Day 4 of Las Vegas

With the okay buffet at the Bellagio and the bad service at the bar at the Wynn, we wanted a day where we knew that we would have a good time.  This started with a lunch that my wife was looking forward to for the whole trip:

Hot n Juicy has the best tasting hot and garlic sauce that we have ever had.  So my wife got a lobster and mussels and I ordered the Cajun fries and a basket of potatoes and sausage.

Cajun fries were crispy and spicy.  A 3 out of 5 stars.

I placed the potatoes and sausage on the fries, so any sauce would drip on them and make them tastier.  Again, a 4 out of 5 as being good.  The thing with this place is that the food is always good.  It is well worth a trip for people who like seafood and sausage and things like this.  http://hotnjuicycrawfish.com/

My wife wanted to check out a tea store and we went to this place on the same road called Tea Station.

It was a simple place inside, seats for maybe 20 people, and a bar where the guy behind it would make all of the tea and tea drinks.  My wife ordered a honeydew milk tea and the cup smelled like fresh cut honeydew, a 3 out of 5 stars. 

She ordered a desert for the two of us to share, I did not know it would be huge:

What this is: is a giant shaved ice desert.  It has a huge mound of shaved ice in the middle.  It had red beans on top, grass jelly to the left, some boba to the right and the foreground has some agar balls made with rice, purple potato and sweet potato.  There was a small shot glass of warmed up sweetened condensed milk that was poured on top of everything.  Everything turned into something very sweet and yet most of it was very low calories.  It was delicious and an easy 3 out of 5 stars.

That night, we had reservations for the Foundation Room: (http://www.houseofblues.com/lasvegas/fr)

The food here is not expensive, but not cheap either.  The service was as good as Rose.Rabbit.Lie and they were very interesting and knowledgeable.  We ordered some pork belly:

An easy 4 out of 5 stars.

We ordered a side of grilled asparagus, which was a 3 out of 5 stars:

My wife had ordered two appetizer dishes as her main course: The yellow tail tartar bruschetta and the Stefano Farms burrata:

She loved both and would give a 4 out of 5 stars.

I ordered an 8 oz steak with a horseradish crust:

This very good, but not super.  I do eat some horseradish and spicy foods, but this crust was very spicy and had my scraping it off of the top of the steak to cut it.  It was tender, perfectly cooked to medium rare and completely seasoned.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

The Foundation Room is a special members only or paid access club at the top of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.  The bar area has music and some dancing space for the DJ, there is a balcony overlooking the strip and on the other side is the restaurant, which was good enough for us to return.  Check it out if you go there and please wear something nice, no chubbies and flip-flops.

Day 1 of Las Vegas

My wife is correct in that it seems like this was all a dream.  For our tenth wedding anniversary, my in-laws had not only bought us round trip tickets in first class to fly out to Las Vegas, not only allow us to use their extra condo, just minutes from the Strip, but also take our two little boys on their own vacation for fun.  So, for five days going over our anniversary date, we had an incredible Las Vegas vacation, worry free and child free.

We got in Wednesday evening and that meant that we had a late flight, with First Class seating meaning that we were fed a glorious dinner menu on American Airlines.

Well, this isn't what the normal person gets, considering we had First Class tickets, but this looks pretty good for a dinner of airline food.  This was a baked lemon and pepper chicken, with a rice dish, some vegetables, and a salad with a dinner roll.  My roll didn't arrive yet.  For airplane food, again, it was okay.  I'd give it a 2 and 1/2 out of 5, maybe.  The rice mix was okay, it was a bit al dente, it was salty, it has some spice flavors, it was nice.  The chicken was cooked, it wasn't like rubber and it wasn't solid and there was a lot of lemon pepper on it so it had some flavoring.  There was a lemon and butter sauce, which tasted like the fake and imitation butter we used to cook with at Old Country Buffet.  The vegetables, like the snap peas and carrots were mush.  The salad was made almost entirely of the core of the lettuce and the other inedible parts and the ranch sauce was like pure fatty thick ranch dressing.  The roll was hard on the outside and crumbly on the inside, all a result of heating frozen food. It was better than a pack of nuts or pretzels.  A 2 and 1/2 out of me.

Shady Gators

Over the 4th of July weekend, my in-laws took my family to the Ozarks.  We drove separately but we all stayed in their condo, which is cool, because there are no expenses really, on our part.  While there, on Friday afternoon, we took their boat out and went for a ride up and down the lake and finally settles at Shady Gators for lunch.  This place is huge.  It has its own dock to park your boat as well as parking lot for those taking cars.  It looks like a three story deck, sticking on posts out of the lake.  This was the view from our table:

On Friday, it was sunny, warm (not hot) and a nice day to sit back, wait for food and take in the view of the boats and the lake.  The area that we sat near, was across from a bar, with people there, but everything looked rough, unclean, and very lazy, which is part of the theme.

So, we order some fried fish, for the table to snack on as we wait for food and I ordered the chicken gumbo.  The fish comes out first.  It is a sweet white fish, covered in corn flakes, and served hot, dripping in honey.  I ate more than I normally do, of fish.  It didn't taste of fish.  It tasted of honey and corn flakes.  It was good and I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars, because I would go back and order it and eat it all.

My dish, was the chicken gumbo.  They had some alligator items on the menu, and I think they thought they should also stick with a Cajun style because most people associate alligator with Cajun food.  I didn't order any of that.  But I did order the chicken gumbo and it came with a small salad and a piece of cornbread.  Now, I'm thinking to myself that I should have no problem eating the appetizer fish and my course, because for the prices, it can't be that big.  My dish was huge.

I know it looks small, because it is just a picture, but I would say that the center area where the gumbo was, was actually about 8 inches across and an inch down.  This was just filled with perfectly cooked rice, big chunks of chicken, a piece or two of sausage and a rich and flavorful tomato broth.  It was shocking both how large this entree was and how tasty it was.  It also received a 4 out of 5 from me. 

http://www.shadygators.com/
(573) 365-6464
Located on the Lucky 7MM
at Lazy Gator Point!

The Bombay food truck

The Bombay food junkies truck is awesome and it is as simple as that.  What you have here, is a food truck, not filled with young men cooking on the line, but some older Indian women, working love into the food they sell.  Everything is home made or at least made from scratch and while the truck is entirely meat free, it can make a carnivore seriously consider becoming a vegetarian.

The food is amazing and when I had ordered, the woman asked me if I wanted a little spicy or a lot of spicy.  I said "a lot of spicy".  Most of the time, the spiciness contributes to the overall flavor, when in moderation.  When my brother-in-law orders his pad Thai at our favorite Thai restaurant, The Thai House, and orders spicy level 50, I don't see how it could possible improve the flavors, or if his numb tongue can even distinguish flavors at that point.  But, at this truck, the spicy levels are there just to add a hotter context to the food along with additional flavorings.  Spicy food was perfect and the items were had ordered were perfect as well.  Meaning: that I have ordered and or tried at least 2/3rds of their menu and have liked every bit of it.  I highly suggest finding them and ordering some food of your own after looking at these pictures:

Find them and eat their food for a 4 out of 5 stars experience.
https://www.facebook.com/BombayFoodJunkies

The dreaded DIET

First off, no, I have not weighed myself.  To be quite honest, I have not been on a scale, besides at a doctor's office, in possibly more than a year.  I just didn't care to know how much I weighed.  I remembered that about a year ago,  I did weigh around 160 pounds.  I'm a lightweight, I am 6 foot tall exactly and I eat a lot of food without really gaining weight.  My family is an incredible metabolism which is important because through that, I am able to take in as much as 5,000 calories in 24 hours and not feel sick, bloated, or even full, much less gain an ounce of weight.  While all of this is said and good, within the past year, my 1 inch of noticeable gut/belly fat, has increase in size. 

