It may seem like every beer advertisement in history exalts the alluring, even sensual, appeal of a thick and creamy layer of foam sloshing over a mug of beer. But for generations, from corner bars to college keggers, foam has been under-appreciated, maligned even. Some view a foamy head as a rip-off, occupying valuable real estate that could be better filled with more beer. Gotta get your money’s worth, right? Not so fast. The American way of pouring and drinking beer is changing as fast as your local brewpub changes their kegs on a Saturday night. Driven by craft breweries, beer nerds and an influx of bars celebrating European approaches to pouring, beer foam is now desirable. 

It makes sense. Beer and foam are inseparable; you can’t have one without the other. Foam is often our first impression of the beer. Paraphrasing an old saying, Jonathan Moxey, head brewer at Rockwell Beer Co., said we drink with our eyes. “If it’s got a beautiful head of foam on it, that’s very inviting. It’s mind-blowing,” he said. Without that head, Moxey added, “It’s like a glass of iced tea with no ice in it … it’s weak sauce.” 

“Aesthetically, it’s how you want your beer to look,” said Manny Negron, owner of Little Lager. “Foam makes the beer seem alive.” Negron’s postage stamp-sized bar pours a large rotation of lagers from seven Czech-made Lukr side-pull taps specifically designed to blend carbon dioxide with the beer to produce a tighter, creamier wet foam that’s as drinkable as the beer itself – without the burpiness. 

American beer culture has historically valued quantity over quality. “Beer foam is definitely something you learn to appreciate the more you know about beer,” said Danielle Snowden, head brewer at Earthbound Beer. Snowden recalls pouring a beer with a good head on it, “Only to have some older gentleman tell me to fill it up all the way, and that he didn’t want any foam.” A teachable moment, perhaps, “But in the end I would always just fill it up and tell them they were missing out on the aromatics,” she said. 

Jeff Hardesty, head brewer at Narrow Gauge Brewing Co., said that attitude is changing. “A lot of the foam comes from the pour,” he said. “You can have a beer that is foam-positive, but if it’s poured like a lot of bartenders do [pouring] Bud Light to the rim, that’s where a lot of the old mentality of ‘no foam’ comes from.” The new appreciation for a foamy pint is a good thing, Hardesty said, because a good head of foam is one of the crucial attributes of beer. “It helps aid in pushing some of the aroma out of the beer into the drinker’s nose … and helps with mouthfeel, adding more creaminess and bringing out more flavor profiles,” he said. 

Beer aromatics and head retention are dictated by the chemistry of many components: grain, malt, hops, the percentage and type of carbonation, and even the glassware used to serve the final product. According to Snowden at Earthbound, “So many things can affect head retention, but the main one starts with your grain bill.” She brews every beer with foam-enhancing crystal malts because of their higher protein level, which she said contributes to better foam. “This adds so much to the beer while also adding so little – it’s very interesting,” she said. 

Since Little Lager serves lagers from all over, Negron relies on the Lukr side-pull taps to achieve the perfect foam cap. “The typical American faucet is like an on-off switch,” he explained. “Trying to restrict the flow will produce a blast of airy foam, but it will dissipate quickly.” Foam is so integral to the Czech beer drinking experience that Little Lager serves a “milk pour,” or mliko (Czech for “milk”). This is a beverage in itself: a full glass of wet, dense foam designed to be enjoyed quickly before it settles into beer. Depending on the style of beer at hand, a milk pour can contain so much aroma and flavor in the foam that Negron said, “It can taste almost like a smoothie.” 

The other variable in maintaining head retention is glassware and cleanliness. “Beer glasses are just like wine glasses in that they offer something different depending on the variety,” Snowden said. “Having a dirty glass [whether from smudges, oils or detergent] or a glass that hasn’t been cleaned properly can absolutely kill head retention.”

Jonathan Moxey at Rockwell agrees. “We can do everything right on our end to produce quality beer, but if it’s served through a dirty line or in a dirty glass it’s not going to taste great, it’s not going to look great, it’s not going to smell great,” he said. Moxey wants to see that foam atop his beer. “If you have a beer with no head on it and one that’s poured into a properly clean glass with a nice head of foam on it, you will have two different experiences drinking the exact same beer, because the foam acts as a cap on top of the beer.” 

Still not convinced? Dylan Mosley, head brewer at Civil Life Brewing Co., waxes poetic on the experience of being served a perfectly presented beer with nice fat cap of foam: “It’s that bit of magic where you step off the plane and you’re on vacation and the temperature is exactly right and the air smells like an ocean breeze and your luggage comes right on the carousel and everything is perfect.”

The post Why St. Louis brewers think you should be drinking beer foam appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

By any measure, the gold standard for bagel making is the New York method: simmering a ring of flour, yeast and malt-based raised dough in hot water, then baking it until shiny and glazed with a chewy interior texture. Given the large number of New Yorkers and Jewish people who have settled here over the years, St. Louis’ relative paucity of traditional boiled-and-baked bagel bakeries has always been a mystery.

