BREAKING NEWS: Something to Come Back For!

First and foremost, I am sorry! I am sorry for neglecting my followers, I am sorry for neglecting the blog, and I am sorry for neglecting some really good KC food that has been popping up. I know that I promised you guys some chicken, and I will get to that (I promise), but for now I have something that I could not let go without mentioning: The glazed donut breakfast sandwich!

You have probably seen these creations on sites like Eater, or Thrillist, but you have probably not tasted one. I had not, at least not until the other morning. I was running late and did not have time to make myself breakfast, so I did what I have done a little too often lately: head to Joe's Downtown Donuts.

I grabbed a cinnamon roll the size of my head and was heading out when Joe mentioned that he had been working on some breakfast sandwiches using a glazed donut for a bun. I was late, but I can never be too late to pass up such a creation. After a few short minutes Joe came from the back with what is pictured below: glazed donut, cut in half and toasted, egg, cheese, and a smoked bacon. He told me that he didn't know about the smoked bacon and may switch to maple. I personally thought that the smoked bacon balanced out the sweetness of the glazed donut nicely.

If this sounds a little adventurous to you, I challenge you to give it a try. Joe uses real eggs, not some fast food egg puck nonsense, it is kind of like what you would get if a McGriddle weren't made to survive a nuclear winter. It's a good old fashion sweet glazed donut sandwiching some savory ingredients.

Swing by, give it a try. Whether you live downtown, work downtown, stop through, or make the trek from some far city, this thing is worth trying (along with all of donuts). Just remember that you heard it here first... unless you had heard it from Joe himself.

Good (K)(C)arma

Recently I stopped by Carma for lunch. In all honesty, I had no idea that Carma even existed (probably like many of you didn't) until it was recommended to me by a friend. And what an excellent reco it was! I loved the window directly into the open kitchen, from the bar! I loved the group of regulars that know everyone in the restaurant, and vice versa (it was kind of like an upscale Cheers!). And most importantly, I loved the food!

First, let me start off by saying that Carma is far from the dive joints that I frequent, in almost every way other than that it is slightly hidden (and the good food too). You can find it in Park Place, just down the street from my guy Aaron Sanchez's place Mestizo. Also that I know very little about what is authentic Italian vs. what is Americanized Italian, so I will not be commenting on the authenticity of the food simply because I have no clue whether it is or is not (I would have to refer to my homies from Little Italy for that). Anywho, enough with the disclaimers, you want to hear about the food.

Carma was initially opened as a second Carmen's Cafe location, but after some changes in operating interests and rebranding Carma was born. The new rotating menu at Carma focuses more on fresher and seasonal ingredients than did the old Carmen's Cafe fixed menu. Part of this is a daily special...

The daily special on the day that I stopped in was the prime rib dip sandwich. It was killer! The sandwich was piled high with tender, juicy, and meaty (without big chunks of fat, all of the fat had been rendered) prime rib on top of a bed of rocket (or arugula for those not hip to the Queen's English). The au jus was not too shabby, but quite frankly, you did not need it. The bread was not dry and the meat provided plenty of juice. The Greek salad on the side was a nice touch with the feta, onions, and spring greens.

After spending a couple minutes talking to Chef Leo about how much I loved the sandwich, he agreed to bring me out a few samples of other menu items. When he said "a couple", I thought he meant "a couple", here is what I was in store for:

Chef brought out two flatbreads, a sharp turn from Carmen's menu, Sweet & Spicy Shrimp and Margherita flatbreads. The S&S shrimp was just that, sweet and spicy: sweet chili sauce, feta, more rocket, shrimp (duh), and a lemon vinaigrette. The Margherita is your traditional Margherita, made with fresh mozzarella, roma tomatoes, fresh basil, and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Both of which were amazing and I would by lying to you if I told you that I could pick a favorite; and this is just the tip of the flatbread iceberg.

Salads do not stop at side dishes to delicious prime rib sandos! Chef Leo brought me out two salads that were packed with flavour: The quinoa salad (pictured to the right) and the kale salad. The vinegar-y, citrus-y quinoa salad normally comes with a steak or salmon topper, but Chef sent it out with shrimp for me (something he will do for you too). This went great with the pickled onions, feta, spinach, and cucumbers. The kale salad, which is topped with a champagne vinaigrette that also has a vinegar/citrus hint, brings the people what they want: kale! Kale is so in right now, people are making everything out of kale. This kale is complimented with red onions, avocado, and pine nuts. These salads are perfect for the summer!

