Thank you Kiminobu Ichikawa for 26 years of delicious Origami

Phyllis Louise Harris
December 25, 2015

(Pictured: Sari Roll. Photo: jedlicka.com)

The best restaurants offer a pleasant atmosphere, helpful staff, beautiful and delicious food with consistently top quality. For 26 years Origami on North First Street in Minneapolis has been doing exactly that. On December 23rd, Origami’s Downtown Minneapolis location closed.

When Sushi Chef Kiminobu Ichikawa (Ichi) opened his restaurant, he chose a location near the Mississippi River in the old warehouse district. He found a four-story, quaint old building on the corner of North First Street and started offering his own special Japanese cuisine. At the time the area was so bleak that some reviewers thought the restaurant could not survive in such a bad location. Ichi not only survived, but earned more than 75 awards both locally and nationally and was named Best Chef America in 2013 and 2014.

A few weeks ago I had my last meal at Origami downtown and it was as good if not better than the first time I ate there in 1989. As usual I sat at the Sushi Bar (even though I am not a fan of Sushi) to watch the never-ending show of slicing and molding and arranging and saucing so many different combinations of fresh ingredients. As usual, the Sushi Chefs were happy to answer my questions about ingredients and techniques. Sushi Chef Tuan Hoang started by forming sushi (seasoned steamed rice) into a perfect mound then topped it with a sliver of fresh Blue Fin Tuna. The chef then took a small torch and kissed the tuna with just enough flame to create a char flavor. Topped with sesame seeds and mini greens the beautiful Sushi offered a bite of heavenly flavors.

One of my favorite dishes at Origami is young asparagus spears sautéed in garlic and soy sauce with a splash of sake. We had seven different dishes, but the most spectacular was the Sari Roll with spicy tuna, tempura flakes, burdock and kaiware wrapped in tuna and avocado. This one was especially beautiful.

Named after its creator Sushi Chef Gonzalo Patricio Sari Segarra, the Sari Roll is a good example of Ichi’s efforts to hire and encourage a talented staff. Sari started at Origami 19 years ago as a dishwasher then moved to kitchen staff, and under Ichi’s guidance learned the intricate art of Sushi. He has been one of Origami’s many popular Sushi Chefs with his special roll a prime example of the restaurant’s quality and creativity.

Ichi recently sold the building in anticipation of his retirement and now we will need to shift our allegiance to Origami at 1354 Lagoon Ave in Uptown. I will miss that wonderful little building downtown now surrounded by the Federal Reserve building and in the middle of a booming art gallery/restaurant/new apartment neighborhood. But, my desire for Origami’s wonderful food, will eventually send me to the Uptown location where I can once again enjoy Ichi's legacy.

Thank you, Ichi, for so many wonderful years of Origami! I hope you have a long and peaceful life.

               

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:

http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
               
 

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Paskong Pilipino…a Filipino Christmas tradition in Minnesota

Phyllis Louise Harris
December 2015

For the last 40 years, on the first Saturday of December the Filipino community has come together to celebrate Christmas for the children. This year it will be on December 5 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Parish Community of St. Joseph, 8701 36th Avenue North in New Hope. Filled with entertainment, a live nativity scene, Christmas carols and wonderful Filipino food, the party also features Santa with a gift for each child. And, it is free!

The ever-busy Lita Malicsi is this year’s event chairperson and encourages everyone to attend. “If you bring a child,” she suggests, “please bring a wrapped present with the child’s name clearly printed on the top so Santa won’t miss a single little one.” For adults there are also food and gift booths to shop for delicious and unusual gifts of the season.

Finding Filipino food in Minnesota is not easy so events like this help keep those culinary traditions alive in our frozen northland. There are so many wonderful Filipino dishes it is hard to choose one or two to write about. In “Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875” we featured recipes from some of the most prolific Filipino cooks who live in our area. They draw on the cuisine of their homeland influenced over time by Spain, China, Mexico, Malaya, Indonesia and the U.S. The American contribution came with the World War II soldiers who occupied the islands and brought with them that canned ham from Austin, Minnesota, SPAM®. The Filipinos liked the flavor and especially liked the fact the cans did not have to be refrigerated. SPAM® became so popular that Hormel built a production facility in the Philippines just to meet the local demand.

I am especially fond of Abe Malicsi’s Egg Rolls – both meat and vegetarian – as well as his absolutely glorious Flan. Other favorites include Mena-Li Canlas’s Empanadas or light and fluffy Putos, and Geoff King’s Chicken Adobo. All the recipes are included in the book. There is something about Adobo’s combination of sweet coconut milk and tangy vinegar that gives the chicken an absolutely wonderful flavor. And, it is so easy to make.

Ingredients for Filipino cooking are available at stores throughout the area and at Phil.-Oriental Imports at 789 University Avenue West in St. Paul. Since 1977, Yvonne Arcilla and her family run store have been the resource for Filipino ingredients as well as that of India, Indochina and West Africa. 

Celebrate the joys of the holidays with a few new traditions from our neighbors from the Philippines. Attend Paskong Pilipino or go to “Asian Flavors” and cook some of the amazing food, Happy Holidays!!

               

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:

http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
               
 

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Wok smoking all year ‘round

Phyllis Louise Harris

November 2015 

One of my favorite dishes to cook for parties is duck smoked in a wok. It can be made ahead, served at room temperature and tastes wonderful! Wok smoking is also good for chicken, pheasant, Cornish game hens or turkey parts, and it is the perfect dish for beautiful autumn days and even cold winter nights. If there are any leftovers, they are also good. So how can you go wrong? 

It is not, however, a last minute choice since it requires steaming the fowl, chilling it and then smoking it in the wok on the stovetop. Once finished it will keep in the refrigerator for several days. (I even took smoked duck to Arizona one winter and it survived the trip very well.) Serve it with Chinese steamed buns brushed with hoison sauce and scallion brushes for an absolutely delicious dish. 

We featured smoked duck and pheasant in “Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875” along with a recipe for steamed buns. The pheasant recipe was inspired by Bryan Anderson an avid hunter who enjoys the sport as well as the food it provides. He and his wife Carolyn supplied the pheasant we used to create a smoked version that was great (also in the book). Did you know that pheasant were originally imported to Minnesota from China in1905? Today, there are nearly half a million pheasant available in the state each year for harvesting by hunters like Bryan. 

Basically the key to wok smoking is to use an iron wok (not stainless or non-stick) and line it with foil. Tear a hole in the foil at the center of the wok and place hickory chips in that hole so they rest directly on the bottom of the wok. Place the pre-cooked fowl on a rack or crossed wooden chopsticks in the wok then cover with a dome of foil and securely pinch it to the bottom foil creating an enclosed smoker. Place the wok on a stove burner and turn the heat to high to get the smoke going quickly. Smoke for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for another 5 – 10 minutes before opening the foil. The result will be beautifully browned and smoked fowl ready to serve.

The steamed buns we normally serve with the duck are also easy to make, freeze nicely and turn the smoked fowl into a delicious sandwich. Even the scallion brushes can be made ahead and stored in cold water in the refrigerator. At serving time, slice the fowl, reheat the buns and set them all up for dining in a matter of minutes. Absolutely delicious!

       
       

               

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:

http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
               
 

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Farewell to Fine Dining at La Belle Vie

By Phyllis Louise Harris

October 2015

Last week I celebrated my birthday by having dinner at one of the few fine dining restaurants in Minnesota. The next day I learned it was closing after more than 17 years in business.

La Belle Vie is the showcase of the culinary talents of Tim McKee who is one of a few Midwest chefs honored with a James Beard award. He started the business in Stillwater then moved it to 510 Groveland near Loring Park in Minneapolis. On October 24 it will close.

There are approximately 10,000 licensed eating and drinking establishments in Minnesota and now there will be one less. It is really a sad commentary on Midwestern tastes (or in the restaurant business known as “bland and boring”) when a restaurant of this caliber cannot draw enough clientele to survive.

I once asked Leeann Chin why she had adjusted her exceptional Chinese cooking skills to something more “Midwestern.” “I cook what the customer wants,” she replied, and built a chain of more than 60 restaurants in several states that still survives after 35 years. The food in her restaurants and the food she cooked for her family and students differed considerably. To me her private cooking was a good example of exceptional dining but she knew it would not sell in the volume she envisioned for long-term success. It was a lesson she learned in her first restaurant at Ridgedale when she ran out of food after the first hour the restaurant was open. The next day she set up a buffet to supplement the fancy menu with hand-calligraphy offering culinary gems. Again she sold out in an hour…from the buffet, not from the menu. She learned very fast what the customer wanted and went on to turn it into a successful business. But only a few of us knew what culinary gems she could create.

