Mistress of its field

Promising Lao-Thai-Chinese cuisine, Lily Restaurant opened recently in a venue where several other SE Asian restaurants had quickly come and gone. The café’s odd décor (an umbrella hangs from the ceiling, lavender color schemes are sandwiched by brown carpeted walls) has remained virtually unchanged for multiple incarnations. Looks are deceiving in this case – a lot has changed. For starters, the restaurant seems to be busier than ever, even at odd hours of the day. Secondly, the kitchen has distinct style – this is no cookie cutter Asian hybrid.

Like most SE Asian cafés, soup is a strong suit here. Unlike most others, soup does not mean pho. In fact you can’t even find “pho” on the menu. “Kuay tiew neau” is a similar Laotian soup made with a mild beef stock.

Ordered with “rare beef,” it delivered a side of perfectly rare beef. Ordered with tofu, it brought generous amounts of seared bean curd. Both versions included rice vermicelli and condiments you’d expect at Vietnamese restaurants except with cabbage instead of culantro and cilantro.

Some dishes had Lao names with Vietnamese names in parentheses.

“Kaow poon (bun thit nuong)” was a soup from northern Laos made with a stock of pork bones plus galangal, ginger, chilies, garlic, lime leaves, shallots and pork. It was served with ground peanuts, cabbage and carrots. One menu section listed “Chinese soups” that all had Vietnamese names. Their common denominator seemed to be “Chinese five spice” (star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and Szechuan pepper).

“Mi thit tiem” was a sensational $9 soup, delivering a quarter of a crisply smoked duck in a bowl of chicken/duck stock with thin egg noodles, scallions, ginger, wolfberries (goji), a prune (I think) and leaves of basil and cai lan, a versatile vegetable the leaves of which resemble mustard greens and the stems of which resemble broccoli. You can also order this dish dry, with duck on the side so it stays crisp.

There were some surprises on the appetizer menu too.

“Vietnamese egg rolls,” a special one day, were stuffed with black fungus, minced pork and rice noodles and served with pickled white radish, Napa cabbage, carrots and lemon sauce.

A Bangkok roll, one of the best vegetarian dishes in town, was stuffed with avocado, tofu, freshly cooked egg, chilled cucumber, and rice noodles with a completely different lemon sauce with tamarind.

An order of two long rolls provided a dozen large pieces for $4.

Banh mi sandwiches were made with rice flour baguettes and a choice of meats, including “falau” which usually means intestines, stomach, lungs, kidney and heart but tasted more like headcheese here. Pot stickers were fried crisply.

Cai lan was featured in several other dishes, both Chinese and Lao. “Pad see ew (banh pho lon xao kho)” was made with flat rice noodles, cai lan, egg, five spice, garlic and a choice of proteins. “Pad kawpao” was one of the spicier dishes I tried, stir fried pork with considerable garlic, chilies, basil and fish sauce.

A single curry, red, was offered with generous amounts of chicken, fresh straw mushrooms, cai lan, carrots, basil, cauliflower and snow peas but little or no coconut milk.

“Xao xa ot” was a lemongrass and squid dish with cai lan, straw mushrooms, and chilies. Pad Thai was heavy with peanuts. Laotian salads were well represented with familiar ones such as green papaya, seafood and laab as well as some rarely seen ones like “namtok,” which usually means blood or organ meats.

Bottom line – Lily is an exciting new SE Asian hybrid with cuisine similar to what one expects in west coast towns where Asians are the majority population.

Lily

3422 MLK Pkwy., 277-7881

Tues. – Sun. 10 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., Mon. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

-    Aaron King’s winning entry at recent Top Challenge 

      Pink Peppercorn Seared Cap Steak Salad of Arugula and Beet Greens, CleverleyFarms Baby Beets and Breakfast Radishes, Chive, Parmesan, Cucumber Ribbons and Hot Banyuls Vinaigrette, Lemon/Thyme Salt

o   Heavy salt in first 10 minutes to make up for no age on steak and no time to marinade. 

o   Hard sear – RARE

o   Used Hot vinaigrette to emulate Shabu Shabu style of dipping food at the table.  Created a very buttery mouth feel and unique salad.

