Art of Food

On Saturday (the 29th of July), hubby and I went to an event in Soulard called Art of Food. It was at the Mad Art gallery, which I have wanted to visit since it opened. The event benfited a group called Slow Food St. Louis.

For $10 apiece, you could sample little bites of foods from a number of St. Louis restaurants, plus a drink was included with the price of admission. You could also bid in silent auction on many baskets, gift certificates, and pieces of art. It was a nice event and a great way to sample food from a great number of restaurants. We were glad we went early, at 7 PM on the dot, because in 45 minutes when we were leaving, there were many people standing in line, including one of my co-workers, Dan, and his fiancee. It was a good time.

Soulard's Restaurant

I have driven by Soulard's countless times, and finally had the opportunity to go there with the hubby for lunch on Friday, the 21st of July. Since our electricity was out, and I was off that day, it was a good chance to give them a try. I had heard good things about it, so I was looking forward to it.

I ended up ordering a grouper special -- served with lemon beurre blanc over rice with a side of green beans. I also ordered a small dinner salad beforehand. I was pleased by the portion of dinner salad, which was pretty big for the "small" version, and it was a good thing. . . I ate about half of it and left it on the table so I would have room for the main course. The grouper arrived and it looked great. I dug in at one end of the filet and it was delicious, and the rice was yummy, too. I made my way through the fish, but about halfway through the filet, as my fork reached the thickest part of the fish, I noticed the consistency changed from flaky and easily fork-cut to stringy and tough -- the fish was underdone! So, thinking perhaps the thicker middle section was underdone, but the ends were not, I switched to the other end of the fish -- same problem. I don't know how only half the fish was cooked, but it is what had happened.

So, I had to send half my plate back to the kitchen. They offered to replace my meal with something else. I passed and ate the rest of my dinner salad. The waitress was genuinely sorry about the mishap, and I gave her a good tip because of her obvious concern, especially when I chose not to replace my meal.

Hubby tried a cup of the clam chowder. This was a very disappointing endeavor, indeed. We expected a creamy chowder base, but the base of the soup must have been composed of some sort of broth, instead, because it was soupy and an unfortunate vehicle for what could have been some very tasty chunks of clam. Do not order this chowder!

He also had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. This was very tasty, and the fries were delicious.

Based on this one visit, for the $$$ the restaurant charges, I would, and did, expect more from them. I happen to have a gift certificate for this restaurant, which I will likely go back another time to use and give them another shot. If I didn't have the gift certificate, however, I wouldn't go back.

Boogaloo Restaurant

Went with hubby and a friend to Boogaloo a couple of weeks ago. I think we all really enjoyed it -- food was delicious and service was fine, though a little slow sometimes.

For starters I had a cup of Chicken & Andouille Gumbo. I was disappointed with the gumbo -- seemed too mild and there was not enough rice. For main course, I had West Indian Beef Patties with Curried Pineapple Chutney. Quite tasty, though the interior would have benefited by just a little more heat. Hubby had Fried Grouper Sandwich. It was an enormous portion and deliciously fried.

For dessert, our dinner friend had the Brioche Bread Pudding with Kentucky Bourbon Sauce and I had Coconut Creme Brulee with Carmelized Banana. Both were very generous portions. The bread pudding was soft and warm. The creme brulee was decadent and definitely something to order again and again!

The only drawback to the place was that the acoustics were really poor and we had a hard time hearing each other once the place filled with more diners. The music was too loud, also.

Storm city

The arch effect did nothing to stop the storms that hit the St. Louis metro area last night. In my neighborhood, I saw tree trunks 10" thick snapped and lying on the ground. Hunks of trees were falling off all over the place around our house on the neighbors' properties. The clapboard siding on the house of the neighbor immediately to my southwest was pulled off -- about 4 or five boards were eventually sheared off.

The most amazing thing I saw was the branch of a sycamore tree, which was facing into the wind, was split in two, then wrapped around the trunk. That was an amazingly powerful thing to see.

Our electricity went out at 8 PM last night and hasn't been restored. The electric company, Ameren, says this is the worst storm (I am assuming they are basing their measurement upon the number of households without power) in the history of their company. Around 480,000 people are without electricity. In 2005, a storm knocked out around 225,000 households, and their electricity was not restored for 4 days. This does not bode well for our chances of getting electricity restored in a timely manner. :( Not a wonderful thing to deal with when the temps today are supposed to top 101, but cooler weather (low 90's for highs) is afoot for tomorrow and the next week or so.

At least it seems our house weathered the storm well -- I'll get out to have a detailed look this evening.