St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack

Another Starbucks Surprise

Starting today, Tuesday, September 29, Starbucks will be offering an instant coffee called VIA under the Starbucks brand. Available only in their stores and on the internet, it comes as three or 12 single-serve packets.

 

Now, we will not get involved in why people who frequent Starbucks, or any coffee house for that matter, would want instant coffee, because presumably they are consumers who want better coffee than the drek usually found in, say, newsroom or hospital coffee pots, two types we're particularly familiar with. But nevertheless, Sbux thinks this is going to be a great thing.

 

When we were in Seattle, we happened to go into a Starbucks, something we find ourselves doing less and less, but in Seattle, it's a local business, right? This was early May, and there was the VIA being piloted. Big end-of-aisle display, of course. And then we saw it:

 

A large poster with step-by-step directions for how to make instant coffee. Five steps for a cup of instant coffee. No, we don't remember them all, but...what are we coming to when it requires large posters to teach folks how to make instant coffee?

-Ann

We've added...

Notice anything new? Just over to the right, at the top of the column, there's now a button to subscribe to St. Louis Eats. We can be added to the list of blogs you regularly receive. We've had a number of requests for this, and finally figured out how to do it. (Pie crust: Easy. Computers: Hard.)

Bowood Gardens

"Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme," was one of the popular folk-song lyrics a half-century ago when guitar music floated above the Olive-and-Boyle intersection that was the heart of Gaslight Square. Obviously, something stuck in the clouds above the corner, because today, just a couple of blocks to the west, these herbs-and many more-add to the sights and smells of Bowood Farms, where tomatoes and potatoes, zucchini and kohlrabi, all grow in what was an urban wasteland not very long ago.

We’re only a couple of blocks west of the magical neighborhood where Barbra Streisand sang, Lenny Bruce delivered comedy, Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf wrote the cleverest of songs. But night-time glamour has vanished, replaced by a residential neighborhood and now, vegetable and herb gardens that flourish under sunshine and rain.

The rooftop herb garden, which offers a reunion with a very steep ladder for admission, will hold an open house on Saturday. No admission charge, and a chance to see what a little imagination-and a lot of hard work-can accomplish, an opportunity to learn what will grow around a St. Louis house and to realize what it can add to a St. Louis kitchen.

Lots of varieties of basil, thyme and oregano, along with plenty of other interesting things, like cardamom, which we’ve never seen growing before. Also dynamite are the sedums, low-growing succulents that make for drought-hardy, no-mowing ground cover. Across the street is a fenced garden with more than 70 varieties of tomatoes they’re trying out.

We’re not kidding about the ladders, but they do have handrails. Wear sturdy shoes; this is no place for flipflops or your Manolos. Tours are first come, first serve, they tell us.

Bowood Farms

4605 Olive St.

314-454-6868

www.bowoodfarms.com

A New Picnic In The Park

Planning a trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park? We hope so. The admission is free, although there’s a fee if you want to sit in the chairs that are already set up. But there are lots of folks with lawn chairs and blankets every year, everything is very casual and the theater itself, in the cleavage of Art Hill, just east of the St. Louis Art Museum, has been excellent every year. There’s food for sale, souvenirs, some wandering minstrels, just a fabulous late spring evening for all.

A new option for picnics has come to our attention: Puck’s Restaurant in the Art Museum is offering carryout food, and with it, on most dates, comes a reserved parking pass in their parking lot. Three days’ notice is required, so plan ahead. More details at www.slam.org/shakespeare or you can phone 314-655-5257.

The play this year is "The Merry Wives of Windsor", and it runs, after a preview night Wednesday, May 20, nightly except Tuesdays through June14.

KWMU 86es...

We are sorry to announce that KWMU has terminated our services, effective today, Friday, May 8, 2009. We will continue to blog, and plan on adding theater and film reviews here, as well as continuing our food and wine coverage.

Another St. Louis James Beard Award

We're happy to congratulate Kristin Hinman of the Riverfront Times on her James Beard Award for her story "The Pope of Pork" which ran in November. You can read the story here if you missed it the first time around.

