Sambusa King – Hopkins, MN

A-Wow and I needed to do some bizarre lunch somewhere and I talked him into going to Sambusa King. I didn’t remember the name and I didn’t have an address, but I told him it was behind Arby’s on Blake Road in Hopkins. I remembered the sign said it was Mediterranean and African, but not much more than that. I told him there were always cabs parked in the parking lot with the drivers taking their breaks inside, so it had to be good, right? He’s always up for an adventure, so we met up behind the Arby’s.

The inside has a handful of booths, a really loud television, and a glass deli case with sodas and some sambusas in it. There are two separate menus for viewing – one on the wall and one behind the counter where you order. They have some photos of the food items (I think most of which come with rice) on the wall menu, and then some beverage and dessert items on the menu behind the counter. The cuisine is more African than Mediterranean, being that the only Mediterranean thing on the menu is a gyro sandwich. I really enjoy Somali food, and we had been to another Somali restaurant a few months back, so I had high hopes!

I decided I wanted to try the Soor (a sort of corn meal grits dish with some beef stew. Sadly, they were out of it. I did have to smile since the last time I ate Somali food with A-Wow, he told us about the Italian influence in the country and that they eat a lot of spaghetti – there was plenty of spaghetti on this menu. So I went with the Beef Suqaar. I wasn’t sure what I was actually getting, but the picture looked appetizing, so it had to be good. I also got three sambusas – when in Rome! (or Somalia, as it were…)

We sat down and the server brought out a banana for both of us and a bottle of green sauce. The Somalis eat banana with their rice, either cut up or whole, but I found out you are allowed to save it for a snack later if you chose. It isn’t poor etiquette. Then, bowls of salad for us – iceberg lettuce, some tomatoes, and a lemon. Then, a serious platter of basmati rice with some raisins, green beans, carrots, and peas on top. And finally, they brought out the meat dishes and our sambusas.

The Beef Suqaar is small pieces of beef sautéed with some vegetables rather simply. Absolutely nothing scary about it – I’m not kidding. People are always nervous about what to order at these places and should NOT be. The food is quite recognizable and delicious – it just might be unpronounceable until you give it a few tries. The green mystery sauce at the table we both remembered being liquid fire at the previous restaurant, but this time it was very palatable and delicious. It flavored the beef cubes nicely and added some nice heat – even though it was really warm inside during this Minnesota heat wave we’re having. The meat had good seasoning and was mixed with some veggies (carrots, onions, green peppers, etc.), but the meat was a tad dry for my taste. Like I said, it tasted good, though. No complaints, really.

And the Chicken Suqaar:

The rice was delicious and I’m SURE you’re not expected to eat the entire dish of rice. It’s simply too much rice on one plate. Wow, seriously. The salad was pretty basic, so not much to say about it.

The sambusas were pretty simple. Ground beef and onions wrapped in a wonton skin and deep fried. They weren’t as crispy as they had looked, but the flavor was pretty good. I was surprised the filling wasn’t more seasoned – seems like a missed opportunity, but they were still fine. I didn’t realize they were so onion-heavy, so be ready for that.

I honestly love the “community” atmosphere I’ve seen at every Somali restaurant I’ve been to. You never actually know who works here and who just hangs out and drinks coffee and orders food and pays for it some other time. I saw at least 10 different people go back into the kitchen and help themselves to coffee during the time we were there. And it’s completely normal – I love it. The server came back to our table and made sure we were happy with our food, which we were. And, we were both sweating from the heat in the food and the heat in the restaurant. I’d go back here again. I’m anxious to get the Soor. Maybe it’s a weekend only dish. It must happen!

I did some reading on the eating culture of the Somali people and I found out that if a female comes to eat at the restaurant, it is encouraged that the female cover her chest and legs as much as possible so as not to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Just a courtesy to their culture. I'm sure they wouldn't ask you to leave, but why ruffle feathers if you don't have to?

Thanks, Sambusa King.

No top 5 today.

Sambusa King
126 Blake Road N.

Hopkins, MN 55343

Forepaugh’s (Poutine Crawl) – St. Paul, MN

It had been a while since our Poutine Crawl group had congregated, so I just threw one together. Thankfully, a bunch of people said they were in, once I said we were going to Forepaugh’s for some upscale poutine. (For the record, Canadians hate our upscale poutine – it’s meant to be trashy bar food, not classy culinary kitsch in a bar. Those Canadians… all drunk and metric.)

