CrunCheesse Korean Hot Dog – Minneapolis, MN (Dinkytown)

 

A friend of mine recommended this place, but had described it in such a way that I thought I may have imagined it or made it up in some dream I had. But sure enough, this place actually exists (and it sounds like they’re trying to make a franchise go of it, since the original one is in Las Vegas – where other crazy dream-like scenarios happen). Note: I also just looked and have discovered that CrunCheese in Las Vegas is a block away from one of my favorite tiki bars – The Golden Tiki – so I’ll have to make that combo the next time I’m in Sin City.

 

What is a Korean hot dog, you might ask? Well, it’s actually a corn dog (known as a gamja hot dog), so it’s a standard-type hot dog in a batter. So, yes, Americans would call it a corn dog. The batter is dairy free – at least at CrunCheese – and you can get it with a variety of toppings and sauces. That’s the basic explanation, just so we’re all on the same page. You know how when you get Korean chicken wings at a restaurant, they’re like chicken wings you’re used to and then they’re fried like 30 seconds longer to make sure they’re EXTRA crispy? Yeah, these corndogs are like this. But the variations are pretty slick. 

 

You can get a plain corn dog, sure. But why would you when you can get one that’s got some pizzazz? You can get them half hot dog and half cheese stick (mozzarella or cheddar) – keep in mind this half and half version is like top-half cheese and bottom-half hot dog, so you won’t get both flavors in one bite. Or entirely cheese on the inside. Or you can get them with sausage. Or with a squid ink batter. Or with a premium hot dog – likely pandering to American’s refined palate hahaha. Or with a rice cake instead of a hot dog.

 

Once you get the insides figured out, then you have to determine what’s on the outside. You can get the entire thing rolled in cubed potatoes or cubed sweet potatoes (for an upcharge that’s totally worth it). Think of it like you’re at the state fair or some street market in Korea. You want the full experience, so get the add-on. Then, while they’re frying up your magical corn dog, you can stand and stare at the list of sauces they have available to slather your crispy corn dog in. I should have taken a photo of them, so you could see them all. It’s an impressive list. Yes, they do have ketchup and mustard and even honey mustard, but go right past those. Consider cheese mustard, hot sauce, sweet chili, or garlic parmesan. Then you can continue the adventure by adding different dry seasonings to that – parmesan cheese powder, cheddar cheese dust, or honey butter seasoning. Probably a few that I’m missing. 

 

I went with a mozzarella and sausage covered hot dog, rolled in potato cubes, and then covered with sweet chili sauce. And it was truly the right choice. And, like I assumed earlier, like a dream I had, but this was real life. Super crunchy potatoes and batter, cooked perfectly. The hot dog is pretty much a hot dog, so I’m not going to wax poetic on flavor profiles and nuances of textures. I’ve never had chili sauce on a corndog before but now I’m a convert. It’s just really amazingly good. I’m looking forward to going back and trying some of the other combinations. 

 

I wrote way too long about this corndog, but I really wanted you all to pick up what I’m throwing down on this one. You’re going to want to go to Dinkytown (or better yet, LAS VEGAS) and pick up a couple of these for your family. One was plenty for one person, even me, once you get all the attachments and accoutrements. So, keep that in mind. But, you won’t be sorry, no matter you get there. It’s a super small and efficient shop – order at the counter, go outside and wait until they call your number, go inside and tell the cashier how you want your corn dog finished off, and then pay the person. Easy.

Mesa Pizza – Minneapolis, MN (Dinkytown)

D.Rough and I had heard about this “incredible pizza” place in Dinkytown from a number of people. Yes, this place had won a couple of awards for its food, but it’s pizza – how different could it be? But we were in that neck of the woods, so I surprised D.Rough by going there.


When you walk in, there’s a giant sign on the wall with all of the different kinds of pizzas they make there. It isn’t a normal pizza ingredient list. These people are very creative – and not in a bad way. They have enough different varieties (many with hilarious names) that you could go back twenty times and never try the same slice twice. As I was looking at the menu on the wall, the guy working behind the counter told me to just ignore that list and come look at what they’ve currently got out on the counter. He told me the one pizza they don’t have out there is the one I’m going to pick. I have no idea which one they didn’t have because it looks like they have them all. There are at least twenty different types of slices at any given moment – each one better than the last.


