Wapango!!!

What's a Wapango, Anyway??? Saturday, September 5th, 2009, Chesterfield, MO

Not surprisingly, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of eating at this establishment. Anything of a South-of-the-Border origin tends to bring out my defensive eating tendencies. Inflammatory Bowel Disease and over-spiced food are not a blend guaranteed to bring digestive happiness for me or the hubba, who has to deal with me while I deal with spicy-butt. But thanks to the very positive reviews from some friends at work and a handy-dandy Restaurant.com gift certificate, Jay and I took the plunge into the world of Wapango, where they do their best to blend the cuisine and cooking styles of Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America in a way that isn't too weird and scary for Midwesterners bred on cow.

According to their menu, which is varied and quite appealing even to a picky Crohn like me, the name Wapango has its roots in the Huapango, a dance that is very popular in many Latin American countries. I'm cool with that as long as dining here doesn't result in my doing the toilet two-step all evening. The restaurant is located in Chesterfield Mall and I think the decor may actually be somewhat bright and lively but I can't say that with any certainty because they dimmed the lights at 3PM to enhance the "mood" according to our server and it really felt like we were sitting in pre-thunderstorm gloom for the remainder of the meal. I'm all for mood lighting when appropriate, but when the interior is so dim that walking outdoors turns daylight into a solar version of the ugly lights then it's too damn dark to eat.

In short, you may want to take a flashlight with you when you dine at Wapango, or perhaps a kerosene lamp.

Once we were seated and placed a drink order, our server quickly returned with some fresh rolls, butter, re-fried black bean spread, and something green that Jay said was similar to chimichuri sauce. The rolls were wonderful - hot and doughy and glistening with a last minute application of garlic oil.



Our beverages arrived shortly after the bread: I ordered a Pearl Plum Vodkarita - pearl plum vodka, triple sec, fresh lime juice, and sweet and sour served up in a sugared rim. It could have been too sweet but ended up being the perfect blend of sweet and tart thanks to the lime juice. Jay ordered a Dos Equis Amber - it was beer, what else can I say?

There was an appetizer option among the many choices on the menu that really grabbed our attention - it sounded like a lot of food but would give us a chance to sample a couple of different items and we loved its name ... The Carnivale! For the bargain price of $16 this awesomely presented treat includes an empanada de queso (a handmade turnover stuffed with a blend of three cheeses); Colombian arepa (white corn cakes topped with shredded pork, black beans, and Mexican crema); red corn chicken taquitos (fresh roasted chicken rolled inside a red corn tortilla with chile-orange mojo, Mexican crema, and pico de gallo); and tortilla crisps. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

It was. And wait until you see how they presented it ... Check out the pictures!

We had to take two pictures of it just to give everyone a better idea of how they bring it out to the table. It's so unique I really think it deserves its own theme music ... maybe something along the lines of Tequila or The Girl from Ipanema. In the pictures that follow, you will see the cheesy empanada and the chicken quesadilla, the chicken taquito, the tortilla crisps with cheesy salad sprinkled across them, and the arepa both whole and then split in half.

All of these items were very tasty and included with the selection was some pineapple salsa and even more re-fried bean stuff. My favorite was the cheesy empanada which was stuffed with a lovely, mild, gooey cheese blend in a warm, flaky turnover. I could have made a meal out of these, they were that good. The other selections were also good but some of them had a little too much crema or shredded green stuff and I had to be careful about eating too much of it. Still, everything had great flavor and it was a really fun presentation.

For my entree I ordered the Empanadas de Pollo, Queso, y Puerco (chicken, cheese, and pork) which was served with golden rice, deep fried plantains, and a wee little container of even more black beans (mmmm, the musical fruit). I was too full from the appetizer to eat all of this, so I took care of the cheesy turnover and had our server pack up the rest so Jay could eat it for lunch the next day while he was working.

Jay ordered the Crab and Spinach Enchiladas, crab and spinach rolled inside handmade spinach crepes topped with spicy cream sauce and served with golden rice and South American slaw. Jay said this was one of the best items he's eaten in recent memory - he would order it again and would suggest it to someone else if they asked him for a recommendation.

