Anne Frank House, Amsterdam Museum, and Oude Kerk

While I was able to get advance tickets to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, there were no online advance tickets available for the Anne Frank House. From the website, it seemed as though there are only a small number of advance-purchase tickets available to the Anne Frank House for any given day and they sell out well in advance (I didn’t see any tickets available until late May!). Since this is one of the most popular attractions in Amsterdam, I knew we would should expect some high waiting times in line (and, in the days prior to the visit, I saw long lines snaking around the blocks near to the museum).

The House opened at 9:00am, so Noah and I got to the line at about 8:30 – there were already over 100 people in front of us (yes, that is the line snaking up the block and curving to the right):

Within the next half hour before the museum opened, the line increased to a few hundred (I couldn’t even see the end!):

Holy cow – this was quite the line! We waited close to two hours in line before getting into the museum…good thing I brought my book! Inside the House, no photos were allowed, and it was very crowded. Basically, everyone walked through the rooms in a line, reading the information on the walls and looking at some of the artifacts on display. It was definitely a worthwhile visit, and I found it particularly interesting to see who was in the crowd of visitors. The Diary of Anne Frank is the Holocaust book that has achieved the greatest degree of worldwide popularity, and as such it seems to have become a symbol and point of connection to the Holocaust within communities and people that might not generally have much in the way of Holocaust education and exposure. As someone who has had a higher degree of Holocaust education (and especially after my Heritage Seminars trip to Poland in January), I found it very interesting to see the difference in people and feeling at the Anne Frank House.

After the museum, Noah and I visited the Amsterdam City Museum. This museum is enormous – something we unfortunately didn’t realize until we were already there. The museum includes a ‘DNA’ exhibit where visitors can learn about the basic history and ‘makeup’ of Amsterdam:

Beyond the DNA exhibit, there are exhibits on art, culture, and social movements throughout essentially all of Amsterdam’s history. We were disappointed we didn’t realize how large and thorough the museum was before going because we timed the visit in such a way that we were tired after only an hour or so there – I felt like it could have taken half a day at least to see everything!

Before too long we left to rejuvenate with lunch at the Luxembourg Cafe (my burger was great!):

A complete pick-me-up wasn’t complete though until post-coffee. Coffeecompany is a chain around Amsterdam, and the swanky looking interior caught my eye:

It turned out this was a very nice coffeeshop – high quality espresso, freshly brewed coffee for each order, and some interesting espresso drinks (like a more authentic version of the flat white – Starbuck’s new menu addition). I ordered a regular coffee which was brewed in front of me using an aeropress:

After coffee and lunch, we did some sightseeing around Dam Square. Dam Square is in the center of the city and derives its name from the fact that it was at this location that the Amstel River was dammed and, thus, Amsterdam was created – originally, Amstelredam. Today, the square is bordered by some pretty impressive buildings. Most namely, the Nieuwe Kerk (Amsterdam’s principal church when it was built in the early 15th-century):

And the Koninklijk Paleis:

This building’s current name (Palace), however, is slightly misleading because the building was originally built to be the city’s town hall and didn’t have any royal occupants until the French occupation of the city (1795-1813).

From Dam Square, Noah and I ventured further into the city center to see the Oude Kerk and have a peek into the Red Light District. The Oude Kerk is one of the city’s most beautiful churches…and it happens to be right in the middle of the Red Light District. The church has been here since the mid-13th century and became something of a pilgrimage site after there was a purported miracle that occurred here. The story of the miracle is as follows: a dying man took communion here and threw up his Host. When it was thrown up, the cracker was thrown onto a fire, but it didn’t burn up. The un-burned cracker was then put on display and people would come to see it – hence, pilgrimage site.

The church was quite impressive, but I felt most of place’s spirituality was dampened through distraction from the rest of the environs:

After the Oude Kerk and Red Light District, we walked to Vondelpark, Amsterdam’s largest green area, to relax and stroll around a bit before dinner:

On Saturday night (two nights before), Noah and I had tried to go to Moeders one of the [few] Dutch restaurants recommended in our guide book. Unfortunately, when we got there we were told that they were totally booked. I called later to make a reservation and they didn’t have any availability for two days (!), so I made a booking on the only available night. If difficulty to get a table corresponds to quality of food, then this place must be pretty good!

