Beer School

Happy New Year everyone! Last month (or last year, if you will), before my wife got me on this 21 day diet without sugar (or sweeteners), I got the chance to attend a Beer School event at Barley's Brewhaus OP to celebrate (and coincide with) the Founders Brewing release in Kansas. I love Barley's anyway, but this event was really top notch!

If you have never been to Barley's: There are 99 different beers on tap (including those from sister restaurant 75th St. Brewery), and a few more in bottles. But that is not where the fun stops, Chef Ryan does a great job of comprising a menu that brings together all of your bar favorites with items for the more gastronomically inclined. You can get: a pretty dang good buffalo chicken wrap that has just enough kick to it, pub chips with a bacon and bleu cheese sauce, "haus-made" (get it?) Heritage Farms pork meatballs, and "haus-made" Serrano and Kielbasa sausages. Not a huge bleu cheese fan? First of all, why not? Second of all, you are in luck, because the pub chip sauce was crafted as a bleu cheese dip for non-blue cheese eaters. Also, your opinion of bleu cheese is in stark contrast to mine and Chef Ryan's (and Chef Ryan's 3 year old son's). Chef told me a story of how he walked into his living room one Saturday morning to the sight of his 3 year old eating his bleu cheese wheel (that he brought back from Wisconsin) with a spoon while he was watching cartoons. That kid has amazing taste!

But I digress, this is a post about Knile and Gabe (from Founders) coming to Kansas to teach us about Founders brewery and their beers (they also come around to your tables to talk beer with you in case you have questions and are too shy to ask in front of the whole class).

Beer School is a really awesome event that Barley's puts on periodically. My buddy and I had wanted to go to the Free State Brewery Beer School earlier in the year, but it didn't really work for our schedules. A couple more Beer Schools came and went before the stars aligned and we were able to attend one. But Man, it was worth the wait!

I can't speak to all Beer School events (because I have only been to one), but... This is not really a school  that you go to and learn how to brew beer, but rather learn the story behind that brewery's beer (and try an array of their beers). This particular Beer School was set up to essentially be a brewery tour, where instead of you going to the brewery, they bring the brewery to you. But, if you are a home-brewer (or looking to become one) and searching for inspiration: Fear not, there is inspiration coming for you!

Knile is Founders' local rep. An Irishman that actually knows the cabbie that drove Bourdain through Belfast on his Northern Ireland episode. Gabe is Founders' All-Star brewery tour guide. He took us all the way back to the beginning of Founders. Founders started when a couple buddies quit their soul-sucking corporate jobs and started a brewery. They hired a highly revered local homebrewer as their head brewer (see, I told you homebrewers that I had something good for you, almost every one of you go to sleep at night praying for this to happen to you) and all was well with the world.

Initially brewing unexciting beers that Founders' founders thought would appeal to a wider variety of people, business did not go so well. In fact, business went so "not well" that they were in danger of having the brewery foreclosed on. With this looming foreclosure, they started brewing crazy beers (to fill their own beer cellars with). They did not care if anyone else liked these beers, they were only brewing them for themselves. The funny thing is that these crazy beers really caught on, sales went through the roof, and the business was saved. One of their most popular beers, "Dirty Bastard", is even a tribute to the bankers (dirty bastards) that were going to take their brewery from them.

I bet that if you cut Gabe open, he would bleed Red's Rye (discussed below). His family is Founders through and through, his wife works in the tasting room and legend has it that she can make even the most macho men feel inept about the level of spiciness that they can stomach. The legend, as Gabe tells it:

Founders occasionally brews spicy chili beers (Most recently: Mango Magnifico) and Gabe's wife just so happens to love them.
Man at Table of Guests: I would like the chili beer
Gabe's Wife: That beer is really spicy, let me bring you a sample of that before I pour you a full pint.
MATOG: Why, do you not think I can handle that beer?
GW: No, it's not that, I just want you to try it before I pour you a full pint.
MATOG: I am man enough to handle it
GW: Sir, I believe you, but please let me bring you a sample first.
MATOG: No, just bring me a pint of it.

Gabe's wife obliged and when coming back around to check on the table some time later she noticed that the beer had barely been touched. She asked if everything was alright. The man wanted to send the beer back, she refused by saying that she begged him to take a sample first and that he wouldn't take it. When he realized that she wouldn't take it back he claimed that he bought her a beer. After going and clocking out (because you cannot drink on the job), she came back and chugged the beer right in his face!

Fast forward a couple years to the birth of their first child. Gabe and his wife check in to the hospital, get to their room, and then a woman that had been sitting at the chili beer table walks into the room. That woman was their labor and delivery nurse and remembered Mrs. Gabe from the aforementioned encounter. I can only assume that the L&D nurse did not try to push the drugs (if they were not requested) after seeing Mrs. Gabe's pain tolerance. Talk about your all-time epic stories!


