Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.

Spencer 9/21/15 Spencer 9/21/15

Farmhaus

Even I make mistakes sometimes. Earlier this summer, I had a fantastic dinner at Farmhaus. I came ready, camera in hand. As the Vietnamese chicken wings hit the table, I picked up my Nikon D750, got into position, then...nothing. For the first time in my food blogging career, I forgot to put the battery in my camera. Embarrassing.

Not one to make the same mistake twice (except for all the times I've done that), I triple checked my camera before last week's trip to Farmhaus. Battery, memory cards, lens: it was all there.

Not documenting a meal at Farmhaus is a shame. Farm-to-table dining has grown in St. Louis, but nowhere makes me feel that more than Farmhaus. Their relatively simple menu changes with what's in season or what chef Willmann caught on his fishing trip.

Places like Niche and Sidney Street are also using seasonal ingredients, of course, but the food at Farmhaus has a more casual, homey feel to it. This includes the staples; you'll always find the bacon-wrapped meatloaf and "breakfast", but the dish components are different every time (I still look back lovingly at the time they had blood sausage with their Breakfast plate).

Their roasted Ozark Forest mushroom salad is a must-order for us. The thing has huge hunks of Baetje Farms' mild goat cheese, toasted pecans, roasted mushrooms, and a warm bacon vinaigrette. Fucking up a salad with those ingredients—especially a bacon vinaigrette!—would be hard.

It seems that we came on a day where chef Kevin Willmann and his team had just gotten a big shipment of a blue crabs in, seeing as 3 of the apps had them in them. Our flight of crab started with blistered shishito peppers and crab claws, topped with katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and a citrusy ponzu sauce. I never had anything quite like this in Japan, but I could totally see it being served at a bar in Tohoku.

I can't believe I've never had fried crab claws before. The so-called "crab cocktail fingers" were lightly battered and served with a citrusy yuzu mayo. I'm totally stealing this idea.

The "West Indies", a dish composed of lump crab meat, compressed watermelon, corn, jalapeños, and lime was my least favorite of the whole meal. I love simplicity, like the fried claws, but this just didn't have any strong flavors to it. It reminded me of something I'd make with leftovers after a crab boil.

I'm fairly certain the porchetta bao have been on the Farmhaus menu in one form or another for quite some time, but I'd never had them before. Time to change that! It was like eating a corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich at a non-Kosher Asian deli.

The guy at the table next to us didn't like his. I wish he'd given them to me.

Even though Farmhaus has a number of meat options, I always, always go for their fish entrees. They've just got 'the touch' with seafood. The meaty Gulf red grouper was grilled beautifully, served with a local vegetable succotash and spoonbread (I would happily eat a plate of just Farmhaus spoonbread). The sauce was a preserved tomato creme, which paired perfectly the fish and veg.

Farmhaus' pastry chef, Sarah Mispagel, killed it with her sweet corn cake dessert. Growing up, we'd often have cornbread with dinner, which I would smother with blackberry jelly and/or honey. This is essentially that, made into a fancy little dessert with blackberry ice cream and sunflower seed streusel. There was nothing left.

Every time I eat at Farmhaus, I think to myself, "I should eat here more often." That sentiment still stands.

Spencer 8/19/15 Spencer 8/19/15

2am:dessertbar

The "World's 50 Best" awards are a bit of a sham, but seeing that Singaporean Janice Wong had won Best Pastry Chef in 2013 & 2014 had me intrigued. Her restaurant, 2am:dessertbar, is tucked away behind and above a bar in Holland Village. Known for their beautiful, inventive, and delicious desserts, I decided it was something I shouldn't pass up. 2am opens at 3pm and closes at 2am, making it a fun late night stop for a cocktail and treat. Patricia and I opted to go at 4pm on a weekday because we're just that wild.

From the restaurant's website, I thought it was going to be dark and moody, with spotlights aiming down at the table, creating an air of theater and mystery. Instead, it was like pretty much any other restaurant. Even the music seemed slightly off; I had imagined the kind of music you might hear at a W Hotel would be playing, all helping to create a very cool experience.

With only two other tables taken when we arrived, we had our choice of seats. We ended up at the bar, right where the wall curve upwards.

Reviews of 2am constantly reference terrible service and I will wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. The waiter did everything he could to avoid us, and when we finally got him at our table, it seemed like every request was a chore. I think if we had asked for one more thing (god forbid we want some water), his reaction would have been like this.

Service and ambiance aside, we decided we'd get three desserts to split. Aggravatingly, all three were brought out at the same time. If we had ordered two desserts, for one person, I can understand that; but you would think that when two people order three desserts, that they would space it or at least give us a heads up—especially when each dessert has parts that will melt. Instead of a leisurely mid-day meal, we had to scarf down all three desserts in a hurry so we could actually taste them.

The first dessert was [symple_highlight color="blue"]Purple[/symple_highlight]: purple potato puree, blackberry parfait, fruit leather, lavender marshmallows, fruits of the forest sorbet. It seems like a waste to put so much work into so many elements when it all ends up tasting the same. As the dish melted (very quickly), we both agreed that it all just sort of tasted like a berry sorbet. We tasted no lavender and no purple potato.

