Eatin' Right in Minneapolis

Flowers at Mill City Farmers Market

You guys I've been busy. So so so busy.

With work. With school. With putting my house back together. With organizing book clubs and having birthdays and getting the garden straightened. With life.

And I don't like to be busy. When I'm busy I get stressed. And when I get stressed my face breaks out and I eat too much and exercise feels like a far off dream. And when those things happen I feel bad about how I'm living and I end up working out too hard or drinking too much and waste my only day off recovering.

Last week I made a mad dash trip to Minneapolis for the wedding of a dear friend. It's a 14 hour situation to get to Minneapolis that involved too much candy and not enough sleep. I was a little stressed about leaving all the busyness back home to pile up. But some things are once in a lifetime. Busyness is not once in a lifetime, busyness is all the time and it can wait. Seeing my friend all woman-like in her white dress and gorgeous smile walk down the aisle was more important than catching up on all the to-dos in all the world.

Congrats BooBoo!

In between all the wedding festivities I managed a stop at the Mill City Farmers Market and a lively meal at Travail. After reading about the Minneapolis food scene in Food & Wine Magazine, I was eager to explore the local flavors.

Wild rice at Mill City Farmers market

The farmers market was lively, bright, and full of great finds including wild rice, chocolates, flowers, cheeses, sausages, and the usual, but equally exciting, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and baked goods. My score of the morning was a prune and chocolate roll that was rather like a cross between a bagel and a donut.

Chefs/servers at Travail

Travail was a flurry of extravagant small plates with a focus on fine ingredients. My favorite was a corn chowder topped with popcorn. Plus, the atmosphere is "what must be the country’s most entertaining avant-garde food" as Food & Wine describes it. The servers are the chefs here, a unique but very welcome twist. Just like at home, the passion for the food goes right on the plate, instead of being lost in translation somewhere between the kitchen and your table, as it does in a typical restaurant.

Beef tartare at Travail

I'm happy to report that Minneapolis does it right, not only with the widespread use of locally grown and made ingredients, but in creating a cuisine of comfort food all their own.

Back to the grind.