December 15, 2011 · 4:56 pm

Stellar defense of Iowa – check out Jane Burns’ retort to Stephen Bloom

As someone who grew up in suburban Detroit, I’m used to watching the place where I live be maligned. Not to mention as someone who later lived in Wichita, Kansas and,  most recently, in Des Moines, Iowa. I have also lived in Boston and New York so I am very familiar with the coastal view of the Midwest, as immortalized in the famous 1976 Saul Steinberg map of the world for The New Yorker.

So Stephen Bloom’s obnoxious stereotyping pf Iowa and Iowans, especially small town rural Iowa, in a recent Atlantic online piece didn’t strike me as anything new – especially since he wrote something similar (for the LA TIMES?) soon after he first arrived in Iowa City some twenty years ago.  But his latest attack has raised a stink here, especially as the Iowa presidential caucuses approach.  One of the best defenses of  Iowa/Des Moines comes from my old friend Jane Burns. see: http://sneezingthrough.blogspot.com/

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December 12, 2011 · 10:30 pm

Well I didn’t “sleep with Wright” but still…check out my travel story in the Star Tribune

HOT OFF THE PRESS/WEB:

Here’s a story I wrote that ran in the travel section of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune last weekend. For the record,  I didn’t sleep with (Frank Lloyd) Wright (I’m not that kind of girl…or writer. And he is no longer with us…) but I did enjoy visiting the hotel.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/135314803.html#

In Iowa, sleeping with Wright

  • Article by: BETSY RUBINER , Special to the Star Tribune
  • Updated: December 10, 2011 – 9:21 AM

In Mason City, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Historic Park Inn gets a multimillion-dollar face-lift.

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December 11, 2011 · 4:38 pm

New italian food (and hotdogs?) old church in Northwest Iowa

La Chiesa in downtown Spencer, Iowa is a new Italian restaurant in an old Episcopal church, so you can eat pasta and pizza in a former sanctuary, complete with  stained glass windows, arched wood beams and a big cross.  So says Family Living, an Iowa Farm Bureau publication (that, full disclosure, my husband edits.) The fare is Italian country – more roasted pork with handmade fettucini and”Pork Belly and Apples Two Ways” than “That’s a spicy meatball.”  No hot dogs that I know of. (Just threw that in to test my theory that people are more inclined to read blog posts that mention hotdogs…)

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December 10, 2011 · 4:32 pm

Coming in from the cold at The Cheese Shop in Des Moines

The Cheese Shop is such a nice addition to my local neighborhood strip mall – The Shops of Roosevelt in Des Moines.  I finally visited yesterday after driving by it’s fogged-up glass windows for days, vaguely seeing people gathered at tables and around the cheese counter.  Struck me as a particularly warm place to come in from the cold – and so it is.

I sat at the wooden bar (salvaged from a local architectural salvage shop) by the cheese counter with a friend, sipping a small glass of amber-colored cider (the kind with alcohol) and nibbling on a plate of artisanal cheeses, including a delicious Vermont cheddar (although not the delicious Vermont cheddar we ate in Grafton, Vt. when we were there in September), hearty bread from La Mie (a few doors down in the center) and fancy olive oil.

Yes the cheese is pricey (some are $27 a pound) and next time I will try to sit at one of the three or four tables rather than the counter (better for carrying on a private conversation) but this place is a keeper.  I hope it continues to find customers and does well.

Good also to see The Shops  filling in after a period when several businesses left. Never good to have empty store fronts.  And there’s a fun mix at the moment that sort of reminds me of an old town square with the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. You can visit “The Cheese Shop,” “The Soap Shop” and “The Juice Company.” (Reminds me of  Tucson’s fondness for one-syllable, to-the-point shop names like “Sauce,” a pizza place, which is next to “Frost,” an ice cream shop.) Plus you can get baked goods/a meal (at La Mie), a haircut, upscale second-hand clothes,  one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry, not to mention do a little yoga and, if need be, get some body-cracking  from a chiropractor.

Fun Fact according to the DMRegister: One of the cheese shop owners is the son of the guy who opened the original Timbuktuu Coffee Shop in the same strip (where La Mie is now.)

