Feasting in the Twin Cities

No recipe this week. Just a little food for thought after visiting two lovely side-by-side cities this weekend.

The Diner, George Segal, Walker Art Center

EVERY TIME WE VISIT MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL we seem to love the two cities more. This being a food blog, we’ll start by saying we ate well everywhere, nothing as basic as what would likely be served at George Segal’s “The Diner” at the Walker Art Center. Continue reading “Feasting in the Twin Cities”

Feasting our eyes (and our bellies) on a Detroit weekend

No recipe this week. Just a little food for thought from a short road trip.

WE WERE IN DETROIT LAST WEEKEND, visiting our daughter and her boyfriend. As always, it was a feast on many levels. And in many places. This Anthony Bourdain mural is in Flint, Michigan. It was painted in 2019 by Krystal Cooke and was commissioned by Rodney Ott, owner of the Loft bar below it and a big fan of Bourdain. Continue reading “Feasting our eyes (and our bellies) on a Detroit weekend”

On the road yet again—Columbus, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky

Hi-Five Doughnuts, Louisville

APPARENTLY, WE REALLY LIKE ROAD TRIPS. Just got back from yet another one, first to Columbus, Indiana, and then to Louisville, Kentucky. Columbus, a small city of about 49,000 people, is the improbable home to a collection of modernist architecture by some of the leading international architects of the time. It has been called the sixth most architecturally-important city in the US. Louisville is home to bourbon, of course, and to beautiful, varied neighborhoods tucked into rolling hills. Both cities are home to friendly, smart people and sooo many good places to eat. Hi-Five Doughnuts, a woman-owned shop, was our last stop on the way out of Louisville, heading home. And those doughnuts were among the best things we ate. No recipe this week—we’re still recuperating. Please stop by next week.

On the road in hilly Cincinnati

French Crust, Cincinnati

WE ARE TRAVELING, A FUN LITTLE ROAD TRIP through Detroit, Flint, Michigan, and now, Cincinnati. It’s our first time here together and we are absolutely smitten. Amazing food, cool, friendly people, beautiful architecture, and hills, hills, hills. We hope to be back next week with a recipe. And for the record, this is not a picture of our transportation.

A kitchen-free visit to Detroit

Detroit’s Eastern Market

SUNNY DETROIT. When the girls were little and we traveled to Detroit a lot, we jokingly referred to it as sunny Detroit to make it sound exotic. Well, this weekend, it was gloriously sunny, beautifully showing off the city and its countless murals.

Like the one above in Detroit’s Eastern Market. The entire city is a mecca for international muralists, and Eastern Market is the epicenter. On a visit a few years ago, we documented a number of the market’s murals. You can find that post here.

Marion and I were in Detroit this weekend for a too brief visit with our daughter Claire and her boyfriend Marcus. We hung out, drove around and looked at things, and ate well. But we didn’t cook a thing, so no recipe this week. We hope to have one for you next week. See you then.

Out of the kitchen and on the road

St. Louis River, Jay Cooke State Park

WE’RE ON A BRIEF ROAD TRIP, visiting Duluth, Minnesota, and then heading on to Minneapolis. Lots of driving and hiking and seeing wonderful things. Like the St. Louis River, tumbling over its slate riverbed and banks in Jay Cooke State Park, about 20 minutes outside Duluth. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has this to say about this stunning place: “The Precambrian Thomson Formation is located within Jay Cooke State Park. The formation is a layer of mud that was compressed and hardened into shale, then compressed further into slate, and finally folded. This formation is about two billion years old.”

Lots of delicious food is being had too, just none of it prepared by us. So no recipe now—but check in next week.