brentwood

Bread pudding + Wine = Happy Stephanie

by Stephanie on September 16, 2011

in American, Bread Pudding, Dessert, Dinner, Lunch

It’s Friday! Who needs a drink? It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right? Winking smile

I had a Groupon for Vino Nadoz in Brentwood, and I was craving wine one evening, so I took myself out on a solo date. Does anyone else do that?

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I seated myself by the window, which gave me the perfect view of outside:

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Pretty! I love Brentwood.

I also took some time to check out the inside of the place. It was pretty empty!

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The friendly waiter quickly brought me water and a menu. I studied it carefully.

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Vino Nadoz certainly had a great selection of wines – it’s too bad I didn’t have any clue on what to order! After telling the waiter the type of wine I prefer (bubbly and sweet), he suggested an Italian moscato. I’ll take it!

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Okay, so the wine was taken care of. Next – time for food!

I might not know much about wine, but I certainly do know my way around a food menu!

It was late, so I didn’t want any ‘real’ food. I wanted something sweet, and when I saw that Vino Nadoz served bread pudding, my decision was made!

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I ordered it with a side of gooey butter cake ice cream from Serendipity!

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Yum!

All together now:

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Amazing.

So how was it? Well…to be honest, it wasn’t the best bread pudding I’ve ever had. It was sort of spongey and rubbery – like it wasn’t made fresh, and had been sitting out for a while. Bad. It’s too bad, because the caramel glaze that covered the bread pudding was delicious!

Thankfully, the ice cream was much better. It was creamy, sweet, and tasted just like gooey butter cake! At least half of my dessert was delicious Smile

Service was great, and since it was such a quiet night, Walt, the manager, came out to chat with me for a while! He was extremely friendly and very knowledgeable about wine. Instead of scoffing at me for ordered a sweet Moscato, he made me feel okay about my decision, while gently urging me in the direction of fuller bodied wines. While I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for sweet bubbly wines, I am looking forward to eventually expanding my palate.

All in all, a decent night at Vino Nadoz! I would definitely return here for more wine. I think this would make a great girls night spot, as well!

Until next time, friends!

{ 1 comment }

I’m just so…American.

by Stephanie on July 22, 2011

in Asian, Chinese, Dinner, Lunch

When I started this blog in March of 2010, I named it ‘Off the Eaten Path’, because my intentions were to only write about hole in the wall establishments.

Well, I certainly didn’t stick with that for very long! I decided that that was too limiting, and expanded my range to include all restaurants in St. Louis (but I still stick with my no chains rule).

Anyway, recently I visited a place that is definitely ‘Off the Eaten Path’:

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The Famous Szechuan Pavilion! I wish I would have gotten a better picture of how small this place really was! It used to be a drive through coffee shop, and it is TINY! I giggled when I pulled into the parking lot and saw this tiny little shack. It’s so cute, I just want to put it in my pocket and take it home with me!

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Instead of going through the drive through, I decided to walk inside. The door was in the back, so it felt a little funny to just walk in.

I walked in and immediately felt like I was entering someone’s personal kitchen. There were already four people in the place eating and chatting up the cute old woman, and when I walked in, they all stopped what they were doing and stared. AWKWARD.

I grabbed a menu. They had a pretty nice variety of things to try!

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After a few minutes of studying the menu, I was ready to order. But first, I had a question.

“What’s the difference between the Korea Dan Dan noodles and the Szechuan Dan Dan noodles?” Innocent enough, right? There were no descriptions on the menu.

The guy smiled and repeated my question aloud, in what I’m assuming was Chinese. I’m also assuming he repeated my question aloud, now that I think about it.

Whatever he said, it was enough to make everyone in the place laugh heartily. I felt even more uncomfortable and awkward. Awesome.

He explained that one had wider noodles than the other. Uhhh…okay. I went with the Szcheuan Dan Dan noodles and the Spicy Wonton soup. Since there was literally no where in the tiny shack for me to sit (or stand) to wait for my order, I went out to my car and waited.

