It was a beautiful Saturday morning here in St. Louis, which for many people means a visit to the to the local farmer's market. I'm a big fan of the
Baltimore Farmers' Market under the Jones Falls Expressway but I will admit, I never took advantage of it as much as I should have because I love to sleep in. But, in an effort to learn this city, I decided I needed to check out the local farmer's market scene here in STL. Jackie and I invited a few people over to grill out by our pool tomorrow, so I figured this was a perfect excuse to wake my ass up at the crack of 10am and check out the local farmer's market.
*Side note for your cooking/hosting novices out there - when hosting guests, it's always good to tell people that you "sourced" the food from a farmer's market. Be sure to use the word "sourced." If you don't know why, I bet you don't even know what terroir means. Ugh. Also, feel free to mention the organic, sustainable nature of the vendors's products at the market. Bonus points if you know the name of the goat that produced the milk that produced your cheese. Wait, you eat cow cheese? How gauche, shoot yourself. Anyway, the reason you want to smugly tell your guests the source of their food is that if you mess it up, you can tell them it's rustic and organic, and they'll shamefully think their taste buds have been ruined to the nuanced natural flavors of your awesome cooking by the chemical and preservative-laden food that they get from the *gasp* grocery store. Another trick is to get them drunk. A third trick is to fry everything because America.
Anywho, I'd heard that the
Tower Grove Farmers' Market here in the St. Louis is the one to go to. The cool thing about the place is that it's right in the middle of the park - there's no street closures, just a nice beautiful setup in the middle of the park, lots of parking, kids playing in the fountains, green grass everywhere - pretty relaxing spot.
Conveniently for me, when I was Googling directions, I learned that World's Fair Donuts is right on the way to the farmer's market. I'd heard about World's Fair from locals and had even read about them in the
NY Times, so I was obviously going to stop and check it out. I waited about 20 minutes to order, but ultimately, I think it was worth the wait. I'm not a donut snob - I've had
Voodoo in Portland and
Doughnut Plant in NYC, but I'm also a fan of the Colossal Donut from Shoppers. To me, there's still nothing that beats a hot
Kripsy Kreme fresh off the birthing line. But, World's Fair is a good donut, and deserves it's notoriety. The place is tiny and when I was there, only 2 people were working- an old guy in the back actually making the donuts, and what I assume to be his wife in the front who fills your orders and collects your $. I'm an idiot and forgot to take pictures, but as you can see from the stock photos i found online, the place is a classic. I got a glazed yeast donut and a buttermilk cake donut. I'm not normally a fan of cake donuts, but this was the best I've ever had - crispy edges, chewy but not heavy, sweet but not cloying - a very good donut.
Anyway, donuts in hand (in belly, actually), I headed to the farmers market. Not nearly as big as I expected, but definitely a decent variety of vendors. I was able to score a bunch of tomatoes, onion, corn, a watermelon, and sirloin for the poolside cookout tomorrow. We'll be doing sirloin kabobs, tomato salad, and grilled corn on the cob. Hopefully it's good. If not, it's because peoples' palates are terrible.
