Mongolian Metamorphoses

Sometime between the Year of the Metallic Tiger and this new Year of the Water Dragon, Des Moines’ suburbs were invaded by Mongolian BBQ. Never having visited HutHot, Bang Bang or Mongolia itself, I talked to restaurant pros who have. Before opening their Alsatian restaurant Baru, David Baruthio and Sara Hill lived in Mongolia. They shared barbecue photos and stories in which Mongolian goats were slaughtered, butchered and placed in what look like old fashioned 50 gallon milk cans – the kind that were used cows were milked by hand. The cans were placed for hours on large rocks heated with wood fires.

Mongolian barbecues in West Des Moines and Ankeny differed a bit. (The genre it seems is a Taiwanese invention that never had anything to do with Mongolia or barbecue.) Montana franchiser HuHot claims 50 operating restaurants on its web site. Faux Sticks murals and very loud 1980’s rock music dominated the dining room on my weekday lunch visit. I was seated with an instruction manual / menu from which I learned to get in line, fill a single bowl with frozen meats (chicken, pork, beef) or pollock, a choice of three noodles, vegetables and sauces.

I then took my bowl to a circular grill where chefs with machete edged spatulas fried it, simultaneously with several other orders. Thus scraps mingled from one diner’s bowl to the next. My cooked dish was served on a platter.

While transforming raw bowls into fried platters, chefs chopped everything into pieces sized for cats’ mouths.

Upon returning to my table, I discovered a bowl of white rice and a waiter asking if I wanted a soft drink, appetizers or desserts. Had I known about the rice I would have filled my bowl with a smaller percentage of noodles. I seemed to be the only clueless customer. The place quickly filled with enthusiastic folks filling multiple bowls.

Bang Bang is locally owned by Steve McFadden, who pioneered Mickey’s operations in town, and his wife Trisha. Its game plan resembled HuHot’s but details were better specified. Their grill is six feet in diameter and heated to 650 degrees.

Besides 25 sauces, they also provided a choice of 15 dry spices. In addition to the meats I found at HuHot, their weekday lunch included shrimp, scallops, cod, tilapia and whole baby squids – the kind more upscale restaurants should use en lieu of chewier cuttlefish rings.

Bang Bang’s vegetable selection included a gluten-free section. Their unimpressive nacho bar (chips plus tired looking cheese, guacamole and sour cream) provided a fajitas option to the stir and chop fry.

Waiters appeared quickly to explain things. They also offered alcoholic beverages but discouraged the use of rice on the grill. I was told that a separate grill was available for anyone with food allergies or paranoia about their food intermarrying with a stranger’s food. Whole grain tortillas and brown rice were offered for fiber hunters. The sound track at Bang Bang was discrete and covered jazz, blues and softer rock than anything I heard at HuHot. Unlike HuHot, Bang Bang also maintained a large outdoor patio.

The gentler ambiance encouraged me to order a “mini” Key Lime pie which was large by my reckoning.

Bottom line – Both places employ a savvy business plan that reduces labor costs (with few or no prep cooks, kitchen managers and servers) while increasing seating space. Both offered dietary control by letting diners choose exact portion sizes of carbs, sodium, calories, cholesterol, etc. Prices were virtually identical but Bang Bang offered more options and value with less noise for one‘s buck.

Side Dishes

Tartine initiates a Thursday night Sips & Snacks program this week that pairs four wines (or beers) with four appetizers for $15… Trostel’s Greeenbriar celebrates its 25^th anniversary with $25 three course dinners the week of Feb. 2-11.

HuHot Mongolian Grill

2310 SE Delaware Ave Ankeny, 963-7860

4100 University Ave., West Des Moines, 457-9090

Bang Bang Mongolian Grill
6240 Mills Civic Pkwy., West Des Moines, 440-2264

A Des Moines Burger at Zombie Burger

Hamburgers are enigmas in a bun. Despite being the most popular meal of the masses, they also fulfill all gourmet criteria: They contrast hot (meat) with cold (lettuce), sugary sweetness (ketchup) with sour tang (pickles), and an acid kick (onion and tomato) with soothing alkalinity (bun). Textures range from charred to soggy while stacking every color of the rainbow, even Maytag blue. Novelist Tom Robbins even considers them spiritual.

“A hamburger is warm and fragrant and juicy. A hamburger is soft and non-threatening. It personifies the Great Mother herself who has nourished us from the beginning,” he wrote.

Burger sectarians observe strange rites. In his film, “Hamburger America,” director George Motz celebrated burger culture by visiting places like Dyer’s in Memphis, where burgers are deep fried in the same filtered grease they’ve been using for 90 years. “Somewhere in there are molecules from 1912. That’s what makes ‘em so good,” the owner tells Motz‘s camera.

Unifying America

In his book in “Hamburger Heaven” Jeffrey Tennyson wrote that burgers are “the one thing that unites Americans as a people.” Actually, hamburgers are quite a bit older than America. In the 13^th century, they rode into the Western world, literally, under the saddles of Mongol hordes, who ate them raw. Germans began cooking them, in Hamburg, like steaks. Over a century ago, nutritionist Dr. J. H. Salisbury recommended eating hamburgers at least 3 times a day. They then became known as Salisbury steaks.

In popular lore, burgers were first served as sandwiches at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. However, Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, CT claims to have been selling them since 1900 and the town of Hamburg, NY claims they originated there in 1895. The Hamburger Hall of Fame agrees they were invented in 1895 but in Seymour, WI. In Oklahoma, it’s believed that Oscar Bilby was the first to serve burgers on a bun near Tulsa in 1891. The justices of history agree that hamburger and buns were legally married by 1912. In 1926, Maid-Rite, the first burger chain, opened in Muscatine. It expanded rapidly in the 1930’s along with diner architecture and both things came to represent affordable comfort during the Great Depression. By the 1930’s burgers had overtaken hot dogs as the most popular American dish. The cheeseburger appeared in the mid 1930’s.

Since then burgers have inspired provincialism. As author Calvin Trillin puts it, “Anyone who doesn’t think the best hamburger place in the world is in his own hometown is a sissy.” Don Short, whose family has owned Taylor’s Maid-Rite in Marshalltown since 1928, has a more poignant illustration.

“I have mailed frozen Maid-Rites now to at least 20 different people who were suffering from terminal cancer. They all grew up in Marshalltown and wanted to taste one more Maid-Rite before they died,” he said.

Contemporary economic conditions have again ushered in a new phase of burger adoration. Burger corporation stocks rose steadily over the last five years without being phased by the 2008 collapse of the stock market. McDonalds’ tripled since late 2006. In the typically contrary nature of the burger though, the contemporary mania also developed a new upscale niche, particularly here in Des Moines.

