St. Louis has nothing to worry about.

The other night, my wife and I had a free night in downtown Austin, Texas and decided that a night out, at one of the trendy and local, seasonal, farm to table restaurants may do the trick.  This restaurant, Parkside, has won awards and attention for their raw bar and oysters as well as their use of sustainable and seasonal foods.   Not for their other foods.  Now, when my wife and I stood there, waiting 10 minutes past out 8:00 reservation, we wondered if it could be as good as other great restaurants in this same category: like Farmhaus.  The answer is 'no'.

The interior of Parkside reminds me a lot of Taste.  It is dark, the lights are high up and everything has dark wood colored tones.  The hostess staff are dressed in black.  There was seating near the bar and more seating in a separate dining room behind the bar in the next room.  What was odd about our wait, was that they seated several people who just walked in and asked for a seat, before us.  So, right off the bat, reservations here mean nothing.  After being sat at a table/booth combo, we were greeted by our waiter who was not very friendly or knowledgable.  He didn't know what the different selections of oysters had in them, where they were from, or even where they were from.  It was odd since this place is famous for their oyster selection.  As we looked at the menu, we noticed that the food was priced a bit high, which would be alright if the food came in reasonable sized portions and were great, but neither was the case at Parkside.  We ordered some drinks, he left and returned with them and then without saying a word, left.  We didn't see him come back to our table for 10 minutes.  Our waiter seemed too occupied with the large table of 8 people next to us, which was odd since they were more than 6 and had an automatic 18% tip added in and would make sense that the guy should work on the tip that wasn't automatic.

There was a good selection of food and as such, we both selected some appetizers.  We were told that the beef marrow dish is cooked to order and would be about 20-30 minutes and since after we waited 10 minutes for him to come back, we figured that the 20-30 minute wait wouldn't be that bad.  So, while we waited, and waited, finally our starters came out.  The first one that came out was the Kampachi, which was pieces of fish with some blood oranges and ginger for $12.  We thought it would be a good sized plate for $12.  This was it:

Was it any good?  Neh.  The blood orange segments completly ruined any good flavors from the dish.  So, would we order it again?  No.  It stands at a 2 out of 5 stars.

I'm thinking that I made a good decision and set off to accept my Potato Gnocchi with sunchoke butter, arugula and a citrus gel.  This is what I got:

Someone needs to go back to cooking school.  Gnocchi are supposed to be a little firm, a gummy, toothsom texture, like al-dente' pasta.  Guess what this was? Mushy.  They tasted like someone mashed some potatoes and then cooked them in little balls in boiling water, like you would cook spaetzle.  They were flavorless and not seasoned at all.  I tasted not even salt or pepper.  The sunchoke butter was super sweet and there were these orange segments which were tart.  The citrus gel, was a runny sauce.  If you say that something is a gel, then it better be a gel, not a runny sauce. Here's the thing, if myself or my wife can make food better than what we pay for at a restaurant, then the restaurant did a bad job on it.  This is a 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.  For $10, I'd say that the price was a bit high.

As we are still waiting for the marrow bones, we got one of the other starters which my wife had ordered.  She picked out the Caramelized Cauliflower with chili, calabrese and capers.  This was for $7 and we had a small plate here: 

So, we paid $7 for partially cooked cauliflower and a few capers.  What was most promanint about the dish was the large leaf of parsley there, for no reason.  A 2 out of 5 stars.

So, finally Marrow Bones comes out with an herb salad, a whole $14.50.  This is what is delivered to us:

First thing, flat leaf parsley leaves, strewn over the bones with some bony fescue, is not an herb salad.  Second thing is, that when something so rich and fatty is served, something that is tart or acidic should be served with it.  Traditionally the greens are tart or sour and there should be some vinegar; even a simple dressing that should go with this dish.  But there was none.  It was fat on burnt toast.  The fat was also quite boring.  At Truffles, a St. Louis restaurant, when we last ordered some beef marrow bones there, they cooked them, then scooped the marrow out, mixed it with herbs and spices and then placed it back in the bones for presentation.  So, they were not boring as in this place  I love my marrow, I really do, but this was just good, like a 3 out of 5 stars.  Its just that for the price, we expected a bit more time and effort.

The last dish was the real winner of the evening.  I figured that what looks like to be the strangest item on the menu, should be the best one to pick.  So, I ordered the Grilled Hill Country Rabbit with roasted carrots, green garlic spaetzle, carrot puree' crema, and red wine vinegarette for $24.  