On Oysters

The Chinese calendar may proclaim what’s just ahead as the Year of the Ox, but for me, it’s beginning to be the Year of the Oyster. I’ve been a fan of succulent bivalves – both oysters and clams -- since I was a small boy, barely able to reach the raw bar counter at Lundy’s famous seafood restaurant in Sheepshead Bay. In those days, fishing boats would return from the Atlantic Ocean and dock just across the street from the terminus of the Ocean Avenue trolley car.

Toward the other end of the line, clattering along Rogers Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood, it stopped a block from our house, delivering a rattling ride even before Judy Garland commemorated that form of transportation in "Meet Me in St. Louis." The fare was a nickel, as was each freshly opened shellfish.

Since then, I’ve eaten raw clams and oysters near their homes on several continents, the small, briny Belons on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, tart Whitbys from the Irish Sea, European Flats from Amsterdam, Blue Points from Long Island Sound, Olympias from Seattle, Chincoteagues from Chesapeake Bay, Apalachicolas from the Florida river of the same name, many others from all the oceans and gulfs of the Earth.

Other oysters have migrated from here to there, or in the case of a St. Louis diner, from there to there. Kumamotos and Pacifics, for example, came from Japan to the U. S., and the former even shows up at St. Louis seafood restaurants on occasion. European Flats made the trip from Holland to this country shortly after World War II and Eastern/Virginica, an East Coast native, migrated westward in the 19th century. We’re not big on the Gulf oysters from the New Orleans area. They tend to be mushier and lack brininess. Our general rule is that the colder the water, the better the oyster.

Clams, mussels, scallops and other shellfish have wandered the world, their shells often used as coinage, their meat eaten raw or cooked in dozens of different styles.

Anyway, in search of an event to keep us occupied and happy on New Year’s Eve, an eve we usually spend at home, I found a link to Taylor Shellfish Farms, a West Coast shellfish supplier who offered what I thought would be a good surprise on the home front – a package containing four dozen oysters, 12 each of four types, two oyster knives and instructions on how to go about shucking them without sacrificing fingers. Delivery on New Year’s Eve day was guaranteed and since there already was Champagne in the refrigerator, I was halfway home. Of course, I had not shucked an oyster in about 20 years, on a night when I had only a screwdriver as an appliance. For some peculiar reason, alcohol obviously fueled my coordination because I opened a couple of dozen without physical harm.

They arrived on time and my skills were so impressive that before I was half finished, I had gained a co-shucker. The bubbly, and an oven mitt, kept our fingers in good shape, and the fact that the mitt did not survive was a fair tradeoff.

All four dozen of the oysters -- two large, two small – were outstanding. They arrived chilled, peaceful, obviously happy (leaning to read oyster shells is a fine hobby for retirement). Kumamotos and Olympias are small, some of the latter not much larger than a half-dollar. They are sweet, with a slightly metallic aftertaste; Kumamotos are slightly larger, with a deep cup, slightly nutty flavor on the tongue. Eastern/Virginicas are larger and very briny, with a color that ranges from cream to brown and a noticeable mineral finish, while the Pacific oysters have a shell about three inches long that ranges in color from white to greyish-brown, with white-to-brown flesh. The flavor is clean and mostly sweet with briny overtones.

We’re not much for red oyster sauce, though we’ll taste it from time to time, and the vinegar-shallot sauce strikes us similarly. I like them with a good squirt of lemon and a drop or two of Tabasco; Ann eats ‘em straight.

We thought we were finished with oysters for a while, and then we went to the Florida panhandle, sometimes rudely dubbed "the Redneck Riviera." The first platter of oysters I tried was unimpressive, and I was not seduced by oysters topped with cheese and slices of jalapeno pepper, then baked briefly. I like oysters Rockefeller (and clams Casino) but too often, the bivalve is ruined by the addition of cheese, whose flavor tromps all over the natural taste of the shellfish.

But Apalachicola oysters were in high season, and they were terrific, big and briny and with bright mineral overtones. Hunt’s Oyster Bar in Panama City was dealing them out by the hundreds, and at a price of $4.75 a dozen, we ate iced-up oysters and drank icy beer right from the bottle until the world looked level and we were satiated, one of the rare times in our lives to eat oysters until we simply couldn’t eat any more – until the next time.

-Joe

Who's Minding The Stove?

Chefs and restaurant critics have a curious, often-symbiotic relationship, like actors and drama critics. They know one another, may or may not like one another, often need one another. With more than 35 years of writing about chefs and restaurants, when we run into one, either in his/her restaurant or somewhere else, we’ll nod and smile and stop to chat. But Joe’s long-standing policy, covering more than a half-century in the business, is not to become close friends with people we write about, nor to write about the people whom we consider our close friends.

We sometimes wonder about performers (on stage, in kitchen, on ball field) and critics, and their relationships, and we got several clues recently after the New York Times’s chief restaurant critic, Frank Bruni, wrote a lengthy Christmas Eve piece about Tom Colicchio and his "Tom: Tuesday Dinner" evenings at his Craft restaurant. We first heard of Colicchio about a decade ago when he was the chef and a partner at Gramercy Tavern, Danny Meyer’s second New York restaurant after the Union Square Café. Bruni wrote of Colicchio’s work on an every-other week chef’s table at Craft. It apparently takes time and influence to be among the small group that sits and watches Colicchio prepare the expensive meal that the group then eats. Bruni also wrote about several other New York chefs (Waldy Malouf at Beacon, Ed Witt at Bloomingdale Road) who do the same sort of event.

We did one of these extravaganzas, in 1996, at Emeril Lagasse’s eponymous restaurant in New Orleans. Joe was there on a writing assignment for the NFL, and part of the piece was a mid-aftenoon interview with Lagasse and dinner at the chef’s table, actually a dining bar that overlooked the kitchen where Lagasse and his staff worked. It was a marvelous meal; anonymity, of course, was impossible, but we’ve never believed that anonymity was ever really possible, or necessary, any more than a theater critic goes to opening night in disguise so the cast won’t know that he or she is in the audience. Silliness.

And if Bruni eats chef-table meals and continues to claim anonymity, he’s either a superb actor or he and his companions go through one of the silly, don’t-ask, don’t-tell routines that we occasionally face.

Bruni liked the meal at Craft, but he was not thrilled, pointing out that "the overall arc of the meal – the rhythm of it – wasn’t exactly right."

A week later, the Dining Section of the Times carried a response from one of St. Louis’s top chefs, Bryan Carr of Pomme, in which Carr took issue with the story. He didn’t complain about the praise for Colicchio, but wondered if the Times and/or Bruni were not carried away with the idea of celebrity. After all, Carr pointed out, he and chefs everywhere cook dinner in their restaurants almost every night. It’s their job, and the fact they are doing it is not worthy of a big news story.

We think Carr is a terrific chef, and he’s a pretty good letter writer, too. Star chefs (Colicchio is big on television, too) are becoming more star than chef, using a title of executive chef to loll on their executive merits and not face the stove. The restaurant became popular and successful because the chef was there cooking every night, and when the chef is off on television or at book-signings, the customer is not getting what he/she is paying for, the work of the No. 1 superior chef.

Restaurateurs know that, too. In our town, one of the reasons that Tony’s has been so popular for so long (more than a half-century now) is because with exceptions you can count on your fingers, there has been a Bommarito in the house every night.

When we visit a restaurant, we try to ascertain whether the chef and/or owner is on hand. If he is not, we feel slighted. And no matter how good the meal is, we wonder how much better it might have been if the No. 1 person had been on duty.

