept to me. None of my friends liked their dishes either. :(:(

I had the opposite experience at Amazing Thailand. I like food to be so spicy that it hurts and always order Thai Hot/5 stars at Thai restaurants and my food there was so mild that there was no heat at all. I got them to bring out some pepper flakes to add to it, which helped, but there were no discernible other flavors in the dish either. It was bland city. I was sad because it is so close to my house and it is pretty inside. Maybe I’ll be brave and give it a second chance one of these days.

And Jason and Bx, I’m up for Thai buffet if I can bring a whistle and shout referee terms when the conversation heats up!

I’m sorry, Realtor, what was the name of the Thai place you’re recommending again? Al Milgrom owns it, you say?

Two dishes I consider to be staples of Thai cooking are yam nua (spicy beef salad) and green papaya salad, (som or son tum, I think).

Here’s a couple examples of why I’m sour on Thai in the TC:

My strongest memories of eating spicy beef salad at every Thai place I’ve tried here consist of:

-exceedingly dry, overspiced, oversalted beef that’s not fresh
-heaps of stale bulk-bin dried chili flakes, the same kind in the shakers at the pizza parlor!
-pre-shredded iceberg lettuce! Like the kind Taco Bell uses (the iceberg lettuce phenomenon is one of my biggest gripes about TC Thai joints – what the hell’s the deal with that?)
-watery “sauce” that tasted like the cheapest bottled fish sauce mixed with even cheaper soy sauce

As for papaya salad, I’ll concede to the one time I ordered it at True Thai I asked for the sauce on the SIDE, and it was pretty great. But everywhere else, including there, before that, it was:

-OVERRRRR-dressed – beautifully fresh, gorgeously shredded green papaya reduced to an ugly, wet glop – again, LOADS of salty, shitty fish sauce and so much sugar it was cloying, and NO tamarind! Lime instead.
-another place I went to served this on a bed of the aforementioned iceberg lettuce! I had to ASK for sticky rice (when I was in Thailand this was always served with sticky rice)….WTF
-another time I had it, I ordered it the dried-shrimp version they had on the menu, and when I bit into one of the microscopic shrimp…..it was frozen solid! It was frozen bulk “salad shrimp.” Not real dried shrimp, which is baffling, since the real stuff is so easy to get and use and kinda “makes” the flavor of that dish.

I don’t swan into these places acting like some worldly ass. I don’t put on airs; I order off the menu and smile. I just get a sense that quite a few of the cooks and owners of these places think they can pull the wool over the average TC customer’s eyes. Or something. Maybe they’re just lazy and know they better make food that sells, and keeps them open. And there’s nothing wrong with that; but it is still not good Thai food.

“Nothing wrong with people saying they’ve found better Thai food elsewhere.”

Interesting paraphrase. What he said was:

“I have long contended that there are no good Thai places in this town either. Just NONE. PERIOD.”

Well, gee, I’m sorry I misinterpreted that statement to be a broad generalization or something, when it’s clearly an attempt to engage us all at a high level of discourse about quality cuisine.

“Well, I don’t know at this point what is more distasteful. The shitty Thai food in the Twin Cities or the Twin Citian’s apparent inability to discuss it without having a coronary over the horror of the fact that other, larger cities might have better offerings.”

I don’t know if I’m more disappointed that our hard-working restauranteers have failed to meet the demands of your discriminating pallate, or more disappointed that we’ve failed you as a community to carry on the high minded conversation you’re seeking about absolutely sucky everything is here. You deserve better. Maybe try ilspeak.com?

Eat Drink Man Woman

Bx is actually a she not a he.

It is really refreshing to see people talking about food so passionately in the TC (
thank you Dara, AZ).

The facts here are really simple

- We dont have a good Chinese restaurant. Yummy used to be the best thing we had, it changed owners along with the menu and so the Sesame Jellyfish was gone.
- We dont have excellent Thai. We have good Thai (Chiang Mai Thai ) People who want to defend Thai food here never really been a true Thai place (MERENTHAI, San Fran)
- We dont have good Korean at all, the two on Snelling in St. Paul are disappointing.
- We dont have good Middle Eastern. The best I have tried was an Iftar meal at Sindbad last year. Holy land is tasteless, Jerusalems on eat street passes on some things and fails miserably on others. you can’t fined a good shwerma here to save yourlife- I still have to try Saffron on 3rd.
- The Twin Cities excels in start-up entrepreneur chefs kitchens (Azia, Duplex, 112 Eatery to name a few) but it falls behind on authentic ethnic foods (except maybe for Mexican, Scandinavian and Somali)

Really? Where I come from Bx is a boy’s name.