2am dessert bar purple desserts singapore

The [symple_highlight color="blue"]Hojicha Sesame[/symple_highlight] was the highlight of the desserts, namely because of the tofu parfait and hojicha custard. The tofu was dense and creamy, and when paired with the smoky hojicha, it was perfect. The dish should have focused on that and only that.

The right side of the plate had a pear vodka sorbet, what tasted like ginger jellies, and a mushroom crumble. I don't even understand this side of the plate. I didn't think the flavors added anything to the idea of hojicha and sesame, nor did I think they were particularly good. Not only that, but the crumble itself was chewy and stale. The left side of the plate was the best of the day; the right side was the worst.

2am dessert bar hojicha sesame singapore

2am dessert bar hojicha sesame dessert singapore

2am dessert bar hojicha sesame tofu singapore

Our final dessert was [symple_highlight color="blue"]Popcorn[/symple_highlight], a mix of sweet and salty with a very, very tart passionfruit sorbet. Ignoring the stale popcorn (I still don't know if we were supposed to eat it or not—we asked the waiter and he just kind of raised his eyebrows at us), this dish didn't work composed as it was. You had to smash it all up into a mess, melding the flavors together to get it to work.

It did nothing for me. It didn't evoke the taste of popcorn. All it did was taste like salty passionfruit.

2am dessert bar popcorn dessert singapore

2am dessert bar popcorn passionfruit dessert singapore

Like many other people who have gone to 2am:dessertbar, I was hugely disappointed. The desserts are beautiful and complex, but all that work is wasted when it doesn't taste good. It's sort of like this famous Miss America contestant: she looks good, but that's about it. I thought this would be a no-brainer entry into my Best Desserts of 2015 list, but it won't be appearing there. Perhaps the 2am team should take notes from Bob Zugmaier and Sarah Blue about how to make a dessert that's both beautiful and delicious.

Spencer 8/13/15 Spencer 8/13/15

The Glory of Singapore Malls

The great American shopping mall is my personal hell. I went - out of necessity, not having time to order from Amazon - just before leaving for Singapore, arriving at exactly 10 am, aiming to avoid all human contact. Regrettably, it was full of fannypacked mall walkers, leaving me dodging the elderly left and right. I will never return. The typical Singaporean mall, on the other hand, is where I spent most of my time when I wasn't sleeping or working. Why? Well, when you're in a tiny country and not the urban sprawl, you don't have the luxury of space. You're limited horizontally, but not vertically. Your typical mall dives three or four stories below ground, with the bottom levels linked to the next closest mall or metro station. With everything connected, you rarely have to go out into the blazing heat to get from place to place.

The middle floors will be your typical stores, then the top will be either residential, a hotel, or office space. My apartment there was literally connected to the mall. From our pool deck, I looked into the restaurants and coffee shops. Think about all those lucky Starbucks customers who got to watch me sunbathe.

Speaking of restaurants and coffee shops: the malls are where you go to eat. There are, of course, tons of street-side restaurants throughout the country, but as new malls pop up monthly, the restaurants move inside. The biggest differentiation between U.S. mall restaurants and Singapore's is that their target clientele aren't mouthbreathers who think Cheesecake Factory is the greatest restaurant ever.

Seeing as I was living both above and next to a number of malls, it was only fitting I'd start my day there. Perhaps with Ya Kun's [symple_highlight color="blue"]kaya toast with peanuts[/symple_highlight] and a [symple_highlight color="blue"]kopi peng[/symple_highlight], the breakfast of fat champions. Kaya is this wonderful egg, coconut, and sugar spread that's sure to give you diabetes, and Kopi is the buttery Singaporean coffee, typically mixed with condensed milk, sure to give you diabetes.

Other healthy options include a wide range of donuts from J. Co, including Patricia's favorite, the [symple_highlight color="blue"]Avocado di Caprio[/symple_highlight]. Avocado glaze, avocado cream filling, chocolate flakes around the rim. Solid donut choice, right there.

Not a huge donut fan myself, I preferred to stop by Breadtalk and peruse. You get a tray and tongs, then you can just go crazy and grab all the breads you want!

Moving on from coffee shops and bakeries, you'll find a lot of small stalls that focus on one or two things. I'm a total slut for Japanese [symple_highlight color="blue"]takoyaki[/symple_highlight], so I'll usually hit up Gindaco once or twice. Takoyaki are molten balls of what is basically pancake dough, filled with octopus, green onion, crispy stuff, and who cares, just eat it. It's topped with a BBQ sauce, Japanese mayo, and bonito flakes. The temptation to eat it right away is strong, but if you do, you will burn your goddamn tongue off. TRUST ME.

Can't get enough balls? You could get the Hong Kong Egglet waffle from Far East Plaza for dessert.

Mall restaurants vary in size, with some seating 30 or so people, like Nam Nam Noodle Bar. Contrary to what the name would tell you, skip the noodles and get the bahn mi. You choose the meat (braised beef, caramelized pork belly, tofu, grilled chicken, chicken meatballs, lemongrass pork), then it's piled into a toasty baguette filled with chicken pate, cilantro, chilies, mayo, pickled carrots, daikon, and cucumber. If they would replace their bread with a better version, this would probably be the best bahn mi I've had.