Now, I do all of the cooking at home and while my wife was on weight watchers and lost a huge amount of weight enabling her to look hotter than Salma Hayek and Marilyn Monroe combined, I possible only ate more junk food than I normally did, adding useless weight onto my body.  It was mid-Summer of 2013, which I had asked my brother-in-law's body building trainer to start on me.  It was no secret that I was a 160 pound weakling.  I know that I probably weighed about 130 pounds when I first met my wife and she tells me stories that her family first thought I was sick and anemic.  I know her mom used to wonder if I could even help her with carrying groceries because I looked so weak. 

I never did any weight training or body building as I viewed it in a negative light thanks to my younger brothers.  When I turned 16, on a whim, and partially because I was a huge Mortal Kombat fan, I signed up to take Kempo Karate.  It wasn't required for me to live so it wasn't paid for by my parents and instead I had to pay for each and every lesson and everything that went with it.  So, as a teenager, still sharing a room with my younger brother, he began to feel threatened.  I mean, he was a younger brother who was always more aggressive than myself and my other two brothers.  I'm sure he saw his older brother as even more of a threat now that I was learning how to defend myself.  So, my younger brother started to weight lift at age 14.  He worked as hard as he could and as long as I did karate, he worked out.  When I got to college and was finishing up, he had gotten a job in a gym and was taking karate lessons from someone who claimed to have the ability.  (Much like taking karate lessons from someone who had watched a Chuck Norris movie.)  I had learned in karate classes that the damage that could be done to people was done through speed and concentration, rather than brute force.  Also, with my younger brother routinely trying to beat me up and me able to defend myself using my new found skills, probably irritated him even further and pushed him to work out more.  He talked my youngest brother to work out with him and within that time frame, he and my youngest brother had done some sort of exercise incorrectly enough where they both had hurt their backs.  It was bad enough that they were both told that they couldn't work out anymore.

Mind you, that my younger brother was the very epitome of body builder stereotypes.  During the summer, I remembered him waking up around 7am, leaving for the gym and then coming back around 4pm, eating 3 cans of tuna, drinking a large cup of milk mixed with whey protein and then changing his clothes to go to a nightclub and drink and come back home around 2 or 3.  Even when I was married and came back to visit my parents, he would still be there, downing can after can of tuna against my warnings of how it might not be real tuna and packed with great things like aluminum lake or mercury.  But it didn't phase him.

Now, enough about him. 

So, about last year in summer, I started working out, during my extra free time at my office.  I was instructed by a former Mr. Missouri.  I started off having to struggle to lift the 45 pound bar as a bench press and I remembered how tired I was after that.  Since then, even as recent as this past Tuesday when I worked out last, I was able to do many lifts of 40 additional pounds onto that 45 pound bar.  May not seem like much, but for me, it is great.  Not only that, but for the first time ever, I have been able to lift and carry my wife for long distances: like around the house. So, while the body building has helped me get stronger, I have not burned as many fat calories as I would liked to have done so.  I still weigh 160 pounds, today, but some of that is muscle and some of that is fat and I really need to get rid of that fat.  I don't believe that I am at a risk of a heart attack or any diseases for that matter.  I am so far from obese that it isn't an issue.  But, I love food and I always go for the unhealthy stuff.

Bacon and donuts are my two favorite things.  I love bacon and always loved bacon from the time that my dad would cook it in a pan, every Saturday morning for our breakfast.  It has a comfort level for home, warmth and taste.  I have made bacon, bacon brownies and even bacon ice cream.  I have used bacon in every dish just to try.  I even had my own jar of bacon lard, kept in the refrigerator.  Donuts are perfect and again, stem from a comfort level as when we were kids and my dad would take us over to a spot near our house called the Donut Drive-In.  At the time, it had a big wooden sign with red letters and lights on the side of it which lit up like a marquee.  They had a window in the back of the tiny building, where it had once been a drive through and had moved to just a view of the old gentleman making donuts from scratch.  We would get donuts from there and then go out back and watch him make more.  The world was different then and so was my body. 

Thanks to this internal drive and want for sweet things, I see myself gain weight in areas that I didn't know existed until now.  While doing the body building has added muscle to areas of my shoulders, back and arms, which never existed until now, a 45 minute session does not burn enough calories to clear away the fat.  Maybe 300 calories gets burned, because it brings me to sweating about every time.  Also for the first time this week, I have been counting calories.  I used to do it as a joke: eating a whole box of Little Debbie brownies at 340 calories a brownie and eating 12 would let me have 4,080 calories, as a snack, not a meal.  after that snack, I would still eat other meals like breakfast, lunch and even dinner.  I wouldn't gain that extra pound or anything else and it would just slowly seep onto my body over the course of many, many days or a week.  But what gets me now, is that the decisions in the past, like that, can be compared.  Tuesday I had about 3,000 calories by end of day.  That included donuts for breakfast, potato chips as a snack, a burger on a pretzel bun with mustard and mayo, a glass of protein shake and a dinner later that day.  Snacks included anything from granola bars to some chocolate chips I snuck in because I love chocolate.  Yesterday was the first day of my diet and while still doing the same things as I normally do, I was able to stay below 2,000 calories and still be full.  It was also one of the first times I have had a salad as a primary food source and also a bowl of fruit as a dessert. 

Well, then today I weighed in at about 162 pounds.  While I am still working out, at least 2-3 times a week, I find myself interested in losing about 5 pounds, maybe.  I mean, I am working out enough to help strengthen my arms and core, but find myself unable to see past my belly fat when I look in the mirror.  Do I want to look like a male model? No.  But I would like to see this gut go away.

So, what does that mean for me?  Well, as one with a degree in holistic nutrition, that means I really need to stay away from sugar and fat.  Yeah I know, healthy fats are okay, but those sugars and other fats need to be kept low.  I want to try to exercise a little bit each day and figure that even if I only walk 30 minutes a day, for the whole week, that burns an additional 1,260 calories from what I am normally doing.  And I don't live an inactive life.  I am always walking around the house cleaning up, doing laundry, doing dishes, taking the dog out and walking around the office and so forth. I haven't counted my steps but it would be interesting to see how many steps I do take in any regular given day.

Still now, the hardest part is not going over to get sweets.

There is nothing more dangerous than a writer with no edits.

I feel bad sometimes as I look at my blog and wonder where the posts have gone.  I feel a bit nostalgic as I wonder where my passion for writing a blog 2-3 times a week has gone.  Have I lost a love and passion for real food?  Have I lost a need for finding and tasting interesting things?  Have I lost a feeling of allowing writing to be so easy as my own thoughts on paper (or on a keyboard)?  No, I think the main reason that I don't do so much now is actually because of time.  I do not own a TARDIS.

I have never owned a time machine nor been able to travel and contain time.  So, the possibility of myself to be able to be a full time father, a full time sales and accounting person as well as do my new hobby and still have time to go out and about and write about some restaurant that St. Louis is told to follow like sheep, is just not on my mind right now.