After Pratzel’s Bakery closed in 2012 and the Bagel Factory closed in 2022, local bagel lovers have mostly had to endure frozen brands or fluffy bread-like simulations trying to pass for the real deal. But just when we thought we’d never eat another salt or onion or tzitzel water bagel, we’ve seen four new retail bagelries launch in the metro area in 2023 alone. Our favorite is Bagel Union, at the corner of Big Bend Boulevard and South Elm Avenue in Webster Groves. Co-owners Sean Netzer and Ted Wilson do for the modest bagel what they did for fresh baked bread and superb pizza and sandwiches at Union Loafers Café and Bread Bakery. Netzer and Wilson are obsessive about their bagels – their research for Bagel Union took them to New York City, where they drew inspiration from visits to favorite bagel shops including Shelsky’s and Absolute Bagels.

With over 10 types of bagel and a minimum of five varieties of schmear at any given time, Bagel Union will satisfy even the most ardent bagel snob. The classics are present – onion, salt, egg and plain – along with the expected everything, poppy seed, whole wheat and sesame seed bagels. Then there’s the tzitzelnickel, a rolled-in-cornmeal pumpernickel bagel inspired by tzitzel rye bread, a St. Louis classic that Pratzel’s Bakery in particular was renowned for. For a couple bucks more, there’s a cheese bagel featuring a rotating combination of cheeses (Chihuahua and cheddar, for example), available daily at 9:30 a.m. Three non-savory bagels are available: cherry crunch, blueberry and carrot. Bagel Union sources plain cream cheese from Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. – they use this as the base for other flavors like scallion, veggie, lox and jalapeno. Great coffee is a must with great bagels; locally based Coma Coffee roasts a blend of single-origin beans exclusively for Bagel Union.

Several bagel sandwiches and spreadable salads round out the menu, including the taste bud-tingling Iggy sandwich with hot-smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, Passenger Foods‘ chile crisp, and cilantro salad on tzitzelnickel (or your choice of bagel). If you like Union Loafers’ smoked beet sandwich, the Goldie Lox is for you: It pairs smoked golden beets with cream cheese, pickled shallot, dill and lemon oil. Chicken, egg, spicy tuna, and smoked trout salads are perfect with any bagel you choose.

After years of playing second (or 10th) fiddle to New York bagels, St. Louis is boiling and baking its way toward a bagel renaissance – and Bagel Union is leading the way.

The post Best New Restaurants 2023 // No. 2 Bagel Union appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

You’ve likely eaten Thai food here before, back when it was Tei Too, the compact pan-Asian eatery in Webster Groves that dished out satay and noodles along with Thai favorites. What you may not have known was that when owner Ann Bognar sold the restaurant to her sister, Su Hill of Cape Girardeau, she was continuing its connection to one of St. Louis’ most successful family dynasties of restaurateurs.

Hill still lives in Cape, where she has owned and operated the thriving Bistro Saffron for 20-plus years. When she re-opened the Tei Too space as Chiang Mai in 2020, smack in the middle of the pandemic, she knew she didn’t want to do another Thai restaurant like everybody else, meaning Thai cuisine associated with Bangkok and further south. “I thought, ‘Let’s introduce something small, like the food we grew up with, like mom made us,'” Hill said. Naming the restaurant after the city where she grew up, Hill narrowed the menu, thus filling a void in the local Thai cuisine scene. Dishes here use less sugar, salt and cream, instead leaning into the aromatic herbs and produce (cilantro, green onion, toasted garlic), complex broths and sauces, and hearty grilled meats indicative of the region.

Of her family’s recipes, Hill explained, “You have to narrow down to what you are so proud of and make it fresh. Don’t just throw everything into the same sauce.” (Of the 10 Best New Restaurants this magazine ranked in 2020, Chiang Mai came in at No. 4; a remarkable achievement given what a hellish year it was for dining out.)

Hill is particularly proud of her sai oua, a northern Thai sausage specialty consisting of fatty pork blended with lots of aromatic herbs and spices, particularly lemongrass but also garlic, turmeric, chiles, galangal and Hill’s own curry paste. The result is a fragrant, fiery sausage unlike any you have ever had. Hill not only has it especially made for the restaurant by Reis Meat, a family-owned meat processing plant in Jackson, Missouri, but is on site to blend the spices and ensure quality. It’s so labor intensive that when Hill first started making it for Chiang Mai during the pandemic, she had second thoughts. “Then I thought about my mom [who] spent all this time making it when we were young. There’s a history,” she said. History, and a process: All in all, these fat, juicy, Robusto cigar-sized beauties take two days to make. Served with sticky rice and cold, crunchy cabbage, this is a must-have if you must limit yourself to just one pork dish.

For the first couple of years, Hill was constantly running between her two restaurants, training Chiang Mai staff in the intricacies of the family recipes and monitoring quality while keeping Bistro Saffron in the black. Through it all, Hill, her sisters and their families supported each other, often helping out and sharing staff between their restaurants: Ann Bognar’s Nippon Tei; Bognar’s son Nick’s Indo; Whitney Yoon’s Sushi Koi; and Nina Prapaisilpa’s Rice Thai Bistro.

As the second oldest child in her large family, the plan was for Hill to attend university in the U.S. to study business and return home to help with her father’s import-export business; but just as she was graduating from Memphis State, her father died unexpectedly after having one of the first heart valve replacement surgeries in Thailand. That’s when she decided to stay here, because her father had told her, “I needed to think ahead and think of ways to do different things. Because you never know what will happen next, and I don’t know when I will see you again. Never settle for what you have today.”

