Farmer's Markets: From Big to small.

Fresh is best, I've said it a dozen times if not more... but you're probably curious of where is best, and with the return of summer comes the return of the Markets, Kirkwood, Webster, Clayton, most of the Small towns that make up St. Louis have them, sometimes they're more craft fairs then farmer's market though...

Let's start with the big one, the unrivaled king of the STL Markets, Soulard Farmer's Market. Four legs streaming from a central hub and the size of a city block, show up early in the morning, especially on a Saturday or Sunday and you'll see fleets of trucks coming and dropping off goods to purveyors, all with the mark of some local farm or the other. If it's artisan, you'll find it in one of the four legs of the market, bakeries, butchers, and boutique meats can all be found if your willing to put the leg worth in. When it comes to produce I trust Schrodinger's, family's been using them for years, fair prices and the freshest produce, and they'll tell you if it's fully ripe or needs to wait a few days in the brown bag to finish getting there. 

From there unfortunately the markets shrink rather quickly on the town level, they're more art fairs then farmers markets with the occasional restaurant showing a stall in support with a shrunken menu. You'll find the ocasional stall that sells over priced "organic" produce... trust me when it comes to markets Under the Arch nothing beats Soulard.

What do you need? and Where to get it?

So I've been talking about places and cuisines this entire time, with the occasional bit of tipple advice thrown in to keep it all loose. For this post it'll be a little different, what do you need in order to make your home kitchen ready for everything. And this is a bare bones list, as it should be, a cluttered kitchen with ten different kinds of knife to cut a bagel is pointless, do you really need four 9x13's all made out of a different material, NO.

Really all you need besides your appliances are as follows:

1 Chef Knife, 7-9 inches long of a good make
1 Serrated knife, 11-13 inches long (don't worry as much on make, you'll be replacing it every few years anyway.)
1 Rubber Spat
1 Medium Heavy bottomed skillet (and not heavy because of a welded on plate, solid bottom)
1 Medium Heavy bottomed Sauce pot (see parenthesis above)
1 Cutting Board, heavy wood is better but harder to clean and more expensive, Plastics are cheap easier to clean but break and melt easily... don't ask
1 or 2  Baking dishes, 9x13 either Glass or Ceramic covered cast iron
2 or 3 half-sheet trays, there is no reason for a home owner to have full sized sheet trays most home ovens can't take them

That's it, none of those presses for every little thing from garlic to peanuts, none of those slap chops that break quick and never get a good cut, and for the love of all things Escoffier not a drawer full of infomercial knives that "never dull" or "last forever" that's just dangerous. Ignore the infomercials and go out and pick up what you need. If you want a profesional grade knife (you wont need it but hey if you want one I'm not gonna stop you) Bertarelli's knives on the hill is the place to go (They can be bribbed with Chocolate drops from Missouri Bakery), I recommend Wurstof if your going that route, they have a line for every need, personally I like the slightly heavier Grand Prixe II line. but otherwise go to Tuesday Morning. No I'm not joking, I was sending you there for everything else anyways, decent brands and everything you need in close reach, as well as a few nick-nacks if you absolutely want a single purpose item in your kitchen... don't know why you would but some people do. Walmart and Schnucks I'm almost ashamed to say also put out decent Home use grade products. Or check online at restaurant auction sights, you wont find knives most of the time but the cutting boards, pans, spats and other professional grade odds and ends, they wont be pretty but they will work to Armageddon and back. And really isn't that what you want, something that will never break or ship on you despite a few bumps and dents instead of something shiny that breaks the first time you toss it into the sink just a little to hard?

Middle East in the Mid-West

I seem to be slowly moving westward these past few weeks. First with China and the far east, then India, and now here I am with the middle east. There's been a slowly growing population of middle eastern population finding home Under the Arch. And where a people go they bring their food with them, so besides several good eateries like say... Ranoush, we now have two of them, woot woot, one in Kirkwood and one on the loop, and Aya Sofia's we also have several markets that are stocking the goods.