Contrary to what some may think, I am not paid to eat out.  I am not under the salary force of any magazine, website or institution so no one is paying me to write about certain things.  In that same sense, no one is paying me to not write about certain things.  There has always been this loyalty to the truth, which I write by that very little other writers in the metropolitan area live by.  The truth being what a restaurant really is like.  I want every person who reads my reviews to be able to feel as though they had been there in my same circumstance.  I do not want to read about how someone was specially greeted by the manager and sat at the best table where they were given the best food and then everything was on the house because their arrival was predetermined and arranged.  I don't want to hear about how someone called and called and had whole conversations with a group of chefs about where their favorite places are and then make sure they have advertisements with my company before they have their reviews posted.  The fact remains, as it does in any city, that if you wish to be paid for writing about a restaurant or item, you cannot piss off the sponsors.  It seems like a very simple idea.  The sponsor pays the company, the company pays you to eat at the sponsor's location, and you need to write something good about the sponsor so they are happy and maybe pay more.  It makes complete sense and if I was a sell-out, I would ask for advertising and then write post after post about those sponsors and make them out to be the best in the world.  The problem with this concept is: I have too much integrity for the truth to sell-out.

I have read online reviews of restaurants which rave and rave about how perfect everything is only to go there and have a horrible dining experience.  Why did this restaurant get such good reviews?  Well first of all, in the online version of the magazine, they have links, banners and ads on the site.  In the tangible magazine, they have 1/2 to full page ads, which can be as much as $1,000 a run.  Like any good business, the site would not dare say anything about someone who just paid them $1,000 to promote their restaurant as that would be completely the opposite of the original intention.  Also, the online negative reviews were hidden and removed.  There are a lot of online reviewing sites but most of them give the reviewed location or company a chance to remove the negative ones, making them in the best possible light even though they are not.

In this case, as you read above, the restaurant I was thinking of is always listed as one of the best 'burger' places in town.  It is hailed as also being a great LGBT friendly location as well.  They have ads in almost ever St. Louis magazine and on their sites.  The problems is though, the food is so-so and the service is difficult.  In my mind, if the service is horrible but the food is good, then I'd be happy to come back.  If the food is bad and the service is amazing, I'd even come back to be pampered.  But if the service and food is bad and the only savings grace you have as a unique restaurant is the fact that your mascot is a cross dresser, then I don't count that as saving your ass.  This isn't an anti LGBT post or sexist or chauvinistic or anything having to do with people, but only food.  I have been in a local bar where the female staff wear costumes like Tinkerbell and even serve customers in bikinis. You could have the best looking staff wearing next to nothing but if it has nothing to do with your food and your food and service still suck, it will not save you from me.

It may save you from the droves of men that fit that demographic.  About a year ago I was picked up as the first ever food writer for a website which normally only did sports and sports news.  They wanted to try having a food writer and so I started writing about places that I go to.  I don't go to super fancy locations but the places I go to require you to wear a bit more than a T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and a hat.  During the year which I had submitted articles for this site, it was becoming more and more clear to me, from the trolls as well, that the majority of readers of my articles were actually men looking for the best place in St. Louis that served the best food, for the cheapest price, the cheapest beer, and the best looking girls.  And you know what?  That doesn't fill what I write about.  I like beer, and I like to get great food for a low price, and having a wait staff that is clean-cut, nice-looking and in a uniform certainly helps, but usually the places that have great food don't have half-naked girls running around.  (Although the last time I did eat the food in the VIP section of the Penthouse Club in Sauget, the food was pretty decent and there were half-naked girls running around.)  The owner of the site told me that they were moving in a different direction after a year, which is code for "the readers don't want to spend more than $10 for a meal".  But as a food writer who actually has some restaurant experience, I don't want to stick to the $10 beer and hot wings every day for every meal.  I want to explore and taste new things and that often means that I need to go to new places and try the food, even if it is more than $10.


But food writing is also a large editorial and is entirely opinion based.  Traditionally it is, at least.  I like to add a bit more though.  I know that from my dark days working on that cook's line at Home Town Buffet, making cheap food for old people to push down their throats, I know that if you have a frier full of grease and set at 385 degrees, you can drop and cook 2 whole chickens in about 13 minutes.  I know that you can cook chicken strips in a frier for about 3 minutes.  I know that French fries take about as long and I know that you can cook a whole sheet tray of baked chicken in an oven at roughly the same temperature in less than an hour.  I have some basic education and know how long a steak should take.  I know how a sous vide machine works and how some basic molecular gastronomy techniques are used.  I can't be fooled easily because I still experiement and cook food at home.  So, me going to a bar or restaurant, that specializes in chicken wings, and having to wait for 50 minutes to get them delivered to my table, cold, is not an excuse.

Here is a fun fact for you:  While working 8 and 1/2 years for Buffets, Inc.  I developed some basic understanding of the Spanish language.  I did take Spanish for two years in high school but didn't really full grasp it until I worked at the restaurants, where most of the staff was illegal Mexicans.  Am I calling them out, will I cause a scandal?  I doubt it.  Were they really illegal?  Well, let's say this:  one instance had the general manager asking two employees who were related about their SS card because they had the exact same number.  Secondly, about once a year, we would get tipped off that there was an INS agent coming in and on those days, half of our staff called in sick. So, when you speak Mexican Spanish, drive a car with a temporary license plate for 2 years, live in an apartment with 10 other people in St. Louis, can't recite the Pledge of Allegiance in English and call in sick when the manager has a meeting with a representative from Immigration,  I would call you an illegal immigrant. But I digress...  I learned Spanish from them.  So, while I was dating my now wife and even after we married, anytime I would go to a Mexican restaurant, and my family asked for a table, I would listen to the banter, I would hear what they were saying about us.  I would also make suggestions.  For instance at one restaurant they claimed that they could not seat my group of 6, and we had to wait 20-30 minutes.  Well, in Spanish, I suggested that we could take those two tables if they turned them and pushed them together.  I will never forget the look on the face of the hostess, because right there she realized that I A: knew what I was talking about and B: knew what she was saying.  It would be like if you want to the local nail salon and could understand the language that the Vietnamese women use.  You could understand all of their banter and you could find out if they were saying anything about you.  Imagine how honest they would become, all of a sudden, if you said something in their language.

So, back to my point, going to a place that says they have great burgers and getting an okay burger is not a good thing.  The best part of my hobby, is that I can write about it as it is.  The restaurant I went to was called Hamburger Mary's.  Sorry, I don't have pictures.  In fact, the place was so dimly lit that I bet it helped the food look better than it actually was.  My wife and I entered, and were sat upstairs, surrounded by tables full of women.  The bar which was about 6 feet away from us, had one bartender who came over and was also our server.  After greeting us, we told him that we were actually stopping in for a quick bite and had a show in an hour at the FOX.  Ordering a coke, a burger and fries and a grilled piece of chicken, didn't seem like it would take forever or should take forever, but it did.  The restaurant had two levels.  The top level, by us, was where the bathrooms, bar, and 4 televisions on the wall were located.  There was 4 different movies playing at the same time.  There was music and talking and it was a very loud place.  My wife and I waited for almost 45 minutes before our food arrived.  It was the most boring burger I have ever had.  The burger tasted like you took regular ground 85/15 beef from the supermarket and cooked it.  It didn't even have salt or pepper.  My poor wife, ordered some grilled chicken sandwich and the chicken had nothing on it as well.  I know people, even health nuts, like their grilled chicken to have some flavor so it doesn't taste like you are eating a piece of cardboard.  This had no salt, no sauce of any kind, and no pepper.  Here is the thing, my wife and I were starving, attempting to fill our bellies before a two show at the FOX.  So, we wanted to eat the food, but it was so bad that we didn't.  We didn't even take it to go!  It was just bad.  How does that rate?  Well, in my book that is a 0 out of 5 stars.