-         Herb Crusted Eye, Braised Spring Onions, Mushroom Farro Risotto

o   Removed fat while breaking down ribeye.

o   Rendered fat to make a “brine” including sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and coriander

o   Injected fat brine back into eye as to not lose one of the most indentifying characteristic of a ribeye – the delicious fat   ame Candied Rib Bone, Garlic Chili Vinaigrette, Kim Chi, Pickled Mustard Greens

o   Made an “Asian” Gastrique using GGS, Mushrooms, Coriander, Brown Sugar, Hoisen, Sesame oil, Rice Wine Vinegar

o   Coated with Sesame and roasted, basting often

Ses Sesame Candied Rib Bone, Garlic Chili Vinaigrette, Kim Chi, Pickled Mustard Greens 

o   Made an “Asian” Gastrique using GGS, Mushrooms, Coriander, Brown Sugar, Hoisen, Sesame oil, Rice Wine Vinegar

o   Coated with Sesame and roasted, basting often 

After half of century of losing ground to supermarkets and franchise restaurants with 32 page menus, specialization is coming back in the food sector. Three new local businesses riding this bandwagon.

Candy Clubhouse appeals as much to senior citizens as to kids. They feature nostalgia lines of candies and soft drinks, including brands I had not seen since in decades: Twin Bings, Bit-o-Honeys, Clark bars, Abba-zabbas, Neccos, Red Hots, Bonomo Turkish Taffy, and PEZ with numerous dispensers, etc. They also carry a number of European and regional candies from Vosges, Cote d’or Dolfin, Chocolove, Wai Lana, Drost Roland, Hachey, New Tree (quince flax chocolate is definitely from a new tree), etc. Caramel apples were made fresh in 11 flavors.

Soft drinks were replicated in museum quality bottles. Most used nostalgic recipes meaning cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, which replaced sugar industry-wide in the early 1980’s. Many were regional specialties like North Carolina’s Cheerwine, Seattle’s Pig Iron Cola, Milwaukee’s Sprecher, Central Texas’ Big Red and Kiss, Connecticut’s Avery’s, Maryland’s Frostie, England’s Calypso, the Cascade Mountain range’s Huckleberry,

Colorado’s Tommy Knocker, Australia’s Bundaberg and name sake sodas from Death Valley, Sioux City and Fargo.

Other sodas were from new companies trying to create 21^st century flavors with old fashioned methods – Reed’s Flying Cauldron Butterscotch and Eat Me Now’s Jack Black Blue Cream for instance. Jelly Belly was represented with a long line of such sodas, plus a large section of candies. Fluids and Rocket Fizz sodas were produced by Rocket Fizz, a franchise candy store very similar to Candy Clubhouse. Bulldog sodas advertised high end ingredients like pure vanilla. Lester Fixins’ odd flavors included peanut butter and jelly, pumpkin pie, bacon and sweet corn. Cucumber soda tasted like half of a gin-seeking summer cocktail invention.

Some sodas came with interesting back stories. Nesbitt’s Orange soda was the most popular orange drink in America till the late 1960‘s. Its 1940’s ads featured an unknown spokeswoman named Marilyn Monroe. Jolt has been called the prototype of Red Bull. Leninade sodas are Russian made spoofs of Communist era propaganda – ”If it’s in a tomb, you must exhume.” Los Angeles’ Rat Bastard Root Beer could have been concocted in a Chinatown herbal store, employing jasmine, dong quai, three kinds of ginseng, mad dog weed, skullcap, yohimbe, ginko bilboa, gotu kola, golden seal, echinacea, capsicum, reishi, plus shitaki & cordyceps mushrooms.

Elsewhere in Valley West Mall, Twisted Joe’s opened in the food court, a solitary unique store amidst a number of franchises. It offered good burgers and Johnsonville brats, with excellent hand cut fries.

My half pound burger was well seared and served on a toasted buttered bun.

In the Shops at Roosevelt, Cheese Shop of Des Moines has begun serving hot lunches, all cheese of course. A toasted cheese sandwich epitomized the best of that genre.

It was made with high fat butter, La Mie bread and a combination of three Iowa cheeses – Frisian Farms gouda, Milton Creamery’s Quark and Prairie Breeze. One can add prosciutto, salami, pepper jam or home made arugula pesto. Cast iron skillet mac & cheese was made with Frisian Farms gouda. Side salads featured lemon vinaigrettes, olives, Jack cheese and almonds. Gus Soda, a New York brand I did not see at Candy Clubhouse, was featured in three flavors, along with Peace Tree root beer and the usual wines and beers that are sold at bargain, retail prices all day.

