I ate and drank in St. Louis. It was OK.

I had some time to kill before flying out of lovely Lambert International Airport not long ago, so I decided to learn something about the respectable, hard-working city of St. Louis.  Now, I only spent a few hours there, so St. Louis fans, feel free to chime in with your suggestions.  What I found is that people like American food and lagers.  

Aya Sofia

I was looking for something a little more exotic than barbecue, so after slogging through about 10 American restaurants on opentable.com, we landed on Aya Sofia for some Turkish food in Midtown.  Good luck finding parking.  The food was perfectly fine, but there was nothing unique or surprising on the menu. They used quality ingredients and prepared the dishes capably and portions were large. Very large.  I had what ended up being a wrap sandwich (whoopee!), and my husband had a huge pile of buttery, comforting Moussaka.  Service was fast but a tiny bit on the snooty side, as if the restaurant could pretend it wasn't populated by diners with country accents and John Deere hats if they just acted posh enough.  I preferred the John Deere hats, actually.  And the noise level with relatively few people in the restaurant was quite loud. I cannot imagine how overwhelming it must be when filled. It's a beautifully decorated, laid-back little place with nice food. I'd go again if I lived there, but I won't make a special trip for it.

Moussaka at Aya Sofia

Community garden in Lafayette Square

         


Then we headed over to Lafayette Square, A national historic district, an area with a gorgeous park, a bunch of expensive-looking Victorian houses, and a few boutiques and hip-looking restaurants.  We went to Square One Brewery and Distillery for after-lunch drinks (and to numb ourselves a bit for the pending irritation of airport security).  The long list of beers presented nothing inventive, just the usual line-up of lagers, ales, stouts, and an IPA.  My husband, the IPA connoisseur, was not pleased.  It did have a bitterness at the front end, but dissolved quickly into a very bready flavor you would expect from a kolsch or other mild summer beer.  Weird.  


I always like to try craft beers, but I knew I could only drink so much before my behavior might run the risk of getting us both arrest at the airport, so I decide to test the distillery instead.  These guys make a massive number of grain spirits--flavored and unflavored vodkas, tequila, rum, and more, which I thought was pretty exciting.  I ended up getting a vodka flavored with gin and sweetened with agave syrup on the rocks.  It was delicious.  If my tolerance was higher (or if I lived in St. Louis), I would definitely go back and try more of their spirits.  Not so sure about the beer.   And the neighborhood is adorable--you should go if you're in town.  Only 10 minutes or so from the airport.   

He didn't look as happy after finishing his IPA.

By the way, you know how I've been slowly trying to compile places to bide your time while trapped in airports around the country?  Lambert International Airport has not been added to that list. 

Surprise reader contest: what is this thing?
I found it on the side of the road in St. Louis.
Best answer before September 15 gets a free t-shirt.
Enter your answers below! 

Is elitism a bad thing?

Sass-mouthed celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is in the news for picking on sweet, down-to-earth little ol' Paula Deen.  He is the edgy, former druggie who brought you such bedtime classics as Kitchen Confidential (in which you learn that, yes, sometimes cooks put pubic hair in your food) and No Reservations, a culinarily adventurous television program in which he sometimes eats anuses. She is the Georgia peach who taught us how to embrace our love of butter on The Food Network and in her many cookbooks.

So the gist of the argument, in case you have been living under a rock, is that Bourdain has said some not-so-nice stuff about Paula Deen being fat and practicing unhealthy cooking habits.  He does not lie.  He also got personal and said her food was crap, and maybe that didn't help his argument much.  But his major complaint is that, in a country gripped by an ever-increasing obesity epidemic, perhaps it is not helpful to push fried chicken and biscuits and gravy up close o the tv camera, no matter how much we like them.  Paula has retorted with a very populist defense, reminding Bourdain that not everyone can afford fancy menu ingredients and that she is cooking for real people, not the elite minority.  You can follow some of the juicy details here.

What Deen has not come out and said, but it seems to be lingering in the air, is that Bourdain is an arugula-eating (remember that gem from the last presidential race?), homosexual socialist.  Or something like that.  OK, Bourdain is abrasive in his use of language, which is a major part of his celebrity persona, but is he wrong to point out that we should stop eating junk all the time?  Meals made of various shades of tan with no green or red on the plate ARE helping to degrade the health of many members of American society, and this is a problem.  First lady Michelle Obama is struggling to tackle this issue on a national level, and despite her sweet, nurturing rhetoric, she has been painted as an enemy much like the swaggering, f-bomb-dropping Bourdain.

