The Best Chicago Dog I've Ever Had is in... ST. LOUIS?!?!?

Yesterday, I had a meeting about 30 minutes away in Clayton.  For those of you who aren't in the know about St. Louis, Clayton is an upscale sort of village area of St. Louis.  Think Greenwich Village in New York; pretty much the same concept on a smaller scale.  After my meeting, I was very hungry (it was a 5+ hour meeting... YIKES!!!).  As I was walking to my car, I saw many good dining options that I was familiar with or wanted to try.  Places like Oceano Bistro (want it), City Crepery (had it) and Ruth's Chris (had it) presented themselves but then I saw a small deli just across the street from where I was at.  Being a big fan of "the little guy" and wanting to try something new, I meandered into Posh Nosh.

I was pleasantly surprised at the small, clean and very friendly New York style deli that greeted me on the inside.  There was an extensive menu of sandwiches and salads to choose from but my eye went to the advertisement on the wall for Vienna Hot Dogs.  I asked the man on the front counter if they had Chicago Dogs (a weakness of mine).  His reply sent my stomach whirling in delight, "the best you'll ever have," he said.

As I walked out of the deli with my dog and soda, I was very excited.  I know, its just a hot dog, right?  WRONG!  Chicago Dogs are the reason hot dogs were invented.  I believe every hot dog strives to be a Chicago dog and knows that for a select few, it is their destiny. 

I took one bite of Posh Nosh's Chicago Dog and I knew right away that these people know how to do it right.  Great snappy Vienna hot dog, great soft bun, fresh neon green relish, chopped red onions, sport peppers, pickle spear, tomato, yellow mustard and celery salt.  All fresh ingredients and all fantastic!  There are times when I know that I am just hungry and that anything will taste good and there are times that I know that something I am eating is the best that I can find.  This time was the latter. 

There are some who will balk at my saying a St. Louis eatery's Chicago Dog is the best that I've even had.  I say, "bring it on!"  I've had many a Chicago Dog in Chicago.  Many were great, but none were on the level of this dog at Posh Nosh.  You'll just have to try it to find out.

That's all for today.  Next week, I will be covering the Wildwood BBQ Bash in Wildwood, MO.  Stay tuned!

Follow us on Twitter @LifeGastronomic!  Peace!

Asian Spaghetti and Meatballs!

Okay, so the title is a little misleading.  I am really making stir fried noodles with sugar snap peas and Asian style meatballs today.  But it sure does sound better to change up an old favorite doesn't it?  It has been cold this week (as I have pointed out SEVERAL times lately on here) and I found a deal on some ground pork at the grocery store.  All that and I had 1/2 lb of ground sirloin left over from my mac-n-cheese-n-beef that I made for my daughter and I this weekend.  I combined the two meats with some Asian flavors in a recipe that is part traditional and part diverse.  The end result is a recipe for a weeknight meal that will please the entire family!  All for less than the price for takeout!  Here goes:

Asian Spaghetti and Meatballs

Asian Meatballs
1 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground sirloin (of any other beef)
1/2 Tsp Chinese 5 Spice Powder
1/2 Tsp Ground All Spice
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Egg beaten
2 Tbsp Whole or 2% Milk
1/4 Cup Bread Crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the bread crumbs and milk and allow to sit and thicken for about 5 minutes.  Then add all other ingredients and mix together with your hands.  DO NOT OVER MIX.  Then form the meat mixture in to balls (just a shade smaller than golf balls).  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Stir Fried Noodles and (well, really any vegetable will do)

Spaghetti (enough for you and your family)
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/4 Tsp ground ginger
1/2 Tsp Chinese 5 Spice Powder
2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
2 Cups of vegetables of your choice (I used sugar snap peas tonight)

Boil water and make spaghetti per the package instructions.  When done, heat a wok on HIGH heat and place sesame oil in middle.  Cook the vegetables until they are just softened enough to eat.  Drain the spaghetti and add it to the wok along with the rest of the ingredients.  Stir to combine the ingredients and then let the mixture sit there for about 2-3 minutes (this caramelizes the ingredients and creates a sweetened flavor).  Then stir fry for another 3-4 minutes and your done!

Top the noodle mixture with the meatballs and enjoy!!!

