Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie Experiences the St. Louis Food & Wine Experience

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Feb. 2 2010 at 1:26 PM
Categories: Drink Drank Drunk, Novice Foodie
When Iron Stef said she could score cheap tickets to the St. Louis Food & Wine Experience, a fundraiser for the Repertory Theatre of St Louis, I thought: Why not? I need no excuse to tip a few back on a Sunday afternoon. When she noted they were VIP tickets, my highbrow sensibilities were anticipatory. Finally, a chance to be around my people: very important people.

These are not my people.

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​
Don't get me wrong. It's definitely cool to see a giant ballroom full of friendly people wanting to pour you a glass of wine in exchange for nothing but a smile. And it's definitely cool to leave the hubbub of said ballroom to go to another giant room filled with more people who want to give you more wine and food. But the Novice Foodie knows very little about wine, and that's intentional. I just don't get into wine. I will never be someone who seeks out particular vintages or varietals or studies the nuances of nose. I just don't care. And if you are one of those people, you are undoubtedly a lovely person, and that's great that you're into wine. It's just not my thing. I will drink almost anything you put in front of me, but given the option, I'd prefer that what you put in front of me is beer.


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St. Louis Food & Wine Experience, wine
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie Worships at the Church of Burger

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Jan. 26 2010 at 3:00 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
While most former vegetarians cite bacon as their gateway food back into carnivorous behavior, for me, it was the humble hamburger. A burger and fries is the quintessential American meal, and I'm always on the lookout for a burger that leaves me satisfied.

So when my friend and fellow food blogger Andrew Veety, collaborator on the BLT cocktail highlighted in an earlier Novice Foodie, decided he was going to try a sampling of St. Louis's finest hamburgers, he agreed to let me (and several other burger enthusiasts) come along for the ride.

A note on his methodology: Veety polled St. Louisans on Twitter and Facebook, then picked the top twelve vote-getters. Each month, he will try another of the top twelve, including a veggie burger, and blog about it. Because the inaugural tasting took place on a Sunday morning, this monthly burger sampling is now known as The Church of Burger.

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Kelli Best-Oliver
​First stop: Dressel's in the Central West End. I'd never tried Dressel's burger before, and I didn't really know what to expect. In addition to Veety and myself, others joining us on our burger quest were Veety's wife, Sarah, and son Reis; local food photographer Jonathan Pollack; his wife and food blogger of note (and Gut Check contributor), Stefani, and their son Myles; and a local burger critic so hardcore that his name actually contains most of the word "burger," Bill Burge.

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burgers, Dressel's, the Church of Burger
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie's Tour of Misfit Kitchen Tools

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Jan. 19 2010 at 3:00 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
As part of my quest towards foodiedom, I'm trying to create a kitchen full of useful, dependable tools that will help me create good food at home. Tools like I mentioned in my holiday gift guide for novice foodies: multitaskers that will last forever if cared for properly.

However, in my pre-foodie life I collected a motley crew of kitchen inhabitants that don't fit this description and still haunt my kitchen. Take, for example, my standing mixer. Most foodies I know have this beauty:

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User "cmh," Wikimedia Commons
​The Novice Foodie can only admire it from afar, because I'm rocking my grandma's hand-me-down, 70's-era, comes-with-a-crate-full-of-attachments food processor. Think I'm kidding?

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kitchen tools, mixers, useless stuff
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie Presses for Better Coffee

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Jan. 12 2010 at 2:00 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
Ah, coffee. I love the comfort of the morning coffee ritual: the first sip, the way a warm mug feels in my hand, the permeating aroma as I get my day going. But woe was the Novice Foodie this past summer when my doctor said I had to cut out caffeine for a while to ensure I wouldn't drop dead at a moment's notice. Well, technically, I wasn't on the verge of death, but she did say that drinking a pot or so a day might be contributing to my anxiety and/or random heart palpitations. She had a point.

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Terry Johnston, Wikimedia Commons
​Anyway, while I did get off the sauce for a while, I've resumed my coffee drinking -- in moderation, of course. In previous jobs, I always had a cheap drip machine in my office so I didn't have to drink whatever crap communal coffee was in the kitchen or break room. This may have contributed to my pot-a-day habit. Now that I work from home, I use my French press as both a better brewing method for my tastes and as a method of moderation. Since my daily coffee consumption is now about a cup and a half, I want that cup and a half to be a quality cup and a half.

So how do I brew the perfect cup of coffee?

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coffee, French press
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie Sheds Tears of Joy for the Humble Shallot

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Jan. 5 2010 at 2:45 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
In his bestselling memoir, Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain lists as the first necessary food item in the chapter titled "How to Cook Like A Pro" -- before butter, my friends -- the humble shallot. He writes, "You almost never see this item in a home kitchen, but out in the world they're an essential ingredient. Shallots are one of the things -- a basic prep item in every miss-en-place -- that make restaurant food taste different from your food. In my kitchen, we use nearly twenty pounds a day."

