New category: Food Quest
January 8th, 2007
After discovering the merriment of reading tk’s exploration of the Twin Cities’ gyros offerings, I’ve decided to create a new category called “Food Quest.” I also discovered that I’ve been meaning to do this since last summer with the quest to find the best mussels in the Twin Cities (that would be Barbette).
My intention for it is to create a quest to find something you love. For example, I have several Food Quests of my own that I will be and have been on in the next few months.
- Friends Food Quest: to have people over for dinner at least once a week (so far so good for 2 weeks) – it’s been a blast so far. Daniel and I love cooking so why not cook for those we enjoy ALL the time!
- Quest for the best Fries: I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now. I have a couple places in mind that are dueling it out for 1st place as of now but there are a few more places I need to try first.
- Quest for the best Mussels: Since we did this last year, I have to post about it. Look for it soon.
Anyway, you get the idea. Please start using this category as your own! And please come back to share your quest.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Mussels are my daughter’s and my favorite to order either as a meal or an appetizer we share (she’s 12 by the way and fell in love with mussels and all shellfish from a trip down to Florida when she was about 6 or 7). Anyhow, the best type of mussels we’ve had are the green-lipped mussels from New Zealand, which are very hard to come by at restaurants unless you know they are ordering them and serving them up. They are very hard to find on any given mneu, however, I buy them when the local restaurants do order them from Coastal Seafoods (I’m on their call list) and prepare them at home either with a saffron wine base or steam them in beer with lots of garlic. I’d like to know if you’ve encountered the green lipped mussels on your quest at any restaurant? I think Coastal indicated that the Wolgang Puck restaurants are the ones that typically place the order through them. Once you’ve had this variety of mussel, it’s hard to go back to the smaller mediterranean variety.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:58 am
No, I haven’t had the opportunity to try that kind. Although I am very interested! Do you have a specific recipe you’d like to share with me? I do receive Coastal Seafood’s enewsletter, but I haven’t noticed any green mussels.
Is this a situation where I should also ask to be on their call list? Or would it show up in the newsletter?
THANK you for the awesome recommendation!
March 14th, 2007 at 11:06 am
You may want to call them and tell them to add you to the list. I just have my name and phone number posted on a scap piece of paper on their bulletin board at the Wayzata location. I don’t subscribe to their enewsletters. I just wing it everytime I cook them up. I cook up a paella dinner for 10 to 12 people about twice a year and I make sure I have the green-lipped mussels for that. They are usually 3 times the size of the ones you usually order/buy, and the coloring is different also. I tried to see if I could attach a picture of the paella that I cook, but couldn’t do it through this venue. The recipe for my paella is a bit complicated and would take a while for me to write up, it’s mostly in my head.