{Pork belly corn dogs with smoked tomato remoulade at Vino Nadoz}
Keep a Cork in It: How can you pour wine from bottles without ever pulling the cork? Insert a hollow, medical-grade needle through the cork, extract the wine as inert gas displaces the liquid so oxygen never touches it, remove the needle and let the cork reseal itself. “It’s going to be a game changer for wine lists,” said Harvest chef-owner Nick Miller about the new Coravin wine system he purchased recently for his Richmond Heights restaurant. Harvest, along with Sasha’s on Shaw, has begun to offer by-the-glass specials on some very fine wines. They join Hoity-toity restaurants with hoity-toity wine lists – Del Posto, Eleven Madison Park, NoMad – as Coravin converts.
I Hop for Okonomiyaki: Pancakes are good, but tell us they’re flipping okonomiyaki, and we’ll hop on over to places like Cleveland-Heath, where this Japanese savory pancake holds the flavors of shrimp, bacon, cabbage, Kewpie mayo and barbecue sauce. At Blood & Sand, chef Chris Bork uses a beer batter to make a flapjack topped with salmon roe, mayo and yakatori glaze.
I Scream Savory: Who said ice cream has to be sweet? Or even dessert? Restaurants everywhere – from The Fat Duck in the U.K. to The Granary in San Antonio are breaking out of the (ice)box, scooping savory ice cream onto main plates. Locally, Niche recently served a quenelle of hickory ice cream alongside pulled pork and Brussels sprouts leaves, while Sidney Street Cafe churned out a sorghum-mustard flavored frozen sundry as part of a hearty fall dish of rabbit, house-made sausage, waffles and collard greens.
Hot Dog!: Corn dogs, carnival fare for carnivores, are making appearances at places you’d normally wear your little black dress. When batter is encasing things fancier than plain-Jane frankfurters, why not? At Lola, lobster tail is the flavor on the stick, while a chorizo corn dog was among brunch bites at Table. Vino Nadoz is going high on the hog with an unctuous pork belly corn dog. Mortadella is making its own case as the new corn dog. It was a snack at Blood & Sand; look for it at soon-to-open Cucina Pazzo in the CWE.
Gussied-up T-Ravs: Forget your loyalty to the classic T-rav and embrace new takes on this STL original. Buffalo chicken ravioli is among the funked up fare at Three Kings Public House and newly opened The Precinct. Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine is adding Middle Eastern spices to its T-rav filling, garnishing the house-made pasta with tomato relish and serving it up with tomato jam. It’s all glam at The Lobby Lounge at The Ritz-Carlton; its toasted ravioli is filled with short ribs, truffles and mushrooms and served with a brown butter emulsion. At Quincy Street Bistro, hand-made ravioli is stuffed with an atypical combo of roasted beef and pork. A T-rav for dessert? That’s a winner at Mike Shannon’s Steaks and Seafood, where pasta got crazy sweet when stuffed with raspberries, coated with lemon shortbread crumbles and drizzled with raspberry basil sauce.
Face Face: Fish face, a staple of the seafood stockpot, is making its way onto main plates. Recently spied on the menu at Little Country Gentleman was salmon collar with udon noodles swimming in dashi. Halibut cheeks were here and gone at Element, where the chefs created a sophisticated take on fish sticks and tartar sauce: butter-poached halibut cheeks with tempura chips, capers, garlic and crème fraiche. Missed it? Look for halibut cheeks in an upcoming special at Eleven65.
Drink Up India: Area bartenders are raiding the Indian pantry, grabbing heady scents from the spice rack along with delicate liquids like floral and coconut waters. Among buzzworthy India-in-a-glass concoctions is Almond Milk Punch with a cardamom kick at Tree House. Try Tripel‘s cardamom-scented Spiced Dark & Stormy or clove-touched Smoke Wagon, but be sure to order the H.D.Y. with orange flower water before that cocktail leaves the menu this month. Coconut water is what made the gin-based Green Isaac’s Special at Olio so special. And at Taste, you’ll find Kid Vicious – with its serrano- and pink peppercorn-infused tequila and rose water, as well as menu newbie Bols in a China Shop, featuring spiced ginger syrup and a cardamom tincture.
Bastardized Umami Bomb: Dashi is the umami darling of 2013. The Japanese fish stock is normally made from dried bonito, but rules are meant to be broken. We first noticed it when Sidney Street Cafe concocted a caffeinated Kyoto dashi using coffee by Sump. Right now, Blood & Sand is finding the fifth taste via corn dashi.
Editor’s Note: In the print issue, we mistakenly said Cleveland-Heath’s shiro dashi was similar to an Ethiopian stew.
-photo by Elizabeth Jochum
This article appears in Guide to the Holidays 2013.