Over time, other siblings followed her to study and work in the U.S., including her younger brother, who opened a noodle shop in Cape. After he and his family moved to St. Louis, Hill bought his shop, eventually evolving it into Bistro Saffron and moving to a larger space. Her mother’s death a few years ago prompted Hill to decide she needed to continue her heritage, seeding the idea behind Chiang Mai.

Much of Thai food culture revolves around sharing, Hill noted, and the small plates portion of Chiang Mai’s menu is perfect for either communal or solo snacking. In addition to those revelatory pork sausages, nua sawaan brings strips of crispy, flash-fried beef speckled with coriander seed, balanced with accents of palm sugar and sea salt.

The rest of the menu comprises larger plates, some noodle dishes (perfect for those stopping in for a quick lunch), and a section of familiar curry dishes. Fall-off-the-bone gra dook moo (roasted baby back ribs) marinated in honey, garlic and pepper, came with a side of nam pla, an umami bomb condiment made with fish sauce, lime juice and scallions for a punch. The tangy, complex northern Thai curry used in Hill’s gaeng hung lay (braised pork curry) is delicate but with hidden depths of pungency emanating from herb paste, turmeric, curry powder and other spices.

Diners can’t get enough of the khao soi, a hearty chicken and coconut curry soup with roots in India; it then traveled to Myanmar, along the northern Thai border. In Hill’s version, two chicken legs are the centerpiece in a big bowl of creamy, shimmering burnt orange curry broth that defines its sweet-hot delicacy, chock-a-block with red onion, shredded cabbage and Thai mustard greens, crowned with a tangle of fried egg noodles. Many words have been written extolling the transcendent nature of this signature dish, but they all fade when you submerge the noodles into the broth to soften and start picking away at the chicken legs while slurping that soul-satisfying broth. While paying, I noticed, next to the cash register, the chalkboard advertising a variety of Chiang Mai’s dishes. Its headline, “Simple Thai,” rang true.

Where
Chiang Mai, 8158 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314.961.8889, chiangmaistl.com

Don’t Miss Dishes
Sai oua, gaeng hung lay, khao soi, gra dook moo

Vibe
Simple aesthetic that fills up fast and empties out just as quickly on a weekend night.

Entrée Prices
$14 to $20

When
Tue. – Thu. noon to 8 p.m.; Fri. – Sat. 2 to 9 p.m.

The post Review: Chiang Mai in Webster Groves appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Bernie Lee has his own style. You notice it immediately upon entering Akar, his intimate restaurant at the end of Wydown Boulevard in Clayton. His keen sense of design helps explain the sleek decor: A single sconce of flowers jutting out from the main wall textured and glazed in shades of gray; iron pipe-and-dark wood shelving displaying locally made plates, glassware and jar candles designed by Lee, set against a wall of subway tile; large, fabric-like metal net chandeliers, handmade in Bali to Lee’s specifications, hanging from a tin ceiling. Even the color and texture of the staff aprons convey Lee’s sense of fashion: “It took a long time to find what I like,” he noted.

And Bernie Lee knows what he likes. More so than with his past restaurant ventures (609, Hiro Asian Kitchen, Hiro Poke Co.), he is now much more interested in sharing those likes than trying to meet constantly shifting customer demands and desires. With Akar, the entire concept, from the interior design to the menu, is much more personal. “People who know me have said, ‘Oh my God, you brought your living room here,'” Lee explained in a phone interview. Akar also reflects more of his Malaysian roots, so much so that he named it after the Malay word for roots.

Following Akar’s opening in June 2019, this magazine chose it as one of that year’s Best New Restaurants, describing it as “a love letter to Lee’s past” where he gets to cook whatever he wants. A chef and owner of their own restaurant cooking whatever they want may not sound unusual, but it wasn’t that easy for him. “I always designed the menus of my other restaurants for everybody else,” he explained.

“I’ve been doing Akar’s menu for the past 10 years at home when I’m entertaining guests, and for years my friends would say ‘Bernie, you have to put this on the menu,'” he explained. But he worried about how his ideas would be accepted, especially given the popularity of Hiro where he had to fill its huge dining room by essentially meeting customer demand all the time. “So, I held back.”

Lee said he’s more focused and truer to himself now. He wanted to showcase his Malaysian heritage without limiting what has inspired him through his travels around the world. “Akar’s flavor profile and food combination is exactly how I like to eat,” he said. “I designed the whole concept for myself, food for myself and what I would enjoy,” he said. “I’m sharing with St. Louis who I am, where I’m from and what my history is.”

Bernie Lee’s begins in his grandmother’s kitchen. Growing up in the northernmost region of Malaysia in a large household where women did all the cooking, Lee spent a lot time in the kitchen for two reasons: He didn’t much like outdoor activities, and more importantly, he knew he could always get the first bite ahead of the other kids.

Whether he realized it or not, sitting in that vibrant kitchen surrounded by multiple generations of Lee women cooking and gossiping, he was absorbing and learning. “Almost every day I watched how they prep, how they cook, and how they talk,” Lee said. He attributes the influence of his mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, all passing down their culinary knowledge, traditions and techniques as his roots and the inspiration for who he is today, even if all he wanted back then was to be first in line.

Lee’s more recent history entails calling St. Louis home for over 20 years. Without knowing anything about where or what St. Louis was, he moved here to attend UMSL to study business management. He told his school advisor in Malaysia that he wanted to be in a city without a large Asian community so he could push himself to learn the culture and language.