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December 8, 2011 · 3:24 pm

hotdogs in Honolulu – Alligator Andouille hot dogs, no less

Hot dog lovers are clearly a blog-reading bunch, judging from the reception to my hot dog-related post yesterday. I happened to stumble upon a post from another blogger about hot dogs – this time Hot Dogs in Honolulu, where we’ll be in – (who’s counting) – less than four weeks. I’m not really sure I want to eat hot dogs when we’re in Hawaii – given other more interesting options – but here’s the scoop just in case YOU do.

– Hank’s Haute Dogs in Honolulu (cute name!) more creative concoctions include: (very spicy) Alligator Andouille hotdogs,  Lobster Fat boy (homemade lobster sausage wrapped in bacon),  Rabbit & Veal sausage hot dogs, Hawaiian hotdogs (with pineapple relish, passion fruit mustard, sweet Maui onions – ick); Buffalo hotdogs (made with brown ale and chipotle – hmm), duck & foyers hotdogs, even – occasionally, rumor has it, Reindeer sausage hotdogs. (Isn’t there some law against that?).

Eat these, I’m told, with fab onion rings and Ginger Soda (any relation to ginger ale?). The main Hank’s is at 324 Coral Street. There’s a second location at Waikiki’s International Marketplace.

 

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December 7, 2011 · 3:12 pm

Gourmet hot dogs – from Chicago to Des Moines

About a year ago, I found myself in a long line of people stretching down the block from a small brick building that is home to Chicago’s renowned (apparently) hot dog haven…Hot Doug’s (aka “the Encased Meats Emporium and Sausage Superstore.”)  After waiting about 20 minutes on a chilly afternoon and hearing that the wait might be over an hour longer, we left and went to a very good Cuban restaurant nearby.

I’m hoping the wait won’t be as long but the dogs will be as good at Capital Pub & Hot Dog Co., just south of the East Village in Des Moines. From the outside, the place looks like an old roadhouse that matches its gritty industrial neighborhood that is slowly slowly gentrifying.  The pub – located in a 19th century building  originally built for Irish immigrants working on the railroad, the Des Moines Register reports – is selling 100 percent beef dogs (also turkey and vegan dogs) in 13 guises. They’re thick (maybe like my favorite dogs – kosher hot dogs?) – and cooked to order (whatever that means with a hot dog – surely people don’t eat “medium rare dogs”).

One favorite is the Chicago Dog (natch), which sports yellow stuff (mustard, onion), diced tomato sweet relish, sport peppers, pickles and celery. The Mobayashi dog sounds way weird – tempura battered and fried, dressed with spicy mayo, cream cheese, cucumber and, of course, wasabi. I may have to go for the non-hot dog sandwich – the Southside Link, made from locally-made (Graziano’s) Italian sausage with giardiniera pepper relish (which I first ate at a street fair in Chicago, yum) and cheeses.

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December 6, 2011 · 7:52 pm

Where to eat/stay when visiting Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas

We will no doubt make it to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is making an unlikely art destination out of  Bentonville, Arkansas (thanks to Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton who bankrolled the museum in the Wal-Mart headquarters hometown).

I’ve explored northwest Arkansas several times (especially Eureka Springs), but never had a reason to stop in the small city of Bentonville.  Now I do, thanks to this new museum , which opened Nov. 11. and promises to put Bentonville on the map not only for American art enthusiasts but tourists in general.  A  huge complex designed by Moshe Safdie, the museum showcases Walton’s reportedly impressive art collection and also has a sculpture garden and nature trails that wind through 120 acres of forests, gardens and ponds.

Now courtesy of the NYTimes comes some suggestions on tourist amenities present and future there:

  • – Table Mesa Bistro, around since 2008.
  • – Pressroom, new restaurant located in a former – yes you guessed it – newspaper pressroom. (Sadly, given the deteriorating health of newspapers, more and more newsrooms may face this kind of repurposing…)
  • – Laughlin House B&B – recently opened, first B&B in town.
  • – 21c Museum Hotel – opening on the town square in Jan. 2013 and an outpost of the original hotel in Louisville.

Also on my list:  the famous AQ (“Arkansas Quality”) Chicken House in nearby Springdale, Arkansas.

 


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December 2, 2011 · 2:26 am

Japanese restaurants in New York City

Tying up some loose ends from our trip last week to New York City, here are two Japanese restaurants for future reference:

– Menchanko 55 on W. 55th street – an inexpensive Japanese noodle house with good soup, vegetable appetizers, rice balls. No sushi.  I had the soup with brown broth, pork slices, veggies, noodles. Yum.

