Benton Park Cafe - Review

Today I flew into St Louis to attend some meetings.    I got here a bit early so I went down by the AB brewery and decided to go grab myself some breakfast.    I was looking for someplace close by and that was about my only criteria for a place to eat.  I checked google maps, found a spot and off I went!

I stumbled into a place across the highway from the brewery named Benton Park Cafe.    It looked like a cute spot so I started to get excited that it might just be great.    They had some outdoor tables and it seemed like a young but homey kind of spot.

When I first walked in I was greeted with the following sign:

Now being a NY Mets fan this made me laugh a little bit.    I had no idea until a few years ago but apparently the city of St Louis calls the NY Mets pond scum.   Pond scum was something from the 1986 series when the Mets took the world series.  Some local sports dude coined it and it stuck.   Of course this made me giggle.  We NY Mets fans are a proud bunch but this just makes me smile.    :)  Oh and St Louis....We might be pond scum but we still one the year you coined the phrase :) xoxo

Anywho I disgress.

The place looked awesome.   It was quiet cool and definitely seemed like a spot I want to start my morning with over breakfast and end my night with for a drink.   Spots like this are my fav.   The wait staff seemed cool so we sat on down and were ready to eat.   Based on the look of the place I began to have high expectations for the coffee and food.   It really looked like and smelled like this place was the real deal.  A place that cared about their ingredients, recuperation and recipes.   This is key for me.  Any creative force knows your idea is as strong as the thought and care you put into it.  This place looked cared for!

The staff was super friendly and all young and fun seeming.    Though I might of been dressed in a suit underneath is tons of ink and a sprinkle punk rawk.   My true me felt at home in this spot.

I ordered an iced latte and waited now with high expectations.   In the meantime I checked out the menu.   The menu looked amazing!   One thing on it really called out to me.  It was called the BP Slinger....

Here's the description:

Beer biscuits, cheese, bacon, over easy eggs smothered in their house made gravy.  

Um Yum.....So I ordered it.   When it came out it looked pretty amazing.   I posted a shot of it with the egg broken so all can see :)

I broke the egg and took my first bite.  So how was it you ask?   Allow me to summarize in a few key words:

*&!@# AMAZING

First off their gravy is just plane godly.   The gravy has a kick to it so it made my mouth tingle with joy.  It was the perfect flavor balance too.  The gravy was porky goodness without making me feel like i ate a bucket o'lard.  The consistency of the gravy was the best I have ever eaten.   This is quite possibly the best "breakfast" gravy I ever have tasted.  Thoughts of bathing in the gravy, living in the gravy and other such delusions entered my head as the gravy goodness bounced around in my mouth.

But wait....They needed to do more...Having quite possibly the best gravy I have ever eaten was simply not good enough for these guys so they chopped up crispy bacon and put it in the gravy.   (&!*@#   WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THAT?!??!??   Bacon chunks in gravy.  OMG YUM.

The put this 7th wonder of the world gravy on top of a perfectly cooked egg and a biscuit that was simply delicious.

After literally destroying my plate of food and having to hold myself back from ordering another plate I got the chance to talk to some of the wait staff.   They were social, friendly, and just plain chill.

So...What's the lesson here all?

IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE WITHIN 500 MILES OF ST LOUIS GO TO BENTON PARK CAFE.   Order anything with the biscuits and gravy.   I am seriously making Benton Park Cafe a regular go to spot when I come to the STL.

Benton Park Cafe = Awesome
Benton Park Cafe Biscuits and Gravy = A 100% MUST EAT...

YUM! 

Breakfast by the Grand Army Plaza Saturday Farmers Market

This morning we got up and decided to go to the Grand Army Plaza Saturday Farmers Market so we can begin our weekend foodventures with a set of fresh farm ingredients.  Nothing says "spring morning" like a nice walk to the farmers market while sipping on a cool and refreshing ice coffee.   I truly love spring in Da NYC.



So here was my breakfast ingredient list:

Smoked Pork Shoulder Bacon
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Chives
Cage Free Organic Eggs
Rustic Whole Wheat Bread
Gruyere Cheese

So here is what I prepared:

Scrambled eggs whisked to fluffy goodness and further fluffed up with some fresh milk.   I chopped up some fresh chives and scrambled it up by constantly stirring the eggs with the whisk so it got all ribbony.   YUM

I fried up the ridiculus smoked pork shoulder bacon.  Now for some reason I love frying up some bacon in my wok.   The does such a wonderful job of distributing the heat that bacon just loves a wok.   My aunt showed me that trick :) xoxo.    If you have tried farm fresh bacon you are missing out.  Something about it makes it so much gamey and smokey.   It is truly wonderful.    To make it MORE wonderful I sprinkled on a nice amount of pepper and a dash of brown sugar to take it to planet stupid.  YuM YuM YuM!

I clarified some butter and dumped in a ton of fresh rosemary.    I spread the butter on slices of the rustic wheat bread and layered on a nice piece of that gruyere cheese.   I got it all toasty in the broiler and BREAKFAST WAS READY!!!!!

