Road Tips

Biryani - Edina, MN

I had a stretch of travel where I was on the road for 10 nights out of 11 earlier this year. I had gotten into such a food funk that I was burnt out on every type of cuisine. I had gotten into my hotel in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington and tried to figure out what I wanted to eat that night. I could have easily walked across the parking lot to Joe Senser's, but I really wasn't up for that. I had a couple three ideas in mind and I got in my car and started to drive around. I went past a sushi place and I didn't think I was up for sushi. Yes, I know. I wasn't up for sushi.  That's how much of a food funk I was in.  I went to an upscale tavern down the road and the parking lot was packed. Besides, I could have just stayed at Joe Senser's if I wanted food like that. I had an Indian restaurant on my GPS and I decided to go toward that place, even though I wasn't certain I even wanted Indian food that evening. I'm glad I had the address in the GPS, because the Indian restaurant would have been tough to find. The GPS took me right up to Biryani Indian Cuisine. (See map) (Photo courtesy Edina Patch.com)

Sandwiched between a Chinese restaurant and a Domino's Pizza outlet, Biryani has been in business since 2009 after it took over the space from Chapati, a Northfield, MN-based Indian restaurant. If you look closely at the sign on the front of the building you can see that "Biryani" is printed over the old "Chapati" on the sign. In fact, Mohammed Uddin, who was a chef at Chapati at the Northfield location, bought the Edina restaurant and the changeover from Chapati to Biryani took two days. Along with his son, Noor Islam, Uddim kept many similar dishes from the Chapati menu, but offered various culinary signature twists along the way.

Biryani is located on a quiet side street in an Edina neighborhood that has more office buildings than houses. It's tucked back off of Amundson Ave. just south of 70th St., just west of Highway 100. Seriously, if you're not specifically looking for it, or had a GPS like I did, you wouldn't really know where it was.

And because of all the office complexes in the immediate area, most of Biryani's business happens over the lunch hour when they have an extensive buffet. So, it was fully understandable when I got there around 8 p.m. one weekday evening and found the place all to myself. The hostess sat me at a glass-topped table with a linen tablecloth underneath along the long wall of the restaurant. The long buffet was opposite to where I was seated. She gave me a menu and a waiter came to bring me a tall glass of water and left a full carafe of water on the table. They must have some really spicy food at Biryani.

I always seem to get vindaloo or curry dishes when I'm at an Indian restaurant. I looked long and hard at them and something sort of jumped out at me - there was beef on the menu. I don't know if I've ever been to an Indian restaurant where beef was on the menu. I was immediately interested in how that could be considering Hindu's view cows as sacred.

When the waiter came around to take my order, I was still in that food funk where I really didn't know what I wanted. I told him that I was in a quandary as what to order. He said, "Well, our name is Biryani. We're pretty much known for that." I had looked at the biryani - a basmati rice dish made with herbs and seasonings with nuts and raisins mixed in. I told him that I'd had biryani before (actually, Cindy had it and I tried it - I liked it) but I wasn't keen on nuts and raisins. He said, "Oh, we can keep the nuts and raisins out!" So, I ordered the shrimp biryani along with an order of the garlic/cilantro naan bread. The waiter said, "Hope you're hungry. That's a lot of food."

And he wasn't kidding - he soon brought out a heaping plate of the shrimp biryani along with a basket of the garlic/cilantro naan. The naan was light and flaky with a smokey, burnt edge from the tandoor oven. Along with a Kingfisher beer, I was set.

The biryani was good, not spicy, but not overly forward with the spices, either. While I liked it, I remembered why I like vindaloo and curry dishes more - it's the sauce. I love dipping the naan bread into the sauce. There were a dozen or so medium-sized shrimp that had been sauteed in oil and spices and they were pretty good. But as flavorful of a dish the biryani was, I found it to be a little too dry for what I was looking for that evening.

There was no way I was going to be able to finish the biryani, although I did dig through the basmati rice and pick out all the shrimp. And I was able to finish two of the four pieces of the garlic/cilantro naan. I had made a significant dent in the biryani and if I hadn't been traveling I would have taken the leftovers with me.

When the waiter came over to take my plates away, he asked me how it was. I said, "The biryani was good, but I like vindaloo or curry entrees better."

He said, "We have a great vindaloo. You'll need to try it sometime." I told him that I would.

But in the meantime, I told him, "You know, I've eaten at a handful of Indian restaurants over the past couple three years. This is the first place that I've ever seen beef on the menu."

The waiter explained to me that while beef is sacred to Hindu's, it's not for many others in India, primarily Muslims. Without saying it, I figured out that the owner was Muslim. With the name Mohammed Uddim, yeah, that's usually a clue that he's Muslim.

It turns out that Uddim and his son are from the Kushtia district of Bangladesh. While much of the food is the same, it's more of a combination of flavors from Central Asia, the British Isles, as well as India. But 90% of the population of Bangladesh are Muslims and they will eat beef. So, when I see beef on the menu in an Indian restaurant, I'll know it's really a Bangladeshi restaurant.

I'm still a neophyte when it comes to Indian food and I'm starting to know what I like and what I don't like. While I did like the shrimp biryani at Biryani, I'd still rather go with something like a curry or vindaloo dish on my next visit. Considering it's only five minutes away from the hotel I usually stay at when I'm in the Twin Cities, I'm sure I'll be back to Biryani at some point.

Town Topic - Kansas City

Since 1937, Town Topic in Kansas City has been churning out burgers for the masses, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  What started out as a White Castle, Town Topic uses a flat grill and smashes onions into the top of the burger patty during the cooking process.  When they're done, the patties are flat and crispy on the outer fringes with caramelized onions embedded into the meat.  I've been wanting to try a Town Topic burger for quite sometime and I had the chance during a recent trip to Kansas City.  (Photo courtesy of Serious Eats.com)  

There are three Town Topic locations in the greater Kansas City area - the one on Broadway just north of Southwest Blvd. that I went to (see map), another one literally around the corner and three short blocks away on Baltimore (see map), and a third location in what was the old Valentine Diner in suburban Shawnee Mission, KS (see map).  Only the Broadway location is open 24 hours, the other two close around 7 p.m.  

The original Town Topic opened in 1937 as a White Castle just down the street from the current Broadway location.  Owner Claude Sparks opened to little fanfare and rang up $21.00 in sales on his opening day.  A few years later, Sparks said good-bye to White Castle and opened his first Town Topic diner four blocks north on Broadway in the Crossroads section just south of downtown Kansas City.  The Baltimore Ave. location opened a few years later, and in the late 80's the Shawnee Mission Town Topic location opened.  Today, Town Topic is still owned by the Sparks family with Scott Sparks running all three locations.  

There's a somewhat large parking lot next to the Town Topic on Broadway.  Actually, I think there are more parking spaces than seats in the little restaurant (I counted - it seats 13 with a stand-up counter along one window on which to eat).  I was a little worried I'd be able to get into Town Topic as it was just before 1 p.m. and I knew that it was a pretty popular place during the day.  But I was able to get in with no problems.  I found a stool at the end of the counter and took a look at the menu on the wall behind the counter.  

While burgers are the main item on the menu, Town Topic is also known for their breakfasts, homemade chili and thick milkshakes.  I've been told that many a late night partier has downed Town Topic's "Truckstop Omelet" - a four-egg omelet stuffed with hashbrowns, cheese and your choice of sausage, bacon or ham.  It sounds somewhat similar to a "Magic Mountain" that has satisfied the late night hunger cravings of drunks for years at Ross' Restaurant in Bettendorf, IA.    

The burgers at Town Topic aren't very thick, so I ordered up a double cheeseburger with everything from one of the three waitresses working behind the counter that day.  And because they aren't very thick, it doesn't take long for a burger to show up in front of you.  

The crusty outer shell of the meat patty sealed in the juices and flavor of the burger.  I'm guessing the flat griddle that the burgers are cooked on is probably close to 70 years old and it makes for some great flavoring to the burgers.  The burger, itself, was pretty good sized (I'd read where they were the size of White Castle "sliders" - they were much bigger than that.) and they easily covered the somewhat average bun.  While I still have a slight aversion to "smashed" burgers, I'm quickly warming up to the concept thanks to the taste of the burgers like the one at Town Topic.  I'm glad I got a double as a single would have been overwhelmed by the bun.

And the burger was good at Town Topic.  I can easily see why thousands of people have craved their burgers since 1937.  The place is a local institution in Kansas City and full of nostalgia and history.  While I'm not overly certain that I'd race back to Town Topic, I'm sure I'll go back at some point in time.  And like it's been since the 1940's, the original Town Topic will be exactly the same on my next visit, whether it be later this year or in three years.

