Should you visit the new Minneapolis Holiday Market?
I'll answer that with a qualified yes, because there are a number of payoffs, food- and drink-wise, when braving the chill — and putting up with the flaws — at this new Holidazzle parade replacement, on Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis.
First things first: The potato pancakes are the gift everyone should be giving themselves this Christmas-Hanukkah-Kwanzaa-Solstice-Festivus season. Kartoffelhaus Potato Pancakes partners Christine and Nick Burbach and Steve and Karin VanZyl are first-time food vendors, although you'd never know it, given their prowess with potatoes and griddles. They're cranking out a rustic delicacy that hits all the right winter street-fare grace notes.
Every morning, the crew finely shreds untold amounts of waxy Yukon Gold spuds, fortifying them with chopped onions. The mixture (bound by a bit of egg and semolina flour) is formed into thick cakes and fried on a flat-top grill in a thin layer of oil until they achieve a deep brown outer shell — the outer edges are wonderfully crunchy — that gives way to an almost creamy interior. The recipe even boasts a bit of street cred, hailing from a stand at a Weihnachtsmarkt in Thune, Germany, that sells potato pancakes as a fundraiser for the town fire department's youth training program.
Unlike many market food prices — which often feel 15 to 20 percent too high — the stand's $6-for-two and $8-for-three seems about right. Oh, I almost forgot: When asked if you'd prefer sour cream, applesauce, "or a little bit of both," definitely go with the last option.
Steve VanZyl is a former chef at the Lexington, and his German-born spouse was destined for a life in latkes: her maiden name is Pfannkuch. That's German for pancake. What are the odds?
Brilliance on a bun
The venerable Black Forest Inn is on the premises — hurrah — and the Eat Street landmark is flexing its fluency in the sausage-making arts with a trio of house-made lovelies.
There's the superb pork-veal bratwurst ($6), a recipe that co-owner Erich Christ has been making — and perfecting — for more than a half-century. Christ's exceptional weisswurst ($6) formula is similarly delicious, heavier on the veal than the bratwurst (and ground twice, yielding a more refined bite), and flecked with plenty of parsley. For the pork-averse, Christ cranks out a wonderfully sweet-hot curry-seasoned chicken sausage ($5), expertly funneling the kitchen's abundant chicken scraps into a lamb casing.
All three deserve high praise, particularly since they're served in the restaurant's buttery, sesame-studded house-baked buns. Even the condiments are spot on: a grainy honey mustard and Christ's feisty curry ketchup. Such goodness begs the question: When will the Black Forest Inn launch a food truck?
A second sausage vendor, Deutschland Meats of Lindstrom, Minn., also turns out a brat ($6), and it's fine. But the real attention grabber is what they've dubbed their Christmas sausage ($8), a rustic pork monster — it's nearly a foot long — seasonally seasoned with cranberries and red wine. It's terrific. If only the bun and condiments were operating on the same exalted level.
Beer-cheese bliss
Naturally, there's a pretzel stand, and its output is just what a German pretzel should be: chewy, salty, filling. But the total talker is the pretzel bread bowl filled with beer-cheese soup ($8). The "bowl" cleverly revitalizes one of Chainrestaurantland's dreariest inventions, and fills it with a rich and silky homage to the Midwest that's occasionally peppered with snips of carrot and onion. It is, in a word, fabulous.
Outdoor comfort-food bliss
Leslie Vadnais knows her soups, having launched a line of them for Kowalski's Markets. At Venus Spaetzle Haus, she's showing everyone how chunky tomato is done; it's perfectly seasoned, and the pieces of tomato really retain the stove's heat, warming you from the inside out. Her skill set translates to grilled cheese sandwiches, a mozzarella-Cheddar combo on mustard-dill bread that's fried in scandalous amounts of butter until the cheese hits just the right level of meltiness and the bread arrives at a delicate toastiness ($10 for both, $6 for bisque alone, $6 for sandwich alone).
Vadnais is also doctoring German-imported spaetzle with plenty of Parmesan and Swiss cheeses, serving the tender noodles straight up with butter and parsley ($9) or doused in a robust mushroom stroganoff ($10). Either way, both exude a marvelous stick-to-your-ribs hot-dish quality that's simultaneously Midwestern and German. Hurrah.
