Each Friday, this list will track five of the best things Heavy Table’s writers, editors, and photographers have recently bitten or sipped. Have a suggestion for the Hot Five? Email editor@heavytable.com.
The Hot Five is a weekly feature created by the Heavy Table and supported by Shepherd Song Farm.
Haw-Mok at On’s Kitchen
We thought the Haw-Mok (Thai minced fish served custard style, blended with a super-rich coconut milk curry) at Cheng Heng couldn’t be topped, but we liked the version at On’s Kitchen in St. Paul as much, or even a bit more. It’s a smaller, appetizer-sized portion (perfect for sharing this ultra-funky, extremely rich dish), and it’s got a smooth, creamy texture that suits the dish. We’ll be back for this (and the Pad-See-Ew, frankly …).
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted from an Instagram post by James Norton in advance of an upcoming Green Line Checklist]
Smoked Whitefish Bruschetta from Grand Café
Grand Café has been a Kingfield stalwart since way back when the nearby foodie hub of 38th and Nicollet was known only as a destination for chicken wings. Their bruschetta ($9) is topped with a thick spread of creamy, smoky whitefish salad, thin strips of asparagus, and pickled onion. It’s Little Italy by way of the Lower East Side by way of Lake Superior by way of South Minneapolis.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted by Ted Held]
Heliotropic Wooden Soul Saison Brett by Indeed Brewing
This week we taped this season’s last edition of our podcast, The Weekend Starts Now, at Indeed Brewing’s barrel room. We feasted on Annie B’s caramels; we were serenaded by Ashley Gold of Holidae (above); and we tasted our way through four of the beers in the sour, funky, wild, and barrel-aged series called Wooden Soul. My favorite: Wooden Soul #1, aka Heliotropic, coming to bottles soon. A blend of three yeast strains, this dry, bubbly, grapy, slightly funky beer could easily pass for a sparkling wine. Some things do, in fact, get better with age.
[Last Week on the Hot Five: #1 | Submitted from an Instagram post by James Norton]
Sweet Child of Vine by Fulton Beer at Chef Camp
This week we got up to Camp Miller to re-explore and start working on a dry run for this September’s Chef Camp retreat. (Five tickets remain; act quickly if you’re intrigued.) Our beer sponsor, Fulton, came with us, and we feasted on lamb and pesto sandwiches on Spoon and Stable bread, fire-roasted asparagus, and — of course — Fulton Beer. Sweet Child of Vine is one of the beers that made the company’s name, and it’s a gorgeous thing to drink in the woods on a summer day. It’s a multidimensional IPA with a lot to say, its flavor built upon a dramatic and ultimately satisfying tension between malt and hops.
[Last Week on the Hot Five: #4 | Submitted from an Instagram post by James Norton]
Dinner with The Curry Diva
We generally try to break down the Hot Five to individual dishes, but we liked so much about our recent Curry Diva meal (served at Our Kitchen in Uptown) that we’ll just have to take a shotgun approach. The pickled eggplant was a particular standout, but everything worked — the beef and lamb stew, the ginger chicken, the kale salad, the deeply spiced potatoes all had a homey yet sophisticated and thoroughly full-flavored appeal.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted from an Instagram post by James Norton in advance of a story by Tricia Cornell]