Sick of East Asian food? No problem. Try Pita Pan, a Middle Eastern build-your-own pita shop. The setup is like Subway, except the food has mountains of flavor and they don't hire overweight pedophiles as their spokespeople (I don't think...). Speaking of Subway, all your favorite American chains are there: Kenny Roger's Roasters, KFC, McDonalds, etc. McDonalds Singapore has something called the McSpicy that packs enough heat to burn like the sun going in and out. A fitting punishment for eating McDonalds while in Singapore.

Something no one is making in St. Louis (and not even in the US, really) is Japanese curry. Most people think that the Japanese sit around eating dainty bites of sushi while drinking green tea. Wrong. They're at CoCo Ichibanya eating plates of curry the size of a small child. Just look at that pork katsu cutlet! And how about those shrimp? I'm getting hungry.

Maybe curry rice isn't your thing. Maybe [symple_highlight color="blue"]curry udon[/symple_highlight] from Tsuru-Koshi fits your needs better.

One of my all-time favorite spots to grab a meal in Singapore is at 4Fingers Fried Chicken. Korean style fried chicken brushed with either soy-garlic sauce or a fiery hot sauce with your choice of seaweed or kimchi fries. This chicken has megacrunch and great flavor. The gargantuan sandwich you see at the bottom has become my new go-to.

Finally, we have the food courts. Cheap eats cooked to order. I ate at the 313@Somerset FoodRepublic 3 or so times a week for nearly 2 years and didn't even get to try most of the stuff there.

A couple recommendations:

Popiah: it's a Singaporean vegetarian spring roll filled with all sorts of stuff. Crunchy stuff, soft stuff. Get it with chili.
Ayam Panggang, aka Indonesian Grilled Chicken: Holy sweet mother of God, this is it. This is my favorite of all the food court foods. You get grilled chicken topped with a sweet, thick black sauce, a mountain of rice, and an omelette. Then...the curry. I don't know what it is about this curry, but I'm 100% addicted to it. The woman at Indonesian Riverside BBQ in 313@Somerset knew me as "curry guy" 'cause I always wanted extra.
Roti Prata: Thin Indian bread that you can get plain or filled, served with a side of curry. Simple, fatty, wonderful.

If you ever make your way over, don't skip out on the malls: there are plenty of gems in there for you to eat.

Spencer 6/22/15 Spencer 6/22/15

Chris Bailey's Thieves in the Night

If I were a man of wealth and fame, I would bestow the honor of being my personal chef onto Chris Bailey. You may recall when he came to St. Louis in late 2014 as the harbinger of Dinner Lab. His modern interpretations of East Asian cuisine resonated with me deeply - I remember thinking to myself that this is the kind of food I want to eat everyday. The flavors were bold, the plating was elegant, and the creativity kept things interesting throughout the meal. What stood out the most to me was this sense that through the food, I was gaining an understanding of Chris' personality. There was a clear, singular vision to the meal that left me wanting more. Chris and I kept in touch after his Dinner Lab and when he asked me about returning to St. Louis a few months ago, I pointed him in the direction of Hammer & Hand's Silk Rodeo series. Conversations were had, decisions were made, and Chris Bailey made his grand return to St. Louis to present his "Thieves In The Night" dinner.

Not to put St. Louis down, but I was surprised that Chris wanted to come back here. The guy splits his time between Hawaii and Portland, Oregon. Why come back to St. Louis?

I spent so little time in the Midwest in general—I grew up in Hawaii and lived in Portland, Oregon—that it was refreshing to be in a city like St. Louis. And I’ve had really great conversations with industry folks here. It’s great to see that shared passion to keep pushing food and drink into the national conversation. There were so many places I had yet to experience that I knew I wanted to come back to St Louis at least once before I returned to Hawaii to focus on the next phase of my career.

I asked Chris what the best thing he'd eaten in St. Louis had been, even though I knew the answer.

Fork and Stix’s khao soi. Hands down. I have yet to try Imo’s pizza; I feel like I’m missing out on a cultural experience.

Seating at Chris Bailey's Hammer & Hand Dinner

Tables at Chris Bailey's Hammer & Hand Dinner

Menu at Chris Bailey's Hammer & Hand Dinner

Rather than do the usual style of write up, I've asked Chris to breakdown the inspiration for each of his courses. Chris obliged, partially because he's a nice guy, and partially because I told him if he didn't, I'd tell everyone he was a garbage chef serving up garbage food. I'm like the Tony Soprano of food bloggers.

First Course: Wakame cured snapper | miso/strawberries | shaved bottarga

Every gathering we hosted in Hawaii had a sashimi tray. No questions asked. It was the centerpiece to the table, the first thing you’d notice walking in. I wanted to start this meal in similar fashion, offering something simple that said: “Welcome. Now get ready to eat.”

