Modern Cafe

taken with an iphone

Modern Cafe
337 13th Avenue Northeast
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 378-9882

May 21st

Part of our progressive dinner weekend with my dad was finishing it with breakfast at Modern Cafe. My dad lives in Green Bay so when he comes to Minneapolis we try to show him a good time and for me it eating. Friday night we took him to four different places. Starting at the Sample Room for the first course. Second was Pyscho Suzies for an appetizers and beer. Main course was at Sen Yai Sen Lek. Dessert was at Dairy Queen, Grandpa's was closed by the time we finished.

Dad had the Famous Modern Hash - 2 eggs with pot roast, potatoes, & peppers. Larry had the Tomato Scrambled Eggs- with fontina and spinach. I had a special with asparagus, fontina, spinach & ham.



I don't know about you, but I always have to take a picture of my food. The good and bad just because I love remembering every little detail of the dish. I offend look at images on the web of restaurants dishes before I even think about stepping in the door. Must of the pictures on my iphone are of food from restaurants. Once I forgot the name of the dish but had the picture of it. I as the waiter if he know what dish was this picture on my phone. I use my phone are a documentary of our food adventures.

Wild Rice Restaurant in Bayfield, WI

All images taken with Canon 5D

Wild Rice Restaurant in Bayfield, WI near Madeline Islandto see inside the Kitchen and more click here

Three Course Tasting Menu

First:

Mixed Baby Greens Salad

or

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

Main:

Pan Roasted Superior Lake Trout

smoked scallop, truffled coconut curry sauce, rapini salad,

pineapple pearl couscous

or

Wood Fire Grilled Teres Major Steak

scallion-sour cream mashed potatoes, grilled white asparagus, truffled mushroom sauce

Dessert:

Mixed Berry Chantilly, Puff Pastry, Fresh Raspberries, Raspberry Glaze

or

Warm Pecan-Wild Rice Cake with homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream

Punch Pizza

taken with my iphone
Punch Pizza
8353 Crystal View Rd
Eden Prairie MN 55344
952-943-9557



Punch Pizza cooks their pizzas in a wood fired stone oven in minutes.



Every time I go to Punch I order the same pizza, Toto. It makes me laugh just thinking of the time my dad came with me and said to the lady taking his order "I'll take (and he barked), you know the dog pizza" Can't take my dad anywhere without blushing.

Toto - Arugula, prosciutto, goat cheese, & garlic
&
Borgata - Sun-dried tomato, goat cheese, eggplant saracene olive, & basil.

They laid out the eggplant on the pizza like spokes on a bike wheel. The sauce on both were different. The borgata had a basil olive sauce favor and basil is my favorite spice. But still my favorite pizza on earth is the Toto pizza. The arugula and garlic favor is amazing. If there was a Punch pizza near me that would be the only place I would go for pizza.

Stanley's Northeast

Iphone images

Stanley's Northeast Bar Room
2500 University Ave NE

Open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

I have visited this restaurant twice. Once for breakfast and the second time was after the ASMP meeting. It was great to tell the group "hey I found a great place near by that serves til midnight." So many restaurants stop serving food after 10pm. So this was a great find.



The brunch Club - Which is a sandwich -two fried eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese, chipotle mayo sauce with hot peppers. Served with hashbrowns or sweet potatoes . I picked the sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were small cubes baked, which is better then fried.

The coffee was good to. Much need to wake up in the morning. Larry enjoyed basic breakfast.

Amore Victoria Ristorante

Amore Victoria Ristorante
1601 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55408-2550
(612) 823-0250


This was the last restaurant we went to during restaurant week 2011.
Larry joined me for this adventure. This restaurant had a tasting menu that you picked from.

Wine was a P&G Pinot Grigio from Lambuse, Chianti and we also had a black current tea.

We choose the Agnolotti Fritti and Carpaccio di Manzo.

The Agnolotti Fritti is a deep fry cheese covered with parmesan cheese.

The Carpaccio di Manzo was a thinly sliced meat cured in lemon and olive oil served with arugula, & parmesan cheese.

For our Entrees we picked the Grazie Sweet Cream Basil & Spinach Manicotti. The Grazie Sweet Cream Basil had hand made fettuccine noodles served with Chicken, mushrooms, prosciutto, and tomatoes in a cream sauce. This dish was the best.

The Blue Door

The Blue Door
1811 Selby Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
(651) 493-1865

Checked out the Blue Door after seeing the Show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives episode. We just love the restaurant Guy Fieri finds. What sets the restaurant apart is their burger. Stuffed burger with cheese...do I need to say more. So we just had to try it for ourselves.

For starts we ordered Spam Bites (cream cheese, pickles & spam deep fried served with a sweet chill lime sauce), Beer-Battered Green Bean, and Cheese Curds (from Wisconsin) I would order again the green beans. It was a great twisted to eating your green beans. They even still had a nice crispness to them.

We all tried different burgers and found we didn't want to share. I eat the Bangkok Blucy and it was so juice. The burger was stuffed with mozzarella cheese that is soaked in coconut milk and topped with pickled carrots, cucumbers, red onions, and ginger. The dipping sauce was so delightful but each time I dipped I would loss some of my burger. A very messy burger but the best burger ever.