Ten years ago Old Homestead restaurant in New York City gained national notoriety by claiming the most expensive burger in America, a $41 special made with Kobe beef. $100 burgers popped up in Las Vegas restaurants within two years. After the stock market collapse of 2008, burger extravagance gave way to a new style of affordable excellence.

Two Mit Burgers simmer in Elkader

Iowa is the long time home to the most eclectic burger culture in America. Almost every meat eating Iowan has a special love for one unique hamburger or another. “Taverns,” “Tastees,” “Charlie Boys,” “Rossburgers, “Boozies,” “Canteens,”

“Gunderburger’s,” “Wally’s,” and “Two mits” are all long time legends in one part of the state or another while remaining pretty much unknown outside that region. Maid-Rite on the other hand took their Iowa brand national.

George Formaro, three times a James Beard Award semifinalist, has probably put more obsessive love into perfecting burgers than anyone in Iowa. He has created special burger recipes for Gateway Market, plus Gateway Market Café, Django, Centro, and Zombie Burger + Drink Lab.

“I once thought that making a good burger was one of the easiest things in the kitchen. Now I think it’s one of the hardest. Economics comes into play at every turn. In the (grocery) market, you have to be aware that your burger mix is going to be compared on price more than anything else. And that means you have to keep it affordable. You aren’t as restricted in restaurants because diners are willing to pay more for burger than grocery shoppers are. So there we can use things like rib eye and even dry aged beef.

“I loved using skirt steak, beef cheeks and hangar steak in our burger mixes from the beginning but those cuts became fashionable for steaks in the last few years, after 2008. So they became more expensive and harder to come by. We ended up with an even mix of brisket and chuck. It’s 75 percent lean and the brisket has enough collagen that the fat provides juiciness without the greasiness other similar mixes have. Our “Perfect Burger” is the same mix, it differs simply in the way it’s ground and cut – in a single direction so that round strands are rolled together with pockets that can trap juices,” Formaro said.

Those mixes didn’t work in his restaurants though. Each restaurant’s burger mix required tweaking. “All our burgers at Centro are cooked over wood and at Django they’re cooked over gas grills. The fire at Django burns fat nicely, so we had to use a coarser grind there. Our mixes at Centro and Django are similar but there is an added (secret) cut of beef,” he explained. The tweaking worked, Gourmet featured Gateway’s among America’s best burgers and USA Today named Django’s exactly that.

Zombie Burger brought a new set of challenges with a new specially designed flat top griddle as well as smaller patties with smaller prices.

“The griddle we designed intentionally replicates cast iron pans. The salt seasoning we developed was designed to help form the crust (sear) on the burgers. Getting that crust right took months of testing and experimenting,” Formaro explained.

Buns were not easy either. Formaro decided that the smaller patties demanded a different kind of bun texture. Cheeses were also difficult.

“Personally, I think regular American cheese works awfully well on burgers. But diners who go out to restaurants don’t just want a basic burger. In a fine dining restaurant, they want some element of adventure included. So we offer more than 20 specialty burgers at Zombie, with exotic cheeses and other things,” he said.

Formaro isn’t the only top chef who features burgers in his fine dining establishments. Jason Simon, twice a James Beard Award semifinalist, has similar love for humble burgers. However, he restricts burger options at Alba to just one, made with a mix of short ribs, hangar steak and New York strip.

“I love the beef flavor I get from those cuts,” he explained.

He also prefers a 75 percent lean mix. He cooks his burgers in carbon steel skillets heated over super high flames after being sprayed with “80 – 20” oil that has a high smoke point. Patties are “smashed” with a smaller frying pan after turning.

“You have to have high heat to achieve the maximum sear,” Simon said, explaining that flavor in beef comes from a Maillard Reaction, the scientific name for the process that does for proteins what caramelization does for carbohydrates – bonding molecules at high heat while releasing new flavors. This might be the latest thing in burger love but it’s hardly new. Guess who wrote the following advice about searing beef for juiciness and flavor?

“Thus as the exterior pores contract, the moisture contained within cannot escape any more but is imprisoned.”

Not all that much has changed since Aristotle taught Alexander the Great how to cook burgers.

Some Burger Legends of Des Moines

At Big City Burger & Greens extras included roasted tomatoes, fried eggs, jardinière and fried prosciutto.

Grandma Max’s “Big Max” contains four pounds of ground beef.

Jethro’s “Adam Emmenecker,” which finished second in ESPN’s nation wide best sports sandwich contest, includes a half pound steak burger, plus pork tenderloin, brisket, bacon, chicken tenders, fried cheese and white cheddar sauce.

Jesse’s Embers’ “Emburger” and Maxie’s “Maxieburger” are both half pound sandwiches that have been made the same way for over 40 years. The latter was dubbed “Happy Max” in Jeff Hagen’s book “Searching for the Holy Grill.”

Christopher’s grinds their burgers from the trim of prime rib, filets and other middle meat adding shallots, garlic and salt for seasoning.

George The Chili King and several Coney Islands serve loose meat burgers have been slow cooked in large seasoned batches for over half a century, .

Quarter pound burger baskets are so popular that they account for over a quarter of all sales at High Life Lounge.

Mullet’s “Gringo” includes half a pound of burger stuffed with jalapenos, bacon, cheese and barbecue sauce.

Chef’s Kitchen’s specialty burger is a Maytag blue cheese take on the rarebit theme, where the burger, onions and cheese are steamed under a hood.

Pickett’s Pub’s third-of-a-pound sirloin burgers are flame grilled. Their famous triple burgers are not for sissies.

Trostel’s Greenbriar grills steak trim burgers over hot open flames and serve them with any sauce in their vast European repertoire.

Irina’s Swagger

Holidays always seem to reveal something about the local restaurant business. This New Year’s Eve I ran into three of the city’s top chefs at Dahl’s on Ingersoll. All were scrambling for supplies because they shared a common problem – overbooked reservations. Like airlines, restaurants figure that a percentage won’t not show up. Just in case though, these chefs needed to overstock their kitchens. Every restaurateur I have talked with said New Years 2012 brought a perfect storm for business in town. It fell on a weekend, in lovely weather, at the height of the caucus frenzy. It even began with both Iowa and Iowa State playing bowl games.

For diners, Christmas Eve played famine to New Year’s feast. I fielded half a dozen inquiries about dining that night, particularly dining after 7:30 p.m. which is the cutoff for a few places (Noah’s, Chuck’s, etc.) that traditionally serve on that evening. Thanks to the miracle of social media, I learned that Irina’s was honoring their usual Saturday hours.

“Where else would we be on Christmas Eve? We spend so much time here that the restaurant is our real home,” explained Irina Khartchenko.

