Vietnam

Qui Tran Lives the American Dream and Continues His Mother's Legacy at Mai Lee

This is part one of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Qui Tran of Mai Lee. Part two, a Q & A with Tran, will appear tomorrow. Part three, a recipe from Tran, will be available on Friday. Qui Tran can't discuss his childhood without mentioning Mai Lee (8396 Music Memorial Drive, Brentwood; 314-64 ... More >>

Your Weekly St. Louis Bestseller List

Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending December 23, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books and Subterranean Books. You have seen almost all these books on the bestseller list ... More >>

Spice World: You're a Star, Anise

Welcome to Spice World, in which Gut Check zeroes in on overlooked spices from around the globe, introducing those you may not own -- and probably should. History: Star anise, the brittle, woody fruit of an evergreen tree native to Vietnam and China, has the sharp smell and taste of black licoric ... More >>

William Franke: Founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Mired in Lawsuits

​William Franke, the man who once owned the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and who in 2004 helped found Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to attack the war record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, is today getting some bad press of his own.  Franke, who made millions in real-estate ... More >>

A Grand Eating

Bob Dylan's Five Least Receptive Audiences

Image via​Bob Dylan played his first ever show in Vietnam over the weekend as part of a brief tour of Asia. There was some amount of fanfare associated with this tour, and this stop in particular, given that so much of Dylan's most vibrant work was written as a response to military action in p ... More >>

Kraken Wise: Squid Rocks

​No question about it: Squid and octopus are in. On a whirlwind visit to New York late last year, Gut Check partook of octopus dishes at four different restaurants on four consecutive nights. Last week, right here in blogland, our featured chef of the week Grace Dinsmoor of Modesto shared her ... More >>

Nearly 100,000 Missouri Veterans Honored

Medal for World War II vets.​For more than a decade, the state of Missouri has awarded medals and certificates to all its native -- or transplanted -- sons and daughters who've served in World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War . And the program is coming up on quite a milestone: 100,000 ve ... More >>

The Dive Bomber's Worlds Collide at Stan's Bar

"When are you going to Keith's? Keith's is perfect for 'Dive Bomber!'" Except it's no longer Keith's. Now it's Stan's Bar, as of January 1, anyhow, when bartender Stan took over ownership. Such is the nature of neighborhood bars, being bought by patrons or employees to continue the lineage when the ... More >>

The Art to End All Wars

The Morning Brew: 2.19

​ Fine dining restaurant starts serving 99 cent tacos. (The Orange County Register)World's second largest tea company on its way to being Rainforest Alliance Certified. (Reuters)A beer tour through Vietnam. (New York Times)Dumbest employees ever try to sneak large hydrocodone pills into Burg ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 5.21

A Virginia man is sentenced to five years in federal prison for illegally importing catfish from Vietnam and selling it as grouper and other fish. (FIS.com)Can Congress help resolve a dispute between American wine producers and the E.U. over the terms used on labels? (AP)Food fight! Sara Lee sues Os ... More >>

Tonight! Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band at Off Broadway

Ignore the missing apostrophe in the band's name: Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is totally worth checking out at Off Broadway tonight. The band's self-titled debut came out on Secretly Canadian subsidiary Dead Oceans, so you know it has some good old-fashioned '70s stoner-fuzz, but its tunes also don' ... More >>

No Canada: U.S. military deserters once again flock to Canada to avoid war. Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

Good Citations: The venerable Medal of Honor Rag deserves an oak leaf cluster

¡Ask A Mexican! Special Navidad Shopping Guide Edition

Love the War, Neglect the Warrior: His fame's based on his POW status, but Senator John McCain's made a point of voting against fellow veterans

Stop-Loss does its best not to mention the Iraq war

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Wants You

The Top Ten Dishes (and the Absolute Worst) of 2007

Walk Through the Valley

Don't let Paul Haggis' heavy hand stop you from seeing his latest.

The Torques: Bonus Critpick

The Black Angels/Vietnam

9 p.m. Friday, April 20. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City).

Review Preview: Ba Le and Cheeburger Cheeburger

Do you think it's wrong for Chevy to use icons like Martin Luther King to sell pickup trucks?

Week of November 2, 2006

Around the World in 21 Hours

This War, That War

A student production at Webster bridges the gap

Film Openings

Week of September 29, 2004

Rationality Will Not Save Us

In the latest documentary from Errol Morris, Robert McNamara considers the lessons of war

Grand New

Another Vietnamese restaurant on South Grand? Yes, and the food is superb.

Lost but Not Forgotten

Indie films bitch-slap complacency

Series/Festivals

Week of October 8, 2003

Best Ethnic Restaurant Row

Olive Boulevard between North & South Road and Interstate 170

Best Spring Rolls

Vietnam Palace

Series/Festivals

Week of September 17, 2003

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

The Pretenders

The long arm of a Dallas stockbroker pulls the mask off local valor fakes

Vietnamese Cuisine

Pho Grand

Value

Pho Grand

Vegetarian Cuisine

Tangerine

Hell on Earth

In the first battle of the Vietnam War, they were Soldiers and then some

Subculture Club

Globe-trotting food writer/TV host Anthony Bourdain is hungry for more than just what's on his plate

Best Place To Buy Imported Tchotchkes

MacroSun Imports and Cultural Centre

Our House

Together is a bittersweet look at '70s commune life ... in Sweden!

Best Parade

Veterans Day

Tin Soldiers and Nixon (Still) Coming

Arrest of Vietnam protester Howard Mechanic is just another war crime

Return with Honor

Written and directed by Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders

STAR TREK

Our reviewer and her intrepid pals navigate Vietnam Star's gargantuan menu

Lost in America

When the feds busted the "Black String Gang," they scratched the surface of the Vietnamese youth problem in South St. Louis. But no one's bothered to dig deeper into how it started.

Boy Wonder