Posted May 22, 2013in Food Dude
Older folks pine for the days when butcher shops sold meat, green grocers retailed fruits and vegetables, milk trucks delivered dairy products and dry grocers sold canned goods. People too young to remember that era just wonder how much time was wasted grocery shopping. Food nostalgia wears racehorse blinders —
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Posted May 15, 2013in Food Dude
Two new Balkan cafés sprouted last winter on a stretch of Merle Hay Road that already hosted Estrada and Tropik. Both new cafés specialize in burek, an historic category of baked foods. The world’s most popular travel publisher, praised the dish last year in its guide to “The World’s Best
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Posted May 08, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
La Rosa opened 10 years ago. Rosa Martinez was a already a local legend then, first for selling tamales in the parking lot of the original La Tapatia Tienda, then for vending homemade chicken dinners in parking lots of Hispanic businesses. From the beginning, visits to La Rosa were more
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Posted May 01, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Twenty-five years ago, this publication began subjecting readers to the reflections of an alcoholic who had recently quit drinking. I thought that gave me an alternative point of view, and editors agreed. At that time, this paper was named Skywalker, showing pride in the ambitious system that was dramatically transforming
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Posted April 24, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
The James Beard Awards, the Pulitzer’s of food, recently honored George Formaro of Orchestrate Management among the nation’s top 20 restaurateurs. Of all the many honors thrown at our city’s restaurants and chefs during in the last 10 years, that was the most impressive. Formaro graduated from bakery owner to
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Posted April 17, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
America’s fast food industry behaves more like its network television industry every year. Both spend billions of dollars researching and launching new products. Then, despite all that investment, neither hesitates to dump a new production if audiences don’t immediately respond. Pizza Hut introduced its pizza sliders in February with Super
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Posted April 10, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Recent news from the fast food wars came with a measure of shock if not awe. After surviving 10 years of economic booms and bust without a single decrease in monthly sales, McDonald’s suddenly experienced declines in three of the last six months. Wendy’s and Burger King took significant territory
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Posted April 03, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
From a bird’s eye perspective, the great story of 20th century Iowa was the movement of people from farms all over the state to a few cities and many suburbs. One-seventh of the way through the 21st century, nothing brings out suburban Iowa’s inner farm child like the opening of
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Posted March 27, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Disembarking from a flight in Des Moines a few years ago, I observed a lady behind me being greeted by two children and an older woman. As soon as they saw her, the kids ran up enthusiastically proclaiming, “Mommy, Mommy, guess what? Grandma gave us chicken that had bone in
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Posted March 20, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
The old fashioned bar and grill has become an endangered species in Iowa. After industrialized farming changed the state’s demographics (most Iowa counties peaked in population more than 100 years ago), towns became too small to support stand-alone restaurants. So taverns added flat-top grills, deep fryers and sometimes full kitchens
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