Mesa is a slice place. They do sell large 20” pizzas, but I am guessing they really make their money on slices, being in the bar district of Dinkytown (by the U of MN).Lots of student-aged people were rolling in and rolling out of this place, so it does a pretty good business, obviously. The slices re large, so D.Rough and I decided to each pick one slice and then we’d split them. The guy offered to split them down the middle for us, so I’m guessing this is pretty common.

Now to decide on one slice out of a TON of slices is no easy feat. In fact, it was difficult. We eventually decided on the Southern Gentleman and the Pepperoni-Salami slices. The guy takes your order and then whips around and finishes the half-cooked pizzas off in the many ovens he has. You pay and then wait for a minute or two and your pizza gets serviced to you on paper plates. The waiting for the delicious pizza is the hard part – standing there smelling everyone else’s pizza cooking is torture. It’s worth the wait though.


The Pepperoni-Salami pizza has pepperoni and hard salami slices on it, and the whole thing is drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Absolutely amazing. I’ve not had pizza with these toppings on it and I would highly recommend trying it. It was terrific. The slices are HOT, so you have to contemplate scalding the inside of your mouth or waiting in tortured anticipation while it cools – you decide. I suggest waiting, but I’m a delicate flower. You can taste the pepperoni and the salami and neither get lost in the mix. Awesome slice of pizza!

The Southern Gentleman is Cajun chicken, mashed potatoes, bacon, and cheddar cheese. I’ve had some backed and mashed potato pizzas before, but this was better than any I had tried before. It was pretty spectacular. The Cajun chicken was Minnesota-spicy, so not at all, but the flavor was quite good. The bacon was delicious and the potatoes weren’t overpowering like they sometimes get at other place. Seriously. Awesome.

It was a major struggle talking ourselves out of getting additional slice. We could have probably done another two each, but we had places to go and other things to do, so we decided against it. We will go back here, without question. I think you’ll figure out why people talk about this place. It’s proof you CAN actually do interesting things with pizza and pull it off with flare. Thanks for changing my mind about this particular topic.

Top 5 things about Mesa Pizza
1. Southern Gentleman
2. Pepperoni-Salami
3. Amazingly awesome menu
4. They’re open plenty late AND they deliver (with reason)
5. Really nice and helpful people

Bottom 5 things
1. You WILL burn your face off if you try to eat it right out of the oven
2. You may have to search a few tables to find the parmesan and red peppers
3. Not every pizza on the menu is available by the slice ALL the time (just mostly)
4. The menu is so huge, you WILL have trouble deciding
5. It isn’t upscale and I know people are expecting upscale pizza these days – get over it

www.mesapizzamn.com

Kafe 421 – Minneapolis, MN (Dinkytown)

GingerVitus had more hilarious stories to tell me before I started my new job, so we decided to meet for lunch again near her work. She chose Kafe 421 and fortunately, I had never been there before – I’m always up for trying new restaurants. This place is kind of a mash of different styles and is borderline upscale, maybe a high-mid-scale environment. Not snooty, but definitely classier than Buffalo Wild Wings.

The place seems kind of small and narrow inside, but it looks like the dining area goes back further into the restaurant than I would have imagined. The menu isn’t terribly large, but is reasonable for a lunch offering. I found a couple of things I wanted to try. There’s a lot of sandwiches, salads, and pastas on the menu. I got it narrowed down to 5 things, then down to three, then finally decided on the Pork Tenderloin Sandwich – roasted pork tenderloin, swiss cheese, thick cut bacon (dur…), spinach, avocado, and scallion may on whole grain bread. I asked for the mayo on the side, since I’m weird about my sauces. It comes with salad or fries and I went with the Caesar salad this time around.


