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Submitted photo
Origami, 30 N. 1st St., is the first restaurant in the state to serve fugu, also known as pufferfish or blowfish.
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Biz buzz: Origami featuring pufferfish
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By Gregory J. Scott and Lana Walker
Origami brings notorious pufferfish to Minnesota
To top off its sterling reputation as a sushi favorite in Minneapolis, Origami Downtown has added another unique flavor to its menu of fresh Japanese cuisine. As of Dec. 10, the restaurant is now serving fugu, which is more commonly known as pufferfish or blowfish. It is the first restaurant in Minnesota to do so.
Fugu is a fish that can only be prepared by chefs who have been certified in Japan. The reason? It is a poisonous fish with a toxin in its stomach that can be fatal to humans within a matter of minutes of consumption. When prepared correctly, however, fugu is safe and offers a unique taste unlike any other fish.
Origami is serving tiger fugu, a type known to be the best in Japan. In order to serve the fish, the restaurant was first required to join the Torafugu Buyers Association. The fugu then underwent inspections by Japanese authorities and the FDA before it was shipped from an authorized importer directly to the restaurant. As part of mandated food safety requirements, the fish arrives at American restaurants with its stomach already removed. In addition, all fugu prepared in the United States has been farm raised, meaning it has been fed a carefully controlled diet that reduces the amount of the deadly toxin stored in the fish’s skin, liver and ovaries.
Still, Origami isn’t taking chances. It has hired Shigeyuki Furukawa, a certified fugu chef, to prepare the fish expertly for customers.
So what does it taste like?
“It’s the most unique thing I’ve ever tasted,” says general manager Tim Theobald, who described the experience as blending the chewy texture of jumbo clam with the soft and mellow flavor of whitefish.
Fugu will be sold while quantities last since the U.S. only imports the fish one to three times a year during the winter months. The restaurant has also been offering a type of sake infused with the pufferfish fin. A server sets each 5-oz pour ablaze at the customer’s table and then removes the damp fin, leaving a rich, smoky flavor to the alcohol.
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Lunch Cube opens on Harmon Place
Lunch Cube, the trendy box lunch delivery service known for the red striped cardboard cubes used to pack its meals, has expanded into Loring Park, giving desk-bound office dwellers a gourmet option for their working lunches. Less a restaurant than a last-minute micro-caterer, Lunch Cube specializes in putting together high-end box lunches on short notice, taking orders online and “delivering green” via bicycle or Smartcar. And though aimed at the corporate crowd — catering office meetings accounts for a good bulk of their business — they welcome orders from residents in the nearby apartments, as well.
The new space, located at 1122 Harmon Place, boasts a small, eat-in dining room and a freestanding kitchen. Since Lunch Cube had previously shared a kitchen — and a chef, Jamis Scapple — with the Rosewood Room event space in the Warehouse District, the move marks a significant advance for the fledgling business, which launched back in October of 2008.
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Koyi Sushi leaving Downtown
Warehouse District sushi fans are mourning the loss of Koyi Sushi, which shut down its North 4th Street location on Dec. 31, decamping to a new home in the Seward neighborhood. The venerable sushi restaurant, known for its generously sized rolls and substantially salmon-draped nigiri, will take over the old Seward Co-op space (where it will once again face a Pizza Luce as an across-the-street neighbor).
A planned menu expansion will add a few Thai dishes into the mix, as well as several new appetizers.
Reach Gregory J. Scott at gscott@mnpubs.com.