I first wrote about Irina’s when it opened in West Des Moines in 2007, labeling Khartchenko and partner Dmitri Iakoviev “the new Johnny and Kay (Compiano).” Upscale mom & pop restaurants were becoming extinct and this couple had defied that trend. Since then they moved their restaurant to an older neighborhood in Urbandale before their roof collapsed, closing them for six months. The entire place needed to be gutted and refinished before re-opening recently. Khartchenko’s decorating flair still leans toward Black Sea opulence, with spectacular flower arrangements, a fireplace and a back lit bar that changes colors like a Vegas stage show.

That bar deserves such attention. Dmitri collects rare vodkas like others collect wines. Besides the brand names of upscale martini bars, Irina’s carries many small batch imports, several exclusively.

One hand painted bottle wholesaled for more than $1000. Dmitri, Russian by birth, is open-minded enough to tout Polish, Ukraine and even Texan vodkas. plus a Japanese single malt Scotch. Vodka shots were served with pumpernickel and pickle. Beers included ten kinds of Baltika, Russia’s most popular beers. Daily happy hours (3 – 6 p.m.) delivered $2 well drinks and $3 Baltikas.

Appetizers were designed to pair with drinks. Wings, calamari and onion rings were hand made from scratch. Shrimp were served three ways,

mussels two ways,

and clams in a heavenly Chardonnay garlic butter.

Salads were Russia-sized, a steak salad included an entire sirloin steak and an egg.

The sensible menu offered just six pasta ($14 – $17) and six entrees ($16 – $21). Pasta dishes included mussels or cioppino with fettuccini in the aforementioned Chardonnay butter, as well as stroganoff with penne. Salmon was cooked a la Wellington, in a puff pastry with chevre.

 

Shashlik delivered a huge pork kebab with mixed vegetables and wild rice.

The star attraction was a lamb chop special that delivered six perfect bones on mashed potatoes with grilled vegetables plus a marvelous side of marinated carrot relish

and a special sauce.

Dmitri’s carrot cake is deservedly famous with rich cream cheese layered between moist crumb infused with two liquors, most obviously Grand Marnier, served on a plate dusted with cinnamon and accented with two carrot dollops built from a reduction of grated carrot and caramelized powdered sugar.

Bottom line. Irina’s is an old fashioned, scratch cooking restaurant with Black Sea style and mom & pop hospitality.

Irina’s

2301 Rocklyn Drive Urbandale, 331-0399, http://www.irinasrestaurantandbar.com

Mon. – Sun.: 5 p.m. – 2 a.m., with Happy Hour 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. with $2 well drinks and $3 Baltikas.

Side Dishes

Dom Iannarelli, Don Hensley and Chuck Fuller lead an impressive lineup of chefs in the Annual Chili Cook-Off Benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Jan. 20 at Des Moines Golf & Country Club, $10… A.J.’s at Prairie Meadows is now open daily.

Two new Asian restaurants recently opened on opposite sides of Eighth Street in West Des Moines. Fifty years ago, that would have been considered suicidal. Game theory was still new back then and only applied to “zero sum” games – your neighbor’s customer was your lost customer. So no one built a business near a similar one. My father, a college professor, laughed at the fools who opened a McDonald’s on Merle Hay Road less than a block away from an established hamburger joint, the name of which I can’t recall. By the time baby boomers owned automobiles, fast food restaurants were sprawling in flocks and non-zero sum (“win-win“) games were the rage in game theory, economics and politics. With the election of 2012 pitting “end sum” against “win-win” gamers, I visited both Taste of Oriental (TO) and Lemongrass to see if Eighth Street was big enough for both.

TO moved into a building that The Q vacated, with minimum changes. A small sushi bar had been constructed but The Q’s art work, of blues musicians, hung prominently. High def TV’s were tuned to sports and business channels. The bar’s menu added inexpensive saki, plum wine, and wine flights. The dinner menu alone listed 199 different options. That’s challenging. Training chefs, a peripatetic lot, to prepare so many dishes can be daunting. TO seemed to be staffed for the challenge. I counted more restaurant workers than customers on two occasions. Yet no one provided a napkin when setting my table or answered a question directly.

Some of the 199 options were not available – miso soup, a basic with sushi, on one occasion. When eating alone, everything I ordered was served simultaneously. When eating with others, dishes were served one at a time. It was explained that cooking orders one at a time was a specialty of the restaurant. Nothing I did eat impressed me.

Tired raw fish was served on simple, plastic plates with uninspired garnishes. Knife work was sloppy, too many pieces of sashimi were overly chewy. Tempura shrimp were bland but nicely crisped. Cheap crab sticks were ubiquitous though prices were not inexpensive. TO also served Chinese, teppanyaki, udon and terriyaki.

Compared to Wasabi Chi, Sakura and Haiku, three other new sushi options in 2011, TO seemed like a step backwards.

Things were quite different at Lemongrass. A sensibly sized dinner menu listed just 47 choices from cuisines of the Indochinese peninsula -Thai, Lao and Vietnamese. This restaurant moved into a very comfortable venue that previously served as a European bakery and a Pakistani cafe. Its charms include a working fireplace, patio, natural light, and a shaded parking lot. Lemongrass’ wait staff was small enough to stay busy and competent enough to anticipate needs and extend special courtesies. Water glasses were quickly filled and always iced. When I asked to take leftover curry home, a new portion of rice was added to my container, for balance – the quality that makes Thai food special.

The soups, curries, larbs and stir fried dishes I enjoyed at Lemongrass all balanced three or four flavors – sour, sweet, salty and bitter. All employed fresh herbs and vegetables and the requested degrees of spicy heat. They reminded me how much good Thai food in Des Moines resembles the comfort foods one eats in Thailand.

That’s not usually the case with other cuisines. My only complaint was that the menu did not indicate the presence of peanuts in some dishes, a serious oversight for the growing number of people with peanut allergies.

Taste of Oriental

1250 8^th St., West Des Moines, 225-1343

Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. – 10:30 p.m., Sun. noon – 3 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Lemongrass

1221 8^th St., West Des Moines, 440-4709

Tues. – Thurs. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Side Dishes

Living History Farms’ “Uncorked” event January 14 will feature La Quercia products, Stam gelato, Iowa cheeses and wines.

Chaos & Innovation

Last year in this annual review, we praised 22 new food businesses that opened despite economic challenges. Eight of those places closed in 2011, along with older establishments such as Suzette’s, Urbandale Café, AK O’Connor’s, Brick’s, Casa di Vino, Nana’s, the Altoona Kin Folk’s, The Game, Jasmine Bowl, Tandoor, Banh Thai, and Timothy’s. La Pizza House re-opened and then closed again. Chefs also moved at a frenetic pace. Scott Stroud (Food Dude’s Rising Star of 2007) started 2011 at Orchestrate, moved to Hy-Vee, then to Tartine before finishing the year back at Orchestrate. Hy-Vee also poached top chefs Dean Richardson (Phat Chefs), Alex Strauss (Gateway) and Matt Pearson (Dish, Skybox). In Iowa’s Kardashian affair of the year, all four barbecues in the West Des Moines-Clive area divorced their venues in the same two months.