The food arrived quickly, and I was pretty happy to see my sandwich and salad looking delicious. It was now that I realized I had forgotten my camera in the car and politely asked GingerVitus if I could borrow her camera phone to take a photo and e-mail it to myself. Thankfully, she only gave me the briefest of hard times about forgetting things like this, and eventually took out her phone. Thanks GV! The salad was a pretty standard Caesar salad. Nothing to write insane amounts about, but it was very good.

The sandwich was pretty awesome though. I was really happy with it. The meat was really good and the cheese and avocado seemed perfect for this thing. I even started using the weird mayo with the sandwich and it made it better – hooray! The bread was one of my favorite kinds (the kind with all the stuff on the outside of the bread – you know – the seeds and weird bits of stuff) and was lightly toasted. Not like Quizno’s blood-inducing toasted, but just enough to give it some texture. The bacon was delicious as it’s very difficult to screw up and the veggies on the sandwich were very fresh and tasty.

There were enough things on the menu that look appetizing that I’ll likely be back soon. Even GingerVitus’s Spinach Salad looked delicious – strawberries, spinach, pears, gorgonzola, cranberries, walnuts, and orange-sesame dressing – yeah, really. It looked awesome.

Top 5 things about Kafe 421
1. Pork Tenderloin Sandwich
2. Spinach Salad (according to GingerVitus)
3. Really diverse menu with a lot of styles
4. GingerVitus has the most hilarious stories. Everytime.
5. Upscale without being snooty


Bottom 5 things
1. It’s slightly pricey – not outlandish, but not cheap
2. Some of the wait staff looked REALLY surly, enough to comment on
3. There really isn’t anything else bad
4.
5.

www.kafe421.com

Camdi Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant – Minneapolis (Dinkytown), MN

GingerVitis and I had some stories to swap, so we decided to meet for lunch. She works at the U of MN, so we opted to meet in Dinkytown to make her life easier. I heard there were some decent Asian places around there, so I suggested Camdi. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was worth a shot, right?

The place is pretty small, but the menu has a lot of stuff on it, including a lunch menu. I saw they had fresh spring rolls on the menu, so I got an order of those. And then I decided on the Basil, eggplant, and tomato stir fry, but extra spicy. I also got chicken in it, just to add some flavor. Sometimes stir fry can cook out the flavor of vegetables instead of enhancing them.

The spring rolls came out quickly and much to my surprise, GingerVitis doesn’t eat them, so I got to eat both. SCORE! They were decent. A little floppy and the ingredients didn’t seem all that fresh, but they were edible and simply fine.

The food came out much quicker than I would have thought, and looked fine as well. No bright colors or anything like that. The dish I had had EXTREMELY large pieces of eggplant in it. Like large enough I could have cut them into three pieces (I didn’t because I’m not above shoving large chunks of food into my mouth in front of girls or anything). But sadly, I didn’t have a knife either, so it wasn’t going to happen. The eggplant was a bit soggy as well, so it wasn’t the best eggplant I’ve ever had. The rest was a tad greasy for my liking. I don’t mind a little bit, but it seemed more than usual. Big pieces of onion, and green pepper as well. I think the cook must have a giant mouth or something since nothing (except the carrot slices) was small enough to be considered an actual bite. It was kind of sub-par in my opinion as a whole.

Not sure if I’ll come back to Camdi for lunch again. It wasn’t terrible, but there are certainly MUCH better places to eat Asian food, especially in Dinkytown.

Top 5 things about Camdi
1. Friendly waiter
2. Good variety on menu
3. It’s close to campus (good, only if you live/work there)
4. Parking is cheap ($2?) right behind the place
5. GingerVitis has the most hilarious stories

Bottom 5 things
1. Stir fry was bland
2. Huge chunks of food and tough to eat without a knife on the table
3. Sub-par spring rolls
4. It just doesn’t feel clean inside
5. I should have gone to the new Uncle Franky’s location across the street

www.camdirestaurant.com

Best Detour Ever – Tiny Town, CO

For those that don’t know about my weird taste in movies, I’m a collector of terrible B-movies. There’s a movie I showed at the last Bad Movie Night I hosted called Terror of Tiny Town – it’s the world’s only all-midget western. Yes, I’m dead serious. So, when I was driving back from Conifer’s disc golf course, I saw a random road sign that said Tiny Town. I immediately swerved off the road onto the exit and headed through miles of backroads in the direction of Tiny Town.

