Bailey's Range - 11/26/2013

Bailey's Range was a disappointment for this girl.  The service was terrible, the food was cold and tasteless.  The company, however, was great.  Wendy's brother was in town and joined us providing me an opportunity to hone my interrogation skills.  He is a very interesting person who left STL for places west without a job or a house.  To me, what he did was extremely brave and provided me with a lot of questions.
 
Back to the food:
Wendy had been told that the onion rings were great and they did look good on the web.  They arrived looking a lot like the picture except that ours were soaking in oil.  The onions have a smokey flavor and although the outside is like a typical onion ring, the actual onion is still on the crispy side and for our tastes could have used a little more cooking time. 
 
The fried pickles were good and the sauce they were served with was interesting.  They easily could have been the highlight.
 
Wendy had a buffalo burger, Andy had the Mediterranean (lamb burger) that he said was good and included a spicy sauce that he enjoyed, and I had the Ahh Jamn Burger - a beef burger with cheddar and bacon jam.  My burger, except for the almost weightless bun (made in house) it was served on lacked flavor and after having Bacon Jam at Three Kings in the Loop that was amazing, I was let down.
 
Wendy also ordered the chili which was thick, but spice less and we asked for a sample of the Beet Soup which intrigued us, but once the server decided that she would try to get us a sample, we were glad that we hadn't ordered the watery broth with chopped beets.

Andy tried the pretzels with a great cheese sauce, the Mr. Q Cucumber soda (I love cucumbers and it would be a perfect thirst quencher on a hot St. Louis night) and because Bailey's has a large drink menu and I wanted to try the Bourbon Basil Tea, Andy - probably wanting to stop my non stop questioning, ordered the drink to share with me.  It was great, but I am of the mind that anything with Bourbon should be good. 

For dessert we had the house made ice cream.  Not nearly as good as Fountains on Locust.

Sorry, Bailey's Range, you won't be on my list of have to return to restaurants.

 

Fountains on Locust 11/12/2013

Fountains on Locust - one word:  Amazing!

The building was constructed in 1916 as the showroom for the Stutz Blackhawk and the Stutz Bearcat, both considered top of the line, high performance sports sedans of the time.  The building is one of the most photographed in St. Louis and its art deco style is the reason!



Wendy and I both enjoyed our desserts and I ordered their Signature Polish Dill Pickle Soup a(from a secret family reciple) potato soup with enough dill to make it a great lunch on Wednesday!
 
For dessert, I had the Banana Bourbon made with a warm butter brown sugar syrup and Boubon (I got a straw to drink the remainder of the syrup) poured over vanilla ice cream and served with bruleed bananas!!!

I was so happy with my choice, I can't even remember what Wendy had!!! Whatever it was, it didn't compare to my dessert!

Momos - 11/19/2013

We had a fun time at Momos - not only was the food good, but the company was great.  It was a damp, chilly evening and we were seated near the fireplace, and because we had an additional person with us, we laughed even more than usual. 

This Greek restaurant likes to serve small portions to share.  Items ordered are brought out one or two at a time whenever they are ready to be delivered to the table (not necessarily in the order they were ordered). 

Wendy, myself and a mature 5th grader shared a dinner of:
Papou - Shell pasta with artichoke hearts, spinach, small pieces of Feta cheese and the best - sun dried tomatoes in a marinara sauce.  This was probably the weakest dish of all that we had, in my opinion.  I'm not a great cook, but could easily replicate this, including the just so-so marinara.

Htipiti - Loved this dip made from roasted red bell peppers, Feta, garlic, capers and olive oil.  The pita bread it was serves with was warm and soft.  Just perfect for this spread.

Bacon-wrapped Olives - don't look for a fancier Greek name, this is what was on the menu.  The green olives were supposedly stuffed with goat cheese - we didn't see any sign of cheese - goat or otherwise - but who can go wrong with olives and bacon.  These 8 little salty delights were served on two skewers over a bed of mixed greens along side the best sweet red wine reduction I've ever tasted.  They could bottle the stuff and I could eat it on salad every day!!! 

Saganaki - the traditional flaming cheese - good, but not great.  I think that I was underwhelmed because I've had it before at every Greek restaurant I've visited.  Nothing to write home about.

Pork Kabab - Three large pieces of pork skewered with onions and peppers served with lemon oregano roasted potatoes with a curry aioli.  Not a big fan of curry, I asked that the aioli be served on the side, but almost regretted that request since the aioli was terrific.  Light on the curry made it a big hit with me and because it was a chilly night, the potatoes were reminiscent of comfort food that my mom made. 

Peach Bread Pudding - What this dish lacked in peaches it more than made up in by way of the caramel sauce that was pour over the top and the fresh fruit that was served along side.  They could easily have just served the fresh apples and strawberries with the caramel sauce and this girl would have been happy.  As it was, the three of us were so full that we couldn't eat more than a bite or two.