Candy Clubhouse / Twisted Joe’s

Valley West Mall

Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Cheese Shop

833 42^nd St.

Tues. – Thurs. 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 10 a.m. – close

Side Dishes

Taste of Thailand founder Prasong “Pak” Nurack is currently serving his second term in Thailand’s Senate. His former internet service provider disabled his old email address book and he wants to reconnect with his friends in Iowa. Contact him at pnurack@gmail.com.

While coaching Little League years ago, parents changed team names from aggressive creatures like Rams and Falcons to passive ones like Lambs and Sparrows. (Only the Cubs survived that transformation.) Until this month, that was the only time I’d noticed the sparrow being used as a name or logo. It didn‘t figure. Sparrows are gregarious and friendly. They sing so pleasantly that legendary French singer Edith Piaf was known at “the little sparrow.” They are so hospitable that the word for a plurality of sparrows is “host.”

Partners Tony Lemmo, Phil Shires, Katie Lemmo and Lisa Hutchins identify with the four different sparrows painted on the wall of their new café Host. Good hosts, they redesigned the former Flour into a delightfully comfortable venue. Antique and reclaimed furniture was sanded, painted and reupholstered by Hutchins. Long harvest tables were built from century old salvaged wood. Minnesota Milk crates were turned into fixtures and lamps. Erin Jay Frye painted murals. Their menu was printed on salvaged window panes. A bouquet of completely different flowers, or hosta leaves, featured on every table, two bouquets on some tables. The partners secured the only outdoor patio furniture permit on their block, across from Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Their business plan is to serve lunch weekdays and to make the space available for private parties and meetings at other times.

Host serves comfort food, in more ways than one. Each sandwich and entrée on the lunch menu features local farm and artisan products raised by natural and sustainable methods. Pork was from Eden Farms, beef from Grass Run Farms, poultry from Fox Hollow Farm, dairy products from Pickett Fences and Milton Creamery, charcuterie from La Quercia, greens from Cleverley Farms. “Mama’s” meatloaf is literal, the Lemmo siblings used their mother Lou Lou’s recipe with a minor tweak.

With a excellent natural crust and a Dijon cream sauce, it was a marvelous diversion from the ketchup crusted, brown gravy variety that is offered most Iowa places. Similarly chicken pot pie delivered roasted chicken and vegetables in a chicken stock gravy topped by a puff pastry from La Mie.

Corned beef brisket on rye was dressed with Gouda, spicy mustard and caramelized onions but the beef neither looked nor tasted salt-cured and its texture did not seem like brisket.

Grilled cheese was made with Prairie Breeze and double cream cheeses from Milton and seasoned with truffle oil. Some side dishes also diverted from traditional deli style. Potato salad was dressed with vinaigrette and made with sweet potatoes. Chile was vegetarian, though that will change regularly.

Other dishes were more traditional. Curried chicken salad was made with raisins, mixed greens and almonds and served on a brioche.

Tamworth prosciutto was served with tomatoes, leeks and Gruyere on rye panini. “Calabrese style” shaved pork loin was served with caramelized onions and Fontina on a brioche. Marvelous carrot bisque, Mediterranean style quinoa and mixed greens were by the book. A daily special pop corn is also featured. A “seven minute frosting grapefruit cake” was badly flawed. Its frosting was granular and crunch, as if its sugar was given a short shift. Its crumb was badly dried out.

Every entrée and sandwich/side dish combo was priced under $12. That piece of cake cost $7.50 Beer and wine should be licensed soon. The wine list will feature European and South American wines in the $30-$50, $8 -$12 range.

All beers will be from Iowa breweries.

Host

1220 Locust St., 250-1009

Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Side Dishes

Irina’s added a hard wood smoker… Mullets expanded to daily breakfast service… Woody’s extended its Saturday hours till 8 p.m. through September… Bistro Montage will open for lunch beginning in June.

(originally published in Cityview)

Cupcakes are a 21^st century super trend, even replacing layered cakes in many weddings. Martha Stewart wrote an entire book exclusively about them. The Food Channel airs multiple cupcake shows. A search engine quest turned up more than a dozen cupcake businesses in Des Moines. Not that many were real stores though, more like web sites for ordering cupcakes for delivery. Many offered free delivery too. There’s a drawback though. Wedding planners warn that some cupcake businesses don’t work out of inspected kitchens, nor carry insurance. As long as one doesn’t provide on-site retail sales, it’s legal in Iowa to make such products out of the house, even with dogs, cats or pests. I decided to stick to storefront cupcakes.

Carefree Patisserie operates in a quaint Valley Junction building. It’s no small business though – they just landed a contract with the state fair for 20,000 “fair squares.” Chef and operating partner Jennifer Strauss said she always sells ten fresh cupcakes flavors a day, from a repertoire of 101. Last week, a Blue Hawaii delivered pineapple rum cake with blue citrus butter cream. Strauss says butter cream is the most important ingredient in cupcakes. Hers is made in 60 to 80 gallon batches, by the company’s only male employee, with sugar that is uncooked when it’s added.

She also advised party planners to be sure that cupcake stands are sturdy – hers are all metal or acrylic and imported from London where the wedding cupcake fad originated. She suggested that for comparison sake, one should taste red velvet cupcakes “because they are the easiest to mess up. It’s very tricky the way your acid oxidizes your cocoa to turn it red.

The darker the red, the better the cake.” Having only tasted red velvet cakes that added food coloring to white cake, I didn’t even know authentic red velvet was a chocolate cake.

At Crème Cupcakes owner Christine Moffat said she’s moving to the old Great Harvest Bakery. When the move is complete, she will add dessert-only dinner service, with former Baru Pastry Chef Jess Dunn creating the menu. Moffatt thinks the key ingredient in cupcakes is butter. She uses a high fat butter and never substitutes oil or shortening. “You don’t want the greasy aftertaste that shortenings like Crisco leave. And don’t put so much sugar in your frosting that you can’t taste the flavors.”

She described her red velvet cake as half Southern style (with cream cheese frosting and cider vinegar for oxidizing acid) and half Waldorf style (adding vanilla). She said she always uses vanilla paste, never extract.

At The Bake Shoppe in Windsor Heights, long loved for rye bread and petit fours, I found ten different flavors of cupcakes.

At $1 to $1.25 they were considerable less expensive than the others I found, even from delivery-only services.

Bottom line – Carefree’s red velvet was the most chocolaty and deepest red. Crème’s was subtler with both vanilla and chocolate tones and the airiest texture. Bake Shoppe’s frosting was by far the sweetest and its crumb hardly tasted of chocolate at all.

Side Dishes

Baru 66 collaborated with Carefree Patisserie to sell out two sittings, on a Monday, for this all dessert menu: Smoked pork belly with caramel corn shake; Foie gras mousse with rhubarb confit; Tuna tataki with wasabi sorbet and ginger espuma; Minestrone with cheese panna cotta; Cocoa rubbed ribeye with white chocolate Bernaise; Sophia ashed chevre with brown butter cake, apple relish and Calvados jelly; Chocolate mousse torte with hazelnut praline, chocolate ganache, brandied cherries and cherry sorbet.

Bake Shoppe

6611 University Ave., Windsor Heights, 255-2253, Mon. – Sat. 7 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Crème Cupcakes

1701 South Union St., 554-9007, Tues. – Fri. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. – noon

Carefree Patisserie

304 5th St., West Des Moines, 277-0705, Tues. – Wed. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Thurs. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

(originally published in Cityview)

While politicians argued about whether an upper case Buffet (Rule) would retard the economy or pay off excessive government spending, two lower case buffets set new standards in Des Moines. A Rare Affair in Hotel Fort Des Moines matched some of Iowa’s most discriminating farmers with top local chefs who use meats from sustainable Iowa farms. It sold out 300 tickets quickly at over $40. The event was the brain child of Larry Cleverley, a Mingo vegetable farmer who has introduced, and re-introduced more heirloom varieties of naturally raised foods than anyone in central Iowa. He determined to showcase meats that are raised humanely and naturally – outside of confinements without hormones or antibiotics.

Anthony Johnson recreated a dish I have enjoyed at Mojo’s on 86th – seared tenderloin of ostrich from De Bruin Brothers of Oskaloosa. He drizzled it with smoked strawberry sauce and onion jam served over Prairie Breeze cheddar from Milton Creamery. Derek Eidson of Centro also paired off with a familiar face. He cooked an entire Iowa Swabian Hall pig overnight in his restaurant’s wood burning oven.