Second Course: Chilled broccolini | smoked yogurt | ikura | licorice root ponzu | everything bagel seasoning

Pairing vegetables with unexpected flavors is something I’ve long been fond of. Broccolini was a fun canvas to work with. I steeped ponzu with licorice root to extract those great anise-y flavors. The broccolini was then topped with dollops of smoked yogurt with cardamom, and a mix of seeds, onion and garlic flake for crunch. Then salmon roe to finish; I absolutely love that oceanic burst. It’s the kind of dish you need to swirl together until it’s an ugly mess for maximum effect.

Chef Chris Bailey's Broccolini and Ikura

Third Course: Shrimp fat curry | puff | whipped coconut milk

I love including a curry course in my menus. My mother often ate her curries with petai (stinky) beans, whole prawns and a fat piece of frybread she’d pick up from Honolulu’s Chinatown that morning.

This version was as much homage to that dish as it was a nod to the Dinner Lab I did in St. Louis last September, which featured a milder version of this dish. Here I fried the curry paste with oil infused with shrimp shells. The shrimp meat was poached in clarified butter then tossed into the curry with fresh beans. There was a hunk of fried puff pastry to sop up all the sauce.

Fourth Course: Pork jowl | chicken fat rice | jaew sauce | cilantro/peanut

I wanted a dish that was unabashedly meat: rich, unctuous and rustic. For the September Dinner Lab we served a whole trout stuffed with pork sausage dressed with Golden Mountain sauce. Similar line of thinking here: pork jowls were marinated in fermented black bean and onion paste and cooked sous vide for 24 hours. We seared off slabs of it and served it with tamarind-heavy sauce, a cilantro and peanut relish and shared bowl of chicken fat rice. Definitely not light fare.

Dessert: Khanom mor gang | bird chile ice cream | white peach

I’ve been on a parfait kick lately. I’ve seen them around Tokyo and Hawaii. There’s a great place in Seattle called Trove that has a walk-up counter serving them. There’s something satisfying about digging through the different strata, getting different flavors and textures with every spoonful.

The base of the dish is coconut custard thickened with mung bean. Atop that was an anise sable crumble followed by macerated white peach. It’s finished with a pandan and Thai chile ice cream for a lingering heat. It’s basically Thailand in a cup.

Editor's Note: This is the 2nd best dessert I had this year. Or maybe the 1st. Time will tell.

While there were elements I liked more than others (the pork jowl was far too fatty for me), the meal reaffirmed my belief that Chris is a master of curries and desserts. His curries manage to have this extra umph - this deep flavor you can't place. The desserts he's made sound simple - an ice cream sandwich and a parfait - but he's balancing a lot of unique flavors at once. Mung bean, bird's eye chiles, and white peaches? Black sesame, coconut kaya jam, candied cilantro? That's some Chopped level shit. Let's hope he makes his way back to St. Louis again.

Hammer and Hand Imports

2714 Lafayette Ave

St. Louis, MO 63104

(314) 932-1313

Spencer 6/18/15 Spencer 6/18/15

Sidney Street Cafe

Let's be real: there are heaps of good-to-great restaurants in St. Louis, but two stand at the top - Gerard Craft's Niche and Kevin Nashan's Sidney Street Cafe. You can argue, but you'd be wrong. If you're looking to impress, seduce, congratulate, or wallow in self pity, these are the places to do it. The dinner you see below was of the congratulatory kind - a dinner to celebrate me! I decided to leave the corporate world and make Whiskey and Soba my full-time job. I have total faith in both Nashan (and Craft), so I'm willing to be more experimental in my ordering at their restaurants. I typically avoid sweetbreads (thymus gland), but Sidney Street found one of my weaknesses: the Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich.

Sidney Street's version put smoked then fried sweetbreads over a sourdough griddle cake, then thinly sliced jalapeños, radishes, cucumber, fermented daikon, and a dill aioli on top. A few springs of cilantro - a bahn mi necessity - made their way on at the end. The sweetbreads were crunchy and delicate, a surprisingly fitting substitution for the typical sliced pork and pork pate. The crunch and smoke gave a meaty element, while the texture inside had that pate-like softness.

The veal dumplings are a menu staple, one that I thought I remembered eating long ago and not caring for. Wrong. These little dumplings pack a punch of flavor mostly thanks to their teriyaki and honey glaze, but the cilantro salsa on top gives it a bright freshness that makes it pop. With each entree comes a soup or salad, and each evening there's a special salad option. My dad opted for the special, which had pickled rhubarb and a chimichurri dressing. I only got a small bite, but the dressing was the herbaceous explosion one would expect from a chimichurri.

How the hell is a chilled pea and mint soup so good? Someone tell me? I feel like people are going to think I'm lying when I say this soup was flat out amazing (or they'll accuse me of secretly working for Nashan, as someone did previously), but I promise you I'm not.

My dad went the healthy route for his entree, ordering steamed halibut over asparagus and a lemon nage, topped with a halibut chicharron salad. Five balls of dirty farro with crawfish lined the plate. The way he hesitantly gave me only a tiny bite of just fish - no asparagus, no farro, no chicarrons - made me think he enjoyed his meal.

I was fortunate enough to get their lamb Wellington, just days before it was removed from the menu. It's a perfect example of Sidney Street taking a classic dish - Beef Wellington - and playfully spinning it into something beautiful and different.

