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Published October 20, 2010, 12:00 AM

Halgrimson celebrates with Twin Cities global fare

With the help of family and friends, I made it to and through my 70th birthday celebration as we ate our way around the world via a delicious array of ethnic foods in Minneapolis and St. Paul restaurants. Here are some quick reviews of the restaurants we encountered, and the food we enjoyed.

By: Andrea Hunter Halgrimson, INFORUM

With the help of family and friends, I made it to and through my 70th birthday celebration as we ate our way around the world via a delicious array of ethnic foods in Minneapolis and St. Paul restaurants.

Here are some quick reviews of the restaurants we encountered, and the food we enjoyed.

  • Babani’s Kurdish Restaurant, 544 St. Peter St., St. Paul, opened in 1997 and claims to be the first Kurdish restaurant in the United States. Vegetarian dishes are available, but we had Kubey Sawar, which is a crushed wheat dough filled with ground beef, onion and spices and then sautéed in olive oil. Kubey Brinj is a similar dish, but the crust is made of rice. Dinner prices range from $12 to $18, which includes soup or salad.

  • Barbettes, 1600 West Lake St., Minneapolis, was named “Best French Restaurant, populist vote” by Mpls St. Paul Magazine. We ate lunch there twice, sitting outside due to the glorious weather. The food matched the weather with quiche and omelettes priced at $8 and $9 and salads from $7.50 for field greens to $15 for a Niçoise Salad. The Pommes Frites, served with saffron aioli, were particularly enchanting.

  • We’ve been stopping at Broders’ Cucina Italiana, 2308 W. 50th St., in Minneapolis for most of the 20 years it’s been open. We load up our old, metal Coleman ice box with delicious things from their deli to bring home. This year we went to dinner across the street at Broders’ Pasta Bar, 5000 Penn Ave. S. and we were completely taken by the cozy setting and magnificent food. Dinners range from $9 to $16 with antipasti – $3 to $9 – and insalata – from $6.50 to $10.25 – priced separately.

  • My birthday dinner was at Christos, 2632 Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis, where they prepared a fantastic family-style dinner of everything Greek.

  • We had lunch at the Holy Land Bakery & Deli, 2513 Central Ave. NE in Minneapolis, where a tasty Middle Eastern buffet is only $7.99. Another lunch was at the Kramarczuk Sausage Co. Cafeteria, 215 E. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, where every sausage imaginable is available as well as sauerkraut and wonderful German potato salad.

  • Dinner at Lucia’s, 1432 W. 31st St. in Minneapolis, a longtime favorite of mine, is always a special occasion. The menu is small and more expensive than the other places we went, but the superb ingredients and preparation is worth it.

    Some of the finest meals we had were at the homes of family and friends. My stepdaughter, Corina Bernstein, and her husband, Tom Norlund, prepared a sumptuous brunch at their apartment and our hosts Larry Sanderson and his partner, Thong Dinh, fixed us a fabulous dinner that included crab cakes, spring rolls and duck. I’ve written about Thong’s spring rolls, and one day I may get Larry’s crab cake recipe out of his head. In the meantime, here’s the recipe for Corina and Tom’s coffee cake:

    Corina and Tom’s Coffee Cake

    1/2 cup unsalted butter

    1 1/2 cups sugar

    1 teaspoon salt

    2 large eggs

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    1/4 teaspoon almond extract

    1 cup sour cream

    1 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda

    2 cups flour

    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    1 teaspoon ground ginger

    2 teaspoons ground cardamom

    1 1/4 cups finely diced raw rhubarb (we used rhubarb from my mom’s house that we cut up and froze earlier this summer)

    2/3 cup toasted and coarsely chopped, slivered almonds

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Thoroughly oil a 9-inch springform tube pan.

    Cream butter, sugar, salt, egg, and extracts. Blend in sour cream, baking powder, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Add the rhubarb and almonds; stir well. Pour mixture into prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Bake for 45 minutes (or longer) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out dry. Transfer cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove outer rim and continue cooling.

    Note: This recipe is adapted from “Nuts,” by Linda and Fred Griffith, a gift to Corina from her grandmother, Lyla Larson of Ada, Minn. Corina used equal parts white and whole wheat rather than all white flour.

    Readers can reach Forum Food Columnist Andrea Hunter Halgrimson at ahalgrimson@forumcomm.com

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