Posted July 22, 2015in Food Dude
Most Iowans eagerly anticipate this time of year because it’s the season for fresh sweet corn and tomatoes. Thanks to recent developments in local supermarkets and a United States Department of Agriculture decision in 2007, it’s also the peak of tropical fruit season. Last week at C Fresh, I found
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Posted July 15, 2015in Food Dude
Some people believe that Sunday dining options are limited, at least if you are not interested in brunch. Sunday is actually my favorite day for going out to eat in Des Moines. Here’s why. Most Asian and Latino restaurants have their best days on Sunday. They also do some special
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Posted July 08, 2015in Food Dude
Jamaica has the world’s least dogmatic cuisine. It’s a wild mix of native foods and others brought by slaves, indentured servants and immigrants from India, China, Africa and Europe. Ital, Jamaica’s most famous style of cooking, is vegan — unless you want some fish, goat, poultry or a few other
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Posted July 01, 2015in Food Dude
Buffalo wings revolutionized the economics of chicken as well as the image of Buffalo, New York. Invented either at The Anchor Bar or John Young’s Wing’s ‘n Things in the mid-1960s, they employed what was then the least desirable part of a chicken. At that time, when most chicken was
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Posted June 24, 2015in Food Dude
Growing up in Des Moines during the 1950s and ’60s, I graduated from college before I knew what an avocado tasted like. Ashamed that I did not know what this fruit was when first offered one, I bit into it as if it were an apple, skin and all. I
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Posted June 17, 2015in Food Dude
Gino’s closing last week left the city with one less place to enjoy the old art of pan-fried chicken. Before the mid-1960s, this dish was a luxury dinner in Des Moines. A review of old yellow page advertisements and antique menus reveals that it was often the most expensive dish
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Posted June 10, 2015in Food Dude
Unregulated food trucks are Des Moines’ new bicycle lanes. If you are not “all in” for them, you are not hip nor progressive, and you’re certainly out of touch with those who are. Like all causes that become passwords to acceptance by political groups, the food truck issue is more
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Posted June 03, 2015in Food Dude
E.P. True Parkway projects a strange magnetic attraction for small town cafés wanting to test the market of suburban Des Moines. First came EP True Burger Café, an expansion of Route 169 Burger Café. Next was Patty Pat’s, which tried bringing the taverns (loose meat sandwiches) of LeMars to West
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Posted May 27, 2015in Food Dude
In the food world, perceptions are formed by rumors as often as by experience. I still hear that French places are haughty and expensive years after Bistro Montage, Django, Baru 66 and Le Jardin should have laid such notions down to die. Similarly, people cling to the idea that all
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Posted May 20, 2015in Food Dude
The name is a lot to chew — Drake Bakery, Café and Bar. That’s just part of its intentions. It also has a stage and a dance floor, and it’s set in an old Baptist Church. Owner Frank Strub, a member of Forest Evaschevski’s Iowa Hawkeye football teams of the
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