Akar’s food is infused with much of that same boldness. A plate of fried okra bites featured cubes of the golden fried pod tossed with gojuchang sauce, crushed peanuts and scallions. Pairing with a glass prosecco made for the perfect combination of acidic tart bubbles cutting through sweet and spicy crispiness.

Lee learned from his mother that food feeds the body and the soul and allows people to come together. “Every [dish] that we create and design, when people eat it, they will have some sort of comfort and be reminded of something,” he said. His char siu chicken is such a dish: An airline-cut breast, marinated overnight in rice wine, hoisin, soy, garlic, Chinese five-spice powder and brown sugar, is seared and roasted, accompanied with black rice and chopped garlic, and crowned with charred broccolini, pickled Fresno chiles and candied sunflower seeds. “Many Asian clientele tell me that it reminds them of home, reminds them of their mother, or reminds them somewhere they ate in Asia,” Lee said.

Lee doesn’t change the menu with the seasons: “I change with feeling whenever I want,” he said. “People tell me that lamb and duck are fall and winter dishes. The entire summer I ran duck and lamb, and they sold out every night. It proved to me that food is food. Why limit yourself?” A duck breast special available on one visit, brined in oolong tea and seared to a beautiful pink hue with crisp skin, served as a good reminder of that advice.

Lee’s vision for Akar hasn’t changed since opening, but he’s been pleasantly surprised by how well diners have accepted his widescreen culinary approach by trying out new flavors and spices. The gnocchi dish provided a fitting example: dumplings tossed in Malaysian curry with an umami-rich mushroom confit, crispy chickpeas and bits of broccoli all topped with vibrant purple pansy petals. “I really believe that during lockdown, people were searching for new ideas and learned about new foods. We’re all human, we all want to know what’s going out there besides just fried chicken and steak,” he said.

That thinking carries over to Akar’s beverage program with a handful of creative cocktails (try the Serai, made with lemongrass-infused tequila, cilantro liqueur, and Thai chile syrup), a well-curated wine selection of around 60 bottles of old and new world selections, and, in a rare and welcome touch, about a dozen half (375 ml) bottle choices. “Being an Asian restaurant, I wanted to focus on Asian spirits,” he said. “And half bottles of wine allow more freedom to try different wines with different food.”

It’s worth paying attention not only to the food you’re eating but also to what you’re eating it off of at Akar. The majority of the ceramic ware was designed by Lee and handmade by local artist-musician Jeremy Segel-Moss of Cherokee Street Ceramics; these are stamped with Lee’s signature hibiscus logo, the national flower of Malaysia.

Lee opened Akar in June 2019. Eight months later the world shut down. When asked what he did to pivot, he explained that as an immigrant, your survival instinct kicks in. “I don’t have family here to back me up, I don’t have partners, I’m on my own. I pretty much lived in Akar seven days a week for 15 months.” In that time, Lee said he learned “to be true to myself, do what I love, and give 110% effort.” With plans to expand next door on track and an expanded champagne selection in the works, Bernie Lee knows how to get the job done.

Editor’s note: Dishes and their descriptions reflect the menu at the time of the writer’s visit. Akar’s menu changes frequently, and some dishes may no longer be available or may be prepared differently.

Where: Akar, 7641 Wydown Blvd., Clayton, MO, 63105, 314.553.9914, akarstl.com
Don’t Miss Dishes: If available: fried okra, short rib, gnocchi, char siu chicken
Vibe: So much sophistication in such a small, sleek space. Heated patio seating is also available.
Entree Prices: $26-$41
When: Tue. – Sunday, 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The post Review: Akar in Clayton appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Steven Rui Pursley wants to expand St. Louis’ ramen culture. It’s why he wants to get you into his new, little noodle shop, Menya Rui: to slurp up one of his brothy shoyu ramen soups, yes, but then to come back to try the other two styles he offers: mazemen and tsukemen. That you may have never encountered these is exactly what Pursley sees as his competitive advantage.

“Ramen culture is so vast, with so many nooks and crannies and subgenres and sub-subgenres and regional differences that you could write a fat-ass book about it,” Pursley noted. “It’s easy to get into and, once you do, there are so many places to explore, and that’s the appeal of it.”

Remember the lovely Japanese movie , “Tampopo,” with Ken Watanabe’s character searching for the perfect bowl of ramen? Or “The Ramen Girl,” in which Brittany Murphy’s character apprentices at a Tokyo ramen shop under a tyrannical ramen master? Pursley understands the dedication depicted in those films after spending three years in Japan researching ramen and working in several noodle shops.

When he emerged from the ramen rabbit hole and moved back to St. Louis in 2017, he knew he had to share what he learned about ramen’s vast landscape with the city’s diners.

While in Japan, Pursley worked in four different shops, absorbing everything from making soup to the different types of tare (the broth’s base seasoning) and even a bit of noodle making. It’s why he and his younger sister, Erika Pursley, crank out mountains of thick and thin wheat dough noodles several times a week, using an old commercial noodle maker he imported from Japan. “There was a period where I wasn’t going to make my own noodles, but it’s definitely taken it to the next level,” Pursley said. “Once I bought my noodle machine and started tinkering with recipes, I’ve grown a lot in that area and think it’s definitely paid off.”

