Did yesterday’s traffic and icy roads send you into a fender bender? @JavaTrain wants to make you feel better with a free beverage, @LocalDlish reschedules their new gluten-free bread delivery,@MSPmagEats recommends Lindey’s Prime for steak and hashbrowns, @CameoApples does the math on their apple yield per acre, and butter gains a new feline audience — the NY Post suggests feeding cats a pat of @Organic_Valley butter to prevent hairballs.
by Susan Pagani on February 9, 2010
Susan Pagani / Heavy Table
Many shops are designed to make you want to spend your money, but it is a rare and delicious few that inspire a truly covetous feeling — the kind that extends beyond the goods for sale to the very displays that hold them.
On a recent Saturday morning, we visited Jodi Wheeler’s new candy shop, Sugar Sugar Candy, in Kingfield. There we discovered not only a thrilling selection of sweets, but also an uncommonly well-appointed space, tiny but aesthetically calculated to delight the eye wherever it should land.
Overhead, ambient sunlight illuminates the crinkled pastel layers of a hundred or so cupcake liners ingeniously strung together and hung in loops from a Japanese parasol. Beneath it, a bell jar inhabited by one exquisite business card… Yes, I’ll take six mint malt balls and that wooden Indian head with the lollipop headdress please!
Shop owner Joni Wheeler says Sugar Sugar is the near-perfect expression of all her interests. Having worked at Paper Source for 11 years, she has a strong affinity for paper and packaging. In her personal life, she has collected vintage candy boxes and displays for years and is an avid Francophile who has made a study of French history and acquired a stack of French memoirs from 1640 to post-Napoleon. “I’m interested in candy, I love candy, but I think one of the things I love most about it is its look,” she says. “The French aesthetic is genius, but I lived in Japan for a year, so I love that harder, pop edge too. When I first began to describe this place to myself, it was going to be French Regency meets pop Japanese. Somehow, it all came together. It isn’t as edgy as I originally intended, but I’m not quite as edgy either!”
Susan Pagani / Heavy Table
A true collector and a generous storyteller, Wheeler earnestly recites the provenance of every curiosity in the shop: That old candy jar was a Christmas gift from a good friend, the proprietress of Duetta — “She has such an eye!” — and came filled with lemon-colored vintage ribbons; this Indian head has been in her husband’s family since the 1930s and he was using it as a doorstop when they first met, 28 years ago.
“My husband accused me of opening the store just to house my collection, which was outgrowing our little bungalow,” Wheeler says. “He works for Cheapo, so he has thousands of records and CDs, and we vie for space. He’s winning, so I did have to find someplace!”
Continue reading A Morning With Jodi Wheeler of Sugar Sugar Candy »
Kate NG Sommers / Heavy Table
Editor’s note: Readers may find certain descriptions and photos included in this story to be unsettling.
The choice used to be simple: Either you ate meat or you were one of those new-age granola types who had nothing better to do with their time than wail about the poor animals who died to support such a degenerate habit. But every new blow to the conventional meat industry inspires a new option – a new way of turning your back on the modern mass-production of meat.
Those who fear the now-routine E. coli outbreaks in hamburger choose not to eat ground beef, or choose to grind it themselves. Those appalled by the treatment of confined animals choose to eat meat only from those that range freely. Those skeptical about the health of animals fed hormones and antibiotics choose to eat only organic. And whether you participate in any of these alternatives or not, there’s not much to be said against them. Nothing wrong, after all, with knowing your farmer, or grinding your own burger.
In fact, the very attractiveness of the “better meat” movement, if we can group all of these options under that title, creates its biggest PR problem. The main criticism of the shift toward purer, less processed, more humanely raised meat is that not everyone can enjoy it. Better meat, the argument goes, is inaccessible to the large majority of the population, who simply can’t afford to indulge in $15 pastured chickens or $5 pounds of custom-ground beef.
Kate NG Sommers / Heavy Table
It’s a well-meant criticism, and true in many ways, but it does ignore one small piece of the puzzle. Even those of modest means can hop off the industrial bandwagon and get fresh, minimally processed meat on the cheap. The cash-strapped consumer can verify personally that the animal she’s getting the meat from is healthy and that its slaughter, cleaning, and preparation meet her requirements. The catch? She has to kill it herself. That’s the way it goes in the self-slaughter business, on display in living color at Jeffries Chicken Farm in Inver Grove Heights.
Continue reading Jeffries Chicken Farm »
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Each Friday, the Heavy Table presents a new installment of Knife Skills, a culinary novel presented piece by piece as it’s written. If you’re uncomfortable with salty language, please be aware that characters regularly use words and phrases unacceptable in polite conversation. In the author’s imagination, some members of the food service industry have a tendency to swear. For previous and subsequent installments, visit the Heavy Table’s Fiction directory.
On the plane ride to Minneapolis, Robertson was too tired to sleep. He popped open his backpack to see what kind of reading material he’d thought to bring. There was a copy of the Art of Eating; the cover story was “The Fair of the Fattened Ox in Carru.” Too heavy for 8:15 in the morning after no sleep. He had a copy of James Clavell’s Shogun; Toranaga was just starting to turn things around, to delay his enemies and split them off from one another. He gave it a shot, but it was a cheap paperback with small print, and he couldn’t focus. He tried to drink his airplane-issue coffee and failed.
Continue reading Knife Skills, A Serial Novel – Part 36 »
Jill Lewis / Heavy Table
Hungry or not, frequent travelers on U.S. Highway 8 through Minnesota’s Chisago County can’t help but notice the sign beckoning to them as they drive through Lindstrom. Scandinavian Donut. Regardless if it’s time for breakfast or mid-afternoon, sugar-glaze fiends may find it hard to tune out the call of sweet, flaky donuts. So if they pull over and saunter into Lindstrom Bakery, will they find a donut nirvana waiting for them?
Jill Lewis / Heavy Table
Sadly, no. A recent visit to Lindstrom Bakery, a mere 15 minutes after the advertised promise of “fresh and hot” rolls by 7:30 am Monday through Saturday, was beyond disappointing. The dry, seemingly day-old donuts (60¢ each) were no magical treat designed to put a sugary smile to your face and a good start to your day. Of the four varieties (plain, cinnamon and sugar, glazed, and chocolate drizzles), only the glazed and the chocolate drizzle donuts offered any comfort, with their respective toppings adding much-needed moisture.
When asked what makes the donuts Scandinavian, the woman at the counter replied, “I don’t know, dear, but they say the Scandinavian is better. It’s supposed to be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.” Crunchy — nope. Soft — nope. Picture a warm, light, and fluffy Krispy Kreme donut, and then imagine its polar opposite. That’s the Scandinavian donut.
So the next time you cruise through Lindstrom, don’t let that sign tempt you. Sugary bliss does not wait for you inside. It’s a cruel lesson to learn on a cold winter’s day.
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Aaron Landry / Heavy Table
On Feb. 17, the Heavy Table will have been bringing you daily stories about Upper Midwestern food and drink for a full year. It’s been a great run thus far, and we’re looking forward to keeping it rolling.
We would love to celebrate with you at The Craftsman with hors d’œuvre by Chef Mike Phillips, beverages from Crispin Cider, and special treats from Sweets Bakeshop.
The event is free if you sign up for our newsletter and / or become a fan on Facebook. We would love to see you.
The Heavy Table Birthday Party at the Craftsman
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
5-7pm
4300 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Facebook Event Page
Please visit our sponsors for this event: Sweets Bakeshop, The Craftsman Restaurant, Yelp, Crispin Cider, Taste Trend, 3rd Party Feedback, The Well-Fed Guide To Life, and vita.mn.
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