St. Louis

Ok, so I was in St. Louis for training (work-related), and had the opportunity to check out a lot of St. Louis, and its culinary offerings. As you may know, St. Louis is known for its BBQ, among many other spots, so I took it upon myself to find the better offerings in the area.

I'd also heard that St. Louis was home to a couple of spots Guy Fieri hit for Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, so of course, at least one of those would have to be on the list of must-see/eat.

I'd gone to a TGIFridays the first night, just because it was late and I was limited to that or the hotel's microwaveable stuff. Had a nice plate of tilapia, and followed up with what they termed a 'small dessert'. From the picture, you can see it's pretty much normal sized, especially with the ice cream there. I can't say the dinner was anything special, but for the price, as with much in the US with food, it was ok.










I'd also heard about St. Louis style pizza, so I figured I'd try that too. St. Louis pizza is essentially a thin crust, box cut (in squares) pizza, with a specialty processed cheese called Provel. I'd never heard of such a thing before, but the guys at the training centre I was at swore by it. I ordered one from Uno's, one of the large chains there, and found it to be not entirely to my liking. Provel is a processed mixture of cheddar, swiss, and provolone, and I found it to be a goopy, creamy mess that ended up making the pizza rather bland.




The guys also took me to a historic part of town, where we found quite the assortment of random restaurants, most doing classic American like pot roast, as seen below.  Again, it wasn't anything particularly special, but nothing particularly horrible either.

 
 
I finally managed to strike out on my own, and found a veritable treasure trove of culinary delights for the foodie in me... First stop, Sweetie Pie's, serving down home southern cooking. Ambiance-wise, this was one of the more interesting stops - imagine a cafeteria line with old grandma-like ladies serving you gigantic portions of food, expecting you to eat it all. Normally when you pick up a plate of food, you don't expect it to be also a test of strength, but here, when they put the smothered pork chop on my plate, I could feel the thing as if it were a 10 lb dumbbell slapped onto the tray.
Unfortunately for me, I'd forgotten my camera and had only one picture left... of my leftovers. Now, the picture shows a full container right? I'd eaten over half of it for dinner already and I still had this left over! One other thing I have to say - I adore southern-style sweet tea. We'd also heard good things about this odd dessert called frozen custard, and sure enough, we found the original frozen custard stop, Ted Drewes. Turns out, the DQ blizzard... it's just a bad copy of the Concrete from Ted Drewes. This stuff is amazing, and highly addictive! You can get toppings of all kinds, whether you like fruit, nuts, chocolate, brownies, or even mints. I'm drooling thinking of this right now.

I'd also gotten a chance to hit the St. Louis Blues game, and dinner prior was at a seafood joint at Union Station called Landry's. I totally didn't expect what I found there - giant shrimp, and done well! The others had a boatload of fried goodness, including jumbo-lump crab stuffed jalapenos. The game that followed was also a great experience - newer arenas are SO much more comfortable, and the tickets were under $25 for lower bowl!

On my last day in St. Louis, I decided enough was enough, and I went off in search of the mythical beast known as the St. Louis rib. My first stop, Pappy's Smokehouse. Only having been open for a couple years, it'd built up a reputation quickly of having the best ribs in St. Louis - and the lineups would attest to it. I went there around 11 AM, thinking I'd be fairly early, but I was in for a bit of a shock, when I found a line that would take 1 hour to get through, before being able to order food.

Now, the system here is a bit unlike most other restaurants. You line up, order your food, tell the 'waiter' your name, and find a spot (if you can) to sit down. There are no reserved tables, and no private ones at that - it's long benches and everyone sits where they can. When your food is ready, another waiter/waitress comes out of the side door with your order, yells your name, and expects you to hop up and they'll bring your tray to you. I guess it works, but when the line snakes through where everyone has to walk, it gets a bit crazy.

With that being said... the wait was more than worth it. These are by far the best ribs I've had, ever, anywhere, bar none. There's a hint of smokiness, just the right amount of kick, along with a glaze of brown sugar to sweeten it, and while some people like completely fall off the bone style ribs, these had a slight 'pull' to them, that made the texture just that much better. The sides that I chose included cinnamon-sugar-dusted sweet potato fries, and deep fried corn. That's right, corn on the cob, deep fried. How could you do any better? The only regret I have here, is not ordering more for later!

So, in a nutshell - in St. Louis - the sites to see include: The City Museum, the St. Louis Arch
Recommended spots to eat: Sweetie Pie's, Ted Drewes, Pappy's Smokehouse