Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
Grace Meat & Three
Anyone who had eaten Rick Lewis’ food before Southern knew he was capable of far more than just serving up fried chicken and a few sandwiches (remember when he got a James Beard nomination for Quincy Street Bistro?), so when he announced he was going off on his own to open Grace Meat & Three, the food community exploded with glee.
Ricky hasn’t let us down. Grace is destined to become a St. Louis classic, joining the pantheon of places like Pappy’s, Crown Candy, Mai Lee, and so on. The menu has something for everyone, including vegetarians, healthy eaters, and the morbidly obese—plus a full bar.
My favorites so far: the fried chicken, obviously, the sweet and smoky pulled pork Wednesday special, the caveman-sized turkey leg, and what I would say are the best pork ribs in St. Louis (fight me).
Everything has been good, though. I can honestly say in my dozen plus visits to Grace, I haven’t been disappointed, and I don’t think you will be either. Trust your gut and trust Ricky.
Fried chicken livers
mostarda, pickled onions, herbs
Deviled eggs
country ham, everything spice, herbs
Bloody mary
turkey leg
sweet tea brine, herb sauce
Pork ribs
st. louis style Duroc pork ribs, raw sugar glaze, bread & butter pickles
Pulled pork
whiskey sauce, Alabama white BBQ sauce, crispy shallots
Assorted sides
mac & cheese, sweet potatoes, braised greens
Chicken Tenders
catfish sandwich
baby greens, green tomato relish, comeback sauce
Burger
beer cheese, onions, pickles, comeback sauce
Grilled Bologna Sandwich
pimento cheese, fried egg, mustard
Whole chicken
Roast beef
mushrooms, bone marrow gravy, crispy leeks
Peach & Chamomile Panna Cotta
St. Louis summer can be brutal. Oppressive humidity, days where it’s as hot as the desert, spiders. Sometimes I wonder why anyone decided to settle here.
On the other hand, we have some amazing summertime produce. Tomatoes, sweet corn, blackberries. I crush farmer’s markets all summer. And, when I’m feeling particularly outdoorsy, I’ll head over to Eckert’s in Belleville and pick my own.
The Eckert’s family has been growing peaches in the greater St. Louis area since 1837. They’ve got it down. They know what they’re doing. I picked one the other day that was literally the size of a softball. And by picked, I mean Chris Eckert handed it to me when we were out in the field.
“Pick Your Own Peach” season is in full swing, which is great news if you’ve got kids or you and your boo are looking for an out-of-the-box date. If you’re not so into picking fruit but you are into eating it, a day trip to the farm is still nice. They’ve got the country store, which is more like Eckert’s own Whole Foods, chock full of their amazing fruits and vegetables, local meat, wine, and a million jarred goods using their fruit. Peach butter? Strawberry salsa? HELLO.
I am not a pastry chef. In fact, I’m pretty terrible at making even the simplest of desserts. Ashley Rouch, however, is my opposite. She’s the pastry chef of Reeds American Table, and she’s created a dessert that is so good, it makes me feel guilty for all the mean things I’ve ever said about panna cotta. It’s a bit of work, but it’s going to blow you away. More photos follow the recipe.
Peach & Chamomile Panna Cotta
Peach & Chamomile Panna Cotta
YIELDS ROUGHLY 10 SMALL PANNA COTTAS
INGREDIENTS
CHAMOMILE POACHED PEACHES
2 cups white wine
2 cups sugar
¼ cup chamomile
¼ vanilla bean
1 strip lemon zest
9 small slightly unripe peaches, pitted and quartered
METHOD
Cut and make a cheesecloth sack (or buy from Amazon). Add the loose chamomile and tie shut. You don’t want to pick loose chamomile flowers from the poaching liquid, do you?
In a pot, combine the wine, 2 cups of water, sugar, chamomile, ¼ vanilla bean, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil.
Add the peaches to the pot, taking care not to crowd the pot. Reduce the heat to barely a simmer. Cut out a round piece of parchment paper (once again, Amazon to the rescue) and place it over the surface of the poaching liquid. Simmer until the peaches feel tender to the touch and are bright orange in color, about 7-10 minutes. (Remember: use slightly unripe peaches so they don’t turn to mush!)
Pour them into a container and put the container in an ice bath to cool. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
INGREDIENTS
CHAMOMILE HONEY PANNA COTTA
4 cups cream
40 g chamomile
2 cup milk
10.5 g powdered gelatin
½ cup honey
1 t vanilla extract
Chamomile Poached peaches
Pinch of Salt
METHOD
Grease and prepare your ramekins.
