WNDF: the clam digger

If you're over 21, summer in Bismarck isn't complete without a clam digger from the Broken Oar in Mandan, ND. 

From what I can tell, a clam digger is basically a salad in a class, with some alcohol. The clam digger is made over ice, including a pickle, green olive, yellow peppers, seasonings, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Clamato and vodka. They are delicious. I think clam diggers are cousins to bloody marys and caesars.

Let's toast to summer.

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I've never seen these anywhere other than the Broken Oar Bar in Mandan, ND, so I deem it a Weird North Dakota Food (WNDF). 

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Added June 2, 2009: It has been brought to my attention that Mandan's Broken Oar bar is certainly not the first or only location that serves clam diggers. But since the clam digger is a tradition at the Broken Oar, I decided that it will remain a WNDF. 

Softball and WNDF: Giant's Sunflower Seeds

Corey's softball season is officially in full swing. They had their second week of games tonight. His team had softball last Wednesday too - but it was snowing, raining and very very cold. Miserable weather to be playing softball but they played through it.

Tonight was much better.

They won both games and celebrated with a few beers in the parking lot. Such a great preview of all the fun the three-day weekend will bring.

In honor of softball season starting, I stocked up on sunflower seeds.

Here's a plug for Giant's Sunflower Seeds. They come from Wahpeton, ND, (yay North Dakota!) and they are delicious. My favorite flavor is the BBQ ... but that bag is almost gone already so I took a photo of the dill pickle flavor, which is also quite good. I can't sit through a softball evening without a bag of seeds.

Can this be a WNDF (Weird North Dakota Food)? It's not necessarily weird, but it is from North Dakota. I'll make the executive decision that yes, it is a WNDF.

Sunflowers and North Dakota go hand in hand. Did you know that National Sunflower Association is located in Bismarck, ND? Yeah, so that was my random nerdy fact of the day.

Anyway, in the summer, Bismarck seems to be surrounded by a wall of the big yellow flowers. They really are huge. And so incredibly tall. Photo taken by me in August 2007

Alright so I have another fun nerdy fact for today - the ND Horizons Blog uses one of my sunflower photos for it's heading graphic. Check it out.

WNDF: That's a lotta knoephla

Fried's Family Restaurant is open again! 

I've talked about Freid's before ... they are a local, mom and pop, truck-stop-like restaurant in Mandan, ND. In my opinion, they have the best knoephla soup on earth. Bon Appétit magazine agrees. This winter, their restaurant was flooded due to a pipe break and they've been closed ever since. Until today.

Corey, Grandma Rene, Grandpa Darwin, and I celebrated the reopening with dinner at the restaurant. 

I had knoephla soup. Knoephla soup is a dough dumpling thing with some small potato pieces in a creamy broth. I'm told it's a German food. Or maybe it's a 'Germans from Russia' food. Whatever its origins are, I will also classify it as a WNDF (Weird North Dakota Food) because it is readily available in North Dakota and I didn't find any in Germany. So there you have it - knoephla soup. Once you've had the knopehla soup at Fried's, all other knoephla soup becomes just not quite good enough.  Thanks grandma for being my wonderful hand model.

For dinner I had knoepla and kraut (sauerkraut). Knoepla soup and knoephla and kraut for dinner ... wow that's a lotta knoephla. I eat mine with a bit of ketchup. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

Here's a recipe for Knoephla Soup

WNDF: Puppy Chow

In this installment of Weird North Dakota Food (WNDF), I'm featuring puppy chow.

The name of this sweet snack has always deterred me from trying it. Puppy chow? As in dog food? No thank you.

Today at work, (I work at a university) a student club was having a bake sale. At the bake sale was this authentic North Dakota food. My coworkers said it was delicious. How could I pass it up?! I had never tried it but I figured that if I didn't like it, Corey probably would. And even if Corey didn't like it, it could make a debut on my blog as a WNDF.

Turns out, it's not bad. It's a bit too sweet for my taste, but it's pretty addicting in small amounts. However, to eat this as an authentic North Dakotan, I think I'd have to eat it by the handful.

I don't know that this food actually originates in North Dakota, but it is so popular here, it might as well be from here. It kind of looks like dirty snow. We have plenty of that around here right now. How seasonal.

Here's a recipe.

WNDF: Cloverdale tangy summer sausage

This is the second WNDF feature (Weird North Dakota Food) and it showcases a Mandan favorite: Cloverdale tangy summer sausage, made by Cloverdale Foods.

This little gem is great as a quick snack with crackers and cheese. It’ll be my sandwich tomorrow with some mustard and canned jalapeños. yes. it’s really good.

Now I realize that I touted Cloverdale in the last issue, about fleischkuekle. I promise that I’ll try and move on to a different company for the next feature.

Look! Cloverdale has a webpage! www.cloverdalefoods.com

WNDF: fleischkuekle

This is the first of many Weird North Dakota Food (W.N.D.F.) entries. Is North Dakota food weird? Sometimes. Like this for example: fleischkuekle. What in the world is that, you ask?

According to Wikipedia (yes, it’s in Wikipedia, so it must be real): Fleischkuekle is a type of meat pie made with flat bread, similar to a Cornish pasty, or Russian vareniki. The dish is traditional German Russian recipe, and through immigration became an addition to the Cuisine of North Dakota.

Here’s a close-up of the ready-to-eat felischkuekle:


My aunt Kristen (photo above with my uncle Bob) really likes it and was kind enough to help us make it last week. We eat it with ketchup. It’s definitely no diet meal, but it’s pretty tasty. If you live in the Bismarck-Mandan area, you can usually get pre-made, ready to fry fleischkuekle at the Cloverdale Foods Country Store.

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Moved from the old (and broken) blog to the new blog - here.

WNDF returns with peanut candy corn

WDNF is back!

On my old blog, I had a feature called WNDF - Weird North Dakota Food. 

What does that mean? Is North Dakota food weird? Yes. Sometimes. 

In the past, some of the featured food included: fleischkuekle, creamed pheasant, and scotcharoo bars. I'll move those posts over here this weekend, but to hold you over, here's a new one.

This may be more of a Weird University of Mary Food (of those there are many ... oy). My coworker, Jerry brought this in to work today. It's a really simple thing - it's just a 50/50 mix of salted peanuts and candy corn. 

I should mention that prior to today, I hated candy corn. I avoided them like the plague. But when they are combined with salted peanuts, something magical happens.

Don't they look irresistible?

Have no fear, I've been told candy corn are available all year!