Once upon a time, I was a huge fat kid and loved fettuccine alfredo (or "mac and cheese for grownups" as Mitch Hedberg called it, and what I thought of as Italian). Once upon a time that was a few years after the previous time, I had grown to know real food and left my previous ways behind. In the second time, I had foolishly sworn off Italian restaurants because I believed that they were all just noodles in random sauces. That was until a good friend of mine showed me the light. He told me to not order pasta at Italian restaurants, but to order the entrees instead. This section is dedicated to this idea that I encourage you all to try as well (however Carma does make their pasta fresh every day).

When Chef brought me out some entrees, I was glad that they subscribed to the above theory! The steak Santana (pictured to the right and named for Chef Leo) comes topped with caramelized onions in a reduced balsamic vinaigrette and accompanied with potatoes au gratin and a seasonal vegetable (which happened to be asparagus the day that I visited). Other entrees that I got to sample were the blackened salmon on a bed of mixed vegetables and Carma's take on chicken spiedinis (made famous by another local spot: Garozzo's). All three were pretty good, but I have to give the championship belt to the chicken spiedinis.

As if all of the things that I mentioned had not left me stuffed enough (and yes I ate, not just sampled, all of them in one sitting), I was not allowed to leave without trying dessert! The New York style cheesecake and Pistachio torte are both made in house and pictured to the right. While the cheese cake was very good, the pistachio torte stole my heart! It was fantastic! I actually took a whole serving of it to-go!

When I was at Carma, they were working on an adjacent space where they were going to do deli-style grab and go New York style pizza (among other things, similar to the prime rib sandwich), for lunch. If you don't have the time to dedicate to a sit down lunch, this is a perfect option for you.

After all of that, there is only one thing left to say: go check them out!

Thanksgiving (the real one, not that Canadian knock off)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

First off, let me begin by saying that I am not one for cliches. I am not one of those people that gets sentimental about things. I do not do the X number of days of Thanksgiving "thankful" social media posts, and that is not what I am trying to achieve here. But, I am very blessed and do have a lot to be thankful for. An incomplete list goes something like this: my faith, my wife, my family, our friends, my job (not this hobby, but my job that pays me actual money), good local food, my 3 readers, and my food truck family.

My food truck family works hard to bring excellent food to the people, at reasonable prices. Most of them are hard working weekend warriors, like myself, working day jobs and then running a food truck in their limited free time. Only instead of pushing keys on a keyboard like I do, they work for hours: prepping food, taking orders, being a line cook, struggling to break even, driving home, and then spending hours more cleaning their trucks (to meet health department requirements). This is a tight-knit community that looks out for each other. They have also been very kind and really supported me since I first started blogging. They have been here since Day 1! And when you are from where I am from, you look out for those that look out for you. All of that being said: I raise a Thanksgiving toast to you, Mr. Food Truck Owner/Operator Guy (in my Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" commercial voice).

Although, the days that are nice enough for my food truck fam to go out are few and far between at this time of year, they rallied together for a rare November meet-up earlier this month; here are a few of my takeaways.

One new truck to the local scene (whom someone at KCFTA needs to tell to get a Twitter account) is Chickhoovenswine. Chickhoovenswine brings their brand of championship barbecue (along with all of the hardware that comes with it) to the streets. As the name may (not so subtly) hint at, Chickhoovenswine can rock out with just about any kind of meat in the smoker: Chicken, Beef, or Pork. 

I gave the "Hoggy Style" sandwich a shot, because, well, I mean, how can you not with a name like that? The Hoggy Style consists of delicious pulled pork, smoked sausage, and creamy slaw piled high. Chickhoovenswine also has 3 distinctly unique sauces available for saucing, if you so choose. I can't wait to try more from this truck!

Another newcomer, Organized Chaos (who has a Twitter account, that will tell you where to find them), prides themselves in what they consider to be a eccentric take on fusion sandwiches. If you are anything like me, you LOVE a good sandwich! My love for sandwiches runs so deep that I may even give the "Sandwich King" Jeff Mauro a run for his money! You can even ask my wife, if I had to eat one thing, every day, for the rest of my life, it would be a sandwich. Organized Chaos can feed your insatiable itch for a good sandwich.

Of sandwiches that Organized Chaos has on their menu, I have had two: the Tequila Chicken and the Bahn Mi. The Tequila Chicken is as tender as you could hope for a chicken sandwich to be. It is topped with melted cheddar cheese, cabbage, cilantro, and chipotle mayo. The Bahn Mi, which could probably be considered the signature sandwich for the truck, is Marissa's (co-owner/chef of OC) take on a Vietnamese classic. Tender, delicious, pork meatballs, pickled veggies, cilantro, and Sriracha mayo all on a toasted hoagie bun. The only thing that can bring the Bahn Mi down is the pending shutdown of the Sriracha plant.

Other big sellers that OC offers, that I have yet to try, but will be back soon to try are: the Chorizo Mac & Cheese and the Buffalo Chicken Balls. Give them a follow on Twitter, they have a couple engagements left this year, check them out!

