The 5 best things our food writers ate this week

December birthdays are a breed unto themselves. I have the double whammy of competing with glittering lights for attention and a name that means every ornament on the tree that’s mine is clearly labeled. It’s wonderful, but at the same time we are not celebrating Christmas until I get some birthday notice first.

It was family tradition that my mom always made her special cardamom bread for the occasion. Snowy mornings were greeted with the floral spice perfume wafting from the kitchen alongside her fresh coffee as she toasted up slices and generously buttered them.

As an adult, the task falls to me to make my own birthday treats and I have missed this tradition for several years until I happened upon a glorious braided loaf of cardamom bread ($6) at Aki’s Breadhaus’ new location in the Broken Clock Brewing building.

The tender, enriched dough has all the pillowy pull of challah and crushed cardamom seeds flavor every bite. The exterior has just a bit of pearl sugar for a touch of sweetness. Toasted and smeared with butter, it tastes just like it’s my birthday season. (Joy Summers)

Aki’s Breadhaus 1712 NE. Marshall St., Mpls.; akisbreadhaus.com

When a friend told me their mom’s favorite place for eggs Benedict was Shar’els, it promptly went on the bucket list. A week later, I landed at the Oakdale spot just behind Caribou Coffee off Hwy. 36. At 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, most of the tables were filled at this modest 25-year-old homestyle breakfast and lunch spot with dining hall vibes and “Gone fishing” decor. It felt as if bingo cards were about to appear any minute.

But, homestyle fare fills the tables. An all-day breakfast menu shares space with soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches and sundaes. Past rotating daily specials have included tater tot and goulash hot dishes, stroganoff, stuffed peppers and open-face sandwiches.

Of course, an eggs Benedict had to be part of this inaugural order, and the country-style eggs Benedict ($13.99) was calling. There’s much more flavor to it than meets the eye. Two grilled biscuit slices are topped with sausage patties and poached eggs and then smothered in a rich country gravy. It comes with your choice of fries or hash browns.

In essence, it’s a mash-up of both traditional eggs Benedict and biscuits and gravy, so fans of both can have the best of two worlds. And while it veers from tradition, it still reads like classic breakfast fare. Just as Shar’els intended. (Nancy Ngo)

Shar’els, 6030 50th St. N., Oakdale, bit.ly/sharels

Herbst, the fine-dining restaurant on Raymond Avenue in St. Paul, has been built around change. Owners Angie and Jorg Pierach centered the restaurant on the seasonal produce available at area farms. With these changes, it makes sense that the kitchen staff and approach would evolve.

Ben Moenster has been in the Herbst kitchen for only a short time, but already the Denmark-born chef has been making tweaks as we head into this next season.

New menu items include duck dumplings ($14), braised meat tucked into wonton wrappers and fried until blistered and crunchy. Served with kimchi, a peanut-studded chile crisp and bright ginger, it eats like a bar snack packing an effervescent, spicy kick. This isn’t a room I’d expect to find a crispy fried bite that would pair well with a Bent Paddle Black Ale, but that’s the thing about change. You never know what good thing could be coming next. (J.S.)

779 Raymond Av., St. Paul; herbstsaintpaul.com

Centro, the locally run taqueria with four metro locations, has a pop-up in the downtown Minneapolis skyway two days a week. On Tuesdays, Hippo Pockets, the company’s ghost kitchen concept specializing in stuffed tortilla wraps, operates out of a former Caribou in U.S. Bank Bancorp Center (Centro is featured on Wednesdays).

On the day we visited, four Hippo Pocket varieties were listed, but the chicken bacon ranch was sold out and they were out of tahini for the falafel, so we went with the other two choices (both $13).

We thought we would be most smitten with the Original, a ground beef concoction stuffed with familiar, classic taco ingredients and lime crema. It was fine, but the surprise hit ended up being the Cubano. Citrus-braised pork, ham and gooey Swiss are stuffed into an octagon-shaped toasted tortilla. It then gets generous doses of mustard and pickles. It was the proof we needed that the bold flavors we love in a Cubano can work using a thin flour tortilla in lieu of the denser hunk of sandwich bread we’re used to. Although this could never replace a traditional Cubano, it was sure fun to mix things up. (N.N).

Hippo Pockets at U.S. Bancorp Center (800 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.), hippopockets.com

“We’re just lovers of all things delicious,” said Sarah Maxim. She and husband Seth are longtime hospitality folks who purchased Duluth’s Lake Superior Brewing and revived it during the pandemic. Seth is the head brewer and head chef, but the two developed the menu together, tossing flavor ideas back and forth before arriving on delicious ideas like a smash burger topped with Gruyère cheese, kimchi mayo and a gochujang glaze ($19).

It was quite a journey to get there. Other than bringing a beloved brewery back from the brink, the two were part of an early wave of businesses that opened in Duluth’s Lakeside/Lester Park neighborhood after the city started to allow liquor sales in the area. They made the risky move to buy a large building and start building a destination brewery, restaurant and brewtel (that’s a hotel at the brewery, obviously).

Their menu developed from pizzas and smash burgers to much more. The two love to build in world cuisines, especially Asian flavors like the nuoc cham that’s served over plump chicken wings or the kimchi mayo in the Korean burger that’s sourced from a small Duluth maker.

Maxim said the key to their burger is the beef: it’s fresh, never frozen and grass-fed on a family farm. The result is a serious burger beauty that’s juicy, spicy and packed with flavor that never competes with the unabashed beefiness of the patties. It’s enough to make a person cruise right past those Bentleyville lights and lines to hit the taste bud fireworks waiting just a little farther along the Lake Superior shore. (J.S.)

5324 E. Superior St., Duluth; cqlakesuperiorbrewingduluth.com