I will recommend Evergreen on Nicollet for Chinese, but again, this is coming from a veggie, so I’m way into their faux meat. But I have heard that they have good meat dishes too.

I too have yet to find truly wonderful Middle Eastern food here, particularly with falafel and dolmas. Most of the falafel around these parts is dry and hard as a rock or dripping with grease and dolmas I have had has been greasy and tasteless, but I haven’t been to every Mediterranean joint in the cities, so maybe there is some good stuff I haven’t found yet.

I would add Indian to the list of ethnic foods that are done well here. I love Surabhi in Bloomington (and their sister restaurant Ruchi in Overland Park, KS) and Nalapak in Columbia Heights (where Udipi used to be) for Souther Indian. For more standard Northern Indian, I like Marla’s on Lake and Emerson – and they also have a Caribbean section on their menu now.

Kal…if you’re going to validate sources, you ought to make sure you agree with them first.

ask Andrew Zimmern swears by Little Szecuhan…and he’s been to Chengdu, dontcha know.

King’s Korean in Fridley is excellent…ask Dara.

looks like somebody needs to get out of Uptown.

Sadly, I’ve yet to find Thai food that measures up to the best I ever had. However, that was made by my friend’s mom, who is from Thailand. I wanted to make the sexy time with her beef salad.

My friend did say that Chiang Mai’s pad thai was the best she’d ever eaten in a restaurant, but of course, nothing compares to home cooking.

Bx, I am so with you on the iceberg lettuce! It’s the bane of my dining out existence! It tastes like poo and has no nutritional value. The only point of iceberg lettuce is to fill Rachael Ray’s salads and be topped with her ketchup based salad dressings so that I can scream at her through the television screen and giggle at how nuts she is.

Speaking of Korean restauarants. Is Hoban in Eagan still good? It has been a couple of years since I visited, it was great then.

I won’t argue with the shortcuts. They’re nasty and need to stop. And I also can’t contend with many of the comments about some of the salads. The things Sawatdee does to classic Thai salads are simply criminal. But I would contend that True Thai, as well as Ketsana’s (when it’s on its game) are both examples of places that do it right. No question that there are some dishes they don’t nail, but a good percentage is quality.

Now where I will argue is the comment about having no good Chinese food, and several of the others too. Two branches of the Tea House? Little Szechuan? King’s Korean? The counter in the back of the Korean grocery store in Columbia Heights that makes spectacular bulgogi and bibimbop? The good stuff is out there. Maybe you’re not drinking enough soju with dinner?

I love Tum Rup, True Thai, and even the Sawatdee on Washington. I’m so glad I don’t know what really good Thai food is, because I’m rarely disappointed. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

My gripe is the lack of decor at so many ethnic restaurants. Surabhi is a perfect example of a place whit great food and no atmosphere. Bleak.

Iceberg lettuce tastes like poo? I’ve never tasted poo, myself, but it sure doesn’t SMELL like iceberg lettuce.

And Rachel Ray is hot. She can shred my lettuce anytime.

I don’t know if there’s any extraordinary Thai restaurants here, but there are certainly good ones. The one on Selby is my favorite. There’s one closer to me I get take-out from a lot. It’s probably not amazing, but it’s pleasant, passable fare. They’ll spice it to your liking. My wife loves their pad thai and lab gai. I enjoy their soup and seafood dishes. I guess I’m not too good for the Thai food in this town. Lucky for me, since I live here and love Thai food.

Rachael Ray is hot? Have you looked at her boobs? They are these sad little floppy things that are too far apart and are screaming for some sort of push-up bra or something to help them. And her incessant nervous giggling? What’s hot about that? Having said this, I still feel compelled to watch her. She’s this strange anomaly that I can’t look away from. Her wild gesturing is the strangest thing to watch.

Kurtis, go HAVE a poo, then come back when you’re ready to contribute something useful, interesting, and on-topic to this conversation.

Tara, I can’t stand RR much myself, but cut her a tiny break, she’s a responsible pit bull owner.