What does that mean for you?  Well, if I was paid to write by any of the St. Louis magazines, websites or organizations, you would not know how bad the food is there, until after you got ripped off as well.  This also means, that I can help relate the truths that the restaurants who DO NOT pay out for ads are like.  One of my favorite restaurants in St. Louis is called Basso and they are by the Cheshire.  They have all of the makings of a restaurant that is highly praised by the news and media outlets, yet they are not.  Instead, the magazines, websites and news shows seek instead to draw attention to Niche and Sydney Street.  Now those two restaurants are good, I'm not saying they are not, but what everyone else fails to understand is that Basso is here as well.  There has been a lot of press recently because the head chefs of Niche and Sydney Street are nominated for a James Beard Award, which is like the Emmy of the food world.  Every news outlet, every magazine and website are talking about how great this is to have these two chefs represent St. Louis and bring home a James Beard Award for this city.  They say things like "this is awesome", "we deserve this", and people saying they have a life-long dream of eating at a James Beard Award recipient's restaurant.  But, we have a James Beard Award winning Chef at a restaurant in St. Louis already.  I have just honestly mentioned this to all of these posts and my mention gets ignored.  What does the chefs of these other two restaurants have over these magazines and website?  I bet you that if these two chefs didn't win this award, the above sources would be depressed suggesting that St. Louis will never be recognized for their food.  Yet we have an award winning chef here already!  I don't understand, but maybe it has to do with politics.  Maybe Basso is so good of a restaurant that they don't feel that they need to give food away to the owners of those magazines and site to get good reviews.  It is amazing how the mediocre restaurants, like Hamburger Mary's or Brazikat, get pushed and represented as the best in the area because they paid the most for the biggest ad. 

I know that the restaurant scene in St. Louis is highly political.  I was reassured of that truth upon my first conversation with Chef John Johnson, but at the same time, that political correct view of which restaurants are allowed to be on top and which ones stay on the bottom does not work well with the same concept turned to reflect actual quality.

(And this is why I am dangerous.) 

Overall though, as work and time permits, I do wish to write about more things, like new food ideas and new restaurants.  I feel that you can always come to me for the real story of some of these restaurants and not the controlled suggestions that these outlets claim to be the truth.  Although, maybe you can't handle the truth.

10 things I am for sure sure about food.

Last Saturday night, as Alton Brown took the stage at the Fox, in St. Louis, he gave us his redone rendition of 10 things he was sure about food.  He complained about the list because he first made it 23 years ago and every day, he thinks of something where he changes it and so, it is never the same list twice.  That list, his ten, have been replaying over and over in my mind as I think of different ones that apply to me and my life.  Some of my 10 things, are the same as one of his and and such, I bet the same as many other chefs around the world.  So, my list, of 10 things that I am for sure sure about food, here we are:

1.  Just a pinch of salt.  Salt is and was always the most important item on Earth.  Wars in Ancient times were fought over salt.  Salt when added to a hot bath can make it hotter before it gets hotter. I know that I have added salt to a humidifier in my children's room, so it can get a hotter point and create steam easier.  When people didn't have salt, or refrigerators, they had to bury their food in the ground, in order to save it.  Salt, allowed people to save and preserve their food without keeping it in a cellar.  Salt is a natural enemy of bacteria.  Salt is used in mouthwashes after dental visits and is even used as an aid in cleaning wounds.  It even was considered to be such a pure thing that Lot's wife was turned to a pillar of salt in the Bible.  Salt is added to baked goods as it helps to retard the yeast and slow it down.  Salt has a chemical makeup that enables it with the power to pull water.  Chef's add salt to a pan of vegetables in order to pull moisture out and "Sweat" them.  Have you ever salted a driveway before a snow storm?  Have you seen the moisture around each piece of salt?  The salt pulls moisture out of the concrete or blacktop of a driveway.  When salt is added to food, it allows the food to taste more like itself by concentrating the flavor.  This is why salt is added to everything.  Furthermore, salt SHOULD be added to everything.  Remember, just a pinch of salt or even a light sprinkling will do.

2. Taste your food.  You may think or be the best chef in the world, but if you do not taste your food and properly season it (see number 1), then no one will like or even take a second bite of your food.  Taste is often tied to memories and those memories replay when the edible item triggers them.  People would most surely have different memories on whether they had a good hamburger seasoned with salt and pepper versus a bad hamburger that just had ground beef.  Furthermore, a person is more likely to remember when they had that good food that tasted good versus one that tasted bad.  People think of these fond memories and it comforts them: comfort food.  Those nice feelings and memories and most often tied to good tasting food.  No one talks about how they had fond memories of eating hamburgers that tasted like dog food and smelled like manure.  If you prepare any type of food, make sure you taste it at least once.  Anyone, from a professional chef to a home cook needs to know what to change or add to a dish in order to make it the way they want.  If you own a restaurant, make sure that everything you send out is from something you tasted so you know that you are serving only the very best.

3. Food is fun.  Don't let anyone ever tell you that cooking is hard work, alone.  Yes, peeling 20 potatoes and cooking them, ricing them, mixing them with other things to make mashed potatoes is work, but the end result is so much better than the work. Think of it this way: Do you like money?  Does having money enable you to have fun?  Do you work for your money?  Is work fun? (maybe not)  Therefore: the reward from work, lets you have fun.  The same applies to cooking.  No matter how much work you are doing for the food, even if you grow everything and cook it all yourself, it is work.  However, whether it is the joy of tasting and eating or the joy from watching others taste and eat, that work should give you fun.  I like food, I love to eat food.  But even more so, I have fun doing things to food.  I like to try to cook new things and place new combinations together.  I think that is fun.  I like to cook tasty things and give them to people and watch them enjoy the food.  Good food should fill your heart, soul and stomach.  It should make you feel like doing a happy dance.  Food is fun.
  
4. The best cook in the world is....  When Alton Brown came up on stage to explain a statement, he suggested that "your wife is the best cook in the world".  The idea being that within 6 months of his marriage, he mentioned that his wife might need to add some oregano into some pasta sauce and she was so flustered that she left the kitchen and "didn't come back for 6 months".  Now, while I understand that husbands always tell their wives that they are the best cook in the world, this example doesn't work for me and my wife.  My story is this:  I have been an avid cook, huge fan of cooking, ever since I was a kid.  I was sad when I went to school because they stopped the "home-ec" courses and there wasn't a cooking school to be found in the area.  So, I self taught and learned on my job.  Now, while me wife and I were engaged, she did cook food for me, but when I went to her house, she wasn't allowed to cook, only her mom was.  Now, when we were married, she cooked almost all of the time, as every once in a while I was allowed to cook.  She made a really good pasta sauce and everything she made was honestly really good.  But, when she became pregnant the first time, she obviously didn't cook.  (I personally believe any husband who makes his pregnant wife cook is just being a ;%#.)  So, I took up the reigns and started cooking every night.  I cooked foods for dinner and lunch to take to work.  When my wife had our first child and she was home with him, I still cooked so she could recoop.  Then when she was pregnant again, I kept cooking.  I like to cook and can take criticism about my food if someone doesn't like it or if they do.  That being said, I do believe that the best cook in the world still isn't me.  I think for anyone and all of us, the best cook in the world who is someone who cooks with love.  The last thing you want, as a husband, is the competitiveness by telling your wife that she is the best cook in the world, thus making your mom and mother-in-law and any other females in the family, go complete Cutthroat Kitchen on each other to be better.  

