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.

Iron Chef America (duh, duh, duhhhhhhh)

I admit it, I am a fan of the show, even though it isn't the same as the original and is way too easy now.  By easy I mean that instead of the chefs having no idea what the secret ingredient could be they have to think for anything and instead of making one dish of each kind in that hour time, they have to make enough dishes for each judge at that time.  It takes a lot more time to make 20 plates of food than to make 5 plates of food.  Also, they reveal that on Iron Chef America, the chefs are told that there are three possibilities for what the secret ingredient could be, so they prepare for all three.  I remember the old show having no clue as to what it could be.  I think one time the secret ingredient was cheese and one time it is wine and it was difficult.  I also hoped that Iron Chef America would have foods that are more native to the country.  But anyway, I could go off all day complaining about the show, even though I do watch it.

What I also watched was The Next Iron Chef: Redemption, where they took everyone who didn't make it to one of the Next Iron Chef shows and asked them to compete again for the prize of being the next Iron Chef.  The show was interesting as they had a theme for each episode and tried to make dishes tied to that theme, like invention or inspiration.  Anyhow, you start with a load of really good chefs and then weed it down to the chefs that will make good TV.  What you had was 10 really good chefs, all celebrity chefs, all owners of multiple restaurants and all probably doing well; financially.  Then you say, "hey, win this and you will have some extra work to do but will gain fame and some bonus bucks."  Then you have a "Top Chef" knock-off called the Next Iron Chef, where chefs can compete to be an Iron Chef.  Again, my main issue with this is: if you have 10 Iron Chefs, and you can find new ones every year, then the chefs really are not that good.  In the original series show, you had 4 chefs who beat everyone.  They didn't get a new chef each year, they stuck with these and they beat everyone.  Look it up: there are now 10 Iron Chefs for Iron Chef America.  That is a lot of chefs.  I guess at this point, in order to keep the franchise going, they will get a new chef every year forever.

So, Alex Guarnaschelli wins to the dismay of a lot of people and takes the mantle as Iron Chef.  Her first battle, is mortadella.  http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2012/12/chef-guarnaschellis-first-iron-chef-america-showdown/   

Mortadella is a sausage, made from pork, with huge cubes of pork fat.  It is like a fatty bologna and has Italian origin.   The sausage was basically used by the ancient Romans, which indicates that it is an old recipe.  That picture is not of small people either.  The sausage links are huge.  I know this because on Friday, we went to a Schnucks and purchased some slices to make sandwiches.

Yes, this is real and not a fake ruler.  This is a slice of Mortadella, with pistachios, that is about 7 & 1/2 inches in diameter.  It is huge.  I was able to tear off a quarter and tried to fry it in a pan and treat it like a better bologna.

What you have here, is something that tastes like the best bologna, but with huge pieces of pork fat.  In this case, the fat squares that were white originally, had cooked and turned clear.   Then the sides and the fat started to render further and get crispy.  What finished was something that tastes like fried bologna with a slice of bacon on it.  I forget how much it was, for the quarter pound that we picked up, but so far, this is definitely worth it.  I recommend looking for this and eating this and buying this, if you can find it.

A great themed restaurant with no theme....

This past Friday night, I had an opportunity to review and experience the River City Casino's finest food and beer establishment: the 1904 Beer house. This beer house was supposed to be of a 1904 old time, river boat, theme and the only thing that established that idea was huge chandeliers and some pictures of some old steam and paddle boats. The restaurant has dark and stained wood on the bar, huge marble slabs for the table tops, and hard wooden floors and chairs.  The male servers and wait staff wore dark overalls with white shirts and the ladies wore a red, white and blue colored dress, like the St. Paulie girl on the beer bottle.  The bartenders, had just basic black shirts and pants on.

The menu isn't that large and can be quickly looked over as there isn't anything that seems to stand out as it was trying to be traditional American, I would assume, but some things were of different nationalities.  My group of 4 foodies, including myself, decided to order all appetizers and some other things to see how everything tasted.

