Saint Louis: Salt & Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

Happy New Year!

One of my favorite things to do when visiting a new city is to find a brunch spot that showcases what that city is all about.  For this visit to Saint Louis, decided on Salt, which is a popular restaurant in Saint Louis and a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category for the Midwest!  Pretty good representative?

Salt 

4356 Lindell Blvd 

Central West End

St Louis, MO 63108

enjoysalt.com

Salt!  We actually missed it a few times because it looks like a really fancy house and it's in a residential neighborhood.

S&P.  I like it when restaurants serves it like this haha.

Fresh grapefruit juice.  Citrus fruits are in season!


Started with the French Onion Soup.


Love the super thick layer of Swiss Cheese!


The crouton.  Soup was served warm.  I think that's a way of serving it in many places?  I like it piping hot though :P

I went for the Hash & Eggs since I was craving something hearty. It was totally not what I expected though. I did expect a large plate of hash and potatoes with fried eggs, but what you get is a small portion of their corned beef with potato hash, served with two poached eggs. 

Not gonna lie, I was disappointed with the portion, but the corned beef hash was very tasty! The corned beef is definitely the star since it is made in-house.

I asked for my eggs to be runny, and it came in the form of poached eggs came with it!  Comes in little cups so I can just pop it and go all crazy with the yolk and pour it over the hash!

Duck Fat Frites!  Super crispy fries.


Comes with mayo and homemade ketchup.  The ketchup is terrific.  It's not as sweet and vinegary as traditional ketchup, more like a seasoned tomato puree, but it's very refreshing.  I used it with the corned beef hash too!


Diana's Red Velvet Chocolate Chunk Pancakes with Roasted Banana Whipped Cream.


Very odd to see pancake this color but very delicious!


Roasted Banana Whipped Cream was definitely the best part.  Can really taste the banana flavor!


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Before I was dropped off at the airport, Diana and I had to stop by the popular Ted Drewes for their frozen custard, aka "concrete!"  I saw it a few times on Food Network and they always show it by flipping the cup upside down to show how thick it is haha.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

6726 Chippewa St 

Saint Louis Hills

Saint Louis, MO 63109 

teddrewes.com

The neon sign!


Ted Drewes.  You can tell that it is a old school spot haha.  Love the "icicle" :P


Menu on the windows and wall and damn it's a lot.  All they have here is vanilla frozen custard with different mix ins, sorta like McDonald's McFlurry!


Guess which one I ordered?


Mint Oreo and Marshmallow Oreo!  It wasn't until we got our order that we realized that we ordered very similar things :P  Granted, I did rush her haha.


Mint Oreo.  Vanilla custard mixed with Oreo and mint flavoring.  Like mint chip?  Then this is definitely for you.


Man that's some thick vanilla custard haha.


Marshmallow Oreo.  Can't really taste the marshmallow.  It's more about the texture.  You can tell you got a bite of the marshmallow because it's smoother and lighter than the other spoonfuls.


St. Louis' finest indeed!

With Ted Drewes, that ended my first visit to Saint Louis.  I knew I was gonna be back in a few weeks for Diana's birthday and even though I wanted to go to Pappy's again before I left, I told my stomach to be patient and that I would have delicious BBQ soon enough.  Good things come to those who wait!

Saint Louis: Pappy's Smokehouse for the Best Ribs I've Had

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This Christmas, I really just want another bite of Pappy's awesome ribs, cause it is legitimately the best ribs I've had anywhere.  So good that I am still dreaming about it today!  When I first got to Saint Louis, I knew the barbecue was gonna be good but never imagined mind-blown status.  

The funny thing is, Pappy's style of barbecue is not even Saint Louis.  The barbecue is actually Memphis-style, and for the ribs, it's not the Saint Louis ribs cut, which Saint Louis made famous, but the baby back loin ribs cut.  Even though it's not "true" Saint Louis barbecue, the city has definitely embraced Pappy's as its own, evident by the line that forms daily.

Story: we were actually in line, and I was deciding between the full slab or half.  While pondering, the guy in front of us helped open the door when the staff was bringing in newly smoked ribs.  One of the staff was so grateful that she cut off two pieces of the rib for the guy to try, and the guy was nice enough to share one with Diana and me!  First bite of the rib, I just stood there in amazement, mouth in a flavor heaven, and I make sounds that I did not think was possible.  Just that one bite was enough to convince me to get the full slab :P

Pappy's Smokehouse

3106 Olive St 

Midtown 

St Louis, MO 63103

pappyssmokehouse.com

Pappy's!

One of the smokers that they have.

Wood for smoking!

 

Waiting in line outside and the line inside.

Some shots of Pappy's.  Very highly rated by Zagat.

Menu.

Hi piggie.