The environment at Moeders is a lot of fun (the name means ‘mothers,’ and the walls are covered with pictures of peoples mothers!

Noah ordered a fish special and I ordered vegetarian hotchpotch – a Dutch dish made with mashed potatoes, veggies and cheese:

We shared a dessert called ‘Dutch delights’ that had small samples of a few traditional Dutch desserts: spiced biscuit ice cream, small pancakes, and custard with fruit curd.

Yum!

Coming soon…a recap of our last day in the Netherlands and a trip to Rotterdam!

Other Amsterdam Posts

Travel day and hotel
Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, and Keukenhof Gardens
Canal Cruise, Museum of the Canals, and the Old Jewish Quarter
Day trip to Rotterdam, architecture tour

 

Athens: Agora and museums

Since the Athens segment of our trip consisted of only two half days and one full day, we woke up bright and early to take full advantage of our one complete day in the city. Breakfast at Economy Hotel was definitely a step down from breakfast at the Mistral Hotel, but it filled us up and had some thick and delicious greek yogurt!

After breakfast, we headed right away to the National Archaeological Museum. My guidebook listed this museum as the top museum to visit and said that the museum boasted one of the most famous and influential collections in the world.

The museum is fairly large, so we couldn’t look at everything in great detail, but we spent a bit of time looking at the Mycenaean Collection (from the 16-11th centuries BC, featuring lots of gold), the Egyptian collection, and lots of statues:

After the Archaeological Museum, we stopped by the Central Market. The Central Market is somewhat similar to the shuk but with an emphasis on meat and fish. SO MUCH MEAT!!

You can tell we’re not in Israel anymore*….

*octopus is NOT kosher.

The Central Market also has some spice stands around the outskirts, so that might be a better place to walk around for the more squeamish:

After the Central Market, we made our way to the Agora and stopped for a coffee. Greece had a few types of unique coffee drinks. Greek coffee is a very thick and grainy drink – somewhat similar to Turkish coffee in Israel. An espresso freddo is espresso over ice. The espresso, however, is frothed with cold water making a very foamy drink. A cappuccino freddo is the same thing except with additional frothed milk on top. Lastly, nescafe is frothed instant coffee, often served with milk and sugar (be careful – if you get with sugar they are extremely sweet!). This is an espresso freddo:

While we finished our drinks we sat under the Stoa of Attalos which used to be a 2nd century BC shopping mall and now serves as home to the Agora Museum.

Selfies. Obviously.

Caffeinated and refreshed, we went to check out the Agora.

The Agora was once Athen’s central market and the main area of the city for about 1,200 years. It was built in the 6th century BC and was the spot for political discourse and the birthplace of democracy. Today, not much remains in the area, but there are ruins indicating where great buildings once stood.

Although most of the Agora is now in ruins, the Temple of Hephaestus still remains and is, in fact, the best preserved Classical temple in all of Greece:

When in use, the temple was devoted to both Hephaestus and Athena. After walking through the Agora, we took a break for lunch at a nearby restaurant called To Kouti. We chose a table outside and shared some bread with a yogurt spread while waiting for our meal.

We shared a salad with hard cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, grilled halloumi cheese, and a zuchinni souffle.

I wasn’t wowed by the meal, but it did its job! Once refueled, we headed back to the Agora to go to the Agora Museum. The museum is fairly small but has a lot of really interesting artifacts that reflect both the styles of the time period and the developing democracy. My favorite artifact was the Athenian Law for Democracy inscribed on this tablet after the citizens of Athens voted for a new-fangled system giving every (male) citizen an equal vote:

The Roman Forum is right next to the Agora and better preserved, so we swung by there for a quick walk-through on our way out of the area. The gate pictured below is called the Gate of Athena Archegetis and serves as the primary entrance to the forum, built in 11 BC by Julius Caesar and Augustus and dedicated – you guessed it! – to Athena.

By this point, it was late afternoon and we were totally exhausted from walking around all day, so we relaxed at another cafe for a bit…

nescafe with milk and sugar on the left, tea on the right

…and then walked back to the hotel for a little down time before dinner.

