Hello!

Here is the current article on my Tasty Reads food column. It's about Whole Foods, the national chain grocery store that specializes in organic and all-natural products. Perhaps not as fun or pictured filled as my other stories but super informational and a great place to check out.

- Happy eating and living!

It's a newer sushi restaurant on Washington Ave, near the Metrodome. It's kind of amazing, in this unassuming building, there are 2 restaurants, a bank, a salon and an interior design firm.

Inside is a very vaulted ceiling with exposed rafters and trusses making every noise bouncing here and there. There are also a couple of tempayakki grills. Sushi places can be rather identical but what made me think of this place were their prices. It's a little more easy on the wallet, for example their nigiris are $3 where it's usually $4.5 or even $5 for two peices.

Shrimp with vegetable tempura w/ lots of panko bread crumbs. MMmmm, why can't more things be deep fried with panko bread crumbs; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, spaghetti and meatballs, tennis rackets

Husband's entree: Steak with terriyaki sauce. Unfortunately the only thing good on the plate was the salad. The steak tasted - STEAMED-like, w/ no flavor and lot of narly or grisel peices.

Me: Chef's 16 peice with 2 rolls. I felt like I got ripped-off from this. Usually it's pre-decided by the sushi maker with what fish will be used with the simple idea that a LARGE VARIETY of fish will be used, but as you can see there are so many same fish nigiris!  I know, I sound like a total food-snob, but you see? We would have gotten a better deal if we chose the nigiris a-la-carte with very different pieces, instead of 3 orders of yellow tail and 2 orders of salmon - you know what I mean?

So, although I love sushi, I think that this was the most uneventful, boring, not great tasting sushi dinners I've had; and it doesn't take that much to amuse me either.

Thankfully, I found some solice from their bathrooms. 

- Happy eating and living!

Pop! (there really is an exclamation mark) is a neighborhood restaurant that's about 1 mile from our home. I've wanted to try it for soo long and we did!

It's a really cute place. There are orange and blue covered walls with old hardwood floors and Andy Warhol prints hanging on the wall. It's an American/Mexican influenced restaurant because some dishes like the tamales and empanadas are...well Mexican. It's also slightly a "bistro" where the food is served/presented with more integrity and there's a small wine list.

Instead of bread, there's cornbread. Not too sweet or plain with dots of jalapeno. It comes with butter that is very sweet - interesting.

My hubands appetizer, corn tamale with chicken, herb sour cream and salsa. This was my first time trying tamale; I love it! It was piping hot and had a good constrast with the salsa.

My appetizer, beet salad. This was also a first for me: beets. I must say that it's my new friend. It's crazy sweet like ketchup but without the guilt of having your weeks worth high fructose corn syrup. It was good with the wilted spinich - but I can only take bleu cheese so much.

Husband's entree: salmon with risotto. I'm responsible for picking his dishes everytime we dine out and I felt bad... I wished I ordered another dish or their special for that night: ribs. It wasn't bad, the risotto was cooked perfectly and had like this tomato-y and cheese-y flavor. I guess sitting next to the kitchen widow and seeing "cooler" dishes being executed, I kept looking at the grass is greener on the other plate kind of mentality - but it was good though.

My entree: Walleye sandwich. Trust me, I'm not the one to ever order a sandwich for dinner but I read on another foodie's website who went on and on about how wonderful this sandwich was. It's a long fillet of walleye that's panko deep fried with greens tossed in vinegrette, herb tartar sauce and bacon. It was good. Gosh, this is the complicated side of me talking, but with something delicate like fish, I hate for it to be smashed inbetween thick bread (in this case, those take and bake baguettes you get at Cubs) because the flavor of it all can be absorbed by the bread. Although with that being said, the fish, bacon and greens were great.

Dessert: Chocolate lava cake with banana pudding, chocolate and coconut sauce with ice cream and toasted coconut flakes. This pretty much tastes like how it looks - good, but the thing that stood out was the toasted banana pudding (it's under the chocolate cake). It's thicker custard with good banana and nutty flavor.

Overall, I wasn't super crazy about the dishes we ordered, but I'm SO glad that this is in my neighborhood! After getting first class seats to watching all the other dishes, I think I will know what to get next time. It's really an adorable place where there's just enough noise, just enough sizzle from the kitchen, just enough creative dishes, just enough this and that.  

- Happy eating and living!