What you see here, in a clockwise direction is: onion rings, pretzels with cheese sauce, sausage pizza, fried Rubens, and German spaghetti.  The onion rings were your basic onion rings.  They had a similar crunchy breading to that of Steak N'Shake. So, while I enjoy them, I wasn't overly enjoyed by them.  They get a 3 out of 5 from me.  The pretzels were large, thick and tasty.  They were cooked all the way through which is tough for pretzels that large.  They were perfectly done on the outside and with just the right salty flavor as well.  I didn't make it to the pizza, as I tried everything else, but my friend who had eaten it said it was great, giving it a 3.5 out of 5.  The fired Rubens were tiny balls of meat and cheese and such and then rolled together in a bread crumb breading and then deep fried.  They have a 1000 island dipping sauce and overall, I really liked them.  They were not mind blowing but the first I have seen of this type so they get a 4 out of 5 for me.

This was the German spaghetti and was not an appetizer but a normal entree'.  It was a huge portion and had basil, garlic, cheese, cream, mushrooms and sirloin tips in there.  It reminded me of a proper beef Strogonoff, with the sour cream sauce but this one perhaps has some white wine and garlic and butter. I tried some and it was delicious.  I'd probably give the pasta dish a good 3.5 out of 5 stars as well.  That large thing was probably about a pound of bread.  The bread had a minimal flavor as it was a tool for soaking up broth or sauce more than anything.

These slider-looking burgers were actually Kobe beef burgers.  The burgers were quite large as the Kobe was in more of a meatball shape.  They were deliciously cooked and probably just seasoned with salt and pepper.  They were juicy and worked well as a burger as my father had said :"That was the best tasting burger I have ever had."  I thought they were good as well and get a 4 out of 5 from me.

My father ordered the sausage and cheese board and this is it. Several kinds of cheese, sausages and olive along with a mustard and ketchup sauce is what this entails.  Everything was good but none of it was over the top or super delicious, as it was a general meat and cheese tray.  It was good though with creamy light cheeses and a good selection of Italian meats like pepperoni and prosciutto.  I would give this a 3 out of 5.

  Lastly we have the German deviled eggs with a Creole seasoning.  What these were though, were the very basic deviled eggs with bacon on top.  The seasoning tasted like paprika and the mix in the eggs were just very basic and didn't taste anything special or fancy.  I'd give these eggs just a simple 2.5 out of 5 as their addition of bacon tried to move it up further trying to back up on the bacon.  Bacon does make everything better, but you can't make a normal item and put bacon on it to make it better.  The eggs get a 2 out of 5 for me.

Overall the night was a lot of fun and the food was good, especially when paired up with a good selection of their beers and drinks.  All the food was reasonably priced and since it was located just outside of the gaming area, children could technically come into the restaurant as well.  It is definitely a good place to go for a meal, a snack or a drink.

Start at Square One...

Square One Brewery is an average sized brewery and restaurant in Soulard on Park Avenue.  My family went there, for fun and out of the blue, on Friday night and had enjoyed ourselves.  The first thing we noticed when we entered is that behind glass doors, you can see them brewing 3 beers and they list which ones they are, so you know that the beers you get come form here and aren't from some other place.  Besides that, they led us out into their little outdoor garden spot, complete with giant wall fountain, ample shade from a nice sized tree and those outdoor heaters making sure that everyone is as comfortable as they can be, while enjoying their food.

My family and I were placed in a great position for kids, against the wall and garden box, which prevented my 2 year old from running all over the place by corralling him into a spot with a wall, a garden, a tree and our table and chairs.  We sat, under a great view from a bright green tree contrasting with the baby blue sky and ordered our drinks. Not too long afterward, we ordered our food and it arrived, maybe 20 minutes later.

