Hard to keep up with the family legacy

So, my surname is "Bauer", which means "Farmer" in German.  Good, we got that out of the way. So, I think I may have mentioned this before, but I found a census card, filled out, from 1854, in Corondelet, Missouri, from my ancestors.  They had $1,600 worth of farm land.  Now the area where this would be now, is where Corondelet is now, with factories and houses and stores.  That area, is where my family had a farm.  I'm sure also that land was cheaper then and that amount in that time could get a good amount of items and things.  What is important though, is that they held that farm as it was until they needed to sell it.  When they did, it was the grandson of the farm owner, who was my grandfather. 

So, my grandfather didn't grow up on a farm, but at least saw one, when he visited his grandparents.  When my grandfather came back from World War 2, he went to college on the G.I. Bill and got a degree of chemistry and worked at Monsanto.  (But back then, they didn't try to poison the world.)  He still worked on seeds and fertilizers and such. So, he took his work home.  He and my grandmother started a farm, in their backyard.  Their house, a large, two family flat on Virginia Avenue, had a big backyard for the house's size, maybe a quarter of an acre, and they converted half of that, into a successful garden.

A few years after we had moved into our new house, on Terri Lynn Drive, my father had started to plow a small stretch of ground in our backyard, for a garden as well.  This area was probably no more than 50 square feet of space, but he was able grow huge tomato plants, carrots, broccoli, and beets.  I remembered that every spring, we would plant and by mid summer we would be harvesting.  We would grow just items that we used and always had plenty. 

So, my wife and I get our new house, after being married and living in an apartment for a year.  After getting things squared away, we buy some large rose bushes and plant them in the backyard, which almost looks to be about 1,400 square feet of dried up, uneven landfill.  So, the roses do awesome, but the next year we move them into the front yard for a flower garden to help the front of the house look nice.  The area where they were, in the back yard, seemed like a good spot for a garden and after I had purchased and assembled some raised garden beds, I placed those in the back as well.  I filled them with the best garden soil that my Home Depot credit card could buy and placed tomatoes, corn and even some carrots and onions out there.  What I didn't plan on, was the hot and dry climate near my subdivision.  In a subdivision, so young, with no large trees in anyone's yard, there is full sun on these garden spots.  Combine that with a serious drainage issue, means that the tomato plants were getting dried out as the fruit was being eaten by insects, the corn was getting moldy as the plant's roots dried out and the carrots never grew past little sprouts in the ground.

I want a garden so bad, having a garden would be awesome and so much fun.  We had a cherry tomato plant, in our front yard, in our flower garden and we harvested so many tomatoes that we were giving bag fulls to friends and family.  However, we got called out by a troublesome neighbor, and in our HOA contract, we are not allowed to grow food in the front yard.  So, I miss having a garden produce something in such large amounts that it can sustain us, or help us out.

Then we come to this:

This is a garden spot, raised up by my brother-in-law, on land owned by my in-laws.  It was a garden last year, I think, growing salad vegetables.  So, this year, on one hot day, I came down with my kids and let them play as I started to get to work.  This area, probably a 10 foot by 10 foot square, took my about an hour to dig and till and clean up.  It now holds a lot of weeds, but also about 10 surviving tomato plants.  I ordered some plants from Burpee and was hooked on the notion of getting an 8 pound tomato.  Whether that happens or not, is up in the air.  But, whether this works or not, it will at least get the ground ready for a next year batch and so forth and maybe, I might have a garden that can produce food that I can be proud of.  Now considering that the land that my in-laws own, was at one point fertile farmland, and farmers to this day continue to farm their land around this parcel, indicates that the land can support a good sized garden.  In a few years we will build a house on this land and hope to have a bigger garden.