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Combating cancer
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:42am
By Dylan Thomas
Decorated in neutral tones and blond wood flooring, the infusion room at the Hennepin Comprehensive Cancer Center was designed to feel calm and welcoming to the roughly 500 patients who receive chemotherapy treatments there each year. Center Manager Kelly Porter said one session may run up to six hours, so patients — who receive their infusions in recliners in one of 11 small patient bays ringing the room — are made to feel comfortable. They read, watch TV or, like 48-year-old Desiree Jackson of Minneapolis, three months into chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer in March, simply relax as much as possible. “I just try to nod off a little,” Jackson said. “I just like to get it done and over with.” From his desk in the center of
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The poison patrol
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 11:39am
By Dylan Thomas
A typical call to the Hennepin Regional Poison Center begins at a home on laundry day. A parent pours out a cup of bleach, preparing to add it to the wash. The phone rings and the parent leaves to answer it. A child reaches up for cup of the clear liquid. We’ll let poison center Managing Director Debbie Anderson take over from here: “A child takes a swig [and] they immediately throw up. So, what do parents do? They panic; they call 911.” Anderson said that call would be patched through to her call center in HCMC, where a staff of specially trained pharmacists and pharmacy students take calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The staffer would assure the parent vomiting was
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Savvy about sleep
By jake weyer
There’s little question that folks today are hooked on finding ways to stay awake. The massive collection of energy drinks on display in a room at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center is a testament to that. Voluntary sleep deprivation, not surprisingly, is the most common cause of drowsiness during the day. Neurologist Mark Mahowald, director of the center, sees it all the time. “People always ask, ‘well how do you know if you’re sleep deprived?’ Our first question is, ‘do you use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning?’ If you use an alarm clock, you are by definition sleep deprived because if your brain had collected as much sleep as it needed, you would have awakened before the alarm went off,” he said.
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Triage time
By Sarah McKenzie
No one wants to end up here. But if you do end up in HCMC’s Emergency Department, you’re in place that has a long and successful track record in trauma care. The department, housed in the hospital’s Red Building, 730 S. 8th St., takes up an entire city block and has six specialized team centers. In 1989, HCMC became the first hospital in the state certified as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. The distinction means that the hospital has significant operating room capacity and surgeons available to deliver emergency medical care trained in a variety of specialties. The hospital’s Emergency Department is the busiest in the state with more than 100,000 visits a year, said Michelle Noltimier, director
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Fruit-themed hallways and anti-smoking posters
By Cristof Traudes
Welcome to the part of HCMC that handles severe accidents but also cuts, scrapes and bruises, the part that deals with burn victims and pregnancy but also tonsil trouble and literacy. This is “peeds” — as staffers of pediatrics call it — where health care is only half of the story. Anybody up to age 18 is sent to the department and sometimes 21-year-olds are, too. As a result, peeds is set up much like a tentative parent — to entertain and educate wee ones but steer clear (as much as possible) from stepping on the toes of teens. It’s a department with yellow walls and fruit-themed hallways in one section and sleek grey walls and self esteem-boosting posters in another. Every child that walks through the door is given a
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Politics. Change. Prevention.
By Cristof Traudes
// Art Gonzalez talks about the health care landscape, General Assistance Medical Care and the future //
Art Gonzalez, CEO of Hennepin County Medical Center, sees change on the horizon. More than just health insurance is getting an overhaul; the way hospitals will be graded on success is, too. In the second and final part of his interview with the Downtown Journal, he talks about what that means for HCMC right now and what it will mean down the road.
Downtown Journal: What’s your sense of state leaders’ views of HCMC?
Gonzalez: I get the impression that we’re well known and well regarded. They recognize the impact that we provide in the region.
Obviously, the
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More than one way to give birth
By Sarah McKenzie
Hennepin County Medical Center is home to the state’s first Nurse-Midwife Service. Since 1971, midwives at the hospital have been helping women have natural birth experiences. Rita O’Reilly, director of the hospital’s Nurse Midwife Service, said HCMC practices the “true midwifery philosophy.” “We believe in the normal birth process; keeping birth as natural as possible,” she said. “We discourage elective inductions of labor without a medical indication. We encourage families to be participants in the decision making affecting their pregnancy, labor and births.” The hospital’s nurse midwives deliver more than 800 babies each year. The nine-bed unit’s cesarean section rate is 12.7
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