5. Breaking bread is the best welcome ever.  What I mean by that, is that the best way to welcome someone into your family or just your house, is to feed them.  I have been in houses where you enter and stand there, literally, standing around, or sitting around and talking.  I have even been to family events from my past like this.  Nothing lets people relax like the addition of food.  I think the best example of this, is when my family went to Lebanon.  (Going to Ireland was a close second.) In Lebanon, we visited people who were cousins of cousins, didn't speak a lick of English and the only one in our group that spoke Arabic, was my father-in-law, who was from Lebanon.  So, here we are in people's houses, in the middle of no where, not another house as far as the eye can see in either direction and out of no where, someone come sin with a small platter of food.  The hospitality of people in Lebanon simply astounds me.  When Andrew Zimmern goes to Middle East countries on his Bizarre Foods show and you see him go to a random tent in Ethiopia and get treated like a king with a pillow to sit and food to eat, that is how it is in real life.  People know that giving food or at least offering food is a great way to open up and start discussion as well as tell the person who is being offered "I don't know you, but I care enough about your health that you should have a bite," I think.  Think of it as if you ever had one of those grandmothers whom every time you visited would offer you a bite of something or a something to eat.  Always offering in a good natured grandmotherly sort of way.  From as far back as ancient times to stories in the Bible, breaking bread is always something that people do, to bring them together.  Alton Brown suggested that the greatest tool in the kitchen is a kitchen table.  It is that table that brings families together.  I change my statement as such because while a kitchen table is important to bring families together, if you don't have a table, or are without your family, any sharing of food will bring people together.  

6. Organic, gmo, vegan friendly and gluten free are all just names of B.S..  Here are some fun things to know.  First of all, to be labeled by the organic food club, you have to become certified.  That cost will run you anywhere from $200 to over $1,500.  That certification also has to be done every year.  So, you may be a farmer, who has used the same seeds for generations, never used chemical pesticides and even talks nicely to your plants.  But, if you don't pay to be certified, you cannot be organic.  There are many other producers who make food as healthy and even more healthy than "Organic" labeled ones, but they just didn't get the label. The term "GMO" refers to a "genetically modified organism".  The term has lately been considered a derogatory term for Monsanto products.  I have a friend who works at Monsanto and some of the things that he is proud of, that the company has done, is making a seed of rice, that will grow and yield in less water.  What about corn plants that will produce the same amount of corn, no matter the type of climate?  Imagine how famine in the world could disappear.  It isn't a conspiracy, but from what I have seen in science sites, articles and journals, there hasn't been any real proof that a GMO corn kernel, from a GMO grown corn seed and plant, can harm or kill a human being.  If a corn plant has been genetically modified so that it will grow into a mature and vegetable bearing plant with half of the water of a normal one, how will that affect a human?  Will the human be able to drink and survive only on half of the water than a normal person?  Also, in regards to GMO pesticides, most plants have a natural pesticide develop in them, that does harm some insects and not humans.  Vegans are a variety of people of whom I have no understanding.  If you are staying away from ALL animal products because of the harming or injuring of animals, then are you wearing vegan friendly items or using vegan friendly items?  Is your shower soap vegan friendly?  Do you wear or use anything plastic?  Plastic comes from oil, which in turn comes from animals.  What type of car do you drive?  Gasoline comes from animals as well.  Do you wear jewelry?  Is there any shells, elastic or plastic in that as well?  Gluten-free is not an allergy.  There is a real condition where some people who cannot digest Gluten can become sick from it.  But that condition is rare and most likely the people who claim to be gluten free could have something else wrong with them, like diabetes.     

7. Kids will eat what you eat.  My kids do not eat.  We sometimes joke that they grow from photosynthesis.  Yeah, if we go to St. Louis Bread Co. or over to Noodles & Company, they will eat large amounts of food, but it seems everywhere else, that they mostly pick and complain about their food. When I would go out of my way and make extra nutritious things for my wife and she would sit near the kids and eat them, we are always amazed at how my kids will ask if they can have a bite and then sometimes finish off her whole plate.  I never before saw a child so eager to eat some mushrooms or brussel sprouts.  Kids watch what you eat as well.  So, when you give your kids some healthy sandwiches from Quiznos and you are eating a a double quarter-pounder with fries, then they start to wonder why they have to eat healthy and you do not. Like the above example, I have seen that if you want your kids to eat or eat healthy, then you should too.

8. Anyone Can Cook  It not only was the name of a fictional book in the Disney movie :Ratatouille, but it is a motto that I truly believe.  I have seen all manner of people who can cook and you always hear stories about people thrust into situations and then in order to survive, they had to cook.  I think that cooking is the easiest thing to do, now.  When I first started at a restaurant, several years ago, I avoided the cooks line because I was afraid that I was going to screw up something with food.  Well, my manager threw me back there one day to cover a cook who called in and when I started to panic he pulled me aside and showed me a recipe.  We had all of the recipes laminated so they wouldn't get messed up on the line.  He explained it to me straight "you look at what the recipe calls for and put it in and do as it says; an idiot can do it.  Its not rocket science," he said.

So, as simple as it seemed, it just didn't hit until then.  If a recipe calls for a cup of this and 1/8th cup of that, as long as you put the right amounts in, then it will turn out just fine.  That instantly set off a switch and since that day, I have been able to look at about any recipe and make the food.  Because of this, I believe that if you can follow instructions, exactly, you can cook.

9. Always try new foods.  My wife and I have been pushing this ideology since my oldest could eat food.  I grew up in a household in St. Louis which had the same thing for breakfast every day and then the same meal for lunch for school every day and then dinner followed a schedule.  So my mom would cook pot roast for dinner on Monday and then on Tuesday it would be spaghetti and so on, ending with fish sticks on Friday.  It was never real fish and the only idea I ever had of seafood was from Red Lobster.  So, my family, which oddly enough came from a German/Austrian side and a German/Scottish side, didn't do that much in terms of food experimentation or new foods to us, for that matter.  You would probably guess that with those 3 cultures, we would have something new, but no.  My parents were stuck in a cuisine rut and had no interest in trying new foods.  This made it difficult for me, as I was willing to expand my thoughts and palette and I was trying everything I could.  I was trying real seafood, different cultural foods and even strange ingredients.  I tried everything and just like Andrew Zimmern, I will try anything at least twice.  Just as number 7 shows, your kids will be more apt to try new foods, if they watch you try new foods.  If you try something and you do not like it, don't say things like "ewww" or "yuck", because that will give others the predisposition that it is how you describe it; nullifying any want to try it themselves.

10. Foods are holistic.  I took some classes back in 2008, for a degree in Holistic Nutrition.  While it may have seemed like a questionable course and much less a not accredited college, the theory and that little bit of proof and research shows that something that are wrong with us can in fact be treated and cured with food.  It is called holistic nutrition or holistic healing and it is an idea or theory that food can be supplanted for medicine when it comes to healing the body.  Think of the #1 cold remedy: chicken soup.  If you go to a doctor over a cold, they will tell you that there is nothing they can give you.  You can always go to a pharmacy and take some decongestant or ibuprofen or something to help ease pressure if any.  But, people always say to take chicken soup.  The fact is that lately scientists have done the testing and found out that chicken soup, when homemade, is filled with an amino acid that is found in chicken, which helps the body loosen mucus.  Not to mention all of the antioxidants and all sorts of vitamins in the vegetables that are in the soup as well.  What is important to look for and watch, is that every year scientists make a discovery where they find some plant somewhere, which has been shown to help with [blank].  It could be a plant extract that helps treat AIDS or a type of legume that helps fight cancer or something like that.    

So, that is my 10 things.  It took me a week to come up with.