Side note: graffiti is literally everywhere in Athens.

After an hour or so at the hotel, we decided to go to a restaurant called Mani-Mani, recommended by both Trip Advisor and our guide book.

The restaurant has a Greek and American inspired menu, and we ordered several dishes to share: a bean dip (sort of like hummus!), a salad with Greek cream cheese (which tasted a lot like creamy goat cheese to me) and figs, and a fish dish served with spinach and some sort of root vegetable puree.

By the end of the meal, it was late so we headed straight back to the hotel to get some sleep. The next morning we slept in a little bit and met some friends to visit the Jewish Museum in Athens.

The group we met up with are fellow Americans in Jerusalem for the year (including our good friend, Avi, from college!), and we were all on the same return flight to Tel Aviv.

The 4 nights in Greece flew by, but when I got back to Jerusalem it also felt as though I had been gone forever…funny how vacations work!

Other Greece posts

1. Getting There
2. Hydra: arrival and Mistral Hotel
3. Hydra: exploring
4. Hydra: food
5. Athens: arrival and Acropolis

Hydra: food

After our big hike, it was more-than-time for lunch when we finally made it back to the town center. We quickly located a souvlaki restaurant that looked perfect for lunch.

Souvlaki is a popular Greek fast food of sorts that involves meat on skewers or with pita. Generally, meat options are pork, lamb, or chicken. Essentially all of the restaurants on Hydra had large outdoor seating areas looking out on the water, and after ordering, we found a nice table outside to enjoy the breeze and wait for our food.

I ordered lamb kebabs and Noah ordered a Greek beer and chicken souvlaki:

Lunch tasted great, but we were both in a bit of a meat-induced coma afterwards.

Following lunch, we strolled around the island streets a bit more and had a good laugh when we discovered this sign:

After much speculation about what sort of conference the mules and donkeys were headed to, we saw this sign later in the day:

Turns out the meeting was for mule and donkey owners to discuss problems facing their “traditional profession.” Maybe it had something to do with another poster we saw which seemed to be from some animal rights group protesting the treatment of mules and donkeys! I guess even the cutest of islands has their own crazy politics. 🙂

Besides learning about the mule and donkey drama of Hydra, we did some boat watching around the port:

There were a couple ENORMOUS private yachts in the port…our guide book mentioned that celebrities often visit Hydra, so we had a good time guessing who might be inside!

Eventually, it was time for a pick-me-up, so we found another cafe where we could relax and drink coffee as the sun set:

For dinner Saturday night, we went to Psaropoula, a restaurant recommended by our guide book.

The restaurant was near the water in the main town area, but it was unique because it wasn’t on street level. Getting to the restaurant required going up a flight of stairs to the rooftop level, and we sat outside on a rooftop balcony with great views out to the water:

Like dinner the night before, we decided to order a few dishes and share. We ordered Greek salad again, eggplant rolls stuffed with halloumi cheese, and a feta cheese dish that consisted of feta wrapped in filo dough and drizzled with honey and sesame seeds:

The meal also came with a bread basket, croutons, and dip:

Yum!

Sunday morning we had our last eats on Hydra. Breakfast was from the Mistral Hotel again, and it was even more delicious than the first day’s breakfast. This time around, there was tomato soup followed by fruit, coffee, tea, bread, jam, olives, tomatoes, bruschetta, rice pudding, a sweet-cream filled danish, frittata, and a vegetable omelette.

After making a pretty good dent in the breakfast food, we gathered our things and headed to catch a ferry back to Piraeus Port. Stay tuned for more about the Athens segment of the trip coming soon! 🙂

Other Greece posts

1. Getting There
2. Hydra: arrival and Mistral Hotel
3. Hydra: exploring

Spotted this week in Jerusalem

SPOTTED – a child flailing about and running around on the sidewalk while parents shop at a nearby store:

There is something both befuddling and normalizing about noticing the apparent unconcern of Israeli parents for their childrens’ exploration of the world. Run around alone on the sidewalk? Sure! Climb that huge fence to play at the locked basketball court with no adults nearby? No problem! Talk to strangers in the park? Go for it! Maybe there’s here for the hyper-worried-borderline-paranoid industry of helicopter parenting to learn. Trust people. Everything will be fine. 