We were way too stuffed to order dessert, but our server brought out the dessert tray just to test our resolve. I must admit there were some tempting items like chocolate fritters with caramel dipping sauce, but we just couldn't eat another bite. Some day we're going to stop in for happy hour and order drinks, ceviche, and dessert ... not necessarily in that order!

All in all this was a very satisfying and surprising meal - lots of inventiveness and flavor without setting our tongues and tastebuds on fire. Yep, we will definitely be paying Wapango another visit and if they're a chain that happens to be located in your town we suggest you pay them a visit, too.

The American Melting Pot

Provisions Gourmet Market Food & Wine Pairing Series; Tuesday, September 1, 2009

If you read our last entry about the Riedel glass experience we had at Provisions towards the end of August you will already know that this place is one of our all-time favorites. I love to go there for lunch - they make a mean tuna salad sandwich and it seems like I can always find an interesting new booze or tasty artisan cheese that I simply must purchase and take home for my lovey.

In an effort to drum up buzz about the catering aspect of the market, Provisions has been offering a series of food and wine pairings throughout the summer and early fall. For the price - $35 per person for five tastings - it can't be beat. This was the first one they offered that worked with our schedules and I called to book it as soon as I found the information on their website because, like many of their events, they sell out quickly.

The theme of this night's dinner was The American Melting Pot - signature items from certain US cities and tasty home-grown US wines to accompany them. We started the evening out with one of my favorite items - Crabby Patties!

First stop: Baltimore - Crab Cake w/Chipotle Aioli served with a 2007 Pinot Gris, Wine by Joe, Willamette Valley, Oregon.



This was a really tasty crab cake - mostly crab, minimal filler, lightly breaded - and I personally appreciated that the aioli was served on the side. Considering that it contained chipotle, the aioli was not too spicy for my delicate palate - it was creamy with a pleasant afterburn and paired really well with the crab. The wine was also very good - clean tasting and mildly fruity.

Second stop: New Orleans - Shrimp Etouffee with a Puff Pastry served with a 2008 Chenin Blanc Viognier, Pine Ridge, California.

This is normally a dish that I avoid due to general spiciness and a mish-mash of ingredients, but I think Provisions' chef did a nice job of ratcheting down the heat. Actually there were some guests who complained that it wasn't spicy enough but that was apparently done on purpose so that more guests might enjoy the dish and the wine it was paired with. The odd thing about this dish was that it wasn't served over rice, so we all received a nice plate of thick etouffee sauce with a generous serving of baby shrimpies. It was flavorful and I did enjoy it, but I would have liked some rice or soft bread to soak up some of that sauce. As for the wine ... it was the only one that I didn't like. For some reason when I swirl and sniff a Chenin Blanc the aroma reminds me of cat pee ... it's super-concentrated pee in a glass and then I've no desire to drink. My olfactory sense is apparently as wonky as the rest of me.



Third stop: San Francisco - Cioppino served with 2006 Primo Rosso, Monte Volpe, North Coast, California.

My least favorite dish of the night, but I have to commend the chef and the market on their generosity. There were clams, shelled oysters, and mussels on everyone's plate along with slightly spicy tomato broth served over warm sourdough bread. Jay had nothing but good things to say about his serving and mine, since he ate them both, and he also was very impressed by the seafood generosity. I will tell you this - the red wine that was served with this course was terrific - a light, fruity red that would make for a great sangria. Many of you may remember that red wine is not my vino of choice but this really was enjoyable and I would buy a bottle some day if I remembered it when I was actually shopping for wine.

Fourth stop: Miami - Cubano Beans and Rice served with 2007 Elizabeth Spencer Grenache, Mendocino County, California.

Another generous portion that was tasty but just not among my favorites of the evening. Too much stuff? Too many beans? Rice a little al dente? A little from each category, thanks for asking. The wine was exceptional - a deep, aromatic red without a hint of tannin or oakiness that Jay and I both really enjoyed.

