The butcher shop is making these with half a pound of George’s Grind, which is mostly beef brisket, as the body, bacon strips for the carapace and sausages for the head and legs. About $5.

Novelist Nelson Algren declared three rules for good living: Never eat at a joint named Mom’s; never play poker with a guy named Doc; and never, ever go to bed with someone whose problems were greater than your own. Before internet background checks brought instant transparency to a muddy world, such rules helped people make all kinds of choices.

Today web sites such as Chowhound, Slowfood and Epicurious dispense sound advice for picking restaurants while traveling. Before the internet, gourmets on the road depended on the divination of omens. My grandfather read license plates in restaurant parking lots, figuring that a predominance from the local county distinguished a bargain from a tourist trap. My mother always asked for the person after whom a restaurant was named. If Bob Evans wasn’t on the premises, neither was Mom. Mom’s favorite restaurants were Babe’s, Noah’s, Gino’s and Baker’s because she got to know Babe, Noah, Gino and several of the Bakers and they always made sure she had a happy meal. My contribution to the family dining instincts is also simple – the shorter the menu, the better your chances for something special. Two new places that keep their menus focused and short make good arguments that old instincts will never be obsolete.

Mom might have boycotted Bagni di Lucca because it has neither baths (“bagni” in Italian) nor hot springs. In fact, no one even offered me a hot towel. That would have been Mom’s mistake though. Steve Logsdon’s (Lucca, Basil Prosperi’s) latest venture in East Village is a winner. Logsdon is among the handful of people most responsible for upgrading Des Moines to a significant food town in the last decade. An pioneer artisan, he introduced French breads at a time when many foodies still filled suitcases with loaves when flying home from New York or San Francisco.

At Bagni di Lucca, chef Pat Collins serves just four things – pizza, calzone, salads and gelatos. Pizza and calzone are baked in the same Pavallier ovens that Logsdon brought to town for his first artisan bakery. Modeled after ancient French coal ovens, these hi-tech, metal-slab beauties offer steam-injected heat that turn out medium-thin crust pizza tasting like good bread. Exterior crusts were crisp as good thin crust pies yet the interior was moist and fluffy. I tried margherita, sausage, and asparagus shrimp pizza.

All were made with mozzarella that best complemented the latter pie. I passed on the recommended house special – a French fries and Vienna sausage pizza – but noticed that the fries did not burn as I feared. Fresh garden vinaigrette and Caesar salads presented a mix of romaine and baby greens with good dressings. The café also retails fresh Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Parmesan Reggiano and Fontinella, plus Gorgonzola-stuffed olives, mortadella, capicola and prosciutto.

A sign at Second & New York catches one’s eye with its brightly colored recreation of the Great Seal of the United States – an ocular pyramid surrounded by corn stalks and the words “Tamale’s Industry.” That restaurant’s menu included some fine burritos, two-tortilla tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and fajitas, plus menudo (hoofless) on weekends. Fillings included pork skins, grilled pork, carne asada, chicken and beef tongue.

But the name of the place should help one order smartly. Chef Angelica Tejada is an Uruapan style tamale wiz who makes each tamal by grinding “cow corn” into a masa that is coarser than others in town. Her tamales were steamed upright in corn husks and served unwrapped. I tried red and green ones stuffed with braised beef, a rajas version stuffed with cheese and chilies, a baked turkey tamal, plus dessert tamales in pineapple and orange flavors. The latter two were other worldly, with fresh fruit juices absorbed in the masa and speckles of zest. My meat tamales needed extra salsa but hardly disappointed.

Bottom line – Both these new places concentrate on their excellent specialties, raising the pizza and tamale bars in town.

The Betting Line

The smart money is laying odds that the abandoned gas station at 37^th & Ingersoll  will become exciting new restaurants by midsummer… Reichert’s Dairy Aire Robiolo is now served on the exclusive cheese plate at Wolfgang Puck’s Cut in Las Vegas.

