Where we are quaran-dining in January 2021

It feels so great to say 2021 for sure, although I'm afraid I'll be wirting quite a few more "quaran-dining" posts in the new year instead of writing about new food adventures. 

January 3rd = We skipped "Take out Friday" since it was New Year's Eve and postponned it until Sunday night. I had been dying to try the new ghost restaurant, "Wing Runner" from the BEAST Butcher & Block folks. It was fun to try a variety of flavors and paired perfectly with football.

Char Siu Wings

January 8th = The cold weather definitely calls for ramen and we went with our favorite Nudo House!

Hebrew Hammer from Nudo House

January 15th = I had been wanting to try Soup Dumplings ever since they opened and since it was my birthday weekend, this was finally my chance! I am sorry I waited so long! 

Unfortunately, they don't deliver to my house, and the soup in the dumplings lost quite a bit of heat in travel, so this is definitely some place that I'm going to have to visit after COVID so I can eat them fresh. We tried the chicken and beef flavored ones (chicken was my favorite), and I definitely want to try the other ones. 

Soup Dumplings

January 22nd = Pasta House again since Patience wanted some comfort food. I can never say no to that salad!

Pasta House Salad

January 29th = A neighborhood restaurant that had been on my list for a while is River's Edge Social. In addition to bar food, they also have paella and other Mediterranean dishes!

Paella

PW Pizza Swartland Wine Dinner

For this month, Patience decided she preferred the wine dinner over the beer dinner from PW Pizza, due to the pizza option. Even though we've had it before, she like the Shrimpy Shrimpy Bang Bang pizza, which has roasted jalapeno on it to give it a kick.

Normally I would have picked a Riesling or a sweet wine to go with something spicy, but I know Patience prefers red wine, and I prefer it in the winter time. The featured wine was The Curator Red Blend 2019, from Swartland, South Africa. Big time baked cherries on the nose AND taste.

The Curator

The first course was a BLT salad with a peppercorn ranch, so this was definitely well paired with a red wine.

BLT salad

The Shrimpy Shrimpy Bang Bang pizza is topped with garlic olive oil, shrimp, bacon, roasted jalapeno, corn, monterey jack, mozzarella and a cilantro-avocado drizzle.

Shrimpy Shrimpy Bang Bang Pizza

Dessert was a Peanut Butter Satin Pie with chocolate ganache that was just heavenly. Definitely a red wine was needed to stand up to all that richness!

Peanut Butter Satin Pie

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

The Curator = https://www.broadbent.com/the-curator/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Wing Runner

Look! A new restaurant-ish! Wing Runner is a ghost kitchen run by the BEAST Butcher & Block folks on Manchester Ave in the Grove.

Before the end of football season, I figured this would be a fun new place to try while watching a game You can read more about it here: https://www.stlmag.com/dining/david-and-meggan-sandusky-launch-wing-runner-pick-up-delivery-gourmet-chicken-wing-concept/

You can check to see if you're in their delivery range right on their site too!

There are A LOT of flavors to choose from so I ordered the five-piece option of five different flavors in order to try a variety of wings, but there at least ten. You know I'm a spice wimp and stayed away from the hotter flavors.

Mild Buffalo - Just the right amount of buffalo flavor for someone like me, but there is a Hot version.

Mild Buffalo

St. Louis Style BBQ - This was my personal favorite since it the wings were coated in a sweet BBQ sauce and included a side of pickles.

St. Louis Style BBQ

Roasted Garlic Butter - Probably could have used more garlic and no heat whatsoever.

Roasted Garlic Butter

Char Siu - I saw this was labeled as "sesame and green onion" on the website, and these wings were definitely the most interesting. No ranch necessary here.

Char Siu

Dry Rub - The website labeled this as a "sweet heat", but these wings definitely had a kick and I needed a lot of ranch. 

Dry Rub

We also ordered some fries on the side, which came with a "Fry Sauce". Even the sauce was more sweet than I was expecting. Probably will stick with ktechup next time.

Fries and Fry Sauce

If you love wings with a variety of flavors and want to keep it local, these wings are definitely worth a try!

Resources:

Wing Runner = https://www.wingrunnerstl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Where we are quaran-dining in December 2020

December 4th = Patience had a red meat craving so she chose Biggie's steak sandwich with some zucchini sticks on the side. 

Biggie's Steak Sandwich and Zucchini Sticks

December 11th = I know that Patience was really craving a good burger, and luckily I had just read about Mission Taco's "pop up" called Off the Wall Burgers inside their Kirkwood location. I highly recommend you schedule your pick up time in the morning on their website: https://missiontacojoint.e-tab.com/offthewallburgers#!/order-type

Off the Wall Burger and Fies

December 18 = I never thought I'd say "thanks to the virus", but we finally tried an Ethiopian restaurant for the first time from Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant!

Special Chicken Tibs

I ordered the Special Chicken Tibs, which included cubes of chicken breast seasoned with garlic, onions, green peppers, and tomato finished with awaze sauce. Patience ordered a lamb dish. SO much food it took us 2-3 attempts to finish it all.

December 25 = We just HAD to order Chinese in honor of Jewish Christmas. Thank you Chinese Express for helping us complete our lazy day.

Chinese Express

PW Pizza Urban Chestnut Brewing Beer Dinner 2020

The last PW Pizza Beer Dinner of the year and no better time to avoid cooking than the week of Christmas!

I have to admit that the draw for this week's pizza and beer dinner was totally the pizza! Once a year, PW Pizza will make ONE fancy "beef pizza" and this time they offered a "Roast Beef Pizza"! This was quite the funky flavor pizza with wild mushrooms and blue cheese accompanying the beef. This was smartly paired with one of Urban Chestnut's heavier beers, the Dorfbier, which is a Dunkel style. This beer also brags a 6.7% ABV and 55 IBUs!

Breaded Chicken Pizza (top) and Roast Beef Pizza (bottom)

Of course, I prefer Urban Chestnut's lighter beers, and luckily there were two on the menu. The well-known Schnickelfritz, a Weissbier, was paired with a Romaine salad topped with walnuts, sundried apricots, feta cheese, red peppers, with a raspberry vinaigrette. I just love their salads!

Romaine Salad 

Next up, Urban Chestnut's Stammtisch Pilsner was paired with the first pizza, a Breaded Chicken Pizza, was topped with pineapple, red onions, mozzarella cheese, and a lemon-garlic butter sauce.

The Winged Nut Chestnut Ale, well-balanced and well-paired with a Gooey Butter Cake dessert an matching Hazelnut Crema Glaze. This could have been a meal all by itself!

Gooey Butter Cake with Hazelnut Crema Glaze

Urban Chestnut Menu

Can't wait to see what pizza and beer dinners come in 2021, and hopefully a return to in person dinners.

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Urban Chestnut Brewing = https://www.urbanchestnut.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon