In preparation for Halloween- TBSG seeks out a Vampire Deterrent! GARLIC

Beirut Restaurant - Lebonese

Awesome meals to be had at Beirut Restaurant. We highly recommend it - just go easy on the garlic sauce... one word: potent!

Beirut Restaurant- Lebanese

Next Support Group Meeting- Lebanese at Beirut Restaurant

Tuesday, October 26th at 6:30pm

Beirut Restaurant
1385 Robert Street
West St. Paul, MN 55118

651-457-4886

http://www.beirutrestaurantanddeli.com

Cafe Barbette and a Movie in the Park

The last Travel Bug Support Group dinner was French cuisine at Barbette in Minneapolis and we thought it would be fun to see a movie in Loring Park afterwards. We all met for dinner at Barbette and really enjoyed this restaurant. The Braised Lamb Shortribs appetizer was étonnant! ...as the French would say. At sunset we went to Loring Park for the indie film, 'Nobody.' Loring Park is the perfect venue for this fun and different something-to-do. There are restaurants close by (Cafe Lurcat and Kitchen) and you can beat a beautiful Minneapolis night outdoors. I LOVE THIS CITY!

Next TBSG - Tuesday, August 24 at 6:00 - BARBETTE

The next Travel Bug Support Group dinner will be French cuisine at Barbette in Minneapolis and we thought it would be fun to see a movie in Loring Park after dinner (it’s free). We’ll meet for dinner at Barbette at 6:00pm on Tuesday, August 24 then head down to the park to get seats for the movie around 8 or so. The movie starts at sundown.

Barbette
1600 West Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN

Here’s a link to the movie playing at Loring Park that night… looks good.
http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2010/07/four_nights_in_1.php

Peace, Love & Food!

Cheng Heng -- Cambodian Restaurant, St. Paul, MN

TBSG celebrated our 1 year anniversary at Cheng Heng! Cheng Heng didn't look like much but the food was authentic and unique. It was clearly a blend between Vietnamese and Thai cuisines, which makes sense considering Cambodia is in between the two countries! A few members were a little nervous about the neighborhood, but that just added to the adventure. After dinner we stopped by Christo's Greek Restaurant to say hi to Kyle one of the founding members who wasn't able to make it to dinner.

Only one suggestion, so no poll needed!

Only one restaurant was suggested so Cheng Heng wins!

No poll needed!!

http://twincities.citysearch.com/profile/5520439/st_paul_mn/cheng_heng_restaurant.html

Suggestions Please!

Okay TBSGers - bring on those suggestions. The poll was a great way to give everyone an opportunity to chose our next adventure, so let's try it again! I'll post the poll the week of 5/24 so get your suggestions in via comment!

Need some inspiration? Check out http://www.citypages.com/bestof/2010/section/food-and-drink-24/

Manana

This was our first support group meeting where the restaurant was chosen by a poll on the blog! We were surprised at the number of responses, we hope to do it again for our next TBSG meeting.

Manana's doesn't have a menu online, but there are a few reviews out there , so we knew a little of what we were in for. We knew they were one of the few places in the Twin Cities that specializes in El Salvadorian cuisine, they serve Papusas, and their menu is filled with humorous spelling errors! All of this proved correct. Everyone at the table enjoyed the papusas they ordered, filled with pork, beans, and cheese, and come in any combination of those ingredients. The woman at the grill was making them to order, molding the dough, filling it with the pork, beans and cheese, and grilling it! They were the highlight of our meal. These are served with a pickled cabbage, and tomato hot sauce (but it wasn't spicy), this adds the perfect amount of crunch and saucy goodness, and each one is around $2, hard to go wrong!

The rest of the food we tried was average, nothing we would need to go back for. The service was amazing, as were the complimentary chips (hot and made fresh!) and salsa.

An added bonus came at the end of the meal when our server brought out some fried plantains with a sour cream-like dipping sauce, these were not a hit with everyone, but I enjoyed the hot, sweet savory combo!

I also enjoyed the atmosphere at Manana's, we were there on a rainy, cool evening, and it seemed like the perfect little haven for a greasy treat. It is nothing fancy, but just a comfortable place to pop in!

Kyle and I were playing with the settings on our new camera, we're dorks!

Cooking Class

A few weeks back, a few members of the TBSG got together to experiment with food. Here are the photos and story!

