1. I spotted hardback copies of one of my favorite foodie books, The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin, on the discount racks of the Creve Coeur Borders.  I can’t possibly recommend it enough.  It’s incredibly interesting as a whole but, with Pepin’s insane skill, the really interesting bits are his years at Howard Johnson’s.

It’s hard to imagine a time when people were attempting to make chain food that actually stood up to some level of high standards.

2. Guanciale.  Salume Beddu was slinging some made with Fararr Out Farm Berkshire jaws at Tower Grove recently and it is delicious.

Toast some good bread, render some up like lardons, and top it with arugula and a fried egg cooked in the rendered fat for the ultimate (and fast) after-work snack.

3. Grits.  I’d been unimpressed by Revival’s in the past, but this week, cheesy grits baked in a dish and topped with a slice of ham and a sunny-side up egg were absolutely perfect.  It doesn’t get much better than egg yolk running over anything.

4. Getting much better…the Fat of stlbites.com has made an appearance at Niche.  Lamb belly is now the final savory course of the tasting menu and it’s ridiculously good–everything a solitary slice of tender lamb gut was meant to be.

Lamb – mushroom, cauliflower, tapenade (& Brussels Sprouts when I had it)

5. A guilty pleasure: Chicken Modega and a side of white cavatelli at the Town & Country Rich & Charlie’s.  Bonus: it was $28 for two of us to eat.  Bonus 2: That Rich & Charlie’s is BYOB. Bonus 3: It was enough for lunch the next day too.

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Notes

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 by taking it upon themselves to educate their customers palates rather than jumping in headlong and saying, “if you don’t want my pork cheek you can get the hell out.” By first gaining the trust of their diners with more ordinary dishes, they have then turned out more unusual fare (something like the pork cheek dish at Niche) to show them that while the butchering involved with such a meat might be a bit overwhelming for the average diner to witness, and they might not want to see it raw, once it’s on the plate it’s not freaky at all. It’s delicious.

But the real question my sister had was why would I choose to eat some of this stuff in the first place? Why when other delicious options were available to me would I willingly seek out duck liver, or tongue, or even something I would consider far more ordinary like octopus?

It’s not something I had ever considered before. After 20 years of life ignoring virtually all foods, an accidental order of fillet of sol (a verbal special of which I heard only fillet) yielded a welcoming outcome once I overcame my embarrassment and took a bite. In that moment I overcame my fear of food and began to explore whatever was out there. Without allergies, and my phobias set to the side, I began trying anything set before me, and to this day have only ever encountered a handful of foods
I haven’t particularly cared for. And that’s not to say I won’t try them again, just that I haven’t currently had them presented to me in a way I’ve enjoyed.

And so the answer to the question of why I enjoy eating all of these things, and offal specifically is because of the strong tastes and interesting textures they can deliver to a meal.

What else has the silky smooth richness of a foie gras tourchon? What has the texture of sweetbreads–somehow both velvety and smooth at the same time? And I dare you to name me a piece of halibut with a truer and more permeable flavor of the fish than its cheek.

You can’t, and while these foods might be for the adventurous diner, more than that they’re for the diner unwilling to close themselves off to the possibility that some new taste or texture is mere bite away. I personally refuse to do that.

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Because it’s Offaly Good

Although I braced myself for a biased portrayal of the pork industry as it shifted from the lard type breeds of old to the lean “white” meat of the 80’s and 90’s; and they were a bit generous with their praise regarding the genetic engineering of hogs and made it sound almost like a good thing that you need to take showers before going into a CAFO operation; they did swing it around at the end showing an organic farm that raises Berkshire hogs and even fattens some of them on acorns in their final days.

Still, it was after showing some medcal uses for pig genetics like insulin and tissue repair that the episode steered into a direction I didn’t see coming: Chris Cosentino was on cooking offal at Incanto.

He cracked open a pigs head, poached the brain, and then sautéed it with mushrooms and capers.

