Dara
Milda's pasties: Before
Milda's pasties: Before
If you had to nominate one dish for a lifetime hall of fame in the Twin Cities, what would you pick?
A couple dishes immediately leap to mind for me: 112 Eatery's foie gras meatballs with tagliatelle, Kramarczuk's cabbage roll, Pizzeria Lola's My-Sharoni pepperoni and sausage pizza, the Birchwood's BLT, the Parlour cheeseburger, Ngon Bistro's pho, Meritage's lunchtime crispy chicken thighs, and I'm sure more will hop into my mind's hungry eye as soon as I put my head on my pillow tonight. (Tweet me yours, @DearDara!)
But friends, absolutely, without question one of my tippity-top, best dishes in the metro has to be: The pastie at Milda's Cafe. Now, I was there a couple weeks ago working on an unrelated story for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. (Subscribe! Less than $10 a year. What a deal!). While I was there I got my first pastie in a couple years, and it was so delightful I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop bugging all my friends about it. Now I'm bugging you!
Here's the deal. If you don't know, pasties are one of the signature foods of Minnesota's Iron Range, they are said to have evolved when Cornish miners working the northern iron mines shared their food-ways. They're pie-crust on the outside, meat and veg on the inside. When they're done poorly they're gross, but when they're done expertly they're a bit of heaven on a plate.
I talked to Ayman Samie, who bought the longtime Harrison neighborhood restaurant three years ago, and he says that every Monday, Wednesday and Friday they have a baker who would only like to be known on the internet as Jeff. Jeff is a master pastry-maker, and knows the old-school ways of pasties. He comes in very, very early, makes a few trays of pasties, cinnamon rolls (also stellar), and the gravy, then jets to get on with his life. Jeff is a genius: The pastie exterior is stretchy and resilient but light and delectable. The beef-and-potato filling is just comfort by the forkful, rustic, humble, real as daylight. A little like meatloaf, a little like a baked potato, a lot like everything you would need to eat when you're swinging a pick-axe all day. Amazing.
Dara
Milda's pasties: After
Milda's pasties: After
When I talked to Samie he said, "I bought this restaurant because I love this comfortable food, and I want to keep it in the neighborhood. You look around here any day, and people just go from table to table, visiting. Every day we make our own gravy. It takes a lot of work. That's why people don't do that any more. We have a few prizes from you at the magazine, last one was 2009. It would be nice to get something from you this year."
Mr. Samie: Put this on the wall. The pasties at Milda's are first in the hall of fame of my Minnesota-loving heart.
If you live around here and you haven't had one lately, go! I totally regret not having had one in a while. Big mistake. Now rectified. Only Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, a pastie of legend, a pastie of excellence, a pastie that's lifetime city-wide hall-of-famer.
1720 Glenwood Ave., Mpls., 612-377-9460
