St. Louis Eats and Drinks

Craving Cookies

Hooray! Helen Fletcher, pastry goddess, has a new cookbook about to be available. It's Called Craving Cookies. I loved it, and you can read more here/

Hmmm...

I have a soft spot for gin, I admit. But whoever thought this would come to be? https://food52.com/shop/products/7384-monday-non-alcoholic-gin?utm_campaign=20200511_shop_gin_v2_buyer&utm_content=B&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_term=20286451

Lost Restaurants of St. Louis

Lost Restaurants of St. Louis is here! Forty-eight now-gone St. Louis restaurants, including a few at the edge of the metropolitan area, are included. My editors asked for a very few long-lived existing places to eat, so three of those are included. And at the request of a number of people, there are some recipes from the late lamented eateries. There’s also a chapter on eating at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis’ world fair of 1904, and there were some real eye-openers I found in my research.

I’m scheduling signings and such, and will keep the list of activities updated. Lost Restaurants of St. Louis will be available at area bookstores, of course.

And now, BREAKING NEWS! The book is in Barnes and Noble locally, and Amazon, despite what the web says, is delivering before Christmas. (But wouldn't you rather patronize local businesses?) Other places it's available, including two new spots:

Left Bank Books

Campbell House Museum

Subterranean Books

Missouri History Museum

World News in Clayton 

Christopher's Home Accents in Kirkwood 

 Missouri Civil War Museum 

and these places are getting it soon:

Scott Joplin House

Main Street Books

Digregorio Foods

If you’re interested in ordering it by mail and want to use a local bookseller,here's a link to Left Bank Books.

Here's a link to the interview I did with Don Marsh on "St. Louis on the Air".

The Unloved Lunchmeat

Soon on the internet, there’s going to be one of those lists, this one titled “The Ten Most Unfashionable Items at Your Supermarket”. One of them will surely be braunschweiger, at least if the writer is from the Midwest. It’s true. But someone must be eating it; it remains in the refrigerated cases at supermarkets in our part of the world.

I acquired a taste for it – somehow – as a kid. My father (it’s apparently always fathers that love the stuff, to judge from what I read) loved it, and was happy to share; he was always eager to increase my extremely limited gastronomic horizon. I rationalize it to myself by saying it’s a fairly good source of iron, but I admit it’s not something I have on hand more than once or twice a year.

So when the itch hit me yesterday, I gazed at my options at the supermarket and picked up a brand I’d never tried.

Gloriosky, did I find a good one. Frick’s is local, from Washington, MO. It’s vigorously seasoned – what I suspect is mace – along with the salt and pepper. And even though it’s not in a natural casing, my preference, it’s rich enough that one can spread a bit less of it on a cracker without feeling deprived, thus perhaps saving 10% or so of the calories.

Many people love it on rye bread with a slice of onion and perhaps some mustard. For me, that’s diluting the taste and texture.. I just take it straight unless there’s someone watching me eat it, when I bring out the crackers and one of the little lemon-handled spreader knives.

 

$3.79/ 16 ounces

Dierbergs and Schnucks

An Occasion of Sin

I admit it: I love potato chips. My idea of guilty pleasure is potato chips and and a dry sparkling wine. No, it doesn't have to be Champagne, although I remember an assistant winemaker at Domaine Mumm many years ago who took his bubbly with popcorn.  The wondrous food writer MFK Fisher loved potato chips. 

Lay's has released their summer blast of international flavors, and the first one I tried was Chinese Szechuan Chicken. 

I was shocked. They're good. The main things that come at the tongue, besides salt, are toasted sesame and pepper. I think I may need to dig out a dry riesling.

These are limited release - grab 'em when you see 'em.

La Patisserie Chouquette

I had lunch with a friend from Kansas City today, and took her into La Patisserie Chouquette afterwards. Simone Faure's work is always dazzling, of course. Just take a look at the cakes she's doing for Mothers' Day. Alas, they just stopped taking orders for them as we stood at the caisse ready to pay for the armload my pal was taking on the westward trek home. But as Toni was signing for her goodies, I spotted this. And, yes, it is a cake. 

There's a sitdown area and beverages available to go with individual servings of her treats.

 

La Patisserie Chouquette

1626 Tower Grove Avenue

314-932-7935

www.simonefaure.com/

Tues.-Sat.

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Good

Smoking: Of course not

 

An Uncommon Guidebook

Sometimes things just fall into place. I had just committed to a trip to Southeast Asia when I discovered an interesting-looking book about to be released. It was called Vietnam: 100 Unusual Travel Tips. Its author turned out to be someone with whom I had a professional connection, a fellow foodster who, like me, contributes to www.foodiehub.tv . (Formerly known as Chowzter, this has led me to all kinds of interesting people like my buddy Joe DiStefano , the real King of Queens.)

Barbara Adam is an Australian who moved to Vietnam for a break and never left. She's acquired a husband, a child and a lot of working knowledge about things there. Her first book isn't a guidebook - those tips in the title are not things like "For the best photos of the Xa Loi pagoda, stand at this corner." Barbara, whose blog can be found at thedropoutdiaries.com, also runs Saigon Street Eats , food tours led by her and her husband Vo.

She's covering more universal questions, many of which never occur to most visitors until they arrive. For example, I never thought about crossing the streets, although I did vaguely know the traffic is notorious in Ho Chi Minh City, where she lives. No walk lights, apparently. The trick seems to be just keep moving, but if you haven't the nerve for that, just cross with a local. How small do clothing sizes run? Where can you buy diapers? What about social norms - how close do people stand, what kind of questions do they ask and what's that body language? Not surprisingly, there's quite a bit on food, the ettiquette of eating, particular dishes to try, and the suggestion to avoid using the word "yum" because it sounds a great deal like the Vietnamese word for "horny".

There are some sightseeing tips, yes, but because the full title includes "and a Guide to Living and Working There", there's also discussion of housing, what it's like and the vagaries of working in the country, also pretty interesting, if only to feed into those daydreams many of us have from time to time.

If you're one of those folks who won't leave your hotel without a guide, this may not be the book for you. If you are a troglodyte like me who likes the big fat guide books, even though you may not carry them out in the street with you, or if you download from the internet, this is a great supplement. It's especially valuable for folks who want more of an understanding of what's going on around them in daily life in Vietnam.

The book can be found on Amazon, both in paperback and Kindle versions.

 

Vietnam 100 Unusual Travel Tips and a Guide to Living and Working

Barbara Adam and Vu Vo

Amazon.com

Paperback $15.99, Kindle $6.99

 

101 Easy Asian Recipes

I got this cookbook because it had the St. Paul sandwich in it. But there's lots of tempting recipes, a good-humored, easy-going tone to it, AND there's a good shopping guide to Asian ingredients. Here's the link to the SLM review, and the St. Paul recipe.

Chiles In The Heat

Have you heard of Hatch chiles? They come from an area of southern New Mexico near the Rio Grande River, around the town of Hatch. So it's a geographical name, not a variety of chile pepper. The harvest is in - and St. Louis has some. They're at the two Lucky's Markets, and I write about it here. These batches are one step up from the mild variety, and they're being roasted on the spot, an old New Mexico tradition. 

Good stuff, and lots of ways to use them. 

Mighty Wings Mighty or Not?

I admit to being see in drive-thru lanes now and then. The results of one lately:

http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/Relish/October-2013/From-SLMs-Tasting-Table-Mighty-Wings-from-Mickey-Ds/

Noosa Yogurt

I recently got back from a trip to Iceland. While there, I was keen to try the legendary Icelandic yogurt, called skyr. It was delicious, and at the farmhouse on Iceland's southwest coast, where we were staying, non-yogurt-fancying younger family members slurped it right up. Mother Hubbard's cupboard never looked so bare as my skyr stash did.

Back in St. Louis, I found myself standing in front of the yogurt at a grocery store and probably glaring. Then I remembered that I'd had a sample of something several months before. Oooh. Mango. And strawberry rhubarb? That sounded good. (There are other flavors as well.)