The listing on The History Channel’s website also shows that Missouri’s Burger’s Smokehouse was also in the episode, but I missed the first ten minutes and it must have been in that segment as I didn’t see it.

It will air again May 7, and here’s the rundown on upcoming episodes of food-related interest:

• Whiskey – April 26
• Corn – May 5
• Farming Technology – May 6
• The Pig – May 7

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More Modern Marvels

1. Duck Testicles are really not a big deal. They have the texture of a soft sausage with its casing removed, and they are wonderfully delicate. If you didn’t tell someone what they were, they would devour them with glee.
2. Cockscombs I don’t quite get. It doesn’t really taste like much, and has a rubbery texture that I likened to soft liccorice before our server rolled in with the win and called it gummy-bear-like. Yes, yes it was.
3. Tripe. I hate tripe. I loved Josh’s tripe.. It was the best of the offal we ate last night. I was in utter disbelief.

They’re cooking up some great food at An American Place and it’s sad there were so many available seats on a Thursday.

I have no room to talk on that point, as we’d only eaten there four times previously, but we’ll definitley be doing our best to go a little more frequently than before.

And man, that is such a beautiful restaurant.

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3 Things I Learned Last Night

Kimberly Henricks — Slow Food Member, blogger, and I think friend of Cupcake Grand Champion Stef has vowed to make The Cupcake Projects Beer Cheese Cupcakes with Bacon Cheddar Cream Cheese Frosting.

I am terrified at the prospect of eating a sugary, cheesy cupcake topped with bacon, but at the same time it will be a part of this weeks personal food challenge.

Namely, which will I enjoy more?

1. Joshua Galliano’s offal tasting at An American Place including common offal like tripe and not so common offal like the duck testicles (which they say has a texture like sausage).
2. The Bacon Cheese Cupcakes

We will see.

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Questionable Foods

Of course in the case of Ellie and I we’ll call it sleet; and in place of couriers we’ll call ourselves diners; and instead of appointed rounds there was the fact that after we both got sent home from work early because the weather was bad, I realized we could walk into any restaurant we wanted in St. Louis and have our pick of seats.

And so we went to Niche to have the new tasting menu because hey–Mathew put the kulfi on the menu, and in the back of my mind I believe he did it for me (even if he didn’t really).

Cauliflower Soup – apples, walnuts, bacon
Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco

Almost like custard it was whipped slightly and as a result had a light mouth feel and a very luxurious texture that was balanced nicely by the apples, walnuts and bacon.

I found this to be more of a play on soup as it seemed lightly gelled, and by that I mean that when you scooped out a portion the soup didn’t actually slide back into the void. It just stayed the way it was leaving an open area.

As and aside, I don’t think the bacon was actually bacon in the traditional sense, but I forgot to ask about that. I did however ask Gerard what he put in it to get the gel-like texture, and he told me exactly what it molecular gastronomy tool kit item it was, but I forgot

It’s one of the best things I’ve ever eaten at Niche and was my second favorite course of the night.

It is also available on the regular menu for those of you not wanting to do the full tasting thing.

Fried Pigs Head – spiced pear, egg
M.Chapoutier Cotes Du Rhone 2005

Ellie was not looking forward to this dish as she’s not completely hell-bent on eating offal the way I’ve become in recent years. Honestly I wasn’t either because I had guessed right, in advance, that it was going to be similar to the fried pork cheek dish that Gerard had previously been doing on the regular menu.

I know a lot of people really loved that dish but it was not one of my favorites as I found it rather heavy. Braised pork cheeks (which I love) are already a substantial item and I found that then frying them was a bit overwhelming, and the quince puree that accompanied that version never really livened the whole thing up enough to not leave me feeling a little bogged down after eating it.

The pigs head, however, worked.