Sugar and spice
Nothing but good things to say about the paper cone filled with warm, sugar- and cinnamon-coated almonds or pecans ($6 and $10) at Hudson, Wis.-based Knoke's. Solomon's Bakery is hawking an ever-changing array of well-prepared pastries, including its popular chocolate croissants. Candy Meister fills a counter with colorful and reasonably priced imported German hard candies.
Sponsel's stuffs the equivalent of two apples inside tender puff pastry ($6), then dresses it in caramel and white chocolate, a confection that could probably feed a family of four. But the stand's don't-miss item is the divine, softball-size dumpling ($6). Picture a pie dough-like crust enveloping firm, cinnamon-tossed Haralsons (cultivated at their Jordan orchard), baked to a bewitching brown and served in a pool of apple cider, its flavors intensified by a long simmer on the stove.
Nothing says "Frohe Weihnachten" quite like the lebkuchen ($5.25) that's skillfully and lovingly prepared by New York City-based Leckerlee. It's impressively complicated, a crisp oblatan wafer that's topped with a low dome of ground almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts. That tender cake-cookie hybrid bears a slight gingerbready cast, one that is accented by pops of candied citron and orange peel. One version is finished with a light sugar glaze, the other is blanketed in dark chocolate; both are superb, and easily big enough to share.
Raise your mug
There's an impressive Minnesota connection at the booths pouring the terrific gluehwein (mulled wine), a robust custom blend of Marechal Foch and Fredonia grapes produced specifically for the market by Millner Heritage Vineyard & Winery in Kimball, Minn.
It's a don't-miss libation for anyone of legal drinking age, and a near-necessity as the winds pick up and the temperature dips. Each steaming mug is bursting with alluring nose appeal, thanks to a fragrant blend of cinnamon, allspice, cloves and orange, a kind of Proustian trigger that will launch a thousand choruses of "O Tannenbaum."
Kudos also to the sweeter variation that's steeped with rum-infused caramelized sugar. There's a warmed hard cider, too. It possesses antifreeze properties similar to that of the gluehwein (it's also produced by Millner), but blessed with floral apple notes, thanks to Honeycrisps, Haralsons and Zestars harvested from a Faribault, Minn., orchard.
None are particularly inexpensive, hovering in the $10 range, with $7-ish refills. A big chunk of that cost is surely caught up in the souvenir mug. Consider it an annoying, semi-tacky keepsake upcharge.
Forget about finding a decent hot chocolate, a mystifying omission. For nonalcoholic hot apple cider, head directly to the Sponsel's stand and enjoy the orchard's delicious Haralson-made version ($4), freshly pressed in Jordan.
As for the beer, there's a trio of mainstream Bavarian options ($7, 16-oz. pours), imported for the occasion from Paulaner, and they're fine. But did it occur to anyone to tap any of the two dozen or so craft breweries that have popped up in the metro area in the past few years? A few Minnesota-brewed winter beers would really hit the spot.
Yes, there are freebies
Don't overlook the samples at Brunkow Cheese, hot off the griddle and wonderfully gooey. Think of it as one of those supermarket grazing stations, where free sampling encourages sales; in this case, eight flavored varieties of baked cheese (bacon, cranberry, jalapeño, garlic) from Darlington, Wis. I also loved the tiny shots of maple syrup, both pure and flavored (ginger, vanilla, cranberry, habanero), from Three Rivers Farm in Elko, Minn.
A few tips to enjoy your visit
Keep warm: Get out of the cold and take a seat at one of the handy picnic tables inside the market's tented dining hall. It's not exactly toasty — think skating-rink warming house — but it's a decided improvement over the windy outdoors.
Visit after dusk: Under the harsh light of day, it's easier to notice the decided paucity of garlanded cheer. The market is far more enchanting after sunset, when the zillions of holiday lights — and live music — crank up the festivity factor.
Carry cash: Lots of cash. With a few rare exceptions, cash is king among the market's food vendors.
Keep your receipt. The admission fee is a drag, but at least it buys a season pass, so don't toss it.
Don't forget your driver's license. Alcohol purchases require one.
Follow Rick Nelson on Twitter: @RickNelsonStrib
