yumenohoshi "Eating my heart out in the Twin Cities since 2004"

Every time I come home from life in the city to Hudson, I have to stop in at Dragon Pearl. Helen, the owner, has never forgotten who I am (or, since Hudson is small-town no matter how hard it tries to be otherwise, whose daughter I am), even though I only come back every few months.

The food is always extremely tasty. Too often, you go to a Chinese joint and every thing in the dish taste the same- not so at Dragon Pearl. If you order lo mein, each vegetable’s flavour comes out and it’s never grease-tastic. You will also not find any mystery meat hidden by succulent batter in your sesame chicken. The DP (as I have called it since I was a wee child) always uses recognizable meats.

All in all, if the thought of another podunk burger in Hudson makes you break out in hives, the best place you can go for something a bit different is the Dragon Pearl~

If you’re looking for a fantastically presented, hipster Italian meal, you might want to go elsewhere.

However, if you have fond memories of your mum’s lasagna or your grandma’s spaghetti and meatballs, you have just come home. With Vescio’s homemade marinara sauce and generous servings of luscious pasta, you just can’t help but feel like you’re back in the kitchen you grew up in (unless, of course, your family didn’t roll that way).

Even so, there’s something for every foodie here- gorgeous chicken parmigiana, pancetta-wrapped chicken fontina with homemade noodles, and the BEST homemade ravioli you can ever hope to wrap your lips around. You can also get most of their pasta dishes oven-baked style, where you’ll find an already-delicious meal made even more amazing by lots of mozzarella and ricotta to make it extra homey (I will admit I most often order their spinach and cheese ravioli this way).

The desserts, if you manage to save room, are always sinful, with various homemade cheesecakes and Italian staple tiramisu always rotating so you can never be sure when you’ll hit upon a lucky visit.

I can’t recommend Vescio’s enough. Eat here. Fo real.

I’m really not a huge sports bar fan, but I will make an exception for Big 10; here is the only place I am not ashamed to order a bacon cheeseburger with 3x pickles on an onion bun and finish the whole bloody thing, all while being simultaneously subjected to sports blaring on the TV and old metal blaring from the stereo.

Things are pretty standard at Big 10- burgers, hot dogs, subs… but they are made well and made deliciously. When that American fatty craving hits me, this is where I think of first. Even though the burgers are delightfully bad-for-you-in-the-best-way, they still manage to not get that terrible soggy-fat texture and the fries are always to die for.

Plus the free old school bar popcorn makes a fine appetizer for the thrifty.

There’s also a Big 10 sub shop for those of you hoping to take-out your cravings.