Noosa yogurt is out of Colorado and made by Australians in what they say is an Australian style. It's thick, smooth, not very tart and as rich as Bill Gates. It's more like eating English clotted cream than it is yogurt. It might even be better than skyr. Not particularly for dieters, but dinner-party good.

I see it at both Dierbergs and Schnucks; their website says they're at Whole Foods as well.

An Eater's (and Cook's) Holiday in Mexico

Here's a great combination - a beach vacation and serious cooking lessons. Carrie Houk (and, yes, she IS the sister of Zoe "Fratellini/Bar les Freres" Houk) is putting together a trip to Mexico, staying in Playa del Carmen at the Mahekal Beach Resort (discounts for culinary guests!).

Cooking lessons and a market crawl with Silvio Campos, who was featured on one of Rick Bayliss' PBS shows are the focus of the trip. But there are always Mayan ruins, salsa lessons and perhaps a mojito or margarita. Or three. August 4 through 11; contact Carrie at [email protected] Or Carrie's facebook page. No, I'm not going. There's a family wedding or I would.

Award-Winning Ice Cream Has St. Louis Ties

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, available in a few spots around town, turns out to be a sort of St. Louis-in-law. Read about it here.

The Donuts on the March

News for the Donut Division: Ray's Donuts' home base is moving from their original location in Olivette to the Westgate Center in Creve Coeur. Still on Olive, but beyond I-270, and close enough to Barnes-Jewish West's facilities that we're sure they'll do a booming business. They have big shoes to fill, though. The original Barnes' cafeteria once had warm doughnuts as a routine breakfast offering, good enough to put a certain chain with a glowing "HOT NOW" sign to shame.

The move will occur sometime in September; the date is still up in the air, just like the aromas.

Great ice Cream with Missouri Ties

One of the nice things about the Fancy Food Show was the chance to meet some of the people who produce delicious things that I really like. One of them was Jeni Bauer, of Columbus' Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. We blogged about them a couple of years ago, in fact. Here's a story from Relish about her and her St. Louis connections - and her ice cream, too.

Fancy Food Show: Washington, DC

Talk about an eater's dream: Thanks to a tip from an old wine-writer pal, I was able to go to the summer Fancy Food Show, held this year in Washington DC. Just as huge as every one says it is, there were still a few familiar booths, and one familiar face. I wrote about it for Relish, and you can read about it here.

The Addams Family Musical

"Are you unhappy, darling?" "Oh yes, yes! Completely."

This conversational fragment first saw life on a page of The New Yorker as a caption to a cartoon showing Gomez and Morticia sitting by the fireplace. Charles Addams, a cartoon artist for more than a half-century, developed the family of misfits, bad actors, sadists and other anti-social types, gave them his name, saw his one-panel cartoons become a highly successful television series.

And now it's a Broadway musical that's been running for a year and a half, despite reviews whose highest praise was to call it mediocre. However, it's been revamped, partly re-written, songs added, veteran director Jerry Zaks hired to replace the original directing team of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, ran for few weeks last month in New Orleans and opened at the Fox last night, the first show of the grand old theater's 2011-12 season.

While it may be praising with faint damns, or damning with faint praise, and despite having read a lot of scathing reviews, I liked it a lot more than I feared I would. It's still not a great show, but the funny lines worked, thanks to some splendid timing by the cast and some snappy direction. The Addams family includes the parents, Gomez (Douglas Sills) and Morticia (Sara Gettlefinger), 18-year-old daughter Wednesday (Cortney Wolfson), pre-pubescent son Pugsley (Patrick D. Kennedy), Uncle Fester (Blake Hammond), Grandma (Pippa Pearthree) and Lurch the Butler (Tom Corbeil).

They enter in a graveyard, surrounded by ghosts of their ancestors in a variety of period costumes. That's also the chorus, of course (or of chorus), and they provide a great deal of fun with Sergio Trujillo's choreography.