A suprise meal

 Everyone knows about Eckert's farm and store and restaurant, right?  If not, here is a quick summary of what you have been missing: Long ago at a galaxy far and away, my grandparent's used to take my brothers and I, to Eckert's to go apple picking in the fall.  They would drive out and we would do the apple picking and then we would enter the country store, which I recall at the time, being nothing more than a large barn.  We would go in, get a wooden basket, go out and get apples, and then bring them back where they would weigh them and you would pay pennies for each pound of picked apples.  This was great.  Now, within the past few years, or year, they changed everything.   

This is what the Country store looked like a bit ago, with the restaurant to the left of it.  Then they did this:


You can tell that this farm is doing well when they can tear down their old store and make a huge one.  This store is very much on the inside, as high-tech as a Whole Foods or Schnucks.  As for the restaurant, it used to be tiny, country-style decorated and could sit maybe 50 people.  Now, the place is huge and can easily seat a few hundred.

Now, while the family is still running the farm and businesses, these 6th and 7th generation Eckert's have created a memorable and delicious menu for their restaurant to boast and surpass their apple and other produce picking.

My favorite item of all, is chicken and dumplings.  What I love about the chicken and dumplings at the Eckert's restaurant is: first of all, it is bottomless and second of all, it tastes just like my grandma used to make.  Well, first off, they call it "bottomless" on the menu and what that means is that if you have an awesome server, like we did, he will notice when you are remotely close to the bottom of the large bowl of chicken and dumplings and then he will come out with another large bowl and take the old one.  That's right, a wonderful server will come and replenish your ambrosia, before you can flinch, all for $10.  What made our time there even better, is that when I took what was left to go home, our cool server not only refilled my bowl and placed it into a to-go container, but then he filled up a second container for me.  Awesome.

Now, what about my grandma?  Well, she is of German ancestry.  Her parents came from Germany and started a horse farm near Sullivan, Missouri.  As time went on and she became older, her parents sold the farm for a flat in St. Louis.  Then, she went to work at a shoe company, on Washington Avenue.  Every day, her mother and grandmother (whom lived with them), would make their dinner, which I lust for because it was awesome German food.  Now, my grandmother made two kinds of dumplings:  One was a potato dumpling and then other was a spaetzle dumpling.  What I find most often called "dumplings" when paired with chicken, is the spaetzle ones, which are made with flour, water and some egg.  These are what proper dumpling became to be and as my brothers and I grew older, the spaetzle dumplings paired with chicken

So, the chicken and dumplings I ordered at the restaurant, tasted just like the ones my grandma used to make, which means, the original recipe they make to sell, must be similar in cultural or ethnic region.  Anyways; the famous fried chicken, which is also served and sold as an all-you-can-eat option, is also incredible and juicy and moist with a super crispy coating.

So, my thoughts?  Service, atmosphere and food, all get a 4 out of 5 stars for me.

Go there and give it a shot.

What it is really like being a chef or working at a restaurant

I saw this online and it only started to bring back memories:
http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/understanding-cooks-best-kitchen-advice?ref=facebook-868

 

 From the time that I was 16 years old, I started to work at a restaurant. When I think back to this place, from seeing and dining in so many other restaurants, it really didn't seem like a true restaurant, but it was.  I did so because it was easy work and fun when your friends worked there as well.  My older brother worked there and as such it helped me get my job there.  I didn't think of it at the time, but it helped light the fuse for my love of food and cooking.  I tried to avoid the kitchen as best as I could because I was young and 16 and didn't want to do anything back there that pulled me away from my friends and the windows looking upon the outside world.  There were a couple of times that my brother was pulled into the back to help and when he came out at the end of the day, he looked drained and smelled like a trashcan.  I just didn't want that and I did try really hard to avoid it, and did so at that location.  What happened when I was about 18, was that while school was one thing and I had friends there, my friends did not live by me and work with me.  The friends I had acquired at this one location, in Shrewsbury, were the friends I would go out and party with on summer nights, weekends and vacations.  That was my social network, it was Facebook and Myspace before those sites were even invented.  I don't try to sound old and ancient, but before there was the internet and even cell phones that did anything other than make and receive calls, there was a physical meeting of people at locations. 

