Western Europe

Ask a Mexican: What's with all the itals?

Ask a Mexican: Should I go to Spain to learn Spanish?

Ten Best Food Events This Weekend: April 20-23

Friday (Apr. 20): Around the World Wine Dinner @ Missouri Botanical Garden Chefs from Catering St. Louis create a menu focusing on France: The Rhone Valley. The four-course meal with hors d'oeuvres and wine pairings includes menu items such as braised beef shank in red wine-olive-currant reductio ... More >>

In the Galleries: Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art From Germany, at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, closes January 9

Tea (and Lunch) for Two at London Tea Room

Robin WheelerA proper tomato soup and grilled cheese lunch for a rainy day.​ The Place: The London Tea Room (1520 Washington Ave., 241-6556), the cheeky British tea house and cafe across from the City Museum. The Lunch: As the weather turned drizzly and gray, the mood turns to tea. When it fee ... More >>

The Pageant Has The Fourth Most Ticket Sales Of Any Club In The World So Far This Year

Photo by Todd Owyoung.Some of the Pageant' s 119,416 so far in 2011. ​Pollstar has just released the ticket sales number for the first three quarters of 2011, and the Pageant has once again sold the fourth most tickets of any club venue in the world. Our hometown venue has seen more people ... More >>

Denied Extra Butter, Woman Loses It in KFC

​You know what we haven't had for a while? A good fast-food freakout captured on cell-phone camera.So here, via Eater, is a woman losing her mind inside a British KFC (UKFC?) after an employee denies her request for extra butter.The video is after the jump. Warning: The woman's language is extreme ... More >>

Fashion Week Music: The Highlights, The Appearances And The Odd Soundtracks

Richard GuatyAnna Wintour eyeballing Nicki's tights. Oh, to peek inside the mind of the Vogue editrix in chief in this moment.​Thank science Fashion Week is over. Isn't it just torture? If there's something worse than not being in New York City for the circus that is Mercedes Benz Fashion Week ... More >>

The Peter Kinder Scandal -- Voices from the 34 Club

Albert Samaha"I think it's pretty typical for a politician," said England. "It feels like they're doing something like this all the time."​Peter Kinder blames the Stripper Scandal on Jay Nixon and the Democrats. "Jay Nixon may want to make up false stories about the past," he said last Thurs ... More >>

Kids Sickened by Tainted Raw Milk, Hamburgers

Wikimedia CommonsThe cows are pissed.​The cows have finally had enough, and they're fighting back at the humans with pathogens striking our children. A group of sixteen people from a fourth-grade class in Raymond, Wisconsin, developed Campylobacter infections from drinking raw milk. A pare ... More >>

The Joy Formidable

8 p.m. Friday, April 22. The Luminary Center for the Arts, 4900 Reber Place.

Blue Moon Belgian White, Tower Pub

science.nasa.gov​Once, many moons ago, Drink of the Week was young and in love. She sat on a balcony drinking cheap wine and making moony eyes at the object of her affections. The young lovers ran out of wine, so they went to the store to get more. When they returned to the balcony, they notic ... More >>

Burger King to England: Your Women Are Ugly

Flickr​The U.K.'s all a-flutter with royal wedding fever. And really, who doesn't adore pretty princess-to-be Kate Middleton? She's been honored with a beer bearing her name, a Dunkin' Donut celebrating her nuptials to Diana's kid. She flipped pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and is getting acceptab ... More >>

Interview: Kenn Nardi on Anacrusis' New Song and Current Goings-On

​Local metal legends Anacrusis reunited for a couple of gigs last spring to promote the release of the double CD Hindsight: Suffering Hour and Reason Revisited, a new re-recording of the band's first two albums (which were originally released in 1988 and 1990). The release and shows went over ... More >>

Lake Effect

Germany Faces Contaminated Meat Woes

The U.S. isn't the only country with food safety issues. The Agence France-Presse reports that contaminated animal feed in Germany has led South Korea to ban Germany pork and Slovakia to ban German poultry. Russia may be next to refuse German meat. The countries are concerned about elevated levels o ... More >>

LouFest, Day Two: Jeff Tweedy, A Review and a Setlist

Unsurprisingly, Jeff Tweedy's solo appearance was what many LouFesters came to see. Wilco's frontman obliged fans with an 85-minute acoustic set featuring both obscurities and familiar songs. The night's first tune, "Sunken Treasure," conjured chills - from its wavering harmonica and understated aco ... More >>

White Collar Crime: Anglican bishop Martin Sigillito is accused of fleecing regular Joes and Racquet Club jet setters alike out of $45 million