Customers Care

1972 was a seminal year in St. Louis restaurant history. Among the palate-changing establishments opened then was The Jefferson Avenue Boarding House, the creation of Richard Perry. Perry, an Illinois native, offered classic, yet updated, American food, with an emphasis on fresh, even local, provisions. This was very early, indeed, in that movement that’s become a significant part of American food culture. Richard Perry’s name was mentioned in the same breath as Bradley Ogden, whose Kansas City restaurant followed the same path before he went west to San Francisco and opened Campton Place and then the Lark Creek Inn, Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame. He really was one of the pioneers of the American food renaissance.

Unlike them, however, Perry has not created a group of restaurants that he oversees. Instead, he’s pursued other paths, including teaching. Currently, he owns and operates the Farmers Inn & Prairie Kitchen at a crossroads in the midst of the cornfields on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

At the desk in the front hall, from which Perry presides over the goings-on, there are copies of a leaflet that at first looks like a carry-out menu. But take a closer look. It begins:

WE ARE IN BUSINESS TO SERVE YOU

YOU CAN HELP

And then Perry goes on to write the following tips:

1. RELAX. The whole idea of dining in a restaurant is to restore your well-being. Enjoy the fine things that life has to offer and revel in the diversity of humanity. We confidently expect your food and service to be outstanding!

2. BE KIND. When dealing with someone on our staff, either in person or by phone, assume that he is a human being like yourself. Let him have the pleasure of helping you. If that doesn’t work...

3. DEMAND PROPER SERVICE. There is no excuse for slow service, even when you might want a leisurely meal. We expect your meal to proceed at a smooth, unhurried pace. However, something is wrong if you wait too long for a dish. Thirty minutes from the time you ordered it is enough. If a longer delay happens to you, we will not charge you for the dish.

4. COMPLAIN. If you don’t, who will? It takes only a minute, you will feel better, and we will all benefit.

5. BE PERSISTENT. If necessary, ask for the dining room manager. Ask for the owner. Sometimes, those at the top have no idea what mayhem transpires down below.

6. BE ARTICULATE. You know what you want; we may not. Be as specific as you can, and spell it out–simply and clearly.

7. BE QUICK YOURSELF. If something is wrong, pounce. Don’t wait for months to let us know. Worse, don’t just forget it and never come back.

8. PRAISE. This action is just as important as complaining. It spurs us on, and is our reward for creative and constructive work.

Pretty good basic Restaurant 101. But the next page goes thusly:

WHAT TO EXPECT AT FARMER’S INN & PRAIRIE KITCHEN

A GUIDE FOR OUR GUESTS

1. We will greet you with a sincere smile–everyone on our staff understands that pleased guests are the backbone of our business.

2. We will provide an outstanding ambience:

-A clean, handsome dining room.

-Crisp, clean napkins

-Spotless dishes, glassware and silverware.

-Outstanding music selections.

-Carefully controlled levels of sound, lighting and temperature.

3. We will train our service staff to know our menu in detail, and to make suggestions designed to enhance your meal. Our staff will be friendly, and act professionally, not arrogant or snooty. They will not interrupt your conversation to inquire if everything is all right.,

4. We enjoy helping you celebrate special occasions; merely inform us early. We also find it easy to provide separate checks if you request that service before ordering; it is not so easy if you wait until the end of the meal to let us know.

5. We will greet you at your table within sixty seconds of seating. We will promptly serve your water, and also present our menus. We will carry a small, selected list of fine American wines, and other spirits. We will dispense a large, accurately-prepared drink made from premium spirits.

6. Our soups will be seasonal and tasty, and so will our sweet corn fritters.

7. We will offer a creative, seasonal menu using as many local products as possible.

-All of our fruits, vegetables, meats and fish the freshest available.

-Most everything made from scratch in our own kitchens.

-Menu items listed in writing so that you can see the prices.

-Food presented attractively on the plates.

-No cooking in the dining room.

8. We will give you our full atention regardless of the size of your bill.

9. We will give you the luxury of a leisurely-paced meal, unless you request an earlier deadline. We will gladly seat you up to our closing time, and will provide full service until you are through. We will not rush you in any way, or indicate that we are closing the restaurant by such actions as piling chairs on the table, or turning up the lights.