But once we meet them, the evening turns into a standard musical comedy love story with a middle-American family (insert New York put-down jokes) and their son, Lucas (Brian Justin Crum) falling for Wednesday. She invites him and his parents Mal (Martin Vidnovic) and Alice (Crista Moore) for dinner (no, there are no malice jokes), telling her family to act like normal people, which plays out like a similar dinner party in "You Can't Take It With You."

Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the original book; either they or Zaks tossed in all sorts of stuff they adapted from others, like an exit that comes from "The Sound of Music," a Peter Lorre accent here and there, a wig for Uncle Fester that gives him a John Madden hair-do, and later, the evening's biggest laugh. It's set up for two scenes. First, Fester sings "The Moon and Me," expressing his love. Then he comes back on stage in a primitive space suit, with a rocket attached to his back. Alice sets him up by asking where he's going and, after the proper pause, he utters Jackie Gleason's famous, "To the moon, Alice!" and promptly stops the show. Hammond is a sheer delight from start to finish. Sills is excellent as Gomez and although his relationship with his daughter turns over-sentimental, it touches a chord in all of us who have children, and especially daughters. Gettelfinger shows all the proper attitude, and while her costume threatened a continual malfunction, she managed to defy gravity.

Despite its problems, "The Addams Family" brought fun and entertainment to the Fox, and that's what theater is all about.

The Addams Family Musical opened at the Fox last night and will run through Oct. 9

-- Joe

Boerwors

Regular readers know how much we like sausage. We're big fans of G & W Sausagein South St. Louis, and never visit Hermann without a cooler so we can take the short drive down to Swiss. Wherever we go, the mention of sausage always makes our ears perk up. This week we found a new one, of a style we've never heard of, and had it for breakfast.

Jack's Gourmet (and, no, Mizzou alums, this is not from Jack's Gourmet Rendezvous) is a new company offering all-beef sausages. What caught our eye at Schnucks was the Boerwors sausage. Boerwors, as some may have guessed, is of South African heritage, “boers” being Afrikaans for “farmer” and “wors” meaning “sausage.” A medium-coarse grind holds notes of coriander, black pepper and vinegar, just enough to taste a little acidic, much as though a bit of mustard had been daubed on. These are pre-cooked, four to a 12-ounce package; browning them brings out almost no extra fat. They are kosher, from a company in Joe's old neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The producers also make Mexican-style chorizo, both hot and sweet Italian sausages and bratwurst, all at the Ladue Crossing store; $8.49 a package, but kosher, like organic, always seems a little more expensive.

Seasonal Food Alert

Seasonal food alert: From now until March 19, Missouri Baking Company is making zeppole.

What are zeppole? .We wrote about it in Relish, SLM's food blog. Run, don't walk.

Hot Stuff: Salume Beddu

We got hold of some great - to mix languages - charcuterie from Salume Beddu. Fabulous on its own, but equally fabulous as an ingredient, we think, and you can read more of our discussion here.

Splendid Ice Cream

Salty caramel ice cream? We're talking about it here for St. Louis Magazine.

Caroline's Cakes

With the approaching Super Bowl, we're about to wrap up the winter eating season. This last day-long orgy of eating is by far the most casual of the season, Thanksgiving and Christmas generally involve sit-down dinners; New Year's Eve, if it's not a dinner, usually is a time for lighter food that goes well with sparkling wine, and New Year's Day is right for some sort of brunchiness. But for Super Bowl, we're thinking pots of chili, hundreds of chicken wings and oceans of onion dip, right?

 Over the holidays, we discovered one of the most remarkable mail-order foods we've ever had. Our daughter-in-law, who lives in Virginia, found a bakery in Annapolis, MD, that does traditional Southern cakes. Caroline's Cakes offers several types, but the headliner and by far the most popular is a 7-layer caramel cake.

The cake itself is a tender yellow, astonishing to those whose idea of yellow cake is the stuff Twinkies are made of. And the frosting...well, it's dense, creamy, clearly a cooked candy-like sort of icing, reminding us of nothing so much as pralines. Some might argue that it's more like butterscotch than caramel, but that's quibbling. No fancy decorations that could be smooshed in the shipping, just a classic layer cake style.

