Halgrimson: Heidi’s mixes modern tools, classic flavors

During our brief trip to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, one of the new restaurants we tried was Heidi’s, 2903 Lyndale Ave S., in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood.

We went in by a side door into a small bar that looks into a glass-walled kitchen. But since the weather was warm, we had our dinner on a lovely sun-lit deck outside adjacent to the entrance.

The menu is divided into hors d’oeuvres, appetizers, main entrées and side dishes with five or six items under each heading and usually priced below $20. With advance reservations, a nine-course Tasting Menu costs $85 per person.

We tried the eggless benedict with huitlacoche for $4, the beets for $8 are described as “sous vide egg yolk, red and golden beets and hearts of palm with gherkin-apple dressing finished with pickled herring powder,” the lamb shank at $20 is “anise scented lamb shank and a six spice rice rind with orange scented jasmine rice and salsa verde,” the short rib for $19 is “braised beef in its own cuisson, avocado mousse, roasted radishes and micro basil,” the pickled beef tongue with roasted shiitakes, spicy mustard and soy noodles was $2, and the ranch salad “hand selected lettuces, dwarf peaches, truffled green peppercorn crème fraîche dressing, grape mustard” was $8.

Everything was not only incredibly flavorful, but the combinations of ingredients were intriguing.

Other items on the menu were butternut and potato soup, vanilla poached lentils, shrimp and noodles in coconut broth, curried salmon, trout, walleye, black truffle pappardelle, and spinach gratin, which gives you and idea of the breadth and depth of the small menu.

Our Minneapolis host, my old friend, Larry Sanderson, had described the eggless benedict on the menu and mentioned molecular gastronomy, a term unknown to me. And he says that sous vide is a method of cooking that fits under molecular gastronomy.

When we got home, I checked out the above terms on the Internet and found the following:

If you want to know about Molecular Gastronomy, go to http://

science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/molecular-gastronomy.htm.

If you yearn to know about “sous vide,” a French term for “under vacuum,” go to http://tinyurl.com/4mbez43.

Or you can purchase the five-volume “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking” by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet for $625.

And although there are kits available to cook this way, I think I’ll stick to what I learned from Mom and Gram. And on the next trip to Minneapolis, we’ll try the Tasting Menu.

Glossary:

Cuisson – a reduced poaching liquid used in a sauce.

Huitlacoche – corn smut.

Pappardelle – wide noodles with rippled sides.

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

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