food

I Ate a Grasshopper

I Ate a Grasshopper

Today I found myself in a brand-new Mexican-fusion restaurant in St. Louis called Gringo. I’ve heard great things about it, and I noticed that they had pork belly on the menu. They serve pork belly a lot on Top Chef, and I’ll do pretty much anything to pretend I’m on Top Chef. So as I [...]


Ramen Nostalgia

Ramen Nostalgia

I’m in Austin, Texas for the weekend, and this was the first food I ate here. Apparently ramen might be the next hot food trend, and I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t had fresh ramen since my time in Japan 11 years ago, so it was like taking a bite out of my past. A [...]


The Rules of Scrapple

The Rules of Scrapple

1. The first rule of scrapple is: You do not talk about the contents of scrapple. 2. The second rule of scrapple is: You do not talk about the contents of scrapple. 3. Scrapple come in a brick about the size of…well, a brick. You cut the brick into about 12 slices–not too thick, not [...]


Wingfest 2010

Wingfest 2010

Last weekend, Trevor had people over for Pizzafest 2010–basically, a bunch of people went out during halftime of the Rams game, picked up pizzas from different restaurants, and brought them back to Trev’s place to try. It was a lot of fun, so I decided to host a similar function this week, but with buffalo [...]


The Ribs

The Ribs

This photo didn’t turn out all that well, but I wanted to share with you one of my favorite parts of my family reunion: Uncle Mike’s homemade ribs. He broils them in BBQ sauce plus extra vinegar at home, brings them to the beach, and then grills them with more sauce here. The result is [...]


The Best Story of the Best Spaghetti Sauce Ever Made

The Best Story of the Best Spaghetti Sauce Ever Made

Yesterday I wrote about going to the grocery story to buy spaghetti sauce in a jar. Oh, the outrage! Several people wrote to me, dismayed that I would dare to purchase such spaghetti sauce. The thing is, I make a pretty good spaghetti (red) sauce from scratch. What I was actually buying that day was [...]


Random Restaurant Ideas

Random Restaurant Ideas

A friend of mine is thinking about starting a restaurant. If he goes through with it, I’m sure I’ll be posting about it in the future. Sharing in his excitement has made me look back on some of the restaurant ideas I’ve had over the years–some of these are concepts, parts of restaurants, while others [...]


Top Chef Deathmatch: Uno

Top Chef Deathmatch: Uno

Lately I’ve really enjoyed Bravo’s show Top Chef. The concept of the show is simple, so simple that it may not intrigue you upon first glance: It’s reality show to determine the best chef among a group of professional and semi-professional chefs. There’s not a lot of personal drama mixed into the show; mostly it’s [...]