Its pretty early in the season here in Minneapolis (& cold! Check out the scarves & parkas in that picture. Yes, this is May!) but the ramps, asparagus & morels are looking great. Plus its a great time to get vegetables, herbs & plants for the garden. We picked up some beautiful perennials for our new shade garden that we'd never seen. We also splurged & went for some fresh morels even though they cost $40 a pound!
One of the great things about the Mill City Market is the Chef Shack. This is not your ordinary fast food trailer.
Matt had their famous Beef Tongue Taco.
This was the first time having beef tongue for either of us & we were really surprised by how tender it was. I ordered the special which was a softshell crab sandwich with ramp tartar sauce & grilled fiddlehead ferns.
We also tasted some Momos which are steamed Tibetian dumplings which is something else new for us. They were super tasty with a curry-like filling & a sesame tomato chutney for dipping.
Then of course you need a sweet & we couldn't resist the Rhubarb Æbelskiver with raspberry pepper jam.
Despite the cold it was a great al fresco meal with an amazing Mississippi view.
The market also features musical entertainment, local meat vendors (yak anyone?), fresh cheese & some wonderful crafts people (we bought a gorgeous bowl made of reclaimed wood). All & all a fine day out & I'm looking forward to visiting the market all summer.
On to Menu Planning Monday...
Trout with Rosemary & Cherry Tomato Sauce - From Bon Appetit June '09
Grilled Duck Breast with Bacon Wild Rice Cakes & a Grilled Tomato Sauce - My Royal Foodie Joust entry
Polenta with Spinach & Morels
Recipes to Rival May Challenge - shh its a secret
Grilled Sausage with Burdock Chips
Grilled Asparagus Paninis with Tagellio & Prosciutto
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© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski
19 comments:
Awesome!..thanks for writing about us!!! and glad you liked the food!!!
from the Chefs @the Chef Shack!
Ah duck breast... a serious favorite of mine. When you post about that, please share where you get your duck as I can't seem to find a good place in the Twin Cities that doesn't charge a ridiculous amount for duck. Thanks!
Tricia - We actually had a hard time finding a duck breast that wasn't precooked. According to the butcher at Lund's they have all been held up at the border in Canada for a coupe of weeks. We ended up getting the last one Kowolski's had. I didn't notice the price as I was just buying one.
On an unrelated note: have you ever cured your own pork? If so, could you post details. I've had success with curing salmon and pickling vegetables; now I want to find out if it's possible the cure pork at home.
--Steve
Steve - We haven't cured any pork but we do plan to try making our own bacon this year.
Awesome! I love markets like this! Our market has a few food vendors, but they don't serve anything special, really! Looks like you had a great meal!
Funny you mentioned Yak, as I was wondering if that was what was in your Tibetan dumplings. I had yak dumplings once and they were actually really tasty!
Jenn - The dumpling was actually vegetarian. The other choice was turkey, so no yak...
What a gorgeous day out!
Kathy, you should be receiving the See's chocolates from my giveaway this week. I had a mail snafu and sent them out via UPS on Friday!
oh yummy some of those pictures look so good.
What a terrific market. I would love to go there. I would have splurged on the morels also - what a find.
Sam
We live in Madison and don't have farmers markets available everyday, but there is a small one by our place that's open on Sunday. We went yesterday morning. One of the vendors was selling morels for $20/pound. Quite a bargain it turns out.
What a feast and all of it standing up! I love markets. :)
Wow, those look wonderful! It's making me hungry just reading about them. The rhubarb looks absolutely scrumptious! Thanks!
Great market pictures, Kat! I stopped in at Mill City Market on Saturday too and I was intrigued by the Chef Shack special but it was 9 am so it was a little too early for me to face eating fried whole crab. I settled for the Indian spiced mini-doughnuts instead. Yum!
I linked up to your post in my blog post about the market visit - http://greenyourplate.blogspot.com/2009/05/surgical-strike-at-mill-city-farmers.html
I think this market definitley deserves a visit next time we're in the twin cities. I haven't had aebleskiver since I was in Denmark and your post really makes me want some...
That all looks good. I have never had Beef tongue, interesting. I love that crab with the big fiddle head eyes.
I would love to try it all!
We are thinking baout going to MN this summer. Not sure yet.
Hello. Susan from the Minneapolis Farmers Market here. It's true we get crowds, which makes us happy.:) If its a Saturday, come early. You can have coffee and breakfast here and chat with the growers before the crowds arrive. Sunday is a good day to shop, too! We're @MplsFarmMarket on twitter so talk to us. Send us your questions.
Thanks for writing about us! I remember you guys and the extra powdered sugar! I'm so glad it didn't all blow away and you were able to snap a great shot!
BTW - we also love the Chef Shack! The chai mini-donuts are excellent! Try the Dim Sum stand (behind MoMo's) next time you are down too. Their dumplings (and our stoves) kept us warm last weekend!
I can't believe that you got that awesome food out of one of those crummy fast food vans! They are amazing!
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