Rad Gumbo-Sausage and Chicken

"Goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh.
Me gotta go, pole the pirogue down the bayou.
My Yvonne, sweetest one, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.

Thibodeaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin',
Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen.
Dress in style, go hog wild, and be gayo.

Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou."

Soooo…. I used to make gumbo.  Then I was misdiagnosed with Celiac disease and that met that the flour used to make any decent roux was POISON!  So that was a couple of wasted years but as S.E. Hinton told us in our adolescent literature class, “That Was Then and This Is Now”.  So it is cold, fall/winter 2016 time for some gumbo.  There is something about chicken and sausage gumbo that is just very comforting in the winter, with a fire when it is cold outside. I made it last week and it was good so I thought it deserved vein writ down. I recommend spending an afternoon making this this. Shop in the morning and get some fresh ingredients, put on some music and start to cook. As always... drink while you cook, like God intended.

Here is a little playlist for you:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/louisiana-gumbo-mw0000258089

Ingredients

1 Chicken

64 oz of chicken stock (two standard 32oz cartons

4 Cloves of Garlic

One lb of andouille (this means a pool cue shaped skin of sausage about 1 foot long)

One lb of polish sausage(this too means a pool cue shaped skin of sausage about 1 foot long)

I large green pepper

1 medium large to large white onion

2-3 stalks of celery

Teaspoon Smoked Paprika

Teaspoon Cayenne

2 Bay Leaves

Teaspoon Black Pepper

Teaspoon Salt

Cup of Green Onions

Teaspoon File Gumbo

Cup of green onions

½ cup of parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

A couple of things about making gumbo.  It as I said, it deserves a whole afternoon.  It can be a relaxed afternoon.  Take two hours to cook your chicken, cut up vegetables and cut up and brown sausage.  This is step one and you can do it and then shove everything in the refrigerator including the stock to use later or even the next day.  Part 2 is a two hour process but past the first half hour you don't need to do anything so relax.  Listen to music or NPR as you work and enjoy the time preparing something that 4-8 of your friends will love.    This is a narrative recipe because… you need to feel the gumbo.

"Won't find no etouffe
Mamm never ever could cook it that way
She's all ancien regime
No nouvell cuisine
She cook gumbo
A mighty rad gumbo
It's the only way she can go
Down at the Club Rad Gumbo"-Rad Gumbo/Little Feat

STEP ONE-PREPPING ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS

Buy a chicken.  The fresher the better but seriously you are boiling it.  If in St. Louis go to Soulard Farmers Market on a Saturday morning and go to the meat store there, Frandekas. It will not change your life but it is an excellent experience.  This morning i got to watch a woman by 5 cow necks.  Evidently they make great stock and soup.  But I digress.  Buy a chicken.  If you want pull the gizzards and whatever out of the cavity.  Some people like to things with them later, I normally pitch them so why not boil them to add more flavor to the stock?  So you buy a chicken, put it in an appropriate pot and pour over the 64 oz of chicken stock and then add water until chicken is covered.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat and let it simmer till meat literally can fall off the bone.  I like to throw in at least one clove of garlic and any fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme that I can scare up but this too is optional.  Boil it 1- ½ hours.

Pull the chicken out and set it on a cutting board, as you pull it out of boiling water let as much juice and whatever drain back into the stock.  Let the chicken cool.  This will allow it to cool.  You might be tempted to rip chicken apart while hot but you will in no particular order:

1. Burn your hands and shout profanities (perhaps in front of your children)

2. Because it is hot you will work quickly and chickens, due to a design flaw have a variety of useless, sharp, splintery bones which can pierce your girlishly soft hands and cause you to spout more profanities (again perhaps in front of your children or even better, other people’s children).

3. You will lose yield.

Once cooled, then start tearing it apart.  Since you are supplementing with sausage, be picky.  Get all the good white meat and dark meat you can but anything suspicious...pitch it.  Since it is chicken you can either throw the remaining carcass, bones and meat into a bag and pitch it, or save the bones, boil them down and boil them down again and then throw them out on the table to tell people’s future.

http://www.luckymojo.com/throwingthebones.html

Strain the remaining broth through a pasta colander to get 95% of percent of the remaining bones, skin, garlic and other crap out of the stock. If you have time, shove it into the fridge for a few hours because then you can skip the fat.  If you don't have time, don't worry about it.  That fat tastes good, it will just give your gumbo a slightly oilier sheen and that really is not bad and some people may prefer it.  This is not a diet or heart smart meal.

