Art, Science & Heavy Metal: Why O’Fallon Brewery rocks
Great oaks from tiny acorns grow. In Brian Owens’ case, it might be more accurate to say great beers from tiny kits grow. Owens received a home-brewing kit for his 21st birthday – a present that ignited a passion that has pushed him into the limelight as one of the finest craft brewers in the…
He Said | She Said: Tangy Reubens
Russ: It’s Reuben! Strange sandwich from another planet that came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal sandwiches! Kathy: Oh, come on; you’re being sillier than usual this time. R: It’s true! The origin of the Reuben is shrouded in mystery, claimed by short-order cooks and barmen from New York City…
Kombucha
Makes 1 gallon
Mathew Rice’s Chocolate Cake Ice Cream
6 to 8 servings
Peaches and Cheese
For the chutney: • Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. • Simmer for an hour, or until thick and jammy. • Taste and check the seasonings. If the fruit is too tart, add more sugar. For the cheese: • Using a thin fillet knife, cut off the bloomy…
Lemon Vinaigrette
1 1/4 cups
Mathew Rice’s Vanilla Ice Cream
4 to 6 servings
Devil’s Food Cake
8 to 10 servings
Peach-apple Salsa
6 to 8
Sweet on Ice Cream: Start simple and you’ll find it’s a piece of cake
The town I grew up in had a soda fountain at the pharmacy. It was a place where old men drank their coffee, and kids had their ice cream. My first memory of rainbow sherbet was at that very counter. It could be my imagination, but the colors seemed brighter that day as I spooned…
Recipe: Duff’s Restaurant’s Creole Eggs Benedict
Is there a better way to start a lazy summer Sunday than with brunch at Duff’s? Or, more specifically, with Duff’s Creole Eggs Benedict? When bartender Matt Voss created this spin on the brunch staple by adding a Big Easy-esque boost to classic Choron sauce – “years ago now,” he said – his brother and…
Review: Sugar Lounge in St. Louis
Visiting trendy urban clubs usually rates about as high on my to-do list as scheduling intense dental surgery or attending an ex-girlfriend’s wedding. Maybe it’s that I can’t stand techno reverberating through my very soul as I wait in an obscene line for the bathroom, or maybe it’s that my wardrobe is completely devoid of…
How to Prepare Crowder Peas This Month
Come August, crowder peas are usually as plentiful as warts on toads, but you won’t find them languishing in the produce section of most local grocery stores. There’s just not much demand. Few folks have eaten, let alone cooked, fresh crowder peas. Sometimes called Southern, field or cowpeas, they are not peas at all, but…
Review: Nubia Café in St. Louis
Given the intermediate size of St. Louis, we have a surprising number of African and Caribbean restaurants: At last count, there were five African restaurants (heavy on Ethiopian) and a smattering that have Caribbean cuisine. The Hon. Henry E. Iwenofu (he gets the title by serving as a councilman in North County) described his Nubia…
Hot in the City: Check out the Latino eats on Cherokee Street
If it’s this hot out, you might as well be somewhere more exotic, right? Perhaps south of the border sampling spicy salsa cruda and washing it down with a chilled bottle of Dos Equis? You don’t need an expensive plane ticket to taste el sabor latino. Five blocks of eateries, grocery stores and bakeries along…
Winslow’s (almost) homer
Ah, summertime, and with it comes the great American family vacation. Nothing says “rest and relaxation” like loading the kids into the ol’ truckster for a nine-hour drive. Oooh, yeah. But it’s not all bad. Road trips bring their own vacation traditions, things you seldom do the rest of the year. One of ours, a…
Lunch to late night, The U is in session
Trying to find a locally owned, non-breakfast option in St. Louis after midnight can be a chore. As a result, it’s difficult to talk about the new Midtown deli, The U, without mentioning its operating hours. The U happily slings fresh-made sandwiches and salads from 11 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. every day but Sunday. But…
Bill Cardwell’s pioneer spirit
Early last month, Bill Cardwell stood in the still-unfinished space of his new project, BC’s Kitchen, and took obvious enjoyment in detailing the restaurant’s focus on serving the Lake St. Louis community. “It’s like Lewis and Clark. There’s nobody out here. I mean, there’s homes here, but no business structure. But a business group like…
Stone fruits go savory
If I had to choose one taste of summer, it’d have to be stone fruits: peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots. Right now those fruits are at their peak of flavor – a fact that’s particularly welcome this year, after last year’s disastrous freeze that destroyed most of the fruit tree crops. The succulent flavor of…
Fast times at Slow Food Nation
The Slow Food movement, which began in Italy in 1989 as a countermeasure to the growing emphasis on fast food, encourages more attention to traditional products that are local, distinctive and often family owned – and that includes wine. So I was excited to learn that Slow Food USA planned to include a wine bar…
