Brad Ballinger

I think that those are straw mushrooms. ← Yes, that's exactly it. The link you provided is broken, but I knew as soon as I saw the words "straw mushrooms," that those were the ones I had. Love 'em.

I'm always thrilled to come across Macarini Barolo Brunate or La Serra since it's always one of the most attractive priced Baroli available.

Thanks for highlighting a place like this. I like to hear about the lesser-known places. Perhaps a significant FYI: the restaurant is Krua (with a K). ← Thanks. My bad. Edited to add: And a google search for Krua Thailand returns plenty.

2003 Chateau Laulerie Bergerac Rose. Bergerac is not far from Bordeaux, and this Bergerac Rose is made from primarily merlot with a bit of cabernet sauvignon. Color is a medium pink. Nose shows primarily floral and spice notes, with some fresh pie cherry aromas underneath. Tart cranberry-like flavors are rounded out a bit with a wee bit of residual sugar. The spice and floral components continue to show in the mouth, too. There is also tangerine and cherry. Finishes with more floral than anything else. An easy sipper, especially for about $6-$9.

On Saturday night, my wife and daughter and I went to Krua Thailand Restaurant on University Avenue, just west of Western, in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. There are many good Asian places in the area, and I would add this one to that ever-growing list. In full disclosure, however, it is operated by my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law (more detailed: my wife’s brother’s wife’s brother’s wife). I was a bit unsure as to how much our 14-year old daughter would enjoy it since she usually isn’t ultra-adventurous. If there is a vegetable in a dish that is not lettuce, tomato or a jalapeno chile, she remains skeptical. But she was willing to give it a shot. Her demeanor changed slightly when she didn’t find anything on the menu that resembled the nearest thing in her experience, Chinese. Our daughter enjoys Chinese food, but that consists of getting as many of the battered and fried items from the steam table buffet that she can. Nothing like that here. But there was a noodles dish to which she could add shrimp, and that seemed to work. Of course, we add to ask for no bean sprouts or even green onions. The fried egg remained, and she gave it a quizzical look, but ate it anyway. Afterwards she said, that she like her food very much and wants to go back. Onto the restaurant description. The dining room is quite small, seating no more than 20-24. There is a deck on the east side of the restaurant, but on this night everyone was inside. The menu has about 120 items. I’ve never understood why Asian restaurants have such extensive menus. And this one wasn’t categorized by beef, chicken, pork, etc. with the same dishes underneath each protein ingredient heading. This was categorized by appetizer, soup, salad, noodles, entrée, stir fry, dessert. Nearly every soup, noodle, and stir fry item had a choice of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, fish, or mock duck. Somewhat unique to this restaurant, every menu item comes with a picture. Most every item is less than $10. I ordered a soup – a tom yam variety that had some coconut milk, those mushrooms that look like dark collapsed umbrellas (I don’t recall their name right now), Thai basil, coriander, and I went for the shrimp option and medium spicy. In a word, it was fantastic. And my daughter loved the broth mixed in with rice. My wife ordered a stir fry with mock duck, Chinese broccoli, the same mushrooms, Thai basil, and some other stuff. She enjoyed it immensely. We did not order dessert. So our daughter can’t wait to go back. Neither can we. By the way, I thought about not mentioning this restaurant to anyone. A google search came up empty. But it’s more important to get the word out to keep the place in business (and not just because I know who the owner is).

Haven't been. I believe that's in the Radisson, and I don't usually think of a hotel restaurant when considering where to go in Minneapolis.

I'm going to disagree a bit with my friend, Bruce. Tiburon is more about atmosphere than food quality IMO. Sapor is average at best in my experience (and it's nowhere near where you are staying anyway). ← I've had good service and food at Sapor - but you have to go there for what they do, local, organic stuff. And their bread is awesome. ← On my last visit, I had two issues: 1) overcooking, and 2) trying to put too many ingredients into a dish (which is a bit counterintuitive to focusing on local, organic).

Two replies, Gaucho. 1. I don't really pay attention to ratings. If I'm aware of a rating given to a wine, it's probably because someone told me at the time I was drinking it. 2. Sorry, I'm not familiar with Achaval Ferrer.