Then there is the broth. Of the four main ramen broth flavor profiles – shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso (fermented soybeans) and tonkotsu (pork bones) – Pursley only offers shoyu. “Before I moved to Japan, I was definitely stuck on doing tonkotsu, just because I thought that if [the broth] is clear, then it’s not going be as tasty or hit as hard,” he explained. While working in one particular ramen shop, however, he gained a new appreciation for a light, clear broth made by simmering chicken and pork bones low and slow for hours. “Once I started eating [shoyu] all the time at staff meals, I began to understand the nuances and fell in love with it as opposed to the tonkotsu.”

Growing up , Pursley wasn’t eating ramen, but his Japanese mother, Misae Pursley, made stir-fries and other Japanese dishes often enough that “at least half the nights we were eating with chopsticks. It’s something I always enjoyed,” he said. Pursley credits his mom’s home cooking and having Japanese food throughout his life with keeping him connected to the culture. “It always kept me rooted,” he noted.

Pursley’s parents met while his father was stationed in Japan, and during his first 10 years he mostly lived in Okinawa, where his mom grew up, and from then on lived semi-permanently in Missouri. Even after settling in the States for good around 1999 in Union, Missouri, the family spent summers in Japan, where his mom insisted Pursley and his sisters attend Japanese school, “which we all hated at the time, but I’m thankful for it now,” he said.

Pursley was inspired to return to Japan in 2014. After graduating from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2013, he had briefly considered pursuing law or engineering, but Japan kept calling. “Half of my decision to move back was to learn ramen, [to] train and gain some skills to hopefully one day come back and open up a shop,” Pursley explained. Identity, specifically his Japanese heritage, drove the other half: “There were definitely some things to figure out, and I wanted to explore that side of myself and take advantage of being half Japanese to live over there as an adult,” he said.

When Pursley moved back, he noticed most ramen shops in St. Louis, and the U.S. in general, served tonkotsu. “But to be competitive, I wanted to show people something new,” he said. If you are used to tonkotsu broth, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by shoyu’s subtler, but no less savory, umami flavor.

Menya Rui’s menu – which is as compact as the postage stamp-sized space – includes two appetizers that you’ll want to order on each visit: karaage, Japanese fried chicken nuggets served with lemon and Kewpie mayo, and the house cucumbers served one of two ways, either pickled or fresh and dressed with miso. Three categories of ramen round out the menu: noodle soups made for slurping; two brothless mazemen, eaten like pasta; and one tsukemen, for dipping. In the soup category, Pursley serves three versions, each with different flavor profiles: tantanmen, a Japanese version of Sichuan dan-dan noodles with ground pork and a brick-red hue from the aromatic chile oil and sesame paste; chicken shoyu, suffused with aromatic chicken oil and topped with a slice of braised pork shoulder; and pork shoyu, with gorgeous globules of glistening, porky schmaltz and more of that pork shoulder. All come with the same three toppings of menma ( seasoned bamboo shoots), scallion and nori (dried seaweed); for an extra buck, you should add the traditional custardy soft-boiled egg for the full ramen soup experience.

Slurping noodles from a steaming bowl of broth is great, but it’s not the only way to enjoy ramen. While the pork shoyu is the biggest seller, Pursley really wants you to try his tsukemen and mazemen, two increasingly popular and fun ways of eating noodles. The former involves dipping thick and chewy cold-rinsed noodles into a saltier, more potent broth. You might think of it as deconstructed ramen, where the noodles and soup are served separately to keep the noodles cool and firm – perfect for the summer months. The mazemen, on the other hand, omits most of the broth and instead is eaten like pasta. The tantanmen uses the same ingredients as the soup version (chile oil, sesame paste, ground pork), but with just a splash of house shoyu, the flavor was much more pronounced.

For most of his childhood, Pursley said he was hesitant to talk about his Japanese middle name, Rui, because it often caused more confusion than understanding. When naming the restaurant, Pursley knew he wanted to include it, just as he did with his pop-up series, Ramen x Rui, as a way to own it. He changed Ramen to Menya (“men” translated from Japanese is noodle, “ya” is shop). “By naming it Menya, I wanted to get away from just ramen, to push the culture and expand it a bit,” he said.

Pursley explained that the Japanese character for “Rui” means the “base” or “foundation” of something, which Pursley seems to have found with his little noodle house.

Where
3453 Hampton Ave., St. Louis, 314.601.3524, menyarui.square.site

Don’t-Miss Dishes
Pork shoyu, original tsukemen, mazemen

Vibe
The size of a bento box with seating for 24 (and no outdoor seating), Menya Rui buzzes with conviviality and conversation. On weekends, the wait line outside can be long but moves relatively quickly. Dine-in only, no carryout or delivery. Water, canned green tea and bottles of Excel orange soda are served. No BYOB.

Entrée Prices
$13 to $15

When
Thu. to Sun. – 5 to 10 p.m.

The post Review: Menya Rui in Lindenwood Park appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

The night began, as it always does at Jalea, with a little ramekin of cancha to mindlessly snack on while perusing the menu. These large, pan-roasted Peruvian corn kernels pop from the inside out, making them crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside; they’re as addictive as commercial Corn Nuts minus the fear of shattering a tooth. I could spend an afternoon munching handfuls of cancha while sipping easy-drinking Pisco sours, which exemplifies the spirit and relaxed feeling of Jalea.

Siblings Andrew Enrique and Samantha “Mimi” Cisneros (he runs the kitchen while she handles operations) opened their Peruvian bistro in December, on the cobblestoned Main Street of downtown St. Charles in a cozy, brick-walled space once home to The Red Sun sushi restaurant.