Salerno's di Lucca - Mount Prospect, IL

I truly believe that Salerno's on Grand west of the loop in Chicago is the best thin crust pizza I've ever had (see that post here), with Vito and Nick's on Chicago's South side a close second (see that post here). But I've eaten at a couple other Salerno's and wasn't overly impressed with their pizza. (See those posts here and here.) Then I found the secret - at the other Salerno's I'd been ordering their thicker crust pizza. The dough is more raised and more chewy. I'd rather have the crust paper thin and somewhat crispy. It's all a matter of taste, but I'd take a thin crust over a deep dish pizza any day. And I love deep dish pizzas from the likes of Lou Malnati's and Pequod's. So, imagine my surprise when I found another Salerno's restaurant not far from the hotel I was staying at one evening - Salerno's di Lucca in Mount Prospect.

The only problem is that this Salerno's is not part of the other Salerno family restaurants that I've tried in the past. It was somewhat confusing to me, but the gentleman who owns Salerno di Lucca in Mount Prospect - Frank Sbragia - has been involved in a handful of restaurants over the past nearly 40 years. In addition to running Salerno's di Lucca over the past six years, Sbragia has also run other Italian restaurants such as Rossini's in Niles, IL; Sassi in Prospect Heights, IL; and Spazio di Lucca in Deerfield, IL. Sbragia, who was born in Lucca, Italy, learned a little bit about cooking authentic Italian food from his father who was a chef. When I asked one of the waitresses at Salerno's di Lucca if they were connected to all the other Salerno's around the Chicago area, she said, "No, we're not. But we're better."

I kind of got a little chuckle out of that. We'll have to see...

(Frank Sbragia pictured far right)

Salerno's di Lucca also has a thriving catering business that can take care of groups from 15 to 500. Their catering menu features a large list of Italian specialties, appetizers, panini sandwiches, desserts and even ribs.

Salerno's di Lucca is located in Brentwood Square strip mall at the northwest corner of E. Kensington Rd and Wolf Rd. in Mount Prospect. (See map) There's a few other restaurants in the complex including an interesting looking Mexican restaurant and a hot dog joint. But I was interested in pizza that evening.

After a confusing entrance into the restaurant (I tried to go in the emergency exit), I found the restaurant to be about half full of patrons that evening. I was told by a lady that I could sit anywhere and I chose a table toward the back of the restaurant. The decor of the restaurant isn't much - a number of tables with vinyl tablecloths dot the floor of Salerno's di Lucca. White Christmas-type lights ring the upper walls and over the large front windows. It wasn't pretentious at all and somewhat inviting.

The dinner menu is not much different from the catering menu other than offering a few more sandwiches including a "build-your-own" sandwich menu that features your choice of a number of Italian meats, cheeses and breads. They also have a number of eclectic pizzas with toppings that include roasted egg plant, grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted red and yellow sweet peppers, and goat cheese.

A waitress - one of four or five they seemed to have working that evening - came over with a basket of assorted breads. Olive oil and parmesan cheese were on the table and I tried some of the bread as I looked through the menu. The Italian bread was a little dried out, but they had some sort of a bread stick that was sort of crispy on the outside and hollow on the inside. It was actually pretty good.

My waitress, Janet - a younger lady - came over and took my order. I went with my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom pizza - a small
. I had finished my first beer by the time she brought the pizza out about 15 minutes after I'd ordered. I asked for a second beer and she disappeared with my empty bottle to presumably go get a new one for me.

The pizza featured a very thin crust and a generous amount of fresh toppings. While the crust wasn't all that crispy, but it was sturdy enough to hold the toppings and cheese in place. The pizza sauce was a little sweet, maybe a tad too sweet for me, but it wasn't a deal breaker. The sausage chunks were very flavorful, as were the fresh sliced mushrooms. The pepperoni slices were also very good - they weren't as salty as I've found with some pepperoni on other pizza. With fresh parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and dried oregano sprinkled on top, it was a great pizza to eat with a beer.

Speaking of beer, I had a slice of pizza and realized that Janet hadn't brought me back my beer. When I said that she disappeared, she really did. I didn't see her again. The one waitress who I had talked to about the Salerno's connection finally came over to check on me and I said, "Hey, my waitress went to get me a beer about five minutes ago. I haven't seen her since." So, she went and got me a beer. Janet only showed up after I couldn't eat any longer and dropped off the check. I asked her for a box for about three pieces of the pizza and some other waitress showed up with it. Janet didn't get a good tip.

One of the hallmarks of a good pizza is how it tastes a day down the road. I did have a refrigerator in my hotel room and a microwave so taking the leftovers with me was a no-brainer. After a long day working a dealer event and having no lunch, the final three pieces of pizza were a welcome snack the next evening. The crust held up well and didn't get soggy like some leftover pizza can be.

While I can't say that Salerno's di Lucca was better than the Salerno's on Grand pizza, it was very good. Fresh toppings, very good crust and a sauce that was a tad too sweet, but still it was good. Other than my server's less than stellar service, Salerno's di Lucca was a great find in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya - West Des Moines, IA

The third location under the Jethro's Barbecue umbrella opened late in 2011 out in West Des Moines - Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya - taking the best of Jethro's barbecue from their original restaurant on Forest Avenue in Des Moines near Drake University and adding a number of Cajun specialties. I visited the Jethro's Barbecue in Des Moines last year (click here to read that entry) and came away sort of impressed with their barbecue. Their second location in eastern suburban Altoona, IA - Jethro and Jake's Smokehouse Steaks - takes the Jethro's Barbecue and pairs it with a steakhouse theme. When I found out that the third Jethro's had a Cajun twist to their food, I immediately put it on my list of restaurants to visit. During a trip to Des Moines a few weeks ago, I decided to stop in for lunch.

Des Moines developer/restaurateur Bruce Gerleman designed his third Jethro's location similar to the original one in Des Moines - exposed wood rafters, open floor plan, corrugated metal walls in the bathrooms giving the decor kind of a "shack" feel. (I haven't been to the one in Altoona, but I'm guessing it's similar to the other two.) The West Des Moines location is located on University Ave. just west of 92nd St. in West Des Moines and Boone Drive in Waukee (see map). It's kind of confusing as West Des Moines is on the south side of University and Waukee is across the street to the north. My GPS was equally confused after I put in the address and it tried to get me to turn into the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. But there was no entrance. I continued down the road a bit and saw Jethro's on the corner of a small strip mall just past 92nd St.

It was just after 1 p.m. when I got into Jethro's in West Des Moines and the lunch rush was in full swing. This Jethro's location is about double the size of the one near Drake University and also has a party room toward the back that can be used for overflow when it's not in use for private functions. The bar is similar to the original Jethro's with three sides surrounding tin corrugated culvert tubes stretching from the middle part of the inner bar to the ceiling holding the spigots of draft beer. 

And like the Drake location, there is a "Wall of Fame" and a "Wall of Shame" for those who have tried the Adam Emmenecker sandwich challenge - a behemoth sandwich named after a former Drake University men's basketball star that features Jethro's huge pork tenderloin, then add an Angus steak burger, they they top that with mounds of Texas brisket, applewood bacon and then fried cheese. They finish the toppings with buffalo chicken tenders and smother the mountain of beef and pork with melted cheddar and white cheddar sauce. 

This is Matt Meszaros, a young man from the Des Moines area who - if you believe the Adam Emmenecker web site devoted to the sandwich - has the record of consuming at least 25 of the sandwiches. Meszaros is the man behind the Des Moines Egotist website that follows Central Iowa advertising and marketing. One thing I have to tell Matt - I used to be your size at one time. While I probably couldn't have eaten one Adam Emmenecker sandwich, let alone at least 25, I probably would have made a serious dent in one when I was your age. But I have to tell you - age catches up with you and most people's metabolism slows down pretty quickly after the age of 40. And it's a lot tougher to drop 50 pounds after the age of 40. Believe me.

While the dining area was pretty full and there were tables available, I decided to sit at the bar which was about 2/3rd's full. A perky young girl by the name of Alicia greeted me with a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink. I took a quick look at what they had to offer on their beer menu and I noticed they had an unnamed Samuel Adams seasonal. I asked Alicia what it was and she said it was called Alpine Spring. "It's light like a lager, but has sort of a hoppy taste," she explained. She offered me a small glass to taste it and I thought it was fine. I ordered a 16 oz. glass of that.

While Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya did have a number of barbecue items on their menu, I was interested primarily on the Cajun specialties listed under "Jasper's Cajun Favorites". There weren't a lot of entrees to choose from - jambalaya, chicken and sausage gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and red beans and "nice" rice - but you could combine them with ribs and other barbecue combinations. I really wanted to try a cup of gumbo along with the jambalaya, but it appeared that the gumbo was only available as an entree. When Alicia asked me if I had any questions, I asked her if the gumbo was available in anything smaller than the entree. She opened up my menu and pointed to a cup of gumbo that was toward the front of the menu. I said, "Perfect! I'll take a cup of gumbo and the jambalaya!"

She brought the gumbo out first. It had a dab of rice on top, topped with chopped green onions. It was a nice presentation. It had a lot of shredded chicken and long slices of smoked andouille sausage. In fact, the slices were cut long-ways and almost needed to be cut in half to get them on the soup spoon. I prefer smaller chunks of sausage in my gumbo, but I could live with it.

The gumbo (below left) was, well, different. While it was thick and rich, I can't really say the taste was bad, but it wasn't great, either. It had a little spicy zip to the taste, but the roux was sort of "eh!". I added copious amounts of Tabasco sauce throughout the eating process to help with the taste. I can't say that it was bland, but it had a different taste than any gumbo I'd ever had. I'm not certain I cared for it.  No, actually, I didn't care for it all.

After finishing the gumbo, Alicia brought out a huge bowl of the jambalaya (above right). The gumbo was very filling and I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish the jambalaya. I could only hope to make a dent in it. While the jambalaya looked scrumptious with large chunks of sliced andouille sausage and small shrimp in a very thick rich tomato-base broth with rice, the smell was something else. Even though they put what seemed to be a bushel of fresh chopped green onions on top of the jambalaya, I could easily smell the fishy-ness from the shrimp. The first bite of one of the shrimp on top of the jambalaya was very fishy in taste. The shrimp they used had to be old and I was sort of contemplating sending it back. I had another shrimp that wasn't as fishy in taste - probably because it couldn't get any worse than the first shrimp I had - and decided to keep eating.  I joked to a friend later on that they probably got the shrimp out of the nearby Raccoon River.   

When Alicia came back to check on me and asked me how the jambalaya was, I said, "All right." I lied. Big time. The bottom line - the jambalaya wasn't very good. I wasn't overly enamored with the gumbo, but the jambalaya was worse. But Alicia was so nice and helpful that I didn't want to say anything to her. So that's why I have a blog.

I was overly disappointed in their Cajun food at Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya. My overall sentiment is that they need to stick to barbecue, which Jethro's does all right, and forget about the Cajun food. This won't stop me from going to one of the Jethro's locations in the future for barbecue. But I think I know Cajun food pretty well and this was not good. 

Rusty Duck - Dexter, IA

The nominations for the 2012 Iowa Beef Industry Council Best Burger in Iowa contest have come in and a number of burger places across the state are vying to succeed the Rusty Duck in Dexter, IA as this year's winner. Rusty Duck's Ultimate Cheeseburger, a 14 oz. ground steakburger, topped with three different kinds of cheese, sweet red peppers, sauteed mushrooms and onions, beat out 275 other nominees for the best burger in Iowa for 2011. It has been my goal to try Rusty Duck's burger at some point, but on my first two visits to the place I was shut out. The first time, I came too early (they open at 5 p.m.) and the second time, I came on the wrong day (they are closed on Sunday and Monday). This particular visit, I made double damn sure that they'd be open, even calling beforehand just to make sure.

The Rusty Duck has been in business for nearly 8 years and is primarily known as a steakhouse. Owner Brad Waldron cuts his own steaks and uses the trimmings from both sirloin and strip steaks for his burgers. He grinds them himself and the more steaks he sells in his restaurant, the more hamburgers he can make up. There were times right after the Rusty Duck won the Best Burger award that they'd run out of burgers. He only had enough meat for so many burgers. Over a typical Friday and Saturday night period, the Rusty Duck sells over 200 burgers. In addition to the 14 oz. monster burgers, the Rusty Duck also has an 8 oz. burger on their menu.

Waldron (pictured at right), who started out his restaurant career about 25 years ago as a busboy at Gino's Italian Restaurant in Des Moines, knows his way around the kitchen. He is the grill chef at the Rusty Duck with over 80% of the items sold on their menu coming from beef. In addition to steaks and burgers, the Rusty Duck also features pork chops and chicken. In fact, their breaded tenderloin sandwich got 4th place in the Iowa Pork Producers Best Pork Tenderloin sandwich award in 2011. That's not too bad - winning the best burger and getting a top 5 finish in the best pork tenderloin.

The Rusty Duck is located in the heart of the small downtown area of Dexter (see map). Angled parking on both sides of the street is plentiful, that is if the American Legion across and down the street doesn't have a big crowd. I pulled in around 6:30 one evening and went inside. The decor of the restaurant isn't much to talk about. The dropped ceiling tiles are a little dingy and dirty, the chairs and tables are very basic. There's a large bar area that seats about 20 to 24 people with a mirrored backwall and a television in the center.

A hostess greeted me and asked if I wanted to sit at the bar. There were a number of people at the bar and I decided to sit at a table. She tried to seat me at a high table, but I asked to sit at a regular table. She sort of acted a little miffed that I wanted to sit at a table, then when I asked to sit at a regular table she sort of gruffly tossed the menu down on a table in front of the fireplace. I thought, "OK, yeah, whatever..."

However, the waitress that came over to greet me was very nice. "Welcome to the Rusty Duck," she enthusiastically said. "What can I get you to drink?"

I took a quick look at what turned out to be a very extensive menu for a small place. Of course, there were steaks, chops, chicken and some seafood items on the menu in addition to sandwiches and some salads. I was there for the burger and right at the top was the Ultimate Cheeseburger. However, I saw that it had sauteed peppers. I can't handle cooked green peppers very well. I like the taste of them, but I get indigestion something fierce afterward.

I did see that they had a bacon cheeseburger on the menu and I thought I could get one of those and maybe see if they could stick some mushrooms on the burger. When the waitress came over to take my order, I asked her if I could get a burger like that. She said, "Did you see our Ultimate Cheeseburger? It has everything on it that you're looking for." When I told her that I couldn't handle sauteed peppers very well, she perked up and said, "Oh! They're the red sweet peppers!"

Well, I CAN handle sauteed sweet red peppers, so I did end up going with the Ultimate Cheeseburger. She asked me how I wanted it cooked and she warned me that Waldron tends to cook his beef a little to the rare side. I ordered mine medium. She then said that because the burger is pretty thick, it takes awhile to cook. I was fine with that. I had my choice of French fries or their homemade steak fries. She said, "Our steak fries are actually cut long and thin, not the big thick steak fries that you get at other places." I got those, although I knew I wouldn't be eating many of them.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a bell ring at the service window and I just happened to look up to see the monstrous burger sitting there. My waitress went over to pick it up and, sure enough, she brought it to my table. Wow! This thing was HUGE!!! There was a ton of cheese on top of the burger, followed by strips of sauteed red peppers, large fresh sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, and crisp bacon. The bun was lightly toasted, light and moist.

In order to even handle this behemoth burger, I had to cut it in two. The beef was excellent - very fresh and flavorful. Actually, it was a little overcooked to my taste and I thought that if Brad Waldron tended to cook his meats a little to the rare side, I'm glad that I didn't order it medium-well. But it was still juicy enough.

Because of all the toppings on the burger - especially the cheese oozing off the top with every bite - eating the burger was a messy experience. I'm not certain any of the bacon, peppers or mushrooms actually stayed on the burger because they were constantly slipping off with each bite. I was constantly stopping and picking up the dropped toppings and putting them back on the burger. And with all that mess, I was using my cloth napkin constantly. Actually, between constantly wiping my hands and my mouth area, what I needed was a big roll of paper towels. The cloth napkin was a nice touch, but my hands never felt clean even after wiping them off. I had to go to the restroom and wash my hands after I finished the meal.

I ate half the burger with no problem and I cut the other half into another half. I barely finished that smaller quarter of the burger before I decided I'd had enough. I had a couple of the thin steak fries and they were good, but I couldn't eat any more. I saw an article on the wall of the restaurant that had to be written before they won the Best Burger award last year that said a number of guys had tried to eat the Ultimate Cheeseburger in one sitting, but hadn't been able to do so. I'm guessing that isn't the case now that the secret of the Rusty Duck is now out. I probably could have finished the whole thing had I not had lunch earlier in the day. But it was beginning to sit like a gut bomb in my stomach. Oh boy. I have to say that I was full for at least two days afterward. I didn't have breakfast or lunch the next day and I didn't care.

