0 Hola Arepa - Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I had random reasons to celebrate, so we decided to hit up a place we've been meaning to go to for months. Hola Arepa in Uptown. It was a Friday night, so we knew there was going to be a wait, but we were up for it - especially since they had a bar there. The host told us it would be about 30 minutes.

We put our name in and headed to the bar. As we were walking up, the people sitting there were leaving and told us to take their spot. We sat down and proceeded to look at the drink menu - soooooo many delicious sounding drinks. Apparently, these folks are known for their creative cocktails. All of them contain bitters, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I am able to order drinks without bitters like a grown ass man, so we're all good.

I ordered an El Camino Rojo and D.Rough ordered a Cortez The Killer. We watched the drink expert make these ridiculously expert-level drinks and were pretty impressed. These drinks were strong. REALLY strong. And delicious, thankfully. We both liked the Cortez The Killer better, but both were super tasty. This also gave us time to check out the food menu so we were ready when we sat down at our table.

We ran into some friends, like you do in Uptown, and chatted the time away. We also ordered two more drinks. I opted for the Jolly Poltergeist and D.Rough got the Southerly Pariah - again, both were incredibly strong. To the point of weavy-ness. This time, I ordered the winning drink (the Jolly Poltergeist)(again, without bitters).

It was just over 30 minutes when the host called our name and sat us at a table being served expertly by Bryce - a fellow long-haired bearded gentleman. We were already leaning towards a couple of appetizers and finally decided on the Vigoron appetizer - steamed yuca, roasted pork, citrus-cabbage slaw, pico de gallo, and chicharron on a banana leaf. After a few questions, I ordered an arepa with roasted pork and sweet potatoes and D.Rough ordered the arepa with shredded beef and plantains. If you don't know what arepas are, you're missing out. They're sort of a taco-like hand food. Picture a circular cross between a pita and an english muffin, but made out of corn meal. Then stuff it with all kinds of different ingredients (mainly the kinds of things you would put in a fancy taco) like lettuce, shredded beef/pork, black beans, onions, and other things.

The Vigoron came out and we were extremely excited for this crazy thing. It was a mound of shredded pork with some other fun things to dip the pork rinds into. Seriously this thing was worth fighting over. I was very surprised both at how large it was and also how delicious it was. I'm glad we decided on this for an appetizer.

The arepas came out just after we finished our appetizer. And I'll be honest, it was really difficult to tell which one was better.

The shredded beef was had fantastic cumin flavor and the sweetness of the plantains really cut through. The cotija cheese flavor also came through brilliantly. I was really surprised how good this thing was.

The roasted pork arepa with sweet potato was also fantastic. The green onion aioli was extremely mild and complemented the roasted pork very well. Just the right amount of sweet potato so as not to be overpowering.

The yuca fries that came with our areas were wonderful. I got the chimichurri dip and D.Rough got the aioli verde dip. Again, we couldn't decide which one was better - we loved them both.

I'll be honest, I expected to just think this place was "o.k.". I was totally wrong about it. The place is wonderful. I know there are competing arepa restaurants in the Twin Cities that are cheaper, but the arepas at Hola are much larger, more full of ingredients, and are more filling. One arepa is more than enough here, especially if you get one of their enormous appetizers (which I would recommend).

Top 5 things about Hola Arepa
1. Vigoron
2. Shredded beef and plantain arepa
3. Roasted pork and sweet potato arepa
4. Delicious cocktails
5. Both the chimichurri dip and the aioli verde dips for the yuca fries

Bottom 5 things
1. You're going to wait in line, especially in the winter when the patio is closed. There's a really good reason they're as busy as they are
2. The bartender, who is an absolute wizard, is leaving Hola Arepa to start his own distillery!!!!
3. You're going to want everything on the menu
4. I've heard people call it "Holla" arepa. Those people are idiots
5. If you don't like bitters, order your fancy drinks without them - it's that easy

www.holaarepa.com

Detail: Hola Arepa - Minneapolis, MN

0 Hot Indian Foods - Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I decided to meet for a quick dinner before we headed to various commitments we had agreed to separately. Thankfully, she's a genius and wanted to go to Hot Indian Foods in the Midtown Global Market. We had heard about these Induritos (basically Indian-themed burritos) and had been dying to try them.

