Oct 24 2012

Addie’s Thai House – Saint Louis, MO

Several weeks ago, a good friend and I went to Addie’s Thai House in Saint Louis, MO. Though it is a bit far from where we live, and when travelling that distance, we would usually head north to Thai Kitchen, we decided to try a new place (and they had a special at the time). Upon entering the restaurant, I immediately noticed that it was a little more posh than most of the Thai restaurants in the area. The décor and seating arrangements both lent themselves to a higher-scale dining experience.

We started off with an appetiser, and seeing as we wanted to try one that was unique to their menu, we opted for the sweet potatoes. They were cut in a thick string style, deep-fried, and came out with coconut flakes and a sweet and sour dipping sauce. To me, the coconut taste was so subtle that one really had to try to notice it. I found that to be disappointing, because otherwise, they ended up just tasting a lot like regular sweet potato chips.

For dinner, I had the green curry with fresh tofu. It was pleasant, but lacked a lot of the heat that I’m used to with green curry. Also, I found that there were not many vegetables (or much tofu, for that matter) in the pot, but rather that it was primarily sauce. That being said, one of my favourite things to do with curry is to soak some rice in the remainder of the sauce. As such, I did enjoy that aspect of the dish.

She had Praram Long Song, which is a common Siamese dish that generally comes with carrots, spinach, and your choice of protein with a peanut sauce atop it. The peanut sauce wasn’t all that great (especially compared to Thai Kitchen, which has some of the best I’ve ever eaten), and overall, the dish was rather bland.

Though Addie’s Thai House appeared to be a more upscale restaurant in terms of atmosphere, the quality of the food was fairly disappointing. Given that, I would much rather go to one of the restaurants in the area that focuses more on the preparation of the food, especially seeing as Addie’s was a bit more expensive as well. For those reasons, I can’t recommend Addie’s over other nearby Thai places.

Cheers,
Zach

Oct 23 2012

Ronald Jenkees – Disorganized Fun review

Earlier this month, I reviewed the self-titled first album by Ronald Jenkees. Now that I’ve listened to his second full-length studio album, Disorganized Fun, several times, I can share my thoughts on it.

Ronald Jenkees - Disorganized Fun album cover

1. Disorganized Fun – 9 / 10
Coming in full-force with his mix of disjointed synth elements and smooth beats, this first track lives up nicely to its title. Jenkees played around a lot with pitch bending, and it worked really well with his choices of sounds. In the middle of the track, there’s a great bridge followed by a keyboard solo. Not only does the style live up to the title of the track, but it serves as a great start to his second full-length album.

2. Fifteen Fifty – 8 / 10
Unlike the previous song, this one is a bit more fluid. As such, however, it doesn’t have as much of a stylistic edge, and I found it to drag a bit in spots. There is a neat bass line that comes in around 1’15” or so, but unfortunately, it doesn’t carry through the rest of the tune. Whilst not a bad song at all, it just doesn’t have the energy of its predecessor (even with the wild solo at the very end).

3. Guitar Sound – 10 / 10
It’s really impressive to me that Jenkees is able to emulate an 80s-style guitar sound as well as he does. The opening portion of this track sounds a lot like some of Eric Johnson’s work, especially in the vein of Cliffs of Dover. There are some great hard-hitting riffs in there that, when coupled with the up-tempo beats and breakdown/variety of the bridge, make for a fantastic track all around! Even at just over 7 minutes, the song doesn’t drag at all.

4. Synth One – 6 / 10
This song has a little stronger emphasis on the drums and beats than the previous tracks, and as such, they stand out more prominently than do some of the synth parts. There are a lot of sound effects in this track that have an old NES feel to them, which is a bit nostalgic. However, I don’t really find this to be one of the stronger songs on the album.