Does it look like rabbit?  The rabbit, is in these disc shaped patties.  They had what tasted like bacon, wrapped around them and the whole thing tasted like bad tasting ham.  Really.  I know that rabbit does not taste like ham, so why did it taste like turned pork or salted and brine-marinated pork.  The meat was awful and even if they made a mistake and gave me ham, it was so salty, so terribly salt, you could kill a room full of slugs with one bite.  So, let's look for the carrots.  There is one that is bright orange, in the 6 o'clock area of the photo.  At about the 9 o'clock area are two more carrots.  These were more roasted than the other one and even worse is that the two dark roasted ones, were so burnt that there was no flesh there to eat!  The green garlic spaetzle, were the best part of this dish.  I ate every one of them and if you could take one part of this dish out and separate it, I would take those.  They alone were like a 4 out of 5 stars.  They were awesome and I really did eat every one.  It was just sad that it was so salty and I couldn't eat it.  I will say this: this is the last one.  My wife kept egging me into returning the dish, because it was so bad.  I told her it was okay, but after this, restaurants look out, I will ask to return items that are bad or suck.

My thoughts?  Parkside sucks.  Parkside is also supposed to be an award winning restaurant and award winning restaurants need to be good.  So, for St. Louis which has a number of award winning restaurants which pop up all the time, they have nothing to worry about.  

Where are the truffles, at Truffles?

I admit, one of my most favorite things in the world is: Irony.  I love seeing things that are either described for what they are not or named for something they are not.  One of my favorite examples of irony has to do with the names of cars and vehicles in the automotive industry.  For instance: an SUV called an Armada, when an armada is a group of warships from Spain.  A single vehicle, is not an armada, it is a single vehicle.  I also like the car that is called a Rendezvous.  A rendezvous is a location for a meeting, as in, a bar may be a rendezvous spot.  A car, by its very nature, cannot be a static meeting spot because it moves around. You cannot suggest to meet by the blue Rendezvous on Memorial Drive, unless you know for certain that the vehicle will not move and remain stationary no matter what.  A moving meeting place, doesn't really act as a reliable meeting place.

So, first off, at Truffles, there was nothing on the menu that had truffles in it.  That is ironic because the restaurant is named Truffles!  If I opened a restaurant called Tasty Pizza and didn't serve pizza, that would be ironic.  Now, apart from a bad walk down the nomenclature aisle, the restaurant is very nice and should be visited.

My wife and I went there to celebrate my birthday and we went there because Niche didn't have an open spot, even 3 days ahead, before 9:30pm, 30 minutes before they close.  But that is another story; http://tasty-magazine.blogspot.com/2011/10/niche-best-of-luck-because-im-your.html.

The restaurant is nice, from the outside, it has large windows, which look blacked-out.  On the inside, it is made to look like a fine Italian restaurant, complete with large stained glass dome in the ceiling and fake wooden walls and windows on the inside. Let's just say that on the outside, it looks like a normal red brick building and on the inside looks so much nicer.  My wife and I were given a nice seat and we started our fun, which was looking at the menu and trying to decide what to get.

They started to get our attention by giving us a very knowledgeable waiter who was filled with book-smarts but no street smarts.  For instance, he was okay with us mentioning to him that we were foodies, but then he explained to us what Swiss Chard was.  They eventually gave us some bread and butter spread.  The bread tasted like a small Italian bread with some added sugar for sweetness.  The spread was like someone took some butter and added large amounts of parsley, olive oil and basil.  It was tasty and better than the normal bread and butter.

Next we ordered our starters and I wanted something different.  I have cooked with beef marrow before, having used it to make some great tasting beef stock and soup base.  So, I thought it would be a huge risk, as in something that neither my wife or I had ever done before.  My wife wanted to try something new and ordered the "Housemade Salumi   |   chef’s selection of three, seasonal garnish, crostini." whcih she really enjoyed and was an interesting mix of what the restaurant is capable of.  The only issue that my wife had was in the explanation of what it was.  The waiter explained that there was a preservative of an inedible fruit that they make edible.  He used "preservative" where he meant to say "preserve" and he didn't explain it that well. But overall, my wife loved everything on the dish and would likely say a good 3&1/2 out of 5 stars on this.

I had picked the "Roasted Bone Marrow   |   pistachios, capers, crostone, herb salad" which is shown below the salumi dish.  My wife thought it so primal yet elegant to eat the mushy insides of a cow's bone, but yet have it flavored so balanced and tasty that you could eat it right from the bone using those little spoons.  The taste wasn't super beefy, but just beefy enough that it went perfect with the Italian herbs and olive oil  I was in love, especially with the thyme that was the "herb salad".  When you smeared the marrow mix onto a piece of toast and then sprinkled some of the herb on top, it was super delicious.  It tasted unlike anything I ever tasted before and the wonderfulness of eating something this unusual for me, was so good.  Considering that it was tasty and new to both of us, I gave it a 5 out of 5 stars.

My wife then had her turn to pick something interesting and then chose "Cocoa Maccheroni   |   duck ragu, rosemary, piave stravecchio".  We had it explained to us, even though I have made pasta, from scratch at home before.  I have even made chocolate pasta, which isn't sweet, so we had an idea of what we were getting ourselves into.  We ordered it and it came in time.