Her and I share pretty well, so we decided to get a Curry Lamb Indurito and a Vegan Channa Indurito. We also caved and decided to get the IndoFrites (yup, you guessed it - Indian-flavored french fries). The people working there were super helpful and gave us samples of the insides of the burritos so we could decide. Really awesome and helpful.

The Curry Lamb Indurito was really quite flavorful and D.Rough liked this one the best. Lots of Lamb meat and plenty of other filling. This one held it's shape/construction really well while eating.

The Vegan Channa Indurito was my favorite. Tons of veggies (duh) and filled with my favorite - chick peas. The thing was a little juicy and became messy quickly - not a complaint at all, just commenting. It simply makes you eat the thing faster. Absolutely amazing.

The fries were the real winner of the show. Super breaded and had both sweet potato and white potatoes. The seasoning on them was perfect and the spicy mayo dip that came with them was incredible. We should have gotten our own orders of these, and probably will next time. Make sure you get these.

Delicious dinner and I can't wait to go back and try the other Induritos (which also come in bowl form, if that makes you feel any better). Wonderful little shop in the Midtown Global Market (and also operates a food truck around the cities).

Top 5 things about Hot Indian Foods
1. Indo-Frites
2. Vegan Channa Indurito
3. Curry Lamb Indurito
4. Amazingly friendly and helpful staff
5. The mobile food trucks comes to YOU

Bottom 5 things
1. Nothing I can think of...

www.hotindianfoods.com

Detail: Hot Indian Foods - Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, MN

0 Gorkha Palace – Minneapolis, MN

Gorkha Palace is one of those places I’ve driven by a lot, but never during lunch time since I work nowhere near the place. D.Rough and I decided to meet for lunch this week and despite planning to go to another place in Northeast, when we drove past Gorkha Palace, I knew we needed to eat there and today was the day.

The inside is smaller than I imagined, mainly because the building it occupies also contains multiple other businesses. But there is plenty of seating available. It filled up almost entirely during the lunch hour while we were there, but there’s quick turnover with an Indian food buffet, so that helps.

The buffet itself looks smaller than others I had been to, but don’t be fooled, the portions on the buffet are smaller, which means they can fit more items on the buffet, and they are fresh more often – both good things. They had these lentil crisps that looked like tortilla chips, but tasted completely different and also these Indian fry-bread things that were delicious. We didn’t see any naan on the buffet, but were still satisfied to eat the above mentioned two bread-like items.

The other items were a mix of vegetarian, vegan, and carnivore dishes, even a curried hardboiled egg dish and broccoli pakora. I filled my plate.

Then I filled my plate again.

Then I went and got some Indian-style chicken noodle lentil soup. Decent, but I wanted there to be more seasoning and pop to it. I’d eat it again, though. I also ate it so fast, I forgot to take a photo.

We had a great meal and got out of there pretty quickly so we could both get back to work. While Gorkha Palace isn’t a ground breaking Indian restaurant, it’s really good and you won’t be disappointed at all. The server was really nice and made sure we were happy with our meals, which we were.

I have trouble doing top 5’s for Indian buffets because I can’t ever remember the names of the dishes I’m eating. They’re all good though. Does that help? haha

www.gorkhapalace.com

Detail: Gorkha Palace – Minneapolis, MN

0 World Street Kitchen – Minneapolis, MN

I had been to the food truck version of this place a few times and been pretty happy with the food I got there. [And now that I’ve looked back at the blog, I realize I’ve never written about them! I’m a jerk, apparently.] I was happy that D.Rough suggested we go there to check out a couple of special dishes.

I love the inside of this place. It’s sort of modern and minimalist, but still clean and classy. The menu doesn’t appear to have many items on it, until you get to looking at it. Then, you’ll realize you have a considerable job figuring out what you really want to eat. Seriously. D.Rough and I had to grab a to-go menu and sit down and really hash out what we wanted to share. It was no easy task, I tell you.

