Jennifer Silverberg

The tacos al pastor at Milagro Modern Mexican.

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 5, is Cinco de Drinko Mayo. Though at best a regional holiday in Mexico, we here in the U.S. of A. can't get enough reveling on Sabado 5 de Mayo. Don't get us wrong, we at Gut Check also enjoy indulging in margaritas on the rocks and Mexican food, and thus have compiled a list of the best places in St. Louis to get soused in cerveza at on Cinco de Mayo.

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Ettie Berneking

Getting ready for Earth Day 2012 we were sure that with all that hoopla flooding Forest Park, there was bound to be an equal amount of garbage: a sea of half-eaten corn dogs, stale nachos, melted cotton candy and crumpled paper cups. Turns out we were wrong. Those pesky Earth Day volunteers had set up dozens of recycling, composting stations around every vendor and 100-year-old tree in the park. Shocked, we called up Cassandra Hage with Earth Day St. Louis again to see where the crew was hiding everyone's trash.

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With more live entertainment slated for the St. Louis Earth Day Festival on Sunday, April 22, than ever before, this year's celebration is bound to knock St. Louis up to the second largest Earth Day festival in the country -- after all we are world champs, at things both big and small (but mostly big: obesity, crime, baseball).

Talking with Cassandra Hage, executive director of St. Louis Earth Day, Gut Check gleaned a few facts about this year's festival. We wondered what hippie-friendly hot-spots would make it on our must-see list (Quinoa samples at the Whole Foods booth? Vegan cookies? Witnessing could-be scenes from Portlandia?). But talking with Hage we realized our meager to-do list was not going to cut it. There's a lot of wacky fun in store, so get ready to mingle with the hippies, young hipster parents and Gut Check in Forest Park (Highway 40 [I-64] & Hampton Avenue) this Sunday.

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Ian Froeb

The massaman curry at Simply Thai.

On Sunday, April 22, the Thai Association of Greater St. Louis hosts its annual Traditional Thai New Year Festival, also known as the Songkran Festival, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Thai Buddhist Temple of Greater St. Louis (890 Lindsay Lane, Florissant; 314-839-3115). The event is free to attend with the exception of food and drink purchases, which of course, is Gut Check's bag.

The official festival website doesn't list participating vendors and restaurants, but many phone calls later, Gut Check has confirmed that the following Thai restaurants will have food available for purchase: Pearl Cafe (8416 North Lindbergh Boulevard, Florissant; 314-831-3701), Blue Elephant (7816 Forsyth Boulevard; 314-862-0500), Simply Thai (2470 North Highway 67, Florissant; 314-921-2179), Manee Thai (481 Lafayette Center, Ballwin; 636-256-8898), Sen Thai Asian Bistro (1221 Locust Street; 314-436-3456), Thai Nivas Cafe (11054 Olive Boulevard; 314-567-8989), Thai Cafe (6170 Delmar Boulevard; 314-862-6868), Thai Country Cafe (6223 Delmar Boulevard; 314-862-0787), Thai Pizza Company (608 Eastgate Avenue; 314-862-4429) and Thai Gai Yang Cafe (6250 Delmar Boulevard; 314-862-4400).

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Bryan Peters

Slow Food's Bill Burge

This past Saturday, hungry St. Louisans gathered at the Koken Art Factory (2500 Ohio Avenue, Soulard/Benton Park; 314-776-7600) to sample and celebrate some of our city's best slow food. The event, Art of Food, was organized by Slow Food St. Louis. According to Bill Burge, co-leader of the organization, the event was designed to showcase not just "the food and who grows it, but also who comes up with ideas and cooks it and feeds other people."

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Gut Check is constantly working to bring the latest food news to our readers. As a result, we do a lot of blogging. In an effort to draw attention to great posts that may have otherwise been lost in the blogosphere (and to recognize our hard-working writers), we present Post of the Month.

Every summer, Iron Barley (5510 Virginia Avenue; 314-351-4500) keeps upping the ante for the world's largest BLT. It hit the record in 2009 with a 179-foot, 2-inch sandwich made with 500 pounds of bacon.

But BLT makers are an ambitious bunch. In Kansas City last June, the Associated Wholesale Grocers broke the record with a 209-foot, 16-inch-wide sandwich to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

During the seventh annual Tomato Fest last Sunday, Iron Barley "smoked 'em," as chef/owner Tom Coghill told videographer Chris Kuban.

