Carla Waldemar
Cruising Through Europe in Style
Covid did its best to curtail travel. But the instant the lockdown eased, visitors ventured back to Europe—at first, hesitant and masked, then in record-setting throngs. All it took were the two most alluring words in the English language—free airfare—to convince me to set off when they popped up in a Viking River Cruise ad….
Nebraska – It’s Not For Everyone
Denver Airport is one of the busiest in the USA. But the only reason I’m landing here is to get away from crowds and into the wide-open spaces. I’m heading to Northwestern Nebraska—considered flyover land by those who don’t know better, and christened paradise by those who seek the pleasures of the scenic, unspoiled great…
Eat The Menu: Farm To Table
My grandparents—long gone—had never entered a restaurant in their lives: Why waste your hard-earned money to gussy up in scratchy Sunday outfits to eat a meal (which which fork?) served by somebody not your kin, who could instantly spot you as a hayseed straight off the Back Forty? No, thank you! They’d far more enjoy…
Winnipeg 2.0
A passport, a plane ticket, an hour and a bit of your time and you’re in an intriguing foreign country: Welcome to Winnipeg, star of Canada’s “middle province.” This was my first post-pandemic visit to Manitoba’s capitol city, so I set off to discover the new blooms in its garden of tourist delights as well…
Eat The Menu: Open House
Restaurateur David Fhima has been opening restaurants in the Twin Cities for almost as long as I’ve been writing about them. Yet the geography around which his cooking has focused always remains constant: the traditional dishes of Mediterranean kitchens, from Spain to Morocco and more. So it’s no big leap to welcome Maison Margaux, which…
My Love Affair With Libraries
I was smitten early on. As a preschooler growing up in St. Paul, a special reward for enduring a doctor’s visit was a visit to the glorious downtown library that faced Mears Park, in which the Children’s Room merited its own special entrance. There, a Valkyrie of a librarian, straight out of the prevailing stereotype…
Eat The Menu: Farm-Fresh Harvest
Q: What happens when a couple of foodies wish they could walk to dinner? A: Herbst. It’s the shiny, new restaurant serving the newly-condo-ized St. Anthony Park neighborhood along St. Paul’s Raymond Avenue, occupying a classic 1920s building, vacant for ages. Its new owners (it helps that one of them boasts connections to Tilia’s successful…
Uber uber alles
Remember taxis? Well, maybe your dad will. They’re these usually-yellow autos steered by professional drivers and summoned by a telephone call (Remember those, too?) to transport you from here to there, especially when car-less in a distant city. Today, that game is played by the likes of Lyft and Uber in transactions via a smartphone….
Eat The Menu: Clay Oven – Beyond (Way Beyond!) Chicken Tikka
At last! The sound you hear is a sigh of relief—and gratitude—that the quest is over. The metro now hosts an Indian restaurant that goes beyond (way-way beyond!) the routine staples of tandoor, curry and biryani dishes that emanate (or so I believe) from one vast underground and over-rated kitchen. Clay Oven recently debuted in…
Eat The Menu: Take The Cannoli
The Godfather was right: Leave the gun, but definitely take the cannoli. At Pinoli, they’re terrific: delicate and crunchy pastry tubes filled with creamy, demurely sweet and lemony ricotta bolstered with pistachios ($4), just the way they appear in your dreams. And while you’re at it, take the cabbage, too. It’s an unexpected hero, a…
