FOODSTUFF >>

• BEST APPLE ORCHARD
  Fall. Minnesota. Apples. Any questions? Well, yes: Like, are there any among the 40-some apple orchards listed in the Minnesota Grown directory (visit www.mda.state.mn.us, or call (651) 297-8695) whose trees aren't drenched in toxic sprays four or five times during the growing seasons? Answer:... More >>
• BEST ASIAN GROCERY
  This Asian market is reminiscent of a small-town grocery store: No one pays much attention to what's in the cluttered front window, because it's the inside that matters. Truong Thanh's long aisles hold oodles of noodles, fish sauces, and containers of dried, preserved plums, prunes, mangos, and... More >>
• BEST BAGELS
  Unlikely as it may seem, the local bagel picture is getting bleaker. Not content with having added corrupting influences like jalapeño, blueberry, and chocolate, now those crazed bakers seem to be trying to fuse muffins and bagels in unholy demon-child flavors--lemon-poppyseed,... More >>
• BEST BAKERY
  Per its name, Turtle Bread Company started five years ago fashioning excellent European-style bread--earthy sourdoughs, springy baguettes. Then they moved into specialty loaves: an essence-of-spinach bread, moist Irish soda bread sweet with buttermilk and oats, sour and crunchy focaccias.... More >>
• BEST BARBECUE
  On a good day, and those days are frequent, the salty pork and beef all but slide off the bone. On those rare off days when the meat is a tad overdone, that subtle, smoky flavor and thin, tangy jus make up the difference. While fad restaurants all over town hang banners heralding awards won at... More >>
• BEST BREAD
  This is now a bread town that could kick any other bread town's keisters: First we got Alice Factor's crusty sticklike baguettes. Then came the tasty sandwich loaves from the ovens of Great Harvest, the night-black pumpernickel at Blackey's, the fragrant coffee breads at Taste of Scandinavia,... More >>
• BEST BURGERS
  What better place to find a 1950s throwback than Edina? Opened 35 years ago and now owned by John Rimarcik of Annie's Parlor and Monte Carlo fame, this soda joint for grease lovers has everything but the Fonz. High-backed vinyl booths, faded tile floors, scratched Formica tables, young lovers... More >>
• BEST BURRITOS/WRAPS
  Competition finally churned up this category after years of stagnation, thanks to newcomers Chipotle Grill (an outpost of an upscale Denver chain) and Central Avenue's El Rancho Grande (which indisputably makes the Cities' biggest burritos). We still have to give it to the café in El... More >>
• BEST BUTCHER
  In seventeenth-century France, meat wasn't considered ready to eat until it, well, stunk. You couldn't get that past the health inspectors these days, but Louis XIV was onto something: The secret to really great beef is aging. Which is why sides of cow hang on their hooks in Widmer's cavernous... More >>
• BEST CAESAR SALAD
  Those fond of the bastardized versions of the classic served in most local restaurants needn't raise their forks here. This is exactly what a caesar is supposed to be: icily crisp leaves of romaine drizzled lightly with a garlicky dressing, daintily topped with Parmesan and homemade croutons... More >>
• BEST CALAMARI
  If your taste runs to little rings of squid battered and deep-fried beyond recognition, you're at the wrong address. But if you love the sweet, tender flesh lightly kissed with batter and sautéed in garlic and butter, you have found nirvana. One bite of Rainbow's calamari, and you'll... More >>
• BEST CHEAP EATS
  If you can't eat yourself into a stupor here for chump change, you need to move on down to Texas to be near those heart-stopper steak houses that serve up 56-ounce cuts of beef free to anyone who can actually finish them. Take a couple of friends and start with an order of mandu ($1.99)--a... More >>
• BEST CHEESE SELECTION
  All praise the lactating animals, who through their maternal generosity provide milk for their own young and also for us, the perpetually young. All praise the artisanal cheesemakers, who through careful adherence to their craft keep the world at least partially safe from Velveeta. And all... More >>
• BEST CHICKEN WINGS
  The chicken wing may be simultaneously the most common and the most maligned member of the bar-food pantheon. Everyone has them on the menu, no one seems to give them much thought, and after a few beers, you don't care too much what they taste like. Not so at Eli's: Here the scrawny little wing... More >>
• BEST CHOCOLATE
  Minneapolis's own precious private treats, Brian McElrath's chocolates are the perfect little vacations on cloudy afternoons: Zinfandel-balsamic-vinegar truffles conjure up a nighttime picnic by a dark river; jasmine tea palets invoke flowery gardens in early spring; the cardamom flavors in the... More >>
• BEST CO-OP
