I didn’t have a Twin Cities restaurant report last week and I don’t have one this week (and there probably won’t be one next week either). I’ve not given up on eating in the Twin Cities. It’s just that we were out of town two weekends ago and with my mother-in-law visiting did not go out to eat this past weekend, and probably won’t this coming weekend either. I do have a Twin Cities restaurant report, however. It’s a post I’ve had on deck for a while, in place of the quarterly “Top Five Twin Cities Dishes” posts I do every three months in years when I’m not out of the country as much as I have been this year. This is a list of my favourite Twin Cities restaurant dishes. There are, of course, far too many to list in a coherent way. And so to make the list manageable, I have constrained it in the following ways: 1) to qualify a dish must be on the restaurant’s menu more or less permanently; and 2) no more than one dish per restaurant. The former takes restaurants with ever-changing menus off the table; the latter means I won’t list 30 dishes from Grand Szechuan. One more thing: I’m not listing categories of dishes in which the distinctions between the better versions available at different restaurants are too fine to be meaningful. For example, there’s no “Favourite Pho” here.

Okay, let’s get to it. And if you are not a fan of some of my selections or have some completely different picks of your own, please let me hear it in the comments.

Favourite Bread Service

Hearth breads with Hope butter and fleur de sel: Restaurant Alma, Minneapolis

Most of Alma’s menu turns over every six to eight weeks but a couple of things remain constant: the marinated olives and spiced almonds that are set down on the table at the start of every meal and the bread and butter. No disrespect to the excellent olives and almonds but I’m going with the bread here. Not just for the bread itself but also for the excellent, very spreadable butter.

Favourite Salad

Pickled Tea Leaf Salad: Friends Cafe, St. Paul

So many great Southeast Asian salads in St. Paul: so many excellent papaya salads at Hmong Village and Hmongtown Marketplace; so many excellent larbs and nam khaos on University Ave. in St. Paul. But this year it was the tea leaf salad off the small Burmese section of the menu at Friends Cafe that rose to the top for me.

Favourite Tartare

Kitfo: Bolé, St. Paul

There is much that is excellent on Bolé’s menu—and we really need to go back soon—but their kitfo is better, in my opinion, than not just those at the other Ethiopian stalwarts of the Twin Cities (RIP Fasika and Ghebre’s) but also those in the fine dining set.

Favourite Congee

Chao Long: Pho Tempo, Burnsville

You might normally think the best congee would be likely to be found in a Cantonese restaurant. But even if I didn’t have a low opinion of the Twin Cities’ dim sum houses, it would be hard to top the great, offal-rich congee at the Burnsville gem, Pho Tempo—the Vietnamese restaurant connected to Saigon Market. I am tempted to go get a bowl every weekend.

Favourite Soup, Non-Noodle Division

Beef Sour Soup: Kolap, St. Paul

Kolap is the Twin Cities’ lesser-known Cambodian restaurant (in the considerable shadow of Cheng Heng), and their Siem Reap Sour Fish Soup is probably their signature dish. That one is very good too but if I had to pick one I’d go with this sour beef soup.

Favourite Soup, Noodle Division

Khao Soi: Bangkok Thai Deli, St. Paul

The boat noodles at Karen Thai and the renditions of khao soi at On’s Kitchen and Krungthep Thai are also contenders but I’m going to go here with Bangkok Thai Deli’s khao soi. Just an excellent one-pot meal.

Favourite Pozole

Pozole: El Itacate, Maplewood

Is this cheating? Is pozole another soup without noodles? I’m going to rule that it’s a stew (and that the difference matters) and I am going to give a shout-out to the excellent version at El Itacate, a newer Mexican restaurant in Maplewood. As I said in my review, it’s the best I’ve had in the Twin Cities.

Favourite Dosa

Benne Dosa: Dosa, Bloomington

The proliferation of South Indian restaurants in the first-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities means the dosa scene in the area has improved dramatically. We’ve eaten good dosas in the last couple of years at a few places. The one I most want to go back and eat, however, is the benne dosa at Dosa, which opened last year in Bloomington. The dosa is smeared with a spicy chutney and stuffed with a potato masala and is very good.

Favourite Flatbread

Roti Canai: Peninsula, Minneapolis

There are a lot of South Indian restaurants in the Twin Cities metro now that turn out very good South indian parottas but my favourite remains the flaky roti/prata at Peninsula. Their other Singaporean/Malay dishes are a bit hit and miss but the roti is always good (and the mild chicken curry that you dip it in is no slouch either).

Favourite Banh Mi

Banh Mi Thit: iPho by Saigon, St. Paul

Even though the dish in their name is pho, their banh mi might be their secret weapon. Whichever one you get—I like the “regular sandwich” with roast pork, pork loaf, paté and mayo—get it with extra paté.

