Category Archives: Iowa
World Food Prize Headquarters and Howard Buffett photo exhibit in Des Moines: worth a visit
I finally got to walk around the renovated downtown library in Des Moines that is now the headquarters for the World Food Prize and was blown away by the restoration/renovation effort. It was always an elegant 19th century building but it got pretty shabby in the mid 1990s when my children visited the library there regularly as Downtown School students. With all its stain glassed windows and murals and wood it always hinted of a previous, more elegant life. Now it’s back to its former glory and well worth a walk around. The restored WPA murals on the bottom floor are particularly interesting, tracing the history do Des Moines from prehistoric era to 1941. And the Howard Buffett photos of people from across the world facing hunger issues is mesmerizing. So visit when
You can. (There was an open house last weekend.)
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THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE HALL OF LAUREATES is open to the public for tours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., free of charge, on most Tuesdays and Saturdays. Please call 515-247-2222 for open house dates. Click here for more information. |
Filed under Des Moines, museum exhibit
New Des Moines Art Center Restaurant
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| Established | 1948 |
Finally got a chance to check out the new restaurant at the Des Moines Art Center operated by the chef from Baru 66 – it remains a lovely place to dine, even on a cold winter Sunday. The food was good although I wasn’t bowled over. The best entree was a special – a thick juicy hamburger topped with greens, a fried egg and prosciutto (I think.) My “artisan lettuce salad” had lots of fresh greens, with walnuts, croutons and yes, prosciutto (detect a theme?) which was good but it was underdressed and not much value for $11. My tomato bisque (for $3) was not as creamy, hot or substantially portioned as I’d hoped but good flavor and chopped texture. We also tried the La Quercia Melt , a toasted sandwich with prosciutto (La Quercia is the name of the award-winning, Iowa-produced prosciutto), brie, sweet mustard and the presentation was pretty stark – small sandwich on white plate for $13 – but my niece seemed to enjoy.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
The washington Post: “Why Iowa Rules”
Guess I’d agree with much of this (except the Machine Shed breakfasts which are a bit much)Washington Post story
but can’t help thinking of the famous Sally Field Oscars acceptance speech: “you like me right now. you like me!”
Filed under Iowa
Check out the Drake University Chamber Choir – in Des Moines and England!
The Drake University Chamber Choir performs at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 2010.
For my music-loving friends in London, here’s a treat from Des Moines – Drake University’s Chamber Choir will perform free concerts at St. Paul’s Cathedral at 5 p.m. Jan. 20 and at St. Martin-in-the-fields (Trafalgar Square) at 1 p.m. Jan. 21, as well as at Oxford and Cambridge during a 12-day concert tour January 10-22. These are some of the talented vocal students that my choir, the Drake University Community Chorus, sings with during our semester concerts. Closer to home (in Des Moines) the chamber choir will perform a free concert on Thursday Jan. 9 at 7:30 at Grace United Methodist Church. Here’s the scoop on the England tour from the Register: Drake choir to kick off series
While in England, the choir will to sing in the cathedrals of Gloucester, Coventry, and Ely, at both Cambridge and Oxford (St. John’s College Chapel, Cambridge; Merton College Chapel, Oxford), St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, and St. Nicholas Church in Witham. The Chamber Choir was selected by the American Embassy in London to inaugurate its new series at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Filed under Des Moines, England and U.K., music
Super duper super 8 in Le Claire
My husband warns that we haven’t yet heard the truck drivers likely to be partying here tonight, but so far I am liking this Super 8 in this eastern Iowa Mississippi River town. I do have to admit that my thumbs up may be colored by the relief I feel at no longer being on Interstate 80 driving in the dark through a “wintery mix,” with trucks zooming past us, their tires flinging rain, ice, snow onto our windshield. This Super 8 seems pretty new. It’s clean, the bed is firm with ok linens, there’s s big flat screen tv (we are watching a Seinfeld episode so old that George has hair. sort of.)
Anyway, we didn’t hit bad weather until after our delicious middle eastern dinner at Oasis in Iowa City and with any luck we won’t encounter much more during the duration of our trip to Chicago.
Spectacular photos by Howard Buffett – visit World Food Prize hdqters in Des Moines
I’ve heard great things about Buffett’s photos and about this building, which I last visited when it was the Des Moines Public Library! I’ll be there Dec. 21!
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Filed under Des Moines
A good Vietnamese restaurant in Des Moines
TNT Vietnamese Restaurant
Be still my beating heart – I think I may have found a good Vietnamese restaurant in Des Moines!! I tried the TNT Vietnamese Restaurant in the Harding Hills Shopping Center off MLK Parkway and my main gauge – a dish I try at every Vietnamese restaurant, a noodle and lettuce salad called Bun with eggroll and sliced pork – was excellent. The eggroll was crispy and nicely seasoned. The meat tasted like real meat, had the texture of real meat and was crispy and juicy at the same time, if that’s possible. Nice lightly BBQ flavor too. A nice touch that I’ve never seen before on this dish (and trust me, I’ve tried it at a half dozen Vietnamese restaurants) was a little pile of what appeared to be crispy toasted onion bits. Sweet! My companion’s Pho (a traditional broth with noodle and meat) also had a good flavor and beef that tasted like real beef. Bravo! Alas, the atmosphere of the place is pretty spartan – making it more a lunch than a dinner or festive occasion option.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
when next in Omaha/council bluffs …where to eat
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| Nickname(s): Cornhusker State | |||||
| Motto(s): Equality Before the Law | |||||
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| Official language | English | ||||
| Demonym | Nebraskan | ||||
Will Forte, a star of the new film “Nebraska” had some interesting restaurant suggestions after shooting the film in Omaha. So for the record, he told the NYTimes he liked The Boiler Room in Omaha and Dixie Quicks for breakfast in Council Bluffs. He liked staying at the Magnolia Hotel in Omaha and also recommended the Occidental Hotel in buffalo, Wyoming which we also liked when we stayed there (it is supposedly where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stayed when in town…Will didn’t mention another good place in Buffalo…Tom’s Main Street Diner on, you guessed it, Main Street.
Dreaming of Good Asian food in Des Moines
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Just back from yet another disappointing “Asian” meal in Des Moines. in recent years, Des Moines restaurants in general have definitely improved but there are still some major holes in the offerings, especially when it comes to Asian food …especially Chinese. When I was a kid in the the 1960s and 70s, Chinese good was the major option available in suburban Detroit. Cantonese….I’m talking the kind of dishes mentioned in Jennifer 8. Lee’s wonderful 2008 book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (a history of American Chinese food/restaurants that oddly begins and ends in Des Moines), dishes like egg foo young, egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, lo mein, General Tsu’s chicken, Mongolian beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, Chow Mein…nothing too fancy. But the food seemed fresh, with real meat and vegetables.
Later in the 1970s, we started getting dishes like moo shu pork (photo above). But in Des Moines at least, Chinese has been overtaken by Thai and Vietnamese and of course sushi, which is probably the most available and, at a place or two, the best Asian option here. But our favorite Thai restaurant has gone downhill. The Vietnamese place everyone goes to here has never impressed us (we far prefer Saigon Market in Wichita. Yes Wichita.) And Chinese in Des Moines, well I give up after yet another bad meal last night. My major complaint has to do with the poor quality of the meat at Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. The Vietnamese restaurants’ pork tends to be gristly. At the Chinese and Thai places, the chicken and beef are so over tenderized that they hardly resemble meat. The texture is all wrong, sort of vapid, melt in your mouth. Ick. And the favors are either way too salty or way too sweet. And the sauces too thick and goopy.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
TakeBetsywithyou 