  Ah, the co-op wars. Is the cash register a tool of imperialism? Is selling sugar about the same as, or worse than, peddling heroin? Questions that had the city in an uproar a mere 25 years ago seem pretty quaint now that the biggest quandary for many co-ops seems to be whether to plow their... More >>
• BEST CROISSANTS
  You probably could do this at home. Roll out a frozen pat of butter, nice and thin; lay it on a sheet of dough, also flattened; fold and roll and chill and fold and roll...repeat seven times, and with some luck and a few years of practice, why, you might have yourself an angelically light,... More >>
• BEST DELICATESSEN
  Downtown Minneapolis corned-beef lovers are still weeping over the closing of the Cecil's in City Center. Fortunately the family business survives on St. Paul's vital, though diffuse, restaurant row--and for those afraid to leave their cube, they still deliver to downtown Minneapolis... More >>
• BEST DOUGHNUTS
  The State Fair fires up its vats of oil but once a year, so allow Mel-O-Glaze to fill the gap. The recipe is basic--no cardamom or other secret ingredient--but a doughnut is not a recipe thing, it's a time thing. Researchers have produced algorithms showing that its quality declines... More >>
• BEST FISH MARKET
  You might as well chuck that pack of by-product weenies right over the back fence where it belongs--into the neighbor's pit-bull bowl. Thanks to Coastal's recent team-up with Icelandair, backyard grills around the Cities can look forward to a summer of luscious, affordable arctic char, in... More >>
• BEST FOOD REINCARNATION
  Open since 1984 as the little brother of the venerable Black Forest, Strudel is perhaps the best local illustration of that Great Law of traditional cuisines, "Nothing Shall Go to Waste." The deli makes inspired use of the Forest's most adaptable staples: Here are the famous breads, both as... More >>
• BEST FRENCH TOAST
  It might be more fair to describe this brunch item as bread pudding made from a single, gargantuan slice off a buttery loaf (brioche, perhaps?), which the kitchen staff must soak in custard--no trace of egg whites or skim milk, just yolks and cream and vanilla and a little orange zest to keep... More >>
• BEST FRESH PRODUCE
  In freshness and selection, the Wedge's produce section holds its own vis-à-vis any grocery in town, but it's the staff that wins the top honors. Go ahead, try them--ask about any fruit or vegetable. A Wedge worker will have a ready answer and a paring knife to cut you a sample. You'll... More >>
• BEST FRIED CHICKEN
  The best way to explain Sallie's expertise at preparing this most homely and humble of foods is to describe what their fried chicken isn't. The coating is crisp without being greasy; they don't take a dousing of salt or an indiscriminate cayenne blast as a substitute for a complex layering of... More >>
• BEST FRIES
  Chicago-style hot dogs (and damn good ones) are the headliners at this West Bank institution, but for the past 18 years owner Jerry Petermeier has put just as much care into his hand-cut French fries. He starts with an 80-count (a.k.a. medium-to-large) Idaho that has been carefully aged to... More >>
• BEST GOURMET GROCERY
  Tucked just a couple of escalators beneath downtown Minneapolis's skyways, this gourmet-food nook may have started as an afterthought to the department-store empire upstairs, but it's got some great prepared foods and, in our opinion, the best all-around local selection of sauces, oils, spice... More >>
• BEST HOMEMADE PASTA
  Tom and Molly Broder take their pasta seriously. In 1980 they traveled to Bologna to study pasta-making with Italian-food deity Marcella Hazan. In the two decades since, they've built up a fanatically loyal following of cooks who appreciate fresh pasta, but lack the time or the counter space to... More >>
• BEST HOT DOGS
  So you've sworn off your favorite illicit substance; you can't get a date with you-know-whom; and that boat you were going to sail across the Atlantic is at least one lottery win away. But there's one craving you can still satisfy with less than $2.50 in your pocket: Get in line at Joey D's... More >>
• BEST ICE CREAM PARLOR
  The unifying thread lacing together a stunning variety of Twin Cities restaurants is their reliance on Sebastian Joe's ice cream for dessert. So here is a tribute to the unsung Seb-Joe chefs, concoctors of such flavors as Danza di Limone (ethereal lemon ice cream with almond slivers), Spumoni... More >>
• BEST INDIAN GROCERY
  Looking at the way this place has dominated its category for so many years running, you might be fooled into thinking that the Indian food-import business is static. Not so. Plenty of other Indian groceries have arrived on the scene in the past few years. Some have closed, some have thrived,... More >>
• BEST ITALIAN GROCERY
  Snare a parking spot in the back, circle around to the front counter, and place your sandwich order. (Prosciutto and provolone on a semolina loaf? Chicken, Jarlsberg Swiss and aioli?) Then jog back to the deli case for a couple of pounds of imported cheese. (Fontina Val d'Aosta? Caciocavallo... More >>