Off to the Science Center to eat bugs

A trip with my kids to the St. Louis Science Center proved something cool: bugs are yummy, except crickets.  They had a special exhibit called Harry's World, which was an exhibit filled with bugs.  It had cockroach races, a house where children pretended to be a Terminix representative and search for bugs, butterflies, and even some edible bugs.  And that was the most important spot.  An entomoligist, every day, prepares bugs for the people to try and taste.  So, I had to give a try.  Even more so, Andrew Zimmern, this is for you.

So, there was a bowl of crickets and two bowls of waxworms.  There was one waxworm that had a spicy hot pepper and Southwest flavor to it.  The other waxworm had a sugar and cinnamon seasoning.

So, my review of the bugs is this: the cinnamon and sugar waxworms tasted just like dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  I could eat a bowl of them.  As long as they don't get soggy in milk.  The Southwest style waxworms were a bit spicy and the spices worked well also.  As for the crickets, the taste was okay, but a wing got caught in the neck of my throat and reminded me of the same feeling as when you eat popcorn and get a slip of kernel on your throat.  It took me several minutes till I got a drink to wash it down.

Still, the most amazing thing that made this experience even more amazing was doing it with my two boys.  I held out my hand with the Cinnamon and Sugar Waxworms and offered one to both of my kids after trying one.  My oldest, who normally is very grossed out about bugs and slimy things, immediately and without hesitation, reached into my hand, picked one up and ate it.  My other son, who loves things of the macabre, loves bugs and the strange and odd, was afraid to eat the bugs and took a few steps back from me.

I think that experience is likened to that of Andrew Zimmern's first experience with strange food.  I think that kids will do and try anything, provided that a positive role model does the same. 

Good Eats LIVE!- sorta

Okay, so maybe it wasn't just like Good Eats, but at least the same funny and interesting Alton Brown was at the Fox on this past ugly and icy Saturday night.  I love the show Good Eats and I have even compared it to my favorite cooking show of all time :The Frugal Gourmet.

My Saturdays were all the same when I was young.  My parents wanted us to go outside and play for the most part of the day.  But at the same time, they allowed us some tv time.  So, what my 3 other brothers and I did, was watch cartoons until the cartoons stopped, around 11:00.  Now, at 11:00 on the local PBS station, there was this show called The Frugal Gourmet hosted by Jeff Smith.  I think the show was actually the first cooking show that Elmo, of Sesame Street, was on.  Now, what you had in the 90's here, was a cooking show where this older man would not only talk about the food he was cooking, but throw in some reasoning as to why things were happening.  He didn't get as much into the science, but at least he gave an explanation of how yeast works and why we make bread that way and so forth.  I remembered it being my favorite show and it certainly was fun to watch Victory Garden right afterwards.

Alton Brown, as the audience got to see him on Saturday night, is exactly like his Good Eats personality.  Like any good teacher, he mixes some real world information into the science and learning part.  His experiments reminded me of items created by Jamie and Adam of Mythbusters.  His up-beat and educational music reminded me of They Might Be Giants as they sing songs about the sun or photosynthesis. His cooking though, reminds me Jeff Smith in his calm and patient manner, with a lot of wit and humor thrown in.

Songs about Caffeine, which is my favorite drug, and pork chops seemed to fit with the giant pizza cooker using 54 lights.  The stories that he used as examples about his life and his family seem to resonate with everyone, or most people or at least me, when it comes to family and children.  And while there was a large portion of the show that was scripted and rehearsed, there was some that was not.  For instance; I have never been to a concert, in any other city, that has ever had a person doing the interpretation into sign language.  When you live in St. Louis and you do St. Louis things, the signer is forgotten or even over-looked because there is one everywhere.  But it appeared that this may have actually been the first time that Alton Brown has ever had one for his show.  As one of his volunteers had put it: "you talk a lot".  As fast and with as much information as Alton Brown gives people, I would feel bad about those who have to sign it. Alton got her to do the sign for 'pole dancer', which I think kept him happy for the night, and even threw him off track once or twice.

I thought the show was great as everything that was explained before the show, did actually happen.  He also suggested that the show was done for him, and not us, and there was some complaining about there being only 2 cooking demonstrations, however since the show was filled with many things, it was a variety show and not just a cooking show.  I liked the show very much and even bought a hat at the end, considering that my other hat, with a red circle and silver fork on the top, is the only chef's hat I had.

I also have to give full marks for bravery, just like the kind that Wesley got after making it through the fire swamp, to Alton Brown.  For not only did he ride on his tour bus through the cold and ice and snow, but he also performed in it.  Albeit, he was inside the Fabulous Fox theater.  But as his show warmed the minds and hearts of the people, outside it only grew more and more like planet Hoth.

So, to Alton Brown, thanks for putting on a great show in St. Louis.

And..............I'm back

A lot has happened in this past month so far and attempting to find time to even get on here and type things up, is becoming difficult.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news, is that my other hobby, which is playing around with making jewelry, has apparently gotten some people to like it enough that I have items for sale at the Club Tattoo location in Las Vegas.  I did sell things in the St. Louis Curio Shoppe in downtown St. Louis, but the store in Las Vegas means that my items can be sold for more and I will get a lot more people to view my work.  I do know, that this site doesn't pay me at all, so at least the jewelry helps.

Now, as if designing and choosing 30 items, packing them up and shipping them to Las Vegas from the St. Louis area in 3 days wasn't close enough, try keeping the food writing going on while doing that.  So, I think the first thing that I have to spring back is a new energy drink flavor.  I am slightly addicted to energy drinks so when I see a new one, that isn't full of High Fructose Corn Syrup, I'll buy it and try it.  This is one such instance.  Also, since I have had a mojito in my life and have a friend from Cuba, I thought it would be fitting.

So what does it taste like?  Is it good?  No.  It tastes like the regular Monster fruity flavor with a strong fake lime flavor and it has something else.  I know what they were trying for, making a refreshing lime flavored Monster drink, but in the end, don't make new flavors if they are not good.

Now, while wandering the streets of St. Louis, particularly around the Hospital area, I saw a food truck.  It was one called Sarah's Cake Stop and the truck sold pre-made cupcakes, cakes and cookies.  You know, having a truck drive around, selling sweet sugary things from the side of it sounds like a really good idea. This company makes everything in their main location and then packs it up for moving and selling.  I felt hungry so I got a quick cupcake, of each kind they had.

So, the one in the upper right corner was a gluten free one, a flourless chocolate cake, which tasted fine to me.  What I liked about each and every one of these, is that the icing was more of a whipped cream icing.  It was light, fluffy and wasn't laden with this heavy-ness like regular powdered sugar and water can provide.  They were very moist as well.  The flavors were very spot on as there was a carrot cake one and a red devil cake and vanilla/maple flavored and so forth.   Even though I do make cupcakes at home from time to time, I wasn't filled with this feeling of "oh I can do that", which sometimes permeates my mind when looking at other people's versions of baked goods, but I can say that everything tasted really good for what it was supposed to be.  This isn't like another cupcake company in the area whose cupcakes are just not that tasty, because Sarah's Cake Stop isn't all about hype but instead about the flavor.  A lot of some of the best of St. Louis didn't make it to a television show or didn't pay to run giant ads and articles in periodicals.  A lot of the best of this city, is hidden and you have to brush aside the hype and the junk to see it.  This truck, and more importantly the people of the company, make very good cupcakes and for their price, I am happy.  I would give their cupcakes a 4 out of 5 stars, for being very good and if you see them on the street, you should take a stop and try them out.

