Nadoz Cafe

I went on another Restaurant.com adventure today. One of the reasons that I like restaurant.com is because it encourages you to try something new, and you never really know for sure what you are going to get. Today I got a nice lunch with my mom, aunt, and grandma.We decided on a restaurant very near the SLU campus, in the Coronado Hotel, called Nadoz. Nadoz is a Euro Bakery and Cafe. The process and menu are pretty straight forward: salads, baked goods, soups de jour, sandwiches, wraps, and buckwheat crepes. Daily specials are written in colorful chalk on black boards, and the staff is friendly and patient (we were there specifically to test the patience of the staff). The baked goods and desserts are displayed tantalizingly in a glass case while the food is prepared, in plain sight, by a very friendly and knowledgeable chef.

The process requires you to order at the register and retrieve your own food when your name is

called. I am fine with this more casual style of dining, especially since everyone there was so bright and cheerful. This is where the adventure began as all four of us tried to compile an order that would meet our coupon minimum and ferret out what exactly my grandma wanted to eat. Much translation of fancy food words was required. We settled on a Chopped

Salad for my aunt, a Veggie Wrap with Chicken for my Grandma (which she would later call the "green thing that made me burp"), a Boursin Buckwheat Crepe with a Baby Spinach Salad for my mom and I. Since our gift certificate was quite a hefty one we also got dessert: Lemon Cheesecake and a Biscotti.

I can't speak to how my Aunt and Grandma's lunches were, but I can say that they were accommodating to my Aunt's special requests, and that my Grandma's wrap was substantial and looked very fresh. My mom and I shared both the salad and the crepe. The Baby Spinach Salad was a large serving of fresh baby spinach with candied walnuts, cranberries, orange segments, sunflower seeds, croûton, and orange white balsamic vinaigrette, served with a pretzel roll. I have to be honest that I don't recall any croûton on the salad and the orange segments seemed superfluous, clunky, and lacking sweetness. I kept thinking that mandarin orange segments, or even orange supremes would have complimented the salad so much more. Regardless of this , the salad was very delicious. The pretzel roll was soft, nutty, and exactly what a pretzel turned roll should be. The spinach was very clean, fresh and hearty. The dressing wasn't too heavy but it was just sweet enough to counter the plethora of ingredients on the salad. The perfect bite of walnut, sunflower, dressing, and cranberry left a pleasant tang in my mouth and readied me for another bite of my Boursin Buckwheat Crepe.

The Boursin is a Large Crepe with beef tenderloin, Roasted Ozark Mushrooms, Grilled

Asparagus, Boursin Cheese, and Creme Fraiche. While the menu description seemed mouth watering, I was also concerned about all those heafty ingredients pressing against a delicate crepe. This was no longer a concern after my first bite. The Crepe was somehow delicate and light while holding its own against the hearty, crispy, tender bites of steak and mushroom. The asparagus was very tender but still had that snappy bite you hope for in this stand-at-attention veggie. The cheese, melted across the top like a sauce, worked with the Creme Fraiche to compliment the hearty contents. I was very impressed with they managed the meat in a cafe environment. The crispy edges contrasted with the moist tenderness of the beef and the pieces were cut into perfect, hearty bite sizes. This Crepe would make the voracious meat eater sigh with yums (as my mother actually did, ala Meryle Streep as Julia Child).

My one negative note comes with the dessert. The Cheesecake was creamy and smooth but lacked anything unique or special in its flavor. The lemon aspect was a curd that sat in the middle of the square shaped cake, and was a color that I am not comfortable with food items being. While it wasn't offensive, it was just obvious to my eyes, that the yellow got some help from something other than lemons. The Biscotti was more like a short bread cookie without the unctuousness of all that butter and lacked the twice baked crisp of a biscotti that invites dunking.

To sum it up I would say that Nadoz will get my business again, and this time I am dragging my meat eating, mushroom loving, boyfriend along. I also plan to visit again to dine from their breakfast menu. While that menu is nearly more extensive than their lunch or dinner menus, all I could recall was the Nutella Crepe! Check out Nadoz. Its worth the drive over to St. Louis and if you are a student at SLU its worth an occasional treat (maybe when your parents are visiting) as the prices aren't ridiculous but not necessarily college student friendly. Maybe I will see you there!

