The 5 best things we ate in the Twin Cities area this week

If a black cat were to cross my path right now, I'd absolutely try to cuddle it. I leave pennies where they lie and I would never willy-nilly toss salt over my shoulder. Superstitions just aren't something I believe in. But there was no other way to explain a string of unfortunate meals — I was cursed. Bafflingly bad food orders haunted nearly a week's worth of meals. For someone who loves to cook and is generally described as a professional eater, it was a bizarre stretch. Something drastic had to be done. I had to go back to my roots.

I grew up in northern Minnesota, where hockey season was second only to Sunday mornings in reverence. To break my food curse, I had to go where the Wild would be on TV and flannel counts as formalwear. I told my husband to meet me at Iron Ranger.

Tom Forti's Grand Avenue restaurant is a little slice of home with modern sensibility — like a pumpkin-spiced Old Fashioned poured behind the bar. It's just the right mix of neighborhood casual with a pretty setting that works for a weeknight date night.

Famished, we ordered the Ranger wings ($16, $13 during happy hour). There are a few different sauce options, but this one is a proprietary blend that clings to every crispy edge. One bite, and the curse was broken. The thick sauce is a flavor dynamism of smoky, sweet barbecue and tangy, spicy Buffalo. The result is everything wonderful in one messy wing. (Joy Summers)

1085 Grand Av., St. Paul, 651-203-7096, ironrangermn.com

Some fall weekends, you get a "stop everything" kind of day, when the plans that felt so important you had to put them in your calendar no longer matter. The sun is out, the leaves are golden, and fresh doughnuts are waiting.

Last weekend, my family had one of those days. We bailed on our obligations and drove to one of our favorite apple orchards. It feels a little like cheating to stop into the store first thing when you arrive at Pine Tree Apple Orchard, but the scent of cinnamon and sugar radiating from the red barn demands it. So, we bought our souvenirs and our goodies, brought them over to a picnic table in a gorgeous field, and ate these perfect little bites of autumn. (Doughnuts are $4.19 for a half-dozen, $7.39 for a dozen.) It was all the sustenance we needed to play on the antique tractor, watch for a train to go by, and hike up the hill to select the perfect pumpkin from the patch. We may not have picked an actual apple, but the quintessential fall experience was never really about apples anyway. (Sharyn Jackson)

One of my favorite desserts growing up was my grandma's rice pudding. She'd make two batches, one with raisins and one without, because it bothered her more to watch me and my sister turn up our noses and eat around the raisins than it did to double her dessert efforts. It was over-the-top sweet, and I loved it.

When I saw wild rice pudding ($12) on Owamni's fall menu, it was a must-order — for the sake of both nostalgia and curiosity. What kind of spin would the Indigenous restaurant, which eschews colonial ingredients like dairy, wheat flour and cane sugar, put on a childhood favorite? A delicious one. A scoop of creamy, honey-sweetened wild rice was set atop a pool of fruit purée and sunflower butter, and then garnished with bee pollen, sunflower brittle and raspberries. The sunflower butter-fruit purée combo was reminiscent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (albeit a high-end one), and the brittle and bee pollen gave the rice mixture added layers of flavor and texture. Unlike my grandma's rice pudding, this wasn't overly sweet; it was just sweet enough. It's like my favorite dessert and my taste buds both grew up. And not a raisin in sight. (Nicole Hvidsten)

420 S. 1st St., Mpls., 612-444-1846, owamni.com

Hand pies from Down Under are currently on my radar after a visit to Bub's Aussie Pies a couple of weeks ago. I was still craving them when I saw Jamo's New Zealand Pie Co. parked outside the office this week. Lunch was decided.

I got the combo — a savory pie plus seasoned fries — for $14, and went with steak and cheese for my pie. Chunks of steak are practically suspended in a supremely thick brown gravy, a slice of provolone is draped over the top of it, and everything is baked into a flaky, round pie crust. If you've had canned beef stew, you'll recognize the comforting simplicity in this scratch-made version. The fries are seasoned with a proprietary blend of salts, including one with dehydrated chicken (beware, vegetarians) that dialed the umami up to an 11.

jamospies.com

A particular quandary presents itself on the rare Monday night when a fancy cocktail is desired. Even before the pandemic and staffing issues had many restaurants shortening hours, Monday nights in Minneapolis were often the night places closed to reset for the week. Maybe most diners are resetting, too. But sometimes that's the day when a meal (and drink) prepared with care by someone else is exactly what's needed.

Now add Flora Room to the list of (few) places open on Mondays. The unmarked bar beneath Daniel del Prado's just-opened Porzana has now added a food menu. On it are hand rolls, chicken karaage, an enormous fried chicken sandwich, and a double-stacked smashburger ($17). The whole menu is served until midnight.

The salty, juicy beef comes with crispy edges that peek out under layers of American cheese. It's a full meal, but adding an order of thick-cut fries ($12) is a wise choice. I split it with a friend while we danced around three simultaneous conversations and had just about the best Monday night ever. (J.S.)