Where we are quaran-dining in August

And the beat marches on!

August 7th: We kicked off the month with a birthday party from St. Louis Pizza and Wings. (Nice and hyper local!) Why yes we did get pizza AND wings...so many different flavors of wings too.

August 14th: Patience was ready for some Chinese comfort food as our middle kitty had fallen ill. New to me, we ordered delivery from Corner 17 in the Loop! Stir-fried hand-pulled noodles with chicken for me, and Pai and I split the handmade dumplings too, which were SO filling. (We both could only eat half our dinner and at $9.99, a great deal.

Hand-Pulled Noodles with Chicken

Handmade Dumplings

August 15th: What?!?! This is a Saturday! We ended up doing another super small birthday celebration by ordering Tony's favorite, LoRusso's. They even have cones set up for curb-side pick up! I felt like a celebrity! (Completely forgot to take pictures.)

August 20th: A few days later, I did a "front porch birthday" and my friend picked Pasteria, which was perfect because we had yet to order from there. Holy smokes they are SO in demand! It was a 90 minute wait for food and then some, as we pulled up out front (awkwardly in front of diners) to wait the last few minutes for our meal. Everything was delicious of course, with the Tagliatelle or “Pastaria Bolognese” as the most popular choice. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of the "The Allan", which was topped with tomato, mozzarella, mushroom, country ham, oregano, Grana Padano.

August 21st: It was my Friday to pick and I had my eye on Juniper for a while since I've been on their email list since they opened. Not only are they doing their own delivery, but they now have "Family Meals" at VERY affordable prices. So much that I got an extra side dish and tipped well. I ordered the "feeds 4" size so that we could get two meals out of too! Almost forgot to take the picture as there are some bones on my plate! Fried chicken, broccoli (collard greens for Pai), mac & cheese (of course it was my favorite), and a ton of cornbread.

STLwinegirl Traveling Table at Juniper

The STLwinegirl “Traveling Table” is back! I was especially thrilled that the first restaurant chosen for the restart of the famous wine dinners was Juniper, since I had been to the previous versions of the restaurant, but not the latest “southern cooking” incarnation.

I don't eat southern cooking too often so most of the dishes are new to me. I also have to admit that I probably would never order any of these items on my own, so at the Traveling Tables there is always something new to try, taste, and pair.

Menu

While I've enjoyed a lot of oysters, I'm not sure I've had them fried as an appetizer before. The blue cornmeal on the outside was so crunchy and tasty, and the Saint Hilaire Sparkling Brut helped to cut through the grease.

Fried Oysters paired with Saint Hilaire Sparkling Brut

Instead of your typical “chicken and dumplings”, Cornish Game Hen and Sweet Potato Gnocchi took their place for this course. This was my favorite dish of the night because the game hen was so tender after sitting in the smoked chicken broth. We even were given a spoon to scoop up the rest of the delicious broth. This was paired with a Manciat Macon Morizottes to match up with the richness of this dish.

Cornish Game Hen with Sweet Potato Gnocchi in a Smoked Chicken Broth

The last course was the Tasso Pork Chop, but most of us were way too full from the first two courses to make much of a dent. Yet, I thought this was the best pairing with the Trenel Beaujolais Villages since they both complimented each other so well. The sweet sauce on top of the pork paired perfectly with the jammy wine. I love all the fruit that comes with Beaujolais!

Tasso Pork Chop with spoon bread, pickled apples, and smoked onion petals
paired with Trenel Beaujolais Villages

When we first sat down, we all had wished that there was a dessert course, but no one was able to look at the menu by the time we got to the third course. So let this be a lesson for you, be sure to share a couple of dishes in order to save room at the end of your meal!

After all the different courses, I still will need to go back and tried their fried chicken, since I've heard about that dish the most.

Resources:

STLwinegirl = http://www.stlwinegirl.com

Juniper = http://junipereats.com/