Eating Saint Louis

Judd and I recently spent two days in St. Louis, Missouri. Most of our photographs are of penguins (St. Louis Zoo) and tombstones (Bellefontaine Cemetery), but I thought I would be remiss not to mention how we ate our way through the city--since food is such a high priority for both of us.

We had very limited time in St. Louis; we arrived there not sure if it would be one day and one night, or if we would get an extra day and night (depending on work schedules). Because of this, our first day felt an urgency in getting some sight-seeing done. Food took a backseat as we sped through Missouri drivers (no turn signals, going around each other in the turn lane if the person in front wasn't going fast enough...) to get through it all.

I hadn't been to St. Louis Missouri since I flew out of the airport after a death in the family. Before that, it had been as a member of the Utah Slam Team. But before that, St. Louis held muggy memories of trips out of southern Illinois and into enormous shopping malls and busy streets. Naturally, I had family on the brain, and bought my father's favorite candy bar for the road:

Our first order of business: the St Louis zoo. But hey, everybody's got to eat...

So we just rustled up a few pretzels and an order of nachos, and tried to figure out why so many preteens were scurrying around (answer: spring break + free zoo).

That night we decided to do some research on the town, and consulted their alt-weekly for the most recent best-of list. We scanned through for our usual interests: Best Coffee, Best Bagels, Best Indian, Best Thai, Best Sushi, Best Cupcakes, Best Ice Cream.... St. Louis had crowned several promising winners.

We decided to hit the Best Thai in St. Louis, Basil Spice Thai, for our first official Saint Louis dinner. Judd ordered the Panang Seafood: Stir fired combination of scallops, calamari, shrimp, fish fillet, bell peppers, carrots and fresh sweet basil with Panang curry paste topped with coconut milk and shredded kaffir lime leaves. Served with steamed rice. The sweetness was really nice-- I threatened Judd that I was going to find out what kind of coconut milk they used. I didn't. It was late and night and they were tired. So were we.

I ordered: PLA RAHD PRIK Fillet of whole Trout deep-fried until outside is crispy. Topped with bell peppers, Thai sweet basil, carrots, onion and shredded kaffir lime leaves in red curry sauce. Served with steamed rice. It was a much less-restrained version of the fried-fish-curry we'd had in brooklyn, and it was something I would order again.

It was lovely, and the staff didn't mind that we came in half an hour before closing-- more people even came in after we did and were met with warm welcomes. I did mention to Judd that we were becoming predictable: no better than those people who travel to France and seek out McDonald's for comfort, we've now eaten Thai in 4 states together, usually ordering Gang Dang or as close to it as we can get. He, oddly enough, didn't seem to care.

The next morning we hit one of the most recommended breakfast places: City Diner. This place was a nice little not-too-greasy-spoon; quick on the coffee refills and the staff wasn't too perky or interested in us, which is nice early in the morning. I ordered the biscuits and gravy, and definitely should have gotten it as a side order-- I could only eat about half of it. Judd got the blueberry pancakes, and they were lovely.

From the City Diner to the City Museum, we ran off some of what we ate. From there I decided it was time for something I kept reading about again and again-- The Fountain on Locust.

This place is a hip little yuppified cafe in a fairly gentrified area-- I say "fairly" because it seems that no matter where you are in St. Louis, the best most wealthy neighborhood is surrounded by boarded up abandoned buildings. I could digress here-- on how nearly every corner of St. Louis has the potential of Williamsburg in terms of commercial space and livability, with beautiful architecture and a real sense of character to the place--but I won't.

The Fountain is most famous for their ice cream-- no corn syrup, no preservatives, no additives. Their chocolate sauce is made from chocolate, their raspberry sauce from raspberries. Their ice cream is shipped in from Wisconsin-- because this dairy ages their ice cream. Naturally, they take it pretty seriously.

We took a small booth by a window. I ordered the Grilled Golden Cadillac-- a spinach salad with grilled chicken, zucchini grilled with balsamic, roasted red peppers and caramelized onions in a house citrus dressing. Judd ordered half of the Mixed Salad Sandwich (Fresh baked baguette with melted parmesan and mozzarella cheese, artichoke, lettuce, tomato, roasted red pepper, red onion and housemade pesto dressing.)

But let's get down to business.

One scoop Irish Coffee, One Scoop Butter Pecan. House-made hot fudge and whipped cream. That orange stick at the top takes 3 weeks to make (and, by the way, it was worth the time).

After this (truly amazing) experience we took about a 3 hour regret-nap before shaking it off and walking to a bookstore, where I found the bizarre literary magazine Alimentum: the literature of food. Of course, I bought it.

The bookstore was right next to The Pi, a pizzeria personally endorsed by Mr. President Barak Obama. Not just, say, casually mentioned in a speech to win over St. Louis voters-- Mr. President flew out the chef to the White House. Major. After giving Judd a rousing speech about patriotic duty, turns out neither of us could try it-- we were still so full of sugar and dairy. The Fountain on Locust was a total filibuster. But maybe next time.

The next day we went down to the Riverfront to look at the Arch and the Mississippi River. Last time I was in St. Louis I spent some time under a bridge by the river, so it was a bit nostalgic for me-- this was Judd's first time.

We decided to get in on a lunch special at the Best Sushi in St Louis, the Drunken Fish.

The lunch special was pretty great. We were finally hungry at this point, and each ordered three rolls to split + an appetizer. Ok, we overdid it.

This appetizer, the Agedashi tofu, made it entirely worth it: tempura fried tofu with a mushroom sauce, green onions, and sesame seeds.

The Saint Louis Roll: tuna, avocado, pickled radish, and masago.

Ok, yeah, we overdid it. It was a little hard to walk to the arch later.

So. That's how we ate St. Louis in 2 days. In that brief period we found more beautiful neighborhoods, historic sites, and restaurants that we want to explore next time. Look out St. Louis, we'll be back.