This pseudo-populist rhetoric, adopted by the mega-rich Bush regime of the early '00s (QUESTION: who would you rather drink a beer with? ANSWER: the guy who gives rich people tax breaks!) and equally mega-rich Paula Deen, whose stardom on The Food Network has led to a culinary empire worth undisclosed millions, is ridiculous.  Perhaps she is reflecting the taste of poor people in Georgia, but she has no right to wear that badge of honor as if she was one of them.  And she certainly isn't doing anything to help them by improving their fatty recipes.  When her very expensive physician tells her that she is suffering from  lard-induced heart disease, she will be able to pay the best physical trainers and nutritionists to get her back on track and nurse her to health; what of her "regular folk"?

There is more fresh produce and healthy food available at reasonable prices in this country than ever before (and if the government ended subsidies to the dairy and beef industries, who knows, that stuff might be cheaper yet).  Why not teach regular people, many of whom currently live without health insurance or regular doctor visits,  how to make healthy food taste good in an economical way?  I am an unrepentant cheapskate, and I do it almost every meal.  By pretending this fight is about snobs vs. the "little guy", Deen and her ilk somehow present diet-induced heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol, and premature death as the American Way.  This attitude is illogical, patronizing, and painfully transparent--she waves the American flag in order to sell you more cookbooks, fatty salad dressings, and speckled enamel bakeware.  Don't be fooled, regular folk: Anthony Bourdain doesn't hate you (well, maybe he does, but you can ignore that part)--he just wants you to put down the rum cake.

Recipe for Green Chili

This is how they do it at the Greeley
Farmer's Market

I celebrate my eighth year in Colorado this month, and I can definitely say that I have grown as a diner since coming out West.  It’s hard to remember a time when I didn’t know old women rolling suitcases full of homemade tamales down my street, dried mangoes dusted in chili pepper, and my personal favorite, green chili.  As a Midwestern girl formerly accustomed to a spice rack consisting solely of butter and salt, I could not be more grateful for the rainbow of flavors available in Colorado and New Mexico.  And I know this is coming from a transplant, so you don’t have to trust me if you don’t want to, but as a thank you, I would like to humbly offer my own version of green chili.  I go to my local farmer’s market and buy roasted chilies from some dude I can’t understand (because I’m just that damn lucky), but you can get respectable tubs of chopped, roasted Hatch chilies in the freezer case of most supermarkets, too.

Green Chili Deluxe

Serves 8

1 pound cubed pork (optional) (or you can use leftover shredded chicken or pork from another meal)
3 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons white flour
1 can (14.5 oz.) crushed tomatoes
12 oz. vegetable or chicken broth
2 ½ cups diced green chilies (about 20 Hatch chilies)
½ cup frozen corn (optional)

Lime wedges, sour cream, and warm flour tortillas for serving

In a large Dutch oven, sauté the pork, garlic, onion, cumin, and salt over medium heat.  (If you’re skipping the pork, use about a tablespoon of oil to sauté remaining ingredients; if using cooked, leftover meat, use the oil and keep the meat in reserve for now.)  When onion is soft and garlic is fragrant, slowly add the flour and continue to cook, stirring continuously, until flour begins to brown.  Add some of the broth and scrape up all the onion mixture, incorporating into the liquid.  Add the remaining broth, tomatoes, chilies, corn, and cooked meat if you have it, stir, and cover the pot.  Reduce heat to medium low and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least half an hour to allow flavors to blend.

Serve with lime wedges, sour cream, and flour tortillas on the side.

Creamy Pasta with Mushrooms

The creaminess in this sauce comes from goat cheese, which instantly melts into the hot pasta.  Once you've made this ridiculously simple, super-flavorful meal, you’ll never want to fuss with heavy, gloppy Alfredo sauce again!


Serves 2


2 cups whole grain rotini pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ yellow onion, sliced into thin half-rings
8 oz. cremini mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup frozen peas
4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs 
Salt and pepper to taste
2 oz. goat cheese
2-3 tablespoons toasted walnuts 


In a medium saucepan, bring salted water to boil and cook pasta al dente.  


Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  When it shimmers, add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they are soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until they soften and become watery.  Add the garlic, herbs, and balsamic vinegar, reduce heat to medium low, and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Toss in the peas and heat (don’t let the peas get mushy--they should remain green).  


Drain the cooked pasta and stir in the goat cheese to make a creamy sauce.  Fold the pasta mixture into the mushrooms in the skillet and incorporate thoroughly; season with more salt and pepper if you like.  Garnish with toasted walnuts or serve in a small bowl alongside the dish.  


Try it with Sangiovese or a Chianti.