Cityview | Central Iowa's Independent Weekly

St. Paddy's Day

A celebration of all things Irish

It’s that time of year again when the streets are flooded with green shirts and green beer. That’s right, it’s March 17, which means it’s Saint Patrick’s Day, a holiday originally intended to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick was credited with bringing Christianity to the country and according to www.st-patricks-day.com, was described as a “most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.” Even though St. Patrick’s Day has become a celebration of all things Irish — leprechauns, shamrocks, pots of gold and wearing green — there are people who celebrate the true meaning, a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide.

The tradition is present, but the holiday has become one of the biggest one-day parties in the world. From Chicago dying its river green to thousands of partiers flocking to Ireland for the true experience, the day has become more of a party than a celebration of Saint Patrick. Locally, Des Moines has its annual parade put on by The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, which draws thousands of people to the downtown area. The parade features more than 80 floats and celebrates its 31st year next week. Along with the parade, there is an annual downtown block party, and a plethora of other downtown bars continue the celebration....Read More>>

Narcisse’s rate card, Fallon’s censorship, Food Guru’s disappearance

Amidst causing major headaches for Chet Culver in his own campaign for governor, Jon Narcisse has been busy selling ads in his newspapers — or his kids’ newspapers, or whoever owns them now. But the former Des Moines school board member told Skinny that he voiced frustration recently over disparity in advertising placed by the U.S. Census Bureau in two newspapers he is “associated with.” His African-American newspaper, The Bystander, received a “business card sized ad order.” His Hispanic newspaper, El Communicador, received “multiple large display ads.” Narcisse, never one to play the race — or rate — card, asked the bureau why one minority group was being sought more than another. The response, he said, involved a lot of “long pauses, hems and haws,” much like what he should expect to hear from Gov. Culver in upcoming debates, if there are any. …

More political stuff. Former Iowa gubernatorial candidate and past member of the Iowa legislature Ed Fallon claims he was “censored by the Democratic party,” or, more specifically, by Gov. Culver, Skinny is told. Fallon, who pays $350 a pop to host four hour-long radio shows each week on KWQW, 98.3 WOW-FM, says Polk County Democrats staffer Tamyra Harrison was told by the group’s executive committee not to send out any information about Fallon or the radio show to the group’s list. Tom Henderson, chair of the Polk County Democrats, said the decision was partly because Fallon had “said some critical things about Culver.” But who’s listening? Fallon and his wife, Lynn, claim to have 4,000 weekly listeners to their show, although the Arbitron ratings state KWQW has a radio listening audience share ranging in the past year from 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent. That means about 96 percent of people who say they listen to radio are tuned in to other metro stations. Most are still listening to 1040-WHO radio, where, Skinny is told, talk show hosts don’t have to write checks to get on the air. ...Read More>>

Decoy has nothing to lose playing original music

With a name like Decoy, you might expect a pop band to engage in trickery or deception to create and market their music. But there is nothing fraudulent about this Des Moines quintet or their debut album, “Nothing to Lose,” when you consider what is at the root of their open sound: original singer-songwriter tunes with a funky beat and bluesy, rock guitar.

“It makes it interesting when you blend all those elements together,” said Decoy’s singer-acoustic guitarist Chris Ranallo. “I don’t want to compare us to anybody, but if you like Gavin DeGraw or Palo Nutini, you might like us.” ...Read More>>

A month of winter feasting

If our restaurants were promoted as aggressively as say Chicago’s or Santa Fe’s are, we’d have a month-long Winter Food Festival here. This year’s culinary season began with Iowa Pork Producers’ annual Taste of Elegance, an event that attracts top Iowa chefs competing for a place in the national finals. Barry Greenberg (University of Iowa Dining Services) won $1,000 and a trip to the finals with an Asian pork trio: pomegranate barbecued St. Louis ribs on grilled asparagus slaw; sherry glazed belly on rice cakes; and spicy pork dumplings in consomme. Angie Kirton (Absolute Flavors) took second with smoked pork roast with hash and vinegar slaw. Cyd Koehn (Hy-Vee Conference Center) took third, and also won the People’s Choice award, with pork osso buco di miale.

Valentine’s Day and the first day of the Lunar New Year fell, inconveniently for dieters, on the same Sunday this year. Wong’s Chopsticks presented their annual New Year’s banquet, a sensational $30 feast that included auspicious foods like whole Peking ducks, whole tilapia, long noodles, etc. A trio of female chefs — Shari Clark, Keri Rush and Koehn — rented the old Zen Sushi space for a far less traditional event — a raw vegan brunch which drew more than 110 guests at $35, plus drinks. That dining room never looked better, with red linens and living wheat grass centerpieces on the tables. Their brunch included a juice course of green lemonade (greens, apple and lemon juices) or beet-carrot-apple juice; an ambrosia of agave and coconut; a granola course of chocolate oats and vanilla almond milk with raisins, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, or “buckwheaties” with raisins and seeds; a sweet potato latke which was spiced with the rare and powerful Iranian herb hing (a.k.a. asafoetida); a spaghetti cut squash course with kale and tomatoes in garlic sauce with a rich sun dried tomato pâté; a Thai wrap with tamarind sauce and raw nuts that were marinated in cayenne and nama shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce); and a dessert quartet that included flourless chocolate cake, coconut haystack, raw cookie dough and a chocolate dipped strawberry. ..Read More>>”