Favourite Pasta

Stringozzi with Lamb Ragu: 112 Eatery, Minneapolis

A number of the pastas we’ve eaten at Tenant over the years could be in this spot but they turn over every six weeks. And so this spot goes to one of the many mainstays on 112 Eatery’s menu. This stringozzi is testament to the comfort of knowing that a dish you loved 10 years ago will still be there on the menu 10 years later.

Favourite Eggplant Dish

Stir-Fried Chinese Eggplant: Krungthep Thai, St. Paul

Yes, it features shrimp and ground pork as well, but it is the perfectly cooked eggplant that is the star of this dish at Krungthep Thai, and their version has always been superior in my view to that at Bangkok Thai Deli or On’s Kitchen. It also beats out excellent eggplant dishes at Godavari and House of Curry.

Favourite Non-Whole Fish Dish

Konaseema Fish Vepudu: Godavari, Eden Prairie

Richly seasoned, battered and fried to a crisp, these spicy cubes of fish at the Twin Cities best Indian restaurant would be at their best with chilled beer but are quite excellent even without.

Favourite Whole Fish Dish

Whole Grilled Walleye: Tea House, Minneapolis

There are a number of whole fish dishes that are contenders here: the walleye in hot chilli sauce at Grand Szechuan, any number of whole fish dishes at On’s Kitchen or Bangkok Thai Deli, the mango fish at Khaluna. But I’m giving the crown to the delectable whole walleye at Tea House in Minneapolis. The fish is perfectly cooked and the rich, tangy, spicy sauce it’s sitting on and under is just as good.

Favourite Shrimp Dish

Pad Sathor: On’s Kitchen, St. Paul

Okay, so this may be cheating. The real star of this dish is the eponymous sathor or stink beans. But this is also a shrimp dish and it is outstanding, especially when gotten at a pretty hot setting.

Favourite Squid Dish

Spicy Squid Roll/Triple-Flavour Squid: Grand Szechuan, Bloomington

Whether you order it by the menu official name or the OG name from before it was on the printed menu, you will receive one of the absolute best dishes on offer in any restaurant in the Twin Cities, regardless of genre or price point.

Favourite Chicken Dish

Doro Wot: Demera, St. Paul

Even before the sad demise of Fasika, this was my favourite doro wot (and I need to go back and eat it again soon). It arrives looking like a mahogany sludge in a narrow serving dish. Floating on the sludge is a boiled egg and submerged in it are a couple of  drumsticks with the meat falling off the bone. But it’s the sauce that’s the star. Tear off some injera and get stuck in.

Favourite Pork Dish

Costillitas de Puerco en Adobo: Homi, St. Paul

So many contenders (at Grand Szechuan alone) but it’s hard to look past these pork ribs in adobo (ask for it to be made spicy) at Homi. You can go very wrong with their Costillitas de Puerco en Salsa Verde either.

Favourite Steak

Crazy Steak: Santi’s, St. Paul

Okay, so it’s not bespoke beef and it’s a humble cut: skirt steak. And there are many barriers to eating it. First you have to find parking in the chaotic Hmong Village parking lot. Then you have to hope Santi’s is open. Then you have to pray the line isn’t too long and they haven’t run out by the time you get to them. But if the stars line up and if you dip the sliced juicy beef in the wasabi slurry and the hot pepper sauce, you will be very happy.

Favourite Dish Featuring Offal 

Tripa: Andale Taqueria, Richfield

You can get the tripa as a meat option on a number of Andale’s offerings. But it’s best to not go for too much of an outstanding thing and just get it on a taco.

Favourite Dessert

Passionfruit Cremeux: Khaluna, Minneapolis

If the specific fruit custard that usually closes out a meal at Tenant didn’t rotate every six-eight weeks along with everything else on Tenant’s menu it would be a contender here. But even then I think I would have to go with the passionfruit cremeux at Khaluna. There’s much else that I enjoy on their menu but this is the best of endings.

Okay, that’s a long enough list. Click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow with pictures. Scroll down to see what’s coming next on the food front.

Kolap is actually enough blocks north of University for its inclusion here to be cheating but I do not care. This beef sour soup is awesome.

Roti Canai. A soft and flaky paratha and chicken curry with potato just like your mother makes if she’s Bengali and a decent cook.

One of my favourite dishes in the cities but you should know that sathor beans are an acquired taste: they’re called stink beans for a reason.

Also devilishly hot but very, very good

Again, I invite your feedback on this list. Before you start yelling at me though I will remind you that it is a list of “favourite” dishes; I am not claiming any sort of objective “best” status for any of these. If you like versions of these dishes made elsewhere, it will not hurt my feelings if you say so. And if there are other categories of dishes that you love outstanding versions of in the area, please do say so as well.

Okay, next on the food front will be another report from Dublin. Perhaps a fine dining report. That’ll be on Thursday.