Iceberg is a cheap filler that adds watery crunch, but that’s about it. And I run into it eating out WAY too often. It’s OK for Best Steak House, but it maketh me sad to see it at so many Asian places.

I simply don’t eat, because nothing in Minneapolis is good enough for me. Due to my elitism, I am very thin, and people like the looks of my gluteus maximus when wrapped tightly in corduroys.

Very true about Surabhi. Rucci in Kansas City (well Overland Park) is owned by the same family and has the exact same menu, but it’s really pretty and elegant inside. I don’t know why Surabhi has to look like such a brightly lit dump. Oh, and the last time I was there, their restrooms were all out of order. But the food is so good. So I guess it would be a good take-out option.

Ok folks, get a hold of yourselves. Rachel Ray is NOT hot! In no way should she be construed as hot. Compare Rachel Ray to Giada De Laurentiis, and tell me that Rachel Ray is hot… It is not even close.

Food Elitist,

If we think food should be appetizing, fresh, healthy, tasty and okay to look at makes me a food elitist, then you and I share the same name my friend.

I myself could enjoy Rae Ray the same way I could enjoy a hot bowl of Tom Yum from the Thai place down the road.

Kurtis, go HAVE a poo, then come back when you’re ready to contribute something useful, interesting, and on-topic to this conversation.
Yes, bashing iceburg lettuce is much more constructive.

Tara, I can’t stand RR much myself, but cut her a tiny break, she’s a responsible pit bull owner.
It’s nice to see a diamond in the rough once in a while.

Kurtis, go HAVE a poo, then come back when you’re ready to contribute something useful, interesting, and on-topic to this conversation.
Yes, bashing iceburg lettuce is much more constructive.

Tara, I can’t stand RR much myself, but cut her a tiny break, she’s a responsible pit bull owner.
It’s nice to see a diamond in the rough once in a while.

Don’t get THAT kind of hold of yourselves, though, unless Paula Deen is talking about butter again.

bx, yum nua and som tum are more of a northeastern/laotian dish. while relatively simple on the paper, it’s quite difficult to balance all the ingredients for that perfect combination of salty/sweet/sour/spicy. think of it as ordering szechuan dish in a non-szechuan restaurant; you’d get an approximation, not authentic cuisine. i’m sure there are places in frogtown that can beat any well-known thai places for those dishes.

asides: som tum is made in a mortar. everything is put in there and crushed/mixed. som tum in thailand is swimming in sauce, which is a perfect dip for the sticky rice. try the catfish salad at true thai…the fish itself isn’t prepared authentically, but the sauce is quite spot on.

my chinese picks: little szechuan, tea house, evergreen, chin’s chinese, hk noodle, shuang cheng, jun bo.

Giada has a big head and relies heavily on der wunderbra. Nigella Lawson, on the other hand…

I love little szechuan…so good. I’ve always heard good things about True Thai and now after reading this post I have to go try it.

I want Paula Deen to be my mother-in-law. Too bad the tall one is married.

I often have conflicting thoughts about Rachael Ray.

when I consider the fact that neither rachel ray nor giada is very impressive in the kitchen, I’m left to wonder if those are the 2 most appealing tartlets that the Food Network could find. But then I remember that the average Food Network viewer these days is basically your mom.

tara is nominated the Mn Speak Commissioner of Boobs.

Ingrid, the Dean brothers always struck me as a little gay…? But if they were going to make me food products with sticks of butter in them, I could look the other way.

Someone up the thread said Indian is done right in the Cities. I agree. Taste of India in St Louis Park comes to mind.

Richg said:
And despite being from out east originally, it actually annoys me when someone makes blanket statements like “the Thai food in Minneapolis sucks.” Not only are you knocking the efforts of people from those countries and taking a parochial attitude by saying that you know what their home cuisines are supposed to taste like even better than they do, but it’s usually painfully untrue.

Yes, blanket statements are wrong, but it’s also wrong to assume that someone who cooks their “home cuisine” in a restaurant is, by definition, qualified.
Case in point: Pierre’s on 50th and Penn. Went there one night last summer and Pierre, the French owner was filling in for the chef, and 5 out of 5 entres were crap; over-salted and ordinary. And not cheap. We all were saying that we should’ve just gone across the street to Broder’s.

