Kansas City Food Tour

I like food.  A lot.  As such, I find that one of the most exciting aspects of traveling is the exploration of local foods.

A while back I was watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network when they featured Grinders Pizza in Kansas City.  The feature showed the southern Philly cheese steak and a tater-tot pizza.  It looked delicious.

Kansas City is an incredible city.  If you haven't been there take my word that it has an amazing culture and feel unlike any other city.  Being an engineer I don't think I could articulate this thought clearly so you might be best off experiencing it yourself.

On top of all this I have some of the most amazing friends in the world that live in the Kansas City area.  So, to recap:  delicious food, incredible city, and amazing friends.  As if I even needed that many reasons to do a weekend road trip...

I pitched the trip idea to my friend Stephanie who lives in Kansas City.  I've known Stephanie for a long time (maybe 13 or so years?).  For some reason she not only puts up with my ideas but encourages them.  She's one of the most amazing people I know for many reasons.  She suggested that I make this Grinders trip into a weekend food tour.  Did I mention I really like food?

The food tour was phenomenal. And, as always, hanging out with Stephanie was great. I'd list the trip as a success. Information on the trip can be found here.

My notes:

 --The cheese steak at Grinder's was amazing. I'm going to try making it in my kitchen when I get a chance.

 --Stephanie introduced me to Christopher Elbow, which had chocolates un-like anything I'd ever seen before. I don't think those are going to be reproduced in my kitchen anytime soon

 --The National WWI Museum was one of the best museums I'd seen for a while.

 --The Asian market we went to was a new experience for me. I was way proud of myself for recognizing a couple Asian ingredients.

 --Genghis Khan for dinner was tasty. I even got to meet one of Stephanie's co-workers that I'd heard a lot about.

 --Bubble tea was another new experience for me. I'd try it again.

--The Westside Local introduced me to some incredible fried chicken and waffles. I hear this combination is popular in places that aren't Iowa.

 --The Nelson-Atkins Art Museum was fun. I generally don't enjoy art museums because my engineer sense kicks in with an “any idiot could have made that in like 10 minutes” feeling.  However, some of the glass displays were unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

 --I think Stephanie and I make a good team in the kitchen. Our dinner of homemade pork sandwiches was delicious.


All in all this was an awesome trip. Much thanks to my host for putting up with me all weekend :)