The 9” cake serves 14-20, which seems impossible, but this is rich, rich, rich and should be sliced thinly.

The cake arrives frozen, and can be returned to the freezer if only part of it is eaten. It' keeps that way for six months. We left it at room temperature, since we knew it was going to be eaten fairly quickly; the baker doesn't recommend refrigerating it.

Yes, additional flavors, too, and a few other items including a delightful cupcake necklace. And if you're in the neighborhood, they have a retail operation, plus a breakfast and lunch menu.

Caroline's Cakes

1580 Whitehall Rd.,

Annapolis, MD

410-349-2212

toll-free 888-801-CAKE

www.carolinescakes.com

Mushroom Ravioli

We’ve found something delicious in a freezer case. At Viviano’s on The Hill, on impulse we picked up a bag of mushroom ravioli, mushroom and mozzarella, to be precise. John Viviano eyed the bag. "Those are good," he promised. "A cream sauce and a little truffle oil, and...."

At home, we had no cream and no truffle oil. I ended up dropping them, still frozen, into a pot of boiling salted water , stirring gently until the water began to bubble again, set the timer for 5 minutes and then worked on a topping. Real butter and a generous pinch of powdered porcini mushrooms from Ozark Forest Mushrooms, into a small saucepan, cooked over medium heat until the butter solids browned.

The ravioli were perfectly cooked, al dente, with their richness heightened by the mushroom filling. The sauce made us wistful that we didn’t have bread around to wipe the plates clean.

$5.99/lb, which is about a dozen ravioli, serving 2-4 depending on whether it’s a main course or a first course, and of course, it’s vegetarian. It would be an elegant dinner party item.

J. Viviano & Sons Grocers

5139 Shaw Ave.

314-771-5476

www.shopviviano.com

Closed Sunday

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Difficult

Sugaree Baking Company

Pie Day is coming! Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. (or, we suspect, until the pies are gone), Sugaree Baking Company in Dogtown sells pie. And if you’re thinking, "Gosh, I can’t eat a whole pie," don’t let that stop you. There are two sizes, 6" and 10", the smaller one perfect for one or two people.

We stopped by and picked up a lemon meringue and a peach-raspberry from Pat Rutherfurd-Pettine and her husband, Jim Pettine at the bakery, which is at the corner of West Park and Tamm Avenues. It’s hard to say which we liked better. We both had aunts who were demon lemon pie bakers, and this lived up to those high standards, with a filling that was wonderfully tart and a velvety smooth meringue nicely browned. The lattice-top-crusted peach-raspberry’s pastry showed nicely, and the peaches were still slightly firm, rather than the slithery stuff so often found in out-of-season peach pies. And the combination of peaches and raspberries was a delight.

Still left in mid-afternoon were pumpkin, apple, cherry and chocolate cream. They’re taking orders for Thanksgiving, and plan to make their utterly divine rugelach, as good as anything made in Brooklyn, available, too. 6-inch pies $5, 10-inch pies $10.

Sugaree Baking Company

1242 Tamm Ave.

314-645-5496

www.sugareebaking.com

Kitchenware

Cost Plus World Market and I go way back to my first trip to San Francisco, when it was a higgledy-piggledy warren of assorted interesting, inexpensive stuff. At that point, it was like an immense version of Pier One. Nowadays Pier One has decided to compete with Pottery Barn, another store that began at what we’d now call Ikea prices, and lost its charm. But World Market, as the store now encourages us to call it, still reminds me of walking into Pier One in the old days, with the feeling of "Oh, wow, I didn’t know I wanted one of those!" Beyond the tableware, baskets, cushions and furniture, they carry a pretty decent selection of reasonably priced wine and some interesting specialty food items, like curry-cooking sauces, jams, snacks, chocolate and pasta. As the holidays come nearer, remember that it’s a good place for stocking stuffers for adults. (Kids, too, but perhaps not quite as much.)