Carl Blake of Rustik Rooster Farms recreated the legendary 19^th century Swabian Hall breed of Germany by crossing Russian Wild Boars with Chinese Meishans.

Their pork is dark like goose near the bone and fattier than any other hybrid. A slice of its duck-like skin alone was worth the price of admission. Alba’s Jason Simon also recreated a favorite dish –

rabbit stew from De Bruin Brothers. Mike Utley of Americana served coconut braised short ribs of Majinola’s Wagyu beef, with pineapple & mango salsa. Sbrocco chefs served herb encrusted, slow roasted acorn finished pork shoulders from Eden Farms.

Other chefs experimented. Luna Bistro’s Kris Van Tuyl made a pheasant terrine served with freshly marinated plums.

George Formaro and Scott Stroud of Django worked with that restaurant‘s Mexican line cooks to make the best frijoles I ever tasted –

copious quantities of butter were involved along with chicharones, onions, and fresh herbs. They also made tepache (fermented fruit beer)

and tacos, including some that mixed hearts, brains, tongues and cheeks. Nick Ilingworth and CJ Bienert of Cheese Shop of Des Moines made toasted cheese sandwiches with La Quercia prosciutto.

Bill Overdyk of Gateway Market prepared pork belly wraps with Gojuchang chile paste and nuoc cham.

Eastern Upgrades Chinese Buffet

Eastern Sushi Hibachi Buffet opened in the extensively remodeled, 500 seat venue once home to Mondo’s

A misty carp pond greeted visitors along with a replica of a horse drawn chariot from the terra cotta army of Xian, one of the great archeological finds of history. A sign delightfully disclosed that this is not the original.

Food upgraded the Chinese buffet genre in these parts. (I had never seen so many Chinese diners eating in an Iowa Chinese restaurant before, other than Sunday mornings at Kwong Tung.) Many unexpected things were scratch-made including

excellent kim chee,

coconut macaroons, fresh fruit salads,

an apple pie or dumpling with sesame crusts, and an original take on tiramisu.

An $11 buffet, the most expensive of the week, featured salt & pepper squid,

crab stuffed mushrooms, large fried frog legs, four shrimp dishes, fried halibut,

crab legs, crawfish, large baked salmon, and two kinds of clam dishes.

A hibachi bar offered freshly boned chicken thighs and skirt steak, rather than the weird frozen pieces of meat other buffets serve.

Hibachi chefs put on a good show, juggling eggs on their spatulas and creating dazzling flames for children. A sushi station was ordinary with mostly featuring crab stick rolls.

Bottom Line – Rare Affair might well have been the best buffet ever assembled in Iowa. Its success suggests it will become annual. Eastern sets a new standard for Chinese buffets in Des Moines.

Eastern Hibachi Buffet

4001 Westown Pkwy., 267-8999

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

Side Dishes

British doctors began administering the diabetes drug metformin to the unborn babies of morbidly obese mothers-to-be to reduce fetus weight.

Spring brought renewal to the local food industry this year. Some of it was obvious like Eastern Buffet replacing Joseph’s Steak House and Host following Flour, both after considerable remodeling. Other things bloomed subtly, like Proof changing hands without missing a single meal.

Carly Groben built a considerable reputation there the last three years, including a nod from the James Beard Foundation as one of the top young 20 chefs in America. She plans to travel in Central America now and sold both Flour and Proof, the latter to Sean Wilson and Zach Mannheimer. Carolinian Wilson is a chef of considerable skills, having worked in the kitchens of renowned chefs in New York and Seattle before running Azalea, Kirkwood Lounge and Cuatro in Des Moines. New Yorker Mannheimer served as maitre d’ and sommelier at Embassy Club before organizing the Des Moines Social Club. They hired Hal Jasa, well known here as the Underground Chef and owner of Zingaro.

They bring camaraderie to this 64-seat café. Wilson and Jasa founded Boucherie, a two-year-old, weekend-long celebration of whole animal cooking. Mannheimer worked for Jasa at Zingaro and Jasa for Mannheimer at DMSC. Most impressively, they’ve restrained themselves from making big changes to a popular menu that was heavily influenced by Groben’s earlier travels in North Africa.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” explained Jasa. 