For the kids, we ordered chicken strips and french fries, which turned out be these huge strips of chicken, beer battered in the same coating as what has to be used with fish n'chips.  French fires were cut nicely and tasty, not too dry, salty, greasy, oily or raw, but cooked well.  My sons, split the dish and there was hardly any left, so on their behalf, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Then my wife ordered the wurst plate, which came with three types of sausage, a pile of red skinned mashed potatoes and some asparagus.Three sausages came with this one: a spicy chicken and two beefs.  All of them were differently seasoned but still good. There was a heap of some sour and sweet sauerkraut which was good enough to make me want to start eating sauerkraut again. The red skinned mashed potatoes had some onions and garlic in it that helped to compliment the potato taste, making for some flavorful mashers. There was the ground mustard sauce and some steamed and salted asparagus to finish. Everything was really tasty and this dish was given a 4 out of 5 by me.

We then had a plate of the stout braised pot roast with the same red skinned garlic mashed potatoes and some vegetables, which in this case, were more asparagus.  That was a mound of meat and gravy, on top of mashed potatoes: what better way to spend an evening.  The beef was tasty and tender, perfectly tender in such a way that it melted in my mouth. Or at least fell into perfectly cut sized pieces for easy chewing. (Hubert Keller should take a lesson on pot roast from this chef.)  The pieces of carrot and celery had the part they normally play in this classic dish and still added the same amount of flavor overall. The beef went fine with the mashed potatoes, as all beef does, and in this case, I ended up dipping everything I could into the gravy. This dish gets a nice 4 out of 5 stars as well from me.

We don't have pictures of the blueberry ice cream that was ordered for dessert and came out in a bowl with two large scoops.  As it was delicious and definitely worth ordering if you go there.  The funny part of the evening came when a person near to us, presumably with his date, probably tried to impress her by ordering a cask ale. Well, it was delivered to him and when he took a sip and made a disgusting face, he complained directly to the waitress. Complaining of the beer being too warm, the man demanded that his cask ale, which is supposed to be served warm or at least at room temperature, be taken back and a cold one returned to him. The waitress told him that all of the cask ale beers are warm, with which the man replied that he would like another beer.

Square One Brewery
1727 Park Avenue
St Louis, MO 63104
(314) 231-2537

Welcome to St. Louis, Mr. Bourdain...

Thanks to my wife, she informed me on how to best annoy someone into getting what I wanted. So, last year, I send an email, followed by another and another and after a few emails to a staff member of Point Zero, I finally received a response.  I was selected, through my nagging, to be the person to set things up for a visit by Tony and his crew.  But what would we do and what could St. Louis offer?

Well, let's look at the best case scenario:

If I had Tony for just two days, what would we do?  Well, first off, it could be seen that he tends to go places that his wife and child can go as well. Well, through pure coincidence, my in-laws own a spa. That spa, is what Tony's wife and members of the crew can enjoy.  As for what his daughter can do, St. Louis has the best zoo in the country and it is free.  We have all sorts of things for kids and families as well as more than 6 shopping malls!

Now, day one would start with a trip to the World's Fair Donut store, near Shaw Garden, as it is repeatedly chosen as one of the best donut spots in America. Why not start off the day with some award winning donuts?  Next, a nice tour of The Hill and then stopping off in the Central West End at Kopperman's deli for some strange things like a tongue sandwich and such.  A nice afternoon stroll down Washington Avenue showing off the area that was gaslight square, for a little more history and then a run to a night ball game of the world series winning St. Louis Cardinals.  I don't know what Tony actually likes, but from his many journeys with  Zamir, it seems like he is always looking for the party spots but never really finding them.  Tony, welcome to St. Louis.  After a nice Cardinals game, enjoying st. louis local made beer and brats, there is nothing better than perhaps some casino run or a quick trip for drinks and a smoke at the local strip clubs.


Day two would start off with a nice walk and stroll through Soulard Market, where the local farmers bring their fruits and veggies to be sold. Always wonderfully fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and flowers as well as crafts can be found by people there. We would be there to sample and buy some ingredients for a large family dinner that evening.  After food is bought, I think that a tour of the A&B brewery would suffice and then a nice lunch in the city.  Dinner would be in Forest Park, under a park pavilion, as a large BBQ. What more st. louis than a st. louis style BBQ with everyone, family, friends and all crew members get a nice meal of dead animal flesh or pork.  Now that I think about it, maybe hiring someone who does BBQ for a living, like Kenerick's may work best.