Set aside your pile of chicken meat.

This is all you need to yield.

This is what the rest of it looks like.  Bag it.

Cut up your two kinds of sausage into bite size or smaller chunks.  You might want to dice the andouille a little or cut it differently so if people want to avoid the heat they can be discernible from the milder polish sausage.  While your chicken is boiling I like to throw these pieces into a cast iron pan and brown them and get some carmalization on them.  This is an optional step.

Cut up one medium to large white onion, one green pepper and de-seed and cut up a jalapeno (or if you like more heat leave the seeds in, it is only one jalapeno in a big pot). Cut up 2 or 3 stalks of celery and set all that aside.  Don't be fussy when you cut it up, do a rough chop, it will be fine.

STEP 2-MAKING GUMBO!

Ok… gumbo is literally all about the roux.  Any gumbo lover or pretentious gourmand will tell you this.  It seems intimidating but only by bully foodies.  It is the simplest thing in the world.

Webster Helps Defining Roux:

“a cooked mixture of flour and fat used as a thickening agent in a soup or a sauce”

That sounds intimidating too but the best part is the French derivation:

“French, from beurre roux brown butter.”

Brown butter.  All you need to know is this.  It is simple, simple, simple, simple and all you have to do is pay attention.  Rough is equal parts vegetable oil and flour.  I recommend ¾ cup of each.  Dump them into a clean skillet or sauce pan.  For this, I like to be fussy.  My wife bought me a couple of excellent porcelain and iron pots.  They rock. Here is a decent example:

https://www.amazon.com/Tramontina-Quart-Covered-Enameled-Dutch/dp/B006GC1XDY/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1481407136&sr=1-6&keywords=porcelain+cast+iron+cookware

Do a little research and buy one.  They are great for everything.  Anyway…

Dump the oil and flour into your pot or pan over a medium heat.  Grab a wooden spoon (for God’s sake DO NOT tell me you don't have a wooden spoon) and start to stir in whatever pattern you want but I cannot emphasize this enough, you must stir constantly, it will bubble up a little but don't let that freak you out, keep stirring.  Consider having a full glass of red wine while you make the roux.  Stir and sip and stir and stir and stir and sip and stir and stir… you get it.  It goes taupe, it goes off white, bone, ecru, tan, brown and then chocolate brown...and then your done.  Should take 20 minutes, maybe 25 or 30 but spend the time and stir...stir...stir.  It is important.  It is the key to the whole thing….

This is how it starts.  Get all the lumps out of the flour and then stir in nice patterns while you drink you wine...nothing happens for a while.

And when it turns chocolate brown add the onions, celery and peppers, and bay leaves and salt and pepper, and paprika, thyme and 8 cups of stock.  Stir it all together and scrape that roux off the bottom when doing it and stir a few more times, reduce to simmer and then cover it let it cook for an hour.

After an hour add the chicken and the sausage and simmer for another hour. 10 minutes before you want to eat, stir in the file’ gumbo and the green onions.

Make some rice… I think white rice...Uncle Ben's or Minute Rice, no reason to be fussy.

Dump a fist full of rice into a bowl.  Recommend a big flat one but I don't have any so use any bowl.  Stir again and dump a couple of ladles over the rice and sprinkle lightly with a little parsley and serve.

Irish Blatherings: Galway!

Sooooo….Dublin was great primarily because I was there with Miss Laura Becker.  But I dropped her at the airport and found my way across Ireland to Galway.  As I may have stated in my prior entry on “Driving In Ireland”, Irish highways (other than being in the wrong direction) seem very nice, wide, well paved and with reasonable signage.  So it was not that hard to leave the airport, head south and then find the highway across ireland to Galway.  It is a 2 ½ hour drive (God himself knows how many kilometers that is) and I wanted to try and get there before dark to try and find my hotel.