Diana looking at the soda fridge.

Had to try a Fitz's Root Beer.

The three sauces: Sweet Baby Jane, Holly's Hot Sauce, and Pappy's.  I liked the Sweet Baby Jane the most since I like sweeter BBQ sauces.  Holly's got a good bit of kick and Pappy's is more of a vinegar-based sauce.

The ribs, a full slab of the house specialty, dry-rubbed and slow smoked over apple & cherry wood.

Since it is the baby back loin cut, it is much meatier and look at the smoke ring! 

The dry rub here is amazing, and so flavorful that you don't really need any sauce!

But I'm a sauce guy so I alternated between adding all the different sauce or just eating as it is.  Here it is with my favorite, Sweet Baby Jane.

Baked beans, and of course, baked with BBQ sauce.  Sweet.

This is also something unique: fried corn on the cob.  They take a whole ear of corn and just fry it!  Thought it was gonna be greasy but it's actually the opposite.  Pretty tasty.

Diana got a two-meat combo so we could try more.

Beef brisket and pulled pork!

Never seen beef brisket like this.  You can see a bit of the smoke ring.  Super tender.  Definitely not in the same class as the ribs.

Pulled pork!  Out of the two, I definitely liked the pulled pork more, especially with the Sweet Baby Jane and Pappy's sauce.

Sweet potato fries.  

Potato salad.

To be honest, I didn't care too much for the pulled pork, the brisket, or the sides cause I could not stop thinking about how good the ribs were!  It really is the best I've had and it sucks that I can't have in here in LA :[  GAH!  Pappy's = hog heaven.

Charlotte: Queen City [Day 2 & 3]

After I woke up from dreaming about the fried chicken at Mert's, proceeded downstairs for the 2nd day of the conference that was held at Westin Charlotte. They actually had breakfast catered, buffet-style, but to be honest, I was to groggy to take a picture of it so I'll just start from lunch!

Some of the items from the lunch buffet. Pretty damn nice O_O.

The flank steak with chimichurri sauce and caramelized onions was one very delicious. Chimichurri is definitely one of my favorite sauces out there and theirs was a very solid one at that!

At night after the conference, they had a reception right at the Westin Charlotte so stopped by to check it out.

Like last night, they were serving small plates.

First run: carved turkey with biscuit & gravy, prosciutto, Korean beef.

I gotta say... that turkey was one of the moistest turkey I've ever had! And really, the buttery biscuit was just a bonus.

Prosciutto and the Korean beef. The beef was just... beef sauteed in soy sauce?

For the second round, decided to go back and get more of the Korean beef. And after staring at the station for awhile, found out what I suspected was true: beef was just sauteed in the "Korean marinade." Meh, didn't have high hopes that it was gonna be like Korean food in LA, but still, put some more effort, catering company (or Westin)!

This is not edible but all over Westin Charlotte they had a pot filled all sorts of spices that is immersed in oil! They heat up the pot with a burner at the bottom so throughout the hotel you can smell the flagrance from the pots. Amazing. Some citrus peels, cinnamon...

Afterwards, decided to walk around Uptown Charlotte again, taking a different route. Duke Energy Center again.

Saw the BoA Stadium, where Carolina Panthers plays. No wonder there's so many sports bar around the area.

Picture of where I stayed, Westin Charlotte.

After walking around a bit, decided to Yelp for a spot and ended up at Tin Tin Box & Noodles, which is this Japanese fast food joint.

For some reason, "hibachi" is immensely popular in Charlotte, so I decided to check out Tin Tin since they had the highest reviews. Turns out hibachi is just your average teppan.

Went for the Hibachi Combo, which comes with beef, chicken, shrimp, and mushrooms on top of fried rice. It was very... whatevers. Fried rice was sorta cold and the beef & chicken were already precooked. They just heated it on the grill. The shrimp is obviously frozen (no problem with that), but I think it sat in its own thawed out liquid for too long so there's this really fishy taste.

Comes with this "sauce" that people there go crazy for. It's just.. a really mayo-ey sauce with some seasonings.

Should've just ate more fried chicken!

Next day, woke up not too happy from my second dinner. For some reason the lunch they provided didn't look that appetizing to me so I just got some dessert.

Mint yogurt parfait with fruit. Was good when cold, nasty when warm.

Chocolate mousse with hazelnut creme. The little nut cluster at the top was the best part of it. Caramelized sugar + roasted nuts = match made in heaven!

Since our flight was early in the afternoon, we left for the airport early and just chilled. Probably won't be back to Charlotte for awhile, since they switch the location of the conference every year, which is sad since I didn't get a chance to make it out of downtown area for Price's Chicken Coop for the famous fried chicken.

At least I got one fried chicken meal in :P