I also accidentally booked our group reservations during Restaurant Week in the Twin Cities. This means there is a special menu available so people can taste a variety of unique one-week-only dishes at a greatly reduced price. Forepaugh’s is pricey, so this is everyone’s chance to pay a much less exorbitant cost and get some amazing food.

Everyone there was going to be getting (or splitting) poutine. I had already warned the kitchen staff when I made the recommendations. Forepaugh’s has two different kinds. The regular version and the “Ultimate Truffle & Foie Gras Poutine”. I told you this place is fancy. I have had the regular poutine and absolutely love it. In fact, it’s one of my favorite in the world. This time, I was getting the baller poutine.

D.Rough and I also had starved ourselves, so we could have the restaurant week tasting menu. I was looking forward to it, in fact. You get to choose one from the appetizer, entrée and dessert sections for each person doing the tasting. We got the Chinese Scallion Flatbread and the Malaysian Chicken Samosas. We got the Forepaugh’s Ultimate Opus Burger and the Pan-Seared Walleye. And for dessert, we got the Deconstructed Banana Cream Pie and the Peanut Butter Crunch Bar. Let the awesome begin!

The Chinese Scallion Flatbread was actually pretty awesome. It was toasted sesame seed puree, fire-roasted chilies, scallions, goat cheese, olives, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. The flatbread had a great cracker crunch to it and the goat cheese was magical on this thing. Really quite wonderful.

The Malaysian Chicken Samosas were probably my favorite thing this trip. They came with a mango dipping sauce and pickled Fresno chilies. These wonderfully fried pillows made my mouth happy. They weren’t greasy tasting, but were packed full of delicious seasoned chicken. And when you added a chili to the bite, it just made the world a perfect place. Order these when you go here.

The truffle and foie gras poutine was good. Quite good, in fact. Not stark raving incredible, but really good. The fries were really crispy and clearly fried the way fries should be fried. Mario, in our group, commented, “You don’t NEED to fry cheese curds for poutine, but if you’re going to, you’d better do them like this.” The foie gras fingers (which slays me to say) were almost lost in the mix of flavors, but it was taste-able when you least expected it. It contained a few chilies to spice things up, but the best part was the red-win pan sauce used instead of gravy. Holy balls, was this fantastic. I’m not sure if it’s a $20 poutine flavor, but it’s $20 poutine ingredients, so maybe it’s worth it.

The Pan-Seared Walleye was a solid dish. It was in a coconut curry with fingerling potatoes, zucchini, hearts of palm, Chinese long-beans, shitake mushrooms, Thai herbs and Fresno chilies. Clearly, it had plenty of fun flavors happening. The super light breading on it was better than most batter’s I’ve tasted on walleye and the additional things they threw into the dish gave it flavors that stood out above any other walleye I’ve had. It wasn’t fish-fry walleye, it was fancy walleye (or as fancy as walleye gets, anyway).

The Ultimate Opus Burger is a serious thing. It also comes with fries, which, after the poutine, I didn’t really need. But the burger was good – two angus patties gruyere, braised short-rib sauce, truffled eggs, greens, tomato raisins, lardon, and bacon vinaigrette. The flavor on the inside was top-notch and worthy of another try at this. The bun, however, was the downfall. It was a onion bun, but it was toasted so much it was almost a giant crouton. So, you weren’t able to crush this thing down enough to stuff it into your face. Bummer and it hurt my jaw opening my mouth and then cut up the insides like Cap’n Crunch when chewing. It also made the rest of it seem dry, until I used up all my sauces trying to lubricate it. Again, this was a top-shelf burger, but I might order it differently the next time – it’s also the priciest burger I’ve seen on a menu – thank you, restaurant week!

The Peanut Butter Crunch Bar was what D.Rough had been waiting for. She’s a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate. This was almost a cheesecake in its presentation and included a Guinness and white chocolate ice cream layer, ginger Chantilly cream, pretzel meringue, and salted caramel. Sound rich? It is. But it’s really good, as well. She was happy with her dessert decision.

