From Farm to Table, From Table to Fork, From Fork to Mouth

On June 18th my mom told me that a reporter wanted to eat dinner with me, but I didn't know why she wanted to. So I said, "Eh, OK." But then my mom was so excited and said, "Wow, that's so exciting!" She always gets excited about big events.

The reporter asked me to pick a restaurant. I wanted to try cactus. But nobody could find it in a restaurant. So then I wanted swordfish. Then I wanted to look at different restaurants that I'd never been to. I had it narrowed down to two restaurants -- HoQ and a vegetarian place.

HoQ won out because 100 percent of the foods at the other place were vegetarian, which isn't a bad idea, but I wanted to eat some meat in my meal. So HoQ won 51 to 49. It was close. I liked HoQ because it is farmers' food that comes from their farms. I thought it was interesting because it said it was "farm to table" and I didn't know what that meant but it sounded cool.

It was scheduled for a Wednesday but a photographer was sick so I had to have dinner with the reporter on the next Tuesday, July 2.

HoQ restaurant, East Village, Des Moines

So when I went there I thought HoQ meant Home of Queens, or Henry or Quilt, or Home or Quit. So when we got there, we were there first. I sat down at the table and I almost broke a cup, but then I saved it. My mom got really nervous.

Des Moines Register food reporter Jennifer Miller and Mazy

Photographer Bill Niebergall and Mazy

Pickled baby carrots starter

Then three minutes later the reporter got there and she said, "I don't have to guess who you are. You're Mazy." And she was correct. Her name is Jennifer and she is 50. She is a reporter for The Daily Bugle. Just kidding, I mean The Des Moines Register. She does eating reporting -- she writes about food I think! And other kinds of breaking news. Note: that was almost my title for this review -- Breaking News!

Then a photographer came and I had to do all these poses that I didn't like doing for him to take pictures. And I didn't like doing poses because you have to do so many, and I'm bad at smiling. But my mom says I'm not. But I am. And then the photographer named Bill didn't order anything because he was going to a baseball game, and was going to eat hotdogs there.

 Iowa Cheese Plate appetizer

Bread with pickled vegetables

OK, for an appetizer I tried to order a duck liver spread but it was out, very sadly. I wanted to try it because it sounded interesting. I tried liver before and it is awesome! Then I ordered the cheese plate and my favorite kind of cheese was the aged gouda. The cheeses were from Iowa and I made a mistake and now this is why I do not like blue cheese .... "Breaking News! Mazy Hanson ate a gigantic piece of blue cheese and it was not good tasting!! That's your daily highlight. See the details tonight at 8 p.m.!" It did not taste very good to me. But I do like aged gouda and it came with bread and bean sprouts and a strawberry. The strawberry was sun ripened and that made it sweet and juicy.

 Jennifer and Mazy discuss cheese

Bill photographs Mazy's entree -- Braised Beef

After that, I ordered Praised Beef. Wait. I don't think that's right. What was it called? Oh yeah, it was BRAISED Beef. It was grass-fed beef, organic zucchini, and snow pea risotto. I chose that dish because I was interested in it. Jennifer got the duck and my mom, aka Keesia, got sockeye salmon. The food came fancy. It was fancy because the plate was like big and it just looked fancy to me the way they arranged the food.

 Sockeye Salmon

I tried eating a whole piece of beef at once. I don't know why but I was hungry and Bill tried taking a picture of me doing it, and it fell off right as he was done taking the picture. It tasted good, besides the fat, because I don't like fat. It tasted tender and then it like was chewy, and there was a little punch. A punch in the face -- of flavor! But a good one, not a bad one. It tasted good. I did not like the risotto because it tasted like potatoes, to me. That's my opinion. If you ever try it, you can have a different opinion. I also ate a lot of my mom's sockeye salmon. I really liked it because it was, again, tender and a meaty taste and the bumpy texture in some parts and smooth and the dryness tasted good in my mouth. And the texture was very good. And I tried the duck. I liked the duck. I thought it tasted like sausage. It was crunchy, too.

We talked to the chef for a little bit, but then he had to go do his job. I learned that HoQ standed for "Hoque" -- his last name. But they did HoQ because HoQue would sound kind of weird. We talked about a little bit of fat in steak is good, but when there's a whole bunch of fat and it's mostly fat, then it's disgusting. I figured out what farm to table meant. It means the food comes from a farm in Iowa and it ends up at the table. I like the concept because my grandpa is a farmer!

We didn't order dessert because the waiter said that the chef was preparing something special for us. It was some ice cream that tasted like egg nog, which was like really good because it was creamy and I really like egg nog. I drink it a lot at Thanksgiving. It was Mad Dog Vanilla ice cream, which is what tasted like egg nog, and then they had strawberries, which tasted kind of juicy and the ice cream went good with it because it was something juicy with something really sweet. I can describe the dessert in two words: cold and sweet. Or simpler: delicious! Or even simpler: yum-yum in my tum-tum! I really liked it.

 Homemade vanilla ice cream over strawberry shortcake

And then we took a video and then we said bye to the reporter. We will hopefully see her again soon. Probably at a sushi restaurant, Wasabi something.

Q&A about the experience
Mom: So what did you think about being interviewed by a reporter?
Mazy: Awesome!
Mom: Why was it awesome?
Mazy: Because I want other kids to know that being an adventurous eater is a special thing. There's a million foods to try and you could try all of them. Any more questions?
Mom: Do you have any predictions about what might be in the newspaper article she writes?
Mazy: My funny story! You were like, "Uh oh." when I said I was going to tell her a funny story. Why did you do that? Why did you not want me to say it?
Mom: Because I didn't know what funny story you might be telling....
Mazy: Which one did you think it was going to be?
Mom: I honestly had no idea what you might be saying...
Mazy: OK, folks. That's all. That's all for probably the specialest review I will be doing in awhile. Remember, eat, eat, eat, healthy, healthy, healthy. Done.

Note from Mom: An article about Mazy's dinner with Register reporter Jennifer Miller is expected to be published on Wednesday, July 17, in the Iowa Life section of the Des Moines Register.