I'm going to disagree a bit with my friend, Bruce. Tiburon is more about atmosphere than food quality IMO. Sapor is average at best in my experience (and it's nowhere near where you are staying anyway).

Trail #3: Raspberry Red Tea Soda. Ingredients: carbonated filtered water, pure cane sugar, natural flavors with extracts of Washington raspberries and red tea, citric acid. I've never drank anything called "red tea" before. White tea, green tea, black tea, red beer, red wine, but not red tea. So I confess to not being able to comment has to how much "red tea" taste there is in this product. Color of light pink. This flavor has a stronger fruit profile than either of the other two I've had. Whatever is "tea-like" in the flavor served to keep the soda from being too fruity-sweet like some raspberry-flavored sodas can get. After swallowing, I can still lick the sugar off my teeth.

My wife and I went tent camping along Minnesota’s North Shore over the weekend. We had a great campsite overlooking Lake Superior. But camping doesn’t mean roasting weenies. We pack some nice cheeses, and cook as gourmet as we can on a two-burner camp stove. We also bring wine. 1997 M. Chapoutier Hermitage “la Sizeranne.” Being out of doors, and sitting near a campfire, it’s a bit more difficult to feel confident about making any comments on a wine’s aroma. It’s a bit more difficult when the wine doesn’t offer much help. And it’s not that I think this wine is merely shut down now. I’m just not sure there’s much there there. Muted nose of some coffee, leather, and smoke (unless that’s the fire). Flavor profile features some earthy minerality, a bit of pepper, some dried berry. It seems a bit thin, but cuts through some hard cheeses adequately. Finishes weak. 1997 Barone Ricasoli Casalferro, Toscana IGT. This wine is predominantly sangiovese with some merlot. The assemblage is not the same from vintage to vintage, but sangiovese always dominates the blend. Nose shows off some graphite, black cherry, oak, spice. Bright acidity helps spread some fruit and mineral throughout the mouth. The wine is well structured with firm tannin to go along with the acidity. But I found some of the tannin to appear more wooden (and that’s not the firewood). This wine may need a couple more years to soften, at which point I hope the fruit can still stand up to the wood. 1997 Merryvale Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. 99% cabernet sauvignon, 1% cabernet franc. Marcia summed this wine up pretty well: “This wine is harder to drink than the others.” I asked her if she could explain. She said that it just was, but with some pressing thought the wine was more aggressive than the other two. What I found more aggressive in this wine was the alcohol. It overwhelmed on the nose and in the mouth. There was a rich concentration of black fruits and the oak was held in check, but the alcohol seemed to create an imbalance in the wine. It may have shown better 2-3 years ago.

After Nicollet Mall turns into Nicollet Avenue is when the restaurants start to become more moderately priced and more ethnic. After a few short blocks, you'll find a treasure at Salsa a la Salsa. further down Nicollet, you'll find many Asian places, and some more Latino places. On Nicollet Mall itself, you won't find as much ethnic or moderately priced (well, they are moderately priced for NYC, but not for Minneapolis). Vincent is French Country cuisine, Brit's is a British Pub with more authentic ale than food. Zelo is supposed to be Italian, but it's more about style than substance. And Mission isn't worth your time. And that's it for Nicollet Mall. But a few blocks over, I encourage you to check out Solera. It's upscale tapas, and if you're not careful the tab will start to run pretty high. But it's good. However, again, the more ethnic, more moderate places will be on Nicollet Avenue as it heads out of downtown.

Okay. In the interest of always seeking to learn more, I conducted a search of this forum for the word "blood." There were two pages of results, and I had one of those "foot in mouth" moments when I saw that one of the returned threads was one titled "An evening of Rhone wines" (or something like that) started by me. But the word "blood" in that thread was followed by the word oranges and was used in a tasting note for a Pierre Bise sticky. I found blood being used to describe color. I get that. I found it used as a flavor descriptor a handful of times. But then it usually referred to meat blood. I found it used as an aroma descriptor three times: Florida Jim: And two from bills: This last one even had "blood/iron." The lesson for me is not that I'm confounded by blood as a descriptor for flavor or aroma. But I will say it makes more sense for flavor than aroma -- at least to me, and we're all different. No, the lesson for me is that I will look for this blood/iron combo going forward. I don't see myself using it in a tasting note since I think other words can be more descriptive to a broader audience, but I'm on a mission to see if the next wine I have that has a roast meat, seasoned cast iron, metal minerailty, charred beef also has something different that I'd call blood.

