7.27.2006

"Evil will always prevail, because good is dumb."

My sister and I are pretty different people. I'm a caveman, she's a doctor. I live in downtown St. Louis, she lives in downtown Chicago, a block from the Gap on Michigan Avenue (and they say doctors are getting paid enough!) Well, I always hear her rave about Chicago restaurants and how St. Louis just can't compare to the sights and sounds of that "fabulous" city. Well, she was in town, because apparently doctors get vacations, and my family wanted to go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate my mom's recent graduation from massage therapy school. A 56 year old woman, graduating from school is a big deal and we were very proud. So, I decided to use this opportunity to bust out a secret weapon to show Wina Tang that there are restaurants here on par with Chicago. So where did we go? Larry Forgione's An American Place. For the past year, I've repeatedly heard rumors and stories about this place from various individuals, among them, Wusan Salker, the diva of everything nice, that this is the place to eat. Now when Wusan, a Mississipian, gets excited about a restaurant, I know it has to be good, because only the best is mediocre for Wusan.

Well, so how was it, you ask? Wusan knows her food! The dining experience was probably the most complex, flavorful dinner I've ever had. Wina is big on tasting menus and so we decided to try the 9 course tasting menu. Hard to go wrong here if you feel like ponying up some bills to celebrate. Here's the run down of the menu for the evening:

We started things off with an amuse-bouche, which is a free offering from the chef to sort of warm up the palate to the glorious dishes about to come. Ours was a cool, watermelon soup with crab, which at first, may seem quite strange, but the slight sweetness of the watermelon, paired with the saltiness of the crab, was perfect. The presentation was in a small bowl in the shape of an egg, with the soup resting where the yolk would be. Quite artistic.

1. Roasted corn with beurre infused with mushroom and a side of crab meat salad. Generally, I'm not a corn person, but the corn was extremely tender and sweet, which made me enjoy immensely. A little hard to eat, but the husk was still attached to it, so I just picked it up and ate it, while dipping it in the mushroom butter. The crab salad was very good, but I wasn't so sure that back to back crab was necessary. Plus, the two were eaten individually, so how well, they complimented each other, I'm not so sure. But, overall, both were excellent.

2. Deconstructed Caprese Salad. This was probably, by far, the dish I was most impressed with. A traditional caprese salad consists of tomato, fresh mozzerella, and basil. This was a very unique spin on that. An scoop of olive oil sorbet, on top of a tomato slice, on top of a wafer. All of it sprinkled with fresh basil and some sauce that was unidentifiable. Olive oil sorbet. The flavor of olive oil permeated the sorbet and had a coolness on the tongue that epitomized the word "savory". When everything was eaten together, it instantly informed me what fresh ingredients should taste like.

3. Sliced cured pork jowl with bell peppers. This may put some people off, namely Wusan, but I thought that this was another well designed dish. The jowl is from the cheek and neck of the pig. It was so thinly sliced, it reminded me of rice paper. The flavor was more akin to proscuitto. Because it was cured, it was quite salty. However, when that was paired with the sweetness of the bell peppers, again the combination of flavors formed a synergy in your mouth quite unlike anything I've had before. Simply put, awesome. Of note, my girlfriend did not like the jowl because it was too fatty, which made me quite happy, because more jowl for the caveman!

4. Seared scallop on a grilled eggplant, with greens and an eggplant sauce. This was my mom's favorite dish. She said the next time she comes back, she's getting a plate of these. The scallops were cooked to perfection at slightly rare. Overcooked scallops are horrible, but that wasn't a problem here. Another problem with cooking scallops, is that if you don't drain the liquid out of the scallop, you won't get a nicely seared crust on it. It's very similar to cooking a steak in a pan. Anyways, this was perfect here and the eggplant worked well with the scallop. Seasoning was perfect.

5. Veal with red wine reduction sauce. Okay. I have a confession and this may offend people of the Wusan persuasion, but I really, really, really like to eat baby cow. This was no exception and the veal was so flavorful. It was cooked well done, which usually makes me angry and violent, like most cavemen, but it was cooked this way because the meat was from the shank, which meant that there was plenty of flavorful connective tissue that needed a good braising in order to break down into the meat. The red wine reduction sauce was a little salty, but it served as a good dressing for the greens.

6. Braised lamb. Okay, this was slightly similar to the last dish in terms of sauce, but the lamb was served on a corn pudding that was perfect for reducing the saltiness of the sauce. Corn pudding was a first for me, but it was so smooth and creamy, it may become my preferred method of eating corn. What made this dish even more interesting for me, was that the lamb was cooked to medium rare, which is extremely difficult given the small size and thickness of the meat. It had a nice pink running through it, which put a smile on my face.

7. Blue cheese with preserved fig. Well, with the crescendo peak reach in the meal, the chef was now bringing us down with a cheese plate to be followed by two desserts. I made the mistake of eating the cheese first by itself. The cheese was very strong (stinky) and a tad bitter. But, in another exhibit of how flavors should be paired together, the cheese was perfectly balanced when eaten with the sweetness of the fig. The fig drew out flavors in the cheese that initially were overpowered by the stink and bitterness and mellowed those two flavors out, creating a perfect cheese experience. Amazing.

8. Preserved apricot stuffed with rice pudding. Okay, this was my least favorite dish. The apricot and its accompanying sauce was so sour, that the sweetness of the rice pudding could not counteract it. Least memorable and I won't waste any more time writing about it because of the dessert after this one redeemed everything.

9. Chocolate lava cake. Simply put, the best dessert I've ever had. Even better than Harvest's bread pudding! You cut into the cake and chocolate just oozes out of it, like lava. I was afraid that it was going to be too sweet, but it wasn't. The chocolate inside was very warm and when eaten with the blackberry sorbet, it was a nice contrast of hot and cold, sweet and sour. The blackberry sorbet was sour, but matched perfectly with the lava cake. I don't like chocolate very much, and I'm not big on desserts, but this alone, was worth the meal because of how good it was.

Well, the meal ended with some designer confectionaries from the restaurant. Good, but after the meal, they weren't memorable. Service was okay, not the best I've had, but not the worst. The server tried to be friendly, but all he'd say was "is everything still okay?" To which I would respond, "of course." And off he would go. I got the impression that the staff wasn't quite knowledgeable regarding the food they were serving, which was unfortunate because I had lots of questions about it. For our party of five, they added a gratuity of 20% to our bill, which my Dad paused at, but because the meal was so good, he happily signed the check. The meal was expensive enough that this won't be a frequent event, but I recommend that everyone at least try it once to see how a food experience can be entertaining for you taste buds, other than sheer amount. The portions were small, but I was very full after the meal. Amazing considering I'm a big caveman. What did the big doctor Wina think? She said it's as good as anything she's had in Chicago. Presentation wasn't as over the top as in Chicago, but for the prices here, it was a steal compared to Chicago. Victory!!

And now, here's my restaurant pick for the week and what you should order there:

Wong's Wok (In the Delmar Loop Market)

Well, after a big expensive meal like that, nothing makes me feel better than going to Wong's Wok and getting some $5 beef noodle soup. Wong's Wok is a hole in the wall, but the chinese people sure love their beef noodle soup. For $5.25 you get a big bowl of noodles, beef, bok choy, and soup. It's a little spicy, but perfect if you get a milk tea drink from the bubble tea place next door to it.

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