Pizzeria Bagni di Lucca

407 E. Fifth St., 243-0044

Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Fri. – Sat 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Tamale’s Industry

2728 Second Ave., 288-1135

Tues. – Fri. 10 am. – 9 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. – 9 pm., Sun. 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

 This challenge dares everyone from gourmet chefs to backyard bbq’ers to pair their most creative steak recipe with their favorite Beringer wine. Beringer Vineyards selected 10 contestants from the Midwest to compete in the July 10 grill-off, of which only one will go to the finale in Napa Valley, CA.

This Saturday 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. at Jordan Creek Mall.

This new product has promise. The SKrAPr claims to do the work of any a razor blade or steel edged scraping tool  but without  fear of marring or damage that other products can cause.  The SKrAPr is a non-scratching scraper made with a patented blend of
resins that will not mark or damage any surfaces.

“The SKrAPr is ideal for use on glass top stoves because
to-date, the only way to clean them was with a razor blade type instrument,
carefully using it with a gel-type cleanser.  The SKrAPr can clean a glass
top stove with nothing more than water. This cuts down on the use of
expensive cleaners, which sometimes don’t work. It also protects against the
dangers of using a razor blade and comes with a lifetime warranty, as
opposed to a razorblade scraper, which constantly needs fresh and sharp
blades.”

It sells for $14.99 at: www.TheSKrAPr.com

Naming a restaurant after a single dish has produced mixed results in Des Moines. Spaghetti‘s, Crepes, and Philly Cheese Steaks didn’t last long here yet Rice Bowl, Coney Island, Noodles and many Maid – Rites have all endured the fickle winds of taste. Pad Thai has a lot more going for it than food on a plate. Jutamas Roongsawang and Ekhasit Kittivirunwat’s new restaurant on MLK is named for the national dish of Thailand, one that also represents sustainable economics, and making ends meet in hard times.

Thailand Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram popularized the dish in the 1930’s, much like Herbert Hoover did corned beef hash, to inspire citizens to stretch food budgets in the Depression. Wanting to wean his people off imported rice, Phibunsongkhram promoted the dish to encourage noodle making in a country with a wheat surplus. Pad Thai became a symbol of Thai nationalism and continues to gain popularity long after the Depression ended.

Chef Kittivirunwat, who came to Iowa after 15 years in Thai restaurants in Chicago, continues to export the gospel of the Thai noodle. Each time I dined at the this bargain café, he visited tables recommending dishes and handing out discount coupons. Only three ($13) fish dinners broke through a $9 threshold on a menu that included nearly 150 items spread over eight pages, two different “chef’s special” placards, and a couple more signs on the wall. Menus differed, with cross outs and write-ins changing from one to another but don‘t get frustrated. If you’ve been to any other Thai restaurants in the metro, you‘ll find most of your favorite dishes at Pad Thai.

A special “chef’s sampler” of fried foods featured an Iowa -Thai take on tempura with chicken wings, shrimp, veggies and tamarind, all crisply fried golden.

Two eggplant dishes I ordered were special employing multiple, differently shaped Asian eggplants, correctly cooked with skins on to perfect tenderness before being treated to a marvelous fermented black bean sauce like one expects to find in top Cantonese restaurants in New York, Chicago and California. Beef options for most dishes delivered a more tender cut of meat than usually found in town – brisket instead of shoulder, perhaps.

Yum woon sen (chicken salad) mixed bean threads and fresh cilantro in a restrained sweet sour dressing.

I loved the optional $1 sides of excellent cucumber salad and $1.50 sides of additional tofu or meat. I also appreciated that tilapia and catfish were interchangeable on any dish.

Other than that, most of what I tried had the same strengths and weaknesses usually found in Thai food here.

Thai soups tom yum kai and tom ka kai included generous amounts of chicken breast, fresh mushrooms and zesty lemongrass flavorings but lacked an impressive stock.

Peanut sauces were overwhelming, particularly on spring rolls stuffed with subtle things like tofu and eggs. Stir fried dishes “pad thai,” “pad thah” and “eggplant lover” included fresh herbs and fresh vegetables in strong “gravies” of fish sauce and coconut milk.

Squid, even tenderized squid, was repeatedly too chewy. Heat levels (capsicum) were inconsistent – one three star dish was much hotter than another four star dish. Curries, made with coconut milk and pastes of chile, ginger and galangal, were more consistent. Mango with sticky rice was the best dessert I tried, with fabulously ripe, in-season mangos.

