88 Race Way Dr.
555-1212
Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sat. 9 a.m. – noon |
All God’s
Children
The opening of All God’s Children
in Altoona returns one of the
most intriguing figures in Iowa
food history to the public eye.
Ed Ochylski is bigger than life.
Roman Catholics know him as the
largest benefactor ever to the
Catholic Church in Iowa. It’s
rumored he influenced the Pope’s
famous visit to the state. Realtors
know him as the state’s shrewdest
investor in farmland. As a result,
he’s become a significant player
in the ethanol game.
For most Iowans old enough to
remember, Ochylski is the man
who famously stood in the doorway
of his meat packing company on
Southeast 14th Street in 1981,
holding a cleaver in his folded
arms while blocking an Immigration
and Naturalization Services agent
during an INS raid of his plant.
That agent put a gun in Ochylski’s
face and threatened to kill him
with news crews from all three
Des Moines television stations
filming live. Ochylski was completely
exonerated; he had no illegal
workers. In a separate incident,
the INS officer who threatened
to blow Ochylski away was arrested
and charged with extortion after
an FBI sting a few weeks later.
Ochylski then used the notoriety
to crusade against ethnic discrimination,
claiming that “people with accents
or non-white skin” were being
abused. So what’s this guy, now
well into his 80s, doing? Doesn’t
he know that restaurants are a
young man’s game?
“Life has been good to me and
right now it’s not that way for
a lot of people. Farmland values
have skyrocketed in the last three
years while most other investments
have tanked. There have been food
riots in dozens of countries while
farmland here is a hot commodity
because the government is subsidizing
the exorbitant cost of converting
corn into automobile fuel,” he
said, shaking his head.
Ochylski explained that this
restaurant is his latest way of
tithing to a greater cause and
opening people’s minds to a bigger
picture. All God’s Children has
a most mind-expanding menu. Prices
are listed two ways: 1.) Actual
food costs in current U.S. dollars;
and 2.) Adjusted to proportionate
per capita income in poor countries.
With 42 high-def, wide-screen
televisions, the restaurant has
the appearance of a sports bar.
However, these sets play video
of people eating dinner around
the world — from refugee camps
in Darfur and dumpster diving
in New Jersey to extravagant private
parties in Las Vegas and Hong
Kong. General Manager Eusebio
Lebo Lebo, a naturalized U.S.
citizen and survivor of the Angolan
Civil War, explained that several
televisions at All God’s Children
play current daily news from the
developing world.
“This is stuff that American
news channels could be showing
but choose not to. We think it’s
important that people know what’s
going on in places like Sudan,
even if it’s frighteningly ugly,”
he said.
The menu has two basic sections
— sustenance meals and privileged
meals. Our table ordered from
both. On the sustenance side I
tried a daily special from Nigeria,
where pollution from oil drills
have destroyed river life and
forced most people into city slums.
The reconstituted dried fish plus
foo foo (a porridge of cassava
and corn) cost $3 and $2 respectively
in actual Iowa food costs, but
$200 and $95 respectively when
adjusted to what an average Nigerian
earns today. Lebo Lebo told us
that those are traditional staples
of the Nigerian diet. With that
information as a condiment, foo
foo never tasted better to me.
From the privileged menu, hamburgers
($4 and $600 respectively) and
chicken potpie ($4 and $100) seemed
utterly extravagant. Fortunately,
All God’s Children was equipped
to reconcile any guilt one has
eating here. All tips go to relief
efforts. It’s amazing how generous
one feels after a little foo foo.
Side dishes
Faced with a $200 million budget
deficit, the U.S. Red Cross is
laying off a large percentage
of its 3,000 workers, including
several in Des Moines. … The New
York Times reported that “$40
is the new $30” in reference to
entrée prices at moderately
priced restaurants… The proposed
new Farm Bill actually increases
subsidies to farmers who make
$1 million a year, or $2 million
if married. CV
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