Realistically it’s just as heavy, and if anything it’s fattier. It had a completely different texture though as instead of just unctuous firm meat you got the pieces of meat along with bits of soft, meltingly delicious, pig face.

Also on the dish was was one of those perfect 62degree eggs (Celsius) or whatever the exact temp is that’s now all the rave thanks to Niche being the proud new owner of a PolyScience immersion circulator.

Basically it’s an egg that’s been poached for a very long time and at a low temperature so that it just sets. Texturally it’s like a soft boiled egg that has been poached only long enough to set the yolk physically. As in: slightly cooler and it would still be runny–slightly firmer and it would be on its way to hard boiled.

It’s the first time I’ve had one of these eggs and it was interesting. It added to the dish for sure, but it wasn’t the perfection some people make it out to be, and I would have been just as happy with a runny poached egg to break over the porky goodness.

I realized later one of the primary reasons I enjoyed this so much more than the cheek version was that portion was about half as much. Also, the wine was an absolutely spot on pairing and really enriched the overall flavor. It was one of the best I’ve had in a long time where the wine wasn’t used heavily within the creation of the dish itself, and Ellie and I were both really pleased with how much we loved this course having not been very excited for it.

Sea Bass – Celeriac Puree, Black Asian Rice, Bonito Flakes

Here’s the first of the Bill can’t make an unbiased judgment of Niche because he gets free stuff dishes.

The sea bass was incredibly moist having been cooked sous vide in the immersion circulator bath. It was then browned quickly in a hot pan and topped with the bonito flakes.

I’ve never had bonito flakes, and I didn’t know what they were by name. They kind of looked like wood shavings and I had to ask what it was because it kind of looked like coconut but it obviously didn’t taste like coconut. What they are is dried fish flakes–typically tuna from what I gather.

To be honest, I don’t think I could really taste it, but as it’s a fishy flavor, it could very well have been that I just couldn’t pick it out from the flavor of the sea bass.

There was also some kind of fruit in the black Asian rice I believe but I don’t know what it was.

Lobster Tapioca – lemon, blood orange
Bird Sauvignon Blanc 2006

I don’t really care about lobster. It’s one of those things people often toss around as some luxurious high falootin’ item that for me is just some old school way for people to look fancy or pretend to be fancy by showing off. It’s one of those expensive items that people that don’t typically go out to eat, on that one special occasion night they do, can feel all fancy when they pick their lobster out of the goofy tank and spend a bunch of money on it.

Beyond that I don’t really care for the flavor and find the texture to be generally offensive. Being in St. Louis it’s probably that I haven’t had many lobsters of quality, but on the whole, if I have to eat a buggy crustacean and I have my choice, I’m going for langoustine every time.

This dish, however, might have changed my mind as it didn’t have that somewhat chewy texture lobster so often does, and it would appear that tapioca may be a new favorite food of mine.

It was plated such that you had a bed of tapioca with lobster claw perched atop it, then a swipe of celeriac puree, then more tapioca with a bit of tail perched on top, then another swipe of celeriac. It then had a few supremes of blood orange on the plate–and if I can remember this right–a bit of blood orange lemon sauce.

It was fantastic the way the creamy tapioca played with the texture of the lobster and the acidity of the citrus.

Pork Tenderloin – lardo/ricotta cannelloni, polenta cake, apple sauce

Extra #2

This is actually on the menu. I forget how it’s described outright, and I didn’t think to grab a menu so I could be all informed and tell you.

I can’t imagine eating a whole plate of this because it was extremely heavy. The lightest thing on the plate was actually the pork of all things because the ricotta and lardo–though delicious–was very rich and powerful, and a bite of the starchy polenta cake just added to my destruction.

The cannelloni itself was comprised of lardo being wrapped around the filling, so it was fat literally wrapped with fat.

The same people that loved the pork cheek version of dish #2 are probably going to lose a lot of sleep after they eat this and fall in love though I found it good, but not great. To be fair, it probably had as much to do with our feeling full as anything as we hadn’t really saved up room in our stomachs for a dinner like this having decided to go on a whim.