The menu says that they have belly dancers nightly, Monday through Saturday, but because we are early diners they were not a part of our adventure.

Would I recommend Momos?  Sure, everyone should try it once and Groupon often offers coupons for Momos.

Little Saigon - 11/12/2013

Little Saigon is located at #10 Euclid not far off Forest Park Parkway (really only about 10 minutes from home although it took us a little longer because of traffic). 

We found street parking with no problem (Wendy has a bike rack on the back of her car that limits our parking abilities) and passed a cute gift shop on our brief walk to the cafe.  Once we arrived, just behind another woman, we were promptly greeted and seated.  There was some conversation about us being a party of three, which neither Wendy or I would have objected to, but the other woman, who had been to the restaraunt before said that she had a cold and that was her reason for being there.  She said that she needed the soup and thought we were better off staying away, so we walked past a small, but nice bar area to get to the our table by the window.

The waiter came for our drink order, although it was difficult to determine who our waiter really was as we were served by a variety of people.  Wendy stuck with water, but I took advantage of the $5.00 Happy Hour prices and had the Lemon Drop Martini complete with sugar around the rim.  It was worth every penny and more.  Lemon is one of my favorite flavors and that drink was refreshingly crisp in addition to being beautiful to look at. 

Next, we ordered appetizers.  We went a little crazy, but we were celebrating Wendy's birthday so we ordered one of her favorites - calamari (I'm not a huge fan, but this was good).  The actual name of the dish was Muc Chiên Giòn and the calamari, though a little chewy was served with a sweet basil lime sauce that they could have given me a straw to drink.  It was really good!!!

Our second appetizer was Cha Saigòn or crispy spring rolls.  They were crispy, but didn't have a whole lot of flavor.  We used the sauce that they were served with initially and then I went back to that basil lime sauce. 

Third, we had Bánh Chiên, little dumplings of shrimp served with soy sauce.  They were good and the reason I had wanted to go to Little Saigon (I am a firm believer that anything wrapped in dough is good).  The dough was light and the shrimp was perfect.

For dinner, we split an order of Com Chiên Trái Thom (pineapple fried rice with shrimp and chicken).  Although beautiful on the plate, it lacked in flavor.  The hot sauce that was brought to the table at our request made up for the blandness of the dish.  The shrimp were good, the pineapple was refreshing, but didn't have a lot of flavor, and the chicken tasted like it had been boiled with no seasoning in the water.  Overall, the taste matched the paleness of the white rice, white shrimp, white chicken and pale pineapple. 

Would I go back to Little Saigon?  Maybe, but there are so many other places that I would like to try that it would not be soon.  Wendy agreed and while Little Saigon has a limited dessert menu, we left and headed back to the car to try a dessert location that Wendy knew would be good. 

On a side note, I convinced Wendy to stop in the little gift shop (it doesn't take much convincing for either of us to shop) where they had really unique items.  I bought a beautifully illustrated book about St. Louis for Wendy and a different one for me (Santa Clause is Coming to St. Louis) to add to my collection of Christmas books and a card made by the Good Will.  I really was interested in a clock that was made of tin in the shape of a chicken.  Her feet moved with each second that passed.  Knowing that I didn't really have a place to hang her saved me $32.00.  Maybe next time!!!

How We Began the Journey

Wendy and I are almost a generation apart.  In fact, I'm old enough to be her mother, but I consider her a friend.  We have a lot of things in common:

• We are opinionated and not afraid to say what we think.
• We graduated from the same high school (a big deal in St. Louis).
• We still live in the neighborhoods we grew up in (she lives just a few doors from her parents and my husband and I moved into my mom's house after she died).
• We have strong moral values, but are both liberal thinkers.
• We are willing to have an adventure when we are dining.
• We are parents of only children (I have a 30 year old daughter and she has an 11 year old son.
• We both are bright, but neither of us finished college.

We are different in a lot of ways, too, which make or Tuesdays even more interesting.

• I am happily (most days) married, she is divorced.
• My parents are both deceased, hers are both living.
• I have one brother, she has two.
• Her parents have a place at THE lake (Lake of the Ozarks) that she frequents and I own property that we refer to as THE farm (that I don't get to often enough).
• I have grandchildren.
• She works nights, I work days.
• She does manual labor and I sit at a desk.
• She hates mushrooms and I love them!
• She is an organizer and I live among my clutter.

The lists could go on and on.  I think it may be enough to say that we are friends.

Several months ago, we decided to go to dinner so that I could tell her my opinions and she could listen!!!  After that first adventure, we decided to do it once a week if possible (sometimes, life gets in the way).

I am going to write after each dining experience, but until next week when I can write on Tuesday nights after dinner or on Wednesday, I'm going to start backwards (because I'll need Wendy to remind me where we've been).

I hope that you'll follow our journey, maybe you'll try some of our choices, and hopefully we'll make you laugh a little along the way!