After writing extensively about the cuisine of Kentucky the other day, it is now time to focus on the wonder that is the food of St. Louis. I will warn you that this may turn into a lengthy post because there is so much to write about. Because of that I will try to only talk briefly about each food.
In my mind, it all begins with St. Louis style pizza. As a younger boy, I used to think of this pizza as merely thin crust pizza, and thus all thin crust pizzas were equal. So whenever I saw thin crust, I thought it was St. Louis style. I guess I was wrong all those years, because it's more the ingredients than just the thin crust that make this pizza unique. Provel cheese, which is also a staple of St. Louis is probably the key ingredient to the pizza, but it can also be mixed with a sweeter sauce, and lots of spices. The crust is thin, almost to the point of being crunch, and it is always cut into squares. There is no pizza like this available in Louisville. Here in Louisville, Papa John's (or what I like to call "Louisville-style" pizza) is king. And who the hell needs Papa John's on a regular basis, when you can have Imo's and Cecil Whitaker's.
Next on the list of St. Louis favorites is another Italian dish (owing to St. Louis' strong Italian heritage): toasted ravioli. I've seen this in restaurants outside of St. Louis, but stores in Louisville don't carry it. The great thing about this food is that I'm not a fan at all of ravioli, but this is completely different. Basically, take normal ravioli, season the shit out of it, deep fry it, and serve it with dipping sauce and you have the start to a hell of a meal. First off, EVERYTHING is better deep-fried. Second, this can be eaten as an appetizer or a meal, and it never gets old. I made it a point to pick myself up two boxes of Louisa toasted ravioli before I left St. Louis last weekend because I missed this wondrous food so much. Anyone who hasn't tried this is truly missing out.
The next type of food that makes St. Louis so damn awesome is St. Louis style BBQ. The true staples of this are Maull's BBQ sauce and pork steaks. I've always thought of my BBQ as being covered in Maull's...nearly dripping sometimes. It wasn't until just the other day that I realized that Maull's isn't available much outside of St. Louis. This was mind-blowing to me because I guess I always assumed it was a national brand. I guess I never looked closely at the store here in "The 'Ville." Pork steaks are something different altogether. I believe they're cut from the shoulder area of the pig, and are generally a bit more fatty than other types of pork. However, the fat is the tasty kind, like on prime rib, that only adds to the flavor of the rib, and is very easy to chew. I just had pork steaks over the weekend for the first time in probably 3 years and they were every bit as mouth-watering as I remember them. This is another food I fully intend to ship back to Louisville in my Taurus the next time I make a trip to St. Louis.
The last food I will hit on in detail is St. Louis' entry into the "pile of slop" category, the Slinger. This is a breakfast and late night staple in St. Louis, especially in eateries such as Eat Rite (or dont' eat at all) and the Courtesy Diner (known for their less than courteous staff). A slinger is basically a pile of slop, made of breakfast foods and chili. Its ingredients are limited only to the chef's imagination, but it must include a meat and chili. Generally, they will include eggs, along with sausage, bacon, ham or steak, and hash brown, topped with generous amounts of chili. These things are painful to eat and even more painful to pass the next day, but you can't argue with proven taste. I've devoured all of two of them in my life, and only regretted it for a fleeting few moments the day after.
Other unique food choices in St. Louis are Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, gooey butter cake (extremely easy to make and incredibly rich), the ice cream cone (meaning it was rumored to be invented there during the 1904 World's Fair), and countless other Italian dishes found on The Hill. There are countless other foods unique to both St. Louis and Louisville, but if I hit on them all I would be writing for days. This is just a taste (no pun intended) of what is uniquely available in these two cities, but I urge anyone who hasn't tried any of these foods to make it a point on their next trip through to stop and try at least one of them. I know I make it a point to eat at least one or two St. Louis staples on every trip to the Gateway to the West.
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