Basso always amazes

Late last month, I took my wife to Basso, on her birthday, for lunch.  I know, lunch sounds so taboo considering that most restaurants only open around 4 or 4:30 and even so, only open for dinner and after-hours.  But, as I said, I went there for lunch.  They do serve a lunch and on a weekend when it is cold outside and you want to go someplace nice and warm and have great food...then go to Basso.

I want to warn you though, Basso may just be my favorite restaurant in St. Louis.  The prices are very reasonable, the service is excellent, the atmosphere is warm and comforting while still young and hip, the chef is amazing and everything is going for this place.  So, this review and write-up may seem a little biased.

First off, we ordered a Basso salad, the Mafalda (which doesn't look like it is available on the lunch menu anymore), a cauliflower soup and pizza, that they had split in half where one side had shrimp and the other side had poblano peppers and sausage.

Everything was delicious.  Period.

Why are you still reading this?  Basso is awesome.  They get my best of Tasty Magazine for 2013, for Best Restaurant.  Go there, eat there and you will love it.  Tell them I sent you, why not!  It is so cool, they even have valet parking.  Come'on, take the wife there before you finish your Christmas shopping.  Stop there, then go to the Galleria.  It is a win-win situation.  

http://www.basso-stl.com/

Address: 7036 Clayton Ave, St Louis, MO 63117

Phone:(314) 932-7820

Awesome fresh Asian food

Nestled away from the main drag, hidden between a salon and some retail space, down Tesson Ferry, is the Liu Shun Wok.  First off, let me say this: I have purchased food there, 4 weeks in a row, and have tried as many as 10 dishes: nothing has been bad.  The food is amazing and while I don't want to insult them by trying to guess their ethnicity or country of origin, I will say that it seems very much like Americanized Asian food. However, there are a few differences between other food like this that you can find in St. Louis: this is really good and fresh.

On Thursday, I spoke with the owners, who appear to be a husband and wife team: she takes the orders and he cooks everything fast in a wok.  She was telling me that they make everything fresh, the vegetables and all ingredients are purchased that morning, from the Dierburgs, just a 1/4 of a mile away.  You can taste it in the quality of the meats, seafood and vegetables. No artificial flavors, no fake colors and I don't think, there is an MSG.

They have a huge menu, with very reasonable prices (almost too cheap for the amount of food you get).  My advice for you, is that if you like this kind of food, you should go there and at least give it a try.  I give their food a great 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5, as the food is good, nothing fancy or unusual and it is worth coming back for.  They have a facebook page here and please check them out:

https://www.facebook.com/LiuShunWok 

Back to Basso

There are a few places that I love in St. Louis.  These places have a perfect combination of food, service and atmosphere.  With so many things changing in this city, St. Louis still has an issue deciding whether it wants to do things on its own or try to follow in the footsteps of East or West Coast big name cities.  Night clubs on Washington Avenue tend to try to play the music and make the feeling of New York or LA clubs but fail in doing so.  Just because it works there doesn't mean it will work here.  In the same token, I have seen restaurants with ideas which may work well in California try and fail here in the Mid West.  What has to be done for a successful restaurant here, is to work with the culture and foods that are present here. Don't try to make a bar as good as those in Las Vegas, don't try to have great food like that of New York and don't try to have impeccable service like Beirut.  What you should do, is make something unique and St. Louis.

Enter Chef Patrick Connolly, who is not only "like us" and from St. Louis, but he learned and worked and cooked and moved East where he became big, famous and earned a James Beard Award.  Then after working in more restaurants and earning more praise he came back and worked here.  Now, while all of this may sound humble and modest, let's be honest: the man comes up with some great food ideas. Basso tries to use everything seasonal and locally farmed or raised.  If Missouri beef is good enough for the high priced steak houses in Las Vegas, I'd say that it is good enough for the nice gastro-pubs here.  As I stated earlier, Basso does everything with a nod and twist of Italian flare.  While it may not seem as authentic and on the nose as other fine Italian eateries in the area, you can see the spark and the enjoy the flavors that bring just about every dish back to Italy.  

Now, the last time we had eaten at Basso, was late February and my wife and I enjoyed everything about it.  This time, we had brought two more people and they had not known that this place was here, but were ready for adventure.  The cool thing with Basso, is that they serve "Family style" and this means that you order some plates and share some plates.  This doesn't mean that there is too much food though, it is a nice and romantic enough place that a couple could order 4 plates and be full and happy without having extras.

Also, as Chef Robert Irvine or the guys behind Mystery Diners or Restaurant Stakeout know, a restaurant still counts on the service and even here at Basso, Blaise has done an awesome job as Service Manager as everything in the front of the house is run perfect.  No one waits too long for anything, the waiters and bussers are friendly and talkative.  They also know about the things on the menu and ave their favorites as well.  They don't try to sell or push things that are expensive and like to actually ask and please you, while there. So, even though I want to say and talk about the food, let me be clear that the service is perfect.   

We had ordered several things and saw that first of all, from our awesome dining location: at the kitchen bar, the menu had changed since the last time we had been there.  It is a clear sign that a menu is based on accessible items and seasonal ingredients, when you notice that the menu items change from time to time.  With just a few things still on the menu from last time, we went ahead and ordered a bunch of new things to try.

The first thing we had ordered was the Caprese Salad.  The Salad was tomatoes, basil and some cheese in the middle.  It had a nice vinegar and oil dressing and tasted fresh, clean and savory.  It wasn't too sweet from the tomatoes and it wasn't too savory from the pepper and basil.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5.

Then we got the baked lamb meatballs, which had these little meatballs, in a cast-iron skillet, with sauce, crumbled cheese on top and these balls of polenta.  The meatballs were moist and delicious and sprinkled with fresh oregano.  The polenta was perfectly cooked and great in the sauce.  The sauce was not too sweet and worked just well.  I'd say a good 4 out of 5.

So then we order the potato gnocchi which was potato gnocchi and some roasted mushrooms, tarragon, pecorino and all served in what tasted like a white wine reduction.  It was delicious and furthermore was so good that if I had stopped in for lunch, in the future, I'd get this for myself, for my meal.  So, good and so ....good.  I'd throw 4 stars at them right now.

For a pizza, we ordered the Ramper's Delight, which had ramp greens, fennel, fontina, prosciutto and some lemon.  The pizza was quite awesome.  All pizzas are cooked in their wood fire oven and unlike other places that claim to have a wood fire oven, to the back wall, next to the kitchen is a huge wall of chopped wood, which fuels the fire!  The pizza gave you the smokey flavor from the wood, the crispy-ness from the crust, and the wonderful play of the lemon sauce drizzled over the pieces of greens, fennel and meat.  It was very nice and very good.  Last time we had the Donald pizza, and this one was way better.  I'd say another 4 out of 5 on this one.

Now, for desserts: we had ordered the cookies, which were six yummy cookies.  The tiramisu, was plated in a small 8 ounce mason jar and was inhaled by the two women sitting at the bar with me. The lemon cheesecake, was also a big winner.  All good enough to get at 3 out of 5.

 So, what are my final thoughts?

If you are looking for a great lunch, go here and get a great pizza.
If you are looking for a nice and romantic night out, go here and get the kitchen bar area.
If you are looking for a place with good drinks and great food to watch the Blues, come to the bar in the center of the restaurant.
If the prices were less, so I could afford it,  I would bring my wife there every weekend.
The food is great, having been there now 2 times having had over 10 items from their menu, there has not been a bad one yet.  The service is perfect, everyone is friendly and you are likely going to get a big thank you when you leave.  Go here now!

