Posted August 12, 2015in Food Dude
Chef George Formaro recently discovered a 1922 menu from a Fort Des Moines Hotel restaurant. The fare offered was far more classically French than anything I remember here growing up in the 1950s and ’60s. Appetizer menus in my youth consisted of maybe four things. The Fort Des Moines’ menu
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Posted August 05, 2015in Food Dude
Traditionally, Des Moines diners resisted change. Restaurateurs have told me that customers complain about the slightest menu alteration. Panic ensues when a restaurant is sold, or, Lord forbid, closes. It’s been a trying couple of years for fans of everlasting tradition. Linda Bisignano (Chuck’s) died. Gino Fenu sold his namesake
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Posted July 29, 2015in Food Dude
The worst part of caucus season is the pandering to outdated rural stereotypes. Event planners import bales of hay, fiddlers and square dance callers to modern Des Moines corporations. That encourages candidates and national media to mock contemporary Iowa. Agriculture built the state and made it rich and powerful, but
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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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