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.

Pasteria Brunch

I have been to Pasteria a few times, but after seeing a friend post a brunch picture on Facebook, I knew I had to put it on my brunch list. Luckily, it was the best central location (Clayton) for brunch with multiple family members.

The best part about going there for brunch is that there are plenty of parking spaces in the nearby garage, and since we met there at opening time (10AM), there was no need to call ahead or worry about lines.

Ok, so that probably wasn't the best part, but definitely a high point for me. Let's skip ahead to the best part now that I mention it – doughnuts! I got a super chocolately doughnut that was so decadent and I'm sure Patience can say the same thing about her Bombolini – which was stuffed with marscapone cheese. You gotta try one! (There are a few to choose from too.)

Chocolate Doughnut

Bombolini

On a more calm note, Pasteria has a reasonably sized breakfast cocktail list so it was easy to pick out a Mimosa.

Also, their menu is not too big either, but plenty of interesting choices. Patience and I got our usual favorites: I got the Wood Oven Baked Eggs with Pomodoro while she got the French Toast with powdered sugar and whipped mascarpone.

Wood Oven Baked Eggs with Pomodoro

French Toast

Then my cousin ordered the "Huevos Rancheros" with thick cut toast, white beans, ham, and salsa verde.

Huevos Rancheros

I was nervous about having a red sauce with my eggs, but my dish was more of a warm breakfast casserole with a lot of flavor. I would claim that mine was the best dish of the meal, but I was really impressed with the breakfast pizza! It's the same size as their regular pizzas so it's something you definitely need to share. Must go back...

Resources:

Pasteria = http://pasteriastl.com

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Pasteria

One of the perks of my new work location is being able to visit restaurants in the Clayton area, which now includes Pasteria! Even though there was a 30 minute wait at lunch, the hostess was very apologetic, which surprised me since there has been a wait ever since the restaurant opened.

Luckily, this gave me plenty of time to study the menu although I’ve been reading a lot of reviews and quizzing friends as to what their favorites have been so far. I already knew what I wanted to order before I got there and luckily my friend Beth snuck over to check out the gelato case while we were waiting so that our dessert order was ready to go as well.

Since I never know when I’ll get back to a restaurant (there are just too many to try in St. Louis), my plan was to order as many types of food as possible. So for a starter, I ordered the Crispy Risotto Balls, which were so wonderfully cheesy on the inside! The other highly recommended item that I’ve been reading about is the kale salad because the creamy anchovy dressing gives the kale a proper kick in addition to a healthy covering of pecorino on top.

I admit I was stuck when it came to ordering the main course. There were just too many pastas to try and so many good reviews about different ones, that I decided to go for the easy way out and just select a pizza. While there are just as many pizza selections, I was able to whittle my way down to the flavors I liked. I’m not big on having too many meats, and while there wasn’t one loaded with vegetables, I went with the Four Cheese instead. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with something completely covered in a ton of cheese.

I do admit that a Neapolitan style pizza is not my most favorite since I love a lot of tomato sauce on my pizza. I did enjoy all the cheese for sure, but I ended up sticking my crust in the dipping sauces for the risotto balls. Without sauce, that style of pizza is a little dry.

Fortunately, my friends did order a couple of pastas so I could get a little sneak peak. I tried the Pappardelle, which has long, thick, rounded noodles buried in smoked pork, mascarpone, and apples for a very rich flavor. It was like having noodles in the middle of a bowl of pulled pork in heavy sauce. The pork flavor was too strong for me but I loved the thickness of the noodles.

My favorite pasta to taste was the Italian Ramen, which consisted of thin spaghetti noodles with a poached egg on top. Egg on top makes everything better! So next time, I think I’ll get a pasta for sure.

The best part was the gelato though...homemade and just out of this world! We ordered the Milk Stout German Chocolate and although my friends preferred the Salty Caramel, the chocolate was hands down the stand out in my book! It is very tempting to just make that your meal for sure.

Resources:

Pasteria = http://pastariastl.com/