My friends were all together and we were making friends with managers and then all of a sudden, they moved my favorite manager.  They transfer managers and move them around like chess pieces. (Wait, maybe not because that implies that the district supervisors who manage whole city's worth of restaurant locations would be capable of any intelligent thought.)  But my favorite manager was sent to another location, on Manchester Road, in West County and I was still stuck here in Shrewsbury.

I begged to be moved there and when I was, I noticed that things seemed different and there, I did volunteer my services to the kitchen when they had a cook call in sick.  I thought it was really cool that 2 guys would run the cook's line and maybe 3 on a busy day and there would be as much as 10-15 in the front of the house just working on the products of those on the cook's line.  So one day I was working and the cook called in sick.  There was a certified trainer back there and they needed someone to go back and I took the chance.  I slapped a hairnet on, a cap, a thick apron and went to the cook's line.  I worked there in what seemed like perfect harmony with the other cook.  He was on the ovens and I had steamer and fryer.  I was having trouble keeping up with the food taking and when the manager, probably in a drunken stupor came before me and pulled me over away from the cook's line.

"John," he says. "Recipes are just instructions.  If you can read, just do what they say and everything will be fine."

That is all it takes and that thought, that saying, coming from an a-hole such as he was, was the most remarkable thing I ever heard about cooking food.  That and my co-worker that night, Terrell, told me that cooking was "just having fun."

The rest is history but I can tell you this; the restaurant I worked for, Old County Buffet, was an all-you-can-eat restaurant.  People would pay as much as $10 for dinner and eat $100 worth of food.  I was frying 4 chickens at once in one fryer and about a pound of french fries in the other, while mixing 4 pounds of mashed potatoes in a large stand mixer.  My steamer was filled with 10 pound trays of corn, green beans and carrots and that was the tough part.  On a busy Friday or Saturday night, the line servers were taking food out of the Sham faster than I could cook it. 

The feeling and thoughts and memories, all came back when reading that article.  So, let's look at my favorites from that site:

[It gets really hot]- At the locations where I cooked, and at the restaurant itself, they did not have AC in the back of the house.  So, whether you were working on the oven and the grill or getting a burning facial with the fryers and steamers, there was no saving your body from the heat.  What we did, was use the meat freezer.  About 10 feet from the oven side, against a wall, was the meat freezer.  All of the meat was there, frozen, along with boxes of other stuff like vegetables to be steamed and so forth.  Let me tell you this: working for 8 hours on steamer side and then walking into a freezer is amazing.  It is so cold that the sweat on your hands actually starts to turn into frost after a few seconds and it feels wonderful.  It was a great pick me up during those hot summer days on the line.

[No matter how hot it is, don't drop it]- What a great piece of advice.  I have dropped a large sheet pan full of baked chicken before.  It was so hot, out of the oven, that I burned myself on one of the doors on the side of my arm.  I dropped one side of the sheet pan and it fell down, as hot, molten, chicken fat and juices ran all down my apron and my leg and on my shoe.  While that sounds like I could have been saved, I wasn't.  The lava was so hot that I besides the food costs I wasted, I had to run around the corner, get my arm fixed up and take my shoe off to make sure and stop everything from burning my foot and leg.  What a day.

[Even in scratch kitchens, 98% of everything is prepared ahead of time]- Every night, before we closed and locked up, the cooks would prep for the next day's crew and shifts.  On steamer side, you had to get about 2 boxes of frozen vegetables and get them into some quarter pans to prep for the next day.  The oven side cook would get his chicken laid out and on pans for the freezer to be ready for the next morning.