I of course did not ask for a car with Bluetooth (nor do I know if that even exists in Ireland or Europe because I am a sheltered American or “Merican” if you will) but in any case I did not bring any CD’s for (what I am now thinking of as the “archaic”) CD player and was sentenced to Irish Radio.  A couple of things I found out:

1. Southern Ireland and Southern England while I was there were suffering from disastrous “Katrina” level flooding with a low pressure system sitting out in the Atlantic and dumping rain on the southern portion of both countries.  This is and was totally unreported in US Media as far as I could tell even though it threatened both governments because people were so upset and there was such widespread suffering.  On my trip home this reminded me what a silo we live in news wise.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/02/16/08/17/british-storms-claim-2-lives

2. Irelands Police (the Guardia) watchdog group had found that they were being bugged by someone and no one knew who it was but heads were going to roll.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26279237

These were the only two stories on the news but I was saved because there was a football game on with Manchester United playing Fulham.  Unbeknownst to me the Premier League is in tumult with perennial contender Manchester United having another horrible season and being at risk for being dropped from the Premier League.  Naturally there is much hand wringing going on about what (based on the BBC feed I was listening to is a NATIONAL tragedy.  While you might find as an American that watching soccer is boring (like watching farming as one of my friends says) I assure you that it is only “more so” on the radio but with limited choices… I tuned in.  And it was a boring game, with Fulgham leading 1-0 late in the game but miraculously Manchester scores 2 goals late in the game before regulation expires SAVING THEIR SEASON and perhaps their coaches job. I learned the next day that Manchester had set the record for “crosses” whatever those are and it was considered a very poor effort but even poorer because they had to play the extra time for the time lost for penalties and...Fulham scored salvaging a tie and you would have thought the world had ended.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/09/manchester-united-fulham-live-premier-league

So it was a pretty interesting trip across Ireland.  Not much to see from the highway.  A few towns, a lot of fields.

I believe we have previously discussed the fact that I am genius.  And a planner.  A GENIUS PLANNER!  In that regard I had my hotel reservation that morning on “the internets” reading several reviews and then booking and receiving confirmation on line at “The Western”.  I also had an address but I had no map and no directions because it is in “City Center” in Galway.  Dublin also has a “City Center” as I would imagine Belfast does as well.  It is what they mean by downtown and I figured I would find it.  Well… it was getting dusky (dark) by the time I got there but the plan worked reasonably well until I got to the City Center and could not find the hotel.  Streets are not clearly marked for the 53 year old traveler trying to navigate the wrong side of the road while looking for 100 year old street signs which are not on posts on the corner but instead are on the sides of the buildings nearest to the corners.  After several (4) trips around downtown I finally did the girlish thing and asked and was pointed to the top of the hill and a one way street I had not yet explored and there I found my hotel, pulled into the alley behind and pulled down into another tiny, perilous garage at The Western!

Now, being an American I of course thought of the wild west!  It was “The Western”.  Maybe a cowboy theme!  I did not think any of this consciously but it was definitely there and then i realized it is “The Western” because it is on the west coast of Ireland.  Evidently they have a west coast too.  It is just on the Atlantic and California is not there.  Who knew?

So I got online and did a little research about where I could get a top notch gluten free meal and all reviews pointed towards a place called Ard Bia.  It was down by what was referred to as the Spanish Arch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Arch

They date from the 1500’s and were at the bottom of the hill on the bay where the river Corrib runs into the bay.It was pitch black and I was solo as i worked my way down into the pedestrian mall and through it asking questions and you walk way out on the quay and underneath the arches and there was a little house.  It was packed and they seated me and my newspaper and served me some hot gluten free bread and fresh butter and then a nice seafood salad and very good steak.  Looking around the food looked good on every plate and they had an adequate, reasonably priced wine list.  I would definitely recommend this place to anyone but especially to the gluten impaired.

I spent a little time exploring the pedestrian mall which is a nice bunch of shops.  No Cigar stores but a good cheese monger and a plethora of drug stores and gift shops and specialty stores, several of which had some Cuban cigars for me.  This mall or near it is where you want to stay in Galway.  There were at least a dozen bars, all with music every night and there was plenty to do.

