Caspian Bistro

Tonight instead of cooking, PiC and I went to Caspian over on University. Nummy nummy Persian food.

If you've never eaten here (and are local), it is a place for distinctly subtle yet intriguing flavors. The dolmeh we got for appetizers were *warm* instead of chilly like it usually is in greek food and far less dense. Also the saffron flavored sugar cubes.

For entrees, we both ended up with a form of kabob, mine chicken, his filet mignon and a ground beef/lamb kofta thing. Both quite delightful. They gave us PILES and piles of rice, some flavored with saffron on top, and butter. But *mine* had barberries on it as well, fabulous dried berry. It's like a sweeter, smaller cranberry. With a little bit of lemon on top... Mmmmmmm.

Dessert was nummy little balls that tasted like they were soaked in honey, rosewater, and made with a little bit of pistachio. The underthing that was kinda like sugar soaked funnel cake was tasty, but a little too sweet.

OH! And the drinks! PiC was not so fond of the yogurt drink he started with, sadly. However, I suggested to him that he try the sekanjabin. *evil grin* Totally won him over with that one. I may make some syrup tomorrow to bring to WW if sewing goes better in the morning. Me, I had a delightful quince/lemon drink that is made with syrup in a similar way as the sekanjabin. Ooooooooooh I'm in love with the flavor of quince. What a woefully underused fruit in American society.

None of the flavors for all they were unusual, especially in their combination, to the American palette were in your face though. Very subtle. Makes you pay attention to your food and have a intimate conversation with it as you learn every vibration of taste.

The Dakota

The Dakota... Tasty, but not really worth the price for the amount of food. Made almost reasonable by the fact that we got a discount for being Target employees. We wanted to eat outside. It was the only place with seating by the time that we left our building.

Today's dish - Yucca root gnocchi with a green chile pesto, peas, and about 4 small shrimp.

ETA: I take that back. Not even an hour after I finished eating, and I'm already hungry again. Not worth the price. It was good, it just wasn't good enough to justify that.

Babani's

Babani's? AWESOME food. Love it there. Love me some Kurdish lemonade. Apparently they dry their lemons in the sun for a while and the juice ends up being sweeter and brown like iced tea.

Tried the Chicken Tawa and it was yummy, though a little too stew like for me; but light and lemony and tasty. So I switched with PiC and tried the kubay sawar (breaded beef dumpling like thing) and that was divine.

Also their baklava is not too sweet. OMG I didn't think it possible. Definitely worth the drive over to St Paul for.

Lucky didn't make it home last night

Tonight, OSO, PiC and I went to Chino Latino and tried the guinea pig for OSO's birfday.

That was certainly interesting.

Nothing I need try again, because really, the little head and feet disturbed me a little. But it was fun. And now I can say I've done it. :) Of all the things I would have thought I'd have tried in my life... Whee! It tastes a little like greasy chicken.

This is the second time that I've been to this restaurant, and I have to say I'm just not all that impressed. Sure I love the cosmopolitan that has the dry ice in it. But the food just seems too overpriced and trendy. Like the trendy is more important than the food.

On top of that the restaurant is just LOUD. Can't hold a decent conversation pretty much ever.

I'll go again. But only if someone else pays.

Christos

Oooooh, dinner was a good thing. I went to Christos down the street and they are definitely made of yum.

I got a sampler plate to have three different meals. Spanakopita, mousaka, and dolmathes. All are small versions of larger dishes and they were perfectly balanced. Retsina was the main (white) wine, with its lightly pine flavor, and I ended the evening with chocolate mousse and a mavrodaphne, which is a sweet red wine.

What a perfect dinner to have to celebrate my own birthday. Happy 31st, Tegan. You deserved it.

Everest on Grand

I treated myself to a massage early this morning, lunch at Everest on Grand (the Yak Momos are YumYum), and renewing my driver's license that thankfully did not take long.

Nepali food is like a cross between Indian and Chinese, but less... spicy. If you had to climb down a mountain to get your spices, you'd use them sparingly as well. And yes, I really did have yak meat for lunch. It's like beef, but... leaner.

Now to figure out what I'm going to do for the rest of the day.

Cravings

I want to remind myself that at some point soon, I want to go to Cecil's.

Cecil's it would seem makes knishes locally. And a good simple potato knish just sounds delightful.

I'm kinda in the wrong area of the country to find those easily. At least I don't think Kramarczuk's has them. They're Eastern European, but I'm guessing not Jewish. And I'm not so sure of other places that could possibly carry them.

Growing up in NJ, we used to be able to get like a three pack of these square knishes in the deli section of the grocery store (Pathmark). I could toss one in the toaster oven to heat them up and just nom nom nom...

*sigh*

Anyway. I should not be looking at food websites when I'm trying to motivate myself up off the couch to make myself some foods.