Feijoada

So what has been up in the land of EatingAwesomeness, you ask? Why have I been so distant? Where has the next post been hiding? Well, to be completely honest with you, this series of Polar Vorti (my made-up on-the-spot plural of Vortex, instead of Vortexes, or perhaps Vortecies?) left me totally void of inspiration. But before I tell you all about the muse that I found to break me out of my slump, I will give you a little rundown of what I have been up to (besides consuming copious amounts of craft beer).

Since my last post, KC Restaurant Week (#KCRW2014) has come and gone. I went to The Majestic, Urban Table, Jack Stack, Reserve, and Fogo during Restaurant Week. 

The Majestic was good, but the steaks that were not on the KCRW2014 were SOOOO much better! They had a barrel aged Manhattan, not a Manhattan made with barrel aged whiskey (because that is all of them), this was a cocktail that was made and then barrel aged. But the best thing that I had at Majestic was probably the chocolate mousse that came with a macaron in the glass.

Urban Table had a killer sandwich, as always. 

Jack Stack was part of a tour of KC BBQ that I took an out of town co-worker on. Plus the beans are the best ever! 

I was blessed with the opportunity to be Yelp KC's quest star of a #KCRW2014 tweet-along at Reserve. Reserve was as incredible as always! I had scones and coned beef hash made by an Irishman! It doesn't really get much better than that. 

The real breakthrough, however, came at Fogo. How can a chain Brazilian steakhouse provide a breakthrough, you ask? Well, one of the members of our party had housed a Brazilian exchange student in high school. Between rounds of gluttoning ourselves on rare leg of lamb and the cheesy bread that they bring to your table, she mentions that there is a Brazilian market/restaurant in the River Market that has even better cheesy bread and this market is supposed to occasionally have feijoada Saturdays. She went on to explain what feijoada is and told us about how she had first had it when visiting her exchange student, upon her return to Brazil, out of a home that had been converted to a restaurant (I don't know Portuguese, but now you are speaking my language). As if we weren't sold on this yet, she told us that on this same occasion, she looked down and found a pig snout in her feijoada dish (yes, please)! She then said that she would let us all know the next time Taste of Brazil (the Brazilian market) had feijoada. 

Fast forward to last weekend. Five of us joined up, in the River Market, to try this fabled feijoada. 

The process goes like this: You go into Taste of Brazil, pick out your drink (Brazilian Guarana soda, if you know what is good for you), pay for your drink and your feijoada, they give you a wristband, head next door and run through the line, then grab a table. All the while there are musicians playing music that reminds me of Sirius XM satellite radio's channel Coffee House.

The feijoada line consisted of: rice, feijoada (that you have to be dying to know what it actually is by now), fried pork belly, collard greens, papaya, what I believed to be fried yucca, seasonings and sauces, and bread slices (but not the cheesy bread, you need to order that separately above, if you choose).

The cheesy bread did, in fact, kick the cheesy bread from Fogo in the junk. They even sell packages of the mix that you can take home to enjoy anytime.

The mixture of beans and smoked meats, that is feijoada, was incredible! There were cuts of meat that had bones in them (so watch out and don't chip any teeth), which made it amazing. I even found a couple pieces of blood sausage in my feijoada. Sadly, no snouts though. I loved the feijoada, over rice, with a little bit of pepper sauce (molho de pimenta) on it. The pepper sauce is not really spicy, it just adds flavour, and is slightly reminiscent of buffalo chicken sauce.

The fried pork belly is really good, because, well... it's fried pork belly. The papaya only made me think of how much better the papaya would taste in Rio. The shredded collards were very good, but with my mom's whole side of my family being from The South I had better love some collards.

We ate feijoada until we could no longer move, then we went back for the obligatory dessert: passion fruit mousse. The mousse was so thick, it had to have been made with condensed milk, it was so good!

We will definitely be going back to TOBM for some food and Guarana soda before the next feijoada!

Tour de BBQ

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of taking part in the Tour de BBQ with a buddy of mine. Tour de BBQ is a 62 mile bicycle ride, benefiting the University of Kansas & Children's Mercy Cancer Centers. I love riding my bicycle, I love eating BBQ, and I really hate cancer (I mean really, really hate cancer, I don't think you fully understand the hate I have toward cancer), so this ride seemed like a natural event to take part in. It was extremely cold at the start of the race and didn't warm up much as the day went on, but it was a fantastic ride anyway!

