I’m heading back home this month for my Brother’s wedding. I’m hoping to get a little more St. Louis food in when I do. We are also going up to Portland for a night which always means good food. I’ve also begun a chowder quest, so I expect lots of chowder in May.
May 2
I got tickets to see the Decemberists. Before the show, we went to The Stockyard. We started with a chowder. I got a filet and Kelly got the prime rib. The prime rib was better than the filet. We got skillet potatoes which weren’t great and creamed spinach which was pretty good. For dessert we shared waffle bread pudding. That was awesome. So was the Decemberists show. And the Roadrunner is a great venue to watch a concert.
May 3
We went to Portland for the night and had dinner at Fore Street. It was my second time there. I really enjoyed the meal, but I will try to stay away from the pork next time. It has good flavor but too much fat even for me. Pork aside, the meal was excellent. I also tried a new gin, Bimini. My favorite part of the meal was a confit of veal on focaccia.
May 4
We started the morning with a morning bun from The Standard Baking Co. It was really good. Then we went shopping in a kitchenware shop. We got some towels and placemats, but I could have bought a lot more. After that we went to lunch even though we had just had breakfast. We picked Gilbert’s Chowder House for the chowder quest because its chowder gets good reviews. We had chowder and a fish sandwich. The sandwich was good, but the chowder wasn’t great.
After lunch we did some more shopping. We stopped in SKORDO, a wonderful boutique spice shop, and picked up some paprika and Mexican oregano. We also stopped at Bow Street Beverage, recommended to us by our waiter at Fore Street. There I got a bottle of tequila for tomorrow and a new gin, no. 098 Luce Spirit Old Tom.
In part because the chowder for lunch wasn’t great, we stopped and had some more on our drive back to Concord. This time we went to Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery. We also got clam strips which were amazing. The clam chowder was very good, but a little to thin for my liking. Kelly on the other hand liked it a lot.
May 5
Happy Cinco de Mayo. We had company who likes enchiladas so that’s what I made. I filled them with my green chili chicken and topped them with a green tomatillo sauce and jack cheese. I also made mexican rice and Georgina made a corn salad and margarita cheese cake for dessert. Of course there were margaritas and palomas and even a little high end tequila to sip with dessert.
May 7
I had my first DeNo’s sandwich of the month, a veal parm. I don’t think I had had one of those before and it was pretty decent. I also made this amazing salad for dinner just mixing all of my cinco de mayo leftovers together. It didn’t look like much, so I didn’t think to take a picture, but damn was it delicious.
May 8
Dinner tonight was Ken’s. I’m not eating at Ken’s as much as I used to and I’m not really sure why. It was good tonight. Kelly and I shared a chicken kabob wrap and I had buffalo chicken fingers. She had a couple of them. Michael also came over and we tasted some of my newer gins. Including two from StilL 630 and Luce Spirits Old Tom which I just picked up in Maine over the weekend.
May 9
I went to St. Louis for my brother’s wedding this weekend. But tonight, I took mom out for a little early Mothers Day celebration at Charlie Gitto’s. We shared everything starting with toasted ravioli. Unlike most toasted ravioli, this has no edges. It’s just little pillows stuffed with beef, pork, and veal. Next we had caesar salad. And last we had cannelloni. They also gave us a free slice of cake to celebrate. We had a great time.
May 10
I had a very busy day so I started it out right with a danish from Bello’s Bakery. After that I drove down to see my dad’s house in Ste. Genevive, MO. We walked around the town, which was really enjoyable and had lunch at Audubon’s. I got a schnitzel sandwich with spaetzle. It was excellent, but it did say it came with red cabbage and it didn’t. That was a bit of a disappointment. I love cabbage.
After lunch, I stopped back by my mom’s before driving out to Marthasville for my brother’s wedding. We got some Imo’s pizza which I didn’t take a picture of. I tried a slice of the cauliflower crust which isn’t my thing, but better than I expected. I also had some local Missouri wine which I really enjoyed.
May 11
Congratulations to my brother and his new wife Amy! I ate a lot, drank a little, and cooked some. The only food picture I took was of a big pile of steaks I was asked to grill.
May 12
Happy Mothers Day to my mom and to my wife. Still in St. Louis so I took my mom out to breakfast at Silver Pancake House. Without realizing it, I got basically the same thing I got the last time I was there, just with a different topping on my pancakes. I wish I hadn’t had a topping they were good enough without it. I stopped at Lion’s Choice, which I hadn’t been to in more than a decade, because my nephew was hungry. The roast beef was still good but the place was kind of a dump. I also need to remember that the only cheese worth getting there is the cheddar cheese sauce.