(Annie, aka The Cheesemonger’s Wife, really loved this, so I think we can expect a comment from her as she can do more justice in describing it than I can.)

Pineapple Rosemary Intermezzo

Thank god! It was so refreshing. I haven’t been this full since Craft tried to kill us in NYC.

Roasted Lamb – turnip, quince, panisse
Cafaro Cabernet Napa Valley 2003

Panisse you say?

No idea.

Figuring they hadn’t ground up Alice Waters or her restaurant to sprinkle on a dish I was geared up to ask what this was until they told me it was some sort of pea shoot leaves.

Ordinarily, once home, I Google the hell out of something when I don’t know what it is, but Alice Waters has ruined any hope of that because I can’t find anything when I type “panisse greens” other than information about how she loves greens.

I really don’t care about Alice Waters or if she loves greens. What I care about is what the heck panisse is. So, if you can point me to more information on this, please do.

[EDIT: Wineaux said - I suspect there may have been some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding about the panisse...the "turnip cake" you described was likely the panisse, and the greens just a micro green garnish (of which Chef Craft is fond).

It is my understanding that panisse is basically a chickpea fritter that is comparable to falafel - both are fried, made from bean flour (usually chickpea flour), and have a fluffy yet crispy texture, but panisse is usually not as strongly seasoned as falafel.]

What I myself can tell you after eating it is that it was just a small cooking green.

On top of the greens (whatever they were) they had dropped a perfect brunois of quince. The lamb itself was a single bone of the rack cooked to a perfect mid-rare. The turnip panisse was actually a little turnip panisse cake that tasted to me like it had a touch of potato in it as well, but I didn’t think to ask. Also it had a sauce but I forget what it was. And again, I’m sorry, but I was full. [EDIT: Apparently I don't remember what the turnip was. Maybe turnip puree? Gerard? Anyone?]

Coconut Kulfi – passion fruit glazed pineapple, granola
Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2003

And now the moment I’d been waiting for.

Would the coconut kulfi live up to my hype? Would it have the same chewy texture I’d dreamed about since last having it? Would the creaminess be balanced perfectly with some addition of tartness that Mathew loves to add to these tropical-style desserts?

Yes. Yes. Yes!

The coconut kulfi is everything I had hoped for and more.

On the forum when I said it was my favorite dessert ever and Mathew asked if I was serious I had said that apart from carrot cake and simple homey desserts, it was.

I think I lied. I love this dessert more than any other.

Not explicitly remembering anything about the previous incarnation other than (a) it was coconut and an approximately three inch wide by 3/4 inch tall circle and (b) it was whisked off the menu before I got a second chance at glory, I think this one is better.

Popped out of a 2oz or so mold it’s now about an inch and a half wide and an inch and a half tall. As you drive–literally drive because its so firm–your knife through the dense cream you’re left wondering what the texture will be like once you place it in your mouth.

As I said before it’s like rock hard ice cream because it’s actually chewy. Where ice cream quickly melts to the heat of your mouth, however, the kulfi remains firm throughout eating it. As lame as it sounds, it’s cool. It’s not a texture you typically experience with food, and it is wonderful.

This was the second best wine pairing in my opinion and the granola was the perfect nutty complement to the incredibly sweet glazed pineapple.

Mathew had teased me previously with the possibility of kulfi on a stick making it onto the board at Veruca, and besides the lactose intolerant, I think anyone that eats this will give him an enthusiastic thumbs up as well.

So there you have it.

Niche rules. I am totally biased. But I am right.

And with that you have the return of the error-filled rambling post.

Good day to you.

Note: As always, please keep in mind that while I believe my opinion to be correct, there are some establishments that I am friendly enough with that my opinion is personally biased. This is one.

