Saint Louis: Rooster & Bogart's Smokehouse

One thing to do when traveling to a new city is find a brunch place that locals love and uses local ingredients that showcases the food.  I like to find a place like that for brunch because I think brunch has a much more casual dining environment and that you really have to stand out to differentiate yourself from all the other brunch spots.

This time around, I chose Rooster, which is located in downtown St. Louis.  Rooster actually specializes in a variety of crepes, from fruit filled ones to savory crepes, and I don't eat crepes that much so it was a nice change.  I also wanted something very different from what we were gonna eat later, BBQ, and crepes fit the bill!

Rooster

1104 Locust St 

Downtown

St Louis, MO 63102

roosterstl.com

Rooster, located in downtown.  The area was pretty dead when I was there though, with Rooster being the busiest.

 

Front of menu.

 

My fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and Diana's coffee.

I wanted something savory so I went for the Smoked Sirloin #4, which has red onion, arugula, goat cheese, and tomato jam, but instead of red onions, I asked for caramelized onions.

The smoked sirloin.  Thinly sliced sirloin with a nice smoky flavor.  Goat cheese & arugula worked well.  It wasn't until I took the first bite that I realized I was gonna be eating BBQ later too haha.

Tomato jam.  This was what really made this crepe pop.  I have no idea what's in it but that jam is dank!  Has a bit of kick to it sorta like harissa but similar to ketchup too.  Awesome.

Diana's Caramelized Banana & Nuts French Toast.  

French toast is solid and the caramelized banana is a whole banana sliced in half then cooked in sugar. Great crunch from the coated sugar.  I also liked how there's a variety of nuts, like walnuts, pecans, and cashews, instead of just one type like many places.

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Afterwards, we visited the Arch Gateway, walked around a bit to digest, then headed towards the Soulard neighborhood for Zagat's #1 BBQ spot, Bogart's Smokehouse!  Of course I had to compare to it the first BBQ spot I visited in STL, Pappy's.  Funny thing is Pappy's and Bogart's paths intertwine.  The pitmaster and the GM of Pappy's were part of the group that started Pappy's so many think of Bogart's as Pappy's second coming.  Some things may be similar, but Bogart's completely standing its ground against Pappy's!

Funny how the two top BBQ spots in Saint Louis are Memphis-style (dry rub) rather than STL's own saucy BBQ :P

Bogart's Smokehouse

1627 S 9th St 

Soulard

Saint Louis, MO 63104

bogartssmokehouse.com

Bogart's.  Tiny restaurant located next to Soulard Farmer's Market.  Very different from downtown's Pappy's.

Lots of restaurants in STL uses pigs hahah.

The 4 sauces at Bogart's: Sweet Maegan Ann, Voodoo Sauce, Pineapple Express, and Mad Maddie's Vinegar.  I like sweet sauces so Sweet Maegan Ann was my favorite.

Decided to get a combo: half slab ribs & brisket.

The baby back ribs have a darker color while the brisket has a thicker smoke ring than Pappy's.

Very flavorful.  In fact, the dry rub and the finishing glaze is so good that I barely used any sauce for the ribs!  Their final process involves using a torch to caramelize the apricot glaze to achieve the crust and the color!  It is a bit sweeter, but you can still taste the rub and the smoke.  It's tough but I think Pappy's ribs win by a super narrow margin since it is more tender.

Deviled egg potato salad.  Their unique take on a classic side.

Pit-baked beans.  Awesome baked beans and I actually like it here better than Pappy's baked beans.

Diana went for the chicken wings special with coleslaw & pork skins.

Super legit, plump, juicy, flavorful wings.  I can eat these non-stop.  The coleslaw is oil based too so it's much lighter than mayo-based coleslaw.

The pork skins.  It is actually just Old Vienna Pork Rinds, but when you eat it with the Mad Maddie's Vinegar sauce, it's like a party in your mouth!  Vinegar + the seasoned salt + pork skin = one damn good crispy bite.

I think... if I am just talking about ribs, Pappy's baby back is still just a bit better than Bogart's.  Pappy's is just more tender to me, even though the apricot glaze finish on Bogart's is bomb.  However, Bogart's quality is better overall.  It is not as packed, the ribs are good, there are more unique items like the wings, brisket is better, sides are much much tastier, and the people working there are just super friendly.  I am just sad that I will not eat any BBQ even close to those two back home in LA.  Sigh.

San Francisco: San Tung & Nihon

Got some new stuff to talk about!  I haven't done much this summer in terms of food, but I did start off the summer by attending two great music festivals.  Finally, this past weekend, I traveled to San Francisco for a few friend's birthday, and of course, San Francisco is always a top destination for food!

Since I did go up mostly for birthday celebrations, I didn't really plan out what I wanted to eat, but still got to try a few popular places in SF!


San Tung
1031 Irving St
Between 11th Ave & 12th Ave
Inner Sunset
San Francisco, CA 94122
santungrestaurant.com

San Tung is this super popular Chinese restaurant with over 2800+ reviews on Yelp and still maintains 4 stars!  Quite amazing.  There's always a wait so rather than heading into Inner Sunset, we ordered take out!  Talk to anybody in SF, and they'll take you that the bread & butter of San Tung is their legendary "dry" chicken wings.