Lamb loin topped with herbs and wrapped in puff pastry is the dish's focal point, flanked by crispy lamb sweetbreads, creamed nettles, and a few drops of some kind of intense lemon puree. The little cauldron on the right side of the dish is a Merguez meatball ragout, a dish so good that I'm salivating just thinking about it again. It's cheesy, it's meaty, it's spicy; it should be an appetizer of its own.

If I went back again tonight, I'd get the grilled quail. The tiny, adorable bird is grilled and served over harissa tossed papas bravas (fried potatoes), charred carrots, and chimichurri. It's a perfect dish for summer with its smoke and char flavors. Oh, vanilla ice cream and a chocolate chip cookie! Wrong. That ice cream is popcorn flavored, and unlike most popcorn ice creams I've had, it doesn't taste like movie theater butter/a popcorn Jelly Belly. It tastes like creamy, delicious popcorn. Get it.Dessert of the year so far for me right here, folks. I typically detest deconstructed dishes. I don't want to order tiramisu only to receive a plate of Dippin' Dots. But this...this was something special. A crumbled piece of moist, wonderful carrot cake is served with shards of crispy ginger meringue, dabs of passion fruit gel, black currants, cheesecake puree (a "holy shit" delicious ingredient), and a carrot-passion fruit sorbet.

Pastry chef Bob Zugmaier and his crew looked at what the rest of the kitchen was doing with entrees and apps, said "let's show them what we can", then dropped the mic with this.

Sidney Street Cafe

2000 Sidney St

St. Louis, MO 63104

314.771.5777

Spencer 5/4/15 Spencer 5/4/15

Five Bistro

Five Bistro has closed.

I'd never given much thought about chef Anthony Devoti's Five Bistro before seeing it ranked at #11 on Ian Froeb's The 100 Best Restaurants in St. Louis list. It's a place I haven't heard much about since returning here and based on its location on The Hill, I made an assumption that it was just another Italian restaurant (i.e., boring 'classic' Italian food). It turns out that it's a new American bistro with a menu that changes daily based on what's in season and available from local farmers, so I was pretty far off on that one. It has a very neighborhood-restaurant vibe to it, if that makes sense. It's the kind of restaurant that floats between being good for a casual dinner or something fancier, like a date or anniversary. It's probably a little too bright and friendly to meet a Tinder 'date' at, though.

The menu reflects the neighborhood feeling. Starters lie mostly in the pasta family, with gnocchi, tagliatelle, and risotto serving as bases, along with a soup, a salad and a charcuterie board (which I did not have, but I have heard is stellar). Looking at both current and past menus, what's noticeable to me is that their dishes all sound like a restaurant version of what you would make at home. It's comfort food, in that sense.

After going through the menu and placing our orders, our waitress - who was friendly, attentive, and great with recommending and describing dishes - brought us a small amuse-bouche of Goat Cheese and Salmon over a crostini.

We tried two cocktails: the Hot & Dirty and the Ginger Daiquiri. The Hot & Dirty reminded me of something I made in college when my friends and I thought we were mixologists.

The ginger daiquiri was delicious with Diplomático añejo dark rum, The Big O ginger liqueur, fresh lime, raw sugar, Bittermans boston bittahs. I'm not sure you'd ever see Don Draper drinking it, but I liked it.

The soup du jour - that sounds good, I'll have that - was butternut squash mixed with a J.T. Gelineau oyster mushroom salad and creme fraiche. We all agreed that even though the amount of mushroom in the dish was relatively small, the flavor was just as potent as the squash itself.

An off the menu special for the evening was a salmon tartare with aioli and crackers. A simple dish that let the salmon shine.

Just looking at this next picture is making me hungry. Chef Devoti's spring onion gnocchi with housecured lardo, ozark morels, ramps, olive oil, black pepper, and Beehive Cheese's honey-rubbed Seahive was the best dish of the night. I would return solely for this dish.

This is early spring Missouri on a plate. If someone told me to take one dish from The Hill that represented spring and the area it came from, it would be this. Pillowy soft gnocchi, the light smoke of the lardo, and the smooth cheese all served to push the subtle flavors of the ramps and morels to the top.

Before I even tried the Benne's Farm hickory roasted pork loin, I took a big forkful of the creamy polenta and gravy alone. Something amazing happens when you take any sort of corn-based 'porridge' and mix it with a meat gravy. The pork itself was cooked well, accompanied by hen of the woods mushrooms, spring onions, and a herb butter. Oh baby.

The Benne's Farm chicken breast is an example of what I said before about this being a restaurant quality version of what you make at home. Substitute your dried out skinless chicken breast and Trader Joes bag o' vegetables for a perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken breast, local squash, spinach, sweet potatoes, and you've got this. Our last entree was Halibutfrom Neah Bay, Washington, served over sorrel, rutabaga, red new potatoes, fiddlehead ferns, and topped with a ramp and lime vinaigrette. I thought it could have used a little more "umph" - I didn't have a gravy and polenta reaction. I have no pictures of our dessert due to a camera issue, but we tried their Apple Sorbet and cherry/pistachio biscotti, as well as their Peanut crunch ice cream bombe, served with peanut brittle, creme anglaise, and candied peanuts. Both were good, one was better. Can you guess which? Hint: it's the one with all the sugar and cream.