Poking around in the kitchenware section, I found a couple of striking things. One, as much for the visuals as the usefulness, is a series of measuring jugs. (There’s a bowl, also.) The smaller one is $5.99, the larger $7.99. The high sides make me think that it would work well for something that would be mixed by a stick blender. 

But the most interesting item was this grinder-grater. There are three pieces: The white ceramic top layer is a half-circle with nubbins on it for grating smaller amounts of garlic, onion or ginger.

 

The half-circle fits on top of a bowl whose interior has a ridged, coarse surface.

The third piece is a wooden pestle. Some mortars and pestles are lovely but utterly ineffective because the ingredients slide and bounce around as the cook is trying to mash them up. Won’t happen here with a bowl like this. All this is $7.99, more than reasonable. And it’s a lot easier to clean than taking apart a food processor.

-Ann

Cost Plus World Market

24 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood

314-918-7800

3628 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Sunset Hills

314-821-4488

238 THF Blvd, Chesterfield

636-728-0011

http://www.www.worldmarket.com

Book: "Eating St. Louis"

Fair warning: Page 16 of Patricia Corrigan’s new book, "Eating St. Louis," is blue with white type, and the entire page is devoted to a sketch of us, complete with picture. That prominence, while appreciated, makes it impossible for us to create a real review of her delightful offering, subtitled "The Gateway City's Unique Food Culture." Joe and Pat worked together at the Post-Dispatch for almost two decades.

The book is a charmer, filled with superior photographs of restaurants and restaurateurs through the years. The recollections and writing are just right to satisfy St. Louisans’ love for nostalgia. Venerable restaurants like Goody-Goody, Tony’s, Medart’s, Riddle’s and Crown Candy; mass feeders like Imo’s, the Pasta House and the St. Louis Bread Company; grocery stores like Moll’s, Schnucks and Dierbergs; watering holes like O’Connell’s, Blueberry Hill and Joe & Charlie’s; farmers’ markets; wineries and breweries all are discussed and remembered, often with interviews of owners, managers and chefs. There’s also a nod to the Doisy College of Health Sciences at St. Louis U., and its Fresh Gatherings Café. The university and Reedy Press are co-publishers.

The photographs are wonderful, a tribute to the Missouri Historical Society, the memorabilia collectors and Corrigan’s picture-chasing ability. Corrigan’s breezy style is front and center, and that’s what the book is – a light-hearted chat over a bar, remembering the good times and the good meals.

However, as he dons his critic’s hat, Joe would like to point out that, as regards his bio in the book, he was a sports writer for the Globe-Democrat in the 1950s before entering public relations with the Football Cardinals in 1961, and that he joined the Post-Dispatch in 1972.

The book goes on sale next week, and signing events include:

Oct. 13: 6-8 p.m., Duff’s, 392 North Euclid Ave. (free)

Oct. 18: 10-11:30 a.m., Ferguson Farmers’ Market (free)

Oct. 21: 7 p.m., Missouri History Museum (free), with appearances by Steve Komorek and Eric Brenner

Nov. 1: 6-9 p.m., Moulin/Vin de Set, 2017 Chouteau Ave. ($25 per person, includes food and drink, samples, a presentation by the author and a $5 off coupon for the purchase of the book. Reservations: 314-241-7799 or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/44134

Nov. 14: 6-9 p.m., Sappington Farmers’ Market (free)

Nov. 22: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m., Plaza Frontenac (free, featuring local bakers)

 

 

Pork Belly and Shanks

One of the pleasures of restaurant food is trying things that aren’t available at the supermarket. But sometimes what you try is so tasty that the cooking itch sets in. Or there’s a recipe in a newspaper or magazine that sounds sooooo good but involves an ingredient you know you’ve never seen in the stores you frequent.

We need no excuse to go cruising the aisles of food stores, large and small, and we’re always glad to bring news of unusual (and, we hope, sought-after) items we’ve found. Thus, today’s news bulletin:

Not one, but two cuts of pork that we’ve enjoyed in restaurants, popped up in, of all places, Seafood City Super Market. We’d visited in hopes of finding duck legs. No luck there, but we were pleased by what we did find.

