Eating St. Louis…

… by Patricia Corrigan, is a quick and enjoyable read Nan picked up at the Public Library the other day.  It also describes a typical weekend, like this one.

The New – we try two new pizza places

The first, The Good Pie, was a noble attempt at pizza napoletana spoiled by sheets of fatty prosciutto that didn’t seem to have been sliced with the rest of the pizza.  After sawing through it to separate the slices, the prosciutto ensured the first bite of each slice pulled the toppings off into one big, chewy, wad, leaving bare crust for the remaining bites.  The atmosphere was clean and Metrosexual, the Caesar salad was good, the crust was good, but we both preferred the pizza at Pi.  The place has only been open several days at this point.  We may try it again someday.

The second was The Wedge, an older, more established place, open almost a month and a half by now.  We tried the Meatball sandwich with onion rings, both of which were very good, but the star of the night was the Stinky Pizza (actual name), with Taleggio, Gorgonzola, Goat Cheese, Roasted Garlic, and Fontina.  To. Die. For.  Unfortunately, the Stinky Person at the table closest to us spent the entire time we were there reading a book, drinking from a Big Gulp cup, and smoking cigarettes.  And smoking cigarettes.  And smoking cigarettes.  And smoking cigarettes.  Usually when you’re sharing restaurant space with smokers, they at least take an occasional break to eat something.  But not Stinky.  We had no metal piercing the non-lobed parts of our body or tattoos, so we felt a little out of place there (read “old”).  The pizza was great, but if we go back for more, it will probably be a carry-out operation.

Oddly enough, we’d never heard of Taleggio cheese until the night before at The Good Pie, where we found it on the menu and asked what it was.  It was described there as “stinky cheese.”  Bad marketing.  Great cheese.  This must be the new “IT” Cheese.  (“IT” is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force.  With “IT” you win all men if you are a woman—all women if you are a man.)  And with “IT” you win both men and women if you are a cheese.

The Old – we return to old favorites

We’re not one-horse charlies, oh no.  We didn’t just eat pizza this weekend.  We had Dim Sum at Lulu on Saturday…

Generic Picture of Dim Sum From a Hong Kong Government Web Site Everybody Uses When They Blog About Dim Sum

…and Sunday morning, we had the Daily Scramble, Egg #3, and Pomegranate-layered Mimosas at Rooster just around the corner.

Pomegranate-Layered Mimosa at Rooster

Then I walked over to 11th and Washington for our annual photos of the Steaming Lions.

The Steaming Lions of 11th and Washington

A Steaming Lion of 11th and Washington

It was, like, 9 degrees out.  They were steaming up a storm.

Two more days, then I don’t work for the rest of the year.  Huzzah!!

Poppa

The Gourmand’s Guide to “The Scourge of God” by S. M. Stirling

“…there was cold roast beef and pungent kielbasa and fried chicken, bread and butter and hot pickles, tortillas and beans, tomatoes and radishes, with sharp cheese and apple tarts to follow.” p181

“…they went by rows of barrels of various sizes for wine and beer and brandy and whisky, flour and salt pork and salt beef, shelving with potted meats and vegetables and jams and jellies, sacks of onions and potatoes and bins of dried peppers and beans, vats of pickled eggs and sauerkraut, racks of hams and flitches of bacon in wrappers of waxed canvas…” p209

“The smells of cooking food were strong from the doors ahead, from frying onions to baking pastries with their buttery richness; this was the kitchen, where the made dishes would be prepared while the whole carcasses roasted outside.” p209

“…watching men who’d downed racks of lamb-ribs and heaped plates of roast beef with all the fixings taking fruit tarts and pastries of pine nuts and honey and cream from the silver salvers.” p211

“What I need is a steak…  I want a roast chicken!  Or a rack of BBQ lamb ribs with honey-mustard glaze!  Or pork chops with sautéed onions… or even venison stew…” p263

“There was potato soup done with barley and onions, hard white cheese grated on it, warm dark bread and butter, pickled cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs and sauerkraut, and dried apples and berries.” p263

“A waitress turned up with their food; a loaf of brown bread, butter, a platter of plump aromatic sausages hot and steaming and sputtering juices from cracks in their skins, beets with herbs, cabbage, some strong-tasting boiled green that looked like spinach but wasn’t, glistening slices of pan-fried potatoes.” p286

“… there was frybread, lamb sausages redolent of garlic and sage, grilled walleye fillets fresh from the river, done with butter and pecans and steaming white and flaky on the fork, and plates of buffalo-hump hash and scrambled eggs savory with herbs and wild onion.” p364

“(The calves) were… butterflied and set to grilling over the coals, with a cook using a long-handled brush to slather sauce on them from a keg.  Tongue and hump meat went on beside them, and young girls carried around skewers of grilled tongue and kidney and liver.” p385

“A cold roast suckling pig lay at one end of the long table in brown-glazed glory on a slab of cold oak, with an apple in its mouth; a sirloin of beef rested at the other, pink at the center where a thin slice had been shaved away.  Between them were breads and hot biscuits and yellow butter, salads of greens and cherry tomatoes and onions and peppers and radishes dressed with oil and vinegar, potato salad with its creamy whiteness flecked with bits of red, deviled hard-boiled eggs with their yolks replaced by minced ham forcemeat, platters of fresh boiled asparagus, cauliflower and eggplant baked with cheese, sautéed mushrooms, glazed carrots…” p429

- Poppa