Heat the cream in a pot until simmering. Add the chamomile, turn off the heat, and let steep for 20 minutes. Strain the cream through a sieve, or cheesecloth, into a clean bowl, and set aside.
Pour the milk into a pot and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the top, but do not stir. Let the gelatin soften until the grains look wet and like they are beginning to dissolve (see the photo of the pot below—the top has developed a skin), about 10 minutes. After the gelatin has bloomed, warm the milk and gelatin over very low heat, whisking occasionally, until the gelatin dissolves, 3-5 minutes. Be careful not to let the mixture boil. Once the gelatin is dissolved turn off the heat.
Whisk in the honey, vanilla, and salt. Add the chamomile infused cream and whisk to combine. Put in an ice bath (or your fridge) until completely cool.
Spray the bottom of your ramekins with cooking spray. Portion into your ramekins.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
If you want to go for the full Reeds experience, reduce the peach poaching liquid down until it’s a thick syrup, almost like honey.
Run a pastry spatula down the sides, then turn the panna cottas over onto serving plates. Drizzle with the reduced syrup, toss some pistachios on top, then add the peaches.
This post is sponsored by Eckert’s.
Balkan Treat Box
Balkan Treat Box is the best food truck in St. Louis. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say the food coming out of this is more flavorful and exciting than the food you find at a lot of restaurants in town.
There are really two ways you can treat a food truck: you can use it as a mobile food delivery service (scoop-and-serve; you’re bringing pre-cooked food to people) or you can use it as a mobile restaurant, which is what owners Loryn and Edo Nalic do.
What you get when you order from their truck is truly freshly made as you wait. Well, besides the airy somun bread (pita’s Bosnian cousin), which is baked fresh in the truck’s goddamn wood-fired oven just before service.
The cevapi (che-va-pee) are like mini-sausages made of a simple mix of ground beef mixed with onion and garlic, finished on the goddamn wood-fired grill—yes, they have a grill and oven inside of their truck, and yes, it’s about 1,000 degrees in there during the summer. Don’t be deceived by the simplicity; I can’t stop eating this hamburger stick sandwich, served with kajmak (kind of like a cream cheese) and ajvar (a mildly spicy roasted red pepper relish).
For the döner kebab—one of the world’s great drunk foods—Loryn makes seasoned chicken thighs with aleppo, urfa, fresh herbs, sumac, and more before stacking them into a meat mountain and letting them slowly roast on a spit until their edges are crispy. The end result, a mix of crunchy, juicy chicken on somun with cabbage salad, lettuce, tomato, and a yogurt-based doner sauce, is one of the best sandwiches in town.
Now let’s talk about my two favorite things that Balkan makes: the pide (pee-day) and the lahmacun (la-ma-june).
Imagine a Turkish man making a calzone, but getting distracted in the middle. That’s the pide. It’s like an enormous boat filled with filled with seasoned meat, Turkish cheese, kajmak, and ajvar, and it’s also one of the world’s great drunk foods.
You probably won’t finish it in one seating unless you’re sharing or an impressive eater, but if you’re sharing this, you’re dumb. Make your friend/coworker/spouse/child order their own. Take your leftovers and eat them for breakfast the next day.
Side note: Once in a blue moon, Balkan Treat Box teams up with the Stellar Hog for The Stellar Pide, where they use chef Alex Cupp’s smoked brisket. It’s one of the best things I ate in 2017.
Finally, the lahmacun. This is almost as rare as The Stellar Pide, but I’m hoping this post and your vocal support will change things.
Loryn rolls out the somun dough until flattened, like a gigantic Bosnian tortilla, tops it with spiced ground lamb, then fires it in the oven. Once it’s cooked, it’s topped with lemon, parsley salad, cabbage, herbs, tomato, and the doner yogurt sauce, then rolled up (or not—your call…but get it rolled). I cannot accurately express to you how delicious it is, but I can tell you that when I bite into it, this is what I hear.
Hunt down Balkan Treat Box. Give them your money. Help them open a restaurant. Make St. Louis a better place. Thank you.
SOmun Bread
Cevapi
somun bread, onion, spicy pepper, cabbage salad
Chicken Doner
On the spit
Chicken Doner
Served as a sandwich
Beef pide