A Thai custard resembled a Chinese bean cake.

Bottom line – Pad Thai lives the legacy of its name, providing a lot of very good food for very little money.

Beer drinking has shaped American food history since the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, instead of Virginia, because they’d run out of ale. Uniquely American foods, from porterhouse steaks to Buffalo wings, have been invented in taverns. Today bar food is an industry, fueled by sports bar growth and the beer drinker’s unbridled desire to deep fry everything edible. Some places, like Chicken Coop, preview the latest industrial products seeking to become the next jalapeno popper. For the most part though, bar food is boringly similar – frozen pizza, chips and dips, heavily breaded fried things, and grilled sandwiches. So hoping to find something different, I visited two bars that have carved unique niches in the local scene.

If Fatboyz was a TV show it would be a hybrid of “Sons of Anarchy” and “Modern Family.” This suburban biker bar has a full kitchen that caters to families with daily lunch and dinner specials (kids eat free on Tuesday) plus more on Bike Nights. That kitchen mixes typical fare with invention: A predictable spinach-artichoke dip was served with focaccia instead of chips. Good hot wings could be ordered with home made sauces on the side (mild, hot, BBQ Asian Sweet Chili, house, ranch or blue cheese.)

Cheese sticks and cream cheese poppers will not disappoint, or surprise anyone. Hog wings, a dish that has somehow not yet become a pork state icon, is the bar’s attention grabber. Pork was braised on the bone and finished in a deep fryer producing a crisp yet tender treat similar to authentic carnitas.

Homemade side dishes included a subtle pasta salad, meaty baked beans, and tangy cole slaw. Onion rings were freshly breaded. Fried pickles and fried sweet corn nuggets were not but delivered a taste of the South. Waffle fries were a textural change from rectangular expectations.

A flavorless buffalo burger disappointed especially compared to a Graziano’s Italian sausage sandwich. A French dip was served on a fresh Rotella’s bun with a decent au jus. Homemade chili, a short menu of generous Mexican dishes,

and a $4 kid’s menu kept the waiters busy.

Fatboyz star attraction though is a line of original homemade cheesecakes that featured brown sugar crusts and a very moist crumb in various flavors.

Margarita’s, the dancing queen among local clubs, includes an attached 60 seat café with the absolute latest in big screen, HD sports bar technology, reserved mostly for NFL and soccer. (World Cup fans won‘t find a more fervent venue in the metro.) Music videos rocked during lunch, louder than anyplace in town, yet so acoustically excellent I wasn’t the least bothered. The restaurant changed hands recently and features an all new menu of fifty seafood dishes and five burgers.

An octopus cocktail had too soft a texture, as if brined or frozen too long before being used. Other seafood was better in a huge, flavorful bowl of “siete mares” which also included mussels, shrimp, crab claws and oysters, with tomato shrimp broth.

Huachinango (red snapper) was treated four ways, including a classical garlic crusted whole fish.

Mine was large enough to hang over both edges of 10 inch plate, fried perfectly golden and moist to the bone. It was served with mound of rice, peas and corn, plus a large iceberg and tomato salad with cukes and onion slices.

Good as that was, my favorite dishes were teaser servings of homemade salsas (red and green) plus freshly prepared ceviches (shrimp and squid) that came with hot chips.

Fatboyz Saloon & Grill, 200 Gateway Drive, Grimes

Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m – 10 p.m. , Fri. – Sat. 11 a.m.- midnight Sun. 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Margarita’s

2060 94^th St., Clive

Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 a.m., Sat 3 p.m. – 2 a.m. , Sun. noon – 9 p.m.

Side Dishes

Farm-to-fork waiter Jennie Smith moved from Le Jardin to 801 Steak & Chop… Max Wellman is in town for the summer with free Wednesday shows at Chuck’s… Chef Dave Malfara moved from Grand Piano Bistro to Ciao.

Dom Iannarelli and John Smith came back to town to cook primi dinners of Winefest. They previewed a few of the dishes they will make for George Catlado’s guests tonight.

A trio of smoked fish pates : trout, sea bass and salmon.