The deconstructed banana cream pie I thought was pretty darn good. Chocolate-hazelnut praline, underneath caramelized bananas, vanilla custard, and agave nectar, and two dollops of homemade vanilla bean whipped cream. I’m not even a fan of banana cream pie, but this might make me change my mind. It was delicious. The crust on the bananas was very delicate and the whipped cream was like biting into a fluffy kitten (you know what I mean). A great finish to a seriously stuffing meal.

I think people were pretty happy with their poutine choices. We drank a lot and spent a LOT of money here, but overall, the sentiment was that Forepaugh’s does a fine job at offending Canadians everywhere with their upscale poutine. Looking forward to our next poutine crawl night!

Top 5 things about Forepaugh’s
1. Malaysian Chicken Samosas 2.
Deconstructed banana cream pie
3. Pan-Seared Walleye
4. Ultimate Truffle & Foie Gras Poutine
5. Peanut Butter Crunch Bar

Bottom 5 things
1. Super toasted bun on the Opus Burger
2. This place is pricey, but you’re paying for great chefery and an awesome atmosphere. I'm not kidding about that.
3. Didn’t get to go upstairs and see the haunted third floor
4. I see they have a rooftop patio over the entrance of the restaurant. I would have asked for that if I had known. Next time!!
5. Now, I want to go back for happy hour every day…

www.forepaughs.com

PM BBQ - Chesterfield, MO

A bunch of us were down in the St. Louis area to watch the Minnesota RollerGirls play against the St. Louis Arch Rivals in a an event of roller derby awesomeness. We needed a substantial lunch, and one of the girls wanted BBQ. Coach and I had just been to Pappy’s smokehouse the previous day and knew they wouldn’t have time to wait in line and still make it to the bout later that night. So I checked some reviews and found PM BBQ was rated quite well.

The menu had some delicious sounding things on it, but what really drew my attention was something called “Crispy Ribs”. I asked the kid behind the counter and he raved about them. They’re flash fried and then covered in an Asian BBQ glaze. Oh yeah, I wanted that. ...And a side of Sweetcorn Spoonbread and some mac and cheese. D.Rough got a pulled pork sandwich and the same sides as me. I also saw they had a black cherry flavored soda by Fitz (a local soda brewer with awesome rootbeer), and I wasn’t leaving without trying that.

The food was out really fast and looked tasty.

The sweetcorn spoonbread was sort of a cornbready mishmash with some great flavor. I wasn’t sure what it would be, but I’m glad I got this. It was perfectly moist without being sloppy or dried out. Well played, PM. The mac and cheese was just average. Nothing to rave nor complain about.

The ribs were pretty awesome, I must admit. They had a sweet glaze on them with a very small amount of kick. The ribs weren’t incredibly crispy or anything, but I could tell they were fried because of the thin bark that was there. There was just slightly less meat on the crispy ribs than on the standard ribs, but that’s because flash frying things generally shrinks them up. I was surprised by these ribs, but in a good way. I’d definitely get these again.

D.Rough had good things to say about the pulled pork. Not the best in the world, but she did tell other people about her delicious sandwich, so I’m guessing it was much better than average.

And of course, the black cherry soda from Fitz was better than I even expected it to be. I need to find out if they distribute in Minnesota…

(I also got rave reviews about the sliders from Coach, for the record)

Not enough for a top 5, but suffice it to say, it was really good.

www.pmbbq.com

Happy 489th Day Anniversary!!!

D.Rough is the best.

Friday, when she came home from work, she told me to pack my bag with a swimsuit, nice clothes, and a toothbrush. No questions. I had no idea what to expect. …Thankfully, her surprises are usually awesome!

She took us to a fancy hotel in downtown St. Paul (our second choice for a wedding venue), took me to a fancy dinner, we drank some fancy drinks, walked downtown for a bit, and we slept in extra late.

Thank you for always reminding me why I chose you. I don’t deserve how well you treat me, but I hope I can repay it over our next hundred years together.

Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis, MO

When you ask people about where to get good BBQ in St. Louis, you’ll find that Pappy’s Smokehouse comes up a LOT. I’ve had a few friends eat here and tell me I need to check it out. So, when Coach and I were in St. Louis for roller derby this weekend, I strongly encouraged him to drive us there and check it out – it honestly didn’t take much encouragement.

