Happy Halloween!

Mojo was all like: "Yeah, I'm gonna mark this pumpkin as my own, just like I do with everything in this house. Now feed me."



Now Mojo's all like: "Holy crap is that thing scary. I'll be inside eating."

And Mr. Jack-o-Lantern is all like: "Yeah that's right puddy cat. I'd be even scarier if rabbits hadn't been chewing on me this afternoon. But I'll get them . . ."

Sour Cream on Burgers and Fries

Sour cream on burgers. We've noticed it in the menu descriptions at a few bars and restaurants, and it's one of those things where we're not sure if it is a Minnesota thing, or part of a nationwide burger topping trend, or something that's been around that we just never noticed before on the east or west coasts, or what. But last night we were at a sports bar with friends, and in the burger section the menu advertised seasoned sour cream for 99 cents extra (previously we had just seen it listed a burger topping). One of the Aarons we were dining with (there were 2 of them) ordered the sour cream, but used it to dip his french fries in rather than putting it on his burger. Wacky.

Fall Foliage

After we got back from the Canterbury yesterday (I won $108, thank you very much), I snapped some photos of the foliage on our street:

Devil-Mary and Garlic Burgers

So this past weekend B and I were in Las Vegas. It was freaking awesome and you should all join us out there some time. But this blog is not about Vegas -- I mention it because since we got back on Monday we have been rather wiped out, and have eaten out a couple times in lieu of cooking. And we hit on two really cool places.

The first is Salsa a la Salsa Mexican Grill, in downtown Minnefabulous. B's birthday was on Tuesday, and although we definitely celebrated in Vegas, for her actual birthday night we ate at what www.citypages.com calls thebest Mexican restaurant in Minneapolis. Kind of:

Regular readers will know I've been tracking trends obsessively, trying to chart the emergence of a real Mexican restaurant we can all get behind, one that offers authentic food in a nice room, with beer, and (dare to dream!) margaritas; one that offers the chef talent that has been immigrating here in droves from Mexico and Central America along with in-the-city convenience, and all the pleasantries of a restaurant.

And I think, I almost, almost am ready to declare that we have it.

While citypages may hesitate, we loved it. B got fish tacos and they were the best we've ever had outside San Diego and Mexico. I got "Carne Asada a Maria a la Diabla." This name was interesting partly because the shrimp and chicken with the same sauce were called "Pollo Devil-Mary style" and "Camarones Devil-Mary style," but for carne asada (marinated steak) it was "a Maria a la Diabla." No matter, the meal was delicious but it did live up to its name and I was sweating from the heat. But if a menu is going to have "diablo" in its name you oughtta sweat, right? All of it reasonlbly priced. We will definitely be back.

Also we asked the waitress about pulque, "the drink of the Aztec gods" according to the menu, and she let us try a can for free. Evidently it is fermented agave juice. Smells kinda loud but it went down easy :-)

Speaking of smelling . . . [pats self on back for segue]

Tonight we ate at Bullwinkles, which is a bar and grill right by where B works. We had actually gotten pizza at a place in Uptown after we hiked around Lake Calhouna couple weeks ago, and on the wall of the pizza place was a framed review of both the pizza place and Bullwinkles, and in the review they were raving about Bullwinkles for its garlic burgers. Discoveries like this are all part of the food chain. So we ate at Bullwinkles tonight and we both ordered the garlic burger with cheese. Tons of garlic smashed in with ground beef, grilled up, and served on a bun. Again, delicious, although my breath is just awful two hours later. They have a more intense version of the burger that is called "The Lonely Guy." Anyway, fun place. It's so near B's work that we agreed that it should be our default "eat there if we don't feel like cooking" place.

Lake Calhoun

So two weeks ago B and I *finally* got out to take a walk around a lake. Well, actually B had walked around a lake once before when our friend Carrie was in town, but it was just the first time for my lazy bum. The first of 10,000 such walks . . . the horror . . . the *horror* . . . just kidding -- it's just that I'm not really all that outdoorsy.