5. Throwing Fire – 8 / 10
I stand corrected about the throwback to old Nintendo games, as this song starts out in a way that almost makes me feel like I just put in the cartridge and fired up Blaster Master. Unlike the former track, however, Throwing Fire has a really upbeat and lively feel to it. There are a couple parts around the 2-minute mark, though, where it seems like Jenkees stumbles a bit on the notes, but they add a nice human element.

6. Minimal MC – 8 / 10
On this track, Jenkees plays a lot with throwing sounds back and forth between the left and right stereo channels, which makes for a very cool effect whilst listening on headphones. Significantly more subdued, and containing a lot fewer effects than some of the previous tracks, Minimal MC adheres to its name. After the halfway mark, there are some great dramatic elements and a little bit of an Asian influence.

7. Stay Crunchy – 10 / 10
Stay Crunchy was actually the song that prompted me to buy both of his albums after I originally heard it on Pandora. I think that it is an incredible mix of funky beats and rhythm, great synth work, and some techno/club elements. This is my clear favourite on the album (though that could be related to the Serial Position Preference Effect)!

8. Inverted Mean – 8 / 10
With the intro of this track, I expected someone like Jay-Z to come in with some dramatic near-spoken-word lyrics; it just presents a very theatrical sound right from the start. This song also has a stronger hip-hop feel than many of the others, but it is a nice way to increase the dynamic nature of the album. My favourite part of the piece come in around the 3’15” mark with this great piano solo which fades out nicely.

9. Outer Space – 8 / 10
A lot stronger emphasis on synth sounds and chaotic melody than the previous track, Outer Space combines techno and dance beats with sci-fi effects. Again, tracks like these really highlight the versatility of his musical vision. Though it isn’t the most appealing track to my ears, this track showcases technical aptitude within the genre.

10. Let’s Ride (rap) – 6 / 10
As with the raps on his previous album, this one is fairly entertaining, regardless of whether or not the technical expertise is as high as his non-rap tracks. The reference to passing the DQ is fairly funny as well.

11. It’s Gettin Rowdy (rap) – 6 / 10
For some reason, this rap makes me think of Regulate by Warren G, but with a little bit of a silly element to it. Ahhh, the delusions of grandeur…

That makes for a total of 87 / 110 or ~79%. That comes out to a very strong 8 stars:

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Cheers,
Zach

Oct 22 2012

Ernesto’s Wine Bar, Saint Louis, MO

Several months back, there was a Groupon for a restaurant named Ernesto’s Wine Bar in Saint Louis, MO. This restaurant and bar is located in the Benton Park neighbourhood, which is just off of the 55 motorway near the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

Though their food menu isn’t very extensive–consisting of primarily some appetisers, flatbreads, salads, and a couple larger plates–the food was fairly tasty for the price. We started with the House Chips (which were actually crisps, not chips), and they were quite nice. They were cut from Russet potatoes, and were lightly coated in truffle oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano. As I’m highly allergic to cheese, I had to be careful, but it wasn’t all that big of a deal to avoid the cheese. For dinner, I had grilled chicken and vegetable linguine, which was nice. The sauce was a bit thick for my liking, but it was easy enough to simply use less of it. She had the fancied-up grilled cheese, which was apparently quite good (for obvious reasons, I couldn’t try it). For our wine offering, we went with a 2010 Pinot Grigio from Lagaria. Though overpriced for the vintage, it nicely complemented our entrées.

The best part, in my opinion, was neither the food nor the wine, though. Instead, the atmosphere is what made the evening fantastic. It was a lightly cool night, and we were sitting out on the back patio near the fireplace. The heat from the fire was just enough to take the chill out of the air, but not so hot as to be uncomfortable. The service was a bit slow, but that was to be expected on a Friday evening, and sitting out enjoying the light breeze made time pass quickly.

Overall, Ernesto’s is a nice change of pace from the typical dinner, but the cost seems to be out of alignment with the quality of the food and drink. That being said, it isn’t so outrageously off-balanced as to be off-putting. I would like to go back another time to try some of the flatbreads and another bottle (but this time, of a rustic red).

Cheers,
Zach