Psycho Suzies

About a month ago I traveled to Minneapolis for the USC @ Minnesota football game (Go Trojans!). Before leaving I looked up places to eat at by checking the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives website http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html  I just typed in Minneapolis and a few came up. So my friend Jeni and I decided to try Psycho Suzies. It was only a $11 cab ride from downtown.

I think it's safe to say we DEFINITELY made the right choice. Even-though it was a tad chilly outside we decided to eat on the patio. It was heated and perfect. I noticed that there were a bunch of people just hanging out while drinking and eating. We could tell that this is where the locals came to relax. From watching the episode of Triple D we knew we had to try their cheese curds. Now I'm from Southern California and had never had them before, and I was expecting to have something similar to fried mozzarella. They weren't like that at all. They were light and flavorful. They weren't heavy like mozzarella sticks, I felt like I could eat them all day. At Psycho Suzies they are PBR beer battered are delicious!


We also ordered the biggest drink ever. The menu said it served 2-4 and I think we took good care of it. It was a great tropical drink that was served with the center volcano on fire. Very cool.

We had a pizza for dinner. It was light and flavorful. The crust was crispy on the bottom and nice and airy with the toppings on it. I like my pizza not overloaded with toppings and I thought there was a good amount of toppings and herbs. It was great. But one of the best decisions we made was to get the roast your own s'mores. It came with skewers, marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers and reeses peanut butter cups. SO Good!!! I mean so so good.

Here's my recommendation: I think that we did it correctly in sharing everything. It's a hang out atmosphere and we fell into it. The service was chill and helpful. They are nice and they will help you navigate the menu and give good recommendations. But Share!!! Share appetizers, share pizza mostly so that you can enjoy the s'mores :) Fall into the chill atmosphere and just enjoy the Tiki Bar in the middle of Minneapolis. It's totally worth it!


To check out the Triple D episode: Diners Drive Ins and Dives--Psycho Suzie's

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

This is from my normal blog, but since it has to do with a food network star, I thought I'd post it here too! Enjoy

Well first thing is first. I want to tell you all about the most exquisite dinner I've had in a long time. On Sunday evening we went to the Napa Rose to participate in one of the Disney's California Adventure Food and Wine Festival special events. We attended the Guy Fieri celebrity chef dinner. It was a five (well actually 6) course wine paired dinner. Now before I get into the individual courses let me tell you that Michael Jordan (not the basketball player) is the Master Sommelier of the Napa Rose and he is awesome. I am a big fan of him and his wine pairings couldn't have been more perfect. Ok so here's how the night went down.
We arrived and sat in the lounge and we were served the Lasorda Pinot Grigio with 3 appetizers.

One was a lettuce wrap (well more like a lettuce cup) with delicious chicken filling. There was a piece of salmon that had been cooked on a cedar plank with a cracker. Now I don't usually like salmon, but man this changed my mind. The infused cedar flavor in the salmon was unbelievable. The third appetizer was a tapioca rice paper roll with sushi rice, avocado, BBQ pork, & a garlic chili mayo sauce. It is called the Jackass Roll and it is served at his restaurant Texwasabi's. This place is definitely on my list of places to visit... and soon!
Ok so then we go into the dining room and we have a great table close to the center of the room and close to the kitchen so we could see everything that was going on!

First course:
Bacon wrapped shrimp with a chipotle BBQ sauce.
I think that speaks for itself. You will see that I took pictures of the rest of the dishes, but well this looked too delicious and I ate it up before I could take a picture, so you will just have to imagine. The wine that it was paired with could not have been better, it was Riesling from Germany. The smoky-spiciness of the BBQ sauce and the sweetness of the wine--BEAUTIFUL!!! Like I said, I ate it up!

Second Course:
Lemon Grass Chicken with Green Papaya Salad

This was great, and while it was my least favorite course that's just because the others were FANTASTIC and this was just REALLY REALLY GOOD. It had a lot of flavor and half way through I forgot that I was eating papaya, so that was cool. Guy said that he got this idea from going to a chinese restaurant and ordered a green papaya salad and was pleasantly surprised by it so he used the idea and added the chicken. Well done, Guy! Very good. It was paired with a Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma Valley, very good as well.

Third Course:
Crispy Fried Red Fish with Mojo Sauce and Sofrito Potatoes.
Ok so this first picture is of the fish itself:

Here is how it was served to us:

Now this fish was UNBELIEVABLE. The pairing with the Albarino (a white wine) was so great. I couldn't get enough of both. Now I haven't told you this yet, but well... let's just say we were sitting at a VIP table so they gave us, in addition to the plate above, an actual whole fish to eat as well, and a refill of this wine. As you can see below, we ate that UP! SO SO SO SO GOOD! I want some right now! The fish was great and crispy on the outside and flakey and juicy on the inside. The flavor was fantastic.


Fourth Course:
"Gaucho" Steak wiht a 4 Herb Chimichurri and Green Beans

I don't think that I've had a more delicious steak EVER! I know that sounds exaggerated but the 4 herb chimichurri was so delectable and just added so much flavor and layers to the steak that... well... I just can't describe it. This course was paired with a Negroamro red wine, which had some chocolate undertones... I know that sounds weird but it really complimented this dish. Of course let's not move on before saying how much I love green beans and clearly Guy wanted to impress me and let's just say that it worked :) I like beans.

Fifth Course:
Guido's Flaming Banana's with Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and White Chocolate & Pecan Cookies

I love banana's foster and so this was so good. The Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Riesling Eiswein from Colombia Valley really went well with this dessert. It brought out the carmel flavors in the bananas and complimented the ice cream too.

Well I could go on and on about the night, about how he got people to sing and act silly the whole night; how MJ got the room chanting "Napa" "Rose"; how Guy got 5 people cooking in the kitchen with him; and how Gwen patted Guy on the butt when we left, but well.. I won't. I will tell you that Guy is just like he is on TV and is a real and very personable. He definitely loves what he does. This was a fantastic evening and the food was so money! Thank you, Guy, for a wonderful meal! I can't wait till next year! I will leave you with this picture:
Me, Guy and the fish (Michael Jordan is holding it up in the background :)

Let's hope this is what I envisioned

So I have decided that since I love the Food Network and I really like a lot of the shows, that I will review my favorites here and try to create a place where the recipes I want are in one place. Here are the shows that I will most likely post about:
Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello (when I watch it)
Feasting on Asphalt
Good Eats
Guy's Big Bite
Ham on the Street
Iron Chef America
Paula's Home Cooking
Tyler's Ultimate (When I watch it)

I will probably not write about 30-minute meals because I think Rachel Ray has a lot of press anyway and I'm sure many devotees to write about her show. I enjoy her show, but she doesn't need more help from me.

I will not write about Semi-Homemade Cooking--sorry Sandra Lee, you drive me nuts! And I like Giada but I don't find her recipes very relevent to my kind of cooking.

I'm hoping that I can review some of the shows and menus and write about what I'd change in them. Please be patient, I'm not good at posting often, but I'm hoping this will get me to write more often.

And now I bid you....