SPOTTED – a gorgeous sunset seen looking out from one of the windows of the Pardes Beit Midrash:

Give me a beautiful pink and orange sunset sinking over Jerusalem before cozying up with the Rashi commentary on the parashat hashavua (weekly Torah portion) any day. 🙂

SPOTTED – signs of a psychic, mysterious force in the universe that snuck this business card into my backpack without my knowledge only to be discovered who-knows-how-long later during a mid-morning slump:

WHERE DID THAT COME FROM AND HOW DOES IT KNOW ME SO WELL?

In other news…this was a big week in my apartment. A much anticipated arrival came…

Noah ordered a couple board games from the US about a month ago and has been awaiting their arrival with great anticipation. FINALLY, they arrived yesterday. Pictured above is “Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear.” Before this game’s arrival, Noah told me that part of the game’s appeal was that it is relatively easy to explain to and be learned by new players. Perfect for me!

Little did I know that in serious hex-based war games, “relatively easy to explain” means that it comes with a 20 page instruction booklet that is an 7 pt. font. Luckily, Noah was there to help explain:

Pumped for play:

I lost (shocking), and Noah has spent time today working on strategy by playing himself (spoiler alert: he won), so I don’t anticipate my win percentage is going to increase by much in the coming weeks. But, there’s always hope!

Emek Refaim Food Finds

As mentioned previously, Emek Refaim is the  main road going through the German Colony in Jerusalem. The street is packed with shops, restaurants, cafes, and people from places including – but not limited to – the United States, France, England, Germany, and of course Israel.

Emek Refaim is only about a 10 minute walk from my apartment, and the Ulpan that I’m attending is on Emek, so it’s been easy enough to check out some of the enticing eateries lining the street. Last week, I went to a couple restaurants on Emek with a friend.

Despite the long-standing joke about American Jews loving Chinese food, there are not too many Chinese restaurants here in Jerusalem. There is, however, lots of sushi! An exception to the hard-to-find-Chinese-food rule is Soya, located on the corner of Emek Refaim and Rachel Imenu.

Many Israeli restaurants have lunch time specials that include salads or other appetizers free with your meal. So, since we were there for lunch time, our meal started with a small salad. We also shared an order of vegetable eggrolls.

For our meals, we ordered mandarin chicken and a house chicken dish served with tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and a honeyed date sauce. Both meals were served with rice that seemed to have been cooked in soy sauce.

The food was good although there was a lot (especially for lunch!) so we took home leftovers.

At the same intersection of Emek Refaim and Rachel Imenu is also Marvad Haksamim. Marvad Haksamim specializes in traditional Israeli cuisine and soul food: lots of hummus, kubbeh, kebabs, stuffed vegetables, salatim, and pickles (to name a few). After being seated, we were brought a Middle Eastern version of a bread basket:

Salouf (a Yemenite flat bread) was served warm from the oven with a tomato dip (almost like salsa except not spicy), cucumber pickles, and pickled carrot salad. We also got a side order of hummus because clearly the salouf was in need of a delicious chickpea/tahini mashup…

For the meal, we ordered chamusta kubbeh soup (ground meat filled dumplings with celery, summer squash, and a flavorful broth) and an appetizer sampler which came with fried kubbeh (balls of dough filled with ground meat and fried), moroccan cigars (ground meat wrapped in phyllo dough), vine leaves stuffed with rice, and something that seemed like a fried wonton but I don’t know exactly what it was! The appetizers were served with a sweet tomato sauce and tahini.

Every Friday, Marvad does a take-away buffet for Shabbat where people can buy breads, desserts, and all sorts of prepared appetizers and entrees to have and serve over Shabbat. I recently realized that there’s a coupon book in my apartment which includes a 10%-off coupon for Marvad Haksamim Friday take-away…so maybe I’ll have to try it sometime!

 And for coffee…The Coffee Mill is a welcome sight for anyone who likes a plain old cup of coffee. While espresso beverages and cafe culture are in top form, a plain cup of coffee seems to have been left behind in Israel. If you want just a regular, non-espresso coffee beverage, then you’re generally faced with either instant Nescafe of Turkish Coffee which – despite having gone through a more complex roasting process – is extremely similar to Nescafe except with smaller grounds.

