惭测听weekly email newsletter, the听First Course,听features news, tips and much more from St. 亚洲无码鈥 thriving dining scene. Exclusive to the First Course is a recommended dish from my travels around the metro area,听usually (but not always!) from a newly opened or relocated restaurant.
Here are a few recent selections听鈥 and an early look at the recommendation being sent to subscribers this week.
Exclusive insight, news, tips and more on St. 亚洲无码' thriving dining scene from 亚洲无码 restaurant critic Ian Froeb.
The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich at Billy's on Broadway
The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is an iconic Midwestern dish curiously absent from the St. 亚洲无码 dining scene. I couldn鈥檛 have named any local specimens offhand before I visited Billy鈥檚 on Broadway, a new restaurant and sports bar a long fly ball from Busch Stadium on South Broadway.
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A proper breaded pork tenderloin sandwich defeats the need for words. I mean, just look at the picture accompanying this week鈥檚 recommendation. You might as well try to make a sandwich with a continent than with this piece of pork pounded thin, breaded in a Saltine cracker crust and deep-fried.
Sandwich roll and garnishes aside, the obvious comparison here is schnitzel, though deep-frying yields a crisper crust with gnarly ridges. Though the cutlet is skinny and the edges can be more breading than pig, most bites deliver tender, juicy meat.
I suppose you could trim the overhanging pork from the sandwich proper 鈥 the pickle, especially, gives you a vitally sour and snappy contrast to the main event 鈥 but it鈥檚 much more fun to pick up the whole, unwieldy mess altogether and eat it that way. Besides, there will be plenty of pork tenderloin left when you鈥檝e finished the sandwich portion.
Where Billy’s on Broadway, 701 South Broadway • More info 314-476-0119; • Hours Lunch and dinner daily
How much: The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, which includes fries or chips, costs $13.50.
The Hot Cheetos Burrito at Amigo Sole
Move over, birria.
I鈥檇 already written enough about that wildly popular dish before I visited Amigo Sole, a new restaurant on the east side of the Delmar Loop focused on Mexican street food. Here you can also find birria tacos, quesabirria and birria ramen, but you should probably begin with the Hot Cheetos Burrito.
Hot Cheetos aren鈥檛 the 鈥渕eat鈥 of this burrito. You choose the actual meat from three options: carnitas, chicken tinga or carne asada. I went with the asada, which delivered the juiciness and gentle chewiness you want from that steak preparation.
Rice is the burrito鈥檚 third main component after the meat and Hot Cheetos, while cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo and chipotle mayo are the garnishes. All of this makes for a plump, but not overwhelming burrito.
And those Cheetos are no gimmick. In the burrito, their airy crunch reminded me of chicharrones, and the steak and rice helped balance their DayGlo heat.
I鈥檒l be back to Amigo Sole for another of these burritos 鈥 though maybe not until after I鈥檝e also tried the restaurant鈥檚 al pastor sandwich with a sunny-side-up egg or the BBQ Chipotle Burger topped with carne asada.
I鈥檒l get around to its birria eventually, too.
Where Amigo Sole, 6102 Delmar Boulevard 鈥⑻More info 314-260-9365; amigosole.online 鈥⑻Hours Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday)
How much: The Hot Cheetos Burrito is $13.50
The Breakfast Frisco sandwich at Momo Champagne Coffee Kitchen
Can one shopping plaza hold too much brunch power? That's the question raised by MoMo Champagne Coffee Kitchen, which opened in June in the same Rock Hill development that is already home to the original Katie鈥檚 Pizza & Pasta Osteria. You can spread your mimosa budget around with ease, at least. MoMo is open for breakfast and lunch daily.
I visited for lunch, and while I skimmed past the selections of toasts, pancakes and omelets, I still couldn鈥檛 resist breakfast entirely. From the sandwich menu, I ordered the Breakfast Frisco. This brought a generous portion of ham and a perfect over-easy egg with both American and Swiss cheese and tangy Russian dressing on toasted sourdough.
