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@ButterButter: I can't help you with the origin of the St. Paul sandwich but thanks for reminding me of it! It's been years, even decades, since I had one but it was my "sober up so I could drive home" late-night snack many times. I usually got mine on the South Side and it was on white bread, not a bun.

Spent 4 years living in St Louis, departed 8 years ago, and reading this article and thinking about Imo's still made me throw up in my mouth a little.

Imo's is not the best St. Louis style pizza but it's good and there is a lot of history between Imo's and STL. I am here to say that Provel is pretty damn good stuff and to equate it to chitterlings is a bit of a reach. Would you also compare American cheese to chitterlings? If you look you will find that provel and American cheese are made in a similar way, the key difference is Provel is a combination of Provolone, Cheddar and Swiss. It is great on salads, burgers, philly cheesesteaks and on pizza. Is it for everyone? no, but neither is blue cheese, or Camembert. Provel is certainly is not as evil as it's made out to be.

I'm not even from St. Louis, but I love Imo's. It's totally a mood thing, though. You have to be in the mood for it, or it's horrible. BUT--if you ARE in the mood for it, nothing else will do. I don't eat pizzeria meat, so I get the vegetarian, and it is truly wonderful.

I have never been to St. Louis but hear so many amazing things about this city being a pizza city. Sorry I haven't been on the comment boards so much, but hope to be back regularly.

@franko - Fried ravioli, despite what many St. Louisans like to think, is not a local phenomenon, you can find it all over Illinois as well.

Also, having spent four years in college in St. Louis, and being subjected to an untold number of foul Imo's pies at extracurricular activities, I can definitively say that it's not even an acquired taste. Unless you were exposed to it during your formative childhood years, it will never be palatable.

it's a total local thing, like fried ravioli. i'll eat it when i go home, but it's because it's reached the level of comfort food for me. i know it's basically a terrible pizza (that sweetness, ugh!), but i love it just the same, because st. louis is the ONLY place i can get it — it's purely locational food-based bliss.

Funny, I'm flying to St. Louis for the weekend. I'm going to make my girlfriend try IMO's. While it's no Di Fara, it's pretty great and one of most identifiable St. Louis eats

It was a to-die-for yellow cake with pink frosting (yes, pink) at a popular bakery in NYC!

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A Strawberry Mousse I had at a hotel garrettsambo@aol.com

The lemon cupcakes at my wedding.