There is often a large gap between a chef’s vision and financial success and unless there is an audience who appreciates exceptional food in an upscale ambience the restaurant cannot survive. Such is the case with La Belle Vie. It was on a scale with the Ritz or Claridges in London, the Plaza or Carlyle in New York City, and the original Pump Room or Shanghai Terrace in Chicago. A quiet, refined atmosphere where diners dressed for dinner in something more attractive than cargo pants and tee shirts (men and women), and where the service is pleasant, efficient and knowledgeable. Where the menu offers a wide variety of choices prepared in sometimes surprising ways, but, always delicious.

Local food writers keep saying the Twin Cities has become a culinary haven with ever growing numbers of outstanding restaurants. I wish it were so. What we have is an ever growing array of sameness in different packages. And, with the demise of La Belle Vie we lost an oasis of culinary delights.



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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com. 

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Pearl Balls . . . a Chinese favorite!

By Phyllis Louise Harris

September 2015

When people talk to me about Chinese food they usually mention their favorite dish. Egg rolls, dumplings, sweet and sour pork, sesame chicken, fried rice and chow mein are some of the choices that come up most often. The trouble is there are thousands of Chinese dishes and we only seem to focus on just a few.

Even the huge menu at Shuang Cheng does not begin to list them all. And dim sum restaurants still fall short on the choices that could be included. My own childhood world of chow mein and chop suey from the Nankin or John’s Place was so limited that is all I thought was available. And, then I went to the China Institute in New York City and had a culinary awakening.

In the 14 years I spent in cooking classes at the Institute with the talented Florence Lin I probably cooked more than 300 Chinese dishes and tasted another 200 dishes on my travels through China. I still have the recipes with class notes and sometimes I just page through them to remember the fun of discovering marvelous classics or remembering that pig snout was not my favorite flavor. Then there were pigs’ ears, chicken feet and, of course, intestines as well as chicken brains and every part of every creature imaginable. It always amuses me when people say they want to have “authentic” Chinese food as I wonder if they really mean all the parts that are used in traditional Chinese cooking.

But, one of my favorite dishes actually came from a Chinese restaurant in New York City that has since closed, the House of Tu. It became so popular so quickly that the owner was lured away to Texas where he was set up in his own restaurant there. The dish is pearl balls.

They looked appealing on the menu and even more interesting when they arrived. Here were delicious pork meatballs coated in sticky rice and steamed for two wonderful bites of flavor. Dipped in a Hunan pepper sauce, the mellow ball took on a spicy accent. When I asked Florence about making them in class she came up with a recipe the following week and they have been a favorite in my household ever since. They are easy to make and freeze and reheat well so I usually make two or three recipes at a time and have them on hand for easy meals or appetizers. Unfortunately, I have only seen them on one menu in the Twin Cities. But we did feature them in “Asian Flavors” along with a photo in a bamboo steamer basket. Here is the recipe:

Pearl Balls

From “Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesotans since 1875”

By Florence Lin, adapted by ACAI

1 cup glutinous (sweet) rice

1 pound lean pork, ground (or ground beef plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil)

1 egg

1 tablespoon cornstarch combined with 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon white wine

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon Chinese light soy sauce

4 fresh water chestnuts, peeled and minced (or canned water chestnuts)

1 tablespoon minced scallion, white part only

vegetable oil

Hunan Pepper Sauce or other Chinese hot sauce

1.     Rinse the rice several times and cover with cold water to soak for at least 1 hour. Drain well and spread rice on a clean cloth or paper towels to dry for at least 1 hour.

2.     In a large bowl, combine the pork, egg, and cornstarch mixture, mixing well. Add the salt, sugar and soy sauce and stir in one direction with a chopstick until the meat holds together. The texture will change from ground pieces to little strings of meat all pointed in one direction. Add water chestnuts and scallions and continue to stir. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3.     Set up a wok with racks for steaming. Fill the wok about 1/3 full of water and bring to a boil.

