Well, the cat has been out of the bag for a while. No, we haven't eaten said cat. But for those that are still reading now and again or stumbled upon this site, Will has taken a leave of absence from General Mills for 18-24 months to help out his parents at their family business (more on that below).  Meanwhile, Jenny has been holding down the fort in Minneapolis for the time being until both of us can get our lives and stars aligned to live in the same city.  For now, that city will be Wausau, WI, which is 3 hours east of Minneapolis.  So Twin Cities Dining Adventures is on hiatus as well for the time being.  We'll see what happens in the kitchen, although not much recently since we're never in the same city to cook together.  I did promise some folks a "Favorites 2011" and we'll probably do that at some point, maybe even this weekend (don't hold your breath or hold us to that though!)

About the time that we stopped blogging, we started getting involved with social media and raising funds and awareness for UW-Madison's Great People Scholarship.  Working with the UW Foundation we created The Bucky Challenge, which endowed a family scholarship at the university.  This was one of our most rewarding and personally satisfying blogging and social media interactions we've had to date.  We encourage everyone to find the right medium to give back and we were lucky enough to find ours in 2011.

So if you really want to know what Will is up to, you can visit the following two websites that will give you a glimpse into the #familybusiness that I will tweet about on Twitter.  If you want more info, just ask away via Twitter!  I'll also be trying to post pics of our eating adventures wherever we are on Twitter and @MNFoodDudes has been gracious enough to put up Tumblr photosets and retweets so you can always check them out.

Hsu Ginseng Enterprises, Inc.
Hsu Greenhouse and Landscape Supply

Travel plans and scheduling have definitely eaten into our ability to try new restaurants and bars in town, the latter of which seem to be opening up everywhere recently.  We were able to get out with a couple of Jenny's friends to celebrate Summer passing her nursing boards and we chose Mill Valley Kitchen, which seems to be the new hot spot around town, or at least in the near-west suburb of St. Louis Park.  We went with our friends Sara and Summer to check out the scene and cuisine inspired by Northern California.  Located in the new Ellipse complex on Excelsior Blvd, the restaurant seems to meet the expectations of the location and the locale.  Clean lines throughout the open-concept kitchen and modern dining room, white walls, dark wood accents, and bold colors are used throughout the space.  Well lit on the interior with patio and windows opening onto Excelsior, the décor reminds me of what you would see in many California-concept restaurants.  It feels very hip and modern, reflecting the vibe of the Ellipse apartments above you and the changing demographics of the surrounding neighborhood.

Complimentary valet parking was a nice touch as there isn’t much for street parking in the area and we were greeted upon entering the restaurant.  We arrived a few minutes early and grabbed a drink at the bar and the bartenders were very accommodating, friendly and seemed be well versed on their drink and beer menu.  The only thing I didn’t quite understand was why the bartenders needed to be wearing tight, black spandex-lycra tops and similar fitting yoga pants.  I get that the restaurant is supposed to exude that type of young, hip and healthy atmosphere, but it made me feel like I was gawking at something more accustomed to 1st Avenue hotspots downtown or the Lake/Lagoon Uptown bars than suburban Minneapolis.  This is truly nit-picking as I’m just not expecting that type of attire in a restaurant bar.

Moving into the dining room, we were promptly seated and service was great throughout dinner.  Water refills and a knowledgeable server go a long ways here.  Wine list wasn’t huge, but had enough variety for anyone looking for a basic glass or bottle of white or red.  Our friends ordered the swordfish special of the day and the filet, while Jenny got the seared dayboat scallops and I got the miso-glazed Chilean seabass.  All the dishes were excellent and served over vegetables or whole-grains (or both).  Nice presentation with very basic and clean flavors.  Nothing really crazy or overly complex about the dishes, just simple and straight-forward proteins, grains, starches and veggies with good presentation and plating.  In fact, I’d be willing to take our parents and our in-laws here as there is a bit of something for everyone.  The ladies got dessert as well, desserts served in shot glasses and warm cookies.  All of which were consumed quickly, so they must have been good.  Again, the presentation and flavors seemed to be right on.  So we’d definitely recommend Mill Valley Kitchen if you’re looking for a suburban setting with some touches of Uptown or Downtown flair.  Prices are comparable and hopefully you don’t leave the Northern California setting in the western suburbs of Minneapolis location disappointed, we definitely did not.