The ride:

A 62 mile ride, 6 BBQ stops, 8 hours to complete (although we did not need nearly that long).

It was 39 degrees when I walked out my door and got on my bike to ride down to the Power and Light District (where the ride began) at 6:40. All I could think about when I was zooming down the hill, and the wind was so cold that it was making my eyes water, was "I wonder how much convincing it would take to talk Dan (my buddy) into just coming over and hanging out instead of riding today", but our hatred for cancer prevailed. 

The ride began a tad late (at about 7:15 AM, which does not change this post at all, but wanted to make not of it so no one judged us for riding the first few miles super slowly).

The stops:

The Stack (Mile 10; 7:40 AM): The Stack, formerly Smokestack BBQ (started by the same family as Jack Stack), provided BBQ chicken wings. The Stack is now under new ownership that has completely overhauled the entire menu from the restaurant's Smokestack days. I have yet to visit this restaurant, but I can tell you that their chicken wings are awesome! I am not a huge BBQ chicken wing guy, if I am going to be having wings, I prefer them buffalo style, but the stack is working on changing that. The rub, combined with the small bit of caramelized sauce on the outside of the wing, were perfect. The wing was juicy and if I return to The Stack anytime soon, it will be hard for me to order anything but the BBQ wings.

Gates (Mile 15; 8:00 AM): I do not know what Gates provided for the ride, as they either forgot that they were providing BBQ for the ride, or we just rode too fast and got there before the BBQ was ready. Lots of "Hi, may I help you?!" jokes were made and Gates received no red star from Tour de BBQ (these jokes will only makes sense to those who frequent Gates, if you don't get them, go to Gates and you will understand).

 
Jack Stack (Mile 23.4; 8:34 AM): It is a well known fact that I think that Jack Stack has the best beans EVER (not just in KC), I would swim in a pool full of Jack Stack beans if I could, but today the Jack Stack sausage was the star of the show. The sausage was great, as always, it is no secret that Jack Stack has great BBQ. If you have not been to Jack Stack, join the 21st century and go give it a try.

The Burnt End (Mile 33.25; 9:20 AM): I had not tried The Burnt End before Saturday, whom ironically did not supply their namesake burnt ends, but instead provided shredded chicken sliders. Their shredded chicken was very tender, pickles were very good, and the sauce was a tomato based sauce (not dissimilar to Jack Stack's). I would definitely recommend adding The Burnt End to any SOJOCOer's BBQ rotation.

 Dickey's BBQ Pit (Mile 42.5; 10:00 AM): I did not partake in the BBQ at Dickey's solely on principle. I do not know if Dickey's is any good or not, I have never had it. However, on a tour of KC BBQ places, I was not going to include a TX chain in my day. Sorry, to anyone who loves Dickey's, my inner KC BBQ elitist keeps me from trying it.

R.J.'s Bob-be-que Shack (Mile 55; 11:00 AM): Yet another stop on the route that I had not tried before, R.J.'s was surprisingly awesome! The pork sliders were great, crunchy ends on the tender strands of tender pork combined with a tangy sauce (my favorite sauce of any of the stops) was a perfect combination. I will definitely be returning to R.J.'s with my wife SOON! Also of mention: everyone at every stop was as nice as could be, but the people at R.J.'s were in a league of their own (it is unknown if they were R.J.'s employees or Tour de BBQ volunteers, but just wanted to make not of it).

The Afterparty (Mile 62; 11:45 AM): 

Upon return to the Power and Light District, we were treated to a band and given drink & meal tickets, as if we needed more BBQ at that point (although I did not need it, I still partook anyways). The band was singing a mix of past hits and original songs about running and triathlons, it was a good fit for the crowd in attendance.

The Ride Home:

After getting cold from being sedentary while eating my final BBQ, having a couple beers, and watching the band, my muscles had time to get stiff from lactic acid settling in. Combine this with a full belly and an uphill ride home; the ride of less than a mile from the Power and Light District to my condo was much harder than the previous 62 miles I had ridden that day.

Final Thoughts:

All of the BBQ that I had was great! The roads were not closed for the ride, but the route was reasonably marked. It was extremely cold, but we had a good ride anyways. I would recommend taking part in this ride next year to anyone who loves riding bikes, eating BBQ, or hates cancer. They even have 15 mile and 35 mile rides for anyone who is not quite as intense as my buddy Dan and I are.