We decided on the Plate O’ Dips (hummus, smoky feta, and spiced olive tapenade with grilled pita), “La Panza” Caramelized Lamb Belly Yum Yum Rice Bowl with pickled cucumbers, daikon, and bean sprouts, and “Kingston 12” Jerk Beef tacos with mint chimichuri and queso fresco.

And, D.Rough was in the mood, so she got a very unique version of a Piña Colada. Unique means amazing in this particular instance. She was quite happy with this whole situation.

The Plate O’ Dips was delicious. Small scoops of various dips are usually pretty tasty, but the smoky feta was fight-worthy. The pitas were ultra fresh and not at all crunchy – just the way I like them. And as a bonus, there were actually enough pita triangles to finish all the dips! This was a great way to start the meal.

The Kingston 12 was pretty fabulous. Two street-style tacos filled with delicious beef, chimichuri, scallions, and cheese. The meat was really tender and the chimichuri was a delicious counter to the meat. Fantastic.

The winner of the day was the Yum Yum Rice Bowl – plus it is incredibly fun to say! The lamb was awesomely tender and the added pop of the peanuts really made this dish complete, in my opinion. The cucumbers and daikon were good, but the peanuts really stole the show. D.Rough got one small piece of fatty meat and the rest of it was perfect. No complaints at all on this bowl of awesome.

Verdict=Fantastic. Looking forward to coming back there and trying the same or new things. Either. We don’t care.

Top 5 things about World Street Kitchen

1. La Panza Yum Yum Rice Bowl (both eating and saying)

2. Kingston 12 Jerk Beef Tacos
3. Piña Colada
4. Plate O’ Dips
5. Very serious menu (and some boozy drinks)

Bottom 5 things
1. If you come there expecting to share with someone, you WILL fight over who gets what
2. You’re going to want dessert afterwards, and there isn’t much on the dessert front, but it’s ok because you won’t have room
3. I can’t decide whether I like the regular menu or the brunch menu better. These guys really nailed it.
4. Parking isn’t the best on Lyndale…
5. I can’t think of anything bad, so I’ll quit making things up now

www.eatwsk.com

Detail: World Street Kitchen – Minneapolis, MN

0 Bad Movie Night (Heavy Metal Theme) – West St. Paul, MN

The Bad Movie Night theme this time was heavy metal. We usually do a potluck-style dinner ahead of time and people bring food items related to the theme. I encouraged people to dress in all black and bring some creative foods for us to eat. People got realllllllly creative with this theme, and I’m really glad.

Just to gloss over the movies, I showed Rock N Roll Nightmare about a Canadian rock band (yeah, hilarious, right?) who goes to record an album and slowly gets picked off, one-by-one. The second movie was Detroit Metal City – a Japanese film about a kid who really wants to sing trendy pop music but secretly sings in a scary death metal band to make ends meet in the meantime.

But the real treat of the night was the food. I’ll point out that we’ve never had anyone bring a cake to Bad Movie Night before and this evening, we had FIVE cakes. Hilarious.

I’ll start with the best one of the night. A Black Metal cake.

D.Rough tried to cut into it to dish it up and the knife clunked. She looked around to see if anyone had seen her cut into this what was going to be a terribly overbaked cake. Everyone saw it. UnicycleJoe had frosted an upside-down cake pan with black frosting. CLASSIC!!!! No actual cake was involved in this thing. Just frosting on a metal pan. Brilliant idea, Joe. You win.

Rum to the Hills cake from JessSayin’ and FireWally. This thing was amazing!!!!

Rocky brought Head-Bangers and Mosh.

I made Hail Seitan for our vegan friends.

B.Sweet brought Bull’s Blood – some wine from Hungary (do they even make wine there?).

D.Rough made a Blood Red Velvet Cake with Celtic Frost-ing (she’s the best lady in the world).

Hüsker Stü made a vegan black cake with a sri racha pentagram and candles in the corner called Cain's Sacrifice – awesome!

ShotgunMillie brought raisins, since they’re high in iron – a heavy metal. SVB made heavy metal cupcakes with metal colored frosting. And, we broke out the candelabra and red table cloth to make it official.