– IchiUmi – a Japanese seafood restaurant my friend Merida recommends, located at 6 E. 32nd street. It’s website promises: “The best sushi and seafood buffet in NYC at a very affordable price.”

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November 29, 2011 · 3:15 am

Bad luck with Delta Airlines but good corned beef with dad in Detroit

arrgh…On both my departing and return flights between Des Moines and NYC, there were mechanical problems that caused delays and/or heart palpitations. En route, during the Detroit to LaGuardia leg, as we were trying to land in a cloudy rainy New York City, the pilot suddenly reversed course and went back up into the clouds. “You may have noticed we tried to land,” he explained over the intercom. “But we decided not to as a result of an anomaly in the braking system.”

WHAT???

He then told us he’d be trying to land again in 10 minutes and there shouldn’t be any further problems.

GULP.

After what seemed like a very long 20 minutes, he did successfully land the plane on what appeared to be an exceedingly long runway. (good idea) and as the wheels touched down and the pilot pumped the brakes, we passengers clapped. And eagerly deplaned.

Then today, we get in the plane at LaGuardia on a beautiful sunny day, taxi out to the runway for an ON TIME departure, only to return to the gate because some water is leaking in the bathroom. An hour and a half later, we are airborne and our chances of making our connecting flights (having lost our original one-hour layover) are slim. I did call from the stalled plane and was told my daughter – who was going onto Cedar Rapids – wouldn’t be able to go on the 4 p.m. flight to CR if she missed the 12:20 one – but there was one seat left on the 7:51 p.m. flight. Feeling like a contestant on Lets Make a Deal, I had to choose between door #1 or #2. And decided to book the 7:51 and try to go standby on the 12:20 should we arrive in time. So we arrive in Detroit at 12 and of course the connecting flight is miles away in another concourse but I run and run and get to the gate just as the door is closing and I BEG the already harried-looking desk person to let Lily get on standby. She balks at first but I look pathetic enough that she gives me the ONE SEAT left on the whole damn plane. And away Lily goes. And of course I’ve now missed my 12:24 p.m. flight to Des Moines (in yet another concourse) and the 4:35 p.m.  is unavailable but, earlier, when the plane was stalled at LaGuardia, I grabbed a seat on  the 7:30 p.m. flight.

Best of all, I call my dad in suburban Detroit and he picks me up and we have a very nice unexpected afternoon together starting with a delicious corned beef sandwich at a little deli on Woodward Avenue (Deli Unique in the Ramada hotel of all places.) So all ends well….and I’m finally home in Des Moines.

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November 26, 2011 · 2:52 pm

New York City – Japanese noodles, a Fireside chat, drink at doc’s

During our annual whirlwind tour of NYC during thanksgiving we have:

– eaten very good japanese noodle soup at a restaurant that begins with an M on West 55th Street. (I’ll dig up that name when I can.)

– Strolled past the cool Lady Gaga holiday windows at Barney’s on Madison Avenue

– Had a long leisurely lunch with an old friend from London in the “casual elegant” Fireside restaurant of the Omni Berkshire hotel in midtown

– Met an old college friend for a beer at Doc Watson’s on 2nd Avenue between E. 77th and 78th

– Dodged the crowds watching the parade balloons being inflated on the upper west side by ducking into Scaletta for dinner (good bolognese!)

– Dodged the crowds watching the parade on Thanksgiving Day (at one point, I simply joined the tail end of the parade after the crowds along the sidewalks got to large and scary). I was the irritated looking woman in civilian clothes walking along side cheerful yellow and red costumed paraders holding up the Macy’s inflated stars. My expression: don’t dare to stop me.

– Cut through the crowds of people about ready to Occupy Best Buy on the upper west side after Thanksgiving dinner

– Took a glorious late night walk on Thanksgiving from central park west to central park south and then up Lexington Ave. to E. 69th where we stayed

– Joined 10 other relatives at a chaotic Penn Station to take the train to Southampton.

– Bought some last-minute gifts in Southampton – a novel at Book Hampton, an ice cream b’day cake at Carvel, some knickknacks at Home and Nature

 

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