We all enjoyed our meal at Five Bistro, and if we lived nearby, it's probably somewhere we'd eat at fairly frequently. While my palate trends toward modern and ethnic foods, I have a lot of respect for chef Devoti for his focus on taking local produce and crafting well cooked meals out of them. We could use more restaurants with that kind of dedication around town.

Five Bistro

5100 Daggett Ave

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 773-5553

Spencer 3/30/15 Spencer 3/30/15

Aya Sofia

I've been trying to break away from ordering my favorite menu items at restaurants I've previously visited, partially so I can make revisit posts here and partially to continue expanding my elitist foodie palate.

Aya Sofia remains my favorite Turkish restaurant in town with good reason. On my most recent visit with some Fair Isle sweater wearing friends, we got only things I'd never had before. Things kicked off with the [symple_highlight color="blue"]Borek[/symple_highlight], a spinach and feta cheese pie baked in filo dough. I was surprised when it was dropped off at the table - it didn't look like the filo dough hot pocket I've always associated with a borek. I did some quick Googling and found that what I'm familiar with are the Israeli bourekas. The Turkish variety is flavored more like a Greek spanakopita but composed like an Italian lasagna, with layers of cheese, spinach and filo.

I thought that it was a good dish, but probably wouldn't order it again in the future with some of the options available. None of the flavors are particularly assertive, plus I'm just not a huge fan of feta.

Our other starter was the - I would definitely order this again. The dip, served with a seemingly infinite amount of fresh pita bread, is a creamy yogurt blended with garlic, dill, mint and pecans. It's a simple meze with a tangy, fresh flavor that is a lot like tzatziki upgraded. The addition of the nuts is what sets it apart. If you're into dips, which you are, I recommend getting this, the Biber Ezme and their Saksuka.

I can't avoid red meat at Aya Sofia. There's something about the blend of lamb, beef and Turkish spices that sets me off into this primal, meat devouring state. My typical order is the Adana Kebab, a long spear of spicy, charred meat, but this time I decided to go with the Kofte. Heavily spiced lamb and beef meatballs, bursting with cumin, coriander, chili powder, are chargrilled and served with a cool yogurt sauce, rice, veggies, and by my request, their sumac & onion salad.

These meatballs are great. I have been debating since this meal if I actually like them more than the Adana kebab, and I think that answer is yes. Without the tastebud searing spice of the Adana, you can really appreciate the meat and the nuances of the other spices. My only complaint is that they aren't grilled on a sword.

We were all pretty damn stuffed by the time dessert came around, but we decided to persevere and try the Baklava. A lot of reviews online rave about it, but it didn't do anything for us, unfortunately. I find the Greek version with walnuts and honey to be a lot more enjoyable than the Turkish version with pistachios and sugar syrup - none of us have big sweet tooths, so the syrup was just too much sweetness.

Even with the baklava miss, I still love this place. If you're really hankering for a dessert and none of their options appeal to you, remember that it's just down the street from Ted Drewes...

Aya Sofia

6671 Chippewa St

St. Louis, MO 63109

314.645.9919

Spencer 3/18/15 Spencer 3/18/15

Brasserie by Niche

Maybe I'm lying to myself when I say I don't like French food. Every time I eat at Brasserie by Niche, I end up with enough food to choke a horse. As usual, it was packed on the Friday I went.

I was feeling particularly indecisive that night, so rather than make any tough decisions, I just got it all. First up were the classic Burgundy Escargot, swimming in little pools of herbs, garlic, and butter. Thinking with my tongue and not with my brain, I dove straight into these bad boys. There go the taste buds - these things were still hot as hell! Not one to be defeated by stupid little snails, our table still managed to decimate these.

Hidden away to the right are the gougeres, little poofs of cheese bread. I stand by my previous statement that Gerard Craft is the master of cheese breads.

Organ meats - liver in particular - are typically not my favorite due to their minerally flavor. However, if you think wayyyy back to my first Niche post, you'll see that I raved about a play on Peanut Butter & Jelly using chicken terrine. The Brasserie Chicken Liver Terrine is that terrine! I didn't even know! That ramekin left the table clean as a whistle.

Now onto our fourth appetizer (stop judging!), the Steak Tartare. We finished this baby off, too. The meat had a good amount of capers mixed in, giving it a nice salty punch.

Full yet? We weren't. It's entree time!

To share, we got the Moules a la Normande, mussels cooked in a broth with country ham, cider, leeks, garlic, and creme fraiche. I wasn't keen on ordering these (mussels are mussels are mussels, right?), but lo and behold, these are now my favorite mussels in town. They're smokey from the ham and sweet from the cider, giving them a different flavor profile than most places. I drank that broth like it was soup.

My main was...vegetarian? Yep, I went meatless. I picked the MASSIVE Roasted Vegetable Tart. Lentils, cauliflower puree, caramelized onions, and all sorts of other veggies were piled high and cooked spectacularly. This was my dish of the night. The different vegetables and cooking styles gave it all sorts of textures and a deep, complex flavor.