Such a good night. I’m honored to have so many creative friends.

Detail: Bad Movie Night (Heavy Metal Theme) – West St. Paul, MN

0 Ward 6 (re-do) – St. Paul, MN

I always give restaurants a second (sometimes third) chance. Especially when I feel like it’s an ordering error on my part that jinxed the whole operation. I’m glad I gave Ward 6 another chance – they fully redeemed themselves from my last visit, and assured me it was completely my own fault for ordering wrong.

This go around, I met EnyaFace! at the restaurant and we got caught up over some beers. We split an order of meatball appetizers which were fantastic hand-made Italian meatballs. They came in a small pile sitting on top of some delicious marinara sauce. Unfortunately, there were five, which doesn’t split easily. But fortunately, I’m NOT from Minnesota – this means I’m not afraid to take the last one on the plate. Haha, sucker! I’m kidding. EnyaFace! totally told me I could take the last one. These non-dense meatballs were filled with garlic and oregano and other seasonings and I wondered how many of these I could eat in one sitting. I REALLY need to stop challenging myself like that.

This visit, I decided to get the Cicero Stew. It’s a vegetarian-for-sure stew, and maybe even vegan, with a distinctly Moroccan seasoning to it. I was skeptical if this could stand up to some of the more meaty dishes Ward 6 had on the menu, but I was feeling lucky.

This dish was excellent. Great amount of seasoning without it being overwhelming. I could still taste all of the individual items like broccoli and sweet potatoes, and there was a hint of Minnesotan heat to it. Nothing spicy, of course, but there was a little warmth there. Which was nice since it had snowed just days before – yes, in May. It was served on a bed of basmati rice that simply soaked up even more delicious juice than I even expected. This is what you need to order here.

EnyaFace! ordered the Grilled Camembert Sandwich, which is a grilled cheese with pears, walnut butter, and arugula on sourdough. She raved about this almost as much as I raved about the Cicero Stew.

You should probably check this place out, people. It’s got a great Minnesota beer list with very thorough descriptions and categories. It’s got adult milk shakes. It’s got fine and friendly people working. And it’s not off the charts expensive. Definitely worth a visit, especially if you like charcuterie. They take it very seriously at Ward 6.

Ward 6

Detail: Ward 6 (re-do) – St. Paul, MN

0 2013 Scotch Pong World Championships - West St. Paul, MN

Last November, our friend Dantigravity came up with a concept for something that had potential to be life-altering – Scotch Pong. It’s like Beer Pong, but much classier. Dantigravity thought D.Rough and I should host this event, since we have the room to pull off a party of this magnitude.

If you’re unfamiliar with Beer Pong, I’ll give you the basics: You set up a triangle of red solo cups at each end of a long table (like a bowling pin configuration). Then, one member of each team throws or bounces a ping pong ball and tries to get it into the cups at the opposite end of the table. If the ball goes in the cup, that opposing team has to drink what’s in the cup. Simple, right?

Now let’s look at some numbers. Beer generally has 3-7% alcohol by volume. Scotch has 40-50% alcohol by volume. Do you see where we are going with this? I had to come up with some way for people not to DIE at this event. I thought we’d go with just a shot of scotch in the cups, rather than a mostly full cup. Also, we’d only use 6 cups, instead of 10 cups. Still too deadly, in my opinion. This event is a double elimination tournament, so participants would be playing a minimum of two complete games. And people sometimes forget to drink water during these events, so I needed to add water into the game. That lead to three cups of water and three cups of scotch for each team.

Then, these games could go pretty quickly, so I needed to come up with a way to drag this out as long as possible,. If participants were required to drink multiple shots quickly, things were going to go south FAST. So…… I changed the red solo cups to glass low-ball (old fashioned) glasses. You might think this isn’t a big change, but it turned out to be the greatest impact on the evening. It is REALLY difficult to get a ping pong ball to go into a glass cup, even with liquid inside the cup. I bought a case of low-ball glasses from a bar supply store and did some trial runs. Plus, drinking scotch out of glass cups is more classy, and we’re all about class at the Scotch Pong World Championships.