Food for the Childless: Grilled Chicken with Stone Fruit Chutney, Savory Summer Salad, Pasta with Asparagus

I have a couple of dear friends whom I share the circumstance of finding ourselves near the middle of our lives, all for different reasons, without children. While our peers are shuttling kids to and from soccer practice, balancing kid friendly dinner menus, packing up lunches, and wiping snotty noses, we are free to contemplate more leisurely quandaries of life, "What's for lunch?"

Didn't I make being free from the shackles of parenthood sound terribly enticing? I am leaving out the hugs, the bedtime prayers, the joy on little faces when they reflect the love you show them. I know that all of the mom's that read this would give anything for one afternoon to live the freedom of a life without something crusty on their person somewhere....almost anything.

Though none of us have chosen this particular freedom, we have come to embrace it. We embrace it by coming together without the burden of having to think of a way to fill a conversation gap between discussions on the prices of diapers and the benefits of a morning nap versus an afternoon nap. Instead we talk about.... FOOD! We talk about where we want to eat, what we want to eat, what we want to create, or try, or what flavors we think sing together. Occasionally we get the beautiful occasion to cook together.

We recently had one of these opportunities. We flew by the seat of our pants and let creativity and the seasons availability dictate our menu. I think that we managed a beautiful symphony of flavor. If food were therapy this was the cure.

Our menu can loosely be defined as:

Grilled Chicken with stone fruit chipotle chutney, Savory Summer Fruit Salad, and pasta for when you forgot the Parm.

Grilled Chicken

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts. Salt and Pepper. Throw on a Medium High grill until juices run clear.

Stone fruit Chipotle Chutney

2 peaches stoned and diced

2 plumbs stoned and diced

3 Tb. of Raspberry Fruit Spread (or any fruit spread you have lying around)

1 Tb. of chipotle in adobo sauce (available in the ethnic or Mexican food isle. You only need the sauce not the actually chipotle)

1/3 cup water

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until fruit is broken down and it lightly coats the back of a spoon. Will thicken as it cools.

Serve Chutney on top or alongside Grilled Chicken

Savory Summer Fruit Salad

While this recipe using only fruit its in no way a dessert or sweet dish since all of the fruits are usually used as vegetables. I like the irony.

A

pint of cherry, grape, or heirloom cherry tomatoes quartered (we used what the garden yielded as this tastes better than almost any food on the planet)

1/2 to 1 Whole cucumber seeded and peeled (we didn't peel and wished later that we had)

About 10 large Kalamata Olives halved

4 oz. Fresh Mozzarella diced into bite sized pieces

a bunch Fresh Basil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Dressing:

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Tablesppons Cider or Balsamic Vinegar (you will get a completely different taste depending on what you choose, we used what we had)

1 clove garlic pressed or diced fine

Salt and Pepper to taste

Toss "fruit" together and dress until evenly and lightly coated. You will most likely have left over dressing. Let sit at room temp for up to an hour or in the fridge for up to a day.

Pasta for When you Forgot the Parm:

The original recipe called for parmesean cheese but some miscommunication lead to us not having any. What do you don in such a situation? Add more bacon.

1 LB spaghetti or linguini/fettuccini cooked to

1 TB olive oil

4 strips of thick cut bacon cut into 1/2 inch strips or diced

1 TB of butter

1 Lb of fresh asparagus (I wish on all that is sprinkly with fairy dust that it was unnecessary to use the word fresh to describe asparagus, as I feel that all canned asparagus should be thrown into a bottomless pit) trimmed of their woody ends, and cut into thirds or bite sized pieces.

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup reserved pasta liquid

2 cloves garlic crushed

A few springs of fresh Basil chiffonade

Boil pasta to al dente and drain. Before draining scoop up a cup of the cooking liquid and set aside.

Render bacon in olive oil on medium heat until bacon starts to crisp. Raise heat to medium high and add asparagus and butter and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes and add heavy cream. When cream bubbles add cooked and drained pasta. Stir to incorporate and add about half of the reserved pasta liquid and return to a boil. Lower heat and as the pan becomes dry add more and more of the liquid until the entire cup as been added. When pasta is coated and no more liquid remains in pan sprinkle with Basil and season with Salt and Pepper.

I do hope that you use these recipes as a jumping off point to create your own seasonal dinner with friends that you gather to share with.