Minnesota State Fair's new food list doesn't skip the deep fryer
Details: Over a dozen of the 33 new foods are listed as fried or deep-fried, including pizza cheese curd tacos, cheese curds in funnel cake batter and a cheeseburger that uses deep-fried PB&J Uncrustables as buns.
While not always fried, the desserts could overwhelm a sweet tooth — cannoli gelato nachos, cinnamon sugar pie crusts and a croissant waffle topped with sweet cream and cotton candy top the list.
Zoom out: The Fair's yearslong diversification of vendors has also continued, with five of this year's eight new vendors serving international fare like Dubai chocolate, Filipino fried spring rolls and Hungarian pastries.
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San Francisco Chronicle
15 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area's most notable 24-hour restaurant is also a casino
Each week, critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan shares some of her favorite recent bites, the dishes and snacks and baked goods that didn't find their way into a full review. Want the list a few days earlier? Sign up for her free newsletter, Bite Curious. What a delight Café Colma, located inside Lucky Chances Casino, is. Where else can you get an Irish coffee and fettuccine alfredo (the real, wonderfully psychotic order of one of my dining companions) alongside Mongolian beef and all-day breakfast? Where else can you chase an order of adobo chicken with a banana split and a 3 a.m. game of Pai Gow? No offense to that alfredo, but the Filipino dishes are the highlights here. The sinigang with pork ribs is particularly noteworthy, bracingly sour and fortifying. I finally made it to Bar Shoji, the nighttime incarnation of the café behind the matcha einspänner craze; I've been dying to go since Cesar put it on our Now List. Does chef Intu-on Kornnawong's halibut ceviche ever sing. It's the dish that features the most overt Thai flavors — Kornnawong was formerly the chef at Jo's Modern Thai in Oakland — and you'll smell the lemongrass before the dish even hits the table. There's plenty of spice, and the nori rice crackers provided for scooping add delicate crunch. Deep in the Richmond District, Butter Love Bakeshop is not the place to go if you're seeking the immaculately laminated and shellacked goodies you might see in the window of a Parisian patisserie. Its crumbles, pies and doughnuts are rustic, even a little visually rough around the edges, but the pastry is nonetheless terrific. Case in point, the mega buttery, flaky puff pastry swaddling a full-sized hot dog and shredded cheese. Sure the frank was a little well done on the ends where it poked out of its pastry casing, but I can't imagine a better hand-held snack to take to the park or the beach. Chase it with a slice of seasonal fruit crumble.
Eater
a day ago
- Eater
3 Austin Restaurants to Try This Weekend: August 8
Each week, we'll provide a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: 'Where should I eat?' Here are three places to check out this weekend in Austin. And, if you're spending the weekend out by the pool, here are ideas on where to drink. For really tasty masa in the morning: Mercado Sin Nombre There's no shortage of great pastries and baked goods in this city, but if we were power ranking them today, Mercado Sin Nombre would sit at the top. The East Austin café centers masa — part of a broader trend where chefs are choosing nixtamalized corn over wheat flour as a deeper expression of heritage. Worth noting: despite what many claim, flour tortillas are just as 'authentic' as corn — one is just more prevalent in all regions of Mexico. It's almost like comparing Under Armour and Nike as American sportswear brands. Another reason masa's having a moment? Flavor. Its complexity becomes clear with one bite of Mercado's masa Twinkie, which makes the Hostess version taste like paper in comparison. Other standouts include the bean and cheese burrito, masa pancakes, and the Bad Honey Bunny. Anything on the food menu will do, just get there early — food sells out fast. Then again, you might luck into an off-menu special, like a breakfast sandwich using masa pancakes in place of biscuits — which might be even better than what you came for. 408 N Pleasant Valley Rd, Austin, TX 78702. For dinner during a proper dinner and a movie: Soto South This isn't just a food recommendation — it's a movie one, too. We all know the food at Alamo Drafthouse leaves… something to be desired. Like flavor. And seasoning. So when time permits, do dinner and a movie the old school way. Snag a ticket for Together or Weapons, two remarkable horror films. Before the showing, book a reservation at Soto South, one of the more underappreciated sushi restaurants in town — likely due to its proximity to Uchi just down the street. Great options to start are the fried Brussels sprouts tossed with goat cheese, walnuts, yuzu soy, and lobster tempura. The sushi, nigiri, and sashimi menus are deep and the servers are happy to guide, but the Hamachi Apple (yellowtail, mixed herb salad, yuzu pepper, serrano) and White Tiger (bluefin tuna, avocado, cucumber, lemon aioli) maki rolls are safe bets. From there, it's a short walk over to Alamo. 1100 S Lamar Blvd Ste 2115, Austin, TX 78704 For the most reliable slice in Austin: Home Slice Pizza prices have been getting out of control lately. Sure, the slices at these pizzerias are delicious, but sometimes you just want a solid, unfussy pie that doesn't cost $28. You want comfort. Austin classic Home Slice hits the sweet spot of dependable and affordable comfort food. The slices are hearty, the crust the right amount of chewy and crunchy, and its salads are tasty too — making sure we get our vitamin fix in that sea of savory grease. 501 E 53rd St, Austin, TX 78751
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Lynne Turner, CSO harpist since 1962, retires from the orchestra