This was Lake Calhoun, one of several lakes near the hip Uptown section of Minnefabulous. Anyway, we walked, we came home, I took a nap. Here are some pics:

The Canterbury Race Track

OK, I'm reaching way back for this post. Back to Labor Day, that's how remiss I've been about blogging -- oh well, better late than never. On Labor Day B and I made it down to the Canterbury for the very last day of racing season. We'd been down once before but we just played poker that day and didn't pay to enter the actual track. On Labor Day it was a bit overcast but otherwise very nice, and we vowed to make it down for a lot more races next summer.

The Ubetcha grill was one of the first things we saw upon walking in and we cracked up, since "You betcha!" is such a Minnesota-ism.



Echoes of the state fair:



And they have a tiki-ish bar!



And finally, here's a shot of the track:

The Vikings-Packers Thing

Even with both teams stinking it up big time this year, a game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers is still a big deal out here. Minneapolis is only about a half hour from the Wisconsin border, so plenty of people living here grew up as cheeseheads. One guy at my work, who commutes from Wisconsin but whom I didn’t even realize was a big football fan, is wearing Green Bay paraphernalia all week for the game on Sunday. As great as the Pats were the whole time we were living in Providence, Pats fans don’t have a single must-beat rival the way Vikings fans do (I guess the Bills come closest). I guess that makes sense. It’s living in the shadow of a (traditionally, though not this season) popular, successful team that gets Vikings fans so pumped up, and living in a town surrounded by folks that hate your team that makes Minneapolitan Green Bay fans get so pumped up.

Leinenkugel

Okay, I can't believe we've lived here 3 and half months and I haven't posted about Leinenkugel. That is pronounced "Line-n-kugel," but if you want to really sound local you will call them "Leinies." Leinenkugel is a beer, by the way. It's kind of the in-between, nicer-than-Budweiser-but-not-really-a-microbrew kinda beer, like Sam Adams is for New England or Yuengling is for Philly.





Regular Leinies are very nice, and I haven't purchased Budweiser or any other megabrew since moving out here. The Leinie beer that is really remarkable, however, is Leinie Honey Weiss. They sell it in bottles but for whatever reason it is not great that way. But draft Honey Weiss at the bars is great. They serve it with a slice of lemon. I've never liked lemon in my beer before but for some reason it really elevates Leinie Honey Weiss to a higher plane, like lime does for Corona. B and I assumed Honey Weiss was a seasonal summer beer and would be replaced by Octoberfest or something else by now. But when we were at the Mall of America a couple weeks ago we had an hour to kill before our movie started so we popped into a "mall bar" for a Leinie. We asked the bartender about it and he said, yes it started as a seasonal beer a few years ago, but the Honey Weiss has been so popular that all the bars he knows keep it on tap year round.



Leinenkugel is not strictly a Minnesota thing since it is brewed in Wisconsin. However, the beer is in every Minneapolis bar, and the "Leinie Lodge" has a big presence at the MN State Fair and the Metrodome. The brewery itself is close enough that I think B and I will have to take a tour sooner or later :-)

www.leinie.com

Indian Summer

OK, I have to issue a formal retraction of my post a from a week and half ago, in which I noted that it had dropped below 70 degrees and didn't look like it would be getting warm anytime soon. Minnesota has Indian summer just like most states. It is 80 degrees here today (Sunday, October 2). But look at this crazy dropoff in temps from Tuesday to Wednesday:



OK, I promise no more weather posts for a while.

On an unrelated note, B and I saw the Serenity twice this weekend (it was awesome by the way!). The second time was last night at the Mall of America. We'll have to do a big MOA post complete with pictures. Last night we saw a 10:30 movie, and when we left it was after midnight. We had to walk from the theater to where we parked on the other side of the mall, and it was weird being in a place that big with no one in sight. All we could think of was Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Comet. But in the end we did not spot any zombies.