This is a breakfast sandwich with the heft of a full lunch 鈥 a breakfast sandwich you shouldn鈥檛 eat while driving.
MoMo throws a welcome curveball with its sides to accompany this sandwich: either street corn or, my pick, thick slices of snappy, tart cucumber jolted with chili crisp.
Where Momo Champagne Coffee Kitchen, 9500 Manchester Road, Rock Hill 鈥⑻More info 314-942-2172 鈥⑻Hours 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily
How much: The Breakfast Frisco sandwich costs $12.50, which includes a side dish.
Goat achari at Red Chili Indian Cuisine & Bar
Chesterfield is now the first destination for Indian cuisine in the metro area. Already home to STL 100 honorees the Curry Club and Khanna鈥檚 Desi Vibes, the municipality has seen the arrival this year of the small, elegant Black Salt, the fast-casual Tikka Tangy and the sprawling Red Chili Indian Cuisine & Bar, which occupies one of the outbuildings ringing the largely abandoned Chesterfield Mall.
(I briefly hoped Red Chili had moved into a former Chili鈥檚, but the space appears to have been a Twin Peaks instead.)
Red Chili鈥檚 menu is as capacious as its dining room, ranging from chaat to biryani to Indo-Chinese fare. The restaurant will benefit from patient exploration over multiple visits, but already I can recommend the goat achari, the rare meaty dish that will snap you to attention.
The restaurant鈥檚 name aside, this isn鈥檛 an especially hot dish. It takes its name from Indian pickling spices, and its coiled bite sparkles somewhere along the spectrum between tart and sour. The flavor is energizing 鈥 in the way, say, ginger or mustard can sparkle across your palate 鈥 rather than puckering. You can also order the dish with chicken instead of goat, but the latter鈥檚 brawn tempered the sauce without overwhelming it.
I ordered the goat achari from Red Chili鈥檚 regular menu during a lunch visit. There is also a lunch buffet, but consider it a tribute to Red Chili in general 鈥 and the evolution of the metro area鈥檚 Indian restaurant scene in general 鈥 that I didn鈥檛 even consider that buffet.
Where Red Chili Indian Cuisine & Bar, 963 Chesterfield Center, Chesterfield • More info 636-812-2179; • Hours Lunch and dinner daily (closed Tuesday)
How much: The goat achari costs $20. The accompanying garlic-chile naan is $5.
Pollo con tajadas at Sabor K-Tracho Restaurant
Hungry for more fried chicken after last week鈥檚 review of Sunday Best? Head to Maryland Heights, where Sabor K-Tracho Restaurant is serving pollo con tajadas and other Honduran fare from a compact shopping-strip storefront.
Sabor鈥檚 pollo con tajadas nestles juicy fried chicken on a bed of fried plantain or banana chips, but that description undersells the dish. Between the chicken and the tajadas you will find fluorescent-red pickled onions, crunchy cabbage salad and Honduran-style pico de gallo. Dressing the dish is a creamy sauce, teasingly sweet and tangy.
Even blanketed in that sauce, Sabor鈥檚 fried chicken remains crisp. I ordered the default dark meat, a leg-and-thigh quarter. (White meat is a $2 upgrade.) The amount of meat on the bones is small, compared to the rest of the plate, but that meat is juicy and flavorful amidst all the garnishes.
I did encounter a single large slice of what looked and tasted like pickled jalape帽o in the pico de gallo, but fans of spicy fried chicken will want to add a generous squeeze from the bottle of thin, cayenne-forward Honduran hot sauce on each of the restaurant鈥檚 tables.
Where Sabor K-Tracho Restaurant, 2286 McKelvey Road, Maryland Heights 鈥⑻More info 314-787-7440 鈥⑻Hours Lunch and dinner daily
How much: The pollo con tajadas costs $12.99. Switching from dark to white meat adds $2.
Exclusive insight, news, tips and more on St. 亚洲无码' thriving dining scene from 亚洲无码 restaurant critic Ian Froeb.