Not really "dry" since it does have a sweet & savory sauce over it.  I'm sure the "dry" refers to the Chinese word "乾炒" which literally means "dry stir fry," and that loosely means frying in the wok.  By the time we got it, the skin wasn't really that crispy anymore but it was still good.  Next time, gotta go there and try the wings hot.

Ordered a few types of dumplings.  Pork & Chive was definitely my favorite.

Pork & Cabbage.  Nice subtly sweetness from the cabbage.

String beans, which is always a favorite dish of mine at Chinese restaurants.  At San Tung, it has a noticeably sweeter flavor to it.  There's also a good amount of preserved mustard tuber.  

Combo fried rice.  For sure would've been better if we had it at the restaurant.

We also got these bigger dumplings.... I liked the other two better :P

Seafood sesame noodle.  I'm a huge fan of sesame noodles, but at San Tung, it has a really sweet sesame sauce, so I wasn't a big fan of it.  They packed the noodle and sauce separately to prevent it from getting mushy.  Good call. 

Black bean noodle (zhajiangmian).  I actually liked this one... not what I am used to for zhajiangmian but I like how it is not overly salty like many places!

Glad I finally got to try San Tung, although after the meal, I have decided that I must check out the place for myself to really see if I liked the place or not.  While it is convenient that we did take out, the long drive back from one end of the city to the other probably cooled the food down so it's not as enjoyable!

After lunch, we headed towards Biergarten for some outdoor boozing.  

Cool spot but damn that loooong line just for beer.  Love the litre mugs!


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Afterwards, we walked to Nihon Whisky Lounge, which is another popular place with high ratings on Yelp.  I was told they had the West Coast's biggest whisky collection, and we did have a few whisky drinkers in our group so we were pretty damn excited.

We actually went there for happy hour and during happy hour, they have many of their menu items and drinks at half off!  I did have a bit of reservation about the food at this place.  I was afraid of it being... "washed down" or fusion to suit the taste of people, and I guessed right.

Oh took these with my iPhone since I didn't have my camera at the time... so quality and lighting is gonna suck.  A lot :P


Nihon Whisky Lounge
1779 Folsom St
Between Erie St & 14th St
Mission
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.dajanigroup.net/

Oimo no Tempura with mountain potato, taro, and sweet potato with a sweet & sour sauce and pink salt.  Loved the taro!  It's been awhile since I got to have fried taro.  Great tempura batter.

Washu Gyu no Tataki with seared US Kobe beef with yuzu sesame dressing.  There's a nice peppery crust on the Kobe.  Beautiful marbling too.

Yukke with raw US Kobe beef (hanger cut) marinated with garlic sesame soy sauce.  Probably my favorite.  It really is raw beef but that marinade is right on and even though it is a hanger cut, which usually means it is really chewy, that Kobe beef was amazingly tender.

This was when it began to feel like the place was just... meh.  Nihon - flash fried breaded walu & tuna with sweet soy sauce & lemon aioli.  

Teba Karaage - Japanese style buffalo wings.  After eating so many wings for lunch.... definitely was not craving more wings haha.  I gotta admit, the seasoned sesame is a nice touch though.

Hamachi Shiitake with shiitake mushroom stuffed with hamachi, tempura fried, served with sweet chili & sweet soy sauce.  I loved the shiitake mushroom and the hamachi with the crunchy tempura but c'mon... the sauce is pretty damn generic and ruined the shiitake.

Dynamite with baked seafood, sautéed onion & shiitake mushroom in dynamite sauce.  Not a big fan of mayo, and I don't think I ever will be so I've never been a huge fan of dynamite.  Cool presentation though!  They light up the plate so the it can heat the bowl and warm up the dish.

Samurai Roll with spicy tuna & jalapeño, topped with tuna, avocado & habañero tobiko.  Meh, was hoping for some quick from the spicy tuna and jalapeño, but none.

Tori - grilled chicken with soy glaze.  The soy glaze, which is just their version of teriyaki sauce, was sorta... fruity?  Something was a bit off about it :P

Butabara, which is gilled pork belly.  I wish they had some sesame oil & salt for this hahah.

Funny, the only picture of the drinks there that I took was this one I took on Instagram, Peat's Old Fashioned.  They added sugar to it so it was very sweet, and it seems pretty watered down.  Two rocks only too...

Even though my drink was only so-so, the drinks others ordered were pretty spectacular.  Was not feeling the food since I'm still a fan of more authentic Japanese food.  Our server was a huge fail too.  She was just rude so it did ruin our experience.

Next up, Pizzeria Delfina!

Taipei: Buffet Madness with Family - Day 1 (Pt. 1)

After arriving in TPE at 10pm, then out until 4am, I was surprised that I was able to wake up at 9am, and leave from Diana's place to 新光三越 Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11 Store for a Sunday lunch with my mom's side of the family. Jet lag didn't hit me hit so I was ready to feast!

