Braised Beef and Honey Tajine
6 servings
Luxe Lasagna: New flavors and fillings rev up this comfort food classic
Sometimes you should mess with a good thing. Take classic, red sauce lasagna – it’s such a satisfying, familiar dish that we tend to forget it’s just a recipe. But these days it doesn’t seem fair to limit lasagna to meat, sauce, pasta and cheese when there are so many other flavorful ingredients just waiting…
He Said / She Said: Death by chocolate
Russ: I used to live in central Virginia, which gave me the opportunity (more than once!) to sample what’s considered the original Death by Chocolate dessert, invented by Marcel Desaulniers at The Trellis in Williamsburg back in the 1980s. Kathy: You lucky dog. R: Desaulniers’ sublime dessert inspired plenty of copycats, each determined to overindulge…
Simple, Seductive Tajine: Add something exotic to your one-pot repertoire
The cold days and dark nights of winter are perfect for stewing up something warm and filling. Chicken noodle and Italian minestrone are classic comfort foods, but if you have gone through your entire soup repertoire (maybe twice by now), perhaps it’s time to spice up your dinner menu with something more exotic. One of…
Vegan Black Bean Soup
6 to 8 servings
Atlas’ Cassoulet
8 servings
Recipe: Atlas’ Cassoulet
Leave it to the French to come up with the perfect winter comfort food, and leave it to Atlas to produce one of the tastiest versions in town – so tasty, in fact, that this hearty bean casserole’s got groupies: a dedicated following of local diners who eagerly anticipate its appearance on chef Michael Roberts’…
Review: Flamingo Bowl in St. Louis
It’s a rarity for me to get carded walking into a bowling alley – especially on a Wednesday night. But as a longtime fan of Joe Edwards’ Pin-Up Bowl, I knew that Flamingo Bowl, the entrepreneur’s newest concoction, wouldn’t be your average cheesy alley. There’s been a lot of positive buzz around this Washington Avenue…
Review: New American Burger Restaurant in St. Louis
Be it a bar burger, backyard grill burger, diner burger, even a quick burger-in-a-box, it’s hard to resist the feel of a meaty sandwich between your hands; many current and former vegetarians have admitted forsaking their ideals just to chomp on a juicy burger. Unlike the poor hot dog, the hamburger is making a comeback,…
Thickshake
1 serving
Orange-Basil Truffles
About 2 1/2 dozen 1-inch truffles
Atlas’ Duck Confit
6 to 8 servings
Collard Greens
4 servings
Fresh chips and solid margaritas: More hits than misses at Chimichanga’s
Mexican food has always been the cuisine supreme around our house. Before Brendan could walk, he could eat burritos. And not some scrawny little wrap, either; he wanted it maxed out with plenty of salsa and pepper jack cheese. In fact, he ate pepper jack cheese nearly every day for months when he was a…
Sidney Street’s new full-time pastry chef gives diners a reason to save room for dessert
In a competitive dining scene, restaurants need to constantly evolve in order to draw customers. For longtime favorite Sidney Street Cafe, a restaurant with a loyal, somewhat fanatical following, changes must come slowly and deliberately and have a sense of purpose lest they alienate the clientele. The decision to bring on pastry chef Christy Augustin…
Irish cream, eat your heart out
Baileys Irish Cream may be the most famous, but it is by no means the only cream liqueur out there. Since Baileys was introduced in 1974, dozens of other companies have made their marks on the spirits world by creating new versions of cream liqueurs, including many Irish distillers and the Belgian Godiva chocolate company,…
A little basic math is all you need for creamy hand-rolled truffles
Chocolate – everyone’s favorite aphrodisiac – is the perfect Valentine’s gift, especially when it comes in a heart-shaped box, smoothed with cream and shaped into truffles. These days, there is a treasure trove of wonderfully exotic – and often expensive – artisan chocolates to be found, even in ordinary supermarkets. But trust me when I…
Another Happy New Year: An ancient asian holiday turns a year older
Forty-seven hundred years is a long time. The Chinese have celebrated the Lunar New Year even longer. Today, it’s the biggest Asian holiday in the States. “New Year’s Eve is almost like Thanksgiving,” said Jun Chen, co-owner of Wei Hong Seafood Restaurant in University City. “The whole family comes together.” But don’t expect to find…
Beans, beans, they’re good for … protein, fiber and fantastic flavor
I love the colors and shapes of dried beans. Kidney beans curved tight, deep red and big as old-fashioned jelly beans. Pintos snugged in pink and brown mottled skins. The creamy color and tiny tidiness of navy beans. The earthy goodness in black turtle beans. I like the clackety-chirr sound they make when I pour…
Oenophiles benefit from Tony Bommarito’s passion for wine
I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing Tony Bommarito for more than 15 years, and I’ve always wondered why someone so esteemed as a restaurateur would close the doors and get into the wine business, a business that Bommarito has always freely admitted he originally knew very little about. The story begins just after World…
You’ll find Southern hits at this North St. Louis landmark
If you read this column regularly, you’ll soon discover that there is little I will not consume. And so, when I was headed to St. Louis soul-food classic Del Monico Diner, I was excited for one simple reason: pork neck bones. I’d never had them. From the outside, the restaurant doesn’t look like much. Venture…