Due to the high alcohol content for the evening, the official Twitter hashtag for the event was #MassSuicideFest2013. Thank you, TempleOfDoom for coming up with that most appropriate moniker for the event. And everything is more fun with FUN-fetti cake!!!

The entry fee was simple for this event – bring a new or full-ish bottle of whatever scotch you would like to drink. We had one team accidentally bring Irish whiskey and we would not let them participate. However, KingDavid had brought a bottle of Islay Mist (clearly the Arbor Mist of Scotland), and happily donated it to the team so they could play. Thank you, KingDavid, for your generous donation.

I won’t go into details about the entire night, but it was one of the most fun parties D.Rough and I have ever thrown. We encouraged people to dress formally, since it was a fancy event. Many people did dress up and it enhanced the atmosphere of the entire night. I even broke out a new ascot for the night. (I had already taken off my tux jacket by this point - sorry it didn't make it in the photo)

We had eight teams participating in this double elimination tournament with only one team swap out when one team went home ill (flu-related, not alcohol-related). Awkward Taco was under the weather to begin with, and coincidentally, The Kool-Aid Kids arrived just as Awkward Taco forfeited the game.

We had The Highlander and Braveheart showing on the television to highlight the Scottish heritage of this event. We also realized that we had inadvertently scheduled the event on Robert Burns’ (famous Scottish poet) birthday. What better way to honor his fine work than with a Scotch-drinking event.

We had a crowd of designated drivers, spouses, live-tweeters, photographers, and revelry-lovers. This group provided much cheering and heckling and even some food to help participants absorb alcohol. I’m so glad we had spectators to witness the shenanigans.

There were numerous upsets and nail-biting rounds. Many matches came down to one cup for each team. That cup is extremely difficult to drop a ping pong ball into, especially using glass cups.

In the end, Team Casual (featuring our very own M.Giant and his partner whom he hadn’t met before that night) triumphed TWICE over Bearded Wonders (featuring B.Sweet and ME!!!). Bearded Wonders only had to win one of the two games to win the title and we managed to get both games down to one cup for each team before Team Casual swooped in for the win. Team Casual had to win both games to win the title (which they did). It was an intense battle, but seriously, it was incredible fun for everyone.

(Thanks for the photo, Spike!)

Some other hilarious things that happened:

• Team Commander Stein didn’t realize “cask strength” means super-alcohol-y scotch
• Man wearing ascot vs. Man in Tuxedo
• Team Dan Dan noticed after their second round, that their scotch was 10% higher ABV than everyone else’s
• Space Jam was quite inspiring in Commander Stein’s gameplay, also thanks to Scar for top-notch coaching (You’re the best Mr. Fuji ever!)
• Teams that pre-gamed before the event didn’t fare well
• Unsanctioned extra-curricular scotch pong WILL, in fact, get you weavy-drunk
• Irish AND Canadian whiskeys were barred from participation
• Taki’s go with every party
• More parties need roller derby infield seating
• We even had some subtle product placement from the Twin Cities Terrors’s newest men’s roller derby team – The Thunderjacks! Nicely played, gentlemen.

Here is the final bracket for the night. Very impressive, mainly in people’s ability to hold their liquor.

And finally, the most hilarious part of the night (and a little before and after): the Twitter feed for the evening. It was quite entertaining to read. I broke it all down to only related tweets, to make your lives easier. But, if you are into twitter at all, you’ll be highly amused by the live event tracking for our home viewers. Open this document (which is in Word) and start at the bottom of the page and read up to the top. You’ll thank me later.

Huge thanks to all the participants, spectators, live tweeters, referees, photographers, food-bringers, and designated drivers. We couldn't have done it without you all!

Detail: 2013 Scotch Pong World Championships - West St. Paul, MN

0 Cheese Factory Restaurant – Wisconsin Dells, WI

We weren’t sure what to expect from this restaurant when we pulled up to it, aside from knowing they had gotten rave reviews about their grilled cheese sandwich from Rachel Ray at some point. D.Rough came across the name of this place while we were driving to Chicago this weekend. It had gotten pretty good reviews, so we thought we’d check it out for dinner. It’s a vegetarian restaurant, as well, so we were curious what kind of thing this restaurant was going to be.

