Among St. Louis’s curious culinary specialties, which include gooey butter cake and fried brain sandwiches, none is as enigmatic as the St. Paul. You will find the St. Paul on menus in nearly every take-out chop suey parlor in town, of which the city has a bounty. No Gateway City food authority or cultural historian owns up to knowing anything about its origins or the inscrutable logic of its name, which one assumes is a reference to the city in Minnesota or possibly to the Apostle. One apocryphal story holds that it was a St. Louis chef originally from St. Paul who invented the dish to attract non-Chinese sandwich-eaters to his restaurant.
If its genealogy is unclear, its architecture is certain: a patty of egg foo young is cooked to the customer’s specifications with diced pork, ham, chicken, beef, shrimp, or just vegetables, placed between two pieces of soft white bread, and dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mayonnaise. A slice of American cheese is optional.