Their lunch menu looked much as it did before, with three salads, five sandwiches (served ironically on unproofed breads) and five grain dishes. What did change was the method of preparation — all lunch dishes are made “à la minute” (prepared to order, rather than being prepped in advance and held for service). Flatbreads changed, too, to resist breaking apart in ones hands.

I particularly appreciated the “à la minute” approach with a Moroccan chicken sandwich, something I rarely order because prepped chicken is almost always overcooked. Proof delivered a juicy breast, heavily spiced and served with a sauce of caramelized onions, tomatoes, arugula and raisins.

A bowl of tomato soup was filled with black cous cous and sausage. A merguez (lamb) sandwich delivered scratch made sausage.

The new crew is expanding Proof’s dinner service, to both Friday and Saturday nights for now, perhaps a third night soon. The menu changes weekly to keep the chefs interested. All dinners are fixed price, three course meals ($35, $50 with wine pairings). Stand out first courses recently featured rghaif, a popular North African street food.

Fried semolina dumplings were stuffed with lamb and accompanied by ratatouille and freshly minted yogurt. A gorgeous, deconstructed beet salad presented various colored beets, beet puree, balsamic marshmallows, fresh micro greens, chevre and pistachios.

An equally lovely pâté plate was served with mustard, puree of asparagus, micro greens and a quail egg yolk.

A galantine of roasted chicken delivered seared and boned chicken coated with vadouvan (curry) spices on a bed of quinoa, with carrot puree and baby carrots of many colors.

An outstanding dessert presented a hazelnut dacquoise with burnt honey ice cream, fresh poached pears and freshly whipped cream.

Cheese flights were served in three sizes for an extra charge.

Side Dishes

Glenda Reiling won the Food Feud for a Cause challenge with a theatrical sweet potato mousse in a spun sugar nest with candied corn and chocolate ganache. She spun her sugar on a ladder to create “angel tears” and much applause. The event was held at Lotus Moments Events Center, a unique facility that does not charge additional fees to cater your own event, or for using a “non-preferred cater.”

Restaurant transformations come in different levels of difficulty. Some are seamless. When Sean Wilson bought Proof from Carly Groben last month, the place never missed a day of business. Others close down for months of gutting and rebuilding. Dante Heck, Brendan Kelly and Rob Iovino’s The Standard is from that latter category. The only thing that remains from its days as The Pelican is its slate floor. The bar, furniture and stage (hosting live music each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) are all new. The partners said they want to be an alternative niche in the Court Avenue district. Their musical choices seem to be reaching out for a more adult audience with blues, jazz and soul. The bar does the same thing by featuring classic cocktails and martinis, plus a nostalgic frosted cooling rail.

Their menu was geared for drink pairings with tapas, soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts. Nothing was priced over $12 and most everything was under $10. A four hour long Happy Hour (3 p.m. – 7 p.m.) brought half price martinis and bottles of wine plus $3 beers. The Standard is not a wine bar though. Beers outnumbered wines seven to one. It’s a cocktail lounge with tapas from a serious kitchen.

The Standard martini with New Amsterdam gin and white vermouth was offered with the “dirty” option of a splash of olive brine and three green olives. That salty taste paired nicely with corn meal encrusted crab croquettes served with a zippy remoulade, orange segments, red onions and a mini salad of mesclun.

A Manhattan fudged on classic interpretation. Canadian Club has not been a rye whisky for decades. Canadian law allows Canadian distillers to use the term even if no rye is used and Canadian Club is made with corn these day. (American rye whiskey must use rye for over half of its mash.)

Otherwise, the Manhattan was served by the book with sweet vermouth and a maraschino cherry. However, it was served with a mysterious froth, or mini head, that one would never see in a serious cocktail lounge in Las Vegas or New York. At any rate, that sweeter drink was paired with a marinated olive platter that included two pitted green olives marinated in chile oil, two more in citrus and herbs, and another two stuffed with blue cheese.

A Sazerac delivered a modern take on a classic. Made with Buffalo Trace’s Sazerac brand rye whiskey and Pernod Anise substituted for absinthe, it produced none of the theatrical notes that Django’s Sazerac delivers.

It was a lovely reddish brown accented with an orange twist and it worked well with

Cajun style shrimp cooked in cayenne, beer and butter. A rumchata, made with cream, rum and caramel vodka, was the sweetest cocktail I tasted

and paired well with fish tacos (“the most popular item on the menu“) which delivered tilapia, pineapple salsa, avocado and mesclun with a side of potato soup.