I just noticed the bottomless wine tasting happy hour at Zeno in link above. What a cool idea! Anybody up for a MNspeak happy hour one night next week at Zeno?

Paula Deen has that same crooked teeth thing going that Patricia Arquette does.

Rowwwwwwwwwwwwr.

Yeah, Josie, That thought crossed my mind. But then I thought about the butter and the accents and I forgot about it.

Have you seen the special where Paula and her husband go to Europe and at the end of the show her kids suprise her at a dinner. Yeah, it totally made me tear up. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that.

For that matter, my wife and I have been meaning to use a gift card we have to Spill the Wine.

Tara_r: “Anybody up for a MNspeak happy hour one night next week at Zeno?”

Yeah, I’d definitely be up for happy hour at Zeno’s, but I’d be concerned that I might not be able to quite make it.

No, but seriously. Sounds like a good idea.

I heard last week that Andrew Zimmerman will no longer be having his own show on FM 107. I’m kind of bummed. I liked listening to him in the afternoon. I think they said that he is going to get another TV show, but I’m not certain.

I think DeRusha would make an excellent radio personality. Just sayin…

god, am I the only person in this town who isn’t a former waitron?

I think DeRusha would make an excellent radio personality. Just sayin…

So you’re saying DeRusha has a face for radio?

whoops. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that he would be entertaining, fun and provoke conversation.

Bx: “Hey……peace, Brother Jason. Maybe we need to get together over Thai buffet. Your treat. Tara can be moderator.”

I think this is an excellent idea that would go some way to improving understanding on Mnspeak. I recommend following lunch up with a trip to the circus. Everybody loves the circus.

god, am I the only person in this town who isn’t a former waitron?

nope…just the participant on this board most likely to have lost his teeth and tastebuds to father time and to therefore dig on Keys Cafe and the OCB.

And then go participate in Critical Mass?

Let’s get back on topic. Little Szechuan is great. In fact, I just got back from an early dinner there. I have never had a bad meal there. The new Tea House in the strip mall in Woodbury is also really really good. Yummy used to be great if you ordered the right stuff, but I still do enjoy their weekend dim sum.

If you want green papaya salad, check out the massive Hmong market on Como Ave. right off Rice in St. Paul. Really fun place with a food court and some interesting reastaurants. The papaya salad there tends to be of the Lao persuasion, but served with purple sticky rice. Also good deep-friend tilapia in spicy curry sauce. Many other delight there as well. And if you are in the market for small double-headed baby skeleton reliquaries this is your place.

Now, can we finally get around to bitching about the sad lack of good Indian and high-end Mexican food ?

I know this is off topic, but I have to say that the “go have a poo” comment was the funniest and most confusing insult I’ve ever received. I can’t stay mad at someone who’s made me laff. Never mind Thai food. This has been a fun thread.

Saloth Star, have you been to Nalapak?

The truth is -and any Health Inspector you talk to will back this up- the food in ALL of these places you have mentioned and the ones you haven’t and the better ones in Chicago and the shitty ones in NYC and the God-Like ones in Bangfuck – all of them are CRAWLING WITH BACTERIA.

So Bx is right. You probably would be better off just eating a bowl of shit.

Me? I prefer to suck my food out of plastic tubes.

Little Szechuan is the worst place I have ever eaten. I have been to Big Szechuan and it pales in comparison as does the Big Trouble in Little China.

Also, while I do so adore the Yak they serve at Everest on Grand it does fall far short of the Yak I devoured while summiting Everest.

Ahh Everest, he was our tour guide in France. What a fine piece of Stallion he was.

But nothing compared to The Italian Stallion I had in the back of The Salloon back in 1987.

But you wouldn’t understand. Besides… I shit gold bullion.

Mmmm…that bacteria was fucking delicious…

Re: Nalapak — jury is still out for me, but I think it’s good.

We had an appetizer sampler to get a little bit of everything and it was delicious and filling.

I loved the dosai at Udupi and haven’t had anything as good since (except in NYC). I think I ordered the Chettynadu dosai at Nalapak and it was way too freaking spicy for me, and I had to pick out lots of big chunks of spices and things. Underneath all the spice it was good, and I’ll be back to try something a little less firey.

the dosai @ Udupi was great, but the slave labor left a bad taste in my mouth.