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Niche Tasting Menu

In basically three weeks 47 people have posted 835 articles, and while a nice chunk are from only four of us (and you know who you are), we have everything from magazine editors, to a wine rep, to local chefs.

This morning, one of them who we will call Josh Galliano, walked away with the award for greatest post (by about twenty fold) in this thread about offal. One of Josh’s tasting menus at the moment is completely comprised of offal like cockscombs and honeycomb tripe, and he took pictures of a lot of it to not only explain to us what he’s up to, but show us as well.

The pic above is actually beef hearts from American Grass Fed Beef, and it’s An American Place’s amuse for the weekend. I don’t know which I like more, that they’re getting away with serving beef heart, or the fact that he titled the pic “two hearts” and I can’t stop laughing because of that goofy eighties song.

So thank you everyone for posting and showing me that there is a core group of people in St. Louis that get it. I’ve never been more proud to live in St. Louis.

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In regards to the forum, you were right!

On menu they have pork cheeks pan fried with what I would describe as a peach puree. I forget the exact description, but they’d taken the cheek, made a patty out of it, breaded it and pan fried it, and then served it with the puree and some greens. Ellie liked it more then I did. I thought the fry flavor overwhelmed the pork cheek a bit, but still, it’s nice to see cheeks, and it was good, just not my favorite cheek dish ever.

Better still, Gerard was running a pig ear terrine as a special which consisted of smoked pig ears laid into a terrine and then alternated layers of smoked scallop potato mousse and more of the meat from the big ear. It was served with some tossed greens and a garlic aioli. It was delicious, and I have to say, the pig ear didn’t have the texture I’d have expected. More then anything, it was soft and kind of gelatinous. It was totally unoffensive, though I still couldn’t get Ellie to eat it.

Embarrassingly, our server, Deah, had commented that “I knew if anyone would order it, it would be you” or something to that effect, so I guess I’m a pretty known commodity at Niche.

So I’d like to take a moment to say that, offal aside, it’s really nice to see the staff at Niche really hitting their stride. Ellie and I always joke that Gerard has the Quik Trip philosophy to the restaurant business because they’ve slowly weened people into their food as apposed to pulling out a pig ear day one and telling people they were stupid if they didn’t like it. They seem, always, to be concerned with pleasing everyone at least on some level and this is, to me, the mark of a truly great restaurateur. Starting modestly and affordably, they’ve continuously brought in better ingredients and gradually raised prices all while somehow managing to tread a fine line between the less adventurous diner and those who will eat just about anything.

I admit, it’s a weird analogy, but when Quik Trip opened I remember people saying they’d never make it without car washes. They started out undercutting pricing a little to get people into their stores, and once people did go in, they saw how much cleaner and friendlier the places were. Once they got people in, they were then able to get the prices to what they should have been in the first place.

Niche has done a similar thing. First, there’s the obvious bread and salad situation (carwashes). Then there’s the pricing. We ate there the second day they were open, and at the time you could get three courses for $30. This was changed to $35 somewhere along the way, and for quite some time, this is how things remained. They briefly flirted with offering two sizes of most items on the menu over the summer, but now, (and from what I gather the menu was just changed) they have settled into a more standard menu, with only a few selections still being a part of the 3 for $35 options. At no point were you ever unfairly charged, however. In fact, there were times when I felt I was cheating them with some of the things I ate.

Obviously, I have a strong bias towards Gerard, Matthew, and their crew, so perhaps any praise I give them should be taken with a grain of salt. I’d certainly overlook faults here more then any other place else in the city. The thing is, I can’t remember them faltering. There are things I haven’t cared for entirely, but even the worst dish I’ve eaten at Niche is still better then most of the food at other restaurants in St. Louis. If you haven’t been, you really owe it to yourself to give it a shot. I’m not the only one that considers it some of the best St. Louis has to offer, and we can’t all be wrong.

Oh, and make sure you save room for dessert.

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Offal Watch