Smoked salmon was served with chevre and toast.

A steak sandwich brought tender braised beef mixed with roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, horse radish cream and a fried egg. It was also served with a side of hand cut, twice fried French fries.

Those are a labor intensive bonus that one rarely sees at such low prices. A short dessert menu included home made fresh mint ice cream and fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate. A excellent evening special of French toast was served with burnt maple syrup, candied walnuts and a strawberry reduction.

Bottom line – The Standard is a pleasant new place with exceptional food and drink values, particularly at Happy Hour.

The Standard

208 3^rd St., 243-4456

Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 a.m., Sat & Sun. 5 p.m. – 2 a.m.

Side Dishes

Fresh Iowa grown produce has been sold at pop up farmers markets since March. One farmer sold 150 pounds of spinach at the Shops at Roosevelt and said his crops were six weeks ahead of schedule.

“Pink slime” might accidentally become the most effective anti-brand in marketing history. It was coined in a 2002 private email by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist Gerald Zirnstein to describe lean finely textured beef (LFTB). That stuff represents about two percent of cattle carcass yield that would otherwise be wasted or made into dog food. Zirnstein’s term remained obscure until Jamie Oliver mentioned it on a TV show last April. Over a million people watched the You Tube version and outrage spread virally. Recently McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell all promised to quit using LFTB, the USDA reversed itself to allow school districts to quit using it, and supermarkets panicked into banning it. Iowa’s governor intervened to pressure supermarkets into labeling, rather than banning it. (Zirnstein, now unemployed, only advocated labeling.)

This week, IBI closed three plants including one in Waterloo, citing the pink slime controversy for slowdowns that will cost 650 workers their jobs. This is a case of good intentions gone amok. LFTB is safe to eat, much safer than the rest of the burger we ingest and which is responsible for a third of all e coli infections that land folks in the hospital in America. It also helps use the whole animal meaning that 3 percent fewer cows have to die to feed America’s burger itch. A good share of the blame for losing a battle that should have been won goes to the marketers in charge of promoting beef.

Iowa Beef Industry Council (IBC) represents 3,850,000 cows and 30,000 cattle operations in Iowa with “education, promotion and research.” Figuring they would be deployed for combat, I checked out their web page last week. Their strategy appeared to be diversionary. There was not a word about LFTB but lots about a national award for the Iowa livestock auction market and IBC’s “Best Burger” contest. Since burger is where most LFTB ends up, I decided to see if IBC was doing a better job evaluating burgers than naming products like LFTB, or defending them.

Three Des Moines area restaurants – Drake Diner, Ankeny Diner, and Rosco’s in Norwalk – joined Coon Bowl III in Coon Rapids, Farmer’s Kitchen in Atlantic, My Tighe’s in Grand Junction, Rube’s Steakhouse in Montour, Sac City Bowling Center, PerXactly’s in Maquoketa, and The Ritz in Arnolds Park as “Best Burger” finalists. Farmer’s Kitchen is a legendary mom & son café that offers wagyu (Kobe) burgers. Figuring they set a high standard, I excitedly headed to Rosco’s, a cross between a family café and a steakhouse.

I always request burgers cooked “medium with a good sear.” My favorite burger makers

 (Alba, Zombie, Gateway, Django) have perfected the art of searing which creates a crust filled with multiple flavors created by the binding of amino acids at high heat. Searing is not charring, which produces only the flavor of carbon.

Rosco’s half pound burger, shaped perfectly round, was charred to the point that my first bite dripped blackening agents into a side of heavily liquid cole slaw. My bun was buttered and toasted nicely but served with industrial pickles and ice berg lettuce.

Ankeny Diner occupies a crossroads of American fast food opportunities – nine other restaurants within two lots of the corner of First & Delaware. Its design and menu revealed that it’s a clone of Drake Diner. Its ambiance was overwhelmed by the aroma of chlorine. My half pound burger was irregularly shaped, a good sign it was hand packed. It had as decent a sear as one can achieve on an open grill but was overcooked and dry.

Its bun was neither buttered nor toasted but lettuce was fresher than at Rosco’s. A good side salad was an upgrade over sorry slaw. In retrospect though, I pined for their hot beef special, at half the price of my burger ($9).