Chiang Mai Thai

Chiang Mai Thai
3001 Hennepin Ave S
Minneapolis MN

After showing my book at Mono I stopped by Chiang Mai Thai for lunch. I decided to try something new and what a surprise to my taste buds. I will be stopping back just so I can get a proper image of the Khao Cadeukadeek dish. The Sri Racha and Sweet Hoisin Sauce was oh so very good. I will post this restaurant next week with the Khao Cadeukadeek dish.

Khao Cadeukadeek
Charbroiled medallions of marinated beef tenderloin or chicken atop a bed of tomato fried rice and accompanied by spicy Sri Racha sauce and sweet Hoisin sauce.

Rosebud Restaurant -SB3

all photos taken with an iPhone

Strictly Business 3

ASMP meeting in Chicago

April 1-3rd

at
Allerton Hotel
701 N. Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL

What an Awesome place to meet wonderful people from all of the US to listen and talk about the business of photography. So many great speakers to charge your mind and guide you though this unclear career from all levels of photography. I have been a member of ASMP since 2008 and going to meeting off and on for two years before that. Been on the local chapter board for the last two years. I am a big ASMP supporter.

On every trip I go on I am thinking what about the food. What is special this this area? What do the locals like? What images can I find about the restaurant. You can tell a lot about a restaurant on the images on their website. What gets my month watering is presentation... Yes see the inside of a restaurant is nice, but what does the food look like. I want to see an image that sticks in my mind until I get to that destination. I do this on most of my trips.
Rosebud Restaurant

720 North Rush Street

Chicago, IL 60611-2504

Get Directions

(312) 266-6444

On this trip, I found such a restaurant that I had a hard time waiting to see what the food would taste like... I was looking for a walking distance restaurant from our hotel and found this restaurant that locals like and great reviews. Rosebud's website images were amazing. I just knew this was the first stop on my taste of Chicago. So once the plane landed and made my way to the hotel by subway to drop off my bags, I headed to Rosebud Restaurant... I even eat light on before the plane ride.

This restaurant had two levels and an outdoor seating area. I was taken to the upstairs area, a quite rich in textures. It was about 10:30 am and I was ready to eat... Fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic to start me off. I had already had my eye on the Fusilli Carbonara. Fusilli pasta tossed with prosclutto, mushrooms and peas in a rich parmesan cream sauce. It was one the best carbonaras I have had. The taste popped in my mouth. Just the right amount of food, if I hadn't eaten so much bread. It was so good I cleaned my plate. If I was given more bread I would have cleaned it completely. Oh and it was only $10.50. I was so full I only had a small soup for dinner at Friends Sushi.

There are some great building around this area of town. I wished I took my camera just to be able to get great pictures of all the cool stuff in Chicago. I can see coming back soon. So many more restaurants were on my list and this time I am bring my car too. The conference kept us busy.

I had to add some views from a friends window from his window at our hotel. I have to say my room was big, nice and okay views. But his was small, and horrible views. I could see staying at the Allerton Hotel again. I like my hotel room. Friendly staff. Clean. The location was great. Blocks away from everything...

Wondrous Azian Kitchen

Wondrous Azian Kitchen

533 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN

Restaurant Week Tasting Menu

Appetizers

Pork Egg Roll

Spring Roll
Cranberry Puffs

Our treat was the cranberry with cream cheese wong ton. The cranberry sauce that went with it just highlighted the taste even more.

Main Course

Pad Thai with Chicken

Opium Curry with Chicken


The opium curry dish packed a little kick. The pineapple gave the dish a slightly sweet great combo taste which was a great treat. The broccoli and the yellowish orange sauce pops to the eye, which I love colors that pop.


Tea was Jasmine Ginger which I would highly recommend.



<-- Larry my husband, he was able to join me that day. Picked him up at the airport and went to a late lunch. Life is good.





The caterpillar lounge is just off the bar area and past the sushi bar. A great place to hangout and listen to music.


I just loved their fortune cookies. I just hope they were talking about my camera equipment. Larry's fortune was "Whatever you do do not think of elephants and you'll be fine."

3 squares Restaurant

3 Square Restaurant
12690 Arbor Lakes Pkwy
Maple Grove

Restaurant Week

Lunch Tasting Menu

Three Squares Restaurant located in Maple Grove in the lifestyle mall area. Nice big restaurant with a big bar area. Wonderful big window to let in light. Tall booths with long table to give privacy to your dinner.
This was one of the restaurants I check out during restaurant week. This time Shelley joined me at her favorite restaurant. And now I can see what she was talking about. Very friendly staff and great food.


For our appetizers we went with.


Pierogies stuffed with potato and cheddar cheese topped with Onion strings and horseradish sauce.


Smoked Pumpkin Bisque with spiced walnuts and maple creme fraiche.


Blue River Burger with blue cheese with sweet potatoes fries.

Asian Chicken Salad with pineapple, kumquats, peanuts and tamarind dressing.


I have to say this was my first time trying kumquats. Kind of like a very small orange with a lot of flavor. Looking back on this day I can see an orange theme. From the kumquats to the cheese to gold fish to sweet potatoes fries. This day was such a treat, great day to share with a friend and share great food.