4.     Lightly oil the inside base of each rack. Moisten your hands with water and scoop up about 1½ tablespoons of the pork mixture, rolling it into a ball about 1 inch in diameter. Roll each pork ball in the dried rice  to completely cover the meat. Set the balls on the steamer rack about ½ inch apart. When the rack is filled place it over the boiling water, cover and steam over medium high heat for 20 minutes. (If you are using bamboo steamer racks, steam two racks at a time.) Remove the balls to a platter or individual plates. Repeat with the remaining meat and rice. Serve hot with pepper sauce.

Note:  Pearl balls freeze well and may be reheated. Place the cooked and cooled balls on an oiled cookie sheet and freeze until firm. Store the frozen pearl balls in freezer bags up to 6 weeks. Defrost at room temperature and steam to reheat approximately 8 minutes until heated through.






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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com. 

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

“Cheap meals” with Asian flavors

By Phyllis Louise Harris

August 2015

The current issue of Mpls/StPaul magazine lists 95 “great cheap meals” available in the Twin Cities including a $30 lobster dinner at Jax. While $30 is cheap for lobster it is not an inexpensive meal. And, in their listing of chicken wing sources, one of the best in town was missed – Christos Greek Restaurants whose oregano chicken wings at $7.45 are absolutely delicious and affordable! The magazine also missed Christos special "3 courses for $20" menu with some very interesting choices. But, most surprising, the list did not include a single item from a Chinese restaurant.

If ever there was a cuisine that offered a variety of flavors and nutrition at reasonable cost it is Chinese cooking. Among the many offerings in the Twin Cities and throughout the state there are a multitude of choices available to enjoy at very reasonable prices. Portions are usually generous and often include rice and tea. Here are just a few you may have missed:

Shuang Cheng Restaurant in Dinkytown has 18 lunch specials every day for under $7.39 (with most at around $6.25) including the entrée, chicken fried rice or steamed rice, eggroll or wonton and tea. Choices include shrimp, fish filet, sesame chicken, Mongolian beef and more. Their Cantonese style rice plates are also a bargain for roast duck, seafood with broccoli or 18 other plates all under $7.79. In addition, owner Daniel Lam offers one of the most extensive Chinese menus in the area with over 130 items including a wide variety of seafood including lobster and walleyed pike. See the full menu at www.shuangchengrestaurant.com.

David Fong’s, Bloomington’s first Chinese restaurant, opened 53 years ago is still run by the Fong family and has always featured American as well as Chinese food. Two of the most popular entrees are the U.S. Tenderloin Steak dinner for $10.25 and the Breaded Pork Tenderloin at $9.25. Their Chinese menu includes dishes from David Fong’s father and grandfather that have become such popular favorites that when customers move away from the area they call long distance for the recipes. See it all at www.davidfongs.com.

Chindian, that delightful restaurant on East Hennepin run by Nina Wong and Thomas Gnanapragasm combines several Asian cuisines for a variety of flavors at reasonable prices. She is from China, he is from Malaysia and the menu offers traditional and blended dishes from both traditions. Nina is a noodle fan and offers some interesting dishes including Chow Mai Fun, a gluten-free rice noodle dish flavored with curry spices and served in a variety of styles at $11. Or try Thomas’s signature dish from Malaysia, Nasi Lemak featuring coconut rice, chicken, egg, peanuts and anchovies for $10. And, here is another take on chicken wings from Nina for $7. For more information go to www.chindiancafe.com.

Harry Singh (look for him at the State Fair) Original Caribbean Restaurant on Eat Street in Minneapolis also has tasty chicken wings plus a variety of India- and Chinese- influenced dishes. A nice change from the usual sandwiches is the hot-off-the-grill roti, the Indian flat bread served with jerk chicken, curry chicken, curry beef, curry shrimp or browned chicken for $9.95. Splash on some of Harry’s special hot sauce and you have a taste of the islands right here in Minnesota. Harry also offers chicken wings and a variety of jerk dishes. Go to www.harrysinghs.com  for more choices and information about this one-of-a-kind place to dine.

These are just a few suggestions. So instead of the usual “cheap” choices, why not try some of the classic inexpensive Asian dishes served every day throughout our state by talented, creative chefs who love what they do and look forward to brining you something special to enjoy.

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com. 

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0