Figuring that Drake Diner would be duplicative, I visited Tally’s to try their touted half pound 50-50 burger, an even mix of pork belly and beef. Tally’s achieved by far the best sear of the three places I tried and that’s harder to do with pork involved.

Their burger was smartly served with sweet pickles that complemented the slightly sour flavor of the mixed meats. Their bun was fresh and interesting. Though I prefer Tally’s all beef grind, theirs was my best burger experience of the week. It also included the best side dish option – a divine lobster bisque.

Tally’s

2712 Beaver Ave. 279 2067

Mon. – Sat. 11 a.m. – close, Sun. 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Side Dishes

Wendy’s announced it had never used LFTB and also moved ahead of Burger King to become the second largest fast food chain.

In 2008 Thailand became the world’s first country to elect a celebrity chef as its Prime Minister. Minutes after accepting victory, Samak Sundaravej went grocery shopping with camera crews in tow and vowed that his new gig would not interfere with his television show. He had been warned against making that vow. The Thai Constitution does not allow elected officials to work for private companies like TV networks. After five months of arguments, the Constitutional Court of Thailand unanimously disqualified Samak from office. He died less than a year later. Samak’s strange saga has been recounted to illustrate two different points. 1.) Culinary expertise is revered in Thai culture. (Another Thai Prime Minister invented the national dish pad thai as a key element of his economic policy in the 1930’s.) 2.) Television obsession is a weirdly modern form of hubris – “Greek tragedy as farce” as one pundit put it. Both points came to mind on visits to the metro’s newest Thai restaurant Uniq Cuisine.

Uniq Saysinuan’s one room café is painted a warm yellow with bodhisattva’s for good luck and a large high definition TV for distraction. Even the tableware was stylish.

On occasions when Uniq was working alone or with other women, the TV was muted, or so low in volume I never noticed it. When men worked in the front room, the television was tuned in to game shows and talk shows at high volume. I heard more about the side effects of both bladder control medications and erectile dysfunction drugs than I ever wanted to know. Even so, Uniq’s culinary expertise gave me reason to tolerate the ambiance.

She explained that she is half Thai and half Laotian and that her Thai cooking is influenced by Laotian preferences for less subtlety and more complicated flavors.

Her two versions of green papaya salad illustrated that well. Her Thai salad mixed thin slices of papaya with lime juice, chile, tomato and a sweetened fish sauce. Her “tum mua” version added carrots, cabbage and pork rinds.

Hot crisp egg rolls, crab Rangoon,

tightly wrapped spring rolls,

lightly sweetened cucumber salad, and chicken wings were all nicely executed but rather indistinguishable from others around town.

Pho (beef stock noodle soup) did not disappoint or stand out either.

Fried beef balls delivered sliced meat balls colorfully dropped into a bright red “sweet & sour sauce” that did not have the cloying sweetness of most things that go by that name.

Thai soups and curries were marvelously bold and beautiful. Her tom ka gai was a bright red rather than the pale green I’ve usually seen.

It was hardly overwhelmed with red chilies though. The flavors of coconut milk, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves all accented the mushrooms and chicken meat of Thailand’s most famous soup. Curries brought considerably more broth and flavors, not just chili paste and coconut milk. Basil, lemongrass, eggplant and zucchini maintained their identities in both “sweet green”

and red versions.

A spicy fish stir fry dish became a veritable curry with considerable sauce under tilapia, baby corn, two kinds of mushrooms, basil, peppers, tomatoes, ginger and celery.

 Fried rice with pineapple

and Pad Thai

were by-the-book dishes, balancing the four basic flavors without the boldness of Uniq’s curries and soups.

Thai iced tea delivered fresh cream resting on top of the beverage.

A complimentary dessert of coconut gelatin provided an unexpected treat.

Bottom line – Uniq makes some of the best Thai food around, with or without TV commercials blaring.

Uniq Cuisine

1903 EP True Pkwy, West Des Moines, 225-1547

Daily 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Side Dishes

Top chefs are restless this spring. Pastry Chef Jessica Dunn moved from Baru66 to Crème Cupcakes… Sean Wilson left Cuatro and Kirkwood Lounge to buy Proof. Hal Jasa became his sous chef. They changed almost nothing about lunch service but will be expanding dinner in their own creative ways… Tony Lemmo and Phil Shires (Café di Scala) bought Flour and are remodeling. The menu, name and look will change.

This column first appeared in Des Moines’ Cityview magazine.