What does it take to smoke the giant BLT competition?

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Ian Froeb

Cevapi -- and so much more -- is waiting for you at the Festival of Nations.

​Several years ago, not long after I moved to St. Louis and before I had this gig, I attended the International Institute of St. Louis' Festival of Nations for the first time. The summer of '04, I think. I don't remember much from this year in particular -- my memories of each festival have begun to blur together -- but one experience does remain vivid.

By this point, I knew that St. Louis had a large Bosnian community, but I had yet to try one of the Bosnian restaurants. Curious, but with no knowledge of the cuisine, I stopped at one of the Bosnian booths.

(This booth might have been run by the restaurant Grbic -- again, though, my memories are fuzzy.)

I didn't know what to order, but everyone else was getting ćevapi -- plump little sausages on a massive bread roll -- so I did, too. It was a revelation. Not just the ćevapi itself, which would be one of my 100 Favorite St. Louis dishes, but the knowledge that St. Louis could be full of stuff like this, dishes that I'd never heard of, let alone tried.

If you've never tried the Festival of Nations, you should. Stop by for lunch before LouFest -- or make a day (or two) of it. I know life in St. Louis would be a lot less fulfilling if I'd never gone.

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St. Louis Craft Beer Week offers lots and lots of fancy-pants brew-centric events.

Call us crazy, but sometimes Gut Check International HQ misses the good ol' days when Anheuser-Busch drove this city like a team of clydesdales and you could actually buy a Busch beer at the stadium that shares its name.

Thanks in part to the InBev buyout of 2008, St. Louis craft beer-makers and their brews have been popping up all over the city. With brewers such as Six Row Brewing Company (3690 Forest Park Avenue; 314-531-5600), 2nd Shift Brewery and Urban Chestnut (3229 Washington Avenue; 314-222-0143) , there are plenty of options for those of us who like our $10 beers delivered in fancy glasses and infused with not-so-original ingredients, such as bacon.

But then shit got a little ridiculous, proof being St. Louis Craft Beer Week, a celebration of small breweries, which begins Saturday, July 30, and runs through Sunday, August 7. That's nine days of expensive craft beer drinking, folks. You're bound to rack up quite the bar tab.

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Robin Wheeler

Barbecue competitors set up for Eckert's DadFest.

Eckert's (951 South Green Mount Road, Belleville, Illinois; 618-233-0513 or www.eckerts.com) is getting an early start on Father's Day by kicking off its inaugural DadFest at 3 p.m. today.

This morning, its barbecue competitors were already setting up and smoking in the parking lot. Angie Eckert, vice president of retail operations for Eckert's, explained that the twenty competitors have come from across the Midwest to participate in the event, sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. Several competitors will also be selling barbecue.

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Jacob's Ladder Foundation

Pigs will fly in Swansea on Saturday.

When fifteen-year-old Jacob Kellogg died unexpectedly from an asthma-related condition in 2009, his family honored his memory by starting the Jacob's Ladder Foundation. The organization funds two scholarships to help students in need at Kellogg's alma maters, Belleville East High School and Wolf Branch Middle School in Swansea, Illinois.

Despite his young age, Kellogg had already developed an affinity for barbecue. On Saturday his family honors their son's love of smoked pork with the second annual Pig-a-Palooza at Schranz Park (Huntwood Road at Honeysuckle Lane, Swansea, Illinois). Last year's barbecue event raised more than $7,000 for the Jacob's Ladder Foundation.

Gut Check chatted via email with Steve and Deatrice Kellogg, Jacob's parents and the founders of the Jacob's Ladder Foundation, and with the event's pit master, Jay Bradshaw.

Gut Check What prompted you to start Pig-a-Palooza?

Steve and Deatrice Kellogg, Jacob's Ladder Foundation Jacob had many passions in his brief but eventful 15 years with us. Among his two favorites were good music and exceptional barbecue. So when we were thinking of the kind of fundraising event to have to raise money for Jacob's Ladder Foundation, it made sense to combine those two passions: music and barbecue.

The name Pig-a-Palooza was an obvious choice after that. So as you know, we have a barbecue festival on June 4 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. We will be serving ribs (Jacob's favorite), pulled pork, burgers and dogs. In addition, we have lots of rides and inflatables for the younger kids to keep them occupied while the parents bid on the silent and oral auction. Then at 7:30, Trixie Delight will be performing. Should be a great outdoor concert. The weather will be perfect.

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