the st. louis food blog of bill burge
I took a bunch of pics of Schlafly’s Repeal of Beer Prohibition Festival and I forgot to mention that fact when it was, you know, topical.
Never the less, you can see them after the jump…
Categories: St. Louis, beer, missouri 0 Comments Bookmark:
You know how good Bobby Flay is?
So good, apparently, he can be in two places at once.
He’s supposed to be on KTRS speaking to Catherine Neville and McGraw at 11:00AM which you can stream here.
But then he’s also supposed to be on KWMU’s St. Louis on the Air speaking with Don Marsh which at 11:00 too. You can listen to it here.
And don’t forget the book signings today as well.
Categories: St. Louis, chefs, missouri 2 Comments Bookmark:
Last night, in telling my mother and sister about some of the better things I’ve eaten recently, the looks of horror on their faces, while not entirely unexpected, were a bit stronger than anticipated as I spoke of offal like tongue, and testicles, and cheek.
My sister did not understand why I would want to eat such things. A married mother of three, she rarely has the opportunity to go out for a nice meal, and when she does, she and my brother in law are interested in going to a place they like to have precisely what it is they liked about it in the first place. They don’t want anything new and they don’t want anything they would consider weird.
This contrasted slightly with my mom’s response which was more along the lines of Midwestern people simply not having the same tastes as other parts of the country.
But so too are Chicago, Kansas City and Milwaukee, and each of these cities have taught their clientèle to be slightly more daring than the average meat and potato diner of St. Louis.
Recently, however, there has been an adventurous trend towards the types of eating many of us like to do in St. Louis. Some chefs and restaurateurs have slowly worked their guests towards these foods, and they have done so after the jump…
Categories: St. Louis, general food, offal watch, restaurants 5 Comments Bookmark:
Don’t miss the Grant Achatz article in the New Yorker about his single-minded focus to fight his tongue cancer and maintain his sense of taste.
Categories: chefs 0 Comments Bookmark:
Besides the 24oz aged porterhouse of affluence and his friends the pork and lamb chop, apart from a couple other cuts like racks and shanks, bones in America are pretty much relegated to barbecue and fried chicken. Maybe it’s that we don’t like to be reminded of the cavemen-like reality that we’re ripping an animal’s flesh from the legs it once walked on or the sternum that had previously contained its pulsating heart? More likely, though, it’s that we’re just lazy and we don’t like having to work that hard.
Whatever the reason, in many ethnic restaurants, the bones have been thoughtfully removed from native dishes to appeal to America’s cultural leanings. Where a true Chinese dish might contain a roasted bone in duck breast cleaved into gnarly chunks which beg to be grabbed with both hands so you can tear the muscle away, they’ve instead been substituted by the boneless and carefully sliced chopstick-ready stand-ins of the west.
The suggestion here is that if you seek the foods that represent the truer culinary heritage of a given country, look for the bones. Sometimes the cuts are literally things Americans wouldn’t consume believing them to be substandard, but more often they are simply a bone-in butchering we’re not accustomed to–like a pork steak in California.
Slipping into Tam Tam African Restaurant a few weeks ago I had two such dishes on my mind. We’d not been since December and on those visits we had found that certain time consuming dishes were available only on Saturdays. Both I had eagerly wanted to try after the jump…
Categories: St. Louis, missouri, restaurants, reviews 0 Comments Bookmark:
Tofu Steak Marinated in Beef Fat with Green Curry
I didn’t get a chance to comment on last week’s episode and I wanted to because I’m sorry but that tofu thing actually sounded really good.
Of everything I’ve ever seen made on Top Chef that was the one dish that for me was the most intriguing. Whether or not you get off on the whole weird food world or not, Richard, visually, is putting up some interesting food, and where some people make wacky dishes that come off forced or senseless, his seem to be derived from some Wonka-world he’s built a house in and thrived in a way that somehow does make sense.
As Dan once said though, he’s totally a ringer and was even on starchefs.com three years ago.
Here also is a blog with a tasting menu from his time at the now shuttered Element in Atlanta proving he’s a little more advanced than some of the other cheftestants.
Categories: Television, chefs, general food 4 Comments Bookmark:
Blake Brokaw, the guy that once upon a time brought us St. Louis favorite Tangerine, is overseeing the menu at a new restaurant/lounge in Belleville called Seven.
Located at 7 South High Street, Belleville, IL, 62229 they’ll be firing up the burners for the first time tonight to unleash their menu they call “‘Creole-bistro’-style, alongside some tweaked American classics.”
Sample Dishes include:
Two things jump to mind:
Next week it looks like we get some more uptight-bitch vs Filipino smack-downs, and while that should be pretty entertaining, this week we got another relatively stupid episode of Top Chef.
Not being an Oprah supporter I didn’t know who Art Smith was prior to tonight, but I have to say he was a great judge and the high point of the episode. He actually gave a lot of constructive criticism instead of grunting or oooing over the things he liked and disliked. after the jump…
Categories: Television, chefs 1 Comment Bookmark:
And speaking of pork steaks, I don’t know how other parts of the county roll, but in Florissant, warm weather means fund raising barbecue events; the biggest of which always come from the Florissant Elks when they set up for an extended stay at the corner of Lindbergh and Charbonier in front of Sears Hardware.
Since Monday they’ve been setting up for the Florissant Valley of Flowers Festival weekend and this year I think they’ve started a day early. They will be cooking today Wednesday, April 30 to Sunday, May 4.
And they’re seriously not not messing around after the jump…
Categories: MO, events 3 Comments Bookmark:
I may not have the St. Louisian affinity for provel but I have embraced the pork steak.
Though when they’re cooked the way they’re supposed to be, or at least my understanding of it, and they’ve simmered in bbq sauce (and beer) for a while after grilling, they’re just pretty good.
When I cook them up, instead of simmering them and ruining the char, I like to omit that step to let the fat — the great heaping lot of it — get a little burnt and crispy so that the juicy charred hog butt just melts in your mouth.
So I might just be a little excited for the Brew & Q event Schlafly is hosting.
Categories: St. Louis, beer, events, missouri 0 Comments Bookmark:
- What: BREW & Q 2008 - Amateur BBQ Competition with winners for Best Pork Steak, Best Appetizer with Matching Schlafly Beer, and Best Booth
- When: Friday, May 23 • 5:00-10:00 p.m. & Competition on Saturday, May 24 • Noon-10:00 p.m.
- Where: Schlafly Bottleworks
