Mashawi Halal Grill and Pangea Halal Market

In this week’s edition of The Heavy Table’s Churn newsletter, we head to Coon Rapids for a powerful 1-2 combo of Middle Eastern restaurant and market.

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My family’s been gone all week, attending a reunion in West Virginia while I hang around at home, trying to write (at least half of) a manuscript about Wisconsin food.

My romantic notions dissipated quickly: trying to go from 0 to 25,000 words in five days is a brutal experience that is truly humbling, if by “humbling” we mean that it’s like watching your own self-esteem being ejected through the window of a friendly Irish pub off of a very steep cliff into an empty trash compactor.

Incidentally, that is the proper use of the word “humbling.” If you don’t feel terrible after you’ve been humbled, you’re doing it wrong. I’ve never understood the contemporary use of the word, which is what you say when you’ve been given a coveted award. You’re not being humbled, guys, you’re being aggrandized. Those are opposite things.

I generally maintain a pretty constant stream of self-criticism in order to keep the ambient levels of self-satisfaction from getting too intense, kind of like spraying down the smoking embers of a forest fire that might, if left alone, flare back up again. But during weeks like this, the equivalent of a damp blizzard followed by sub-zero temperatures, it’s less about battling self-satisfaction and more about crawling out of bed to actually do some work.

It’s always both funny and alarming to witness my sub-conscious shift from “preventative self-aggression” to “self care,” because it doesn’t happen very often, and it’s a clear sign that something Actually Horrible or at least Actually Exhausting is happening.

This week, self-care has manifested itself as a scheduled nightly movie (City of God, Apocalypse Now, the Godfather, Godfather II, Goodfellas - all the feel-good classics) and an end-of-the-week jerk chicken cookout.

The thing about jerk chicken is this: It’s a reasonably reliable recipe, but it is legitimately a big pain in the butt. You need to source large quantities of annoying ingredients (whole all spice, handfuls of bay leaves) that pretty much require a special trip to an Indian or Latin market. You need about 18 hours of prep and lead time, because your chicken marinates overnight and you need to soak the aromatics you’ll end up throwing onto your grill.

And you’ve got to - GOT TO - make banana ketchup and red beans with coconut rice, two sides that immeasurably improve and complete the jerk chicken eating experience.

And you’ve got to manage a charcoal grill - lighting it, banking the coals, covering half the grate with damp bay leaves, chucking in aromatics, smoking your chicken under the dome, and finishing it on the hot side of the fire.

It’s a whole deal. But the reason I motivate myself to do this, just for myself, is that it really does make me feel better: jerk chicken with banana ketchup and red beans with coconut rice is one of the most flavorful, delicious, complete and nourishing meals known on this planet. My “last supper” request teeter-totters between a full omakase at Kado no Mise and this specific jerk chicken experience. They are completely different, but they share something in common: they legitimately feed the soul as well as the body.

I think that may be what every serious food person I’ve met has in common: they’re looking for a flavor that feeds something profoundly deeper than an empty stomach. It’s a long quest, but getting there is wonderful, and being able to provide it for oneself makes a long week seem worthwhile. – James Norton

The Sassy Salad at Keziah’s Kitchen in Pine City is built with a layer of soft noodles topped with a mix of bitter and tender greens, carrots, and bean sprouts, finished off with a generous portion of deep-fried pork belly. It earns its name with laab seasoning that packs fire and smokiness, tempered with the sweet-sour combo of tamarind sauce. Stir it all together, and it’s a wild dish, hugely enjoyable, and the cucumber slices provide a breather between flavorful bites. – Amy Rea

Of course the dumplings at Eden Prairie’s Dumpling Eatery are the star of the show, but don’t overlook the noodle menu. A big bowl of Zha Jiang Noodles was the perfect order on a recent rainy day, with its rich ground pork sauce and fresh veggies. On its own, it’s a quiet dish, very comforting and mild, but the chili oil on the table kicked up the flavors and added heat that made the sauce more complex. I had plans to bring leftovers home, right down to the last noodle, but it was too good to stop. – Amy Rea

There’s nothing like making something difficult at home to reinforce standards for what you get when you’re out on the town. At a recent ambitious brunch at my place, I collaborated with friends to make scratch bagels, bacon, morning buns, and eclairs (below).

The eclairs turned into one of the trickier pieces, what with their double cook plus scratch creme pat plus “fill ‘er up” assembly step plus - plus! - a chocolate dip for the top. It was therefore delightful to hit Rose Street recently and taste eclairs that were clearly made with an equal amount of pain and suffering (if a little more professionalism) - chewy, not too sweet, perfectly in balance, and a showcase for good chocolate and rich filling – James Norton

We eat at Kyatchi at least once a month. It’s close, consistent, friendly, and the menu ranges from sashimi to hot dogs so we can always find something we want. With Tristen Sponsler running the kitchen, our neighborhood favorite is exceeding expectations regularly. There’s a changing array of monthly specials and creative cocktails, and the menu mainstays, already good, are being skillfully reinvented. Case in point: the Agedashi Tofu ($10), fried to just-crisp on the outside with a creamy, luscious interior, served in a bowl of addictive daishi broth. A gentle accompaniment for a happy hour beer or a chilled glass of sake; the broth so flavorful I’d buy it by the gallon for late-night soba emergencies. – Jeanne Lakso

Although it’s best known for its UNESCO-recognized Old Town, Rauma also boasts a scenic location on Finland’s western coast. We went to Marina Vista Restaurant for its seaside seating, expecting fairly basic food geared towards passing boaters. Instead, we got cuisine that lived up to the view. Skagen is an appetizer that originated in Sweden, typically made by topping toasted white bread with shrimp salad. This version swaps in the local rye-based archipelago bread and smoked salmon salad, and adds an exuberant garnish of crayfish and pickled onions and cucumber. It tastes like a gentle sea breeze and captures the contentment of long, sunny summer Nordic nights. – Stacy Brooks

Restaurants like Mashawi Halal Grill represent one of the coolest facets of dining out in modern America: the opportunity to taste global flavors presented affordably, deliciously, and without compromise. The restaurant’s menu presents a cornucopia of Middle Eastern favorites (including sambusas, cheese-topped flatbread called manakeesh, char-broiled lamb or goat liver, and falafel) but the killer application is the Mashawi Mixed Grill ($30, $80, or $150.)

We tried the $30 and $80 versions on separate visits and found them to be Really Large and Extraordinarily Massive, respectively. The 1-2 person grill ($30, above) comfortably feeds 3-4.