We pulled up to the building and didn’t see a line or anything – good sign. We drove to the back of the building to park the car. And THAT’s where we saw a short line. Nothing to worry about, since the building looked large and we’d be in and out of there in no time. We hopped in line.

It wasn’t until we actually hit the door to the place that we realized how long the line was. Oh, buddy.

The line, once you got inside the door, goes down the hallway. Where they hand you a menu to look at so you’re prepared when you get to the counter to order. …And then the lines doubles back on itself before making another turn.

Once you get to halfway point, they have painted an indicator on a random door in the hallway so you don’t get depressed.

Then, you head back down the hall towards the entrance of the dining room.

Once you get to the entrance of the dining room, there’s a host/hostess that indicates when you can move into the dining room. TO GET IN LINE. I’m not kidding.

Then, you round the corner as the line continues to the ordering counter.

We laughed at the hand-written sign posted, since it was a Cubs-Cardinals baseball weekend and there were a LOT of people in town for the game.

All in all, it was about a 80-90 minutes wait in line. Thankfully, Coach and I had a lot of catching up to do, so the time went quickly. I’m not complaining at all – I’m just telling you maybe this isn’t a first date restaurant or a quick lunch venue.

While we were close to the front of the line, they sent out free samples of the beef brisket. I’m glad they did – it was delicious and made us re-guess our order. Coach and I decided to get one of the larger items and split everything to save costs. We decided on the second largest thing on the menu, obviously. The counter girl mocked us for our long hair and told us we both looked like Jesus. Very funny – like we haven’t heard that before. No seriously, it was pretty funny.

After you order, you get seated by another hostess. They are constantly cleaning off tables, so as soon as you order, you get seated at a place appropriate for the size of your party and it works pretty efficiently. We got a seat near a window where we could watch them throwing hundreds of racks of ribs into the giant smokers on the side of the building. Very fun.

Then, to our surprise, the server brought out our food. And it wasn’t what we ordered. We ordered the second largest menu item and they brought us the largest menu item. I’m guessing the girl felt bad about making fun of us and upsized our order. They brought us what is affectionately known as the Adam Bomb – named after Adam Richman of Man VS Food fame. It is enormous and I have no idea how one person would ever eat all this. I’ll list what we have on the multiple trays in front of us:

• Full slab of ribs
• Half a roasted chicken
• Pulled pork sandwich
• Beef brisket sandwich
• two orders of sweet potato fries
• Coleslaw
• Baked beans
• Texas toast
• Frito pie

That’s a serious amount of food. I’ll try to explain a little about each, so you’ll know what to order next time. There is a roll of paper towels on your table, so grab a handful of them. There are also three different sauces on the table, so try each of those, as well.

Coleslaw – This isn’t the creamy kind. At all. It’s the straight vinegar kind. I didn’t mind it and it went fairly well with the rib flavor. The zing comes from the vinegar, but there isn’t any sort of tang to it – just bite.

Baked beans – I really liked these. Great smoky flavor and some meat bits in them. I’m pretty sure these all managed to get eaten. (Well, not the scoop that ended up on Coach’s shirt and shorts. Hahaha)

Sweet potato fries – These were an odd thing that I liked and Coach didn’t care for. They were salty so you kept craving them, but they were also really sweet, like they had been sugared. That’s what turned Coach off from these. I thought they were great and I did some damage to them, but was unable to finish them all.

Ribs – Plenty of meat on these and they had a great flavor. They were a dry rub, so you could add sauce if you wanted to. They weren’t fall off the bone tender, but with a little work, you could get all the meat clean off the bone. They didn’t actually need a lot of sauce on them, since the meat was quite tasty and smoky on its own. And no fat, gristle, or cartilage – quality meat. I for SURE ate all of these.

Roasted chicken – Probably my least favorite thing. It wasn’t bad, necessarily, but it lacked the flavor of the ribs. I thought there should have been more seasonings on the skin of the thing (my favorite part), but it was just a little bland overall. And there was a lot of chicken there – we didn’t finish this guy.

Texas toast – good solid buttered white bread. BAM. Great for sopping up drips.

Frito pie – If you’re not familiar with this southern dish, it’s basically, chili or baked beans (in this case, baked beans) covered with cheese and Frito’s corn chips. This one also had onions thrown on top. And as a bonus, this Frito pie had hot links thrown in – spicy sausage links. I really liked this, but there was no way we could finish this pile of deliciousness.