The Coffee Mill, however, offers a wide selection of espresso AND coffee beverages. An entire wall of the shop is devoted to beans in multiple flavors and from all across the world for people to buy by the kilo and take home.

But don’t worry – lest you think plain coffee makes things boring – The Coffee Mill still has a wide selection of exciting espresso beverages and yummy treats.

And the final stop on the Emek food tour…

…an impromtu lemonade and popcorn stand set up by some kids in front of a supermarket! I got a lemonade (with mint leaves!) for 2 shekels. Totally worth it. 🙂

A New City

For most of the summer I’ve been in the hot California desert working at camp, hence my long blogging hiatus. I’m back to real life now…but real life looks totally different than before.

Goodbye Minnesota.

Hello Boston!

The jump from the Midwest to the East Coast has resulted in – if nothing else – a much classier stairwell.

Minnesota

Boston

Although I’m not in Boston for very long (only a couple weeks before a much bigger move to Israel!), there were a few things that I was looking forward to doing during my time in Boston.

First and foremost, exploring the new area! I love finding and trying new cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants, and while there was certainly more exploration to be done in Minneapolis, moving to Boston provides a whole new crop of activities. During one of our first days in Boston, Noah and I got coffee at Crema Cafe in Harvard Square.

I got an iced Americano and thought it was amazing! I’ve been back a handful of times since. In addition to coffee, they also have a nice selection of baked goods and a small menu of sandwiches, soups, salads, and breakfast items. The drinks definitely shine more than the food, but the food is still good. Be warned, however, that Crema does NOT have wifi. A clever trick indeed for a coffee shop!

I was also really excited to try the November Project during my time in Boston. I first read about The November Project in a Runner’s World Magazine article from November 2013. The November Project is a free fitness/social group that meets in the wee hours of the morning (ie, 6:30am). It was started in 2011 by two friends who committed to working out together every morning during the month of November. To increase motivation, they started posting about their workouts on Facebook and other social media, inviting others to join. Incredibly, people started coming, and today, as many as 600 Bostonians meet on any given Monday, Wednesday, or Friday to work out with the November Project. The group has also spread to 16 other cities! The iconic November Project workout is running the Harvard Stadium stairs (yes, all of them!), and the group continues to do the stadium workout every Wednesday. Monday workouts are held at traveling locations and Friday workouts are running Corey Hill in Brookline.

On Monday, I went to the traveling workout – this week at Old Morse Park in Cambridgeport. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but when I arrived at the park I immediately found a large group already gathered.

Even though I knew a lot of people go to November Project, it was still surprising to actually see so many people! The November Project cofounders, Brogan and Bojan, still lead the group each meeting. Monday workouts are usually shorter because the assumption is that people run to and from the workout, so after a brief warm up, the workout was seven minutes of nonstop burpies. It was definitely tough and my chest was sore for the rest of the day!

After going once, I could tell that the social aspects of the group are really emphasized. The ‘warm-up’ was more about hugging the people around you (no one shakes hands at November Project – only big bear hugs), learning the names of a few others, and high fiving with awesomeness-affirming “f*** yeahs.”

After the workout, Brogan and Bojan take a photo of the group, give out the ‘positivity award’ to one lucky participant, and ‘Happy Birthday’ is sung to anyone who has a birthday that day. After the Monday workout, a group of regulars had breakfast together at a nearby apartment. Since I knew one of the regulars from Minneapolis, I tagged along!

After Monday, I was a little hooked and wanted to see what all the fuss was about for the Harvard Stadium steps. So, Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early again and took a short jog over to Harvard Stadium.

There were a lot more people there for the stadium workout than the Monday meeting, and the crowd was a lot more diverse (ie, not only young people).

There was one older man (probably in his mid-late 60s) who was there with a trombone that he played during the workout for added motivation!

Harvard Stadium has 37 sections, and the workout is to run up the big steps and walk down the small ones.