I had no idea what to expect in Tiny Town, but when I got about 25 minutes into the detour, I began to get discouraged and thought about turning back. In fact, the next time I saw a sign for a major road, I took it. When I got to the intersection of the main road, I saw another sign for tiny town back the way I came. In typical male flip-flop decision making, I U-turned and headed back in the direction of Tiny Town. I’m glad I did.

I drove around a couple more windy bends and out popped Tiny Town! I had no idea what it was STILL, but I saw a train ride and kids everywhere.

I pulled into the parking lot and headed towards the ticket booth. It was only five bucks, so I shelled it out and strolled in. It’s a miniature village for kids to walk through. Seriously, that’s all it is!!! But it’s hilarious. I’m assuming it was built many many years ago but there are a couple of newer buildings like the Harley Davidson shop.

I made quick work of Tiny Town, but took a few photos.


The Tiny Town Public Library for my librarian friends.

And me inside one of the tiny houses.

I’m just going to throw this out there. Where there’s kids, there’s hot moms. And yes, I’m creepy enough to take photos of them.

Not EVERYTHING is tiny in Tiny Town…

I’m sure my wonderful friends have already come up with a number of comments about my man-stature and how I should be the mayor of Tiny Town already. The name of this store should crack them up even more.

This was a hilarious fun and ridiculous detour, but I’m glad I did it. I thought about terrorizing kids, so I could be the Terror of Tiny Town.

Top 5 things about Tiny Town
1. Best road-side oddity I’ve been to
2. I’m still chuckling about the “Little Log Store”
3. Hot moms
4. I got to a see a tiny-tantrum from one little girl who’s father was trying to push her into a tiny windmill
5. Now I know what TheDoctor feels like all the time


Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd loved to go to stupid road-side tourist traps with oversize (or undersized) randomness. She would have loved this, especially because of the Terror of Tiny Town connection
2. There’s an easy exit from 285 and a long and wind-y exit from 285. Apparently, I chose the winding one
3. There’s really nothing to actually DO there, but kids seemed WAAY excited to be there
4. I should have bought a train ticket. My own fault
5. There really is no connection with the movie nor were there any dwarves. Bummer

http://www.tinytownrailroad.com

Ron Sexsmith – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN

I’d been looking forward to this show for a couple of months and it didn’t disappoint. Trash always mocks Ron in public, but is a closet fan. After this show, she said, “I forgot how much I like his music. I’m glad I went.” In your FACE, Trash. I win. Also, it makes us deeply miss our surly Asian friend from Vancouver, WA – who introduced us to Ron Sexsmith in the first place and who will be seeing Ron and Meagan out in Portland, OR in a week or two.

The venue is a really cool place to see a show. The sound quality was good, and they had it set up coffee-house style since there wasn’t a chance in hell of a circle pit breaking out. Low lighting heavy drapes on the walls, small tables, and some comfy chairs and couches made this a really great venue for this type of show.

Meagan Smith opened the show. There’s something I like about her and something that gave me issues. I’m not sure which was which or why really. She has a great voice and sings half serious-half amusing songs. But she seemed uncomfortable talking to the crowd – and not in a cute way. It made me feel weird watching her talk. Her songs were good, though I’m still undecided on the song that some hiphop dj made prerecorded samples for. Weird, but maybe it comes off better on CD. She’s worth checking out. She got signed to a major label, so I’m guessing they’ll white it up and it will sound a bit better.

Ron played a really solid set, as usual. Played from a set list which included songs from all his albums (which I now own), and he played a couple songs that people shouted out from the crowd. He’s got good report with people and was cracking wise more than I’d seen him do the other times I’ve seen him. It was hilarious. There were some technical glitches with microphone buzzing, but he kept right on – didn’t even bother him. He made a joke about some feedback early in the show and kept right on. He even messed up a guitar part, laughed, apologized and went right on. He’s a professional, but he’s human. I like to see that once in a while. He’s a great performer, though someone once told me he looks like an ugly woman – it’s true though.