That's all for today!  Follow us on Twitter @LifeGastronomic and on Facebook!  We also have a mobile version of The Life Gastronomic as well now.  Just go to www.thelifegastronomic.blogspot.com from your mobile device and enjoy!





 

Why Christmas is the 2nd Most Wonderful Time of Year

As I've written about in previous posts, I love Autumn.  I love the leaves changing color.  I love the cooler temperatures.  I love football.  I love fantasy football.  And most importantly, I love beer and bourbon.  This time of year brings with it two releases (one beer and a collection of bourbons) that really embody the feeling of the season.

Tomorrow I shall be purchasing the first of these releases.  Sam Adams Octoberfest is one of my favorite beers.  It is an amber beer that doesn't taste too dark or malty.  It is perfectly balanced and tastes very good with the cooler weather.  Yes, I said it tastes good with the weather.  I am a weather based drinker.  When it is warm outside, give me a Leiny's Summer Shandy.  This time of year, I like the Octoberfest brews and specifically, the Same Adams variety.  Most other releases in the beer category this time of year involve infusing pumpkin flavor into beers.  I'll admit, I am not a huge fan of doing that.  I don't believe that pumpkin and beer go together.  Besides, what is the deal with flavoring everything with pumpkin in the fall?  We don't go and flavor everything like hot dogs at the start of the baseball season; do we?  But I digress... If you are a fan of amber style lagers, go out and grab a six pack of the Sam Adams Octoberfest and enjoy.  It is only out for a limited number of weeks per year.

The 2nd release I so look forward to is the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.  This is a collection of 5 different whiskeys/bourbons/ryes that are released by the Buffalo Trace distillery.  Now, I've often said that Buffalo Trace is the best bourbon for your dollar (it is around the $20 mark here in STL), but this collection is not for the tight of wallet.  Each bottle is anywhere from $80-$100 but all seem to increase in value over time (if you are one to collect them and not drink them --- which I am NOT).  The names of the whiskeys have as much thought behind them as the processes put together the make them.  Sazerac Rye, George T. Stagg, William Larue Weller, Thomas H. Handy Rye and Eagle Rare are the names given to these wonderful bottles of pure joy.  It is a very limited release so you have to be quick and well researched to even be able to snag a bottle.  My local store is doing a lottery system this year and is only letting you have 1 bottle total of any of them.  Since I only can procure one bottle of this great stuff, I am opting for the George T. Stagg.  It has a higher alcohol content than the others so there is a definite higher "burn" on the palate, but the taste is out of this world.  I have had each of these in years past and would recommend any of them however.  But be careful, bourbon tastes different from release to release so there is a chance that some of these won't be as good as in years past.  I've never had a bad one out of any release though so you can buy with some sort of confidence.

Cheers and enjoy!

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First NFL Sunday of 2012, Let's go Pick Some Apples!!!

It is nearly fall again in the Midwest.  I love this time of year.  Football on TV, crisp chilled air outside and I can once again cover my legs with blue jeans which I know is pleasing to the rest of the world out there.  This past Sunday was the first NFL Sunday of the season.  It is a day that I look forward to for weeks.  It's a day when you can have a couple of beers and just kick back and watch your favorite team (or players --- okay, I am a fantasy football nut... sue me) on television. 

This year was a little different though.  My wife and I had been discussing taking our daughter to an apple orchard for a day of fun soon.  The issue is, our weekends are a hot commodity lately with my wife's work schedule and our travels.  Not to mention that the hot St. Louis weather this summer hasn't exactly been conducive to traveling outdoors.  This past weekend though brought with it a taste of Autumn with cooler air and sunny weather.  Saturday we went to the St. Louis Art Fair (see previous post) so that wasn't an option.  Consequently, yesterday (the first NFL Sunday) was the day we chose for our family fun day at Eckert's in Illinois.  I know, I know... I say I am and NFL fan, but I am a bigger fan of family and if you could have seen the look on my daughter's face when we informed her of our Sunday plans, you would know that it was totally worth it!

