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.

Appetites: Go beyond burgers and brats this grilling season
Unless you relish brushing snow off your grill, our outdoor cooking season is pretty much a flash in the pan. Go beyond the usual burgers and brats with these ideas.
Appetites: Inside the newly expanded Cossetta's
Cossetta's has long been one of the biggest names in Italian food in the Twin Cities, and it has just gotten a lot bigger. The new pastry shop is the new crown jewel of the expansion, says the Heavy Table's James Norton.
Appetites: It's cool NOT to cook
The pressure to cook is enormous. For people who don't cook, it can be shaming. Hold your head high, non-cooks. You fulfill a role not yet acknowledged in this country.
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: Twin Cities home to numerous vibrant farmers markets
It's time to talk farmers markets with Beth Dooley here on Appetites. She is the author of "Minnesota's Bounty: The Farmers' Market Cookbook."
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: Seasoning with maple syrup
It's sugar time in Minnesota, with maple sap flowing and being cooked down to delicious syrup around the region.
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.