The overall taste of the burger was.... Good. I can't really say that the Ultimate Cheeseburger at the Rusty Duck was the best I'd had - I'm not even certain that it's the best burger I've ever had in Iowa. But it would definitely be a Top Ten all-time of Iowa burgers if I did such a list. I wish he would have taken it off a couple three minutes earlier, but the overall taste of the beef was well above average. The criteria for Best Burger in Iowa not only encompasses the taste of the burger, but how it is presented, the unique nature of the burger, and how well the bun works with the burger. I'd give the burger an A on uniqueness, an A in presentation, an A- with the bun and a B for overall taste. With all the cheese and toppings, there was a lot going on and I'm not certain that I really got a good taste of the beef. Maybe I'll go back at some point and get a smaller burger without all the fixin's.

 

Cumin - Chicago

The 2012 Michelin Guide for Chicago area restaurants is now available and a handful of restaurants that we've tried in the past were mentioned in the Bib Gourmand category for being a great value in the eyes of the inspector. At a Bib Gourmand restaurant, two people can eat for under $40 and the restaurant represents a hidden culinary value. One such restaurant - Cumin - lies literally across the street from on of my dealers - Decibel Audio. A few weeks ago, I took a couple guys from Decibel Audio over there for dinner.

Cumin is a Nepalese restaurant that blends both modern Nepal cuisine and traditional Indian food with the common denominator being the spices that are prevalent in both societies - cumin, garlic, coriander and ginger. Nepalese cuisine is less spice oil-based, so it's not as spicy as you can find with some Indian restaurants.

Sanjeev Karmacharya opened the Wicker Park restaurant on Milwaukee Ave. (see map) about two years ago. His day job is as a software engineer, but his brother, Rajesh, had worked at the highly acclaimed Mt. Everest Nepalese/Indian restaurant in Evanston for a number of years. Rajesh Karmacharya, who like is brother is a native of Nepal, manages the restaurant along with Dipesh Kakshapati. The chef at Cumin, Min Thapa, had worked at Mt. Everest with Rajesh Karmacharya in the past, but had gone to work at a restaurant in Champaign before the brothers hired him to run the kitchen at Cumin. Right away, Cumin caught critics attention with their take on Nepalese food, something that there isn't a lot of around the Chicagoland area.

The first Michelin restaurant guide that was published for Chicago was last year. Cumin was named as a bib gourmand restaurant in that edition and was mentioned again in this year's edition. Adam, the manager at Decibel Audio, said they have a great lunch buffet for $11.95. "I've never seen the place less than half full," he told me. "They're always busy, day and night."

That evening was no exception. After closing the store at 7:00 p.m. and shutting things down for the day, we made our way across Milwaukee Ave. and went into Cumin. Even before walking in the door, we were pleasantly overwhelmed by the smell of spices outside the restaurant. The dining room was nearly full with a couple parties waiting at the bar for a table to open up. Chris, one of the sales guys at Decibel, was with us, so we took a spot at the bar and had a Kingfisher beer while we waited for a table to open up. After about 10 minutes, we were seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant. (Photo courtesy Citysearch)

Although Cumin is billed as a "modern" Nepalese restaurant, there's not a lot of modernity to the decor of the place. It has a small bar area that featured some pretty impressive Scotch whisky as well as a number of signature drinks made up by the bartenders. The red walls in the front of the restaurant are bordered by a wood floor and an off-white ceiling. At night, the lights are reduced and it's difficult to read the menu, even if you have good eyesight. Fortunately, we were at a table with a dim light nearly overhead, so it made it easier than tables on either side of us.

The menu at Cumin features a number of Nepalese and Indian appetizers, as well as a handful of Nepalese entrees that I couldn't even come close to pronouncing, and a wide variety of Indian entrees including a massive amount of vegetarian dishes. Cumin is one of the more popular restaurants in Chicago with vegetarians, but they also feature entrees with chicken, lamb and seafood.

Since Adam and Chris had eaten there many times before, I deferred to them as to what they thought was the best. Adam suggested that we order some appetizers and then three entrees and eat "family style", trying a little bit of everything. I thought that was a great idea. I told Adam to order up some appetizers and he ordered some chicken momo - which, I was told, is sort of the national dish of Nepal. He also ordered some lamb keema and vegetable samosas - a samosa is crisp pastry cone filled with either veggies or a meat. It was something that I had never had before and I'm always looking to broadening my horizons when it comes to Indian and/or Nepalese food.

The chicken momo came out first. It was seasoned ground chicken wrapped up in a little dough fold-up, baked and served with a Himalayan cashew sauce on the side (below left). We got eight on the platter and I have to say they were very good. I tried one without the cashew sauce and it was very good. The spices that they use with the ground chicken really had a nice taste on the tongue. It was far from spicy hot, but had great flavor.

The samosas (above right) were brought out not long after the chicken momo came out. They were little pastry puffs that were, I believe, deep fried. Two of each were on their own platter and the vegetarian samosa had potatoes and peas in a mild spice blend, and the lamb keem samosa had seasoned ground lamb inside. We cut them all in half and each had at least one of both kinds. Although I'm not big on lamb, I liked the lamb samosa better than the vegetarian one.

We decided on getting three entrees to share. Adam picked the shrimp curry; Chris - the chicken tikka masala; and I got the chicken vindaalu. One thing that I noticed about Cumin was that this was the fourth way I've seen the word "vindaalu" spelled in an Indian restaurant. I've seen "vindaloo", "vendaloo", "vindalu" and now "vindaalu". I have no idea as to what is the right spelling for the term.

And another thing that I noticed at Cumin - contrary to some of the Indian restaurants I've been to over the past couple of years, the service was actually outstanding. When I was finished with my second Kingfisher beer of the evening, one of the managers came over to the table and asked if I would like another beer. I told him, "Sure!" Then he asked if I would like to try a Chakra beer. I had seen it on the menu but wasn't familiar with it, so that's why I ordered a Kingfisher. He said, "Very similar to Kingfisher, only more taste." I told him that I'd try one. Hey, broadening my horizons! And it was pretty good. Actually, it was more flavorful than the Kingfisher, which is a pretty good beer to go along with spicy Indian food.

The food came out and we were ready to dig in. A large bowl of basmati rice came with the entrees and we had also ordered regular and garlic naan bread with the meal. We each took a bit of rice and then a smattering of the three entrees. The shrimp was interesting as it was cooked in a way that it was first butterflied then cooked so that it curled up, sort of like broiled lobster. It was very, very good with the curry sauce. And the curry sauce was very mild and very forward in taste, but not spicy at all

The chicken tikka masala was also very good. They first cook the chicken in a tandoor oven, then simmer the chicken in a tomato cream sauce. The spices they use in the sauce really brings out the taste in the tandoor-cooked chicken. I had one bad experience with tandoori chicken where it was overcooked (and it's easy to do) . But Cindy has had tandoor chicken in the past and this tandoor chicken masala was very good. I may have to give it another shot.

But I really REALLY liked the chicken vindaalu. The chicken was tender, the potatoes were flavorful and the overall taste of the sauce was sort of tangy, but not at all hot. On the menu, it said the sauce was a mix of tangy and hot, but I didn't get that spicy "hot" taste at all. I know I'm more used to spicy foods, but I didn't think the spiciness of the vindaalu sauce was all that hot. Overall, it was some of the best chicken vindaalu, or vindaloo, or vendaloo that I've had.

I can see why Michelin gave a Bib Gourmand nod to Cumin. The food was excellent and I got to broaden my culinary and beer horizons once again. The wait staff was on top of things - we had at least three different guys who checked on us before, during and after the meal. Even with the imported Indian beers and the appetizers, the bill was less than $100 bucks for all three of us. I had been looking forward to go to Cumin at some point and I'm glad I got the opportunity to go with the guys from Decibel Audio. I told the guys during dinner, "My wife loves Indian food. It's something that we've both gotten into over the past couple of years. And I've got to bring her here sometime." Oh, yeah. I'll be back to Cumin.