For me, running quickly turned into walking about halfway up each section. To complete all 37 sections is called ‘a tour,’ and Brogan told the newbies (people who had never done the steps before) to aim to complete a half tour. I completed the half tour plus three additional sections. Holy cow, it was SO difficult! I thought it would be tough, but it far exceeded my expectations. My legs were shaking by the end, and I have been incredibly sore since! The stadium steps definitely had a little bit of an addictive quality to them, and I’m already looking forward to going next Wednesday and trying to complete a full tour!

This weekend, Noah and I are taking a bike trip to Martha’s Vineyard, so I hope to be able to post soon about that adventure!

Duluth Whole Foods

On our way up to the boundary waters we stopped in Duluth for lunch. We decided to try the Duluth Whole Foods Coop (no relation to the Whole Foods chain).

The Coop had a neat system where foods were all identified as local, regional, or neither.

In typical Coop fashion, there was a hot and cold salad bar:

A made-to-order sandwich bar:

And a coffee bar:

There was also a wide selection of delicious looking desserts, produce, and grab-and-go foods:

After much deliberation, I settled on a salad with a variety of veggies, hard-boiled eggs, honey mustard potato salad, cranberry chutney, and chicken. I also had a ginger kombucha:

I also had a whoopie pie for dessert. 🙂

Others in the group had a turkey sandwich, grilled cheese, falafel pita, protein salad, carrot cake cookie, and key lime pie:

Everything was phenomenal. The only downside was that the coffee bar and made-to-order sandwich stations were extremely slow (like 15 minutes or so to make three sandwiches). Nonetheless, it was worth the wait! So worth the wait that we decided to stop here again for lunch on our way home. What can I say?! We’re creatures of habit. 🙂

I went with the salad bar again this time, but I loaded up on hard boiled eggs and had some traditional potato salad. I also tried a cranberry kombucha drink (unpictured):

Others ordered turkey sandwiches and a roast beef/ham sandwich:

Everyone left full and happy. I wish this place were in Minneapolis! The Wedge Coop in Minneapolis is amazing, but unfortunately there’s no sitting area so if you order deli food you have to take it to go.

Other Boundary Waters Trip Posts
Poplar Creek B&B
Hiking and Canoeing

July Bestowed and a Confession

First, I owe you a recap of the July Bestowed box.

Inside, there was:

A pass for two weeks of free classes from Barre3.

A year subscription to Organic Gardening Magazine:

Vanilla Coconut Macaroons:

Sweet Potato Chips:

Health Warrior Chia Bar:

Butternut Squash Puree:

And crisps from 34 Degrees:

I can’t wait to try everything!

And now….for a confession.

What do all of these places have in common?

Yes, you guessed it. Coffee. I’ve been drinking it!

Iced coffee to be precise. This is a bit of a crazy thing for me since I’ve always identified myself as ‘not a coffee drinker.’ I’m still not having the stuff hot, but I’ve really been enjoying a cup of iced coffee in the afternoon while working at a coffee shop. What is becoming of me?!

Parents, how are you taking this?

Any tips for not getting totally hooked? I like the coffee shop environment and a refreshing drink, but I don’t want to get to the point where I feel like I ‘need’ it. Also, it’s an expensive habit!

Muddy Waters and Food Trucks

This week I had two new food experiences.

The first new food experience was going to Muddy Waters for lunch. Muddy Waters is a bar/eatery/coffee shop in Uptown on Lyndale between Lake and Lagoon. I’ve been interested by the establishment for a long time, and I finally made plans to get food there. The atmosphere is pretty unique since it does seem to truly be a coffee shop, bar, and restaurant all rolled into one.

When you walk in the door, to your right is a full bar and to the left is a full barista bar. The restaurant (and patio, when it’s nice outside) are full of patrons enjoying booze, coffee, or some variety of good eats. For my lunch rendezvous, we stuck with food and coffee. I ordered a malted mocha (something I’ve never seen on a menu before!) and the black bean hummus plate:

The hummus plate came with carrots, zuchinni, parsley, jalapenos, queso fresco, and grilled bread. The hummus was amazing. I could have eaten it with a spoon. In fact, that’s exactly what I did once I ate all of the veggies/bread. My lunch date ordered a made-t0-order pizza with ricotta cheese and spinach:

It received high reviews. Although their menu in not that extensive, all of the food was great (and the dishes we saw being brought to other tables looked equally appetizing). I would say this is a fun spot for a favorite dish, but if you’re looking for a wide selection or large plates, then you would be better off going elsewhere. If you’re a coffee fan though, it’s worth noting that the coffee bar was a walk-up counter and several customers cam and got to-go drinks. Their coffee menu had some unusual choices. Besides the aforementioned malted mocha there was also a white mocha, thai coffee, cubano, and all the regular espresso favorites.