About 10 minutes later, my food was ready. I paid for it, smiled, and left. When I got home, the food was still piping hot!

My Dan Dan noodles looked amazing.

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The spicy wonton soup came in two parts. The wontons were in one cup, and the soup was in the other.

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I poured the soup into the wonton cup.

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Time to eat! I used these chopsticks that my friend Chung brought back from her visit to Hong Kong.

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Just kidding! I’m terrible with chopsticks, and these were much too pretty to use, anyway! I used a fork. I’m so…American. Smile

So how did everything taste? Well…it was just okay. Don’t get me wrong, it was decent, it just didn’t blow me out of the water like I expected it to. The Dan Dan noodles weren’t spicy enough for my tastes (isn’t Szechuan food supposed to be spicy?) and the noodles had a mushy texture that I wasn’t a fan of.

The wonton soup was also missing something. The flavors just didn’t pop. This also could have used a lot more spice. I wonder if the Spicy Challenge at Pearl Café desensitized my taste buds? Winking smile

I’m definitely going to give the Szechuan Pavilion another chance. Next time, I’ll ask her to use a heavier hand with the spices, though!

Before I go, I’d like to invite you (yes, you!) to an informal Food Bloggers Dinner, hosted by yours truly and Melissa from A Small Town Girl’s Guide!  Here are the deets:

What: A Blogger’s Dinner Meetup
Who: St. Louis Food Bloggers (and Social Media Friends)
Where: Bridge Tap House and Wine Bar (1004 Locust Street, St. Louis)
When: Friday, August 12th
What Time: 6 p.m.

So far, there’s a pretty decent sized group of us going. It’s going to be a lot of fun — trust me ;)

RSVP by posting a comment here or on Melissa’s blog!

See you next week with a fun post :)

{ 2 comments }

Mumbo Gumbo!

by Stephanie on May 6, 2011

in American, Dinner, Lunch

Hi friends! How’s it going? I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I’m back! And with a fun (hopefully!) experience to talk about.

My latest adventure took me to The Gumbo Shop. It’s a tiny shack on Manchester road in Rock Hill.

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Mmmm…gumbo. Whenever I think of gumbo, I can’t help but think about one of my favorite Barack Obama pictures:

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How awesome is our president?

Anyway, although the Gumbo Shop has a nice variety of sandwiches, jambalaya, and gumbo, I was here for something else.

Meet my friend Allan!

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I met him through a Yelp Elite event. He and his wife are super nice and pretty fantastic (but what foodies aren’t?). He invited me to the inaugural Gumbo Shop Crawfish Boil Extravaganza. Okay, I totally made that name up, but I think he should consider calling it that. Just sayin’. Smile

Every Saturday, Allan boils up a ton of crawfish, along with some other goodies: sausage, corn, and mushrooms. Normally, this costs $6.99 per pound (with a 10 lb minimum – check the website for details!), but he did a test run for his friends for free. Lucky us!

I had never eaten crawfish before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just sat back and watched the action!

He started out by throwing a bunch of crawfish into a huge boiling pot of water.

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Boil, baby, boil!

Throw in some yummy ingredients…

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Wait a bit…

Wait some more…

It’s time!

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Oh yeah. Hot and steamy goodness!

Time to chow!

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Like I said before, I had never eaten crawfish before.

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How am I supposed to eat this little guy?

Allan and his wife showed me how to do it. Apparently, you pull the head off or something like that. I never did get the hang of it; Allan’s wife ended up cracking open a bunch for me. Thanks Anna!

The verdict? YUMMY! It tasted a lot like lobster to me. And it had a bit of a spicy kick. I liked it!

It was a great time with delicious food. I won’t give this a formal rating like I do for my other restaurant reviews, but if I had to rate it, it would definitely be 5 stars!

Until next time. Smile

{ 2 comments }

Behind the Scenes…

by Stephanie on January 22, 2011

in other

If you’ve read my About Me page, you already know that I write part-time for Maplewood-Brentwood Patch, Clayton Patch, and Hazelwood Patch. How I manage to do this, along with my regular 40 hour a week job, plus this blog? I don’t know. It keeps me busy, that’s for sure. It’s a lot of fun – food has always been my passion, so I love being able to write about it!