Part of the energy comes because it is a college town.  I was unfamiliar with the National University of Ireland Galway but they store 17,000 students there in what looks to be an excellent liberal arts and research university.  Perhaps I should go there for the Masters in Writing?  Or perhaps I should learn to write a sentence first without…  In any case, it seems like it would be an excellent place to be an old person studying abroad.

http://www.nuigalway.ie/index.html

Irish Bars are there for the atmosphere, for the average music and for the Irish whiskey.  There is plenty of all these things and I did not walk into a single establishment where I was treated like a stranger.  Everyone was friendly and loved to pour the Red Breast for me and I must admit I developed a “taste” for it.  I had never been a fan before.  But if you go, you have to hit a few of these establishments.  Most of them seemed pretty much the same to me, but I mean that in a good way.

The food for the Celiac in Ireland is not much.  “Irish Cuisine” is a misnomer like “English Cuisine”.  It is shit… at best.  But it is edible and there is food to be had.  In Galway I found an edible Irish breakfast at every hotel including “The Western”.

Sausage, egg and although I could not partake with my gluten issues an awful little piece of “pudding” that kind of passes for hash browns.  They also will occasionally have the abomination known as “bacon” in England and Ireland.  This is heinous stuff.  I swear is it thick cut, fatty and appears to always be boiled instead of fried, as God intended.  But the Irish Breakfast, with a little hot Irish Tea and a newspaper.  It works.

They also have gluten free pizza in Galway and Dublin.  The Milano’s chain.  Nice product and consistent.  I strongly recommend it for a safe snack at a chain that “gets it”.

In Galway, like every other town I have been in, in England or Ireland they have a cheesemonger.  In Galway it is Sheridans.  One of the smartest things you can do in any town is ask around for the best cheesemonger.  It is always worth the question and Sheridans was....fabulous.

Sheridans had everything.  fresh fruit, sausage and most of all cheese.  A lot of it.  I am a simple man with simple tastes and that means Irish Cheddar and maybe a nice cave aged Gruyere.  

Knowing your cheesemonger can lead to a feast wherever you are and Galway was no exception.

Blood Oranges, gluten free bread with fresh butter, Italian salami and a lot of cheese.  Your leftovers travel well and make a good snack.  There also were several good wine shops.  I took advantage.

***

So Galway is a keeper.  I am strongly recommending it and I am lobbying for Sandy and I to take a trip back.  It is a beautiful town with beautiful people and 1500 years or so of easily accessed history.

Highway Tacos

Sooooo... during the summer I drive to Michigan a lot.  I believe in the Ballad of Lilly and Lola I regaled you with tales of an idiot eating their way north.  Their are many ways to northern Michigan but the fastest way, "as the crow flies" is to buzz up 55 to Joliet, shoot on 80 across the remainder of Illinois (South Chicago), zip across the northern most portion of Indiana (from Gary to Michigan City and then hit Michigan and head up Highway 31.

The problem is the first part.  That first stretch from the river in St. Louis to where it hits 80 in Joliet.  It is at best a wasteland of corn and wind and that it only during the time when the corn is growing.  The rest of the time it is wind and soybeans or wind and dirt.  It is a miserable 4 hours plus no matter how you cut it.  Last weekend when traveling home from #Beckerwedding (more on that later) I decided that since I was driving home by myself, I had gotten a late start and because I wanted to ruin another shirt that I should find every taco place on that strip of road or thereabouts.

I think it is pretty well established that I give too much.  I do too much for other people.  I extend myself in really unbelievable ways to do tremendous acts of savage kindness which are too many to be listed and frankly I would be embarrassed by their sheer volume but there is no question that no one gets more of this unbelievable sacrifice.... than you people.  So as i am driving and ignoring calls from work, emails from work, cried of help from work, injured people on the highway, monsoon warnings, deadly heat and the sad fact that I left my Ray-Bans up in Michigan I am typing in Google searches of "Street Tacos" along with a city name.