Amidst the chaos, our food scene also produced a surprising amount of happy news. Standouts included:

Top New Market. Saigon Market upgraded our grocery scene much like Gateway and La Tapatia did in other years. It’s immaculate, friendly and stocked with delicacies and bargains that one used to have to drive to Chicago to find.

Top New Specialty Shop. Cheese Shoppe of Des Moines is a European style store where one can shop for the best charcuterie, pâtés and cheeses, or idle away an afternoon enjoying them with something from a marvelous, inexpensive wine list.

New Chain of the Year. Abelardo’s (Omaha) changed the city’s late night dining habits with 24-7 drive through service.

Design of the Year. Americana, by architect Dan Hunt, is one of the best looking places in years. Honorable mentions go to Patton’s, Haiku and Zombie Burger + Drink Lab.

Rising Star of the Year. Bree Ann Leighton of Alba, 22, has already plucked wisdom from three of Des Moines best chefs – Sean Wilson, David Baruthio and Jason Simon. On her own, she also began a series of dazzling tasting menus.

Farmer of the Year & Top New Food. Carl Blake recreated a legendary 19^th century bloodline by crossing Chinese Meishan pigs with Russian wild boars. The nation’s best chefs and charcuterie makers responded overwhelmingly to his Iowa Swabian Hall, comparing its meat to a cross between pork and duck.

New Beverage of the Year. Peace Tree brought us Kolsch without the expense of a trip to Cologne.

Boldest Advertising. Heartland corporations Post & Hy-Vee hired Australian sex symbol Curtis Stone to represent their middle American values after Stone had incurred the wrath of PETA by touting battery-raised hen‘s eggs.

New Cuisines of the Year. Thanks to Hung Suan (Simply Asian) and Cesar Miranda (Mi Patria), Burmese & Ecuadorian cuisines debuted in the metro.

Trend of the Year. Longer hours. Abelardo’s rocked the town with 24-7 service. Bisto at ICI and Luna added dinner service. Kelly’s Little Nipper added breakfast. The Palms instigated a four hour “happy hour.” Gino’s West added weekend brunch. We could go on & on.

Hottest New Service. Americana’s brunch and Bloody Mary bar became a weekend ritual.

Iowa Food Blog of the Year. Jess Jones’ http://www.jonesing-for.com/ pairs photos one wants to eat with recipes that makes that possible.

Book of the Year. “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” by Charles Mann argues brilliantly that Columbus‘ most dramatic discovery was bird piss which led through a little known American war to the invention of industrial agriculture.

Cookbook of the Year

National – Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold is six volume set that will become a classic of the times.  

Regional – “Heartland” by Judith Fertig shows deep respect for the great food artisans of the Midwest including many whom Cityview has been touting for decades.

Lift a Cup of Kindness for… Paul Trostel revolutionized dining in Des Moines, introducing or upgrading things like appetizer menus, wine cellars and tapas at Colorado Feed & Grain, Rosie’s Cantina, The Greenbriar, and Dish. Bobby Braverman popularized organic and natural foods at his Friendly Farm.

Restaurants of the Year

2011 delivered more good restaurant news than one might expect from a stagnant economy. Chain restaurants expanded faster than at any time since 2008. That’s great news because big corporate expansions tend to be heavily leveraged. So some very conservative money people determined that metro Des Moines was a good investment for Burger King, Chipotle, Noodles & Company, Olive Garden, Subway, McDonalds, Little Caesar’s, Jimmy John’s, Taco John’s, etc.

Innovation dominated our independent restaurant scene. Simply Asian and Mi Patria became Des Moines’ first Burmese and Ecuadorian restaurants. El Centro Americano added to the Central American offerings, Lemongrass to the Thai. Keller’s, Luna and City Bakery Café raised the bar for breakfast and lunch options downtown. Haiku, Taste of Oriental and Sakura expanded sushi definitions. The Garden Grill provided new family fare, particularly sea food. Tartine demystified French cuisine with affordable comfort foods. Patton’s became the city’s first fine dining option in soul food. Americana delivered stylish retro glamour, by architect Dan Hunt. Zombie Burger + Drink Lab and Jethro’s BBQ & Jambalaya presented small genres in grand scale.

The top new restaurant of the year though was Wasabi Chi, our best example yet of both positive feng shui and stylish sushi. It’s hard to differentiate sushi in Des Moines – most places buy their fish from the same out of state purveyors. Jay Wang’s café upgraded the genre with original methods and personalized style. His presentations are sensational. One sushi-sashimi combo is served on bamboo leaves and adorned with giant mint and edible orchids. A simple sashimi lunch platter is served on a rack constructed of bamboo twigs raised on a core of compacted cucumber seeds. His kitchen also employs subtle treatments. Some raw fish cuts are briefly marinated in saki, others in sea salt, peppers and black sesame.

Tempura dishes come with ginger aioli in addition to the usual accompaniment of dashi (fish based soup stock), mirin (rice wine) and soy sauce. Squid salad is made with black fungus and cucumbers that had been completely seeded and peeled. A shrimp mango salad includes cashews that have been pan toasted in honeyed oil. Ceviche might include tender octopus, shrimp, whitefish, tuna and salmon. Even cocktail stemware becomes stylish.

Last year’s top new café is this year’s restaurant on the year. Named one of America’s top 20 new restaurants by the James Beard Awards, Baru has become a destination dining draw. Chef and owner David Baruthio comes from Strasbourg, as did Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Hubert Keller and Jean Joho, all regarded among the best French chefs in the world. Audaciously, Baru flaunts the connection with street scene paintings of Strasbourg by Jamie Navarro. Linen covered tables are set with cobalt blue vases and single yellow tulips (a French signature employed by above mentioned chefs). Other trappings are elegant. Flatware is Laguiole. Some plates are from JB Prince and some are hand made stone ware by Sarah Hill, Baruthio’s wife and partner.

Menus are seasonal. Last spring my sea bass was served on fresh pea risotto with a foamy pea emulsion and a garnish of crisply fried basil. Last week it was served with leek and black truffle fondue, a palm fondant, salsify and chanterelles. Last spring, foie gras was presented as a terrine with bacon, a poached egg, raisin chutney and a reduction of balsamic vinegar. Last week it was paired with poached pear and radish micro greens. In any season, no one coaxes more flavor out of emulsions, foams, ice creams, soups and sauces than Baru’s state of the art kitchen. Six course degustations here rank with those costing triple their price in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

Restaurateur & Chef of the Year

The three biggest restaurant openings in the metro this year reflected Des Moines’ independent spirit. Americana, Zombie Burger + Drink Lab, and Jethro’s BBQ & Jambalaya (Jambalaya) are all fresh ideas. None are franchises. All are locally owned and represent confident investments in local real estate and local talent. They shared the same biggest problem – coping with the large crowds that appeared on day one. That all added up to something in which local diners took considerable pride. Just a few years ago, the only metro restaurant openings that created enough buzz to draw TV crews involved outlets of out of state corporations. Such carpetbaggers erase culinary distinctions among the towns or suburbs they inhabit. Original visions give their towns unique character.