Lindo Michoacan - Las Vegas

During our visit to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, we decided to keep our tradition going for going out for Mexican food when we all get together for shows. My colleagues Ian and Simon had eaten at a Mexican restaurant during a small show they attended in Las Vegas the previous year and they said it was good. My colleague Todd was in charge of making restaurant plans once again this year and he booked us into the place - Lindo Michoacan. (Michoacan is pronounced "Mitch-wa-can")

The owner of Lindo Michoacan, Javier Barajas, has a pretty compelling story behind him and how he was able to make the restaurant one of the favorites around Las Vegas. Growing up in Michoacan, a Mexican state along the south central Pacific coast, the young Barajas had dreamt of going to America to make big money. He wanted to be able to drive a shiny new car back home, just like many men who came back to his village had done when he was a little boy.

His grandparents sent the young Barajas to study at a seminary in Michoacan. There was a wooden revolving door that separated the nuns who were cooking the food from the students in the dining hall. However, Javier struck up a friendship with the Mother Superior, communicating through a small crack in the door. After awhile, the Mother Superior asked Javier to come into the kitchen to help move pots and pans around. Noticing his keen sense of quick learning, they asked the young Barajas to help out in the kitchen, eventually teaching him the concepts and secrets of Michoacan cuisine.

Javier Barajas (pictured right) knew that he wanted to eventually go to the United States and become a cook there. But the only way he was going to be able to do that was to cross illegally. Along with an uncle who was the hoping to become a farm worker in America, the then 16-year-old Barajas crossed the border no less than 10 times. But each time they were picked up by border agents and sent back to Mexico. When he finally made it across the border, he bought a bus ticket to Los Angeles. Or so he thought. The problem was that he didn't speak any English and he ended up in Las Vegas. That was over 30 years ago.

Barajas eventually married an American citizen and that allowed him to stay in the country legally. He opened the first Lindo Michoacan location in 1990 using a lot of recipes that he'd learned at the seminary, as well as a number of recipes that he got from his mother. Barajas' father and mother eventually moved to the U.S. and helped out in the kitchen.

Today, there are four Lindo Michoacan locations in the Las Vegas valley. They've garnered the "Best Mexican" restaurant award seven times from the readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The executive chef for the Lindo Michoacan restaurants is Barajas' son, Javier, Jr. The young Barajas is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef and spent some time working for the Disney corporation before joining the family business. Javier, Jr. credits his grandmother with showing him the finer details of Michoacan cuisine.

Michoacan cuisine is famous throughout Mexican as a melding of foods from land and sea. "Michoacan" roughly means "Land of Fishermen" and not only does it have a thriving sea fishing trade, but the Mexican state is dotted with a number of lakes and rolling rivers to the sea. In addition to a lot of fish and seafood in the diet, Michoacan cuisine features a number of corn-based food, as well as different varieties of tamales. When the Spaniards colonized the area centuries ago, they brought along pork, chicken and beef recipes that are still prevalent today. With the vast and varied foods that Michoacan has to offer, it's no wonder that their cuisine is often referred to as "Mexican soul food" as Mexicans say that Michoacan is the soul of Mexico.

One of the reasons Todd picked Lindo Michoacan is that the main location on E. Desert Inn (see map) offers free shuttle service from hotels on the Strip. There were going to be 10 of us for dinner and the vehicle that we had in Vegas only sat 8 - and not comfortably. Todd checked to see how long it would be for the shuttle and we found out that it would be too long before they could pick us up. We decided to take 8 in the van and Ian and Todd cabbed it over. They got there a few minutes before we did and were already seated at a long table - pitchers of margaritas were sitting on the table waiting for us. The margaritas were pink - the house margarita we were told. They were good, but a little effeminate at first glance.

Lindo Michoacan was obviously a favorite of many people in the consumer electronics industry. I ran into a number of people who I've known in this business over the years. One of them, Ernie Coulter from Control 4, told me that their group always makes a trek to Lindo Michoacan at least one time during CES. "The food here is great," Ernie told me.

We were given menus and it was rather dark in the restaurant. Although it was brightly decorated in traditional Mexican restaurant colors and decor, it was difficult to read the menu. I took to using the LED light application on my smart phone to be able to read the menu.

The menu, itself, was vast and varied. They had a number of appetizers that I had never heard of or encountered before. I was especially interested in the Sopitos Steak Chorizo - six small handmade corn tortillas lightly fried and stuffed with steak and chorizo along with lettuce, black beans, tomatoes and sour cream. That sounded good as a dinner entree. (Picture at left courtesy Living Las Vegas)

They had a number of pork, beef, chicken and seafood entrees to choose from. They also had a number of egg dishes including Huevos Rancheros and Huevos Chorizo. But they also had an egg entree with your choice of either shredded pork or shredded beef. It all sounded so interesting.

Chips and salsa came to the table as we were looking over the menu. The salsa had a nice spicy kick to it and the chips were very fresh. Someone ordered up some of Lindo Michoacan's homemade guacamole. It was spectacular. The guacamole was very fresh and flavorful. There were three large bowls of it on the table and we all made short work of the guacamole.

When it came time to order, I was having trouble figuring out what I really wanted. A lot of the beef dishes were steak based, as in full steaks. I looked long and hard at the Novillo al Jerez - a filet marinated in a homemade sauce, then cooked with chopped onion and bacon bits. It's finished off with fresh garlic, peppers and Jerez, a sweet Mexican sherry wine. I almost went for the shrimp chimichangas, too. I can almost imagine that their seafood entrees at Lindo Michoacan would be very good. But when it came time to order, I had to think quick. I finally settled upon the Carnitas dinner - pork chunks marinated in orange juice and spices, then cooked up and served with a green sauce and guacamole. A chile toreado - basically a roasted whole jalapeno - came with the meal, along with refried beans and rice.

After awhile, our food began to show up at the table and we all dug in. While my pork carnitas were tender to the bite, the taste was rather bland and not very spectacular. I'm not saying it was bad, far from it. But to me it was just OK. There seemed to be some sort of pizazz missing with the meal. The roasted jalapeno gave the overall entree a little kick in the taste buds, but the pork was pedestrian.

My colleague Michael was seated next to me and he got the combination dinner with a beef and bean burrito, a shredded beef tamale and a beef taco. I asked him, "Where were the combinations on the menu? I certainly didn't see them."

Michael said, "It was on the back of the menu." I guess I didn't get that far into the menu before I ordered. He was having trouble finishing his portions, which were pretty big. I asked him how the tamale was and he said, "Good! Want half?"

I couldn't say no to that. The tamale was good, not great, but good. The shredded beef was a little shy on taste, but the tamale as a whole was good.

However, the biggest buzz at the table happened when Jon Baker, a former colleague of ours who we'd invited out to dinner with us that evening, got his order. He ordered the "El Burrito Bionico", but had no idea what it was other than it came with a choice of beef, pork or chicken along with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, Monterrey Jack and cheddar cheese with sour cream and guacamole. It was $11.95 on the menu and - quite actually - sounded pretty good. When they brought it out, we figured out why - in English - it meant "The Bionic Burrito".

It was huge. It covered the whole large plate sitting in a pool of sauce. We were all surprised by the size, none more than Jon. "I didn't know what I ordered. If I would have known it was this big I would have never ordered it. But all the stuff they put inside, I figured it had to be pretty good." And it was. He offered me a bite of it and the combination of ingredients - he got beef for his meat choice - was very good. A couple other guys had a bite or two of it and, above right, is what it looked like when Jon waved the white flag and said that he was full.

When I went to the University of Iowa back in the early 80's, some friends and I would always go to Carlos O'Kelly's - which, back then, was about the best Mexican food we could find in Iowa City. After we'd finish, they would always ask if we wanted any fried ice cream for a dessert. Of course, after gorging ourselves on chips, nachos with cheese and jalapenos, THEN eating a large entree, along with having multiple beers, we were always so full that there was no way we could eat fried ice cream. We always said that someday we'd just go out to Carlos O'Kelly's and get fried ice cream - just fried ice cream - because, well, it sounded good. You know, that never happened. In fact, to this day, I'd never had fried ice cream at a Mexican restaurant.

Well, until our evening at Lindo Michoacan. The waiter, as a treat for our table, brought out four or five fried ice creams - on the house. I was so full from my dinner (I did finish all my carnitas, but left a lot of the rice and bean) as well as piecing on Michael's tamale and a bite of Jon's Bionic Burrito. But it was sitting there in front of me, calling my name. The fried ice cream at Lindo Michoacan has an outer crust of flour used in tortillas and cinnamon. Oooo.... The ice cream ball is rolled in the mixture and quickly deep fried making the outer shell crispy and the ice cream inside still cold. I finally broke down and had a couple bites. It was sinful and heavenly at the same time. I knew it would be good, but not that good.

