The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

If I had been thinking, I probably would have asked my mother-in-law to please pack me a lunch for the flight to Tampa. Elmarie usually has some homemade meatballs in the freezer, and she makes terrific kolaches and the world's best potato salad. But I didn't think of it, and so we left the farm yesterday morning for the airport with about 150 miles of road ahead of us, and not a place between Protivin, Iowa and MSP where you can pick up a decent box lunch - at least not on a Sunday morning.

Gastronomic Highlights of 2008:

I stopped in at Shiraz Fireroasted Cuisine for dinner the other night, to check out the new menu and the belly dancing, and at 8:30 on a Saturday night, the place was nearly empty. That's really a shame, because it is a charming little restaurant, with good food and an ambience of Persian arts and crafts that's stylish enough for a date. On earlier visits, I grumbled