10. Some of our dishes are designed to be only lightly cooked, and therefore, we cannot serve them piping hot. We will be glad to cook them longer if you wish. Simply tell the staff in advance of your preference.

11. We expect our food to be the highest quality and we will prepare it according to the highest professional standards. Moreover, we expect it to taste wonderful!

12. We will brew fresh coffee from the finest Colombian beans, and also offer full-flavored iced tea and other beverages.

13. We will present a selection of fresh desserts designed to appeal to today’s nutritional concerns–you will feel guilty if you pass them up,.

14. We will present an accurate bill within sixty seconds of your asking for it.

Perry doesn’t press the leaflets on his customers–he’s not pushing it on them. But we think it’s a good read, worth sharing.

Soulard's Crystal Cajun Cook-Off 2008

The Soulard Mardi Gras, a regular event on the winter dining-and-drinking calendar, kicks off its celebration with a Cajun Cook-Off a week or so before most of the events begin, and we’ve been judges (one score for the two of us) for enough years to have worn a T-shirt from the 1998 contest during the most recent competition. Our little herb garden also sprouts the bricks that used to be Mardi Gras giveaways.

We were oneof three judges (Judith Evans, food editor of the Post-Dispatch and Mindy Jahn of Whole Foods Market were alongside), and we worked the professional division, as we usually do, with 10 pros and nine amateurs in the mix.

Competitors, representing restaurants, caterers and cooking schools, were in top form. It was a tasty crop, so we’re showing off professional winners and some photos of their entries.

These contests are no longer the sort of thing where Auntie Cecile’s bread pudding shows up in solitary glory. (As a matter of fact, we’ve never seen bread pudding at the Cook-Off, which is odd, considering its status as the queen of New Orleans desserts.) Nope, this is a series of elaborate Creole-Cajun riffs using traditional ingredients and some new stuff, and old names on what we imagine are relatively new recipes. Sometimes it works, and, well, even the dishes that don’t, are always interesting. Everyone has a good time, with music and dancing and food and drink, although visitors shouldn’t look for get samples of entries because the Department of Health won’t allow it.

The winners, for the third or fourth year in a row, were Mark and Patty Johnson of Hot Plate Dinner Parties, a catering company. The entry was a trio of dishes, beginning with a Cajun-seasoned bronzed scallop with wilted zucchini-leek slaw (delicious, even to those as zucchini-phobic as we are), fire-roasted jalapeno pesto and cayenne oil. That was accompanied by a wee oyster poor boy with puff pastry instead of bread, spring greens, andouille vinaigrette and a smoked tomato remoulade, and finished with jumbo chipotle shrimp atop a remarkably good smoked cheddar and chive grits cake with a Creole romesco sauce. That involves preparing about a dozen separate dishes to put this together. And obviously it tasted great.

The second place winners were two students from L'Ecole Culinaire Tracy Stewart and Albert Polacios, whose foie gras beignets with a savory caramel sauce were served with a tomato etouffe. In terms of single dishes, we think the beignets may have been the best single item we’ve ever had at one of these competitions. A slice of foie gras and a slice of very ripe banana were sandwiched together and dipped in the beignet dough before being deep-fried and served with a caramel sauce that had more foie gras in it.

A trio of veals from An American Place's Joshua Galliano finished third with some delicate preparation of some difficult dishes. Pink veal tenderloin was smothered in a flavorful gravy, an inch-thick cube of tender, almost sweet rare liver rubbed and sauced with Creole mustard before grilling, charmed us as well as the other judges (we like rare liver - there, we’ve said it), and "grillades and grits," a traditional Creole breakfast/lunch dish, was made with veal cheeks instead of cutlets, making it unctuously rich and tender.

In the amateur division, Doug and Debbie Searcy won with their beef tenderloin with crawfish dressing, followed by Dean Gallagher and Shane McVay, who served crawfish eggs Benedict and crawfish beignets, and had the courage to bring groans by entitling the entry, "Can I Bayou Breakfast?" Amy Peck Abraham finished third with with peppers stuffed with a corn and shrimp stew.