My favorite food is probably Pad Thai with mock duck. Ever since my first experience at Kihn Do with mock duck, I've been a sucker for this meat substitute. Although I'm not a vegetarian, I try to limit my meat consumption. Does this make me a flexitarian? I enjoy Tofu, but sometimes you need to change it up. After a conversation with Angela about finding a recipe to make Seitan (aka Mock Duck) at home and wanting to try it and being a little apprehensive to do so, we decided there was strength in numbers and we should give it a shot.

Here I am mixing all the ingredients together. So far so good. The dough was like a really thick bread/silly putty/play doh type thing. This was also before I shattered one of Ange and Kyle's wine glasses. (which I still feel bad about!)

Time to knead the seitan. Note: do not over knead. I think that's why our results were a little more chewy than desired.
After the kneading, we broke it apart to rest. Yes, we did comment on the various undesirable things it looked like at this stage.

Time to simmer it! We used the mixture the recipe recommended of veggie broth, soy sauce, ginger and onions, although you could really add anything you wanted.

Still simmering, starting to expand!

Starting to pull out the seitan! The pieces really expanded during cooking!

I would estimate each piece tripled in size.

Ange pulling out the last piece!

And the fruits of our labor! Ange made a delicious stir fry and we also made a pad thai. The mock duck/setian was a little chewy but overall had really good flavor. It went really well in the pad thai and the chili peppers from Ange and Kyle's garden gave it the perfect amount of kick!

My lessons learned from our cooking night?

1) Don't over knead your seitan!

2) Pad thai wasn't nearly as scary to make as I first thought (although it was super helpful to have Ange and Kyle helping me out!)

3) Cooking with people who love to cook is really fun and educational!

I can't wait for our next experimental cooking night! Thanks Kyle and Ange for hosting!!

Your votes were counted!

See you all at Manana!

You Call It!

Ok TBSGers...where do you want to meet next? In the right hand pane of this blog you'll see a poll with suggestions given by other members. Please vote by Friday April 23rd at 5 pm! Your vote counts!

Here's the websites of the options:

Bella Cucina
Erte
Cheng Heng
Manana
Beirut Restaurant

Neighborhood Gem

I always enjoy finding a restaurant in my neighborhood, one I can walk to, that has excellent food. Last night I finally had a chance to try Namaste Cafe in Uptown and it fits the bill!

Leah and I stopped by Namaste for a quick bite after a YPOTC Happy Hour. We had the Spicy Fried Potatoes (pretty hot, but really tasty) for an appetizer. For the main course we had the Namaste Special Curry with Lamb as well as the Zucchini with Caramelized Onions. Both were very good, although at a 3 spice we were sweating just a teeny bit.

I would recommend checking out Namaste Cafe if you're in the mood for Indian food! Great service, great ambiance, great food!

Consider the Oysters

Here's some good reading for everyone today! Why should Vegans eat Oysters? Click below to read and move Chris' article to the most read list!

http://www.slate.com/id/2248998/

Next Meeting?!

Hey TBSGers - Where do you want to go next? Place a comment on where you want to go and the week of April 19th I'll put up a poll to pick our next location! All suggestions are welcome!

Everest on Grand

On Wednesday March 31st, the TBSG had another meet up! This time we met at Everest on Grand in St Paul. There were 12 members in attendance, including a few new faces!

Everest on Grand features food from Nepal, Thailand and India. Although they feature the typical protein options like chicken and pork the menu also had something no one had tried before:YAK! In my opinion, it was good. It had a bison like quality. If you visit the Everest on Grand website you can read more about the Minnesota farm that provides the meat!

So what else did we eat? Well, we had some appetizers: Samosas, Veggie and Yak Momo (dumplings) & Veggie Kothe (fried Momos). We also had some Garlic Naan. For the main course we had a few different types of Tandoor, including Yak, pork and lamb (the pork was my favorite). We also had the Chicken Tikka Masala (which was phenomenal) and Palak Paneer. There was also an order of the Yak Thukpa. There was even an order of Khasiko Maasu (Goat Curry). Everything that I tried was really good. Including the Flat Earth beer. Anyone else thinking that a brewery tour would be a good upcoming event?

My final recommendation? Go try some Yak at Everest on Grand! Bring a group and order lots of different dishes!

Written by Melissa, Posted by Angela