I have come to think of "street tacos" as two corn tortillas, overlapping with any meat (other than ground beef which is verboten) along with some onion, cilantro and a lime wedge.  That is the street taco.  Sadly there is no Wikipedia definition of "street taco" but I am going to stand by my definition.  A lot of interesting things come up but when traveling at high speed along the highway and avoiding deer and occasionally people you cannot read too closely.  Hy the way... this is another way I give too much.  DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE.

Even when you have the whole day it is difficult to eat tacos too many times.  It wears you out.  They burn.  They got processed (sometimes unhappily by your body.  They can kill you.  There, I said it.  When booming over highway 80 and stiffing the toll booth lady for a dime I came across a place in Joliet called Ricos.  All i read was "it is in a silver trailer behind the SuperMercado.  What could possibly go wrong.  With the iPhone I got my directions and off I went!  The Google Maps gave me a stupid way to get there but that happens.  I got there and BOY did I get there.  I arrived around 11:30 to a full parking lot and had to jockey.  there were anglos around but not too many and I spotted the trailer and knew I had done well.

It was... beautiful.  I watched the two gentlemen in front of me order their lunches and tried to gain my bearings.  There were tubs of sodas from other countries and the menu was half in Spanish, half in english.  Everyone around me was speaking Spanish and I had read about their pork tacos and I ordered them and stood around,  pretending to stare at my phone as life teemed around on the parking lot.

My tacos came up and she put them in a styrofoam container and put them in a plastic grocery bag and I hopped in my car and was on my way.  Twisting out of Joliet and back onto 80 I sampled my first one and it was chewy, spicy perfection.  I had an iced tea which I needed to gulp and I got my big allergic sweat on as I got on 55 and headed south.  This place is about 3 minutes off the highway in Joliet.  I will be back.

Then I decided to double down.  I tried to find something in Springfield and if anyone has a place for street tacos in Springfield, I want to know about it.  Striking out on "the Google" I then tried Bloomington which was just a little too close but.... what the hell.  There were a couple of places but ultimately I chose La Carniceria.  It too was awesome.  Three more tacos Pastor that looked like this.  

Not Everyone is crazy about tomatoes on their street tacos.  These were good and they were served with a green (verde) and a red sauce.  I have found generally that the green sauces are  milder.  These too were OUTSTANDING!  One of the sad casualties of the outing was my WEATON T-Shirt but there prices a man has to pay for this type of searching and eating for the benefit of other people.  Trying to find highway tacos... my white whale... my quest.... as I said... I give too much.  Google map these things.  You dont need me to do it.  When you head north on 55 to Chicago or points further north... think tacos... this delicious and enjoy and thank you hard working diner reviewer.

Cafe' Osage: A Diner Review Sort Of....

Soooo.... it is always a pleasure to find a new place to have breakfast. Even if it is (with all respect to Johnny Chico) a little gay. It was with some trepidation that my dining companion Sal requested that we go to a place called Bowood Farms http://www.bowoodfarms.com/ which is more specifically when dining, Cafe Osage. he gave me the address of the place and I had no ability to picture it. 4605 Olive in the city...where the hell was that. But on a recent Saturday morning I made the sojourn and finally pulled up in front of the place which is about two blocks east of Euclid. It is also about 5 blocks west of the Old Gaslight Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_Square,_St._Louis . If you do not know about Gaslight Square it was kind of the equivalent of perhaps the Loop area, but probably a lot cooler. But anyway, I digress.

It is a very interesting part of town and the Bowood Farms people have located their, nursery, landscaping business, their plant data base and all of their knowledge and urban hipness in what was an abandoned manufacturing business.

A locavore dream. It is a cool place but at 7:30 on a Saturday morning it is a little disorienting. You walk into their indoor nursery through a big wooden door and then on your left is their little gem of a restaurant, the Cafe’ Osage. It is a big, open (and in February in the Lou) cold room. High ceilings and big windows give you great light . It is a really nice room with some big booths and nice table seating and a little bar area.

