Uptown Market (again – I can’t help it) – Minneapolis, MN

I try not to review the same place too many times, but when I find different things or have people and places I like a lot, I make exceptions. I try to go to the Uptown Market as often as I can. There are tons of people that I know there and I always get fantastic food.

D.Rough and I stopped by the Ballentine VFW to meet some friends for eyeopeners – who doesn’t love a.m. drinking for cheap?!?!?! Losers, that’s who. We trekked over to the Magic Bus Café for an appetizer hot dog for me. I’ll rave about this place every time I come here, if I have to. The people here are awesome and the food here is equally awesome. They are pretty adventurous with their hot dog toppings. (This is me, SB, and CarpetKing ordering at the Magic Bus Cafe.)

This time around, I got another half-and-half dog. One side of the dog was the Buffalo Springfield (I LOVED it last time I got it and couldn’t talk myself out of it this time). It’s a hot dog with buffalo sauce, blue cheese diced celery, and sour cream. The other side of the dog was the Meet Me in the Morning Dog – scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese! Seriously, it sounds bizarre, but is delicious. I’m super tempted to try some sort of 6-dog sampler next time and get 12 different dogs. I may have to sweet talk the ladies there, but I can work some magic if I have to for delicious hot dog toppings. Thanks, Magic Bus Café!!

We walked around the market and taste tested some of the salsas there. We found some super tasty ones at the SalsaLady booth and I scored a half pint of the medium strength salsa verde there. It was fantastic. It was a little pricier than I had realized, but I think it is worth it. D.Rough and I also found out that the half pint container is a single serving - hahaha. Yeah, we liked it a lot.

The previous week we were there, we got a bottle of Sadia’s East African Hot Sauce from Sadia herself! We sampled all three varieties and loved the HOT version the best. I almost bought all three kinds, since Sadia is a really good saleswoman – she has a knack for the business and really knows her stuff.

D.Rough is a mastermind in the kitchen (and I’m sure she’ll tell you other places, as well) and has been coming up with some creative uses for this sauce. She came up with an awesome Steak Salad idea with the African hot sauce as the dressing. Well played, D.Rough. It was perfect.

D.Rough threw some greens on a plate, and then counted out individual mozzarella balls to make sure no one had a cheese advantage (I’m going to get punched for mentioning that), and then some cherry tomatoes. I grilled out a couple of steaks for the three of us and we cut those into strips and put them on the salad. Then we poured some of the sauce all over the salad. This sauce has some serious build to it. It doesn't seem that hot at first, and then once you stop eating for a second - something I try to limit as much as possible - it kicks in something fierce. Awesome, Sadia! The salads were fantastic. All three of us loved it!

I’ll quit raving about the awesome-iosity of the Uptown Market, but only for a week or two…