Fruits de la Mer, including ultra tender baby octopus and lobster, in a vinaigrette of blood oranges and sorrel, with fruit, duh.

Bacalao stuffed raviloi in a Kansas City Green Market jardiniere in a lobster shell  and oregano reduction.

Lamb ragu with prosciutto chips and crispy polenta in a die-for natural lamb demiglace.

George Formaro, tireless food scholar, created this vegan version of banh mis for Gateway Market Cafe. The mayo and fish sauce alone are worth the price of a sandwich, which is probably going to be higher than the 3 for $5 pork originals on the Second Avenue strip.

Ciao brings a familiar local style to West Glen real estate where previous tenants failed to connect with the neighborhood. First Chicago’s “Crave Bar, Grill & Fondue Room” antagonized locals, suing one for trademark infringement even though she preceded them in town. Then “Graze – the Food Guru Experience” moved in from Eastern Iowa. Des Moines’ food bloggers savaged that place, mostly resenting Vegas-style service that ranged from smarmy to rude. That assessment fit my experiences too when I felt I had stumbled into a night club without a bling badge.

On each of my visits to Ciao, up front service was as different from Graze’s as Des Moines is from Las Vegas. All customers were being asked where they would like to sit and even being made aware of fireplaces on a cold rainy night. Children were welcomed and senior citizens were treated with the same respect as décolletage busting hotties. Ostentatious design elements had been preserved, including red fantailed booths, spotlighted liquor cabinets, tall purple walls, and an open private room that hangs over the bar. Those things have been toned down though with paintings by local artists. Ciao also retained the best element of the previous tenant – cocktail methodology including freshly squeezed juices and syrups made from scratch daily.

Ciao’s dinner menu reaches out to fresh and local sources, superior ones like La Quercia (prosciutto and pancetta), Niman Ranch (pork),

Cleverley Farms (arugula and salad greens), Outside the Lines (desserts),

and South Union (breads). The restaurant has re-installed a Crave-like taste for salt and cheese. Fried olives were stuffed with Gorgonzola. Calamari were topped with Parmesan. Hand breaded onion rings were covered with Asiago.

Bruschetta was topped with goat cheese. Mushrooms were stuffed with cream cheese. Chicken breasts were prepared with Boursin and Provolone. Lasagna was made with five cheeses, stuffed shells with three. One soup of the day was a good Cheddar leak with a rich cream base.

The dominant flavor in breaded pork tenderloin “saltimbocca” was melted Gruyere and I have never heard of any cheese in that usual combination of prosciutto, marinated meat and sage (arugula in Ciao‘s recipe).

A featured beef tenderloin ravioli was overwhelmed with a creamy cheese sauce. However, I was told that recipe was about to be changed to a Bolognese sauce and also that cheese-free herb roasted chickens and steak de Burgo will be added as new chef Dave Malfara moves from Grand Piano Bistro.

My double boned pork chop was seared nicely, cooked perfectly medium, and served in a good demiglace with mashed potatoes and roasted baby carrots. Manicotti were filled with a good veal stuffing. Ciao’s signature dish is prime rib a la Guido (Fenu), a Des Moines legend that is encrusted with sea salt. Mine was served with grill marks on both sides.

Assuming someone had mistakenly served me a steak, I complained. A manager apologized and quickly offered to replace it. On another occasion, an order of angel hair pasta was graciously split on two plates so that both a marinara and a pesto sauce could be sampled without running together.

Desserts included a tasting plate of tiramisu that was very subtle in its espresso flavor, a chocolate caramel mousse, and a chocolate raspberry truffle. Triple fudge torte, espresso crème brulee, and carrot cake completed a menu of Iowa favorites. Good coulis and oils decorated plates on all courses.

Bottom line – Ciao has said goodbye to clubby aspects of Graze while retaining its fresh drink recipes. It has added fresh and local foods, courteous democratic service, and enough cheese to satisfy a fondue Craving.

Ciao

5513 Mills Civic Pkwy, West Des Moines, 440-2426

Mon. -Thurs. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Fri. -Sat. 11 a.m. – midnight

Night Moves

Scott Stroud moved from the kitchen of Alba to Django… Boonie Boone is now working at Alba… Arturo Mora is upgrading Christopher’s menu with high end local sources such as Fox Hollow poultry.