The menu is a little to frou frou but what I sampled was good. In fact very good. http://www.bowoodfarms.com/_ccLib/attachments/pages/Osage+Breakfast+Menu10-21-09.pdf . Unfortunately they were out of their biscuits and gravy but I did sample some of their Nueske Bacon and a very fresh English muffin while Sal had their Osage Corned Beef Hash with poached egg that looked pretty awesome and awfully fresh. The iced tea was top notch. The absence of hash browns was obviously concerning but is made up for with black beans and rice and cheese grits.... but those are for another time. The service was attentive without being annoying and over all I would say this is a great place for breakfast with your wife, girlfriend, daughter or mom and without knowing more I would guess that they do an awesome mimosa and bloody mary. It stinks to me of a mother day location for a great brunch where everyone, including me can be very happy. This is definitely a destination location to tuck away and save for the right moment.

Lets give it 7 slingers on a 10 scale but there is nothing Diner like about it.

The Zen Of Bacon

As part of this spaces continuous, ongoing, relentless praise of bacon I am compelled to say a few a words regarding the Zen of bacon. Obviously there are a lot of aspects to bacon that are by definition "zen". This morning however I was cooking bacon for Laura, Pat and I (because only three of us I deemed 1 lb to be the correct amount. I was using a large, deep, rounf teflon skillet. Teflon is the simplest way to cook, though obviously iron has more Zen like characteristics. On the other hand iron sticks (even if well seasoned" and should never (ever) go in a conventional dish washer.

Thus I immediately sacrificed Zen.

I like to cook on a medium heat. Which is the second way that I sacrifice Zen because as we all know, the only true way to cook anything, especially bacon, is over a pure natural gas flame.

Secondary sacrifice of Zen.

I lay out about 7 strips across and then on across the top. As the skillet heats and you begin to get that Zen like sizzle then i begin to assess the heat distribution across the skllet because depending on quality of pan and quality of burner and of course positioning of said skillet... heat distribution can vary. As the bacon cooks you move the pieces from one side to another. This is orderly... and feels...Zen-Like.

But what is Zen you might ask.
One way to think of zen is this: a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts.

I enter this fugue state as the pieces being to get fully cooked. Many prefer their bacon limp which is...so un-Zen. Unforgivably so. So as the bacon crisps up i am always disappointed with the few first strips. There is never quite enough grease in the skillet. This leads to burning of the first few pieces where after you get them going you have a nice even layer of frying bacon fat. This is where I truly become at one with the skillet.

At this point.... the bacon basically cooks itself. Then we are left with a fully cooked pound of bacon...minus two or three slices which is the Zen cooking fee. Look it up.

Related Post: The Bacon Pigs http://stldinerreview.blogspot.com/2009/05/truth-about-bacon.html

Fozzies Sandwich Emorium: The Review....

Two words...OH MY GOD! I was leaving Clayton to head downtown and noticed a new place on Big bend, right before I got on the highway. it was called Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium. I personally was never a Muppets fan and spent a long time seriously concerned about the Fozzie Bear character. he was unfunny in a way that made me want to punch him. I do not know whether that was the intent, or whether it reflects more poorly on me, or Jim Henson. t looked like an old gas station, maybe a Clark station. I thought it looked like a typical "wraps" place or some other place that would serve veggie burgers and forgot about it. On a typical Friday, I have no friends who will break bread with me and have a lot to contemplate. Eating lunch alone (with my Wall Street Journal) has become a bad habit. So I headed out highway 40 on Friday and went to Fozzies for lunch. The place had ample parking although i could see people lined up inside.

I parked and immediately noticed that behind the place they have several large garden boxes filled with tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, cilantro, parsley and all manner of greens. Interesting. The door is a long way from the lot and you walk along the back of the place and they have several tables set out there and there is some shade available even at lunch. Still, on a 100 degree day you do not want to park your butt out there. The place itself is unimpressive with a small area to order before the counter, three tables offering minimal seating and space to wait for your order. The menu is displayed on large chalk boards and I immediately thought... uh oh!

Lots of offerings with V's before them. Veggie options. Should I just turn around? Should I spray paint markings on the building that it burned so as not to tempt little children down the slippery slope of healthy eating? But immediately I start looking at the other sandwich offerings and started to be impressed. Philly Cheese Steaks, hot dogs, Gyros, French Dips. Also they tout deserts, hand made shakes... and yes they do have all manor of salads. I think I counted about 20 sandwich selections. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful in the way that people who really like what they are doing and like what they are selling can muster. Think Apple Store. In preparing this post I tried to find a web site but came up dry. I will inquire on next trip there.