Groups led by Scot Carlson, Paul Rottenberg and Bruce Gerleman turned 2011 into a year of creative new restaurants on grand scales. Gerleman edges the others as Restaurateur of the Year by taking his vision into the most hostile zip code, at least in the minds of demographers and bankers who think that growing suburbs will only respond to national brand names. He opened 8000 square foot Jambalaya on the West Des Moines border with Waukee this month. It was packed on my visits, at hours that typically are not busy for restaurants.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Gerleman responded when asked about the suburban shibboleth. “We produce really good products at extremely friendly prices. That’s all people want anywhere.”

Jambalaya is the third Jethro’s Gerleman has opened with chef Dom Iannarelli. They are also the principles at Splash, one of the city’s top restaurants and its very best wine server. Jambalaya became their largest endeavor with nearly 400 seats indoors and another 100 on the patio. It claims to be the biggest sports bar in town, with 24 beers on tap, 17 big screen TV’s and 15 different satellite receivers.

“Three quarters of million dollars buys a lot of kitchen,” Iannarelli explained while showing off things like a 46 foot long grill hood and separate smokers that can each hold up to 900 pounds of meat. Each of four fryers holds 106 pounds of oil.

“It costs $4,000 to change the oil,” he added.

In barbecue, size matters. A really busy place moves their product so fast that it’s usually served at its prime, not refrigerated and reheated. Jambalaya smokes all the same meats as the original Jethro’s, adds exquisite smoked prime rib from the second Jethro’s, plus an entire Cajun/Creole menu, some of which is from Splash. I found Wondra-coated “Buster’s shrimp” a fresh take on Buffalo wings. Fried Louisianna gator was more tender than in my previous experiences. Smoked chicken and sausage gumbo was Cajun style, with a dark roux. Jambalaya featured sweet plum tomatoes, large shrimp, and smoked andouille. Crawfish etouffee was my favorite dish, a rich creamy gravy with lots of delicious little crustaceans that someone else had picked out of their clingy shells. Red beans & rice featured smoked andouille, pit ham and bacon. Catfish filets were corn breaded and fried. Mahi mahi was seared. Salmon and chicken seemed to be the new redfish as far as blackening goes. Smothered smoked chicken, cavatappi (pig tail pasta springs) in cream sauce, and Po Boy sandwiches completed the Louisiana menu. The most extreme Po Boy included 18 inches of sausage, a pound of shrimp, a pound of blackened chicken, fried gator, Provolone, lettuce, tomato and remoulade. Twelve specialty cocktails included Hurricanes and a crawfish coolers.

“Someday I will open a fifty seat restaurant and cook there every night. For now though, I can’t think of anything more exciting than big projects this,” Iannarelli said. For that, and for his serious commitments to non profit food events all year, he’s our Chef of the Year.

Food Dude’s Predictions for 2012

Ingersoll will be the year’s hot spot. Look for a new soul food café with live music, the comeback of a 1970’s legend and a shuttle bus service connecting the boulevard to downtown… Soberdriver.com will have a breakout year here delivering folks and their cars home safely from bars and restaurants.

 　

 

C.J. Bienert has followed his bliss about as faithfully as that can be done in post mythological times. He fell under the spell of artisan cheese when working at Wine Experience at age 18. After turning others on to it at Gateway Market, he spent a couple years learning the cheese making business in Vermont, and traveling to worldly cheese and wine making destinations. Fortunately for us, he preferred the retail and educational ends of the business over manufacturing.

Last month C.J. opened The Cheese Shop of Des Moines with his wife Kari, the shot gun rider in his bliss chasing chariot.

The shop features cheeses made from single sources of milk, from more than 100 producers. Some of them have designed new specialty cheeses exclusive to the Bienerts‘ store. Their shop is also stocked with things to pair with cheese – charcuterie, jams, olives, nuts, wines, cheeses and chocolates – all as carefully chosen as the cheeses. C.J. insists that cheese be able to breath so nothing is precut and wrapped. Cheeses stay in their rinds until purchased, then they are cut and wrapped in perforated French paper. To further protect flavors, his refrigeration case was designed to reduce air circulation and maintain high humidity with radiant cooling.

This shop includes tables and a bar to accommodate long European style lunches.

Each day the Bienerts offer a different cheese plate, charcuterie plate, and several other accompaniments, plus about 30 wines (five by the glass) and 50 craft beers all bargain priced. One afternoon, my $12 cheese platter featured three cheeses in degrees of firmness: A raw goat cheese called Old Kentucky Tomme (Capriole, IN) was aged 6 months to develop a natural rind and a creamy, firm paste with mushroom overtones; Tarentaise, an organic raw cow’s milk cheese from Thistle Hill Farm (Springbrook, VT) emulated Swiss mountain style in its nutty semi-firm form. That cheese won “Best Farmstead Cow’s Milk Cheese” at the 25th American Cheese Society Conference; Moellleux de Saint Ours (Schmidhauser, France) was an unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese, soft-ripened and circled with a spruce strap.

My $11 charcuterie platter featured four products from La Quercia, a Norwalk artisan of world renown: coppa Americana (top shoulder of pork cured with sea salt, pimenton de la vera and cocoa); tesa (pancetta made with pork belly, sea salt, peppers, bay leaf and juniper berries); spallacia (lightly salted pork shoulder made from acorn fed Berkshires); and prosciutto rosa (salt cured ham).

All were freshly sliced and served with reputations to which I can say nothing to add or detract. Bruce Aidells, author of “The Complete Book of Pork,” called the coppa “the best I have ever tasted.” Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue’s obsessive food critic, called the spallacia “the best domestically produced prosciutto I’ve ever tasted.” Legendary wine critic Robert Parker called the tesa “stunning stuff.” Paul Bertolli, founder of Fra’Mani meats, said he “never tasted anything this good in Italy.”

I added an $8 foie gras mousse with cornichons and ciabatta. Another day my “pâte platter” also included lardo, charcuterie’s answer to butter. My only complaint – backless, uncushioned bar stools don’t accommodate three hour lunches.

Bottom line – This is a wonderful addition to local culture, the best cheese shop ever in Des Moines.