Fifth stop: New York - New York Style Cheesecake served with Martin & Weyrich Moscato Allegro, Paso Robles, California.

I love plain old cheesecake; when made right it's the perfect creamy blend of sweet cheese with tart lemon. I don't like it served with sauce or anything else ... I just want to savor the deceptively simple joy that is cheesecake. You can imagine my joy when the dessert was delivered with the strawberries and the chocolate sauce on the side! It was a lovely end to the meal - my only complaint was that the cheesecake portion was a little small compared with our other courses and personally I could have eaten at least three more (oinky-oinky-ooo). As for the moscato ... this is one of our favorite dessert wines. It's sweet and smooth and because it's not a sparkling wine doesn't have the bite that sometimes accompanies other moscatos we've tried. And we continue to be amazed by the price charged for this bottle of moscato - we typically find it here in Stinktown for about $12 per bottle. It's a bonafide bargain!!

All in all a very enjoyable way to spend a Tuesday evening and we were home by about 8:30PM, which meant that we had time to make ourselves a warm, warming couple of mugs of alcoholic cappuccino. This isn't a typical thing for Jay and I to do this late in the evening but Provisions was having temperature control issues and we were caught in their Alberta Clipper jet stream - I was one chilled crohn by the time we left and why pay for coffee at Starbucks when we can make our own, better, Kahlua-flavored cuppa Joe at home?

In conclusion, Jay and I give Provisions multiple upraised digits of approval - the evening was fun, informative, tasty, and affordably priced. They are continuing the series but due to our upcoming schedules in the next six weeks we won't be able to attend another one anytime soon. For those of you in the Stinktown area, definitely give Provisions a try whether it's for a tasting event like this one or just to stop in for a sandwich. Their food is really good and they also have a nice selection of wine, beer, spirits, artisan cheese, and tempting pastries. We loves Provisions like Gollum loves the Precious, and we think you will too!

Riedel Wine & Glass Experience - Provisions Gourmet Market

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 ... Wine, Wine, Wine!!!

Wine.

Wine and cheese.

Wine and cheese and Riedel crystal?

Hand over the sign-up sheet, pass the pen, and call me Bartelby the Scrivener.

The Wine and Cheese Place and Provisions Gourmet Market, both under joint ownership, just happen to be two of the most delicious, cheese-mongering, wine-n-spirit purveying, wallet-emptying retailers in all of Stinktown. We loves them so much ... and often wonder why they haven't dared to expand to the far-out suburbs of St. Louis. Surely Jay and I aren't the only two people in St. Charles County who enjoy artisan cheese, fine wine, specialty beer, and glorious scotch???

But I digress ... as usual. The fine folks who operate our favorite money pit were hosting a class led by a representative from Riedel crystal in which participants would discover the effect of using different sized and shaped stemware to serve wine - admire it, sniff it, swirl it, swish it, taste it ... all in the proper glass. And the best part of all - participants get to keep the four-glass tasting set! For $50 per person this sure seemed like a bargain to the hubby and me.

The evening's line-up was as follows:

1) Riedel Vinum XL Sauvignon Blanc Glass with Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc

2) Riedel Vinum XL Montrachet Glass with Matanzas Creek Chardonnay

3) Riedel Vinum XL Pinot Noir Glass with Hartford Court Lands Edge Pinot Noir

4) Riedel Vinum XL Cabernet Glass with Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon

I booked this event in July because space was limited and it sold out in less than a day when they offered it in June. I then most anally wrote it down in both of my calendars and stuck a reminder on the refrigerator so that we wouldn't forget all about it. And then Jay, being the good person that he is, offered to pick up a late night for a co-worker who was leaving on vacation. Unfortunately it was the same night as our wine and glass experience, which Jay had forgotten.

D'OH!

I had to find a date, and quick, otherwise I would turn into a third wheel. My friend Anila and her husband had also booked this event and there's nothing more awkward than two couples who've suddenly become one-and-a-half. Thankfully my plea for an escort did not go unanswered and by the time I left work that evening my drinking buddy was riding shotgun.