And that brings me to my point today, you should go to Eckert's in the fall for apple picking and family fun.  It is by far one of the best family activities you can do here in St. Louis this time of year.  To start, the apples are in season and quite tasty.  Secondly, Eckert's has a ton of stuff for kids to do.  You can pick apples (obviously), ride pones or camels, do arts and crafts and they have an entire carnival style kids play area complete with bounce houses and rides.  My daughter loved the play area (again, obviously) and was able to ride one of the rides by herself.  That and her superb apple picking skills gave her a ton of confidence yesterday and things like that are what parenting is all about.

I realize this is a food blog and I haven't gotten to the food (other than apples).  Trust me, I have saved the best for last.  I wanted to make sure that if you just skipped to the bottom of the post, you would see what I wanted to say about the food at Eckert's and I wanted to make sure my point was clear:

ECKERT'S HAS ST. LOUIS' BEST FRIED CHICKEN!!!

There, I said it.  Yes I know there are great restaurants that boast some of the area's premier poultry, but I am here to tell you that if you can make the jaunt over to Illinois and go looking for some Granny Smiths, you will find one of the best kept culinary secrets in the area.  Eckert's has this country style restaurant that provides great country cooking.  They start with these fried biscuits and apple butter that are just awesome.  You can then peruse the menu for your dining options but pay no attention.  I can tell you what to get.  FRIED CHICKEN!!!

They dredge their fried chicken in seasoned flour and then pressure fry it.  This creates a perfectly crispy piece of chicken that is very juicy and tender on the inside.  It is simple but delicious.  Like I've said before, simple cooking creates great food.  They serve the chicken along side mashed potatoes and green beans that are very good as well.  You won't notice the sides though.  That's just how good the chicken is.  They offer the chicken two ways: a two piece meal with 2 sides or all you can eat family style for a few dollars more.  Either way you order it, it is wonderful fried chicken that should be the standard in the area for how fried chicken should taste.

So before the weather gets too cold, or the apples and pumpkins go away for the season, load up the kids in the family automobile and make the trek over to the Illinois side and visit Eckert's for the perfect family fun day and the astonishingly great fried chicken.  Come back and thank my later.

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What a Day at the St. Louis Art Fair!!! (Yes, they have great food too)

Years ago, my wife and I were eating dinner one night at one of our usual watering holes.  After dinner, I didn't want to go home.  My wife (being the girl about town that she is) remembered that there was an art fair going on in Clayton (a very nice, upscale village type area here in St. Louis).  I thought, "Sure!  I could use a nice relaxed and low key evening..."  When we arrived, I was floored at the thousands in attendance at the St. Louis Art Fair.  Seeing as we just had dinner, we didn't eat all that much (just the Steak Sliders from the Ruth's Chris tent).  I do remember being disappointed as there were so many other great looking culinary delights that we were just too full to dine on.

Due to travel schedules with my job, I haven't been able to go for 3-4 years and I was always disappointed.  This year, however, I was indeed able to attend and that we did indeed!  I'll admit, I am a novice when it comes to art appreciation.  Our formal living room is an homage to island life so I like to look at pictures of beaches and shells but that is pretty much the extent of my artistic taste.  What I was excited for was the food area of the art fair.

The food area displayed some great expressions from local St. Louis area establishments.  We dined on several offerings there including a Philly Cheese steak Egg roll (THAT'S RIGHT! --- Honestly, we had 2 of these), fish tacos from Milagro, a peppered tenderloin sandwich and a fantastic pulled pork tostada courtesy of the students manning Le Food Truck which is an extension of our local culinary school Le Cul Culinaire.  That latter was by far the best thing we had (although a close 2nd was the egg roll). 

The tostada was a great example of a culinary philosophy calls KISS --- Keep It Simple Stupid (okay, not just a culinary philosophy... but applicable).  It started with a scratch made corn tostada then it was topped with lettuce and tomato and a creamy ancho chile sauce.  That's it!  My wife and I LOVED it!

The bottom line is, if you are looking for good food in your area you don't need to just stick to restaurants.  Sometimes you need to eat outside a little to understand where your community is coming from in a culinary perspective.  I know St. Louis has an ever increasing food truck scene.  We even have a monthly event called Food Truck Friday's at Tower Grove Park.  At the end of the day, I just want to make sure we all experience our cities and what they have to offer and sometimes that requires a little out of the box thinking.  After all, we discovered this great culinary event that happens to be an art fair after we had dinner one night a few years ago.