Pappy's Smokehouse
Zagat rated one of the best barbeque joints in the nation, literally the day before we went.  Lines are long, but worth the wait, get there early though before they sell out.  We agree, ribs are amazing, chicken is good, brisket and pulled pork are ok.  As for the sides, potato salad and green beans were very good, sweet potato fries were tasty.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
You can't say goodbye to summer without having some frozen custard before the season is out.  With all the flavor choices for their concretes (think DQ Blizzard only better), malts and sundaes, there's something for everyone.

The Mudhouse (Midtown)
Very good breakfast, excellent coffee and related drinks. Doesn't hurt that the staff are super nice and friendly. Downside is service is slow when they are busy and clearing your own table.  Local brewhouse with really great beers and pretty good food.  The toffee pudding dessert though was definitely the highlight of the meal.  I'd come back for beers and dessert.

Schlafly Tap Room
Local brewhouse with really great beers and pretty good food.  The toffee pudding dessert though was definitely the highlight of the meal.  I'd come back for beers and dessert.

St Louis Brewhouse Historical Sports Bar
Yeah, the name doesn't make much sense to me either, but the food is pretty darn good.  Even though it's in the Hyatt hotel, it way exceeded my expectations for flavor and variety for a hotel restaurant.  Having a good assortment of local tap beers and bottles of microbrews is always a nice touch too.  Definitely impressed, get the garlic fries!

Rooster
Pretty good downtown breakfast option, get the crepes or three egg scrambles over breakfast potatoes.  The French Toast is good too and they have a lengthy Bloody Mary variety list if that's your thing.

Broadway Oyster Bar
Competes with Brewhouse Historical Sports Bar for second best meal in St. Louis.  The chicken wings were very fresh, super crispy and had a unique flavor that was a cross of cajun and buffalo.  Nicely done.  Jenny had the fish tacos and the rice and beans with Andouille sausage were really good.  My oyster po' boy was tasty, loved the sour pickle and slaw on the sandwich.  Fun atmosphere for dining outside, a great way to end the day and our trip.

We made a quick weekend trip to Texas so that Will could hit the Houston Astros stadium and the Ballpark at Arlington for the Texas Rangers.  That makes 27 stadiums with three to go in the month of September (St. Louis, New York Yankees and New York Mets) to get to 30. 

Here's where we ate in Houston:
Pappas Bar-B-Q: Ribs, brisket and link with side dishes, yum.
Jade Garden: Best Peking Duck I've had in a long time, the salt & pepper pork chop is the best.
The Original Ninfa's on Navigation: Ridiculously good Tex-Mex and margaritas

Here's where Will ate and drank in Dallas with Nate (@rencito_4040):
The Gingerman: Great beer selection with an Uptown vibe inside a house
The Katy Icehouse: Good variety of beers in a modern beer garden with tasty bar food
Nick & Sam's Grill: Top-notch service and quality steaks and wine
Sherlock's Baker Street Pub (Arlington): $2 happy hour tap beer? Elementary, my dear Watson!

For our Twitter followers, you may remember a brief period in early August where we disappeared from the Twitterverse and went into technological seclusion.  We didn’t head to a remote part of Minnesota or even escape to the outdoors, instead we flew to Montreal.  Why Montreal? Well, I wanted to take Jenny on a trip for our 1-year anniversary and Jenny had never been to Canada.  We also wanted an international experience without having to fly a long distance across the Pacific or Atlantic.  We briefly considered the Caribbean, Mexico, and Latin America, but knew it would be even hotter the further south we went.  So we settled on Montreal, a quick 3 hour flight away and home to some wonderful food.  We loved the way everyone spoke French around us as we ate our way through the city, everything from poutine and street food to the high end French and French-Canadian restaurants.  Here’s where we went and what we’d recommend the next time you visit.

Chez L’Epicier – French, we did the 7 course tasting menu and it was delightful.

Le Petit Moulinsart – Belgian, mussels and Belgian beer in Old Montreal

Olive + Gourmando – French Bakery, delicate pastries, flaky croissants and good coffee

Hoang Oanh – Vietnamese, the bahn mi are so good we stopped by twice in two days, get them spicy (no webpage - 1071 Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Chinatown)

Schwartz’s – Smoked Meat, one of the oldest and best smoked meat joints in Montreal

Frite Alors – Poutine, french fries, cheese curds, and gravy with a bunch of other fixings in the Latin Quarter

Restaurant Vertige – French, tasting menu that left us stuffed but wanting more!

