The year of really big stories
2015 will be remembered as the end of an era in Iowa. The $130 billion merger of Dow and Dupont killed off the state’s most identifiable icon — the company [...]
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Posted December 23, 2015in Food Dude
Posted December 16, 2015in Food Dude
The good, the bad and the ugly of 2015
The second decade of the third millennium passed its midpoint in middling fashion. It was not a bad year, nor a great year by recent standards. It closed, however, with [...]
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Posted December 09, 2015in Food Dude
Kwong Tung says ‘zài jiàn’
During the current rancor about immigration laws for different ethnic groups, America’s history with such matters can be instructive. Few people today are aware that the Magnuson Act of 1943 [...]
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Posted December 02, 2015in Food Dude
Fish tacos with innuendo
Family-style Mexican restaurants in Des Moines seem to be copied from a single template. Can anyone tell the difference between recipes from Monterrey, La Hacienda, El Rodeo, Cinco de Mayo, [...]
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Posted November 25, 2015in Food Dude
Lurra Cocina fills a void
“What cuisine does Des Moines lack most?” Ethiopian, South Indian and classical Turkish get mentioned frequently, but nothing pops up as often as Spanish. The Ethiopians, Tamils and Turks are [...]
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Posted November 18, 2015in Food Dude
Bonefish Grill
The food business in the Jordan Creek area is so different from the inner city food business that one local restaurateur proposed a moratorium on new chains in the ’burbs [...]
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Posted November 11, 2015in Food Dude
Year-end joys
“The inevitable never happens, it is the unexpected always,” wrote economist John Maynard Keynes a century ago. Not much has changed in 100 years. Who foresaw the day when basketball [...]
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Posted November 04, 2015in Food Dude
Doing one thing well
Too many restaurants try to do too many different things. Food writers call this “Cheese Factory Syndrome,” referring to menus so large they need book binders. Last week, I checked [...]
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Posted October 28, 2015in Food Dude
East Village’s latest niche
East Village’s restaurant scene has been developing in its own fashion. Unlike the west side of downtown, small restaurants pop up as often as places with hundreds of seats and [...]
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Posted October 21, 2015in Food Dude
Asian Cook House is sweet surprise
Some restaurants take confusing names. When Proof opened, it featured sandwiches, none of which used proofed bread. Scenic Route Bakery is in the middle of downtown. Bonefish Grill serves no [...]
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