Roasted Vegetable Tart at Brasserie Niche

This is not a great shot, but it's just there to reiterate that Brasserie's roasted chicken is great.

The final entree was the Trout with fingerling potatoes, lemon, brown butter, capers, and parsley. It's a solid, healthy dish.

At this point in the evening, it felt like death was near. Clothing was tighter. Breathing was labored. I was sweating butter. I thought the evening's eating marathon was over, but Brasserie's great manager, Jen, and chef Nick Blue disagreed. Out came a chocolate mousse and the floating island. A few bites in and I passed out on the table.

Another successful meal at Brasserie completed.

Brasserie by Niche

4580 Laclede Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63108

314.454.0600

Spencer 2/26/15 Spencer 2/26/15

Dinner Lab: Nini Nguyen

This is a big post, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. If you stick with it until the end, I've got my first video and my first promotion.

Since my girlfriend was not in town this past Valentine's Day, I decided to spend the evening at Dinner Lab's How to Nguyen at Lovewith chef Nini Nguyen. Nguyen's pedigree includes working at Sucre and Coquette in New Orleans, followed by Three Michelin Star (!) Eleven Madison Park in NYC. She's a pastry chef by trade, but as you'll see, she's an all around badass in the kitchen.

The meal took place at NHB Knife Works, a factory just behind Civil Life Brewery churning out handmade artisan knives with stunningly beautiful handles, as you can see below.

In typical Dinner Lab fashion, Nini and her team cooked out in the open so the diners could watch.

Plating at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

The meal, in her own words, was supposed to feel classy and heartfelt, a series of romantic dishes meant to be enjoyed with your loved one. Or, in my case, your camera. Her first course was [symple_highlight color="blue"]The Egg[/symple_highlight], highlighting the 5-minute soft boiled egg. A half moon of whipped homemade creme fraiche served as a creamy base, countered by "grainola", a crunchy mixed of puffed rice, quinoa, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, shallots and garlic. A sexy, savory take on granola that left us all wondering where this subtle garlic taste was coming from. Pickled onions and toasted brioche were added and, finally, a dollop of caviar.

Egg Dish at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Cracked Egg at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Egg Prep at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Nini's second course may have been the healthiest I've ever had at a Dinner Lab. It looked like it was just a mound of vegetables, but the taste was anything but plain. In her take on a Coquette dish, Nini makes a raw cashew puree and dots it with her nicoise olive brittle - something I know I've never had before. She dehydrates, candies, then crumbles olives, turning them into what I would call an olive candy. Incredibly creative and equally delicious. The mixed vegetables are blanched in salt water then dressed with a very tart meyer lemon vinaigrette. Wonderfully balanced dish.

Veggie Prep at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Veggie Salad at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

The main course for the evening was [symple_highlight color="blue"]"Honey and Spice"[/symple_highlight], an ode to Nini's love of pork and the mix of sweet and savory. Perfectly cooked honey glazed pork loin was topped with a somewhat bitter coffee crumble (another favorite of mine from the evening) that made the main really pop. It was accompanied by a creamy squash "ravioli", but who cares when you've got a giant piece of pork?!

Pork Prep at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Me and this next course? Love at first sight. I knew I would like it before I even tasted it. Nini's [symple_highlight color="blue"]Hot Triple Cream[/symple_highlight] started with her making sheets of puff pastry and baking them in cupcake tins, something I've never thought about doing. She followed that up with whipping the brie and piping it into the pastry, then reheating the cheese grenade, making this a handheld and absolutely amazing version of brie en croute. I'd put it up there with Gerard Craft's gougères and Dia's cheese bread as far as baked cheesy puffs go.

While I would have happily eaten that by itself, she wasn't done. Honey was drizzled over the puff pastries when ready to serve and served with toasted baguette, candied black walnuts, and a caramelized onion mostarda.

Cheese Course at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Cheese and Toast at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

The evening's grand finale was Nini's vision to create a dish with the beauty of white chocolate and strawberries without actually using white chocolate. I imagine that if this dish was plated on a stark white or black plate, it would look stunning. She made (white) meringue tubes that were filled with a sumptuous dark chocolate cremeaux, which I thought was brilliant.

Accompanying the chocolate tube were freshly chopped strawberries and an ice cream made from steeping cocoa nibs in milk and cream, allowing it to keep its white color.

Dessert Prep at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Dessert at Nini Nguyen's St. Louis Dinner

Dinner Lab has been 3/3 with out of town chefs so far, in my mind. We've had modern Asian food from Chris Bailey, upscale Mexican from Danny Espinoza, and now this sexy/romantic meal from Nini Nguyen.

I've had a lot of questions asked about what Dinner Lab is like, is it worth the subscription, etc. Because of all the questions, Dinner Lab has been kind enough to offer a promotion available exclusively through Whiskey and Soba. If you use this link, you can buy tickets to their upcoming "CLASH OF THE CRAWFISH", Saturday, March 14th at 2pm, without being a member. It's $35 per person and is a great opportunity to meet the Dinner Lab crew and see how fun their events are. Check it out! You won't regret it.