Now that I have covered the new kids on the block, I want to give a shoutout to some of the usual suspects too. Indios Carbonsitos has yet another new creation that will change the way that you think about Mexican food AND BBQ. He calls it the "Triple C", but I call it the "Triple 'Si'", because I cannot say "yes" to this burger enough! The Triple C burger is a Chorizo, Chihuahua Cheese, and Chipotle sauce topped burger. This burger has kick, but will not melt your face, perfect for someone like me that cannot handle the hot sauce equivalent of sulfuric acid. This burger is up to snuff with all of the other amazing menu items on this truck, you are doing yourself a disservice if you have not had Adrian's creations yet!

Lastly, my wife (at her ripe young age) had never had a Twinkie (if you can believe that). I knew that for her first Twinkie experience I would have to do it right. Luckily for us Funnel Cake Truck was at this event with his namesake desserts, along with deep fried Snickers, Oreos, Twix, Reece's and... wait for it... Twinkies! We were in luck; instead of suffering through the cheap, dry, plain worn out Twinkie, we got the funnel cake batter coated, deep fried, melty, gooey Twinkie. Top that sucker with a little bit of powdered sugar, chocolate, or cinnamon and you have a damn good way to end a meal (in which you had already eaten way too much anyways). My wife left the truck claiming that she had a new favorite dessert, that it is safe to say that although this was her first Twinkie, it will most definitely not be her last!

I hope that this short list of truck food has somehow, some way, provided you all with something to be thankful for on this day of Thanksgiving! Whether it is for the amazing food, the means by which you have to provide for your family, or for those that have always been there for you. I hope that you and yours have a happy Thanksgiving and safe Turkey Trotting!

In case you were wondering, I will be spending my Thanksgiving at the KC legend, the Golden Ox. I will either see you there, or let you know how it was afterwards. For having lived in KC my entire life, it is a shame that tomorrow/today (depending on how you look at it) will be the first time that I have been to the Golden Ox.

McGonigle's Meat Market

In this cow town that we call Kansas City, McGonigle's Market is revered for the high quality meat cuts that they sell. You will find meat that passes through McGonigle's on the menu at nearly all of the hottest eateries around town (Westport Flea Market, Beer Kitchen, even James Beard award winning Debbie Gold serves it at her Red Door Grill, and that is just the tip of the iceberg). However, in this same cow town (the land of Arthur Bryant's, Jack Stack, Gate's, and Oklahoma Joe's), McGonigle's is probably the most slept on established BBQ place around.

Sure, they are at a bit of a disadvantage because they don't have a typical dining room. They served their smoked meats out of a trailer, that sits in front of their store, before it was fashionable. And if that wasn't enough, there are really only enough parking spaces for about a dozen cars, before you have to get creative. Yet still, it baffles my mind that you do not hear the name McGonigle's on the Travel Channel or even in the heated arguments between friends about where to get the best burnt ends in KC.

As I recently stated in INK Magazine's Summer Dining Guide, McGonigle's is a must eat, especially when you have great weather outside! You walk inside the market, pay for your meal (I suggest to go with whatever the special of the day is). Then you walk outside to the trailer, hand them your receipt, and then they hand you a box/sack of  smoked awesomeness. There are tables set up in the adjacent strip of grass where you can eat beneath the shadows of umbrellas and shade trees. Admittedly, this system may seem a little convoluted to a first timer, but trust me, it's well worth the wait!

You can get anything from ribs to half chickens, and everything in between: brisket sandwiches, burnt end sandwiches, burgers, and of course the best smoked sausage in KC. Despite what the above linked INK dining guide may tell you, I was misquoted in saying that they have the best Italian sausage, the best sausage in town is a casing-less smoked sausage (think long skinny meatloaf) that comes in many different varieties and levels of heat. The sandwiches are piled so high with meat that, no matter how skilled of a sandwich eater you are, you will be unable to fight off the forces of gravity that pry the meat from right between the two buns (so make sure you grab a fork when they hand you your food).

The meats have a great rub caked on them. A rub in which you can taste slight hints of each of the components that you find in a good rub: salty, peppery, garlicy, and a little bit of sweetness, but no one of them overpowers the others. They are served dry but I love to put a couple spoons of the Blues Hog BBQ sauce (that is essentially spiced molasses) on my sandwich, despite the fact that Blues Hog is made in Memphis, and top it off with a couple house made pickle slices. That is a sandwich my friends!

So swing by and enjoy the weather, or grab and go, but no matter what you do: You have to stop sleeping on McGonigle's!

"That sounds great, but where do I get my McGonigle's fix in the winter time?" you ask. Go inside and get it from the deli counter, of course.