Jalea may be 29-year-old Andrew Cisneros‘ first outing as a chef-owner, but he’s already amassed an impressive resume, from bussing tables and cooking at Jim Edmond’s 15 Steakhouse while in culinary school to lending a hand at Mike Randolph’s short-lived Original J’s Tex-Mex Barbecue. In between, Cisneros honed his skills at the St. Louis Club and The Copper Pig before cooking at some of St. Louis’s finest restaurants: Randolph’s Privado, Ben Poremba’s Elaia and Gerard Craft’s Dia’s Room at Cinder House. He even spent a year on Amelia Island, Florida, at the Ritz-Carlton’s upscale Salt restaurant. Featured on Sauce’s 2021 Ones to Watch list, Cisneros had the chops and experience to branch out on his own.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Cisneros was exposed to the traditional food of his parents’ home country through his mother and grandmother. “I was spoiled,” he said. “My mom is a great cook and cooked different dishes for me. It was a blessing.” As he got older, he become more curious about the art and technique of cooking Peruvian food. Even in high school when he was doing culinary competitions, he was always asking questions. “I grew up having all this food, but I didn’t know how to prepare it,” he continued. As a chef in training, he would ask his mother and grandmother how they made dishes like tripe stew or lomo saltado.

Despite the family recipes, the lomo saltado at Jalea isn’t his mother’s or grandmother’s. Traditionally a juicy dish of thin beef strips, red onions, tomatoes, soy sauce, aji amarillo (yellow chiles) and french fries served with rice, Cisneros’ version was upgraded to sliced rib-eye steak and swapped out fries for fingerling potatoes cooked in beef fat, all glistening in a reduction sauce so dark and fragrant that it should be bottled and sold everywhere.

“After 10 years of cooking, I took those traditional recipes and found a way to make them my own, elevate them and go an extra step further and give them more love than they already had,” he said. “My mom didn’t have time to make a 16-hour veal stock after work, so that was when I started thinking that if I’m going to have a lomo saltado, we’re not going to buy Knorr cubes and crush them up and mix them with water. We’re cooks, we’re chefs, and we’re going to make veal stock as a base, and make a chicken stock, and fish and shellfish stock for ceviches.”

Cisneros said he wanted to take all his training to make the best and most natural product possible. “We have this incredible restaurant and this opportunity to make amazing food. We don’t want to take shortcuts when we have all this time and talent in the kitchen.” Cisneros’ take on another Peruvian favorite, carapulcra, is equally impressive. Here, three meaty hunks of braised pork belly sit atop garlic rice and a stew of bacon and sun-dried potatoes accented with a salsa of slivered red onion and mint leaves.

Peru is the birthplace of acid-cooked seafood, so, of course, there’s ceviche. Jalea offers several styles, with each type of fish soaked in leche de tigre (tiger’s milk), an intense elixir often made with ginger, celery and yellow peppers puréed with lime juice; Cisneros’ mix also uses shellfish stock and swaps Fresno peppers for yellow. During my visit, the classic version consisted of diced marinated flounder, fresh and firm, tossed with cubes of sweet potato, lima bean-sized Peruvian corn, and thin slices of Fresno peppers and red onion.

Showcasing Peru’s Japanese influence, the tiradito ceviche incorporated sashimi-style slices of Japanese amberjack (aka yellowtail or hamachi) with avocado, radish, cucumber and puffed rice garnished with paper-thin slivers of nori for a delightful combination of contrasting textures.

Mimi’s husband, M.J. Guliyev, is Jalea’s front-of-house manager; he also runs the bar program, where you can expect a broad selection of craft beers, several low-intervention wines, a couple of excellent Pisco-based cocktails, and alcohol-free beverages including Inca Kola, Peru’s iconic, bright yellow lemon-verbena soda. In the future, Cisneros said to expect other cocktails made with the purple corn lemonade they make in-house and even a Pisco margarita.

Soon you’ll also find pollo a la brasa, Peru’s iconic, insanely delicious wood-roasted rotisserie chicken that Cisneros perfected while tinkering with recipes while at Original J’s and prototyping the concept with Ben Poremba at his AO&Co. Market. According Cisneros, they hope to offer it as a weekly chicken-and-beer special starting this month. “We still have all the equipment, but the kitchen is too small to hold it all, so we’ll be using the back patio,” he said.

Despite having been open only a few months, Jalea is already drawing diners from all over the metro area and beyond. On a recent Saturday night, I overheard the young daughter of a large Peruvian family visiting from Kansas comment, “This is definitely flavor you don’t get back home.” Not in Kansas – or anywhere else, for that matter.

The post Review: Jalea? in St. Charles appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

The first time I saw Easton Romer, in 2004, he was wearing a white chef coat, his braided hair neatly tucked under a knit cap, fervidly cooking away at a hot stove in a cramped kitchen. He had just opened De Palm Tree and I was reviewing the spunky little Jamaican restaurant for another publication. Now 53, Romer is still trim, his hair still braided, albeit flecked with bits of gray. Last month, De Palm Tree celebrated 18 years in the same location, amid other immigrant, family-run restaurants and small shops in the Jeffery Plaza strip mall just east of Interstate 170 on Olive Boulevard.