How about a hug???


I arrived a little earlier than most participants, feeling the need to explain to the organizers why I would be drinking from eight glasses instead of four. We paid for two people, and by gawd I'm still drinking for two people ... with a little help from my friends! All of the tables had already been arranged and the settings were all in place ... even the wines had been poured so there was nothing left for me to do but stake out a good spot for us to enjoy the event.

Table setting ... note the two empty glasses


We were surprised and pleased to find a basket of freshly sliced bread and a cheese board at the table ... and this was no block of crappy cheese from the grocery store. This was bonafide artisan cheese from Provision's own cheese case (I know because I bought some before leaving for home that evening). The one that we really liked was Basquere from France - it was wonderful. They also provided us with an English Cheddar and a mystery cheese that I think may have been a very buttery, mild Swiss.

As for the tasting, while the overall point was to demonstrate to everyone that Riedel wine glasses are far superior to anything else they may or may not own, the event was actually very informative and a lot of fun. In the above picture you'll see the wines poured into their appropriate glass according to Riedel. The "joker" glass in the front left hand corner was used to demonstrate just how bad a good wine can taste when poured into a generic goblet (like the kind you might get at a wedding reception or work-sponsored holiday event). The plastic cup was a one-time experiment with the first wine we tried and my gawd ... if you think good wine tastes bad in a generic glass it tastes like poison in one of these. But it all served a point - the shape of the glass is responsible for the flow of the wine and as such is also responsible for where the wine touches the various taste zones on the tongue. And the initial point of contact depends on the shape and volume of the glass, the diameter of the rim, its finish - whether it is cut and polished or a rolled edge - and the thickness of the crystal.

I admit that I was skeptical going in to this but I emerged a true believer. The difference in the taste of these wines when poured into the "wrong" glass - even other Riedel glasses - was nothing short of amazing. The chardonnay was buttery smooth with just a hint of pear when I drank some from the Montrachet glass it was originally presented in. But when I poured some into the Sauvignon glass all I could taste was mineral and it was suddenly a very unpleasant wine to drink. As for how it tasted in the joker glass and the plastic cup ... do the words cat piss mean anything to you?

I made Jay try the experiment the next night with some leftover Pinto Grigio that we had chilling in the refrigerator. First he tried it in the Sauvignon glass ... his reaction was "meh; then I made him pour it into the Montrachet glass ... his reaction was "DAMN!"

We have already begun discussing the feasibility of making a traveling case for our glasses so that we can take them with us on vacation. ;-)

If an opportunity to try a tasting like this ever presents itself in your town or city, I highly recommend that you sign up - especially if the glasses are included with the price of admission. This set of four glasses retails between $120 - $150 depending on where you're looking ... we ended up with two of them for $100. A great bargain and an eye-opening evening; we always knew that the glasses were an important part of the wine drinking experience but now we really understand why.

Give it a try at home and see for yourself!

A bad picture of some great cheese!


A bread basket!


Sauvignon Blanc Glass


Montrachet Glass


Pinot Noir Glass


Cabernet Glass

The Tap Room - Totally Tapped Out

Sunday, August 16th - The Tap Room, Schlafly Brewing, Downtown St. Louis, MO

Bless her generous heart ... when Grimace gets an idea in her head she latches on to it like a bulldog with a steak bone. Granted, in this situation Jay and I were partly responsible for the muck-up, but the woman refused to try for a meal on a different weekend.

It went something like this:

Grimace: We haven't seen D&J for a while; I think I'm going to send them a note and ask them to meet us for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory on the 15th. Will that work for you and Jay?

Bendy: This is July ... and why are you sending them a note? Why don't you just call them? But ... yeah, I think the 15th will be fine.

Grimace: I'm unemployed now, remember? I need something to fill the hours - I can't gamble all the time.