My point is (yes, I do have a point – I think!) that I try my best to keep the two worlds separate. Patch is Patch; my blog is my blog. I don’t really like to mix the two. But what I’m about to share with you is so cool I just have to talk about it on the blog.

A few weeks ago I wrote a story for Maplewood-Brentwood Patch about Chef Wars. It’s a really cool Iron Chef-esque event where select chefs got together to prepare a five course meal using secret ingredients.

Jim Fiala, the owner of Acero, The Crossing, Liluma, and Terrace View (all St. Louis restaurants) started a competition where his executive chefs would face off against each other to create the best five course meal. The diners are the judges, and decide who goes on to the next round. The final round would pit the top chef against Fiala himself.

Pretty cool, right?

I covered the third event, which took place at Acero, a restaurant in Maplewood. It pitted Ian Vest (The Crossing) against Nick Cox (Terrace View).

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Ian’s on the left; Nick’s on the right.

While I could go on to wax poetic about the dishes that were served, that’s kind of boring. I didn’t try the food (although I was offered), and you won’t get to eat it. Pretty pictures can only do so much.

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Besides, you can go read my article if you want a play-by-play of the meal. Go do it, okay? Let me know what you think.

No, this blog post isn’t really about the food. It’s about something I’ve never experienced before – a restaurant kitchen!

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The chefs were nice enough to let me go backstage where all the action happened. Now this? This was cool. I was able to speak with the chefs themselves as they plated their dishes. I spoke with the waiters as they prepared to run the dishes out to the diners. I chatted with the assistants.

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I was able to see the magic in action.

I saw the food before it was plated.

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I was able to get up close and personal with the actual plating of the dish.

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As a frequent restaurant goer, I never really thought about what happened in the kitchen. I just knew that somewhere in between ordering my dish and receiving it, something went on in the kitchen. But I never gave it too much thought.

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I was blissfully unaware.

Back in the kitchen, between each course, it seemed like a madhouse upon first sight. Later I discovered that there was a method to the madness, and it was really more like a well-oiled machine.

The coolest thing? The fact that everyone pitched in.

Acero’s manager, Sam Foley…

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And even Jim Fiala himself.

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It was really a group effort. It has to be when you’re working with this many plates!

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So there you have it. I know this is a bit different from my typical restaurant review themed post, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Smile

Who won the contest? You’ll just have to read my article to find that out. Winking smile

P.S. Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

{ 1 comment }

Oh my, Mai Lee!

by Stephanie on March 13, 2010

in Asian, Dinner, Lunch, Vietnamese

So after my 5 mile run through the streets of St. Louis, I decided to reward myself with a huge steaming bowl of pho. I went to one of my favorite Vietnamese places, Mai Lee.

I started with the same thing I always start with: the egg roll appetizer. I’m a sucker for a good egg roll, and Mai Lee doesn’t disappoint. Since everyone knows what an egg roll looks like (hopefully!) I’ll just post a picture of the yummy goodness inside:

I’m going to be 100% honest and say I don’t know exactly what is inside of Mai Lee’s eggrolls. But I’m pretty sure love is in there somewhere. And happiness. Maybe pork.

Next, I had the Bun Bo Hue. Otherwise known as spicy beef pho. Otherwise known as YUMMYNESS IN MY MOUTH!

It had vermicelli noodles, spicy medium-rare beef, and a bunch of different herbs and spices (I definitely tasted cilantro, among other things). It was delicious, warm, slightly spicy, and the perfect way to reward myself for running five miles in the cold. Mmm. Perfect.

My boyfriend will probably disapprove of this blog post, because I wasn’t very descriptive about the food. I don’t really explain WHY I like it. Well…sometimes, that’s just how it is. You don’t know exactly WHY you like something, but you know that you do. That’s how Mai Lee is for me. And honestly? I’m okay with that. :)

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