The cheerful guy at the counter was helpful and friendly and full of energy like only an employee who really loves his job and his project. Think Apple Store employee. He saw me looking at the options and could sense I was not that bright and said "The Big Bend Mafia is our best seller". The Big Bend Mafia is described as Italian Beef, salsiccia, giardiniera and provolone on a garlic hoagie. I was able to grab a table and sample with their home made chips. While the chips were a little disappointing, I knife and forked the rest of it with a great deal of pleasure. this was a succulent sandwich made better by the bread. the italian beef had a good flavor and the salsiccia was mild but flavorful. I had no idea what the gardiniera was but it was delicious and I have now learned the following from Wikkipedia:

"Giardiniera is an Italian or Italian-American relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil. Giardiniera is available as either mild or hot. In the United States, hot giardiniera is often referred to as "Hot Mix".
Common vegetables in the Italian version, also called sotto aceti, include onions, celery, zucchini, carrots and cauliflower, pickled vegetables in red- or white-wine vinegar. It is typically eaten as an antipasto, or with salads.
In Chicago, giardiniera is a condiment, typically used as a topping on Italian beef sandwiches.[1] Giardiniera is commonly made with serrano peppers and some combination of assorted vegetables, such as bell peppers, olives, celery, pimentos, carrots and cauliflower and sometimes crushed red pepper flakes, all marinated in vegetable oil, olive oil, soybean oil or any combination of the three oils." Good to know. This really did make the sandwich.

I liked it so much I came back that night and treated myself to The Italian Grinder. "Capicola, mortadella, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato on garlic hoagie. Wow. This was even better and the lettuce tasted like the tomatoes, right out of the garden in back. I do not know whether or not it was but the illusion was provided by their locavore garden. I took this one home, skipped the home made chips and once again knife and forked it. The italian dressing was great but very Wishbone-esque. It was all a messy, messy delight.

On saturday i closed out with Da Dip. Hot roast beef with debris onions, swiss cheese and tiger suce on crispy baguette. It too was outstanding as a carry out and traveled well back to my house. It was a good sandwich but i was slightly disappointed by the Tiger Sauce which i think of as a cajun sauce but from a little research on the web appears it can also be like a dill based white sauce. It was not bad, just was not what i expected. The bread again was outstanding. They really seem to pay attention to the bread.

I guess that is really the thing so far. Fozzies really pays attention to the details. I am told their Lamb Gyro is to die for and that will be my next attempt. They also have a "sweet side" which includes custom shakes with all sorts of ingredients like and toppings ranging from bananas and walnuts to granola and snickers. That will need to get a try as well. I would kill for a place like this downtown. try it now, before they screw it up and expand or get overwhelmed. They are a quality operation. Savor them, support them.

The Rooster: The Diner Review...Review

Sooooo... The Rooster. THIS IS NOT A DINER!

It has been open for over a year... maybe two and I have avoided it like.... well no offense but like cancer. It looked cool sitting there on Locust... it is the "re-emerging" area of downtown. If you believe that I have several hundred lofts I would like to sell you. Anyway I have avoided it because of the dreaded word...."creperie". Rhymes with drapery. Who thinks that these are good idea? Thin, egg pancake like things normally filled with fruit or cheese or something. Hate them.

But I love St. Louis and I love breakfast and I work downtown and well.... a guy has got to eat...right? The place is cool. It is all brick walls and cool art, lots of roosters, a mural... it is nice.If I could decorate a restaurant I would do it a lot like this. I hoit it one morning with my venerable dining companion Sal. Sal has the good sense to eat breakfast and we discuss the economy, people, God, current events, the law and anything else that comes up. This is normally over biscuits and gravy and sausage and other manly food, which he will liberally bathe in hot sauce.