I guess I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around what people have said for a long time that this Lindo Michoacan is the best Mexican food in Las Vegas. I guess I was looking for a mind-blowing Mexican food experience and I just didn't get that from Lindo Michoacan. I've had better Mexican food in the Midwest and I really thought this would be just out of this world. The service was good, the margaritas - albeit pink - were very good, the chips, salsa and guacamole was excellent, but I thought the food I had was just average at best. Would I go back? Yeah, sure, if everyone wants to go back during CES next year. I may try the shrimp chimichanga if I go back. But the other food I tried on my first visit didn't live up to the billing.

India Rasoi (Formerly Taj Oriental) - Moline

(March 2012 Update - This entry is going to be a little confusing as I've been informed that Taj Oriental in Moline is now known as India Rasoi.  Rasoi is Hindu for Kitchen.  This entry was written after we went to Taj Oriental twice before the name was changed last month. It's my understanding the original owner skipped town and left the place to new management who changed the name to India Rasol.  However, the chef stayed and the food is still the same.) 

A local friend who we don't see enough of, Shawn Eldridge, sent me a tip on a new Indian restaurant that opened last year in Moline, Taj Oriental. After my visit to Taj of India in Indianapolis (click here to see that entry), I couldn't quit raving to Cindy about how good the curry chicken was at that place. She said, "Didn't Shawn say there's some new Indian restaurant in Moline that's pretty good?" I didn't feel like cooking one Sunday evening, so we made the trek across the river to downtown Moline to Taj Oriental. (See map)

Taj Oriental is housed in the same space that was once the upscale and rather snooty Charles Michel fine-dining restaurant, as well as an Italian restaurant, Portabella's, that we ate at once and we had a sub-par meal. It wasn't open much more than a year, if that.

There is evidently a Hawaiian connection to Taj Oriental, one that was cryptically told to us by a young guy who appeared to be an owner or manager of the restaurant. He said relatives own an Indian restaurant on the island of Kaua'i and that's where he learned the art of Indian cooking. He said he was in Las Vegas about 10 years ago at an Indian restaurant and the food was so good he asked to meet the chef. The chef was a young Indian and the two became good friends. Somehow - and I'm still fuzzy on this - they ended up in Moline opening Taj Oriental last summer.

While the front of Taj Oriental sports sort of a "bunker-type" concrete facade, the interior of the restaurant hasn't changed much from the time we'd been in years ago when it was still an Italian restaurant. The booths were still set back in little alcoves along the north and east walls of the restaurant, with sturdy wooden tables and chairs throughout the main dining area. A hard wood floor with a high ceiling echoes conversations throughout the place and I do remember it being somewhat loud in there on the previous visit.

Taj Oriental is also known for their lunchtime buffets - served 7 days a week - and a large buffet area is off to the side of the main dining room.

Since it was a Sunday night when we were there, only a couple three other tables were filled with diners. We were met by a hostess/waitress who told us later that it was her first day on the job at the restaurant. (We could tell - her knowledge of Indian food was even worse than ours.) She sat us in one of the booths along the east wall and gave us menus. The room temperature of the restaurant was cool for me and downright cold for Cindy. "It's like they don't have the heat on in here," she said.

Like most Indian restaurants I've encountered over the past couple three years, the selection at Taj Oriental was no different from many of the others I've been to. They featured Tandoor oven baked foods, as well as a wide selection of vegetarian dishes on the menu. They also feature a number of seafood entrees, but they are known for their biryani dishes - a seasoned basmati rice that originated in the Middle East that, depending upon who is doing the cooking, may include scrambled eggs, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, garlic and onions, then mixed with your choice of chicken, goat, shrimp or vegetables. Goat - I had that once in Atlanta. I think I'll pass on goat biryani.

While we were looking through the menu, the waitress brought us a free appetizer consisting of a sort of Indian thin bread - that's the best I can describe it - with a red curry sauce and a green herb sauce on the side. Sort of like tortilla chips, the "chips" were deep fried and still a little oily hot when she brought them to the table. Actually, both sauces on the appetizer were pretty darn good.

I was thinking of getting something along the lines of the Murgh (Chicken) vindaloo or the Murgh curry. Since I'd had the curry chicken in Indianapolis about four nights before - and it was just killer - I thought I'd go with the vindaloo that evening. Cindy ended up ordering some of the jingha biryani - shrimp with rice. The waitress let the owner/manager come over to take our order as he had to ask some questions as to how spicy we wanted our foods. I told him that I'd like my vindaloo a little spicier than medium. "Medium-hot, if you can do that," I told him. Cindy said she wanted her shrimp biryani "medium." He asked if we wanted any naan to go with the meal and I perked up and said, "Naan! Oh, sure! We'll take the garlic naan!"

Our meals came out about 15 minutes after we ordered and we were ready to dig in. Cindy's eyes got big when the shrimp biryani was placed in front of her. It was this huge mound of basmati rice with herbs and spices with medium-sized grilled shrimp throughout. "Geez," she exclaimed. "This is a lot of food!" She already was thinking of getting a to-go box before she even dug in. There was a ton of biryani on her platter.

My chicken vindaloo came with a deep red colored gravy broth - something that I don't remember from visits to other Indian restaurants where I got chicken vindaloo. Usually, vindaloo is more of a brown sauce than a deep red sauce like I had at Taj Oriental. The taste was a little different than I remember from other vindaloo dishes I've had, as well. What my mind was telling my taste buds vindaloo should taste like didn't quite jive with the messages my taste buds were sending back to my brain. It wasn't bad - just different. It took me about five minutes of eating before I figured out that I sort of liked it.

The garlic naan was good - not the best I've had - but still good. It was actually more fluffy than other naan breads we've had in the past, but there was a large amount of cilantro and garlic chunks on the bread helping to make it very tastey when it was topped with some of the murgh vindaloo.

Cindy just raved about the shrimp biryani. "This is outstanding," she excitedly said between bites. I had a bite of some rice with a shrimp and she was right. It was very good. It was a little spicy, but the seasonings they add to the rice helped cut down the zippy taste sensation. I liked it better than my chicken vindaloo, and I ended up liking the vindaloo.

But spicy? Whew! This was supposedly medium-hot and it was getting my attention. It wasn't anything that I couldn't eat, but I was certainly going through the water. The waitress was back about once every three minutes to fill our water glasses as Cindy's biryani was a little spicy, as well. Cindy tried a bite of the vindaloo and she said, "Oh, my God. That's too spicy for me."

When the owner and/or manager came over to see how things were, I told him that the spiciness was really getting my attention. He said, "When you said 'medium-hot', I backed that down to medium. Our dishes are naturally hot here at Taj Oriental, so our medium is a little more spicy than what you'd find at most other Indian restaurants." I told him that may be a good thing to tell people before they order.

Cindy picked out all the shrimp out of her biryani and ate them when she knew she wasn't going to be able to finish the whole thing. There was still well over half the platter covered in basmati rice. She asked the waitress for a box and the box she brought over was almost too small for all the rice Cindy wanted to put inside. I had a bunch of the steamed rice that came with my murgh vindaloo that was leftover and I asked her if she wanted to mix it together with her rice. Cindy said, "No, I don't think so. I love the taste of this rice. It would go great with chicken." And it did - we had baked chicken the next evening at home and finished off a good portion of the remaining amount of the seasoned basmati rice. Actually, I think the taste of the seasoned rice was better after it sat in the fridge for nearly 24 hours and was reheated.

The owner and/or manager came over to check on us and he offered a free dessert on the house that evening. He offered the Gulab Jamun which are round milk dumplings, deep-fried and topped with cinnamon and a sweet cardamon syrup. We immediately said, "No!!!" We were so stuffed from all the food we got at Taj Oriental. He asked us if we were sure and Cindy said, "Well, we can take it home, can't we?"

He explained that it was the type of dessert that usually had to be eaten fresh. "It doesn't travel well," he said. OK, well, that was a nice gesture on his part, but we still declined.

We both agreed that Taj Oriental was good - good enough to make plans to go back again at some point. While my vindaloo was "different" from other vindaloo's I've had, it was still good. And Cindy thoroughly enjoyed her shrimp biryani. We just have to remember next time that their medium spiciness is more like medium-hot at other Indian restaurants.

(Update - Since this post was originally written a couple months ago, we've been back to Taj Oriental one other time. Once again, it was cold in there - the temperature in the dining room had to be in the low 60's. Cindy wore her heavy winter jacket around her the whole time. One of the waiters came over and asked if she was cold. "Freezing," was her reply. He explained that their furnace was out and that someone was supposed to come the day before to fix it. We're guessing that since it was cold the first time we came, the furnace may have been out for quite some time.

