Posts Tagged food

This Ain’t Ya Momma’s Tin Can

Posted by Versa Dave in Social Media on March 5, 2012

In St. Louis, there are a few things you can always put money on. The weather will always change without notice. The Blues will always blow it IF they make the playoffs. You can always find a tweetup going on somewhere in the city.

This one, hashtagged as #tincantweetup, was at…you guessed it, The Tin Can. This particular establishment was the Morgan Ford location in South City St. Louis. It was a family friendly tweetup so the kids were out in full force. Special thanks to @Mugs13 for setting this one up. Quite honestly, when I walked in, I had my doubts as to the “family friendly” nature of the joint, but by the end of the night, no one was complaining. The floor plan is a little like a split level home. You walk in on the main floor where you’ll find the bar, some seating, the kitchen and a few arcade games. The lower level sports a pool table and bathrooms, while the upper level (which over looks the main floor) has more table seating.

What I immediately noticed about the menu was that it was Versa Dave friendly. Lots of fried, meaty, potatoey (I made that word up) goodness. I should preface by saying that we ate lunch at home prior to arriving because I had not planned ahead of time by looking at their online menu. I know better now. Since when has “already eaten” stopped me though. The kids were adamantly against eating since the bulk of their time was spent indulging in pool hustling and pinball (I’m tellin’ ya…watch out for the little one they call Dyl Pickle…she’ll rob ya blind).

I started the extravaganza off with a Tin Can special known as the Tator Tot Slop. As you would expect, this is a heaping helping of tator tots smothered in cheddar cheese, tomato, bacon and sour cream. I opted out of the sour cream (because I just don’t like it) and the tomato. I’m not a food critic and I don’t know all the good descriptive adjectives so I’ll spare you the pain and just say that it was pretty much amazing. I couldn’t have just tator tots…well, I could, but I didn’t. A pound of the Tin Can’s buffalo wings helped me wash it down. My friend @ladyquast and I have been on the hunt for St. Louis’ best wings and I think these ones just made it in the top 5.

Do you think I would stop there? If you think I would, then you don’t know me. Mr. @knquast decided he was going to get another pound of the wings as well as the G.C.B.L.T. Burger. The Tin Can menu describes this burger on their menu as, “We take our Grilled Cheese with its’ 6 slices of cheese, combine it with our BLT with its’ 4 slices of bacon, and throw a burger in the middle for good measure.” I can’t even begin to tell you how heavenly this creation is. Kevin and I split it…I wish we had gotten another one.

The rest of the time was spent stimulating my senses and sending me into an auditory overload of old friends and new friends. Between taking pictures of myself with all the ladies in the room, handing out quarters every 5 minutes to game starved children and discussing thoughts on prolific tweeters, I’d say the afternoon was a hit. It was the first time I had met @jvaragona and @citydiva…they’re both pretty cool and I can’t wait to hang out with them again.

Hope to see you at the next big event.  You can see more pictures of this tweetup here. 2012-03-04 Tin Can Tweetup

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Taking Chances

Posted by Versa Dave in Versa Life on October 9, 2009

stlwinegirlI meet alot of people in my day-to-day activities; at work, at the store, online social media networks, through friends. Some of them I’ve become really good friends with, some of them I learn something from them and I move on, and others just come and go. I enjoy those that I learn from though.

On Tuesday night, I did something I’ve never done before.  I willingly (yes without coercion) signed up and paid for a class about food and wine pairing at Provisions Market over on Olive. I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath. One of the very interesting people I’ve met in my travels, @STLWineGirl (aka Angela Ortmann), announced that she was holding this class a few weeks ago. I knew she had a similar class a few months ago, but frankly wasn’t up to the challenge yet. For whatever reason though, I decided to take the plunge into “having class” (although I still think there’s no hope for this boy).

If you don’t know me…I mean really know me, then let me explain to you what my diet consists of. Meat, potato, meat, mac & cheese, eggs, meat, sausage, mac & cheese….you get the picture right? Seriously, I have no variety in my culinary choices. I’m picky, I’ve always been picky. I don’t eat for fun or hobby or whatever. It’s more about function for me I guess. I eat because I know I have to, so I figure I might as well just eat what I like. Before you go judging me, I already know it’s not healthy. I’m ok with that, for now.

Enough about me, let’s talk about Angela and her amazing experience she gave me. There were 30 of us and we sat on 3 sides of a large square made with tables lined with fancy wine glasses and stemware. Fortunately, she preemptively placed me next to a few gals I knew from Twitter, @bekahclark and @MilliGFunk. As she began the night, Angela explained that we would be going through 5 dishes, each with a different wine, from 5 different regions of the world. This of course gave me the heebee jeebees because when it comes to international food…I just don’t do it. Angela assured me that I could do this though and her warm smile & glowing eyes convinced me.

Below is the menu we went through, where it’s from and my thoughts on the dish, the wine, the combination, etc.

  • Black Bean and Corn Cake with Shrimp Tomato-Garlic Vinaigrette with NV Gruet Rosé Sparkling (New Mexico): When this arrived, I saw what appeared to be good, but hesitated because I couldn’t see what was really inside the cake thingy. The wine was, ok. Everyone kept saying something about a BBQ tastes but I didn’t get it. After my initial bite, I really had to concentrate on not knowing what all the ingredients were. I ate the entire thing though. It wasn’t fantastic, but it satisfied me. The wine didn’t taste any better before or after for me.
  • Chickpea and Vegetable Samosa with 2007 Chateau Indage Chenin Blanc (India): More so than the first one, this gave me the heebee jeebees. It was so tasty looking in this perfectly sealed triangular pastry…like a yummy hot pocket filled with cheese and meats. Only this wasn’t cheese and meat…it was nasty green vomit from a badger. The wine was good. I definitely enjoyed it. And it’s a good thing too, because I had to swig it to wash out the one bit of this devious delectable that tainted my palette.
  • Rustic Brazilian Beef Pastry with 2006 Miolo Pinot Noir (Brazil): This tasty tantalizing treat rejuvenated my taste buds because it tasted just like beef stew! This might have been the only meal that I thought the wine was actually worse after eating though.
  • Frikkadel Meatballs w/ Quinoa with 2005 Golden Kaan Pinotage: Ahhh and we’ve arrive to my favorite. This was a classic meatball with some kind of sauce stuff. Angela tricked me though…it had mushrooms in it. Despite those fungus hugging shrooms though, I devoured this dish. The wine was a pleasant treat and added some kick afterwards. By far my favorite pairing of the night.
  • Canadian Brown Sugar Pie with 2004 Konzelmann Late Harvest Gewürztraminer (Canada): I’ve never been a huge dessert guy. This was like a tiny little pie shell with a thick filling. I didn’t even doubt this one, but then WHAMMO! The filling was so gooey and the pastry so thick that my upper and bottom teeth were sticking together. To be honest, I don’t even remember how the wine tasted. I only had 2 bites of this one.

My overall thoughts are that this was a very eye opening experience. This was completely outside of my comfort zone, but because Angela was so patient and kind, and a few of my friends were there, I took this well. Angela will be having another class soon and I whole heartedly plan on attending it. You should too.  Check out STLWineGirl at www.stlwinegirl.com to stay caught up on all of her happenings.

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