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David Monniaux, Wikimedia Commons
​I need no better persuasion than the words of the ubiquitous Mr. Bourdain. Since reading his book years ago, I've incorporated shallots into my reliable pantry staples, and if you're learning how to cook from scratch, you should, too. Think about how fancy that makes you sound! If someone asks you what's in a certain dish, what screams "I know what I'm doing" better than tossing the term shallot around casually.

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Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential, shallots
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The Novice Foodie's Homemade Cheese Snacks

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Dec. 29 2009 at 4:00 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
Still bloated from holiday feasts in Iowa with my family, my husband and I returned to St Louis for even more dinner events. What to bring to these meals? I knew I didn't want to tackle yet another hearty dish. In fact, my mind could barely get past appetizers. So why fight it?

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Kelli Best-Oliver
​I had a beautiful piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano from my visit to the Cheesemonger. In the time it would take to run to the grocery store for pre-made items, I could easily make homemade crackers and dip out of real ingredients, skipping the additives and preservatives that come with processed food.

Snack food, at home, for cheap? Yes, please.

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cheese, cheese straws, Mark Bittman, parmesan cream crackers, Smitten Kitchen
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie and the Cheesemonger

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Dec. 22 2009 at 4:30 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
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User "Myrabella," Wikimedia Commons
​I love most cheeses in most forms, but I don't really know much about cheese -- good cheese, I mean, artisanal cheese. Being friends with local food blogger the Cheesemonger's Wife has taught me that I'm missing out. So I asked the Cheesemonger himself, Simon Lehrer of the Wine Merchant in Clayton, to teach me a little something about cheese and to help me put together a Christmas cheese plate for my family.

Every Novice Foodie needs a cheesemonger in her arsenal of foodie friends. Tell your cheesemonger your likes and dislikes, and he or she can point you in the right direction. For the cheese plate for my family, I needed cheeses for less adventurous palates. Lehrer easily tailored what he showed me to meet this request. Once you develop a relationship with a cheesemonger, he or she will remember your preferences and can let you know when new items that you might like have arrived.

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cheese, cheesemonger, Simon Lehrer, the Wine Merchant
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The Novice Foodie Isn't a Slow-Food Novice

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Dec. 15 2009 at 3:15 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
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There's a good chance your food didn't come from anyone like her.
​If there's one area of food where the Novice Foodie isn't such a novice, it's local, organic and sustainable foods -- a.k.a. Slow Food. I've been digging around to learn where my food comes from since I saw Canadian farmer/activist Percy Schmeiser speak while I was in graduate school. When I was a high-school teacher, I taught a class on environmental sustainability, and one major unit was food systems. I learned that the average teenager has little to no idea where their food comes from.

Judging by the lady I saw at Whole Foods complaining that there was blood in her package of chicken, I'd wager that most adults don't, either. So let's talk about where food comes from.

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Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, Slow Food, Slow Food St. Louis, sustainability
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Novice Foodie

What to Get Your Novice Foodie This Holiday Season

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Dec. 8 2009 at 3:00 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
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User "Wikidemo," Wikimedia Commons
Merry Christmas! (Watch your knuckles.)
​What to get the novice foodie(s) in your life this holiday season? Here are some gifts that I heartily recommend. These are invaluable tools, well worth the space they take up in my own kitchen because I use them so frequently. If you're shopping for someone who is looking to spend more time in the kitchen in the new year, they are great places to start.

Books

I finally got a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking this year, and it's an invaluable resource, not just as a collection of recipes, but as an accessible guide to basic French cooking techniques. This is a great cookbook for someone who already has a little experience in the kitchen but wants to learn more advanced skills. Both volumes are widely available after this summer's release of Julie and Julia.

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222 Artisan Bakery, Christmas gifts, coffee, cookbooks, gift ideas, Goshen Coffee, kitchen tools
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Novice Foodie

The Novice Foodie is Full of Crêpe

By Kelli Best-Oliver Tue., Dec. 1 2009 at 3:36 PM
Categories: Novice Foodie
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Stu Spivek, Wikimedia Commons
​Encouraged by last week's no-knead bread success, and bloated from several Thanksgiving dinners, this week I decide to tackle another classic while keeping things light.

What's lighter than thin, airy crêpes?

When I want crêpes, I usually go to Rooster or Murdoch Perk, but I'd like to be able to make them at home because they're lighter than pancakes, whichI often make for breakfast-for-dinner. Since pancakes usually leave me feeling like I got kicked in the gut, I'm on the lookout for another sweet treat that can be made for almost any meal. Crêpes fit the bill.

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crepes, Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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