House of India St. Louis MO
Yea!!! one of our favorite memories!!!! This restaurant is located in
the University City area of St. Louis and has such a great lunch buffet!
We must have gone there a thousand times when we lived in STL. There
are two other Indian restaurants we used to visit, too, but this was and still is
our hands-down favorite. It didn’t disappoint!! Packed, nice and clean,
hot dishes, great service. The only, only, only tiny thing we missed from
the old days was/were? the peas that used to be in the rice. I guess they
don’t do that anymore—and no one else ever did. Thank you, House of
India, for being just about perfect, as usual.
After lunch we went shopping! If you know of a better mall than Plaza
Frontenac in St. Louis let me know. It has Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth
Avenue, Tiffanys, etc, etc, etc. First thing I did was breeze through
Neiman’s to look for a handbag . . .I had Kate Spade in mind (and in my
budget). The salesclerk said they don’t carry them in this store because
there’s a Kate Spade exclusive store in the mall . . . Yea! So I went.
On the way, I saw a nice paisley blouse in the window of Talbots. So I
went in, tried it on, bought it, and wore it out of the store—like a little
kid would.
Kate Spade, Plaza Frontenac, St. Louis MO
If you know Kate Spade, you know there’ll be a BOW involved for cute.
If you look carefully at these red dresses in the photo, you’ll notice that
the waist line has a bow stitched right into the cut of the dress.
Kate Spade, Plaza Frontenac, St. Louis MO
shoes at Kate Spade, Plaza Frontenac, St. Louis MO
handbags at Kate Spade, Plaza Frontenac, St. Louis MO
A very helpful clerk and I selected a bag, and a wallet, too, and I left
the store very happy.
On our way out, O’Half, who had been hanging around the mall waiting
for me showed me some artwork he had found in Neiman’s:
Ernest Trova Gox I
Looks like Man Ray, but is actually Ernest Trova–
And then he bought me a nice little ring for our anniversary and I
left THAT store happy . . .
Isn’t St. Louis a wonderful place to visit?
Had to stop at The Quilted Fox right across from the Plaza Frontenac
to look at the most exciting fabrics to be found anywhere—will share
some inside photos:
The Quilted Fox St. Louis MO (Clayton area)
click to enlarge—-and this one:
The Quilted Fox, St. Louis MO (Clayton area)
They have fabrics from all around the world. When we lived in St. Louis
I was part of a quilting group there and I still have (of course) and love
a table runner I made with pretty, graceful fabrics from the Near East.
If you’ve heard about the restaurants in St. Louis you no doubt have heard
about “The Hill”.
The Hill neighborhood on Shaw, in St. Louis MO
It’s an old Italian neighborhood with interesting old houses . . . and
most of it perched on various hills. Our favorite restaurant there is
Guido’s. It’s Italian-Spanish cuisine—what a combo!! And we go
for the tapas. We shared five: Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp in garlic);
Homemade Empanadillas (chicken and tuna in pastry); Tortilla
Espanola (Spanish omelet); Pinchos de Solomillo (skewered beef);
AND–ta-da!!–Bacalao a la Vizcaina (codfish, tomatoes, peppers,
onion). What a feast, what a nice memory. O’Half and the owner
shared some old times and stories—the reason we once went on a
vacation to San Sebastian in Spain was on the owner’s recommendation.
Highly recommended restaurant—go as soon as possible.
I’ll close with one more restaurant review. Bristol’s Seafood Grill on
Olive Boulevard was nearly across from our hotel (Drury) so it was an
easy outing for dinner. My standard bearer for best crabcake has been
Bristol’s for the last 12 years. O’Half looked forward to his favorite
dish, San Francisco cioppino. Uh-oh, cioppino no longer on the menu.
But still, he was happy with his clams in the shell linguini served with
a bit of hotness to the sauce.
I ordered the jumbo crab cakes and they arrived with mashed potatoes
and asparagus. I liked the asparagus. The mashed potatoes were
gray and sat in a clump, immovable when poked with my fork. I
wondered how long they’d been sitting on the plate. The crab cakes
were good, but————–I think a little joint near us locally has
taken over the standard for best crab cakes. O’Half ordered a
Remy, and I ordered their homemade milk chocolate ice cream. The
Remy seemed to go down smoothly, but my ice cream was essentially
soup in a bowl. Hm-m. On a bright note, (and I didn’t complain while
at dinner of course), our table was where we could watch the other
diners (we love that) and also watch the chef in the kitchen
(and we love that, too). But this particular dinner may not be a star
in the crown for this trip.