Side Dishes

The $15 menu at last month’s Korea Copia at Valley West Inn included braised beef ribs, multiple kim chi combinations, calamari in gochujang (red pepper sauce), battered tofu, glass noodles with mixed vegetables, pickled lotus roots, roast pork in cabbage wraps, fried and stuffed seaweed wrappers, roast pork shoulder, pickled radish-wrapped appetizers, and Korean sushi (made with cooked beef instead of fish). The next such event will be in January, follow foodude on Twitter for specifics… George Formaro (Centro) and Tony Lemmo (Café di Scala) are both experimenting with the sensational Iowa Swabian Hall pork.

Cheese Shop of Des Moines

833 42^nd St., 528-8181

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

Noodles & Company Is Ambi-Political

Soon after the “Occupy” movements began last winter in the Wisconsin state capitol, Noodles & Company (Noodles) became the symbolic nemesis of oppressed protesters. Speaking for Wisconsin Labor Movement, a young University of Wisconsin grad named Rob Lewis explained to film crews that Noodles was a “dictatorship where we’re told what to cook, how to cook it, what time to come to work, and if we don’t listen they get rid of us.” Dubbed “Noodle Boy,” Lewis quickly became a viral celebrity, occupying front pages of a dozen right wing web sites. Glen Beck refused to let Lewis’ fifteen minutes of fame expire. Noodles thus became a conservative icon of benign capitalism, a company that grew in just 15 years from a vision of Aaron Kennedy, another young University of Wisconsin grad, into a $200 million chain of 260 restaurants employing 3500 young noodle boys and girls.

Noodles also carries a liberal pedigree, expanding almost simultaneously from Denver/Boulder and Madison, arguably the two staunchest left wing outposts in the red colored heartland. Denver/Boulder has a knack for producing food corporations that Occupy sympathizers seem to like. Celestial Seasonings, Arrowhead Mills, Rock Bottom, New Belgium Brewery, Smashburger and Chipotle Grill all pay at least lip service to some higher calling than plundering the world for profits.

Thinking that Noodles represents much more than the average restaurant chain, I visited their new store in Valley West Mall. Over three trips, I counted as many people eating in Noodles’ bright, Modernist dining rooms as in mall’s entire food court. No one was reading Marx but I sensed considerably more diversity than a tea party event usually draws. Workers were cheerful as Christian yoga instructors. Twice staff noticed a confused look on my face, asked what I might need and happily produced it, without ever being bossed.

All dishes were prepared when ordered and delivered to my table. A noodles menu contained Asian, Mediterranean and American sections. Both Bangkok curry and Japanese pan noodles restrained their use of Asian clichés like soy sauce, corn starch and coconut milk. Both featured good fresh foods like shitakes, sprouts and Chinese cabbage. Seven optional proteins were offered – braised beef stood out. Broccoli only employed florets, never the peeled stems that good Asian restaurants use brilliantly.

From the American column, I sampled Wisconsin mac & cheese and a chicken soup – both described as “our best seller.” The former was heavy on grated cheeses. The latter featured egg noodles in salty stock, with chopped vegetables.

Caesar salad was also heavy on cheese but light on anchovies. From the Mediterranean roster, cavatappi in a subtle basil pesto (with mushrooms, tomatoes, parsley and grated Parmesan) was the best dish I tried. A penne fresca in balsamic vinegar and olive oil was a close second. Tomatoes were redder and deeper flavored than any I have found in local supermarkets lately. Cucumbers were not peeled in any dish. A wise oppressor would insist they be.

Wines ($5 glass, $17 bottle) hailed from three continents but beers were admirably all Iowan. Noodles is focusing growth on the “& Company” part of its menu with four new sandwiches and “seasonal” salads, one of which featured “fresh” November strawberries. “Square bowls,” made to serve six people, starred in a very busy carryout section. My smaller carryout containers were so stylish that I’m reusing them. Each time I visited, a small bowl of noodles with an added protein plus salad or soup cost about $8.

Bottom Line – Noodles is an alternative to typical mall food for capitalist pigs and revolutionaries on a budget.

Noodles & Company

1551 Valley West Dr., West Des Moines, 223-6121

Mon. – Thurs. 10:30 a.m. – 9 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 10:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sun. 10:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Side Dishes

Last Monday’s luncheon at the Occupy Des Moines encampment included “peach wood smoked tomatoes, organic beef shoulder and cannellini beans braised in a stock of freshly squeezed carrot, pepper and onion juice.” Winning.

“Only in Iowa” Food Experiences

First published in The Iowan

God, and the last Ice Age, blessed Iowa with the best soil on earth for growing things to eat. In the minds of coastal elitists though, it’s used for producing huge quantities of commodity foods, not foods of distinctive quality. So when network television food shows come here it’s usually to film overeating. It’s time for a change. Iowa has all the assets of a major food tourist attraction: farm-to-table freshness, artisan magnificence, rich ethnic traditions, unique peculiarities, and big food events.

Third millennium Iowa produces diverse foods of amazing quality, many unique to Iowa. Red Fern Farm near Grandview grows some of the best pawpaws, persimmons, chestnuts and specialty pears in America.

Rancher Richard Garrelts feeds his elk Iowa delicacies – oak and maple leaves. One can taste the difference they make at Mt. Pleasant restaurants like Jerry’s and The Brownstone. Hogs at Becker Lane Farm near Dyersville dine on acorns, to simulate the pre-World War II diet of the most famous hams on earth – prosciutto di Parma. At Rustik Rooster Farms in NE Iowa, the famous German Swabian Hall breed has been rescued from extinction by crossing Chinese Meishan pigs with Russian Wild Boars. Yes, if you cross a Russian with a Chinese you get a German but only in Iowa. It’s meat is like a cross btween pork and duck. La Quercia in Norwalk buys both Becker Lane and Rustik Rooster pigs to make such historically correct products from high on the hog while reviving lost Italian arts. Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon buys both kinds too.

La Quercia’s Herb Eckhouse with Lincoln Cafe’s Matt Steigerwald

Farm to fork networks now allow diners the best local foods that the black Hawkeye soil can produce. Places like The Rubaiyat in Decorah, Pepper Sprout in Dubuque, Devotay and Red Avocado in Iowa City, Lincoln Café in Mt. Vernon, The Café in Ames, Mojo’s on 86^th in Johnston, Farmers Kitchen in Atlantic, and Museum Café in Waterloo all tout numerous local farmers’ contributions. The last five years, the James Beard Award for the Midwest’s best chef placed more chefs from Des Moines among its top 20 than from all but one other city.

Still Iowa’s food charms flow defiantly outside the mainstream. In fact, Sioux City developed a unique, independent fast food culture because big franchise operators once considered it demographically challenged. As a result, Tastee Inn & Out’s onion chips, and chili dogs from Milwaukee Wiener House and George’s Hot Dog Shop became as iconic in Siouxland as Big Macs elsewhere.