Good lord was it yummy.

Here is a shot of the deliciously farm fresh breakfast courtesy of the Grand Army Plaza Saturday Farmers Market:

A Bright and Simply Delicious Steak and Eggs

I arrived home early this morning, flying in around 130am.   I was so excited to be home.   To walk into the paradise known as home was such a wonderful idea to me.   It became almost aspirational. 

So this morning I wanted to bless my home with a wonderful breakfast that was bright and reminded us of what we have. 

Herbs and acidity are the key to brightness so I decided to built around cilantro and lime. 

I started by toasting some spices.   Yellow mustard seed and black peppercorns.  I tossed in some brown sugar which will give my rub some caramelization.   At the same time I put a nice clove of garlic in the mortar and pestle and got it all mashed up.   I tossed in the spices once they started crackling and got the rub all mashed up. 

I rubbed down the skirt steak with my fresh rub and then let the steak sit.   I chopped up some fresh cilantro and rubbed the steak down with after squeezing fresh lime juice all over the steak.  I finished it with a coating of olive oil to make sure it gets hot hot hot. 

I scrambled together 4 eggs with a little milk, coarse sea salt, and cracked black peppercorns.  Put my pan on medium heat and added some butter.  Poured the eggs out and finished them with some freshly chopped chives.  I grilled the skirt steak along with some freshly slices baguette.

What did I get?

The most bright and light steak and eggs I have ever had.   Wonderfully delicious!

A pic of the rub

Here is a couple of pics of the final product

The Love of Egg - Making the yummy BIN36 egg sandwich

As indicated in my first "Love of Eggs" post I recently have eaten the YUMMY BIN36 Egg Sandwich.   This sandwich was *!&@# delicious and I must recreate it at home but do it my way with all ingredients I can find in just the Korean Deli down the road.  

Ok so lets look at what is in this thing and how it is described on the menu


Breakfast Sandwich  $12.00
two eggs (chef suggests scrambled or over medium)
with ham steak, smoked gouda cheese, lettuce and garlic aioli
on sourdough bread, served with homefries

Ok so mission #1 is to make my own garlic aioli.   I have never made an aioli but they are delicious so I decided to give it a shot.    What I got was epically delicious.  Oh Aioli why why why did I wait so long to make you!   This !(*@# is !(*@# amazing.   It is so simple too!   I took fine chopped like 5 small cloves of garlic.    I whisked it together with the juice of one small lemon and a large pinch of corse sea salt.   I whisked in one egg yolk.   I then SLOWLY whisked in olive oil until it really had a airy fluffy saucy feel to it.   I tasted it and it was !()*#! heaven.

I cooked the eggs medium sunny side up.     I grilled up some deli ham.    I toasted the bread with a little bit of olive oil.    I made a decision to make the sandwich open faced.    It will be more messy but I want to see this thing when I eat it.

So the assembly....Bread down on the plate with a slather of garlic aioli on the top side of the bread.    I put down a nice bed of baby greens.    I put the ham down and a nice slice of gouda cheese.     I put the egg right on top of the cheese so it could melt it slightly.     I topped it with a splash of MORE garlic aioli.  Here is the pic:

The Love of Eggs

So recently I had to travel to Detroit and Chicago for work.    It had been 2 weeks since I had been up the air chasing RFPs.

One of the true pleasures of travel is getting to stay in hotel rooms.  Why do you ask???

Well thats simple!

ROOM SERVICE!!!!!

The notion of ordering from a menu and getting to eat it in your temporary bedroom that has a magic cleaning fairy who makes all of your messes go away is one of the most attractive ideas in my ever so simplistic brain.

I digress...

In chicago I was staying at the SAX hotel right across from the house of blues.   I love that hotel.    It has a very thoughtful and playful design to it and the rooms are amazing.   Any place that comes stocked with Raspberry Izzie, chocolate covered peanuts, gummy bears, and cheetos is pretty much heaven to me :)

The thing I love the most about The Sax is they have BIN36 as their restaurant.   This place is so friggin yummy.    Here is a simple survey that would determine if you would like BIN36

Do you like good wine?
Do you like good cheese?
Do you like salty goodness?
Do you like sausage?
Do you LOVE a good goopy egg?

If you answered yes to all of the above then you MUST go to BIN36.    It is fantastically delicious.   My adventure with BIN36 started with breakfast.  I looked at their menu and saw the following:



Breakfast Sandwich  $12.00
two eggs (chef suggests scrambled or over medium)
with ham steak, smoked gouda cheese, lettuce and garlic aioli
on sourdough bread, served with homefries

How could I resist?!??

I order the sandwich and got the eggs done over medium.    When it came I took my first bite and all of a sudden taste angels descended from the heavens and started playing harps.   Salty eggy pure deliciousness!  I took a pic of it and it is officially something I look at I instantly start drooling while thinking...Mmmm Egg!

GOODNESS

This sandwich kicked off what I only could describe as an egg BENDER.   Every meal I ate had an goopy delicious egg in for the next two days.    :)