I went into the restroom to use the facilities and when I went to wash my hands I waited and waited and waited for hot water to come out of the faucet. It didn't. No hot water in the restroom. That's not good.

Service that evening was horrible. There was a waiter and a waitress. The waitress sat us at a booth and gave us both water and menus. Then she forgot about us. We sat there and waited. It was over 10 minutes since we had walked in and no one had come over. It finally got to a point that I had my timer on my cell phone going, saying that if no one came to take our order in five minutes, we'd get up and leave. The girl finally came back to us a couple minutes later and said, "Has no one taken your order?" Nope. She was running around waiting on two other tables (it wasn't that busy) and the waiter was doing God knows what - moving tables, chairs, plates, whatever he could do other than take our order.

Cindy ordered some tea to go with her meal and it took over 25 minutes for her to get the tea. And that was because the girl served it with our meals. Yep, service was excruciatingly slow that evening.

I will say the chicken curry I had that evening was pretty good (below left). I ordered the curry sauce medium knowing that from the last time we were in that their food tends to run a little spicy at Taj Oriental. It had a bite to the sauce and the chicken was tender and tasty. Still, it didn't come close to my new gold standard of chicken curry that I had at Taj of India in Indianapolis.

Cindy had the paneer tikka (above right) - marinated chicken with onion and green pepper and cooked in a tandoor oven. It was brought out on a sizzling plate, similar to fajitas. Cindy loved it. I had a bite and it was pretty good.

Still, we couldn't get over the slowness of the service. From the time we walked in to the time we left, it was nearly an hour and a half. I said, "Well, we'll have to rethink coming here if the service is going to be that slow."

If you're not in a hurry, Taj Oriental is very good. If you are in a hurry, come for the lunch buffet.

(UPDATE - Taj Oriental/India Rasoi closed and was replaced by another Indian restaurant/night club, Funky Desi.  Click here to see the entry on Funky Desi.)

Grinnell Steakhouse - Grinnell, IA

Thanx to Doug T. for the tip on the burgers at Grinnell Steakhouse, just off Interstate 80 at the Grinnell, IA exit (see map). I'd probably gone past this place a large number of times over the years, but never stopped in. Doug e-mailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd ever had the cheeseburger at the restaurant. Nope, I hadn't. He suggested I stop in when I could and see what I think.

I found out that the cheeseburger at Grinnell Steakhouse was one of the Top 10 finalists for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" contest for 2011. Grinnell Steakhouse is run by Laurie and Greg Hauser, assisted by their son, Chad. I was told that it's been in business for about three years, but I seem to remember that there was a restaurant in the building previous to this. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe that it was more of a bar than a restaurant. Either way, I'd never been in the place before this visit.

The key feature of the Grinnell Steakhouse is their "cook you own" concept. There's a couple three other places in Central Iowa that do "cook your own" steaks - Rube's Steakhouse is the most notable with their original location in Montour, IA (not far from Grinnell), and a location just west of Des Moines, just off of I-80 at the Waukee exit. It has been - geez, I don't know - about 25 years since I'd been to Rube's in Montour. I don't know if I'm a big fan of grilling my own steaks in a restaurant. Actually, I'm sort of scared to do so as I'm such a grilling snob that I'd probably end up cooking everyone's steaks, even people that I didn't know.

Grinnell Steakhouse had not one, but TWO open pit grilling areas in their restaurant. They had this one in their main and spacious dining room, and they had another one that was smaller than this one and situated back in a smaller dining area back near the bar that is probably used as overflow on busy nights, or for private parties.

It was after the lunch rush when I stopped off I-80 on a springlike day as I was on my way to Des Moines for a mid-afternoon meeting. From the outside, it didn't look like the place was open. If a large sign out front hadn't said, "Open Daily at 11 a.m.", I probably would have just driven on.

I was greeted by a young lady - Jazzmin was her unique name - and she asked if I wanted to have a table or eat at the bar. The dining room was empty, as was the bar. I decided to sit at the bar. Actually, the bar - although not very large - was sort of nice. It had seats for seven or eight people and had a nice back bar area filled with bottles of liquor and an assortment of beers they had to offer. A couple nice glass-faced refrigerators full of beer were down below.

Jazzmin gave me a menu and even though it appears that steak and chops are the focus at Grinnell Steakhouse, they also had a lunchtime menu that featured a handful of burgers and sandwiches. A good sized salad bar was one of the more prominent features in the main dining area.

I pretty much knew what I wanted - a burger and when Jazzmin asked me if I was ready to order, I didn't hesitate. I got a cheeseburger (I had a choice of American, cheddar, pepperjack, bleu cheese or Swiss - I got pepperjack) and a side of fries. They evidently had a grill in the kitchen because I could easily smell the charbroil scent of beef when the burger was cooking.

Jazzmin brought out the burger and set it in front of me. At first, I was sort of taken aback at how thin it appeared to be sitting open-faced on the plate. The overall size of the burger was big, but I thought it would have been a little more thick. But after taking a couple bites of the burger, I found that it was actually a lot more thick than I thought it was. Fresh red onions and pickles came with the burger, as did a lettuce leaf. A large sheet of very fresh and pungent pepperjack cheese laid on top.

The taste of the burger was good - very good, in fact. The meat was lean, but still had some juiciness to the taste. It had a little bit of pink in the middle, just as I like it, and the thick-melted pepperjack cheese gave each bite a little aftertaste kick. The bun was light and was a nice complement to the burger. Overall, it was a very good burger, one that definitely was worthy of a mention for one of the best burgers in Iowa. But I don't think I could put it on my Best Burger list. An honorable mention - probably.  But it could be a Top Ten if I just did a list for the state of Iowa.  

I really don't do a very good job of closing out my blog entries. So, thanks to Doug for the tip on the burger at Grinnell Steakhouse.  I'm sure the steaks they have at Grinnell Steakhouse are good, but I was impressed with the burger. It was good and a pretty good value. I'll go back again if I get the chance.

Le Fin Farfadet - Le Gardeur, QC

I found myself in Montreal at our head office for meetings with the Cambridge Audio people just before Christmas this past December. It was a short trip to Montreal - I was in and out of there in less than 48 hours - but it's always a treat to go there. After a long day of meetings on products and marketing, we retired to a small European-style restaurant near our offices in northeast suburban Le Gardeur - Le Fin Farfadet. My French is not good, but I'm learning as I go along and I believe Le Fin Farfadet translates loosely into "The Last Elf" or "The Last Leprechaun". Either way, that's why there's a little gnome on the logo for the restaurant.

Le Fin Farfadet specializes in "farm to table" cuisine using naturally raised products found in Quebec. The menu will feature a revolving selection of wild game such as elk, deer and even kangaroo that are raised on farms. The restaurant also features naturally raised, near-Kobe grade beef, as well as fresh seafood brought into Montreal's ports on a daily basis. Owner/Chef Michel Mendes will only use the freshest foods available to him that day, hence the ever changing menu.

Le Fin Farfadet is located along Rue Notre-Dame, a main thoroughfare in Le Gardeur. (See map) It's housed in a beautiful little stone house with an addition off to the north side of the building. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the front of the building, but it was night and I couldn't get a good shot of the structure.

Inside, the stone walls of the main dining area as you first walk into the restaurant transports you to rural France where you might find one of hundreds of auberge restaurants that specialize in serving locally grown foods. It was like walking into a restaurant that had been around since the 18th century.

The dining room off to the side is obviously an addition with wooden walls and a more modern feel. We were lucky in that Michel Mendes set us up at a long table in the main dining room surrounded by the stone walls. The lighting was subdued and the atmosphere was very pleasant.

Our server that evening, Jonathon, had a pretty good grasp of the English language, but started off explaining the menu in French. My Canadian colleagues had to do some quick translating what he was saying. It turns out that each dining experience at Le Fin Farfadet is a five course meal - six courses if you wish to get an appetizer. It starts off with a small "chef's choice" appetizer, followed by soup or salad, the electable appetizer, then a sorbet palate cleanser before the main course. The main course is followed by a house-made dessert. This sounded like it was going to be a great dining experience.

The menu for the evening hung on a chalkboard on a wall near our table. It featured the five appetizers they had that evening and seven main courses. I could figure a lot of it out, but thanks to my colleagues Simon and Todd, they helped me on the ones that I couldn't get. One of the appetizers that I couldn't get was a smoked Kangaroo Tataki (more on that later). I figured out foie gras - foie gras is foie gras wherever you go - as well as the shrimp cocktail. They also had escargot au gratin - steamed snails topped with bread crumbs and garlic (that got my attention!), and caviar soaked in vodka.