Pulled pork sandwich – This was a pretty good sandwich. Again, served dry, so you get to add your sauce. The flavor was good, but there was a lot of bun here. A good showing for a pulled pork sandwich, but not my favorite. I didn’t even eat all of my sandwich.

Beef brisket sandwich – One of the best things on the menu, in both Coach’s and my opinion. The free sample we had earlier didn’t like. The meat was very juicy and flavorful and didn’t need the amount of sauce the pulled pork did. This was top quality brisket. Again, a large bun – so I ended up eating most of the bun, and all of the meat.

We didn’t eat ALL of the food on our trays, but we made a monstrous dent in it. We were absolutely stuffed to the point of being in pain. In fact, we went to the Cubs-Cards game that night and didn’t eat anything, and then didn’t eat anything for breakfast. It was more food than we should have eaten, but we loved everything we got. These people at Pappy’s Smokehouse know what they’re doing.

You might ask if it was worth the wait. I think both Coach and I would say yes, it absolutely was worth it. Thankfully, they hadn’t run out of anything by the time we ordered, but I understand that happens. Just come before you’re actually hungry, and then all the smells and walking by everyone else’s food will make you hungry enough to eat ALMOST all your food. I’m glad we went here – in effect, it saved us money, since it took the place of about three meals for us. And THAT isn’t easy to do.

GO. HERE!

Top 5 things about Pappy’s Smokehouse

1. Ribs

2. Beef brisket sandwich
3. Frito pie with hot links
4. Sweet potato fries
5. baked beans

Bottom 5 things
1. You WILL have to wait. No question about it. Anytime you go. It is always the lunch/dinner rush
2. No cornbread
3. The fried corn on the cob sounds better than it looks. No verdict on how it tastes.
4. Coleslaw was just too bland for me
5. Roasted chicken was a little bit of a let down

www.pappyssmokehouse.com

Gallagher's Bar - St. Paul, MN

D.Rough has told me about Gallagher’s and their awesome Sunday burger special. She used to frequent this place back when she lived at the top of the High Bridge in St. Paul. So when AmyLouWho suggested we meet there to talk business one day, I took her up on the offer. I had heard other people talk about their breakfasts, but since it was lunch time, it was clear, I would be getting a burger.

The place has an odd layout, so you may need some guidance. There’s a bar area and then there’s a completely separate small dining area – it even has a separate door. The dining room is on the lower level and the bar is in the upper level – both doors are pretty well marked. The building looks like a serious complex, but once you’re inside, it doesn’t seem so large. I’m guessing there are apartments in the same building with separate entrances. There’s also an older crowd here, which was awesome because it was clear our waitress knew everyone there and probably had for 25+ years.

I decided on the Royale Burger – a cheeseburger with bacon and BBQ sauce. It’s hard to go wrong with that. The basket comes with fries, which would ensure I wasn’t going to go back home hungry.

The food took a little bit longer than I expected, but not to the point where I was looking at the clock or trying to pay my bill to get out of there and back to work faster – that being said, I’m not sure if you can make it here for lunch and eat in a short lunch hour. Thankfully, the food that arrived was pretty darn good. I never have a problem waiting for good food (bad food is a different story). The burger was juicy without being greasy tasting, and it totally covered the bun. They weren’t skimping on anything here. Plenty of cheese and two strips of bacon. And a LOT of fries – which were about average. Nothing fancy, just good solid fries and plenty of them.

This totally makes me want to go back here for their cheap burger days. I’m looking forward to it. Now… to find a free Sunday…

Not enough stuff to do a Top 5, but it’s worth a trip.

Gallagher's Bar
888 Ohio St.
West St. Paul, Mn 55118

Beer Dinner at the Pig & Fiddle – Minneapolis, MN

M.Giant asked me if I’d like to accompany him to a beer dinner, now that I drink beer. Obviously, any chance I get to hang with him is a bonus for me, so I agreed. I had heard good things about Pig & Fiddle, so I was really looking forward to it. There wasn’t any point at looking at the menu, since it was a special dinner made by the chef, but I looked anyway. The food on the menu looks really good to me, so I’m assuming I’ll be back.