Wow. You post something, leave town for a long weekend, return home, and find a good disucssion. I'll have to do that more often. For all those who commented on the iron taste of one's own blood, I get that. I might have prefered iron-rich blood as a descriptor, or even blood and iron as two separate descriptors. But "bloody iron" still does nothing for me -- especially since the descriptor is for an aroma and not a taste. I've used aroma descriptors of metal, iron, mineral, raw meat, roast meat, dried meat -- all of which I think people above have said were similar enough to bloody iron. But I just found this one descriptor a bit odd for an aroma. Anyway, thanks for the discussion.

A version of splitting was done when I was last at Charlie Trotter. I was able to have a half pour of the wine selected for each course. With all the wines that were served, this was the option that would result in less impairment.

Every Thursday, the Star Tribune newspaper of the Twin Cities runs its James Beard Award-winning "Taste" section. There is usually a wine column and tasting notes of a handful of wines written by an entertainment lawyer who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. I find the feature articles informative (and they'd be more so if there was more space devoted), but the tasting notes of certain wines baffles me more often than not. Today, there was a note for a Kuleto Syrah from Napa Valley. It included the phrase "aromas of bloody iron." The author is not a Brit, so I can rule out "bloody" as his personal opinion about iron. But how many people, I wonder, have smelled iron that has enough blood on it to be considered bloody iron? Or is bloody a color of the iron that has gone through some oxidation? If blood qua blood, is it human blood, steak blood, some other kind of blood? How is bloody iron different from writing "aromas of blood, iron..."? At least, the latter I can understand. And, this wine was rated with four stars, the writer's top rating. I think if I smelled blood in wine, it would be a turn off. It certainly would be if I tasted it, but there was nothing of that sort in this tasting note.

Yes, Urquell purchased Radegast a few years ago. Radegast is a lager whereas Urquell is a pilsner. I had plenty of both when I was in Czechoslovakia (as it was still called back in 1992). When a 16 ounce bottle only cost the equivalent of 25 cents, it's easy to become a fan of any beer. I tended to like Urquell on its own and Radegast with food. But as far as summer beers go for me, they're in the same category as lawnmower beers.

Waldrug---Is that some sort of "green"-less pharmacy with a counter? You did such a good job with the others...please expostulate. ← http://www.walldrug.com/ I don't even know if I can describe it... it's kind of like a Chuck E Cheese meets the old west! People dressed up in bad pioneer costumes, bad American Indian "artifacts," bad old-fashioned soda fountains with bad old-fashioned milkshakes... I could go on and on! Believe it or not, people go out of their way to go there... we were just passing by! ← OMG......... laughing, crying , wheezing............ they have JACKALOPES !!!! Gotta love it.......... ← The thing about Wall Drug is that it is a marketing success story. I can't speak of the roads that lead to Wall, South Dakota, from other directions, but from the east, you will see no less than 25 billboards letting you know how much further you have to travel to reach Wall Drug. The place is a kitsch shrine. But I did have a decent buffalo burger in Wall.

Does "tourist trap" = bad? Does popular with out of towners = "tourist trap"? Carnegie Deli in NYC -- loads of tourists. Also, plenty of locals, and I've deard locals debate about it (where some in the debate felt the corned beef was the best). Whether the locals are right or wrong is immaterial -- enough born and raised folks liked it. Frontera Grill/Topolobampo in Chicago -- Popular tourist destination, but some of the best "higher end" authentic Mexican cuisine in Chicago (along with Salpicon). Bacar in San Francisco -- Next to the Moscone convention center so a lot of conventioneers pop in. But the wine list is terrific (and well priced), and it's hard to complain about the food. La Hacienda in Scottsdale -- Located in the Scottsdale Princess. Servers wearing "ammo vests" filled with shot glasses and a holster filled with a tequila bottle. The Mexican food is authentic and among the best. Boston's North End -- On any given night, you'll find more tourists than locals in any of the district's Italian restaurants. They can't all be bad.