[You must over-communicate]- My line, which was the cooks I worked with whether I was scheduled to cook or if I was sent back to help as kitchen supervisor, always spoke clearly and loud.  I had my guys yell when coming around a corner.  When you have dishwashers placing cleaned pans on a rack that is the same rack where my cooks were going to get food going, and having guys with grease and food stuff on the bottoms of their shoes walking into a wet and soapy area, it makes a huge difference between being quiet and yelling "coming around!"  When you had something hot, you yelled "hot coming around!" And when my team or myself opened a steamer or oven, customers in the dining room could hear us.  For good purpose because my team, had a flawless injury streak.

Also, a good one on here for people who are in this line of work or thinking about it: Don't date outside of your house.   This just means that if you are on the cook's line or dishwasher (back of the house), don't try dating someone who is in the front of the house, like a cashier, line server, or server.  It will make it very difficult to communicate and keep appointments.


 

The Hot Aztec downtown...

I know, I got your attention didn't I?  I'm sorry, there is no hot Aztec girl downtown.  (Or hot Aztec guy, if that is your angle.)  The Hot Aztec is a food truck, the OTHER taco truck or Mexican food truck downtown.  This one is difficult to miss as it is painted a pink and purple motif.  This truck can easily be seen driving anywhere downtown; possible even through the thickest of winter fog.

I really don't and won't argue and compare and contrast this Mexican food truck with the other Mexican food truck I checked out last week.  I think that should be something for you to see for yourself.  All I can do is tell you about my experience and what the food was like here.

The Hot Aztec is a family owned and operated food truck serving family recipes that are Mexican street food items.  Hot Aztec uses only organic or local ingredients, if they can get them.  Also, the food items are also biodegradable.  I did like how the Hot Aztec people set up a sandwich board, and used that to show some explanations of what some traditional Mexican ingredients are.  If you are going to order a taco and it has something called "Cotija cheese", you can see the definition and then understand what it is and whether or not you want it.  Pretty good idea.

Now, after looking at the menu items, I made a decision.  I picked the al pastor.  This dish, is just the same name as one I ordered in a Mexican restaurant in the Lake of the Ozarks.  The dish is supposed to be a baked chicken, perfectly seasoned and served with some grilled onions and pineapple.  This is what I received for $4.

It was a taco, made on two corn tortillas, and with little cubes of juicy, perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken, with some chopped onions, grilled pineapple and cilantro.  It was good.  It was just as I remember it supposed to have tasted and was right on the money.  Everything was cooked fine and I had no issue with it and it was an easy 3 out of 5 stars for me.

Unfortunately, this is all I had a chance of trying.  They have more menu items and serve items for breakfast as well so I will have to come back and try more.  The only issue I have with them, is that they say that they serve "authentic Mexican street food" on their Facebook page and yet on the showmefoodtrucks.com page, they say that they serve "gourmet Mexican cuisine!".  Then they suggest that you will not find the "beans and rice Mexican food...", which is sad because I tend to enjoy the beans and rice more-so than the proteins.  Still, I suggest checking the Hot Aztec out because from what I can tell, they do change their menu from time to time.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hot-Aztec/294502627247572

Cheese... by: Chef John Johnson

Let's start with every one's favorite.....CHEESE!!!!

One of my favorite things to do is to make making mozzarella cheese. Making Mozzarella is usually a two part process. First making the curd which is made from fresh milk and cannot be made from the processed mild that we get from the stores today. You can buy the curd direct from some local dairies or on line like I do.

http://www.dibruno.com/fresh-mozzarella-curd.html
Traditionally once you have the curd you can begin by warming the curd with warm water so you can begin to stretch the curd and create the long strands that define good mozzarella.  Once the curd is stretched you can begin to form the size ball you want. The name of the mozzarella is determined by the size of the ball. The word mozzarella actually refers to the tearing away of the ball from the curd.

Here is where I get a chance to play in the kitchen. Instead of using warm water and salt I like to use different flavors and herbs to not only enhance my cheese but to create something that no one else has. Playing with different combinations like:Vanilla Port, roasted garlic, ginger beer, and my most current tomato basil.