You could say Lynne Turner's Chicago Symphony Orchestra career really began in 1956. That year, she made her debut with the orchestra, the winner of an audition call to headline its Young People's Concerts. Turner, then 14, played Handel's Harp Concerto in B-flat in four concerts that March. Covering Turner's win, a Chicago Tribune society writer described her as a 'pretty, vivacious miss' who was 'equally at home on a bike or roller skates, and likes nothing better than to spend a Saturday afternoon exchanging feminine chatter with school girl chums.' 'I suppose that was her way of reassuring readers that I was still a normal teenager,' Turner recalls, with some amusement. Normal, sure, but Turner grew up around an abnormal amount of music. Her father, Sol Turner, was a first violinist in the CSO; her mother, Evelyn, a pianist. According to the same Tribune article, her older sister, Carol, was accomplished enough on the violin to join the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's prestigious training ensemble. Meanwhile, Turner's baby brother, Richard, followed in her footsteps: After his own Civic tenure, he went on to become principal harp in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for 45 seasons. Before those Young People's Concerts, Turner wasn't gunning for an orchestra career, per se. But she now thinks of those performances as a catalyst. She also passed through the Civic Orchestra, then, in 1962 — the same year she became the first American to win the International Harp Contest — she joined the CSO itself. Turner's 63-season tenure with the orchestra ends with concerts at Ravinia on Aug. 9 and 17. 'For most of my life, the schedule of an orchestral musician has been the guiding rhythm — rehearsals, performances, travel, and, of course, practicing, which requires many hours each and every day,' she told the Tribune over email. 'But now, I feel a quiet pull toward a different kind of rhythm — one that makes space for more freedom, more spontaneity and perhaps a few surprises.' Life in the CSO has only gotten more bustling in recent decades. The orchestra often tops lists of the busiest American orchestras, calculated by the number of performances, rehearsals and other on-the-clock engagements. But playing under Fritz Reiner, the music director who hired Turner, brought its own intensity. Leading the CSO from 1953 to 1963, Reiner was a brutal taskmaster, the ensemble's musical excellence coming at the cost of some musicians' favor. Turner, however, fondly remembers the year she played under the Hungarian conductor's exacting baton. 'Maestro Reiner had a reputation for being intimidating, but on a personal level, he was very kind to me,' she says. 'There was an intensity and clarity to his leadership that brought out the best in all the sections of the orchestra. I understood from the very beginning that my performance had to be at the highest possible level. Anything less simply wouldn't do… In many ways, it shaped the way I approached my craft for the rest of my career.' Said craft is highly specialized. Today, second harpists are usually hired out as a freelance position and rarely part of permanent orchestra rosters. In repertoire that calls for more than one harp, the second harpist needs to be carefully attuned to the principal's sound in addition to their own. As Turner puts it, 'there's often an element of echo, shimmer, or color reinforcement in harp writing… and when the partnership clicks, it adds a real richness and depth to the texture of the ensemble.' That's easier said than done, according to Julia Coronelli, Milwaukee Symphony's principal harpist. '(Lynne) has a very signature sound that I've never heard anybody else recreate,' says Coronelli, who frequently sits next to Turner as a substitute in the CSO. 'I do think it's harder to play second harp in a lot of ways. You have to place everything with the principal player. That's very hard because of the immediate attack of the string.' The CSO's reputation as a world-class interpreter of Gustav Mahler's symphonies — which require supersized ensembles — means that Turner can be heard on the majority of the CSO's defining Mahler recordings. After joining the orchestra on its recent tour to the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam, Turner sought out the orchestra's 1971 recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with then-music director Georg Solti. She was electrified all over again. 'It has been described as one of the greatest recordings of the 20th century, and I would agree,' Turner says. 'There was a sense among all of us that we were part of something momentous. The scale of the piece, the forces involved, the acoustics of the hall… It all added up to something unforgettable and enduring.' Another favorite CSO album, from 1976: David Del Tredici's 'Final Alice,' featuring soprano Barbara Hendricks and conducted by Solti. In that premiere recording, excerpts from Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' tumble through a kaleidoscope of orchestral color. 'It was such a bold, imaginative work — wildly inventive and completely unlike anything else in the repertoire,' she says. Though not recorded, Turner likewise treasures the memory of accompanying Chicago Symphony Chorus members in Benjamin Britten's 'A Ceremony of Carols,' for treble choir and harp. For that performance, Turner worked closely with Margaret Hillis — not only the founding director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, but the first to break the CSO podium's gender barrier. 'Margaret Hillis was an undeniable presence: commanding, insightful and absolutely wonderful to work with. She had a deep musical intelligence and a real sense for shaping a performance in a way that brought out its emotional core,' Turner says. In Coronelli's eyes, Turner has been a pathbreaker in her own right. According to CSO records, just a little over a dozen women had been in the orchestra before her tenure. At the time she was hired, Turner was one of just three women in the ensemble. 'Obviously, she had to be really strong to do that,' Coronelli says. Today, about 40% of the orchestra's membership are women. That progress is thanks, in part, to pioneers like Turner. 'Today, the CSO reflects a far broader range of voices and identities, and that shift has been both meaningful and necessary,' she tells the Tribune. 'I'm proud to have witnessed — and been part of — that evolution.' Four musicians are retiring from the CSO this year — including assistant principal trumpet Mark Ridenour, who was acting principal of that section between 2003 and 2005, and violinist Joyce Noh, who became the first Asian woman to join the orchestra when she was hired in 1979. Upon their retirements between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 season, harpist Turner and principal trombonist Jay Friedman will be the longest-serving CSO musicians in history, having both joined the orchestra in 1962. Hired in their early 20s by the legendary conductor Reiner, few audiences have known a Chicago Symphony without them. Look for a story about Friedman in an upcoming edition of the Tribune's A+E section.