Similar isolation inspired unique honey simmered Two Mit Burgers in Elkader as well as statewide obsessions with two sandwiches that remain pretty much unknown outside the Midwest – pork tenderloins and loose meat sandwiches.

In the late nineteenth century, Czech immigrants began substituting pork loins for hard-to-find veal in Cedar Rapids’ style schnitzel.

Today Iowans find such fried, breaded tenderloins in fine dining establishments, diners, concession stands, and even gas stations. Those at St. Olaf Tap (St. Olaf), The Depot (Shenandoah), Joensey’s (Solon & Center Point), B&B Grocery, Meat & Deli (Des Moines), Tojo’s (Jamaica), Townhouse Supper Club (Wellsburg), Augusta (Oxford), Darrell’s Place (Hamlin), Dairy Sweet (Dunlap), Fifth Avenue Diner (Coon Rapids), PJ’s Drive Inn (Panora), Susie Q’s (Mason City) and Shack’s Lounge (Bayard) have cult followings.

Loose meat sandwiches found fame when Muscatine’s Maid-Rite launched a small chain in 1926. Iowans responded to the original design of those cafes in which cooking and serving were done within three sided counters, facilitating group discussions.

Some even say Maid-Rite enabled the Iowa caucuses. Iowans feel so passionately about such traditions that Taylor’s Maid-Rite in Marshalltown has gone to legal war with corporate headquarters to resist modernizing. Loose meat love has room for more than Maid-Rites though. Siouxland bars began offering similar sandwiches during to the Depression, still called “taverns” in at Miles Inn and Gus’ Family Restaurant (formerly Yee Old Tavern) in Sioux City, and at Bob’s Drive Inn in LeMars. Similarly adored are “Rossburgers” at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf, “beef delights” at Pro’s Sandwich Shop in Mason City, and “canteens” at Canteen in the Alley in Ottumwa – a diner so adored that developers built completely around it.

Other quirky old fashioned diners charm seekers of blue plate comfort. From Butch’s River Rock Café in Oakland Mills to Lewright’s in Eagle Grove, from Boozie’s in Davenport to the Vaughn’s in Clarinda, from Walt and Jake’s Fort Diner in Fort Madison to Stoner Drug Store in Sidney, visitors show up with nostalgic appetites, and cameras.
Iowa’s rich ethnic history created culinary diversity.

Swedish-Americans in Stanton, where water towers in shpaed like coffee pots, preserved gubbegott (apple sauce and Graham cracker dessert) and ostakaka (almond cheesecake), still found at Susie‘s Kök there. In Elk Horn one expects to find a smörgåsbord of ethnic delights at the Danish Inn, and kringle at Mill Hus Bakery, but even the convenience store there offers rullepølse (rolled pork pastrami). Historic German ambiance comes with sauerbraten and jager schnitzel in places like Hausbarn in Manning and at Ronneburg, Colony Inn and Ox Yolk Inn in Amana. Norwegian delights abound at Oneota Food Co Op and historic Dayton House in Decorah. In Cedar Rapids, Zindricks offers a full menu of Czech and Slovak fare. While the Irish Shanti in Gunder serves “Irish sandwiches” that substitute potatoes for bread, their main draw is the Gunderburger, so large it has literally kept the dying town on Iowa’s map. Greek restaurants like Northwestern Steak House in Mason City and Vernon Inn in Cedar Rapids lend time warp experiences. So does the Lebanese The Palm’s in Fort Madison. Packing house towns like Denison, Postville, Perry, Columbus Junction, Dubuque and Storm Lake are filled with fabulous immigrant cafés from Mexico, Central America and Eastern Europe. Des Moines’ Vietnamese cafés employ scratch cooking techniques that others gave up 50 years ago. South Asians led a Fairfield food revival that now boasts more restaurants per capita than San Francisco, many of them Asian, several Ayurvedic.

Calabrese have dominated fine dining in Des Moines since World War II. Café di Scala, Tursi’s Latin King, Sam & Gabe’s, Noah’s, Mama Lacona’s, and Chuck’s all have southern Italian family histories that go back more than half a century. All serve versions of steak de burgo, a dish that is found everywhere in Des Moines and hardly anywhere outside the city. Gateway Market in Des Moines might well be the only place in America that makes nduja, a Calabrese salami with the texture of a pâté and the edge of an illegal import.

Ethnic groups inspire many of Iowa’s big food events: Nordic Fest in Decorah, Tivoli Fest in Elk Horn, Italian-American Heritage Festival in Des Moines, Taste of the Amanas in Amana, and Houby (morel mushroom) Days in Cedar Rapids. Specific foods are honored at Ice Cream Days in LeMars, Strawberry Days in Strawberry Point, Sauerkraut Days in Lisbon, and Des Moines’ Bacon Fest. In celebration of old agricultural traditions, the Iowa State Fair draws a million visitors in its best years, Old Threshers Reunion brings 100,000 to Mount Pleasant each year, and Seed Savers’ Heritage Farm near Decorah attracts thousands to singer Greg Brown’s annual fundraising concert, plus hundreds more in autumn to pick the orchard’s rare apples.

Regions of the state evolved distinctive food specialties. Formally cattle country, western Iowa is rife with old fashioned steak houses. Doon Steakhouse, Hawarden Steakhouse, The Fireside in Anthon, Theo‘s in Lawton, Archie‘s Waeside in LeMars, and The Mineola all have huge personalities that belie their small town settings. So hillocky its terrain was never suitable for plowing over, northeast Iowa developed the most diverse crops in the state. Organic and other niche farmers share such produce at extraordinary farmers markets in Decorah and McGregor. Buffalo love the steep terrains near the Mississippi River and local bison are famous on menus at places like Pepper Sprout in Dubuque and Kalmes’ in St. Donatus. Across southern Iowa, the Mormon Trail dispatched many Mormon artisans who produced magnificent old buildings still in use in Van Buren County, like Bonaparte Inn in Bonaparte and Mason House in Bentonsport. Later artisans inspired extraordinary local cheeses (Milton Creamery) and Amish products found at Dutchman Store in Cantrell. The loam rich Loess Hills blessed western Iowa with distinctive fruits like those at Mincer Orchard in Hamburg and Small’s Fruit Farm & Pie Parlor in Mondamin. Like most of the foods above, they taste like no where else.

Like Iowa.

Positive Energy

This column recently noted that expansion within some restaurant genres has become clonal. Successful new dining concepts seem to inspire copycats rather than innovators. In the last ten years the metro added lots of new sushi joints, Chinese restaurants and sports bars with little differences among them. When Skybox tried offering radically different sports bar cuisine, they went quickly out of business. It doesn’t need to be this way. Cityview’s recent Ultimate Pizza Challenge revealed that our pizzerias serve a rather amazing variety of pies and yet they all have legions of loyal fans. That would suggest that Des Moines would respond to a bold soul willing to buck the cloning trends.