Here is my idea and let me know what you think.


Come to st. louis, Tony.

The horse before the cart

I am like every other German American guy in St. Louis, in that I love pork, beer and sausage. It is something that gets into your genes when you live within the St. Louis area. Almost everyone has seen or eaten some sort of sausage or pork product at almost every BBQ or family event. Beer makes the world go around and when what is probably the largest North American brewery is in your hometown, then beer is definitely part of your life.

Just this past Saturday, I attended a meal at a not so well known spot in St. Louis, called The Stable. This location would be classified as historic as it was the same stable that housed the draft horses that pulled Lemp Fallstaff beer around town, as the Lemp Brewery is right across the street. This was my first time hearing of and going to the Stable and I was very happy that I did. The inside has a high ceiling, plenty of ceiling and a host that will great you immediately and sit you rather quickly. They have smaller 2-top tables for dates and can even make larger tables for 20 or more. The restaurant is decorated with some simple things from the time, like the ol'fashioned chandeliers that resemble wagon wheels, hanging from the ceiling and many things hanging on the wall from the time period. The bar is made from a huge wooden mantle piece and there are two small rooms adjacent to each other that have a distillery for making their own alcohol and beers.

I sat down and was prepared to carefully peruse the menu until something caught my eye: basket of bacon. It was a Starter and it was $5.95 and it was a basket of bacon. How sweet does that sound? Had the food gods noticed my love for food pork and have delivered sacred mana bacon from heaven? What better can you get for a lover of pork products than bacon? Without thinking and acting as if through divine inspiration, I ordered that starter, along with one of their home brewed Marzens. After a few minutes, the basket arrived. The bacon was perfectly cooked for the way I like it. It wasn't too crispy, but still a bit soft and flimsy, perfectly done. It was set in a small basket, lined with some wax paper and the 8 strips were arranged in set a way that the grease would run down and collect in a pool in the bottom of the basket. The bacon, tasted like bacon: no maple syrup, no pepper, no spiciness, no smoked anything, just bacony goodness in a perfect multi-note dish of all bacon. Mmmmmmm..... an easy 4 stars out of 5 for all bacon.

I then received the butternut squash ravioli with a white bean ragout and it arrived shortly after the bacon. The ravioli were perfectly cooked with a filling that was almost too sweet for a savory dish. Unless that was their evil plan. I wonder if it was their plan to pair the sweetness of the pasta with the savoriness of the stew, underneath. With white beans and shaved vegetables it was in a nice salty broth that pulled the whole thing together. Don't get me wrong that the ravioli were very delicious but I just wasn't sure that it went perfectly well with what it was sitting on. 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for me.

The last dish I had was the Cajun sandwich, which was a hoagie roll with andouille, shrimp, a sauce with a side of pasta salad. The pasta salad was your normal cold pasta salad, that I am always a fan of but it was the sausage in the sandwich that was notable. Much like Anton Ego, I almost dropped everything I was holding when I tasted the sausage in that sandwich. It instantly teleported me to a camping trip from my childhood when my father would gather sausage from a meat market and bring it and cook it over an open fire, in the woods. The flavors reminded me exactly of that childhood meal and I could almost feel everything melt around me and transport me directly to that same wooded area, sitting in front of that fire and eating that sausage. I was in shock at the perfect balance of flavors and spices a thought for a brief moment that it wasn't real. It worked perfectly with the sauce, cheese, shrimp and bread as everything came together to fulfil a taste that was almost, no... better than the basket of bacon. Whereas I normally try to train my palette for as many things as I can to help distinguish between foods for my star ratings, this sandwich gets my top score of a 5 out of 5.

For anyone looking for a nice night out with some great food that is in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend the Stable. along with their 24 beers on tap and their 50 bottles that they house as well, it is a perfect beer lovers place, if you are not into sausage or bacon.