Home Grown and Bizarre

Ingebretsen’s and Olsen Fish Co., Minneapolis; Cozy Café, Cyrus
9/14–15/07: Shoots 3–5
I have lived in Minnesota for sixteen years but never tried lutefisk, and I thought it was high time I saw how the iconic food in these parts was made. I stopped by Ingebretsen’s on East Lake Street to find out where the Scandinavian icon gets its lutefisk and sampled some lamb jerky, blood sausage, and creamed cod roe.

Armed with insight, I ventured to Ingrebretsen’s source, Olsen Fish Co., to see how perfectly good dried cod is ruined by well-intentioned Norwegians the world over. Well, not really the world over, since more lutefisk is consumed here than in Norway. Olsen processes more of the stuff than possibly any other merchant on the planet and does the lion’s share of its business at Christmas. I have followed cod through the salting and drying process in about a half-dozen countries, and it was odd to see trucks unloading that same product at Olsen’s back door, but there it was.

The fish is hydrated in water, then rehydrated in a water and lye solution, then finally with water again to rid the fish of the caustic soda. As the cod is exposed to the lye, its protein makeup changes, and the fish not only swells and plumps to resemble its waterborne form, but changes consistency, taking on a jellylike texture. Hungry yet?

I wanted to try lutefisk in its terroir, which meant traveling to Cyrus, to the Cozy Café, a neighborhood diner that doubles as a senior center and puts on phenomenal suppers on fall Fridays—with lutefisk as the star of the show. There are only 303 residents in Cyrus (halfway between St. Cloud and the South Dakota border), but about 400 turned out for the meal, and we stuffed ourselves on “klubs” (potato dumplings), Swedish meatballs, and all those amazing Norwegian sweets handmade by dozens of country grandmas.

The lutefisk is poached, then served with butter or cream sauce, and paired with plenty of klubs and potatoes—nary a fresh herb in sight. The food has changed little in the 160 years since Norwegians and Swedes set sail on the North Sea headed for these prairies. I can tell you that at Cozy’s lutefisk is way more palatable than its reputation suggests, but the slimy texture is frightful in your mouth. Nevertheless, anyone who wants to enjoy great home-cooked fare and take in a real slice of small-town life should head to the Cozy and visit with proprietor Jean Anderson.

Lake Superior’s North Shore
9/17–18/07: Shoot 6
Next on my journey, I ventured north for the weekend to Grand Marais, stopping at Russ Kendall’s Smoke House for a snack of the best smoked herring and whitefish in Minnesota. I locked myself out of my car and had to be rescued, got a ticket for speeding after wrestling with a sauerkraut pie at Betty’s, and finally crawled into Grand Marais just before the kitchen closed at My Sister’s Place. While the pizza at Sven & Ole’s is overrated, I can assure you that My Sister’s Goober Burger is a singular experience—if you like peanut butter and mayo on your burger.

I crashed pretty hard and woke up before dawn for a fresh “skizzle” at World’s Best Donuts (definitely not overrated), one of the best doughnut shops I have visited. A skizzle is a large, flat, yeasty Frisbee of sugar-dusted dough hot from the fryer (they use lard); it stands out as one of the better sweet starts to a day I can recall.

Within an hour, I was on a herring boat in the middle of Lake Superior, hauling in fish by the bucketful. Sitting in a dead calm fog on a cold September morning was a surreal experience, but in Harley Toftey’s boat I was in good hands. After securing our catch, we filleted herring and squeezed roe for an hour, then retired to Dockside Fish Market for a shore lunch of fried herring, whitefish, herring roe, and strong coffee.

That afternoon, I headed down the shore to meet up with Shawn Perich, outdoorsman, author, and avid grouse hunter. Shawn and I spent the presunset hours in the woods, then stuffed ourselves silly on fresh moose, grouse, and blueberry slump. I have eaten dozens of game birds I can name, and many in Asian markets that I can’t, but if I had to eat just one, it would be freshly shot ruffed grouse—the most delicate, white-fleshed, clean-tasting bird I have dined on. Pan-searing a grouse breast takes only minutes. Minnesota is the ruffed grouse capitol of North America, and fall is the season to get out there and taste it yourself.

Heartland Restaurant, St. Paul
9/20/07: Shoot 7
American food philosophers are espousing sustainable tail-to-snout eating, wasting nothing, and respecting the homegrown aspects of food. Elsewhere in the world, people have been eating that way for millennia and never stopped, as we did in the last century. The irony is wicked, but in a few places in our state there are pockets of more-than-passing enthusiasm for this old philosophy.

Many chefs preach the life, but few really practice it. Lenny Russo is the real deal, and one day at his restaurant in St. Paul I saw just how much he walks the walk. Whole lambs and a wild boar were on their way into the kitchen the afternoon I arrived, and Lenny and his staff had them butchered and processed in less than an hour. All the glamorous cuts (loin, chops, shoulders, ribs) would star on most menus in town, but anyone can cook those. It takes real talent to pickle lamb’s tongue, braise pork belly, and sauté brains with lemon and brown butter. Poached sweetbreads, smoked and braised pig trotters, grilled kidneys, and sautéed liver (or all of the above ground into a forcemeat for a wickedly sturdy terrine) are everyday events at Heartland. Anyone hoping to sample something that departs from the same-old same-old would be well advised to check it out.

So what did I learn from Bizarre Minnnesota? Eating food that has a story makes it taste better. Eating food with a story that comes from where you live is personal. Food is something we can share every day, and the more we share our food stories with the rest of the world, the more we can focus on what we have in common, instead of what divides us.

Bizarre Foods—Minnesota will air on the Travel Channel in March.