Appetites®

Every week, we bring you local and regional food and drink news, trends, reviews, flavors, recipes and advice. Appetites airs every Wednesday on MPR News' All Things Considered with host Tom Crann.

Appetites: Hot restaurant designs transform mere meals into dining experience
Restaurants design in many ways is like service: when it's good, you don't notice the nuances. But when it's bad, it can be glaring. Good restaurant design can turn a mere meal into a dining experience.
Appetites: Snow puts a freeze on spring dining
Unrelenting snow and sleet have made late April feel like February, and that means a seemingly endless winter for local diners who seek out seasonal food from our region.
Appetites: What's new in concessions in Minneapolis parks
It used to be that snack options at local parks were limited to popcorn and ice cream. Now, concessionaires at several city parks offer various goods from lattes and lemon-ginger scones, to tap beer and fresh oysters.
Appetites: Food taboos determine icky morsel or prized delicacy
Recent news of horse meat being mistakenly mixed into ground beef in Europe got us thinking about cultures that frown on eating horse meat, and why some foods are considered taboo -- or even "icky" in some cultures -- while other morsels are prized delicacies.
Appetites: Crave Brothers make a mean, green cheese
It's easy to think of local cheese as an old-fashioned, traditional food but the face of upper Midwestern cheese-making is changing to catch some new waves of flavor... and green energy.
Appetites: Restaurants with a side of retail
There's a new restaurant trend in the Twin Cities that does not involve foie gras-topped hamburgers, heirloom beet foams, or anything served on a plate.
Appetites: Food developments in unlikely places
There's a cavalcade of new food developments in the Twin Cities: a new burger bar that also serves elk Wellington, an ambitious attempt at serving sushi in the Minneapolis Skyway and a 21st century approach to food delivery.