• BEST JUICE BAR
  Sure, every big-time food co-op is hawking strawberry smoothies, chocolate Oatscream, and bee-pollen-laced Ewegurt these days. And little juice bars-cum-cafés, from the corporate to the whimsical, are springing up like wheatgrass. But the juice counter that combines inventive, diverse... More >>
• BEST LATINO GROCERY
  A fiesta for the eyes and the palate. Stroll through aisles packed with traditional and exotic Latin foods--bricks of guava, black beans, peppers of all shapes and colors, stalks of sugar cane--and it's easy to forget that you're in St. Paul rather than Guadalajara. Tomas and Maria Silva have... More >>
• BEST LOCAL BEER
  Summit founder, president, and head brewer Mark Stutrud may descend from Norwegians, but his ales usually owe something to the Germans (Hefe Weizen, Heimertingen Maibock, or his fall seasonal Alt Bier) or the British (Great Northern Porter, India Pale Ale or Winter Ale). Stutrud does not take... More >>
• BEST MEXICAN BAKERY
  There's a hole-in-the-wall bakery on a winding back street just off the beach and across from the posole stand in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where the owner rises before dawn every morning to mix and knead and set to rise rows of the palm-size split loaves known as bolillos. By 8:00 a.m., the street... More >>
• BEST MIDDLE EASTERN GROCERY
  From the two full aisles of olive oils to the four or more varieties of feta in the cooler (try the Egyptian double cream!), Bill's has an astonishing array of inexpensive, easy-to-use ingredients. There are sweet-pepper-based spreads, frozen artichoke hearts, vinegars of every imaginable... More >>
• BEST PANCAKES
  There are three large, elderly men who plant themselves in one of Rick's handful of booths once a weekend and gab. The ringleader looks every bit the Marlboro man: biker's vest, white T-shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and a leather hat embossed with Grateful Dead bears. One recent weekend this... More >>
• BEST PIZZA
  Not to get Aristotelian on all y'all, but What Is Pizza? Is it the dough, the sauce, the cheese, the toppings? Or is it the spicy freedom that pizza represents and allows, the get-up-and-go meal that's car- and TV-friendly, the democratic crust that supports both the lowliest hamburger and the... More >>
• BEST PIZZA WITHOUT SUN-DRIED TOMATOES
  It's the sauce. (Isn't it always?) John Newman's grandmother, Antoinette Carbone, taught it to her kids, Frank, Mario, and Dolores, and they made it the mainstay of the restaurant when Carbone's opened in 1962. Not much about the pizza has changed since then: The crust is still impossibly thin.... More >>
• BEST PREPARED FOODS
  In addition to selling everything you'd need to crank up the kitchen yourself, the folks at Mississippi Market have a delicious deli counter packed with ready-to-eat organic goodies for those days when tearing up lettuce leaves seems like way too much hassle. Selections vary daily and with the... More >>
• BEST SALSA
  One taste and you'll know why the Senkyr family jealously guards its salsa recipe. The hot version sings on the tongue, tickling the taste buds with the sweetness of onion and the sharp bite of garlic, swirled together in a slightly smoky tomato base. The mild version, a recent addition, is so... More >>
• BEST SPICE SHOP
  Oh, what that double-strength vanilla does to a banana-cream pie! Fresh nutmeg for creamed spinach! Fresh cumin for chili! Green cardamom pods for curries! Really, cooking with the spices sold in supermarkets is like taking the Flintstones' foot car out on the autobahn and being surprised at... More >>
• BEST STATE FAIR FOOD
  Every August, the Lord proves His divinity unto His multitudes. He takes swords and beats them into plowshares, and He stacks these on a hill. And His people come to this Machinery Hill to be closer to the Kingdom. He gives them cows broad of back, and pigs fat and fertile. He brings all the... More >>
• BEST SUSHI
  How the world turns. In its first incarnation on the riverfront (1959-1988), Fuji-Ya introduced many Twin Citians to sushi. When the granddaughter of the original chef reopened the venerable restaurant on Lyndale last year, you could no longer count decent local sushi joints on a single hand.... More >>
• BEST WINE AND LIQUOR STORE
  People plan their lives, or at least their parties, around the Surdyk's sales: The fall liquor sale grounds many a Christmas party, the wine sale is the foundation of many a wedding (and many a cellar), and the museum-quality collection of microbrews is enough to provide a different selection... More >>
• BEST-KEPT BREAKFAST SECRET
  It's a mystery why the dozen or so tables at this Phillips joint (located on the blink-and-you-miss-it corner of 25th and Chicago by Children's Hospital) aren't constantly full. Cathy's boasts all the usual potato-and-egg options, plus gourmet coffee and a handful of original breakfast... More >>