Meet Jay Wang. He grew up in southern China, moved to New York City as a teen and later went to Japan to study its cuisine under masters. He says that English is his sixth language. He’s been running Japanese and Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia and New York but after starting a family he decided to move to Des Moines for a less hectic life style. He brought some of his well trained staff with him and opened Wasabi Chi last month. While that restaurant emulates a recent trend of combining Japanese cuisine with popular Chinese and Thai dishes, it does so with original methods and personalized style.

As the name suggests, Wasabi Chi observes principles of feng shui (the flow of “chi,” meaning energy) with thoughtful division of spaces and placement of waterfalls, mirrors, colors, and furniture. Wang’s kitchen creates its own positive energy. Tempura dishes came with ginger aioli in addition to the usual accompaniment of dashi (fish based soup stock), mirin (rice wine) and soy sauce. Shrimp had been treated with salt and pepper before being battered. Dumplings were cooked in home made wrappers. Squid salad was made with black fungus and cucumbers that had been completely seeded and peeled.

Crispy rock shrimp were served on fresh mesclun with a sauce made of sweet potatoes, honey and spiced cream.

A shrimp mango salad included ripe mangoes, fresh mesclun and cashews that had been pan toasted in honeyed oil.

 

Divine ceviche included tender octopus, shrimp, whitefish, tuna and salmon bathing in a sweet acid bath of lime juice.

Sushi and sashimi were spectacularly presented.

One plate that combined the two styles was served on bamboo leaves and adorned with giant mint and edible orchids.

A simple sashimi lunch platter was served on a rack constructed of bamboo twigs raised on a core of compacted cucumber seeds.

Thick cuts of raw fish had been subtly treated – some briefly marinated in saki, others in sea salt, peppers and black sesame. Sushi rice was also treated with more than just rice vinegar. While recipes were familiar, execution was exceptional on Godzilla rolls (spicy tuna and fresh avocado with a panko crumb sprinkle),

Ocean 3 (spicy tuna, salmon, yellowtail and avocado in a roll that was rolled in tobikko) and Pacific rolls (blackened tuna, avocado, tobikko).

Hibachi dishes were distinguished by good cuts of beef but lackluster broccoli. Japanese fried rice was flavored with garlic, a near blasphemy within the subtle cuisine of Japan but not inappropriate for Iowans.

Noodles hinted of garlic too. Cocktails were also served with considerable style.

My only complaints have been that wasabi is inconsistent, sometimes spicier and fresher than others, and that pickled ginger is not the best. Customers are responding well. Dinner business has been so good Wang‘s recruiting an additional chef.

Bottom line – This is the new benchmark for sushi/Asian fusion in Iowa.

Wasabi Chi

5418 Douglas Ave., 528-8246

Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sun. noon – 10 p.m. A daily happy hour (3 – 5:30) offers half price appetizers & sushi rolls.

Side Dishes

Orange Leaf frozen yogurt opened new stores in West Des Moines and Urbandale… Scooter’s Coffeehouse announced a new Yoji frozen yogurt shop in their new store in Urbandale.

The Hood Fits 

All four barbecues in the West Des Moines-Clive area (The Q, BBQ2Die4, Shane’s, Bandera’s) closed since summer. Obviously such a meat-intensive genre has been hit hard by rising meat prices but something else is happening. During the same time frame: Uncle Wendell’s, Jethro’s and Woody’s all continued to thrive in the Ingersoll-Drake area; Jethro’s much larger second Q stayed busy in Altoona as did Claxon‘s; Findlay’s Smokehouse remained popular on the southside where Boss Hawg’s parking lot filled up in its first summer; and Smokey D’s expanded their Saylor township barbecue, adding a 1200 square foot party room, 2000 extra square feet to their kitchen, an additional smoker capable of handling 250 racks of ribs, and 100 new parking spaces!

So, what is it about barbecue that doesn’t work in West Des Moines? “Speaking just for us, the problems were location, location and location. There are some places where people just don’t like getting their hands dirty,” explained The Q owner Bob Conley.

I’ve heard that before. The owner of San Francisco’s best Vietnamese restaurants told me she nearly closed soon after expanding to Beverley Hills. Then someone suggested that her two signature dishes – whole drunken crab and garlic noodles – were too messy for 90210 types. She cut crab meat and noodles up into bite sized pieces and customers responded.

Is greater Des Moines becoming a confederation of food ghettoes where people all pretty much stick to the same menus? Johnston’s Birchwood Crossing Business Park gives that impression. I visited recently to try out The Garden Grill (GG) which opened in October. That place is surrounded by several restaurants that have remarkably similar menus. It’s virtually next door to both Okoboji Grill and Legends. Within a couple blocks are Ruby Tuesday’s, Maid-Rite, Village Inn, Texas Roadhouse, Culver’s and a couple sports bars. It seems like it would be a niche for something new or different.

GG definitely raises the seafood bar on 86^th Street. I found crab cakes, crab stuffed appetizers, hand made lobster ravioli, scallop and shrimp pasta, oatmeal breaded walleye (expertly paired with red apple slaw), crab stuffed mahi mahi in rich lobster butter, good tilapia tacos, and a variety of grilled fish offered as daily specials. Fresh baked bread, served with cinnamon butter, stood out and salad dressings were all home made.

Other than that, the menu was remarkably similar to those at the aforementioned neighborhood places – Buffalo wings, nachos, onion rings, artichoke dip, grilled steaks and chops, burgers, a dozen pasta choices, and half a dozen chicken choices.

Everything I tried was super sized, well prepared and served with enthusiasm.

Grill work was professional – meats and fish had good sears and were not overcooked. Prices were in line with the hood too. Lunches ranged from $6 – $15, sandwiches all cost $8 or $9, and dinners ranged from $9 – $22. The bar specialized in margaritas. The import beer list was rich with Mexican brands. Two daily Happy Hours brought half-priced appetizers, $2.50 imports, and $3.49 margaritas.

Can this part of Johnston support yet another like-minded restaurant? Early returns suggest so. In a neighborhood where two distinctly original restaurants – Torocco and Old Castle – failed rather quickly, I counted 34 cars in GG’s parking lot at an hour when there were also 35 at Okoboji, 34 at Legends, 40 at Ruby Tuesday’s, and 31 at Village Inn.

Bottom line – Some places, it’s better to fit in than to stick out.

The Garden Grill

8385 Birchwood Ct., Johnston, 278-5227

Mon. – Thurs. 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Fri. -Sat. 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Side Dishes

Jim Beam Inc sent a team of top executives to town last month to launch Iowa sales of Canadian Club’s Classic 12, their deluxe new whisky which is aged 12 years.

In blind tasting tests at Embassy Club West, it destroyed its main whisky competitors.