Spencer 10/7/14 Spencer 10/7/14

Recipe: Chili

I feel like I failed you last week with my cornbread recipe. You undoubtedly ran to your kitchen upon reading it, made yourself a loaf, then realized you had nothing to eat it with. Perhaps you tried pairing it with some roasted chicken or a hamburger, but it just didn't feel right. I have the solution for you, friends. This may appear to be your run of the mill chili, but it's not. It's the best basic chili recipe I've come across. It's not too spicy, not too tomatoey, just the right amount of meat and beans. People like chili for the same reason they like yoga instructors: they're both hot and flexible. You can modify chili based on what you've got in your fridge or pantry at any given time, which I did. For the recipe below, I swapped out one can of red kidney beans for white beans. Because I am a wild man, I used 1 pound of ground beef, 1/2 pound of ground chorizo chicken and 1/2 pound of ground lamb. The lamb's flavor was a bit stronger than I'd prefer in a chili, but it was still better than whatever chili you're making now.

Just a few weeks ago, I judged a chili competition at work, which allowed me to try 17 different chili variations. The differences were astounding. No two chilies tasted alike. Some were good, some were great, some made me wonder if I was being Punk'd with dog food. Some key issues I noticed:

People tend to make their chili far too watery for my liking.
People don't include beans, or if they do, it's a small amount. Poor form.
People do not brown their meat. No Maillard reaction, no smiles.
People put ketchup in their chili. A lot of ketchup. Gross.

This recipe solves these issues. My recommendation is that you try the recipe below as-is your first. After that, go wild and swap all sorts of stuff in and out. I just don't want you to come here like a www.foodnetwork.com commenter and leave angry notes about how the recipe sucks when it was you who decided to swap out the cumin for Nesquik and the diced tomatoes for V8 juice.

On to the recipe!

Chili

YIELD: 4-6 | PREP: 20 MINUTES | ACTIVE: 2 HOURS 20 MIN | TOTAL: 2 HOURS AND 40 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

2 T vegetable oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced/pressed/microplaned
1/4 C chili powder
1 T ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 lbs lean ground beef
2 (15-ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 (28 ounces) can tomato puree
salt
2 limes, wedges

METHOD

Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed nonreactive Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, pepper flakes, oregano, and cayenne; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. I like to cook them until they’ve got a nice dark color on them for a more intense flavor.

Increase heat to medium-high and add half the beef; cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink and just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining beef and cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 4 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

Remove cover and continue to simmer 1 hour longer, stirring occasionally (if chili begins to stick to bottom of pot, stir in 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer), until beef is tender and chili is dark, rich, and slightly thickened. Adjust seasoning with additional salt. Serve with lime wedges and condiments if desired.

Slow Cooker Option: At the end of step 1, transfer the cooked beef mixture to a slow cooker; add the rest of the ingredients as directed in step 2. Cook the chili on the high setting for four hours.

Spencer 9/30/14 Spencer 9/30/14

Cornbread

After nearly 70 posts criticizing all your favorite restaurants, I've decided its time for me to expand my horizons and add some new content to the site. Welcome to In The Kitchen with Whiskey & Soba. Okay, that's probably not going be what I call this section. I just haven't come up with a great name yet. While I have absolutely no formal cooking training, I have watched a huge amount of Food Network & Cooking Channel, plus I've eaten a lot of food. Once I came up with an idea that chef Josh Galliano said was "cool".

More importantly, both my mom and grandma included me and my siblings when they cooked and made it fun. I still remember the first time I ever cut my finger cooking. I was spending an afternoon with my grandma and she had awesomely allowed 11 year old me to pick my pizza toppings. Being the gourmet kid I was, I opted for hot dogs. I think it was about 5 minutes into slicing the hot dogs before I missed and got my finger. I haven't had a hot dog pizza since.

Since fall is rolling in, I decided that my first cooking posts should be on two of my fall staples: chili and cornbread. We'll focus on cornbread today.

Cornbread

Yield: 1 | Prep: 10 minutes | Active: 25 Min | Total: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 C AP flour
1 C cornmeal
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter, fatty
1 cup milk

METHOD

Preheat oven to 400 f.

Grease a 8-9” pan.

Mix dry ingredients together, then stir in wet ingredients.

Pour into pan and bake 20-25 minutes. Stick knife in to check for doneness. If batter doesn’t stick, it’s done!

Yum

Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.

2714 Lafayette Ave

St. Louis, MO 63104

(314) 932-1313

2000 Sidney St

St. Louis, MO 63104

314.771.5777

Five Bistro has closed.

Five Bistro

5100 Daggett Ave

St. Louis, MO 63110

Chili

Chili

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Mom’s Cornbread

Cornbread

Yield: 1 | Prep: 10 minutes | Active: 25 Min | Total: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 C AP flour1 C cornmeal1/2 C sugar2 tsp baking powder1 tsp salt1 egg1/4 cup melted butter, fatty1 cup milk

METHOD

1 C AP flour
1 C cornmeal
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter, fatty
1 cup milk