The world may be shrinking for the young and the bold but it’s looking more intimidating to many of the rest of us. Prior to 9-11, I never checked the State Department’s Current Travel Warnings before booking a trip to some far flung place with rare or unique foods. Today, I accept that I won’t get to all the exotic places on my food bucket list. (There were 38 countries under travel warning or travel alert when I wrote this).

The good news is that young and bold immigrants from all over the earth are bringing the flavors of those exotic places to us. Just as the romantic novel created armchair travelers in the 19^th century, ethnic strip mall cafés are creating taste bud travelers in the 21^st century. In the last year, I’ve eaten at restaurants inspired by cuisines of 15 different countries under travel warnings, all without leaving the US. Number fifteen is one of my favorites and one I least expected to find in Des Moines.

The strip mall at 2500 MLK doesn’t face the street and is easy to miss. It’s bustling though, with a new tavern, a southeast Asian video café, an African jewelry store and Jeylani Habib’s Africa Cuisine Restaurant. One word, repeated several times on the menu, rang my bell. Barawa is an ancient port town in the Horn of Africa, notorious in romantic lore for its long history of dervishes, freedom fighters, pirates and saints including the female poet saint Dada Masiti. It’s ancient cinnamon trade with India was so successful that the Romans actually thought that cinnamon grew in what is now souther Somalia. Barawa also was the site of the 2009 US black ops raid that killed the Al Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. At my age, such places intrigue me, but about as close as I want to get to the real Barawa is to eat dishes named for it.

First we’ll have some appetizers, a course which suggested that the old trade routes to India are alive in this cuisine.

Sambusas, the restaurant’s most popular items, resemble South Asian samosas, without vegetarian options. ACR’s were laminated pastries stuffed with spicy ground beef, peppers and potatoes. Don’t expect them served with chutneys as in Indian restaurants but you might use some pickled pepper hot sauce on them, or dip them in the little dishes of sukhaar that were served with multiple items. These simulated a stew, onions and tomatoes with an array of spices including ginger and cinnamon, plus some curry like blend. Bajjand delivered little bean cakes made from mashed black eyed peas.

Macasharo were served as an appetizer, though I’d consider it a dessert. Rice had been fermented with sugar until it began to convert into strands that stuck together when cooked in a pan on a flat top. The result looked like spaghetti strands stuck together in squares but it tasted like rice pudding. All were served with complimentary pitchers of a beverage that tasted like Tang in guava or mango flavor.

Dinners feature choices of East African breads, two bear the name of Barawa. Muufo is a sweet corn meal bread and “muufo Barawa” is usually cooked in a wok-shaped clay forno that is named after the city. Sugars settled and caramelized a bit on the bottom of the bread. Anjera Barawa is a minimalist take on injera, the sponge like sour dough, flatbread that Ethiopian restaurants serve as plates, and in lieu of silverware. Made with the flour of teff, an ancient grain indigenous to the Horn of Africa, that bread is huge, table sized sometimes. The Barawa version resembles it flavor and texture but it’s much smaller and served on the side. Chapattis were dead ringers for the Indian chapattis that are a staple in Northern India – thick wheat flour tortillas that were pan-fried, probably in ghee.

Breads and served with liver for breakfast and with goat, lamb, beef steak, chicken legs or fried fish for lunch and dinner. My chicken was braised in mild curry my goat and lamb shanks were braised in milder stocks.

 Fish filets were anything but mild, resembling Cajun blackened fish.

Nafaqo provides a vegetarian dinner option, besides being a useful Scrabble word. These are usually described as mashed potatoes and egg fritters.

The real desserts were utterly sweet. I tried one (“sisin”) made with sesame seeds and sugar. Another (“qumbe’) consisted of milk, sugar, coconut and cardamon cooked and gelled into squares. Another (“neenandi”) was very sweet bread made with flour, eggs, sugar, butter, milk and salt.

Africa Cuisine Restaurant

2500 Martin Luther King Blvd., Suite 3, 277-7784

Mon. – Sat. 9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.- 8 p.m.