The main entrees that evening consisted of ravioli with cheddar and goat cheese, a basa filet (basa is a type of catfish that is found primarily in SE Asia, but the basa on the menu was farm raised in Quebec), deer spare ribs (Oh, yeah - barbecued deer ribs. We could smell the smoke from the pit when we walked in.), a duck breast, lamb shanks, the near-Kobe grade beef filet, a lobster tail served with a tomato-based sauce (French cooks call it an "Americain" sauce - or sowse, as my colleague Simon playfully pronounces it), and a pork chop with a dagano cheese sauce. Michel Mendes announced before we ordered that he only had three of the pork dishes left that evening. I seriously thought about getting one of them. 

The only drawback to the menu was that the prices were, I thought, rather exorbitant.  $60 bucks (Canadian) for the filet and $52 for the pork chops was an eye-opener.  It sort of made me shudder when I began to think about what I really wanted for dinner.  

While we decided on what to get for dinner, the first course came to the table. It consisted of a small toasted round bread topped with cheese, bacon bits and chopped tomatoes with fresh oregano. The bread was very thin, almost like a miniature thin-crust pizza. And it was very, very delicious.

As my boss, Daniel, was perusing through the wine list, we decided to get a drink to start off the evening. They had Boreale Blonde on tap, a very pleasant and light tasting beer that is brewed in the small Quebec town of Blainville, just north of the Montreal metro area. It was a very good tasting beer - one that I had never tried on previous visits to Montreal. I immediately liked it.

When it came time to order, I was still waffling back and forth between the beef filet and the pork chop. I don't know what kept me from telling Jonathon that I wanted the pork chop, but I heard myself tell him that I'd take the filet - rare. I had my choice between the soup and salad and I got the salad. And for funsies, I got the escargot au gratin.

Seated around me, my colleagues Simon and Ian both got the deer ribs, while my colleague, Matt, got the lamb shanks. My colleagues Chris and Todd got the filet. Ian and Simon also got the smoked Kangaroo Tataki - once again, more on that later.

The wine that Daniel picked out that evening was a 2005 Cotes Rocheuses, port of the Saint Emilion co-op of wineries from the Bordeaux region of France. It's a blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a nice body to the wine and had a very flavorful fruity taste to it. It was a wonderful wine for a wonderful dining experience. 

The salads and soups were brought to the table as the second course kicked in. Simon had gotten the soup (above left) and I want to say it was a cauliflower and celery root soup. I had never heard of celery root and Simon explained to me that they take the ball of the celery root, shave off the outer ball and puree that into a soup. Simon categorized his soup as "pretty good".

The salad (above right) was a nice mixture of greens and vegetables with a housemade oil and vinegar combination. It was good, but nothing that was outstanding.

Next was the appetizers for those who ordered. My escargot was served on a sizzling hot holder, six little snails covered in bread crumbs and garlic.  A small digging device was provided to get the meat out. I was cheated on one of the snails - I didn't get any meat out of it. However, the other five were absolutely delicious. The combination of the garlic and the escargot sent my head spinning. I was tremendously happy I decided to order those.

But the interesting appetizer was the one that Ian and Simon got - the smoked Kangaroo Tataki. Tataki is the Japanese cooking method of pounding meat or seafood, then searing it rare. After it the Kangaroo meat was seared, it was brought out to the table covered in a glass top with a hose attached to it that went back to this sort of Hookah-looking device that featured a burning chamber on the top. A small piece of blackened wood was placed into the chamber and it was set on fire. The smoke was sent through the hose and into the glass lid. The smoke lingered in the dish for about a minute, giving the Kangaroo meat a little wood flavoring to it.

Here's a short 10 second video that Ian shot of the process of smoking the Kangaroo Tataki -  Click Here  (After you've finished watching the video, be sure to hit your "return" arrow to return to the article. If you click the "off" or "X" on the video, you'll go back to your home page.)

Ian offered me a bite of his smoked Kangaroo Tataki. Well, this was certainly a first for me. It didn't taste like beef, but it wasn't gamey in taste, either. It had a smooth texture to the meat, somewhat chewy, but wasn't unpleasant in the least. I still don't know if I'd order that at some point, but it was interesting to try.

After those of us who had appetizers finished those, we were then brought the sorbet palate cleanser. It was a combination of apple and calvados - an apple based brandy from France. I normally don't like the taste of apples, but it was a refreshing mid-point in the dinner and a nice way to get the palate ready for the main course.

Just before the main entrees were brought out, Jonathon and another person came out with wooden boxes containing large French-made Laguiole steak knives.  It was quite the presentation.  Possibly a little over the top, but still a nice touch in my book.

Those of whom ordered the steaks got their meals first. My filet was resting upon a salt block, topped with a brown sauce that had a good taste (below left). Assorted vegetables sat with it. The steak was cooked a little more rare-plus than rare, but that was fine with me. My colleagues were still buzzing about my little episode at Uncle Jack's Steakhouse in New York City a couple months prior and wondered if I'd have to be sending this steak back. Nope, it was fine and dandy with me.

The two interesting plates were the ones in front of Simon and Ian - the deer spare ribs. First of all, I'd never heard of deer spare ribs before. The wide bones were prominent on their plates with ample amounts of meat surrounding them. Ian says his deer ribs weren't all that tender and wasn't quite the taste like you can get from farm-raised deer.  He said there was something missing in the taste for him.  Plus he wasn't particulary enamored with the homemade barbecue sauce.  "I was expecting more from the sauce," Ian said.  "It was kind of 'eh!'."  

Simon offered his opinions in writing to me about his deer ribs - "The deer spare ribs were a big disappointment. Seems like the chef thought, 'It doesn’t matter too much how we season the meat, we’ll put some sauce on it after' – so the meat itself was rather dry and had no particular ‘deer’ taste to it. The sauce was obviously slathered on the meat at the moment of service, simply didn’t adhere to the meat and was a simple sweet bbq sauce with no spice to it. I miss the One Star Ranch in Atlanta. Certainly not worth the $52 they were asking for."

To my right, my colleague, Matt, showed off his lamb chops. I'm not big on lamb, but I'll have to say that these looked delicious. They seemed to be topped with the same brown sauce that was on my filet. The meat was so tender that he didn't have much trouble getting his knife through the meat. Matt said the lamb chops were "wonderful".

After dinner was finished, our final course was brought to the table. It was actually a two-part dessert. The first part was a cream parfait topped with wild berries and housed in an edible white and dark chocolate tulip-shaped cup. The berries were fresh, considering it was the middle of December, and it was a nice little after dinner treat. After the desserts were finished, out came an dessert drink - a strawberry/tequila concoction (above right) that was in an edible white chocolate thimble cup. I found out the hard way that it was edible in that I raised the drink to my mouth and pursed my lips around it. When I did that, the cup broke and the remnants of the drink dribbled onto my black shirt. That's what I get for showing off.

After dinner, we were the final group in the place - dinner had started at 6 p.m. and it was close to 9 p.m. Jonathon showed me around the wine cellars they had in the place. They actually had three - a white wine cellar in the main dining area that was chilled to 3.5 degrees centigrade (38.4 degrees F). The reason I knew that is that they had it printed on the glass door. The red wine was housed in the addition to Le Fin Farfadet and Jonathon invited me into that small wine room. Here's a picture I took of him. He had sort of a Vince Vaughan look to him, I thought.

There was another wine room back in the corner of the addition dining room and I asked Jonathon what was in there. "That's our expensive wine room," he said. "Bottles of wine start at around $500 and go up from there. We've got a number of bottles of wine that are over $1000 dollars."

I have to tell you, I'm blessed to be working for a company that allows us to have overly memorable meals from time to time. My experience at Le Fin Farfadet will be one that I'll remember for quite sometime. Getting together with my colleagues and people from our manufacturers is always a great time. When we get to experience a wonderful meal like the one we had at Le Fin Farfadet, it makes it even more special.  Even though I liked it, my colleague Simon wasn't overly impressed with Le Fin Farfadet.  "I think ‘Le Fin Farfadet’ is vastly overpriced and they pride themselves on a lot of ‘tricks’ (smoked kangaroo at the table, big Laguiole steak knifes in wood boxes – etc)," he writes.  "But they simply don’t compete with the restaurants you can find a mere 20 minute drive away."    

Montreal certainly does have some excellent restaurants.  I'd like to try one those restaurants Simon is talking about at some point.  But for me, Le Fin Farfadet was a wonderful dining experience.