And so the plan was hatched. Then Jay and I threw a wrench into the mix by winning a bid on baseball tickets for the 15th. Then the Missouri Department of Transportation tossed us a rotten egg - they were closing all west-bound traffic on Highway 64-40 for the entire weekend for emergency bridge inspections / repairs. While I appreciate their diligence, perhaps they shouldn't have re-striped a bridge designed to carry two lanes of traffic to one that can "carry" three lanes of traffic. They have no one to blame for this predicament but themselves - waaaay back during the great flood of 1993 they had their chance to re-build that rickety piece of bridge-work spanning the Missouri River and were too slow-witted to figure out that development was moving West. And so today, rather than spend money building a new three-lane bridge, we have three narrow lanes of traffic moving perilously west on a bridge that wasn't constructed to withstand it. We try to avoid using the Boone Bridge whenever possible ... in our minds it's an unnecessary risk like smoking or using an electric tea kettle while taking a bath.

Anyhoo, this all meant meant that in order to get home from the restaurant Grimmie wanted us all to meet at Jay and I would have to travel many, many, miles out of our way. Being selfish jerks we immediately placed a call to the parental unit and requested a change of venue, change of date, and even suggested pushing it back to another weekend.

Grimace was all for a change of venue and pushing dinner from Saturday to Sunday but that was it - we're meeting this weekend, and it will take more than a bridge closure to change that! So Jay and I suggested the Tap Room as a dining alternative. While it represented a long haul for us, it would be a fairly easy spot for the parents and D&J to reach ... and they have hearty pub-style food and wonderful beer. What could be better?

Turns out a lot could have been better, more's the pity.

The Tap Room consistently wins awards for favorite local pub and grub, but either their standards have gone way downhill or we caught them on a bad day. Our waitress was a little less than knowledgeable when we asked which beers were on tap and I caught her flat-footed a little while later when I wanted to know which cheeses were featured on their cheese plate. Turns out almost none of the specialty brews that Schlafly is fond of touting were available that afternoon and what we did choose was served in wonky glasses. We wanted pints and we might have even wanted more than one but nobody ever came back to ask us if our thirst had been quenched until it was obvious that we were getting ready to leave. As for the cheese plate ... all I can say is WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???

It's a pub. Their cheese plate should include cheddar, Stilton, maybe some brie, or perhaps some goat or sheep's milk cheese. Wanna get interesting? Throw some white Stilton on there and WOW the polish right off my toenails. But lavender-infused goat and lemon-thyme something-or-other just don't work for me in a pub, and those cheeses don't seem like they'd work too well with beer, either. If they'd offered a boursin I might have been more willing to take the plunge, but the last cheese was a plain old stinky Stilton and that was the final nail in the coffin ... no cheese plate for our table.

It's the bar!


I ordered a glass of Biere de Garde, which is one of Schlafly's bottle conditioned beers - this one is based on a French farmhouse-style ale; it has a slightly sweet maltiness and seems to pair well with a variety of foods in my humble opinion. Jay selected Schlafly's Oatmeal Stout, which is one of the brewery's "standard" beers - that means it's available year-round in bottles or on tap. I took a taste of Jay's beer since I've recently discovered that stouts are pretty damn tasty and this one was smooth with a nice blend of sweet and bitter. Jon ordered a beer, too; it's lurking in the background of the picture below, but farg if either Jay or I can remember what it was.

Biere de Garde and Oatmeal Stout


Well, when we get together at table there are usually a couple of appetizers being shared around and this meal was no different. After much discussion the group consensus was for Bavarian Style Pretzels served warm with White Cheddar Dipping Sauce, and Beer Bread - Pale Ale Bread served with Cheddar Butter and Bleu Cream Cheese.

Pretzels from Bavaria???