Montreal Brewpub Experience – A walking brewpub tour that makes stops at 3 local brewpubs

Atwater Farmers Market – Great fresh bread, pastries, fruit, veggies, meats and cheeses

Two places we’d recommend if you can get reservations (we couldn’t so we’re saving them for our next visit):

Toque – Arguably one of the best restaurants in all of Montreal

Au Pied De Cochon – the inspiration for the Haute Dish duck in a can

If you don’t like watching reruns on TV, we’ll allow you to go ahead and skip this post as we ended up once again at Café Levain to celebrate our anniversary dinner with Jeff and Jolene as neither of them had been to Café Levain before.  We were in for a treat though, so if you take away anything from our most recent visit, the mussels are divine.  The best mussels Jenny and I have ever had were courtesy of our friend Jackson from HBS when we were visiting him and his wife in Sydney, Australia at the Belgian Beer Café.  We have not been able to find mussels that compared, even in Montreal, which we’ll write about later.  But Saturday’s visit to Café Levain sparked memories of the depth of flavors we had in Sydney and our friend @jkrobby can attest to it as he was there as well.  The @AdamVickerman version of mussels uses sweet corn, cream, wine and a touch of curry.  It was so good we slurped up all the broth after eating the mussels.  I wanted more.  The other dishes that night included a fresh sweet corn, tomato and arugula salad from their garden down the street, Sitka King Salmon with collard greens and white bean puree, and hangar steak with chanterelles, tomatoes and beets.  Dessert was our anniversary cake accompanied by a nice scoop of coffee ice cream.  Another wonderful dinner at Café Levain, next time we go back we’ll be doing mussels and short rib burger, guaranteed.

Our good friend and groomsman Jason (@jkrobby) and our friend Kate had never been to Heidi’s 2.0 before, so we were able to secure reservations through the wonderful sommelier, James Parsons, at Heidi’s.  As always, Stewart Woodman and the staff at Heidi’s delivered a great dining experience.  James, the sommelier, recommended a great Washington Cabernet that paired well with the meat entrées we ordered, beef tenderloin, lamb shank and short ribs. The starters, complements of the chef, were the eggs Bennie and pickled beef tongue.  I preferred the tongue to the egg as did Jason, meanwhile I think the ladies preferred the play on eggs.  Jenny ordered the asparagus soup with crab, Kate went with the salad, Jason had the Beets 2.1 and I went with the Shefzilla surprise.  The surprise that night was a delicious pasta in tomato sauce with white sardines and tripe.  Basically everything I love all together, surprise!  I wish I had ordered another Shefzilla surprise, but then I remembered that we had ordered a couple sides of the pappardelle, which as our server Ariel so appropriately stated, “is a slice of heaven.”  Dessert was the nitro chocolate mousse as we were chased off the patio about 2 hours later by the Minnesota mosquitoes.  Another wonderful evening of food, wine and friends @heidismpls that makes us keep coming back for more!

I know it's been a while, but I've been on a whirlwind tour of cities and baseball parks.  It's always been my goal to get to all 30 current MLB ball parks and I've made it to as many as 27 (Braves, Rangers and Astros were missing) before the Yankees, Mets, Cardinals, Nationals and Twins all opened new stadiums in the last two years, bringing me back to 22 at the start of this year.  Obviously Target Field was an easy accomplishment and we had already planned a trip to St. Louis to see the Cardinals play the Brewers over Labor Day with Jason Krob.  The impetus to finish the quest was put into overdrive though when Jenny surprised me with a trip to New York the last weekend in September to knockout the Yankees and Mets stadiums versus their two big rivals, the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively.  So I quickly booked tickets to Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston and Dallas to finish off all 30 MLB stadiums by the end of the 2011 season, assuming the weather cooperates.  That is until Miami opens a new Marlins stadium in April 2012.

Anyway, back to the eats. In Atlanta if you're ever in the Midtown area, I'd recommend the following places to eat:

Einstein's for breakfast/brunch - try the french toast with peanut butter, bananas and white chocolate.
Cypress Street Pint & Plate - rotating microbrew taps and really good appetizers, also open late
Zocalo Mexican - great food, outdoor patio atmosphere, but prices are a bit steep
Also don't forget the great bar scene in Midtown too.

In DC I did some barhopping around Chinatown/Verizon Center but the best stop by far was Graffiato, the new restaurant by Top Chef alum Mike Isabella.  It's a nicely renovated space that features Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. The pizza was great but the chicken thighs in pepperoni sauce stole the show.  The skin of the chicken thighs was perfectly crispy and the pepperoni sauce was substantial with lots of tomato and a pepperoni finish that made my friend Lou say "Wow!"  We'd definitely order that again.  Here are a couple pictures of the food at Graffiato, definitely go if you can get a seat, reservations available on OpenTable.