A secret food truck feast

There was a food truck feast this past Saturday, but you would never have known it.  First off, it was announced in a small ad in the RFT magazine.  Secondly, it could have been a better arranged event.  Here is the thing: it was held partially be the Four Hands Brewery, which was on 8th street downtown.  The brewery has parking places in back of the building; about 8.  So, this event, was to have about 10 food trucks, live music and food and beer and all sorts of goodies, as well as the first fashion truck.  This is a good idea, but could have been a billion times better, had there been parking.  The closest parking, was on 8th street, but after those two blocks of parking filled up, the only answer left was more street parking.  Parking was done on the streets as far West as near St. Raymond's church.  Parking doesn't seem like an issue at first, but there was something gnawing at me: the vacant "event parking" lots nearby.  There was three, large empty lots within a shotput's throw of the event.

This meant that just a quick forethought on the event organizers, could have had those spots not only available, but for rent for just a few bucks.  Even if they charged a single $1, per car, they would have cleaned up with their 50-60 spots, versus not having them open at all.  Now, besides the parking and the tables setup for 50 people when there was over 200 people there at any one time, I'd say everything else was good.

My family and I tried as much as we could.  It was also important to see that some of the foods we ordered, were not only child friendly, but were inhaled by those same children.  We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich from Sarah's Meltdown: https://www.facebook.com/sarahsmeltdown .  We had ordered a grilled cheese in which my boys inhaled.  I think my wife was able to get a single bite of it before each boy grabbed half of it, and ate all they could.  It was definitely cheesy and I'd say as far as child friendly things, that was an easy 3 and 1/2 out of 5.

Next, my son ordered a dish from the Completely Sauced truck.  They say that they serve Creole Cuisine.  So, my son orders their nachos, which I wasn't happy about because I was expecting chips and cheese which sound great to a 6 year old, but isn't really note-worthy from a food truck.  These nachos were not nachos. They were $7.50 and it was this huge paper basket of sweet potato chips with what seemed like beef, green onions, and this amazing sauce.  So, I sat there, after having a sample and watched my 6 year old, take a fork and eat and eat and eat.  My skinny little 6 year old, ate the whole thing, which was probably 2 pounds of food!  The flavor of the sauce, reminded me a lot of the flavor of a sauce that Guerrilla Street food had on one of their dishes.  It was fantastic at an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

There was a Greek truck there called "My Big Fat Greek Food Truck" and I had to ask and order from them.  First off, I found out that they do everything there and even the woman, whom I spoke with, makes the yogurt fresh and then the woman makes the Tzatziki sauce from scratch, using that home-made yogurt.  They cook the meats, they spice and make the herb mix for pita bread.  I ordered the gyro and some baklava.  The baklava was made from scratch and made extra sweet with what tasted like honey.  It was so good and so moist and the woman said that everything, but the phyllo dough, was done by them. The baklava was a 4 out of 5 as in, you have to order it.  The gyro was huge and was great with the raw onions and tomatoes.  The sauce was great and the beef/lamb was delicious.  The woman there actually told me that at one time, they offered a pork gyro, but  no one liked it.  Weird.  So, the gyro was huge and was enough that I had to save it a few hours later and eat it again for dinner.  The meat was perfectly spiced and the first half of the sandwich was perfect and making me happy.  I think it wasn't until I got to the second half that I thought that the meat was getting salty and spicy.  I think there was actually a chili rub or spicy paprika or something that lent some heat, on the pita bread.  All in all, it was very good and I'd give both of these items a 4 out of 5 as you have to order them.

There was a truck that was called "The Sweet Divine".  The side of the truck mentioned that they had won Cupcake Wars.

What they specialized in, was cupcakes and they had this clever stand out front with what each cupcake looked like along with a description.  They had some interesting flavors and out of the 6 available, we had chosen 4.  Our four flavors were a Salted Caramel, which had an overly salty cake and a smooth and rich caramel sauce.  The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough one had a very rich chocolate cake with a small spot in the bottom with some cake that tasted like cookie dough.  There was a simple icing on top and some small chocolate chips also.  The Neapolitan had flavors of chocolate and vanilla and strawberry that tasted just like a scoop of the ice cream.  It was right every-way. The best they had was one called "The Drunken Pig".  It was a beer flavored cake with a simple vanilla icing and pieces of crumbled cooked bacon on top.  The thing was awesome.  The cake part tasted like a really, really yeast-y, like a good beer and then the bacon on top worked with everything.  Now, there were four cupcakes, but every one was worth getting.  It was an easy 4 out of 5 and each was awesome.

Now we also picked up a Nutella crepe' from Rooster:

It was as good as a Nutella crepe' can get at a 3 and 1/2 out of 5.

We also got a large sushi burrito wrapped type thing that my wife got and thought was delicious.  It was from Chop Shop and I forget which one it was, but it was huge and perfectly done.  It also came with some Wasabi spiced popcorn.  I'd say that it was a 4 out of 5.

There you have it.  This was a quick run through of about 6 food places and what I thought of them.  If you see any of these driving around, I suggest that you flag them down and give them your money,.

Local business on the right track

When I worked at an Old Country Buffet/ Home Town Buffet, more than 10 years ago, I remember cleaning up after we closed the restaurant and I was going through the kitchen.  At the end of a busy night, if we had a pot full of soup, we just threw it away.  Down the drain it went!  I remember overhearing an older man ask the general manager one evening, as she was still inside and finishing her food, "do you give your unused soups to local soup kitchens?"  It seemed like a reasonable suggestion.  I think every night we threw away gallons upon gallons of soup.  The soup would have been enough, each night, to give at least 20 - 30 people a full bowl of hot soup.  So, every night, we threw away enough soup, not to mention other food, to feed a lot of hungry people.  Now, my general manager responded to this man, "We don't give our soups away because they are confidential and company recipes and we don't want other people to find out what they are."

So, the reason that my manager stated for not giving away the food to hungry people who could actually use it, was that he was afraid that people, most likely these same people who haven't eaten a filling meal all day and have their first portion of food for the day, are going to sneak away a bowl of food and devise the secret ingredients so they can repeat and see a recipe to someone else?  I doubt it.  It made me disgusted to work there, even when I was sentenced to work in the dish room after hours and help.  I watched hotel pan after hotel pan of food, get thrown away, all because of company policy.  As if their secret recipe of making chicken soup from concentrated chicken base flavoring and water was so secret that just by me mentioning it will have me sentenced to death.

The good news is, that a St. Louis company does give away their food.

Panera Bread, is doing something new, to me at least.  I was told be an employee that they give away their unused bread, every night to food shelters.  That is great.  Having a bakery which probably makes at least 100 loaves of fresh bread a day and then gives that food away to someone who can use it is admirable.  Now, what they have recently started, is just, if not, better.

So, occasionally, they will pick a new menu item to be featured this way.  Then, you as a regular consumer can either pay the suggested amount or pay more than the suggest amount.  Now, the extra money would then be used to help off-set the loss, when someone who comes in and cannot afford to eat it.  In this fashion, Panera does something that no other restaurant does: accepts homeless people, or whatever is the proper PC term.  People who cannot afford to eat a bowl of turkey chili, at Panera, will get a bowl with whatever money they can scrap together.  So, if the guy comes in with 30 cents in his pocket and he has been living behind the dumpster outside for 3 weeks and he wants a bowl of chili, he can have a bowl of chili.  Now, whether he can sit inside and eat it or he has to take it to go, are still unanswered.  But, the idea is brilliant and will throw Panera into the humanitarian company of the year race.

So, the next time you are looking to be a little more helpful and you feel like spending a bit extra to help your community, I suggest you give a little extra so you can help Panera help out.