Pork belly, the uncured kind (the cured stuff is better known as bacon), is a hot restaurant item, and there it was, at $2.69 a pound. And pork shanks, here labeled pork hocks, are available at $1.59 a pound. As much as we love lamb shanks, this would work equally well, and certainly costs less. And pork is a lot easier for the hesitant eater to handle.

Two worthwhile finds. Viva la pig!

Seafood City Super Market

7733 Olive Blvd, University City

314-721-6688

Open daily

A Baker's (or Eaters') Ten Holiday Gifts

An informal group of St. Louis food bloggers has decided to offer suggestions for holiday gifts for folks who like to eat, cook and/or drink. Never hesitant with opinions, we were glad to participate. So for folks on your list, near and far, here are some ideas.

We never visit Hermann, MO, without a cooler in our car so we can go the extra few miles to Swiss, literally a wide spot in the road that’s the home of Swiss Meats. Their award-winning sausages come in many, many varieties and their bacon is wonderful. They’re now sold by mail, too. The website will help if you’re not up for a road trip.

Swiss Meat & Sausage Co.

2506 S. Hwy 19, Hermann, MO

573-486-2086

800-793-7947

www.swissmeats.com

Our other favorite sausage spot is in St. Louis and definitely calls for a visit. G&W Sausage is just off Kingshighway in south St. Louis. It’s a butcher shop as well as a sausage maker, but it’s their bratwurst, especially the Hungarian brats, and smoked liverwurst that keeps calling us back. They also carry some imported German groceries and ethnic breads. Perfect for the person (why did we almost write "guy"?) who brags about barbecuing all winter long.

G&W Sausage

4828 Parker Ave.

314-352-5066

A good knife is a great tool for someone who’s learning to cook. If you’re one of those folks who are uncomfortable with the idea of a knife as a gift, there are lots of other cooking-related items on the shelves, and a gift certificate–well, who knows what your recipient would like? Bertarelli Cutlery moved to the Hill a few years ago, close to the grocery stores there, so you can kill several birds with one stone. We’d suggest a weekday visit, when things are less crowded. And bring your knives if they need sharpening, too.

Bertarelli Cutlery

1927 Marconi Ave.

314-664-4005

www.bertarellicutlery.com

For out-of-towners, one of St. Louis’ best desserts is shippable. Schlafly, aka The Tap Room and The Bottleworks,  sells its divine sticky toffee pudding online. We’ve used this gift for exiled locals with great success. The pudding and sauce are packaged separately, with instructions for warming them.

www.schlafly.com

Another deeply St. Louis-y thing is Imo’s Pizza. They, too, are selling via their website. We haven’t  used it, since our Imo’s-loving family members come to town often enough to satisfy their cravings, but we haven’t found anything like it elsewhere, and we know it’d be the perfect gift for someone’s New Year’s Eve or Super Bowl celebration.

www.imospizza.com

One of the newest businesses to serve those of us who like to eat is Celebrity Chef Kitchens. It’s one of those combination-of-things spots that offers several possibilities, including gift certificates. There’s a freezer case full of goodies made by the gifted chef Marc Felix, wine he’s chosen, specialty foods like artisanal pasta from Italy and organic butter, kitchenware from Mario Batali’s new line (which is quite handsome), cast iron from Emeril (and stainless, too, but that’s easier to find around town), and a few books. They’re also doing the "we’ll prep, you cook"- multiple-entrees-for-the-freezer thing.

Celebrity Chef Kitchens

9200 Olive Blvd.

314-692-2433

www.celebritychefkitchens.com

In this day of coffee consciousness, we don’t see why more folks don’t have their own coffee grinder. In fact, we own two: One of those little blender-like deals which we use for grinding spices, and another – a burr grinder -- for coffee. The blender kinds just don’t deliver a consistent grind, so look for the sort where you put the beans in the top and the ground coffee is delivered into a container - that’s a burr grinder. We have no particular brand preference.