A lot has changed since then, especially in the last four years as small business owners and homeowners in the area have been bought out to make way for the massive retail and residential redevelopment now in progress. Remaining Jeffery Plaza business owners, including Romer, have until Feb. 18 to vacate (more on that later). But nothing has changed the appeal of Romer’s jerk chicken – not time, not a devastating pandemic, not the uncertainty of the restaurant’s next location.

De Palm Tree’s jerk chicken has always been a top seller, but somehow it’s become ever more popular during the pandemic. Romer explained this during a sit-down interview at the restaurant, amid tables and chairs stacked to the side as if portending the move to come. It’s not surprising the craving masses that once devoured mounds of the seasoned, smoky chicken elbow-to-elbow on vibrant Saturday nights, washing it down with bottles of Red Stripe, house-made rum punch or Jamaica’s grapefruit-flavored Ting soda, now drive from near and far to get their fix. If they are like me during a recent pickup trek, they turn up the reggae grooves as their car fills with the aroma of Romer’s freshly made jerk rub, pungent and citrusy, bursting with the discernible but not overpowering heat of chiles. 

What else has been popular for take-out? “Wings!” Romer exclaimed. “Oh, my God, ever since the pandemic, it’s been wings, wings. And wings are more expensive than steak. … It don’t make no sense.” Unlike some other restaurants, Romer hasn’t cut his menu despite the rising cost of ingredients like chicken wings and, most dramatically, oxtail. Even when his wholesale price doubled, increasing his customer’s cost, demand didn’t flag. “When I opened, I had a hard time having people eat oxtail. Now, people order two orders: one for today, one for tomorrow,” he said.

I had only one oxtail stew for this review, but I understand the desire for more because two days later I had to stop myself from ordering another. Romer transforms sections of seasoned cow tailbone through a long braise until the meat is tender, the marrow delectably gelatinous and the onions, butter beans, scotch bonnet peppers and warm spices all meld into a soul-satisfying comfort dish that encourages much bone gnawing.

But Jamaica’s national dish isn’t jerk chicken or oxtail stew: It’s ackee and salt fish. The yellow flesh from the ripened pods of the ackee tree is an acquired taste for many American palates. I found the mild lemony flavor of the chopped ackee mixed with the contrasting texture and bold flavor of the salted cod as interesting and enjoyable as the first time I ate it all those years ago.

When the pandemic began, Romer closed for about two weeks before starting curbside service, then adding inside pickup as things began looking up. Despite the lack of in-house dining, people are still patronizing De Palm Tree. “They still love the food,” he said. He wasn’t exaggerating: While waiting for several to-go meals at different times for this review, there was a steady stream of customers, and the phone never stopped ringing.

The same pandemic-related problems every other restaurant faces – increased costs, staffing, changing health protocols – are compounded by the pressure Romer has to find a new location, however, and the clock is ticking ever louder. “It’s kind of stressing,” he said. Romer explained that he’s been looking all over for a new spot, including Overland, St. John and Olivette. “My customers are on me – ‘We need you,’ they say.” It seems the area also needed him. “When I came to the neighborhood, it was doing OK, but De Palm Tree brought in people,” he said. But leaving is hard. “When you work on something for so many years and you finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and then realize you have to start over, it’s sad,” Romer said. “It’ll be difficult to start over, but we’ll bounce back. The ball still has air in it.”

After surviving 18 years in the same location with a loyal clientele and now facing new challenges, it’s the cooking that motivates Romer more than anything else. “I love cooking,” he said. “I have a passion for it. I really like putting my food on a plate, though, not a box, because the artwork is satisfying.” On a warm afternoon a few months back, Romer set up a table outside for a group that really wanted to eat at the restaurant. “I got to do my plates, and it felt so good.”

Where
8631 Olive Blvd., University City (as of press date), 314.432.5171, depalmtreerestaurant.com

Don’t-Miss Dishes
Oxtail stew, jerk chicken

Vibe
Takeout only

Entrée Prices
$15 to $26

When
4:30 to 8 p.m. Tue. and Wed.; 1:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thu.; 1 to 8:30 p.m. Fri. and Sat.

The post Review: De Palm Tree in St. Louis appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Of roast chicken, food writer Jeffrey Steingarten wrote, “Whenever I have nothing better to do, I roast a chicken. On average, I have nothing better to do about twice a week.” But Mary Randolph, author of The Virginian Housewife cookbook, said it best back in 1824: “No meat can be well roasted except on a spit, and before a steady clear fire – other methods are no better than baking.” Chef Nate Hereford knows this. With his new fast-casual Chicken Scratch walk-up stall, located in the recently opened City Foundry STL food hall, the former executive chef of Gerard Craft’s erstwhile Niche focuses on one thing: spit-roasting chicken.

In place of the tweezers and liquid nitrogen from Hereford’s days in fine dining, there’s a French-made Rotisol gas-fired rotisserie oven. It showcases whole chickens being licked by naked flames as the skin becomes golden and crispy, the meat ridiculously juicy (yes, it is mesmerizing to watch slowly rotating roasting birds). Hereford uses high-quality birds, about 3 pounds each, that he dry brines in sugar and salt (no injected solution here). He then rubs every square millimeter of skin with his aromatic house seasoning mixture before skewering them for the spit roaster. The intensely savory result is firm meat that’s full of more chicken flavor than any store-bought bird can provide.