But the Rooster... the Rooster is not a diner. It is a Creperie but they have enough things for the rest us..."people" to eat. They have "savory" crepes Mo. Made german Sausage, Marinated Chicken and Bree) and "sweet" crepes (S'more, Roasted Apple and Pumpkin Mousse). About 14 of each and they sounded pretty tasty. The rest of the menu includes things like "The Rooster Slinger with andoullie sausage, breakfast potatoes, fried eggs, sausage and gravy...good stuff. It is a pretty decent menu and I had some sausage and potatoes and toast and it was good. Sal had an excellent Crepe and bullied me into tasting his crepe. Verdict...good. They still have "breakfast potatoes" instead of hash browns but they do have brewed iced tea which makes it better.

The service was a little indifferent but we were there on a weekday. They were polite but we got there at opening time (7:00) and they were opening up, brewing coffee and the like. It is clearly a place for weekends.... even more odious it might be excellent for..."brunch". If I were staying downtown with my wife I would definitely crawl in there hung over. I believe they probably do a nice business on Saturday and Sunday. It is a cool little place and my guess is they would make a mean bloody mary. I would definitely recommend it for a nice breakfast or brunch but don't ever, ever think of it as a diner.



http://roosterstl.com/

Vacation VIII: A Very Tiemann Thanksgiving

Soooo... Thanksgiving is a very special Holiday for me. I have loved it for years for so many reasons. The things I love that immediately come to mind are as follows:

1. 4 Day Weekend
2. Great Food (I love turkey and stuffing)
3. Friends and family get together without gifts
4. Fall is in the air and you can light fires
5. I can still go into work (if I want to) and catch up on stuff
6. I can sleep late or get up and go to breakfast with friends
7. Great food
8. Awesome smells
9. I like hosting it at my house which means I can have anything I want, the way i want it.
10. Beer, wine or both are normally involved.

Seriously, it is my favorite holiday and it is really nice getting together with family without any pressure for gifts and the bull shit that seems to surround Christmas. So it was with some trepidation that I allowed myself to be lured out to California (Godless place) to spend Thanksgiving with the Tiemann family.

There is always a problem with spending holidays with other people. They do not know your own traditions (they do things wrong), they do not know exactly how to prepare the food (they screw it up) and they do not let you edit the guest-list (their friends and family are jerks). These were just a few of my concerns. Additionally since it was California and since the Tiemann’s are faux healthy people I was threatened with the specter of Tofu Turkey which might or might not make me kill myself. The idea of tofu shaped as a drumstick is particularly troubling for me but i will leave that for me and my long suffering analyst. I had steeled myself to just going with the flow but my friends are after all my friends and they went out of their way to cater to all my whims and lubricated me with several bottles of wine along the way.

Tim Tiemann and I have a complex relationship going back to freshman year when my room mate was a gay guy and his was kindly named by our floor (The Pube). We did not bond all that well at the time but after college he dated and married a nice St. Louis girl and since then have served a father/confessor roll for one another as we amble through life. the best thing about Tim in this setting is that he is his mother’s son and he is a pleaser and that means he wants everyone to be at home, comfortable and have a good time and with his wife and families help he can really get it done. A role model as a host.

Their family and our family, although our kids are older, seem to get along pretty well and we added another family with two girls and a girl from Pepperdine (who is just too nice). The turkey was incredible. Tim humored me with the proper Pepperidge Farm stuffing. Tim had Jon make a spinach and pomegranate salad that was to die for (showing Jon how to separate the seeds from the mush in a bowl of water since they float), there were mashed potatoes and green bean casseroles and 4 pies... and more wine. It was a feast.

And the great thing about a Cali Thanksgiving is that you can walk a block to the neighborhood pool and hot tub with the kids and sit there for an hour and then come back and light a fire in the fire pit and sit there for an hour. the kids then made s’mores (very camp like) and we all sat around and chatted. Since all the adults (accept for the nice girl from Pepperdine) were drunk, everyone spent the night and it ended up being a friends and family Thanksgiving that at worst rivaled what we were missing with my extended family at home (although my nephew did bring out his girlfriend and her parents and I missed it).

It was a great time and a great time to be thankful for all God’s gifts to me and knowing once again, and having it emphasized that my family friends are ALWAYS one of the greatest.