The second new food experience I had this week involved food trucks. Since it was the weekend, the workweek line-up of trucks downtown wasn’t an option, so we sought out a different location. We discovered that a few food trucks were gathered by Fulton Brewery.

The brewery seems to have a relationship with the food trucks, and beer-seeking visitors can bring their food inside to the bar. The food truck options were:

• Lulu’s Street Food: serving tacos and fries
• Cafe Racer: serving Latin American food
• MidNordEmpanadaTruck: serving, you guessed it, empanadas

Our primary business went to Cafe Racer. Noah got the Colombian hot dogs and I ordered the pulled chicken plate with carrot souffle and moduro (fried plantains):

We also shared an order of chicken empanadas from MidNord:

I loved my pulled chicken and Latin American side dishes. The empinadas were also very tasty (and came with a delicious lime sauce), but the fried exterior was a little much for me. Since an ill-timed bout of pouring rain began right when we got our food, we enjoyed our lunches inside the walls of the brewery.

The brewery offers tours every Saturday at 1, 2, and 3pm. Although we didn’t join a tour group this time around, we speculated that it could be a fun activity in the future. The brewery was especially full of Twins fans who were watching the game on TV (and possibly heading to the stadium later).

My first food truck experience definitely piqued my interest, and I would like to head downtown for lunch during the workweek to check out a more extensive selection of food trucks. If you’re interested in the Minneapolis Food Truck scene, make sure to check out Reviews on Wheels, another WordPress blog devoted to exactly that topic!

 

Art-a-Whirl

Art-a-Whirl is an annual studio tour event that takes place in Northeast Minneapolis. The event is in its 18th year, and it’s the largest open studio tour in the country.

Not knowing much about the event besides that you could look at art, I decided to check it out with a friend. There was a huge variety of art and exhibits! There were the things you might expect like pottery:

wood carvings:

photos:

and paintings:

But there were also a lot of nontraditional forms of art. Like these crazy stuffed monsters:

and this monkey chair:

and this awesome lego exhibit:

Art was displayed in studios, galleries, restaurants, and businesses. Almost all of the art was for sale, and it would be a great place to get a gift! I bought a pair of earrings that were packaged with a nice quote:

My favorite piece of art was an interactive exhibit about people who did crimes they got away with.

The exhibit was a display of the remnants from a literary party held in the space a few weeks prior. At the event, partygoers listened to recorded stories of people talking about crimes they committed and got away with. Later, they shared and recorded their own crimes. At the exhibit, I could listen to the original stories, the stories of the partygoes, and see pictures scattered around the floor from the event. There was a notebook where viewers of the exhibit could write their own confessions.

The stories were really interesting – ranging across everything from stealing money to lying to a teacher to attempted prostitution. It was fascinating and forced the viewer to consider the fact that we are all – in some way – criminals. If so, what is the real distinction between us and what we consider more traditional criminals?

While exploring Art-a-Whirl, a caffeinated pick-me-up sounded good, so we decided to check out Diamonds Coffee Shoppe.

Although likely due in part to the art festival, the line out the door indicated this is a popular spot in the Northeast neighborhood.

They had a surprisingly extensive menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, and appetizers. As well as a nice looking array of baked goods:

They had traditional coffee drinks as well as smoothies (which, I noticed, were made with real fruit!) and loose leaf tea.

I decided to try something different and got a blended iced latte:

Oh my goodness. It was SO GOOD. My friend got a blended iced mocha and said it was the best thing he’d ever tasted (disclaimer: he is a bit prone to hyperbole).

If this were in my neighborhood, I would definitely go there at least quasi-regularly. Alas, it is not – but I would recommend it to anyone near Northeast, and I will enjoy it vicariously through you!