I picked up a couple of bottles at a "bin end" sale from a local retailer. My first experience with the 03 (South American wines night) was about a year ago. It was a gathering where people brought wines, so I wasn't "served" anything other than food. Tasting notes from that event a year ago are here. I hadn't seen the wine in any shop since (not that I was really on a mission). I had seen the Crios Malbec, but not the Torrontes (I think a rose is also produced). Regarding ageability of Torrontes wines, I think there was a small grower/producer featured in Mondovino who had some aged Torrontes. I can't recall what was said about it, if anything.

I've been working on a piece to submit to my local paper along these lines. In Minneapolis, a restaurant with a national reputation -- Goodfellow's -- recently closed. There's a thread about it in the Heartland Forum. A year or two prior, Aquavit (yes, affiliated with the NYC restaurant of the same name) also closed. Both of these places were in downtown Minneapolis, but not proximal to any other attraction. And Minnesotans aren't the type to drive in from the suburbs just to eat out someplace nice unless they are 1) making a night of it that includes going to a bar or club before or after dinner, 2) going to the theatre, 3) going to the symphony, you get the idea. The downtown Minneapolis restaurants that are doing okay are closer to other attractions/venues. Adding to Aquavit and Goodfellow's would be un deux trois, Red, and Rockstar -- all even further away from where other things happen than eating. Yes, people here will go out to just dinner for some special occasions, but they won't do so more than once a year. Goodfellow's was in a place that had several tennants come and go. Aquavit was in a place where there had not been a restaurant before. And in St. Paul, if a restaurant isn't close to the Ordway Theatre or the Xcel Energy Center (sports/concert arena), forget it.

Growing up it was a can of tuna and a can of cream of mushroom heated through and served on top of chow mein noodles. But now, the slumming-it comfort food is grilled cheese (sometimes made with tomato, bacon and/or ham).

2003 Domino del Plata “Crios de Susanna Balbo” Torrontes, Cafayete. I has this wine on one previous occasion – a gathering of Twin Cities wine geeks at a local restaurant for South American wines. That particular evening, this was the first wine I poured. It was also the best, the evening going quickly downhill. I recently picked up some of these on sale locally, making it the first South American wine I’ve purchased that wasn’t used solely as a “cooking wine.” So there’s something to be said for trying wines that one wouldn’t otherwise get an opportunity to try. The aroma of wine is heavy on the floral side with some underlying spice, stone fruits, lemon zest, and a little bit of “rain water” minerality. In the mouth it is bright and crisp, a tiny bit spicy, and features a bitter/astringent quality that could be called “peach pit,” “lemon pith,” or even “flower petal.” But it’s a component that some will find interesting and one that contributes to the complexity of the wine. Others will be turned off by it. Neither camp is “right,” but it is a component that will likely divide drinkers. I find it a bit like albarino in that regard. I've not had any other wines made from the torrontes grape, so I don't know if this is a characteristic typical of the varietal wines or not. Nice length to the finish. The wine was a very nice complement to crab cakes with mango salsa.

I had a similar "sour from the get go" experience with a glass pour of Pazo de Senorans Albarino (no vintage given) a couple of nights ago. Mine did not smooth out over time, unfortunately.