May 13
Ever since my son started eating chicken nuggets last year, I’ve been eating his leftovers. I just wanted to take a minute and plug how good the nuggets at New London are. Seriously.
May 15
It has been a while since I went to Banh Mi Oi. Work has gotten a little too busy to go much further than DeNo’s for lunch. But today, I went back and even sat at one of their two little tables to enjoy the classic Banh Mi Oi. I still am blown away by how good the bread and the veggies are there.
May 16
My wife and I hired a babysitter and had dinner out just the two of us. We went to The Bancroft and got some favorites, steak tartare, fries, and shrimp cocktail. We also tried their chowder, but weren’t impressed. We also got the lemon blueberry cake. I loved the lemon curd ice cream, but the cake was a little dry.
May 17
My Cambodian son and his wife had me over for dinner. They asked me if I wanted Cambodian or American food, and I of course chose Cambodian. Chowry made shrimp rolls, a Cambodian pork curry called prohok, and a variation on chicken lo mein. It was excellent and I got to take a lot home so I’ll be eating it for a few days.
May 21
For the second time I made this dish that I don’t really have a name for. Maybe I’ll call it a greek chicken salad. It has green pepper, cucumber, red onion, grated garlic, grape tomatoes, fresh oregano, feta, and coriander-cardamom seasoned chicken. There is also lemon juice and olive oil. It’s really delicious and I need to add this as a formal recipe.
May 22
I had a very late lunch today at Farm Grill & Rotisserie in Newton. I got the lunch gyro which came with a Greek salad. It is a blend of beef and pork on a very good pita. I would have liked more vegetables on it, but I just scooped up some salad and tossed it on top. I would get it again.
May 24
Tonight we went to the Asparagus Tasting at 80 Thoreau. The food was good, but not as asparagus forward as I had hoped. The lamb course was the best, particularly the in-house merguez sausage. They also used white asparagus in the dessert in a very cool way. Pictures and descriptions can be seen at the link above.
May 25
I had Michael over for dinner and made a shrimp asparagus risotto. Like dinner last night I wanted it to be more asparagusy. It was not. We also had a new cheese, Swallow Tail, and a baguette from Bread Obsession.
May 26
We took a drive up to Maine for the long Memorial Day weekend. Our first stop was The Clam Shack in Kennebunk. I bravely skipped their amazing lobster roll in favor of a cup of chowder, but we also got clam strips and fries. And since once chowder ins’t enough when I’m in Maine, we also got a recommendation to try Cape Pier Chowder House. There we got another cup of chowder and a hot dog with fries.
May 28
I really don’t try to make tacos on Tuesdays but when you make tacos a lot it’s bound to happen. Tonight I made breakfast tacos with eggs, chorizo, jalapenos, and queso fresco.
May 30
I tried a new lunch spot, Muffin House Cafe. It isn’t close to work but close enough if I have some time. I really wanted to try their muffins, but today wasn’t a cheat day. So I got the chicken pesto panini which was excellent, though probably worse than a muffin for my waistline!
May 31
Today we had a little late afternoon meal at Karma. We got a plate of sushi and a couple of mai tais. Michael came over and we made another batch of the Mediterranean chicken salad that I made on the 21st. We also tasted some gin, including gin no. 099 that my dad brought me back from Brazil.
Best of the month
May was good as you can tell from below and all the writing I did. A lot of that was chowder and the best chowder I had goes to The Clam Shack. But setting chowder aside, my best dining out experiences were Charlie Gitto’s in St. Louis, Fore Street in Portland, and 80 Thoreau in Concord.
For home cooking the winners are my Cinco de Mayo enchiladas and Chowry’s Cambodian dinner. If I had to add a third dish in there, it’s the Mediterranean Chicken Salad which I made twice this month. I’m going to try it one more time soon and post the recipe because it’s that good.
hungrytommy links:
The Stockyard – chowder quest (new)
Fore Street (new)
Gilbert’s Chowder House – chowder quest (new)
Bob’s Clam Hut – chowder quest (new)
DeNo’s Pizza & Subs
Ken’s NY Deli
StilL 630 (new)
gin no. 098 (new)
Charlie Gitto’s (new)
Bello’s Bakery
Silver Pancake House
New London
The Bancroft
The Bancroft – chowder quest (new)
80 Thoreau
Swallow Tail – cheese (new)
The Clam Shack
The Clam Shack – chowder quest (new)
Cape Pier Chowder House – chowder quest (new)
Karma
gin no. 099 (new)
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