You'll find them tucked away in strip malls and in old buildings, they seem to be waiting, lurking almost in the shadows. Until you walk in, the first thing that should hit you is the smell, a mix of Spices that you as a pour uneducated American wouldn't normally know how to place just lick your lips and you'll feel a slight flavor buzz hitting you. First thing you do is find the back wall, this isn't always going to be an easy task as several are labyrinths of wonders that we Blue eyed devils had no idea existed,  Hookahs and Tea sets, teas that you'd never understand or even begin to know how to brew properly, dates, figs, preserves, spices, turmeric and tamarind all swirling around you in bright packaging showing pictures of beautiful women, men on horse back, dogs, animals of all kind. You feel tempted to snag a treasure from the wall, bolt to the counter pay the snaggle toothed little old woman whose yelling across the store to her husband in a language most american's can't understand and get out of your car feeling like Aladdin after getting out of the Cave of wonders... RESIT, RESIT I say, stay true and find that back wall.

Once you find it, follow your nose to the source of that mix of meat, spices and pita that can only be gyro, every and I do mean every middle eastern market worth their salt will have one, sometimes tucked away so only a regular or family can find it there you'll find the little old man with milk chocolate skin and white hair rolling his eyes upward and moving his mouth, likely a prayer to Allah for patience with this devil woman he married. He'll smile and bow slightly when he see's you bow in return, be polite to this small man. A chalkboard sign will tell you what he offers, it'll be the same everywhere, beef, chicken or lamb, Gyro or Salad. Tell the man what you want. While he's making it he'll ask you about your day,and soon the two of you will be talking about sports and then somehow into politics, this little old man will slip your food into a container handing it over to you take it bow a little at the waist and say thank you as you take it from him and grab a can off coffee drink on your way out. You have now become an initiate to one of the best kept secrets in STL.

Red Rum

More then just Murder spelled backwards, this is also a great theme drink for an event, simple and quick to make and easy to drink it's an awesome way to start a party.

Red Rum

Hardware

Highball
Ice
Stir Rod

Software

A Flag (No not the symbol of a nation or organization a cherry and an orange wedge on a stir stick)

Ingredients

2 oz    Clear Rum of Choice (Bacardi Superior is nice for this one)
1 oz    Pomegranate Syrup
Top off With Orange Juice (Remember Fresh is best)

Blue prints
Personally I think that this is one of those drinks that it really is better to have stirred then shaken. Add Ice to the Highball and pour in the Rum, you'll get some taste from the Rum in this drink besides the burn so again pick a clear rum of your choice but make sure you like the taste. Add Pomegranate Syrup (Check your local Middle eastern Market... what do you mean what Market... Fine I'll be handling that next post.) or if you can't find the Pomegranate use Grenadine, I'll cover that in a future post also.  Mix til the liquid is a nice deep solid red, this is why I don't recommend shaking this drink, instead of a nice red you get almost a pink color out of it... and that, is not good. Top with OJ (FRESH, FRESH you fools, none of this prepackaged stuff) and give a final few stirs before garnishing with the flag and sliding it down the bar to that pretty wench who just winked at you, Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirate's life for thee.

Sex on the Beach

This is the favoite drink of one of my close friends new fiancee, in fact when he proposed to her, the night of her twenty-first birthday I was asked to be there for a couple of reasons, one of them was to mix this drink for her. This is my version of Sex on the Beach.

Hardware:

Highball glass
Shaker
Jigger
Ice

Alternate Hardware

Highball
Ice
Stir rod

Ingredients

1+1/2 oz            Vodka of choice (Please pick a decent Vodka)
1/2     oz            Peach Schnapps
2        oz            Orange Juice
2        oz            Cranberry Juice

Software (Garnishment)

Umbrella (optional)
Stir stick (NOT optional)

Blue print
 If shaking drink:

Fill shaker two-thirds of the way with ice (crushed if possible) and add Vodka, Schnapps, and juices. Shake vigorously for thirty to forty seconds strain with jigger into an Ice filled Highball. Garnish and serve

If Stirring Drink:

Layer Vodka, then schnapps, pour in equal amounts of Orange and then Cranberry juice, stir steadily and garnish appropriately and Serve.