The World Goblet Final: France vs. New Zealand

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

World Cuppage: Spain 1 - Netherlands 0; Campeónes at Guido's Pizzeria y Tapas

Here are a few photos and videos that encapsulate wild ambiance at Guido's on the Hill during Spain's 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final. Andrés Iniesta scored with just four minutes remaining in overtime to propel España to the first World Cup Championship in the nation ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 3: Chile vs. Germany

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

Study: Region Unprepared for Massive Quake from New Madrid Fault

​A University of Illinois study released last week reports that St. Louis, Memphis and other towns near the New Madrid fault line are ill-prepared for a possible 7.7 magnitude earthquake. The study commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency found that such a temblor could leave 3,500 ... More >>

World Cuppage: Spain 1 - Portugal 0; The Iberian Incident at Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas

photos by Keegan HamiltonNo bull: the Spain fans at Guido's take their soccer seriously. ​If skirmishes haven't yet erupted on the Spanish-Portuguese border, the bullets (hopefully proverbial) will start flying shortly. There's a strong mutual dislike between the two nations and today's knockout r ... More >>

Freddie Holland of Match Foods, Inc.

This is part one of Robin Wheeler's Chef's Choice profile of Freddie Holland of Match Foods, Inc., maker of Match Meats. Part two, a Q&A with Holland, will be posted tomorrow, and part three, a recipe, follows on Friday. Robin Wheeler​"I was raised on a farm. We raised our cows with bottles, ... More >>

World Cuppage: Spain 2 - Honduras 1; Sangria and Sangre Español at Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas

photos by Keegan HamiltonThis Spain fanatico says, "¡La sangre de España es bueno!"​Spain is a country of simple pleasures. There are three, in particular, that define the nation: eating, drinking and fútbol -- and not necessarily in that order, either. For the closest thing to the authentic Sp ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: France vs. Italy

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: Argentina vs. Portugal

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

The World Goblet Round 1: Germany vs. United States

​While scanning the World Cup groups in order to plan our daytime drinking over the next month, Gut Check noticed that most of the great wine-producing nations are represented in the tournament field, including all of those with a reputation for crafting good, value-priced wines. Because Gut C ... More >>

Best Places to Watch the 2010 World Cup in St. Louis

Image sourceThe gold is actually foil and there's milk chocolate underneath.​The 2010 World Cup is finally here. Well, it's actually in South Africa, but thanks to the modern miracle known as ESPN, the games will be broadcast live at dozens of bars and restaurants in St. Louis.There's nothing quit ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 6.7

Rising food costs put the world's poorest countries in even more danger of food insecurity and hunger. The Associated Press reports that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food index prices show the price of dietary staples were 22 percent higher in March than a year earlier. Art, food ... More >>

Aqualung

9 p.m. Thursday, May 6. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City.

The Morning Brew: 4.23

Food labeling for dummies: CBS releases an extensive guide to all the grocery terminology a shopper needs. How the po'boy sandwich got its name. Salon shares the letter penned by po'boy creators Clovis and Bennie Martin to the striking streetcar workers the sandwich was made for in 1929. Congr ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 4.20

The air travel catastrophe caused by Iceland's volcano can teach some important lessons about eating locally in the U.K. The Guardian detailed how the huge ash cloud is preventing Kenyan produce imports from reaching western Europe. Tons of fruits and vegetables have already been dumped because the ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 4.9

The latest food additive China's using that we don't want: pulverized lime as a bleaching agent for flour. Not the citrus fruit; the inedible mineral that can lead to respiratory failure. Reuters said that a company was fined for selling pulverized lime to four major flour producers. Lime, of cour ... More >>

The Beertender: Extolling the Glories of Berliner Weisse While Stoked on Lou Reed

www.colnect.com​Lou Reed's 2007 concert film Berlin features the rocker performing in its entirety the 1973 album of the same name. More than 30 years later, the repertoire remains pure Reed: loss, hate, depravity, a sourness for this cold, cruel world that's most evident when he closes with an un ... More >>

Cowboy diplomacy from our man in Paris, John Travolta

A Soupcon of Cinema

This Means UAR

Love at the End of Everything

Sketches of Old Spain

The Past Is a Cancelled Check

Except when it's not

Rhone, Rhone on the Range

Air Force Won

How Berlin got its food back

Cheers to the Otters

What Revolting Peasants

Glen Ellen Merlot

The Muny (in Forest Park); 314-361-1900.

Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

2000 E. Guigal Hermitage Rouge

The Wine and Cheese Place, 7435 Forsyth Boulevard, 314-727-8788

Eat and Run

Guido's Pizza and Tapas evokes the spirit of Spain's cafe-to-cafe noshing tradition