Where to Eat at the Minnesota State Fair I love the Minnesota State Fair so much that I try to go all 12 days. Every year there’s a list of new food booths, serving all types of novelty deep-fried on-a-stick creations, but I’m a traditionalist when it comes to state fair chow. What’s the key… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week (And the Week Before That) By Andrew Zimmern Of all the great regional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan food has a special place in my heart. While we don’t have as many great Chinese restaurants as I would like in Minnesota, we do have a few that absolutely blow me… Read More →
Mediterranean Food Heaven in Cyprus Cyprus is an island paradise, and a crossroads of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culture. It’s also a nation ripped in half by decades of conflict. In Nicosia, Cyprus, the world’s last remaining occupied and divided city, there is a small café called the Berlin 2 Wall Kebab House. They serve a… Read More →
My Top Restaurant Recommendations for Rio Rio de Janeiro has a beat all its own; it’s a city that moves you. From Sugarloaf Mountain to Copacabana Beach, it’s easy to see why Rio is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere. Cantinho das Concertinas The large CADEG market is filled with hundreds… Read More →
Modern Food, Age-Old Technique Defined more than a decade ago by chefs Claus Meyer and Rene Redzepi, the New Nordic food movement is reimagining what Scandinavian cuisine is, with a focus on seasonality, sustainability, animal welfare and traditional Nordic ingredients. And while this ground breaking philosophy has famously fueled avant-garde creativity, exploring old traditions is… Read More →
Shengjian Bao with a Cult Following Eating your way through the world’s most populous city is one of life’s greatest pleasures. As Shanghai’s landscape becomes more international, many traditional places have disappeared, but thankfully Da Hu Chun has stood the test of time. Open along the river since the 1930s, this restaurant is known for shengjian… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week? Dinner at Upland in New York City. By Andrew Zimmern Justin Smillie’s Upland is as impressive a dining experience as New York offers. Here, serious food intersects with a rambunctious and spirited environment in a thoughtfully designed and beautifully lit space. Credit: Corry Arnold The five lettuce Caesar salad… Read More →
Where to Eat Tuna Eyes in Okinawa Japan’s version of a neighborhood bar, the izakaya has been an integral part of the country’s culture since the 1600s. They were the original gastropubs, serving shareable tapas-style small plates to sake-soaked patrons way before it was the trend. Today, izakaya specialties are some of the most beloved… Read More →
Honest Puerto Rican Food in the Bronx An international community of settlers, the Bronx celebrates diversity everywhere you look. Today, as immigrant success stories become the new norm, the borough is a far cry from the symbol of decay it represented a few decades ago. And with such a vibrant and constantly evolving immigrant community, it’s easy to stumble… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week I had meals at some amazing places this week on my clam shack tour, but the best clams were at the Clam Box in Ipswich. Woodman’s was a close second, but the ones at Clam Box were perfect. It helped we went at 4pm when no one was there.… Read More →
Celebrating North Carolina’s Culinary History Chef Vivian Howard worked in New York City at Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market before packing up and heading home to Kinston with her husband to open Chef & the Farmer. Like many residents of Eastern North Carolina, chef Howard has an ingrained pride for her rural… Read More →
Why Everyone Loves Au Cheval By Bob & Sue The best hamburger in Chicago? In the United States? That is what the Food Network claims. Three patties seared at 500 degrees with cheddar cheese, bacon belly, egg, kosher pickles and a dijonaise sauce. Millenials, hipsters and baby boomers all love this funky, fun place with… Read More →
Chez Amy takes Dakar’s multi-cultural influence to an inspiring level. The French colonization of Vietnam, Lebanon and Senegal left a definitive stamp on Senegalese cuisine. At Chez Amy, you can experience a confluence of the country’s colonial influences in one amazing bite. The hole-in-the-wall food stand near Dakar’s Castor Market sells a few of Senegal’s favorite… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week The best thing I ate last week was a simple taco plate at Pineda’s on East Lake Street in Minneapolis. I was shooting a pilot for a new series we’re developing for Travel Channel and I had a 10 minute break. Realizing I was a block away, I… Read More →
Reinventing Offal Dishes Forgotten for Decades Javi Estevez has created something truly unique in Madrid’s upscale Chamberi neighborhood, a modern tasca (or tavern) devoted to serving locally-sourced offal. The 32-year-old chef is reigniting a passion for ingredients and dishes made popular during the post-war era of his grandparents’ generation. An obsession for creating dishes from other… Read More →