When we walked inside, it had a sort of old ice cream shop feel to it, with a soda counter and small white tables with white-seated chairs. There were extremely nice people working as hostess and server and soda counter person, and everyone was full of smiles. We perused the menu and were intrigued by a lot of things on the menu. It had a decidedly non-standard vegetarian list of options to choose from and we had troubled deciding what we’d split. We even opted to NOT choose the alleged amazing grilled cheese sandwich. Which leads me to my next point – this restaurant has an impressive LACK of cheese at it. Turns out the restaurant is built on the location of an old cheese packing factory. Wait. I mean former cheese factory – they didn’t package old cheese. So there currently isn’t any tie-in to cheese with this restaurant. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, though.

Also, look at the Men's room entrance. It's the super thick insulated, bulletproof door to a walk in freezer. I was scared enough by the sight of this door that I didn't even attempt go in. I wasn't sure I'd come out.

We ordered the East Meets Midwest – a chickpea stew – and a Mediterranean Medley platter, though we were seriously tempted by the Goat Roast (goat cheese with garlic and red peppers) and the Malaysian Coconut Noodles. I TOLD you it was a non-traditional menu.

The Mediterranean Medley had quite a few things on it (which is why we ordered it, obviously). The toasted bulgar pilaf is a cracked wheat grain with sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, and sesame seed. It was served cold, but both D.Rough and I thought it would be much better if it were hot. It had a decent flavor, but sometimes (this time wasn’t much different), the flavor gets a little lost in the translation and ended up a little dry and bland. There were also some roasted red peppers, which were surprisingly flavorful, considering it is winter. There were slices of cucumber and marinated beets, which I love. These were really good, but D.Rough stuck to the cucumbers. The grilled portobello mushroom slices were cold. It’s difficult to hide the fact that the mushroom isn’t fresh when it’s actually cold inside. It did have grill marks on it, but we’re not dummies. Weirdly, both of us said the flavor was good – we just wished it were warm (or even room temperature). The hummus was good and went well with the pita bread. The feta cheese had a great flavor (see they do have SOME cheese)(it is, after all, Wisconsin). And the olives were a good finisher to this plate. The organic greens salad that comes with the sampler is a little underwhelming, as well. Simply greens and three cherry tomatoes with some dressing. Yes, it tasted fine, but there wasn’t anything special about the presentation or attempt at making it unique. Not an entirely mind-blowing sampler platter, but it did the job of filling us up with healthy stuff.

The East Meets Midwest chickpea stew was really quite awesome though. Sort of an Indian spice in the thick stew and with the accompanying pita bread, it was the best part of the meal, without a doubt. I’d recommend that dish to anyone.

We decided against getting any of the delicious looking desserts they have in the case, and even opted to NOT exploit the soda fountain. We had a long drive and knew we’d be stopping for snacks at some point before we arrived at our destination.

Overall, an average meal. A couple of items could have turned up the wow-factor if they had been the right temperature, but nothing actually tasted bad – for which we were thankful. We also kept in mind Wisconsin Dells pretty much shuts down when tourist season is over, so the restaurants may not have the top quality stuff they have during the busy months. We were one of two tables being used this particular evening, to prove the point. Still, the people there were extremely friendly and helpful. It’s a nice fun atmosphere, even in the off season and It’s likely one of the only vegetarian options in town (they also have a gluten free menu).

Top 5 things about the Cheese Factory Restaurant
1. Chickpea stew
2. Super diverse menu
3. Roasted red peppers
4. Very nice staff
5. Great alternative to road-trip fast food

Bottom 5 things
1. Cold portobello mushroom
2. Bulgar pilaf
3. The pita bread may have been flame-broiled at one time, but we still cold from the fridge
4. Severe lack of cheese
5. Boring salad

www.cheesefactoryrestaurant.com

Detail: Cheese Factory Restaurant – Wisconsin Dells, WI