Para Llevar

Or "Takeaway", in Spanish. Yes, I realize that what I am going to post about is delivery, not takeaway, but there is a bigger point I want to make here.

First of all, how is everyone doing? I hope you are all doing well! I ask because I realize that I have been neglecting this blog with the persistence that most of you neglect to floss. Perhaps I can shed some light on my recent flakiness...

I do this blog for fun, not for money. That being said, I obviously have to do something for money. Logically, the thing that I do for money has to take precedence over the blog. However, though it may not be money, I do get some pretty amazing takeaways from this blog that money cannot buy! I have made countless friendships: food truck owners, restaurateurs, chefs, celebrities, writers, bartenders, PR people, twitter followers, and even community managers for social media outlets that I have yet to contribute to (my bad Matt). I have stumbled into a good number of exposures that I am still rather unsure how I happened upon them. And I have had some pretty amazing meals (and some lousy ones too).

All of that being said, it's not fair to blame all of this on the 9-5. As with anything that you do for fun, it is easy to keep up when you are inspired. Similarly, it is a bit harder to keep up when you are uninspired. Admittedly I have a long way to go before I can say that I have even eaten at every restaurant in my own town, much less taken part in all of the foodventures that are out there to be had, but its easy to lose interest when most of the recent restaurant trends are so lazy. I get it, you spent a lot of money to make your restaurant look like a cheap barn. "Edison bulbs! High five!" - they are no longer novel when everyone has them. I get it, you are a Gringo who makes over-priced Mexican food that tastes like crap compared to authentic places on the Boulevard/KCK. I get it, you put bacon on things (like donuts) because you don't know how to make them taste good otherwise. Don't even get me started on "artisan toast" (spits on the ground). But it is not fair for the hipsters, who have now become the mainstream (yeah, choke on that irony, hipsters), to ruin everyone's fun (or my attitude).

Side note: Yes, I do realize the irony of this rant being that the word "awesome" (which I picked years ago to describe the food that I was going to write about) has become played out. Yes, I have considered changing it, but for the sake continuity I have decided to ride it out and wait for it to come back around again (if this blog is still around then).

After a lax few months of pseudo-blogging, I have a few new places for you that have renewed my energy for blogging (spoiler alert: most of them involve chicken). But first, to stick with the theme of this post, I have a few great takeaways (nee deliveries) for you.

First takeaway: You all know my love for Peanut wings! I don't know that I can really say anything more about them then what I said here. But they are now available by mail (peanutwings.com) and I can tell you that this is possibly the best thing that you could send a homesick Kansas Citian or anyone that lives out of town and does not understand your obsession with The Peanut.

The good folks at The Peanut will now ship you wings, wing sauce, and that legendary chunky bleu cheese dressing (frozen, with reheating instructions, of course) for a nominal fee. I would say that the buffalo sauce is just as good as, if not even better after concentrating in the oven. The bleu cheese is great. The oven-heated wings themselves are maybe 80% as good as straight from the fryer, but will still beat anything that you can get in your grocer's freezer section quite handedly!

Before

The reheating instructions that are provided with these guys is also good if you are a pretender and order more wings than you can eat at your local Peanut. If you have to put your tail between your legs and ask for a doggy bag to take wings home, you can reheat them using the instructions shown above.

After

Cream Cheese Brownie

Second takeaway: I have done a post before about mail order brownies, but if the Killer Brownies are a bit too rich for your blood (which there is not shame in, they are not for everyone), then I have a great alternative for you.

There is a budding start-up brownie bakery that is rising up from the concrete in Chicago. That start-up is Rhoyal Decadence. Rhoyaldecadence.com does not have the full line of brownies that are available to order, so your best bet is to contact Rhonda and ask her what she can do for you.

I have had the standard brownie (which is a moist brownie, loaded full of nuts, topped with a cream cheese frosting), the lemon brownie (I am not a huge lemon fan overall, but this one was pretty good), and the pumpkin (which is perfect for the impending fall).

Chicken Wings & BLTs

Just like most of you, I have a rotation of a few restaurants that I frequent more often than others. These are the restaurants that I go to just because its Tuesday; not necessarily to try a new menu, meet a new chef, or anything like that. Every once in a while I will realize that I have not blogged about one of these places simply because its almost like second nature to go there, it is so good, yet so familiar at the same time. This post is about one of those places.

The Peanut is one of those places that seems like almost everyone knows about it (which probably subliminally contributes to the fact I have not blogged about it until now). Radio show hosts, KC Star columnists, and even ESPN beat reporters talk about The Peanut's wings. This post is not for the 90% of you that regularly read my blog, you are the type of people that have already been to The Peanut (probably more times than you can count). This post is for the 10% that have not partaken in the gloriously unsophisticated, yet culinarily accomplished, dive bar that is The Peanut. 

One of these 10 percenters (as we will call them today) was my mother, who just so happens to LOVE bacon. She loves hard, crispy, crunchy bacon. If it is a limp soggy piece of bacon, don't even bother, she is not having any of that. 

My mother travels all the time, and is often subject to hotel breakfasts, so she stays at Embassy Suites as often as possible (because they always have crispy bacon). So this is where we stayed on the night before catching our flight back from our recent trip to Puerto Rico (as it was right by the airport). Don't get me wrong, I love Embassy Suites just as much as the next guy (I stay at Hilton brand hotels whenever I can), but this bacon was beyond crispy. This bacon was so over-done, it was like it had just come out of the crematory. I was ready to hold a remembrance service for this bacon right there at the breakfast table.

When we got back, I knew I had to take her somewhere and get her some good, crispy, not burnt bacon. So for her birthday, I took her to The Peanut. This is a far cry from the party we threw her last year at Tasso's (that you can go back and read about, if you have not), but she said that she could only handle a party like that "once every 60 years", so we obliged and kept this one low key.

We ordered her the best BLT in KC, the double version. The crispy, peppery, Kansas raised bacon on perfectly toasted whole wheat bread. Top that off with fresh lettuce, tomato, and mayo does indeed yield the best BLT in KC.

Not only does The Peanut have the best BLT in KC, but they also have the best wings in KC. However, all good things take time, The Peanut's wings are no exception. The menu warns of the minimum wait that accompanies the wings, but don't let that scare you off (the wait is well worth it). The tenderness of the wings leads me to believe that the time that it takes to get the wings is used by the cook to slaughter the gigantic pterodactyl-sized chickens, soak the wings in buttermilk, then flash fry them to get the outside crispy but not dry out the inside. Cover them in spicy buffalo sauce and dip them  in bleu cheese and you have an addiction that is rivaled only by hardcore street drugs.

My wife and I usually split a dozen wings, which would be enough food to stuff a normal human stomach. However, once I have eaten about 6 or 7 of those bad boys, that is when the addiction sets in. I cannot ever stop there, I usually order another half dozen for myself.

If you need something to wash down those wings (or that BLT), The Peanut has plenty of beers on tap, or in the bottle. They have all of your standard domestics, year-round & seasonal Boulevard beers, and year-round & seasonal New Belgium beers, just to name a few. Sam Mellinger will tell you how well Tank 7 goes with the wings. My wings pairing recommendation varies by the season, but its hard to beat a New Belgium Dig in the spring.

If you were wondering how my mom liked her BLT; she finished it and even had room for half of a wing.

And if you are one of the 10 percenters that have yet to try The Peanut, there is one in almost every area of town: Downtown, Main Street (South of the Plaza), Lee's Summit, and JoCo. My personal Peanut is the Downtown version, but Main Street is the original.