I haven't seen that side of the family for over 8 years so imagine how surprised I was when I found out one of my cousin is already a freshman attending college! The last time I saw her she was just starting middle school. Seeing her and the new baby cousin made me feel super old... But of course, what better way to rekindle and catch up than pigging out at a top notch Japanese buffet?

My aunt decided on 欣葉 Shin Yeh, which is one of my favorite buffets anywhere! High quality Japanese food with few items changed to suit a Taiwanese's palate, but for the most part, fairly authentic Japanese items. It's pricey, at $750 NT, even for US's standards but it's definitely worth it! There's several locations but they chose the A11 since it was closer to the bus transfer station.

欣葉日式自助料理 Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet

台北市松壽路11號5樓

新光三越信義店A11館

SongShou Road #11 5F, Taipei City

ShinYi Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11

Shin Yeh Japanese Buffet!

The drinks station. They have espresso machine, juices, Calpico, cocktails, and even all the beer you want!

Sashimi and cold item section.

Hot food section. My favorite part of the buffet.

Selection of fruits.

This station is a little bit more random, with a variety of salads, steamed items, noodles, and rice.

One of Shin Yeh's most popular item, huge tempura shrimp!

Grilled chicken wings. Lighting seasoned.

Kama, aka fish collar! Nothing crazy like salmon or hamachi fish collar but for a buffet, this is awesome! I don't know what fish it is but I never turn away from a fatty piece of fish collar :D

The wings are prefect with a little bit of white pepper salt.

The fish collar. Grilled with only salt so again, perfect with a bit of white pepper! I think I must've ate 10 of these. They are pretty small :P

Some type of grilled fish. My aunt told me the fish is pretty expensive in Taiwan. No clue what it is but I'm guessing it is 竹魚, which is Japanese horsemackerel.

Unlimited sashimi! Tuna, salmon, swordfish, whitefish!

More sashimi! This time with smoked shark!

The always popular shrimp tempura. It's the combination of huge fresh shrimp with prefect flaky tempura batter, and always fresh-fried.

Chicken cartilage! Weird to some people cause they can't stand the soft and crunchy texture but I love it!

Duck fried rice? Yes.

Started out with a coke cause I was craving it for some reason :P All sodas come in tiny bottles!

Cold soba noodles.

Fried rice and udon.

This is the "healthy living" section with healthy tea pot & steamed egg.

Pork sukiyaki! There's a huge controversy with beef right now due to politicians being stupid so there's essentially no beef on the menu right now.

Salmon roe handroll and shrimp hand roll. I like how the salmon roe handroll is not stuffed with rice. The shrimp handroll is my favorite out of the two cabbage, shrimp, bonito flakes, peanut powder, and a little of Japanese mayo!

Salmon belly miso soup. Miso + seafood is so simple but so good.

Some Calpico to wash it all down!

Now, this is the "healthy" tea pot.

What is it? Well it is essentially just water boiled with some ingredients that are good for you body.

Clams, shrimp, chicken, ginger etc. It 's all about the essence and the flavor.

Steamed egg. So smooooth. Japanese's steamed egg is the best.

Ham carving station. Again, this used to be roast beef or something but Taiwanese people are freaking out about beef because US beef is added with leanness enhancing additives. Meh... been eating beef all my life...

Popular flavors of vinegar drinks! For awhile, flavored vinegar was extremely popular in Taiwan because, well, vinegar is good for you! Looks like people still love it. Personally, I can only take 1 or 2.

For desserts, I started out with red bean soup with hot 湯圓 tang yuan and boba. Japanese buffet offering boba as a topping? Taiwan's buffet is awesome.

Chocolate fountain! I'm sure this is better than the crap Golden Corral serves.

More Asian sweets & pastries.

Ended up with chocolate-covered marshmallow, chocolate-covered tomato, mochi, creme-filled bread, and sesame ball.

Chocolate-covered marshmallow & tomato. I admit, I'm not a good chocolatier :P

Creme-filled bread. Soft spongy bread that's filled with vanilla creme.

Mochi dusted with peanut powder and sesame ball. More traditional items.

Went for more and got creme brulee with a cup of cappucino!

Now... for some reason the milk in Asia always have a much stronger milky flavor so any items that have dairy in it, you get a more flagrant, milky flavor out of it. This creme brulee was so rich, thanks to the milk!

I had to save some room for the fruits!

Guava and passionfruit. The green guava is my favorite fruit! None of these in the US so I always eat as much as I can.

蓮霧 lian wu and starfruit! Again, two fruits that I can't find in the States! Lian wu is also called wax apple, and another one of my favorites.

Decided to end the meal with something cold! It used to be Haagen Daaz but I don't think it is anymore.

Went for the mango and red bean. For the mango, if you've had any Asian mango-flavored candy, you'll know that the flavor is very different from any Western flavored mango food items.

Even though I've been to Shin Yeh several times, I really tried to try everything at least once this time around, so by the end... I was stuffed beyond belief. Funny thing was I didn't even realize I ate that much because I was talking to my relatives for the majority of the meal and not paying attention to exactly how much I've ate.