It was a very tasty dish.  The pasta was cooked perfectly, the flavor was spread out evenly among the dish so there wasn't a big pile of one thing in one spot, like a bunch of duck one one spot and none in another.  It was as if this dish was mathamatically designed so it would have been spread out evenly everywhere.  It was also very earthy as you tasted that duck, along with just a faint hint of the cocoa.  I think we gave it a 3&1/2 again.  My wife did point out that when it was first served to her, it was white on brown on brown.  It could have used some color to it and in a location where almost ever dish had basil in it, I was surprised that there wasn't a bit on top, either sprinkled or even for garnish.

I wanted to order some venison, but because it was out, I ordered the "Beef Shortrib   |   ragu genovese, smoked olive oil".  It was great.  It was beefy and had what tasted like a normal scoop of regular store bought Italian sauce on top of it.  Besides how simple it seemed, it was delicious and was a good 3 out of 5 for me.

It had the down to earth beef flavor mixed lightly in this rich Italian sauce with basil and some mushrooms.  It was good and really seemed to work well together.

Sides were a big decision as so many looked good.  I think my wife felt green deprived with her pasta dish and so decided on the "braised winter greens with garlic, sicilian anchovy and preserved lemon."  There was a large issue with this dish being that it was very, very wet.  She thought it would be more like a salad, with some dressing on it.  But the greens were over-cooked and reminded me of a dish that someone would make with frozen greens.  They were broken, watery and flavorless.  I think this got a 2 out of 5 stars.

I picked something that can never be screwed up:potatoes.  I picked the "roasted carola potatoes with olives, garlic and parsley" and it was so perfectly done, just like it should be.  Each small potato was perfectly cooked through, not too soft and mushy and not to hard and crisp.  They were perfectly seasoned as well as normal potato dishes are sometimes too salty and this was just right.  A 3 out of 5 for me.

All-in-all, I'd say that Truffles was a very good restaurant.  If you combine some great food selections with some great ideas, you get this restaurant.  While it wasn't what I was hoping for, it did the best job it could providing me and my wife with a lovely evening.  I suggest going to Truffles, even if you don't try calling Niche first.

Is it really Russian?

I am hoping that there is a reader who has some Russian in them and can tell me if anything I have made seems even remotely familiar.  I bought a book a few years ago that was Russian, Polish and German recipes.  It was one of those always on sale at Borders $5.99 cookbooks:

I was immediately drawn to one of my favorite dishes, Beef Stroganov.  What is very interesting about this recipe, is that it is different than the Americanized version that we are used to seeing in restaurants, cookbooks and the frozen food or hamburger helper aisle.  This recipe is missing two key ingredients that are fundamental of the average American's idea of beef stroganov: noodles and mushrooms.

With this recipe, you start with cooking cuts of beef and then when that is finished you cook sliced onions in the same pan.

Then when the onions are cooked and tender, you add the flour in to create a small roux, then add a splash of stock (or white wine in my case), the cooked beef, mustard and sour cream.  You also add a squirt of lemon juice as well as a squirt of tomato puree'.  A lightly seasoning with salt and pepper and you are left with something so healthy and flavorful that it makes you wonder why you ever ate the other version.

Now, this is freakin' delicious.  I highly suggest that everyone make this and even more so, if you have a chance, make this recipe and then get a hamburger helper version and see for yourself.  I took a picture of the recipe and I have it below.

It is interesting to note that the earliest written account of this recipe had no mushrooms and onions as well, in 1861.  In 1912, the recipe was changed to have onions and the tomato paste and is very similar to the recipe I have above, which is considered the national dish of Russia. 

My fall-back recipe

For anyone who reads this site and wonders when I will ever post a recipe, this is for you.  I have here, my favorite recipe.  It is my go-to or fall-back recipe.  It works every time and with about 5 ingredients and that is it.  You most likely have all 5 of these ingredients in your kitchen right now, or at least 4 of them.  I dare you, take a look now.  Leave the computer for a minute and take a look.....

This is like a scavenger hunt in which you should win, knowing you most likely bought everything and placed it in your kitchen in the first place.

Find me.....

some rosemary
some salt
some pepper
some red wine
a plastic bag like a ziploc bag
some beef

Okay, so what do you do?  Or what did I do?  I took two thick, 1 & 1/2 inch thick steaks, and placed them in a large ziploc bag.  I then sprinkled some rosemary, about 2 tablespoons, some salt, about 2 pinches, some freshly ground pepper and then poured in about half of a bottle of red wine.  Seal the bag and let it marinate in the fridge for about 1 day.

The next day, you take out the beef, place it in a pan on high heat.  You want to sear the sides of the beef so that they are brown and then when they are done, place in a dish and  set the oven to 350 and cook for 45 minutes to get pink in the middle, about 30 minutes for red still.

I admit, this isn't a great picture, but you get the idea.

You end up with a peppered and rosemary mixed with wine flavoring on the outside of the beef and tasty beef on the inside.  Simple recipe for any cut of beef that you are clueless as to what to do.

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