Beery Bread

The clear winner in this contest was the beer bread, hands down. I guess if Bavarian-style pretzels are hard, chewy, somewhat stale, and coated with salt then these were awesomely authentic. Having never been to Bavaria I cannot say if these were, in fact, true to the original. I will say that the white cheddar sauce was very very good, and did make up a little for the overall cussedness of the pretzel sticks. I'm still not convinced, however, that those pretzels weren't the same ones that are sold on Stinktown city streets in brown paper bags on the weekends ... if you're looking to break a tooth or give someone a concussion, then these are the food / weapon of choice. The beer bread, on the other hand, was wonderful - soft, warm, and yeasty it really hit the spot. And while it was equally good with the cheddar butter and the bleu cream cheese, my personal preference, oddly enough, was the bleu cream cheese. I know, I know ... Bendy doesn't like bleu cheese ... but this was mild and creamy, much more like a subtle boursin than a stinky, toe-jamb, cave-aged bleu cheese. At the end of the evening there was no bread left but there were still plenty of pretzels which tells you which of these two appetizers was truly the only one worth ordering.

When it came time to place our dinner order, I actually chose a salad because nothing else sounded remotely appealing. My selection was a Spinach Salad served with Grilled Chicken, Feta Cheese, and Bacon-Sherry Vinaigrette. While salad can be the intestinal kiss of death for this Old Crohn, for some reason spinach doesn't bother me like other greens. I don't order it often when we are dining out, but love to eat fresh spinach salad at home where the bathroom is just a few quick steps away should digestive disaster strike.

Spinach Salad Surprise

I was most displeased when this arrived at the table. For one thing it was covered in red onions, which were nowhere mentioned on the menu. I hate red onions like I hate mushrooms and olives ... none shall pass my lips. The other reason I was displeased is that every single spinach leaf glistened with vinaigrette. I blame myself for not asking that the dressing be served on the side - that was a stupid mistake on my part - but what gives with adding ingredients to the dish that aren't even listed on the menu??? It's a good thing for me that Grimmie likes onions so much ... she picked 'em out of my salad faster than you could say "pass the mouthwash."

Jay and Jon both ordered the same entree: Bangers and Mash with Red Onion Gravy and Fried Onions. If you ask me there seems to be a real onion-y theme going down at the Tap Room these days ... but the really strange thing about this dish was that the "fried" onions apparently means onion tings which was a surprise to all parties at our table. Hey Schlafly's ... how 'bout some Truth in Ordering???

Onion Rings with a side order of Mash


The good news is that both Jon and Jay enjoyed their dinner selections and that's really the most important thing, but I'm pretty sure that Jay likes the Bangers & Mash he's ordered down at WDW better than this version.

Dylan ordered Shepherd's Pie, only that's not really what it's called on the menu. I think he actually chose the Steak and Mushroom Pie - a British Meat Pie with a Green Onion Cheddar Biscuit. I believe that once he actually reached the meat / stew portion of his meal he liked it, but that topping was a catastrophe. If you ask me, and no one did, it looks like someone dumped half a box of Bisquick into a cement mixer and then spread it across this dish after it began to harden. The poor guy practically needed a jack-hammer to break on through to the other side.

That biscuit looks like the Lost Continent of Atlantis


Grimmie ordered her usual stand-by: The One-Pound Reuben with Corned Beef, Griddled Rye, Kraut, Swiss Cheese, and Thousand Isle Dressing with Potato Salad on the side. She was happy and that's all there was to it. Jen ordered a Vegetable Pita which came with sprouts and cucumber sauce and nasty purple slaw - she seemed to like the pita but wasn't interested in the slaw. Don't blame her one bit - I wouldn't want it either!

I can't speak for anyone else but Jay and I really thought this whole meal was "meh." It didn't live up to our expectations at all and it will be a long time before we decide to try the Tap Room again. The next time we get a crave for pub food in Stinktown we'll go back to the Scottish Arms. And as an aside I apologize for putting this here rather than at the end but this effing programming is driving me bugshit and keeps arbitrarily changing font sizes and styles on me. So I'm quitting now before I throw the damned laptop out the front window.

The only thing better than a Philly Cheese Steak is a Reuben

Veggie Pita with Purple Slaw ... it tastes like purple!

Busch Stadium V.3 ... Third Time's a Charm???

Cardinals vs. Padres, Saturday, August 15, 2009

We didn't even expect to attend another baseball game this year after being fortunate enough to be invited to join some friends in a private box in July. But sometimes fortune smiles twice and while participating in a trivia night for a local school we put in a bid for some baseball tickets. Miracle of miracles I won the silent auction and got four tickets that retailed for $265 for a mere Benjamin. The school gets extra money from us and we get to attend another baseball game - HUZZAH!!!

Even better ... these seats were in something called the Redbird Club. It's a private entrance area on the third level of Busch Stadium that has its own concession stands, bars, and bathrooms housed in an enclosed, air conditioned pavilion with tons of flat panel television sets and comfy seating. It's conceivable that someone could have a ticket to the baseball game in the Redbird Club and never actually leave the place to take his or her seat in the stadium proper.

What, I ask, is the fun in that???

Jay and I considered inviting several different someones to join us but in the end decided that we would rather have the evening to ourselves and would just sell the other two tickets. There are always people skulking around downtown St. Louis looking to score cheap baseball tickets. As long as you don't "scalp" your tickets it's perfectly legal to sell them on the streets - we sold ours to the first taker who turned around and then sold them to someone else! HAHA!!!

I may be in the minority among Stinktown baseball fans, but I don't really like this newest incarnation of the ballpark, or Busch Stadium V.3. It's visually clunky and the concourses are airless and sticky ... like being stuck inside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory right before the fire broke out. There is nothing unique about this stadium that hasn't been seen in any team's "retro" stadium rebuild since the Atlanta Braves started the trend in 1996. At least they had the Olympic Games as an excuse for a complete and total lack of imagination ... all the Cardinal ownership had was the joy of not spending very much of their own money to build "baseball heaven."

Yeah, you read that right. The public address announcer actually welcomes fans to Baseball Heaven before the start of each game.

Hubris much?

I love the Redbirds as much as any other dork who cut his or her teeth on a corkball, but I don't drink the kool-aid, ya know what I mean?

Baseball Heaven.

The last time I checked that was in an Iowa cornfield where the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson was wearing shoes and Kevin Costner was pretending to be a farmer.

But I digress. We had a good time at the game, especially because the right team won. The Redbird Club had stands selling the usual ballpark fare: dogs, brats, pretzels, nachos; but they also had burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, pretzel dogs, Asian stir fry, monster cupcakes, and gelato. The beer offerings were swilly and we both got a big laugh out of the fact that a bottle of water at Busch Stadium costs five dollars while a bottle of water at WDW only costs two. Who would have thought Disney would offer something less expensive than Stinktown???

There are no food porn pictures to share with you ... mainly because other than Jay's box o' stir fry we didn't order anything worth photographing. And while I would have loved to take pictures of the various stands and their product offerings there were just too many people milling cluelessly around. And speaking of people in general ... what gives with the texting while at a baseball game? There must have been at least ten people in our section who spent the entire night texting, putting their phones away, being beeped or otherwise alerted that a message of the highest importance had been received, pulling their phones out, and then texting some more ... except for those times when they were standing up in the middle of play to take a self portrait with the baseball diamond in the background.

WTF???

Not interested in the game? Fine, but for gawd's sake let the rest of us enjoy it in relative peace. And while I'm thinking about it, you gormless, double-jointed thumb-monkeys, could you please refrain from taking pictures with your phone and otherwise blocking the field of play until the mid-inning break?

I didn't come down to your seat, thrust my ample behind into your face, and expel fart gas at you ... the least you could do is not thrust your effing blackberry or iphone into my field of vision ten times in a row in one half-inning while the game is being played.

There's a reason I'm referred to as the Cranky Crohn. ;-)

And now, please enjoy some pictures from our evening.

Tickets


Keener Plaza - the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was originally heard


Fun little MLB-decorated arches leftover from the All-Star Game


Yep ... 10-times World Champions ... only the Skankees have won more.


View of the field from our seats




Look ... no cell phones ... yet


Mr. Baseball

Fly your freak flag high!