Replacing the warm water with fresh squeezed tomato water adding basil stems and salt I warm the liquid to 175 degrees and warm my curd in this before stretching the curd and forming the mozzarella balls. Creating flavored mozzarella with an unlimited palette of combinations. For all the Foodies out there this would make a great interactive wine party. If you plan it I just may have to see if i can come and help.

Playing with your food is not a bad thing anymore!




-Chef John Johnson is the Executive Chef for the restaurants at both the Lumiere Place and River City Casinos

I don't give a Puck....

First of all, the word 'puck', in culinary circles is synonymous with Wolfgang Puck. That chef, has done wonders with fusion foods and also has kept his feet on the ground to create master works of culinary art that still tastes like the foods mom used to make. However, if you are in st. louis and you were thinking of going to get his brunch menu at the st. louis art museum, skip it. My wife and I attended this hot brunch a few months ago.  You can find better food for the $25 a person.

There was a hot foods buffet line, with things like egg, cheese and spinach quiche, freshly cooked bacon, sausage, waffles made on the spot, chicken marinara, a carving station with roast beef and other smaller details. There was a cold bar with fresh fruit and some small pastries and salads, like a fresh spring green salad with walnuts, dried cranberries and a oil vinaigrette.

There was a desert bar as well.

For $25 a person, I was expecting a bit more: 2 out of 5 stars.

The cold food was too plain. The melons were sliced almost paper thin, so you had to stab 19 on your fork to fill the same space one normal chunk of melon would take. The croissants were good, but taste like pillsbury made them at the store. I doubt that there was a pound of butter in that batter for those rolls. The hot food was normal and mediocre at best. There was no awesomely sublime ideas presented to us, like fresh salmon and eggs or rich buttery and creamy waffles or pancakes (flapjacks, griddle cakes, etc). After working at a buffet most of my life, I know that you need to change out the meats because they tend to dry out fast under that heat lamp. The carver would sometimes leave his station and the beef looked like it was dry as a bone by the time he came back to it. Dessert was things like what seemed to be flourless chocolate cakes that were small, like 2 cm each way and then chilled, so there were almost frozen solid. Or there was peanut brittle that was rock hard as well. Cookies, which seem rather safe and chocolate covered strawberries.

Here's the thing: the brochure says that they have an "incomparable Sunday brunch". Well, it is, because I don't know what to compare it to. It didn't have the complexity that a more high priced brunch should have and didn't have the regular feel to it that normal places have. It is like if you wanted to go to Mesa Grill but only wanted to eat their baked goods, like the jalapeno bread or blue corn muffins. While blue corn bread is something strange, it is still something that you can make at home. I guess this is slightly biased because as I become more and more skilled some things are easier for me to cook at home. So, here is my standard: if I can't do it, and it tastes great, I pay a lot for it.

So, the cooked foods at Puck's brunch, sadly, I could do it all myself. I should have saved me from the $50 and just cooked breakfast for my wife in bed. I would pay $50 for the two of us for fancy french food at Chez Leon, in the central west end, and that gets me a grilled chicken with a black truffle risotto and my wife some soft shelled crab with a desert. (we always go prix- fix)

What was the most comical of all, when my wife and I did do this art museum brunch, which was actually several months ago, was that the restaurant area was filled with a large assortment of pretentious and snobby individuals who felt that the best way to judge the food was how easy it was to cut with a knife and fork and for them to place in their mouths and chew: hoping their dentures didn't crack or fall out. My wife and I are foodies, so when we sit and try food we comment out loud sometimes as to what we think.  I remember the looks of someone at the table next to us act like we were horrible people because after the meal I had stated what I thought of everything.  I'm sorry ma'am, that the eggs that my wife makes at home don't taste as good as the ones your butler makes every morning for you, but we still have a right to an opinion.  I think we received the most stare-downs that we have ever had at a restaurant in a long time.  (Which was odd, because I had a full suit on, my wife had a long dress and we were perhaps the two most well dressed people there.)