I love to compare and contrast Asian and American culture, particularly as it pertains to food.  Americans, generally, go with cool or cold foods in summer – ice cream, cucumbers, salads, iced tea – meanwhile, Asians tend to eat hot foods in summer – soups, spicy dishes, fried noodles, chilies. I distinctly remember my grandmother telling me to eat a hot bowl of wonton soup to cool down in the middle of a summer in Taiwan when I was twelve.  I’m sure I gave her the craziest look a twelve year-old can give his grandmother without getting a swat on the behind.  So in the middle of a sweltering “Minnesota heat-wave”, which reminded me of every summer day in Taipei, Jenny and I decided to go to Chindian for some spicy Asian food.  The basic idea is that we didn’t want to heat up our place by cooking and Chindian is close and has pretty tasty food with quick service as we were meeting up friends for drinks after dinner. 

This idea was well conceived, but didn’t quite work out as we expected.  The food was good, particularly the two Malaysian dishes we had, but the restaurant was hotter than our place and nearly as warm as it was outside.  I glanced at the thermostat, which registered over 90.  Ice water was refilled constantly and the beer was cold, which helped.  But I honestly felt like I was eating at an open-air noodle stand in Taipei.  We started with steamed chicken and chive dumplings, same as last time, tasty filling but would rather have 6 dumplings stuffed with more chicken and chives than 8 leaner dumplings. The two dishes we had were Indian Fried Noodles and Kwe Tieu Goreng, both were large enough servings to share and we ended up taking enough home to have lunch for each of us the next day, as we don’t mind leftovers.  Both of our dishes were spicy, I added more sriracha, and we were both sweating by the end of dinner, furiously mopping our brows with our napkins. 

As we drank our cold Tiger beer, we laughed about the heat, as it was about the only thing you could do about it other than complain, which wasn’t going to change anything, and reminisced about the similarities to the eating atmosphere, temperature and weather on one of our honeymoon stops in Penang, Malaysia.  While the food wasn’t as cheap as Penang, about $40 before tip, it was pretty darn good and a close approximation to the flavors and tastes during our trip last year.  I’d definitely recommend sharing or ordering family style if you’re with a larger group so you can taste a bit of everything.  That and try to go on a day where the weather cooperates a bit more unless you’re in search of an authentic dining experience that includes the atmosphere, heat and humidity of a Taipei or Penang in summer.

After drinks with a friend, Jenny received numerous cell phone calls from my mom and a work colleague that were stranded in Minneapolis on their way back from China due to the thunderstorms sweeping the Midwest on the heels of the heat-wave.  So around 10:30 that night, I retrieved them from the airport since most of the hotels in the Cities were sold out that night, so that they could get some sleep before being rebooked on the first flight out the following day.  Of course with the jetlag and long delays in the airport, neither of them had eaten much in the last 12 hours, so they were hungry.  Not many mid-week dining options in Minneapolis after 11 PM.  Luckily we were able to find Hong Kong Noodle still open until midnight on the U of M campus.  I hadn’t been here in a while so it was nice to see that they had remodeled the interior a bit to freshen up the space.  We ordered a hot congee with preserved egg and ground pork and a chow mai fun, thick rice noodle sautéed with green onions, bean sprouts and beef.  Both dishes were really good and I was surprised I was hungry again after eating at Chindian, having a beer at Pracna and then rushing to the airport.  But then again, when food tastes good you’ll still eat it even if you’re not really hungry.  The difference between Hong Kong Noodle and Chindian is that these two dishes including tax and tip totaled just over $20.  There weren’t any leftovers as the portion sizes were smaller, but a lot of times I’d rather have less expensive dishes that are smaller so that you can order more without looking like a pig or without having lots of leftovers to take home.  It was a great evening talking to my mom and her friend about their trip to China and sharing a late night snack in the middle of an empty restaurant on the deserted U of M campus in the middle of summer.  And yes, I was a good Taiwanese son and picked up the bill.

Will did an interview over Twitter with @JoelECarlson on Friday.  Below is a transcript of the Twitterview also available on Joel's Views website.

Hello everyone! Welcome to today’s Food-Friday Twitterview featuring @wphsu as today’s guest. Lets get cooking! Will:    Thanks for inviting me to be part of your Food-Friday Twitterview. I’m excited to get started!

Q – #1    So @wphsu, share with everyone following today, where did you grow up and go to school?

Will:    I grew up in Wausau, WI and worked the family farm as a kid. I went to undergraduate @UWMadison and later went on for my MBA.

I got my MBA a few years ago at Harvard Business School, proud to be a @UWMadison alum and @HBSAlumni

Q – #2     I see. So after schooling, what did you do and how did you end up in MN?