Heavy Table Hot Five: March 17-23

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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.

shepherd-song-banner-ad-horiz-3The Hot Five is a weekly feature created by the Heavy Table and supported by Shepherd Song Farm.

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Amy Rea / Heavy Table
Amy Rea / Heavy Table

1-new - onePaczki at Sarah Jane’s Bakery
It’s paczki season again, and we have just a few more weeks until Sarah Jane’s in Northeast Minneapolis stops producing these for the year. These compact little pastries come filled with your choice of raspberry or peach filling — both good — or, as shown here, with a dreamy custard. Perfect treat to get through the dregs of winter.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted by Amy Rea]

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

2-new - twoSea Snails with a Nettle Emulsion at Tullibee
Snails, like mussels, are really just a show-offy excuse to eat more butter. Add nettles, and you can almost pretend you’ve ordered a salad. One bite and you know better: This is a creamy pool of risotto that’s more butter than rice, with a generous layer of electric green nettle puree (more butter) and tiny, briny forkfuls of snail throughout. Tullibee’s menu changes daily, inspired by what the butcher likes the look of. If you see the snails, you know what to do.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted by Tricia Cornell]

James Norton / Heavy Table
James Norton / Heavy Table

3-new - threeRicotta with Maple at Station Pizzeria
A fresh ricotta dish is arguably high-concept for a pizzeria, but the version at Station Pizzeria in Minnetonka works. It’s all due to the quality of the ingredients: a light, mellow ricotta, a hint of maple syrup sweetness, and a mild white balsamic, all in balance, served wit perfectly toasted and exquisitely thin pieces of bread.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted from a upcoming review by James Norton]

Amy Rea / Heavy Table
Amy Rea / Heavy Table

4-new fourPollo Verde Bowl at Catrina’s
Catrina’s, the locally owned version of Chipotle, puts the latter to shame with its choices. Why just say pork or chicken when you can say pollo verde and get a bowl full of moderately spicy, tender chicken, and then cover it with a zippy citrus-jalapeño salsa (or any of the nine salsa offered) and pickled jalapeños? It’ll wake you up. Get some of the house-made chips on the side.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted by Amy Rea]

James Norton / Heavy Table
James Norton / Heavy Table

5-new -five 2017 Irish Coffee Stout from Lift Bridge Brewing
There aren’t really any sharp edges on this celebratory beer. It’s aged in whiskey barrels and made with cold-pressed coffee from Five Watt, giving it a mellow, nearly acid-free complexity that plays well with (or as) a dessert course. Coffee beers can present a biting astringency or (far worse) a chemical bite, but neither of those traits rears its head in this brew.
[Debuting on the Hot Five | Submitted from a review by James Norton]