Gerd had some sort of conniption after the show about him stealing a Crosby, Stills, and Nash song (she's VERY touchy about her classic rock/folk music). But she was bored most of the show, so hopefully, she sat and stewed about that first song and it gave her something to do for the next hour. I'm kidding...

I’ll be back to see him the next time we are in the same city, so if you’re game, let me know. The more the merrier.

Top 5 things about the Ron Sexsmith show
1. Ron is an awesome guitarist – very underrated
2. Great venue
3. Ron’s backup musicians are very good
4. He’s human, emotional, hilarious, and sensitive – you should totally marry him (whoever “you” are)
5. Tickets were $10 – wurd

Bottom 5 things
1. Electric guitar was a smidge too loud
2. Loud talkers next to us
3. Ron stocks only M and L shirts – I refuse to lose weight for Ron Sexsmith
4. I didn’t get one of the previously mentioned “comfy” chairs
5. There was a drunk guy in a duster coat staggering around the crowd during the show

http://www.ronsexsmith.com/

Annie’s Parlor – Minneapolis, MN

Trash, Gerd, and I got to the Ron Sexsmith show about an hour early (before the doors were even open to the venue), so we walked around Dinkytown a bit in search of entertainment. We did some second-hand clothing browsing (I think it was at Everyday People), looking for apparel for our team Halloween costume. Items almost purchased:
• Skin head flight jacket which said “Brass Knuckles” on it
• Bull fighter tiny jacket
• Blue see-through silky shirt with leg holes
• Square dance duds
• A Lorax-fur jacket
• Purple ruffle-y shirt
We didn’t find anything worth buying for the costume, but I will tell you this – Trash has issues telling the difference between square dancing and polygamist. (I’ll just let you ponder that for a while…)

Trash recommended this burger place for us to try, which is amusing, since she’s a vegetarian, but whatever. She walked us to Annie’s Parlor and then up 300 stairs. The place has a weird vibe – kind of divey, but you have to wait to be seated. But the people seemed friendly enough (though the host took a personal call as we were walking up to the desk and he waved someone else over to seat us – rude).

Gerd and I had already eaten, so we split a bacon cheese burger (sad, but true). Trash ended up with a veggie burger after she harassed the waitress – “Is the veggie burger ASS or is it GOOD?! – Oh, you hesitated, it must suck.” She decided on getting it anyway, but the transaction made our already skittish waitress more uncomfortable. We split some fries, which Trash said were awesome – they were. The veggie burger, which we were all forced to try was edible from my standpoint. Being familiar with the taste of flesh, this patty (I refuse to call it a burger) made with smashed sticks, grass, and other parent-less items tasted like all of the above. Even the cheese covering the top didn’t help. However, Trash said it was really good. So all you vegetarians, this might be a place to get a decent veggie “burger”.

Gerd and I’s burger was really good. More than enough for both of us, even cut in half. Really juicy and flavorful, and ample bacon and cheese. I got a look from Trash when I mentioned it was better than Matt’s. There must have been some mistake when we went to Matt’s – but my burger wasn’t that good. I’m willing to accept someone had a bad night in the kitchen or someone new was starting, so I WILL give Matt’s another try. Geeeeesh, some people are touchy.

If you’re in Dinkytown (near the University of Minnesota), this is a great place to go. I’ll go here again and I’ll get my own burger. The malts looked good, but I would have exploded fo sho.

Top 5 things about Annie’s
1. Great burgers
2. Fries
3. Anything with bacon
4. Pretty quick to get in and out (TWSS)
5. The milkshakes/malts looked awesome

Bottom 5 things
1. 300 stairs
2. Weird vibe
3. No parking
4. veggie burger (from a carnivore viewpoint only)
5. I wish I hadn’t eaten before coming here

http://www.dinkytownminneapolis.com/eat/annies/index.asp