This is just sad. It may be your personal opinion (which I doubt), or it may be that you are representing an opinion that is "out there." Regardless, it's sad. It also runs counterintuitive to what you like about Daniel's comments. For example, a Margaux may no longer taste like a wine from the Margaux appellation, but still gets a point score that is a buying trigger for the person looking at it. A California Pinot Noir wine has more in common with a California Syrah wine than it does with a Burgundy, but gets a high enough score to sell the entire production. Now does the person who is looking at so-and-so's scores only really care what he or she is buying that's in the bottle? No, that person is only buying points. You might as well just soak off the label and replace it with a big fat "93." "Honey, what wines did you buy today?" "Well, I picked up a couple of 90s, a 92 and I got the last 96 in stock." I originally logged in to post the following on its own, but it seems to fit here: This whole discussion about standards is interesting. But when standards come into play, in whatever arena, there has to be some “authority” that has determined what the standard is going to be. The authority may be one person, it may be a consensus, it may be something from the sciences such as how much mercury expands to let us know what the temperature is. But even standards of measurement such as one meter, one inch, one gram, one pound, and one degree C or F were “set” by someone at some point in time. With respect to wine, one can measure ph, alcohol, residual sugar, perhaps SO2 in a flawed wine, and then all the other things that Enologix measures. Some wineries even display some of this information on their back labels. But here’s where it falls apart for me – people experience standards differently. I think 80 degrees is hot hot hot, and my wife is putting on a sweatshirt. To claim that we should each react to 80 similarly is ridiculous. Florida Jim and I can taste the same wine and maybe one of us will like it and the other won’t. But that can, in no way, mean that one of us is “right” or that one of us has a more “standardized” palate than the other. And no one should expect that the one of us who doesn’t like the wine in question should like it or vice versa. And do I need to even get into how the perception of the wine is going to change depending on what I am eating, if I have a cold, what other aromas are in the area, who I am with, etc? Oh, and what about bottle, fuder, vat, barrel, and provenance variation? Variation that doesn’t necessarily result in a flawed wine. So can there be actual hard and fast scientific standards with respect to wine quality? I’m not so sure. I am entirely of the opinion, however, that perceived or de-facto standards exist and exist in a big way. The perceived standard of a certain number of points, stars, puffs, etc, being just one. There is aldo the perceived standard of color of the wine (deeper is better). The perceived standard of price (costlier is better). The perceived standard of grape variety (cabernet sauvignon is better than pinotage). The perceived standard of region (Napa is better than Sonoma). The perceived standard of producer (Chateau Margaux is better than Chateau Brane Cantenac). These perceived standards play out in the marketplace all the time. And not just with wine. Go clothes shopping with my daughter who will only buy Nike. Go car shopping with my stepfather who won’t buy anything but a Ford. Go to the video store with my wife who won’t rent a DVD unless it received “two thumbs up.” Actually, “two thumbs up” doesn’t cut it anymore. That’s like an 88 in winescorespeak. She now needs “two thumbs way up” or “two enthusiastic thumbs up.” Scores and other forms of “standardized” measurement are starting places for conversations about the wines. They have practically become a part of the “language” of wine – someone may not know what a person means by sexy with respect to wine, but they certainly understand “88” or at least it holds more meaning for them. I went to a local retailer for the first time last week. The shop was having an end of bin sale and the sale inventory was changing daily. I took a look at the online inventory, and shot off an e-mail asking if two of the wines were still available. I received a return reply that they were, and that some would be set aside for me. I showed up, and the owner (it’s a one-person shop) was busy with a customer and someone else was there before me. For every wine he suggested, his description included the Parker or WS score is if the score number was on par with terms such as fruity, bold, elegant, etc. By the time the owner got to me, I mentioned that I had e-mailed ahead and gave the names of the wines I was having held for me. Keep in mind, the “sale” was technically already made. I was going to buy the wines if their condition looked okay, and there was not reason to suspect it wouldn’t. He started going into descriptions about the wines, including scores. For this person scores are simply part of the wine lexicon. To that point, I don’t believe they are any more objective of standardized than fruity, bold, elegant, acidic, oaky, tannic, etc. Scores as standards only exist because there is a market demand for them. They are almost a sub-brand. Before scores, consumers reacted similarly to price, producer name, appellation (which at one point was THE standard of quality according to the government – if one relied on them), or public opinion. For Enologix, we can probably assume that if a critic rated a wine from Producer A a certain number of points, a wine from Producer B with a similar chemical (or whatever) profile – using Enologix’s research – to the wine from Producer A will probably be rated similarly by that same critic. I doubt Enologix guarantees that, however. They merely provide the deconstruction, and let the producer do what he or she will with the information. But we aren't far from the day where the retail shop, the wine list, whatever, will no longer be organized by region, grape variety, or even price. The day will come when we'll see the 80-85 point aisle, the 85-87 point aisle, the 88-89 point aisle, you get the idea.