Best Chinese Take out

A little shop on Watson just north of the intersection of Watson and Lacleade lies my personal Haunt for that deep-fried sauce covered meat of questionable origin that is American Chinese Take out.

Knock the thought that Chinese take out is authentic Chinese Cuisine right now, it's not, nor will it ever be, nor do I want it to ever be. I love actual Chinese food, bowls of noodles in broth covered with everything in the kitchen, buns of all variety that stuff is orgasmicly good if you can find a good source to hit your fix, and I have but that's for another time.

The beauty of the red headed step child that is Chinese take out is that it isn't actual cuisine. Over the pacific in the home of the middle kingdom they would have no idea what seventy perecnt, if not more of the items on your typical take out menu is, and I like that, it is American food, imagine if instead of Burger joints there were only steak houses, where of course you could get a steak friete and you know what even as a sandwich, but it wouldn't be the same. There's a reason that the Chinese take-out joint is on the fridge of 90% of families in the united states, at least in STL... and often the same place is passed down from the consumer side of the equation growing up with a certian kind of fried rice, does the wanton soup have mushrooms or just lovingly made pork filled wanton wrapper boiled in chicken broth (that's what I grew up with).

Bar none Dingho is my joint, its one of the few places in town where I can walk in and smile at the tiny little Asian woman behind the counter bow slightly to Gran-Gran whose shuffling round back and without saying a word six maybe ten minutes later one of my favorite comfort meals, Crishpy Cashew Chicken No Vegetable combination plate with fried rice, fried wanton, and crab rangoon; Eggroll; and order of six perfectly done post stickers will be handed over the counter to me as I hand over the 10.00 that the meal is (I leave the change behind, the meal is definitely worth the tenner plus every once in a while the little woman shakes her head, "you no pay this time"... I leave the money on a table anyways.)

A wok across Asia

As you might have gathered by this point I'm a bit of an Asiaphile, I love most things that come from the east from Kim-chi and Bulgogi to Schezwan Eggplant and Fried Rice to Sushi and Tempura. The spice mixes are interesting, flavorful and fresh when compared to the french sauces and preparations. This brings up the question of which fare from the east is my favorite, and that is where we hit a problem. I don't really have one, there are bits of each cuisine that I love and bits I could do without.

This is where "Chinese" buffets come into play, now there are some in St. Louis that really shouldn't be gone to, before it closed down China Star was a good example, another one that I would recommend shying away from would be Habachi Grill Supreme Buffet down on Watson... trust me just don't on this one food rests for hours on end, I've never seen the food checked on, service was... just bad... but there are some places in St. Louis that have reinvented themselves, Joy Luck buffet is a great example of this. For a long time it was the place to avoid in town, but a change of owners can be a wonderful thing. This is my go to Chinese buffet, but not my favorite, I go because of good qaulity, fair price and most impotently how close it is to my home.

Before I go into my favorite Chinese buffet lets go into what makes a good one. Decor while important isn't the end all be all, food has to be constantly coming out of the Kitchen, rotated often and seamlessly, the waiter or more likely waitress should be good at what they do moving quickly refiling drinks and clearing plates all the while smiling and laughing along. But most importantly is the Variety factor, the fact is that Chinese Buffet has for a long time been a misnomer, Far Eastern buffet would be more appropriate, a healthy mix of Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese built on a base of good Americanized  Chinese that we are all but force fed growing up.

In St. Louis the end all be all of the Chinese Buffet falls to Emperor's Palace. The thing is you don't go into a buffet expecting authenticity, it just doesn't work that way and Emperor's Palace makes no claim of that, they do claim and rightfully so a wide range of Asian dishes, a high turnover rate in the food and an atmosphere conducive to kicking back sipping hot green tea while laughing at the kids running around the chocolate fountain as you take a bite of Beijing Duck right next to a pile of Kim-chi and a half of a tuna roll.