While waiting for M.Giant, I grabbed a beer – Indeed Brewery’s Summer Shenanigans – thinking dinner would just be smaller sample portions. I was wrong about that.

The dinner was being hosted by Lagunitas Brewery from California. So there was a rep there discussing the brewery and the beer, and the chef from Pig & Fiddle came out and discussed the food she was serving us. She had lost her voice, so she had an interpreter, which was a pretty amusing phenomenon – but honestly, it worked out well.

I’ll give you a run-down of each course:

Amouse Bouche – Iowa Le Quercia Prosciutto and shell pea salad. Paired with Lagunitas Pils.

Nice piece of prosciutto (and I had just read about the new trend being Iowa prosciutto) with a splash of olive oil and lemon juice. The peas were a nice touch and I was good with this small amount of food. The Pils was also a different flavor than many pils’ I’ve had, but still very good accompaniment. I decided then and there to only drink half of the beers when I realized they were full portions.

1^st Course: Red Curry Shellfish, steamed mussels, shrimp, and manila clams with spicy red curry broth. Paired with Lagunitas IPA.

I’m not much on mussels, but I saw how other people were eating this and joined in. They’re not my favorite thing, but I actually enjoyed these, especially in the curry broth. The broth had a nice slow-build heat and went well with the shrimp and clams, as well as the mussels. The IPA was pretty close to being too hoppy for me, but I was able to get through my pre-decided half glass.

Entrée: Pan-roasted pork tenderloin with plum salsa, baby bok choy, and potato puree. Paired with Lagunitas Fusion 15.

The pork tenderloin was really a fantastic dish and there was plenty of it – more than I expected for a multi-course meal. The plum salsa was a surprising treat and I enjoyed this entire plate. The beer was explained as a Minnesota-based home brewer that won a contest and was flown out to Lagunitas, where they replicated it in bulk and threw it into some kegs for distribution. That brewer, as it turns out, is my good friend TheDoctor. He brewed a seriously hoppy India Black Ale that suited the pork tenderloin nicely (it might even be better with a beef dish or steak, since it is so heavy).

Cheese course: Milton Creamery Prairie Rose with buckwheat honey and pickled blackberries on a grilled baguette. Paired with Lagunitas Lucky 13 (red ale).

A pretty straight forward plate presentation. The cheese was rich and nutty and went nicely with the uniquely pickled blackberries. The baguette added some crunch, but could have been buttered – just a personal preference. The Lucky 13 was served in a smaller glass since the ABV is getting up there close to 9% and overall it was pretty hoppy and bitter for my palate. I managed to get through my half glass.

Dessert: a Salted Pecan Tart with grapefruit caramel and shortbread crust. Paired with Undercover Shut-Down Ale.

The tart was surprising winner. I didn’t expect much out of it, but it honestly made my face happy at the end of this meal. Even M.Giant who is suspicious of weird foods was pleasantly surprised. Soft and moist and delicious (the tart, not M.Giant). The Undercover Shut-Down Ale was a result of a police raid and subsequent shutdown of the brewery. To commemorate the event, the brewer dedicated it to the investigators and turned up the ABV to 9.75%. Well played. It was REALLY bitter, this one. I guess they’re still angry about being shut down for a couple of weeks.

This was a really good event. The owner of the restaurant came over and chatted with us, as did the brewery rep, and the chef. I’m glad I decided to just drink half glasses of beer since some people looked like they might be sticking around drinking water for a while. Now that I know the chef can make some amazing food, I’m very interested in coming back to try some of the regular menu items here.

Great work, Pig & Fiddle!

Top 5 things about Pig & Fiddle

1. Pan roasted pork tenderloin

2. Salted pecan tart

3. Tons of beers on tap

4. Lagunitas Pils

5. Staff here are incredibly nice

Bottom 5 things

1. It was difficult to hear the explanations of everything with everyone talking. I would have loved to hear more about the food, but then again, I’m more of a food guy then a beer guy

2. Super hoppy and bitter beers, but people were raving about them, so don’t take my opinion

3. They didn’t mention TheDoctor’s name in the explanation of the contest winner for Fusion 15

4. The amount of beer people drank was pretty impressive, but I wished I had heard more people talking about designated drivers than I actually did

5. I wish I was able to order all the OTHER awesome things people have told me about the regular menu!

www.pignfiddle.com