For those tempted to cook at home while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic—but still squeezed for time between Zoom calls and homeschooling—St. Louis restaurants are responding with prep-at-home meal kits and easy-to-follow tutorials.
Mission Taco Joint’s Delmar, Soulard, and St. Charles locations are now offering a family-style 4-Person Taco Bar. The $49.95 build-your-own taco kit comes with a choice of two proteins, two sides, and flour or corn tortillas (pictured above). Toppings—queso fresco, pico de gallo, salsa de arbol, and more—as well as complimentary chips and salsa are included with every order. You can also get one of the margarita kits for $80, which includes a bottle of Una Vida Tequila and housemade margarita mix.
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Hi-Pointe Drive-In chefs have made an instructional outdoor grilling video on Instagram for its taco burger home kits, packed with four uncooked patties, buns, eight slices of American cheese, Mission Taco sauce, Cool Ranch Doritos and Chili Cheese Fritos seasoning, and four tall boys.
Seoul Taco encourages customers to improvise and add their own ingredients to their family meal kits designed for four, which come with detailed recipes and illustrated instructions about how to roll a burrito, make a taco, and put together a gogi bowl. For those confident enough to start completely from scratch, Seoul Taco’s also offering an online “mini mart,” featuring produce, rice, sauces, tortillas, dairy, and meats like marinated tofu, and raw marinated bulgogi steak sold by the pound.
Nudo House minimizes the number of times that customers need to leave their house for ramen. The restaurant is selling both uncooked ramen noodles and pork, chicken, mushroom, and pho broth by the quart.
Kounter Kulture is also selling grocery products from local suppliers, such as Buttonwood Farm, Fresh Pasture Farms, Root + Holler, and Good Life Growing. A small taste of the market menu includes pasta from Midwest Pasta, eggs from Fresh Pasture Farms, spinach, romaine, and mixed greens from Good Life Growing, as well as mushrooms, sunflower microgreens, poultry cuts, and coffee.
Pick up one of Strange Donuts’ bread-making kits this weekend, and you can bake a loaf in real time with Strange Donuts owner Jason Bockman, who will host an Instagram Live baking demo at 7 p.m. on Sunday. The kits come in two sizes: Buy a dozen donuts, and you can get a two-loaf kit for an additional $5 or pay $20 for a four-loaf kit with a pound of yeast.
For pre-made meals, Robust Wine Bar has a Freezables section on the takeout menu with French onion soup, Robust chowder, shrimp and grits, dips, crab cakes, and more.
Three Monkeys is offering customers the option to pre-order ingredients to prepare a meal for four or six, with new options rotating in weekly. Last weekend, their “ground beef basket” provided the staples for burgers and could be paired with a “basics basket” of 1 gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and wheat bread. The menu also features a family-style meal that changes every weekend; the latest was meatloaf and Civil Life brown gravy, paired with mashed potatoes and broccoli, and rounded off with four chocolate chip cookies.
Bono’s Pizzeria Restaurant & Bar, Serra’s Pizzeria in Maryland Heights, and Mellow Mushroom are all offering a range of DIY pizza kits to liven up meal time. Serra’s version comes with its famous homemade sauce, pepperoni, cheese, a special spice blend, and a ball of pizza dough. (The pizzeria also offers a gluten-free crust that comes pre-rolled.) Bono’s pizza crust is ready to go and comes with pepperoni, sauce, cheese, and Parmesan and red pepper packets. Mellow Mushroom’s kit starts with a dough ball, cheese, sauce, and cornmeal as the base; customers can choose any additional toppings for $1.25 each.
Pi Pizzeria launched a pepperoni pizza kit on Tuesdays that includes math and geometry worksheets for all levels. Customers are invited to tag Pi Pizzeria on Instagram with photos of their lesson in pizza-making for a chance to win a $100 Pi gift card.
And here’s an alternative to a trip to the deli: Urban Chestnut’s Curbside Sandwich Kit can feed a family or take one person through a number of meals during the week. It includes 1 pound of house smoked pastrami, a loaf of naturally fermented rye bread, a pint of house-made kraut, and a cup of house-made spicy mustard.