That's it for today!  Follow us on Twitter @LifeGastronomic!

1111 Mississippi... More than just an Address

Yes, I am posting twice today.  My wife indicated to me yesterday that I haven't updated in a while so I decided that I would add a bonus review today of one of my favorite places to take my wife to lunch.  Consequently, I took her out to said restaurant on her birthday.  She deserves a lunch out on the town everyday just for putting up with me, but especially on her birthday.  Not just any restaurant would do for such an occasion.  So, of course, I took her to 1111 Mississippi (Eleven Eleven Mississippi).

For starters, the atmosphere at this place is just incredible.  When you walk in through the downtown loft style entrance, you are greeted with a simple hostess stand set with a backdrop of happy diners and an upstairs open air kitchen that overlooks the dining area.  I do feel for the wait staff her as they do have to traverse many stairs in a given shift, but if they get to eat for free, it is SO worth it.

The menu is really an homage to Americana.  It is upscale in nature but very approachable (especially for lunch).  While I have had many great items on the menu, including the Lobster BLT and their fish specialties, it is their Trio that really lights up their lunch menu for me.

The Trio is a "you pick" dining option that allows you to choose 1 each from the salad, soup and flat bread menus (small versions of each are provided).  Not only is it the perfect amount of food for lunch, it provides variety and the food is fantastic.

For my Trio, I always get the side salad, Shrimp and Corn Chowder and a variable flat bread.  The Shrimp and Corn Chowder is by far one of the best soups you can get in the entire city of St. Louis.  It is a creamy/brothy soup that includes sausage, shrimp and corn and it is perfectly sweet and savory.  By far, the best thing on the menu at 1111 in my opinion.  The salad is quite good too.  What makes it is the Strawberry-Champagne Vinaigrette.  I've tried to make this at home and have not even come close.  I would drink this salad dressing as a martini if given the chance.  It is wonderful.  Great also are the flat breads.  Recently, I had the Wild Mushroom Gouda flat bread.  It had a sweetness to it (like most mushroom raviolis do) but was countered nicely by the Gouda.  I left with a smile on my face and a full stomach indeed.

The most important smile was that of my wife.  After all, it was her birthday.  1111 is one of her favorite lunch spots as well (obviously given the occasion) and she shares my firm belief in the superiority of their Shrimp and Corn Chowder.

If given the opportunity to dine at 1111 Mississippi, do so and be glad.  You will be in for a large treat!

No more posts today, I promise.  Follow us on Twitter @LifeGastronomic and on Facebook.

Fantastic Apple Pie Recipe

My next door neighbor is a genuinely nice man.  He always says hello and gives me advice on how to tend to our garden and always has a flower cut fresh from his ready for my daughter when she plays outside.  Neighbors like this are hard to find anymore, but I am happy to say that I have one.  Earlier this week, we had a storm here in St. Louis and his beautiful apple tree had a branch broken during the windy and rainy day.  My neighbor, being the good guy that he is, brought us a bag full of Granny Smith Apples from the broken branch.

I do love apples but I was a little perplexed as this seemed like a lot of them and as I am sure that most people who know me would tell you, I am not a fan of wasting much of anything.  So my mind naturally gravitated to what I could make with that many apples.  Then it came to me... APPLE PIE!!!

As I usually do with my ideas, I scoured the Internet to research recipes and techniques and then molded them all together with a few of my ideas thrown in to come up with one of the best apple pie recipes I have ever eaten.  The result was a wife and daughter with enormous smiles on their faces as we enjoyed our dessert last evening.  I hope you enjoy too!

Adam's Apple Crumb Pie

Ingredients:

• 9-inch pastry shell, unbaked, chilled
• 1 cup sifted flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1/2 cup walnuts (almost any other nut will do fine here) 
• 6 cups peeled, sliced cooking apples
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preparation:

Combine flour, brown sugar, salt, walnuts and butter; blend until crumbly then set aside. Mix together the sugar, Cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg.  Combine apples and sugar/spice mixture; mix gently to coat apple slices. Pack apple mixture into chilled crust. Sprinkle crumb topping over apples. Bake in 375° oven until apples are tender, about 50 minutes.