Mind-Bending Combinations of Flavors & Textures By Bob & Sue Now in expanded space off First Street in the East Village, Momofuku Ko has been one of New York City’s most challenging reservations for the past eight years. With a cook centric open kitchen where diners face each other at a U-shaped counter, Chef David… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate This Week By Andrew Zimmern In celebration of his latest book, Derek Dammann came down from Montreal to cook a special dinner with Jamie Bissonnette in Toro’s private dining room in New York City. The food was eclectic and lumberjack chic, with a foie gras course incorporating some devilishly delicious apple and maple… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week By Andrew Zimmern The best thing I ate last week was dinner on Saturday night. Tomato and feta salad, crispy twice-cooked potatoes with thyme from the garden, and these amazing grass-fed, corn finished 2-inch thick ribeye steaks from Peterson Farms cows. Peterson’s raise Limousin cattle exclusively on their… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week By Andrew Zimmern When I was about to start recording The Moment podcast with my friend Brian Koppelman last week, he whipped out a box of The Doughnut Project doughnuts for me to try. TDP is a new shop in NYC, and the beet and ricotta donuts are insane, as… Read More →
Austin City Bites By Bob & Sue A weekend in the country’s fastest growing city (which embraces its reputation for being weird, as well as the Live Music Capital of the World) included memorable dinners at a prominent food critic’s three favorite restaurants: Qui Credit: Nicolai McCrary Philippine native Paul Qui delivers an eclectic combination of… Read More →
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week By Andrew Zimmern In Nicosia, Cyprus, the world’s last remaining occupied and divided city, there is a small café called the Berlin 2 Wall. They serve a simple set meal with plenty of mezze—from snails to tahini, from tomato and feta salad to brined caper branches dressed with… Read More →
Rustic Perfection Chef Jonathan Waxman’s 13-year-old West Village restaurant is as casual and gorgeous as he is… no joke. My pal of many decades is in his prime, swarthy, and greyed out like a sexy Gandalf. In fact, Waxman just won a Beard Award for Best Chef NYC thanks to his culinary wizardry—you see what… Read More →
Slightly North of Broad By Bob & Sue Flying only slightly under the radar of the big name chefs in town, Frank Lee delivers innovative fare representative of the best in Carolina Low Country cooking. The seasonal soft shell crabs are crusted in cornmeal and served on green pea coulis with a green garlic custard and… Read More →
An Insider’s Guide to Rome A Rome-based Italian-American journalist, Katie Parla lives and breathes Roman culture and cuisine. Originally from New Jersey, Parla graduated from Yale with a degree in art history, before pursuing a sommelier certificate and master’s in Italian gastronomic culture. She’s written and edited more than 20 books, including the ebook Eating &… Read More →
The Twin Cities’ Best Vietnamese Restaurants Home to a vibrant Vietnamese community, the Twin Cities are a pho-lover’s paradise. And in a town chock-full of great Vietnamese restaurants, it’s difficult to name the best. From fantastic noodle soups to Banh mi sandwiches, bao to broken rice platters here are our favorite Vietnamese spots. Quang If… Read More →
Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon By Bob & Sue Chef Jeremy Fox (ex-Ubuntu and Manresa) offers creative dishes and a thoughtful wine list in this trendy, casual restaurant. Vegetarians will love the beets with quinoa, avocado, blood orange and pistachio; the fresh peas with pecorino, mint, black pepper and red wine vinegar; and the white yams… Read More →
La Barbecue’s Top 5 for Austin In the crowded, competitive and often ruthless Texas barbecue scene, La Barbecue sits among the best of the best. Sure it helps that owner LeAnn Mueller hails from barbecue royalty—her grandfather founded Taylor, Texas’ Louie Mueller Barbecue in 1949, a temple of smoked meat that never fails to impress.… Read More →
What Not to Miss in Austin The co-owner of Salt & Time, Ben Runkle is Austin’s leading meat purveyor. What was born from Runkle’s passion for Old World charcuterie, turned into the city’s first whole carcass butcher shop and salumeria when a partnership with Bryan Butler developed in 2010. The pair are committed to sourcing animals… Read More →
Eating at California’s Five Michelin 3 Stars By Bob & Sue With the elevation of Manresa to three stars for 2016, Northern California now has five of the 13 Michelin 3-star restaurants in the United States. We ate at all five in nine days during our recent anniversary celebration in January. These five great chefs… Read More →
Robert Stehling’s Top Picks for Charleston For the past decade, chef Robert Stehling’s Low Country fare at the acclaimed Hominy Grill has rivaled the best grandmother food in the South. His Charleston Nasty Biscuit—fried chicken, cheddar and sausage gravy, sandwiched in the perfect biscuit—has a loyal following, as do other favorites like catfish po’ boys,… Read More →