We’re partial to lamb, and for folks like us, you can’t do much better than meat from Prairie Grass Farms, who sell their great product at farmers’ markets around town; they’re usually at both the markets we listed here .A leg or rack of lamb would be mighty welcome, and might even net the giver a dinner invite. While you’re there, pick up some fresh eggs, too.

This is the entertaining season, and if you’ve got a pal with a signature dish, consider one of those paint-it-yourself-pottery spots and making (or commissioning) a platter that says something like "Jane’s Fabulous Food" or "George The Risotto King".

There are lots of times when paper napkins are just the thing. But other times, you want something nicer. My napkins for Thanksgiving are actually terrycloth finger towels with a sheaf of wheat on each one, just the thing for a meal with drumsticks and kids of various ages. The terrycloth makes it a very effective napkin, unlike a lot of the cloth ones out there now, which are primarily polyester, deeply useless for really wiping grease off fingers but highly talented at sliding off laps. (They also feel very odd to the touch - and really cheap.) A truly luxurious gift would be a set of heavy linen or even cotton napkins. Colors are nice, but can be tricky to match; white can be washed in really hot water and bleached to get rid of stains. To up the indulgence factor, have them monogrammed in white-on-white. And to really up it, order a dozen. Even if they never feed a dozen at a time, that’s enough to replace those that disappear in washing machines like socks, or to offer fresh napkins before dessert.

And if you’re thinking wine, how about a fine Missouri Norton and some good chocolate? Red wine and dark chocolate are not only health foods now, the combination always provokes conversation . We prefer plain dark chocolate for this, rather than flavored ones like mint or nuts or fruits, but that’s just us. As to the wine, go visit your friendly wine merchant; we have some enthusiastic, knowledgeable people around town who love to help rookies.

More possibilities? Other lists are offered by:

Alanna at A Veggie Venture

Iron Stef

Stefani at The Cupcake Project

Anne at The Kitchen Conservatory

Winter Farmers' Markets

 

The last Tower Grove Farmers’ Market of the season has passed. With the global climate change, we still found some good tomatoes and peppers, along with what we’d expect in the autumn. The growing season is getting longer and in a few years, they’ll probably be running until just before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, we have to keep track of when the monthly winter markets take place. For your convenience and your in-computer master schedules:

St. Louis Community Farmers’ Market

St. John’s Episcopal Church

3644 Arsenal St., just west of Grand Blvd.

email: [email protected]

8:30 a.m. - Noon on second Saturdays of the month:

November 10

December 8

January 12

February 9

March 8

April 12

and

Maplewood Winter Farmers’ Market

Schlafly Bottleworks’ Crown Room

7260 Southwest Ave., Maplewood

Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

November 17

December 22

January 26

February 23

March 29

Doughnut Alert

We stopped by LaMar’s Donuts the other day. It seems like we never manage to get to a doughnut shop when they’re fully stocked. On the day in question, one of the early hunter-and-gatherers had walked in and asked for 14 dozen doughnuts—and they hadn’t called ahead. (Note: This isn’t a way to make friends at a doughnut shop. And of all the places where it’d be nice to have pals....)

Still, we stumbled on a particularly delicious item. One of my fallbacks later in the day at such places are what are called around here "old fashioned" doughnuts. They also are known as sour cream or buttermilk, but by any name, they’re the heavier version of a cake doughnut, the texture richer and slightly crumbly, usually sporting only a simple glaze. Even a little stale, they keep their humble charm.

This time I got an old-fashioned glazed bar, and was, to put it plainly, blown away. It was the moistest one I’ve ever had, wonderfully tender, far less stodgy than the usual. And then there was the flavor. Just a touch of almond extract? Maybe a little lemon? It was dazzling. I’ve got to get in the habit of carrying my camera at all times.

It’s a don’t miss.

LaMar’s Donuts

2542 S. Brentwood Blvd, Brentwood

314-962-6210

9614 Olive Blvd., Olivette

314-989-1101

www.lamars.com