With a concise and compelling menu, including a couple of chicken-based salads and sandwiches, you order at the counter for either takeout or eating in the communal dining space; the half or whole chicken, with accompanying side, is easier to eat at home. The three available sauces – horseradish-mustard, hot and the creamy house Scratch (herbed buttermilk) – are good but almost unnecessary. Given Hereford’s culinary background, it’s no surprise that the sides are seasonal and, to use a food writer’s term, elevated. Roasted carrots with herbs and locally made Hawthorne hot honey are accented with feta for a little saltiness and accented with a hint of lime. Marinated kale is dressed with a Parmesan vinaigrette, and crisp, golden jojo potato wedges are battered and deep-fried.

The simplicity of Chicken Scratch is its strength. It’s a place where Hereford has truly found his own niche.

Chicken Scratch, 3700 Forest Park Ave. (inside City Foundry STL), St. Louis, chxscratchstl.com

The post 2021 Best New Restaurants // No. 7 Chicken Scratch appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Chez Ali‘s brings a compact selection of Afro-Caribbean favorites to the City Foundry STL‘s food hall. Chef-owner Alioun “Ali” Thiam’s spicy, sweet and citrusy yassa chicken, braised with onion, lemon and mild spices in a Dijon mustard sauce, is totally addictive; it’s a testament to why the dish is a classic of West African cuisine.

It took us a couple of attempts to finally try the yassa; on one visit the restaurant was sold out, forcing them to close early; on another, the electronic payment system was down, and the food hall’s lack of ATMs meant I was out of luck again. But damn, was it ever worth the effort. Along with the yassa, the chicken sampler plate includes jerk chicken (with hints of allspice, ginger and Scotch bonnet pepper) with house-made hot sauce on the side as well as curry chicken. While all three dishes are powerhouses of warm spice, heat and soft-yet-toothsome chew, the sampler plate is the edible version of a greatest hits album packed with back-to-back hits. It’s all served on a bed of white rice or red beans and rice with a side of steamed cabbage. While steamed cabbage may not sound exciting on paper, it’s anything but filler, its clean simplicity a great foil for the platter’s more aggressively flavored components.

Other stand-out menu items include the beef maffai, seared beef stew thickened with ground peanuts and simmered with onion, garlic, peppers, cabbage and carrots until tender. And we definitely recommend adding a side of plantains: caramelized and sticky-sweet, they shine both on their own and as part of a bite with more savory dishes. Fish is available at Chez Ali also in the form of thieboudienne, another classic Senegalese dish that Thiam makes to order.

Chez Ali’s menu changes daily, so while all items may not be available on every visit, whatever is in front of you will be delicious. Just take a word from the wise and go on the earlier side to avoid sell-outs – and be sure you’ve got a little cash on hand. 

Chez Ali, 3700 Forest Park Ave. (inside City Foundry STL), St. Louis, cityfoundrystl.com/directory/chez-ali

The post 2021 Best New Restaurants // No. 6 Chez Ali appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

These are the 9 restaurants that won our hearts this year.

No. 1 Root Food + Wine
Nestled among the backroads and small homes and businesses of Augusta, deep in wine country, lies Root Food + Wine. It’s the most exciting kind of restaurant, one that’s always searching and changing, always trying to keep up with the environment around it. And just to be explicit: It’s worth the drive.

No. 2 Tai Ke Shabu Shabu
With Tai Ke‘s relaunch this year as Tai Ke Shabu Shabu, the beloved Taiwanese spot has fully realized the potential it’s been working toward for years. It succeeds in fusing a masterful menu we fell in love with years ago together with an exciting new dining experience. 

No. 3 Songbird
St. Louis has long needed more places like Songbird, a metropolitan but farm-to-table-leaning spot where people can stop through for top-notch coffee (in this case, Sump) and a killer meal that satisfies on every level. 

No. 4 Pizzeria Da Gloria
It’s a sign of a great restaurant when everyone you know has a different favorite dish there. Regardless of who you are, Pizzeria Da Gloria is a lighthearted, cool place with its own spirit and plenty of great ideas. And that should please anybody. 

No. 5 Rockwell Beer Garden
We’re happy to say that Rockwell Beer Garden – Rockwell Beer Co.‘s highly anticipated pizza-centric outpost in the middle of Francis Park – is a more-than-worthy sophomore spot.

No. 6 Chez Ali
Chez Ali‘s brings a compact selection of Afro-Caribbean favorites to the City Foundry STL‘s food hall. The sampler plate is the edible version of a greatest hits album packed with back-to-back hits. 

No. 7 Chicken Scratch
With his new fast-casual Chicken Scratch walk-up stall, located in the recently opened City Foundry STL food hall, Chef Nate Hereford focuses on one thing: spit-roasting chicken. The simplicity is its strength and Hereford has truly found his own niche.

No. 8 Clara B’s Kitchen Table
While there are many great things on the menu at Clara B’s Kitchen Table, it was chef-owner Jodie Ferguson’s perfectly prepared grits that brought actual tears to our eyes the first time we tried them. With some of St. Louis’ best grits and biscuits already firmly under her belt, we can’t wait to see what she does next.

No. 9 Chuck’s Hot Chicken
When the name of the food you’re eating is in the name of the restaurant, it better be phenomenal. And at Chuck’s Hot Chicken, it certainly is.

The post St. Louis’ Best New Restaurants of 2021 appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.