But back to the beer. We were set to sample 5 of their beers:

Centennial IPA - Pretty self explanatory: IPA brewed with only Centennial hops. Floral, not bitter, strong IPA.
Porter - Again, pretty self explanatory: A porter (of the sweet and hoppy variety).
Breakfast Stout - Double chocolate, double coffee, double oatmeal stout. So good!
Dirty Bastard - Malt forward beer with hops and slight smoke (not enough to taste like the "hot dog" beer that my buddies and I once brewed though, which is a very good thing!)
Red's Rye - A red rye IPA. A spicy, hoppy, red beer.

But that was not all. They also brought the ever-so-hard-to-obtain KBS for us to sample! People wait in line for days for a chance to buy KBS, it's release is like a beer Black Friday. So you can imagine the smiles on our faces when they busted that out, it was like Beer Christmas! For those that don't know: KBS is a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel aged Breakfast Stout. It is consistently rated in the top 5 beers on both RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com. Simple the best barrel aged beer that I have ever experienced.

That was such a cool surprise, for them to bring the KBS. And that really sumarizes my Beer School experience: Not exactly what I expected to get (although I didn't really know what to expect either), but a pleasant surprise. It has also increased the amount of Founders beer that I buy, by quite a bit.

Cheers!

Atole Ice Cream

Every month or so, a group of current and former co-workers of mine go to lunch to catch up on life, work, and college athletics. We always try to pick somewhere local and new to at least half of the group. Our most recent lunch landed us in the dining room of Frida's Contemporary Mexican Cuisine.

Frida's Contemporary Mexican Cuisine is aptly named. Both the ambiance of the dining room and the food presentation are unmistakably contemporary, which I did enjoy. My personal favorite touch was the Agave plant painting that you can see in the picture below, on the right side of the photo. The presentation is nice, but most important to me is the flavour of the food. 

Frida's tacos came highly recommended by an attendee's wife. She claims that they are the best tacos ever. I have to respectfully disagree. However, I have stated many times that my frame of reference is much different than most Gringos, I have had some great tacos in my day! The tacos at Frida's were street style and were not bad, just not the best I have had. If I go back again, I will probably get the Tamal that is stuffed with goat cheese and poblano pepper. This is what my gut told me to order in the first place, but I mistakenly went against it.

Right now, you are probably asking yourself "Where is the awesomeness that he always writes about?", hold on baby birds, I'll feed you. The awesomeness at Frida's comes in the form of a happy accident. As it was told to me, this dessert was created completely by accident. Frida's used to (and may still upon special request) serve Atole, which is a masa based drink that is a sort of Mexican cinnamony-hot chocolate. One night they accidentally froze the Atole mixture and the result was a wonderful ice cream-like substance. Everyone that tried the masa based ice cream loved it, so Frida's began serving it as its own menu item. The frozen Atole comes sprinkled with cinnamon & nuts and drizzled with house-made goat's milk caramel. This dessert is out of this world! I highly recommend a trip to Frida's, even if you are a taco snob like myself, solely for the frozen Atole! You will not regret it!

Ethnic Lunch Spots on Quivira

Anyone who lives or works in the South KC/Overland Park area knows all too well that it very difficult to find good authentic ethnic eats in the area (no, Jose Pepper's and Pei Wei do not count!). As someone who works in South KC, I am always eager to try new authentic ethnic eateries when someone tells me about them. I have done a blog post on the Caspian Bistro already, and am always looking for good (reasonably priced, if possible) ethnic food in the Southland.

All of that being said, this post is about two awesome ethnic eateries in the Southland: El Fogon (Mexican Deli & Taqueria) and Choga (Korean).

First, we will visit Choga, an authentic Korean restaurant. I have never been to Korea, but the food is just like the food that the grandmother of one of my childhood friends always made for us. It also came highly recommended by a Malaysian coworker of mine, and when we got there we ran into a number of Korean co-workers. All of that being said, I am fairly confident in labeling it authentic without ever stepping foot on the continent of Asia.

The lunch menu at Choga offers smaller portions than their dinner menu, at more lunch friendly prices. I went with the Yang Nyum Kalbi (grilled beef short ribs marinated in Kalbi sauce), as it came highly recommended. The short ribs came off of the bone (as shown in the photo in the lower right) and they were quite tender and very tasty. It may not appear that there is much meat on the tray, but the serving size is actually quite satisfying. I would definitely recommend this to someone going to Choga.

Every lunch comes with: Kimchi, steamed white rice, house salad, Japchae, fresh fruit, and two pan fried beef dumplings. The Kimchi (traditional Korean, fermented cabage) was not quite as spicy as I am used to, but still had very good flavour. It was also slightly different that all sides came on your tray, except the Kimchi, that came on one dish for the whole table (but sharing is the Korean way). The steamed rice was perfectly sticky-icky. The house salad was made with fresh greens and a nicely flavoured vinaigrette. The Japchae (stir fried sweet potato noodles) was new to me and did not taste anything like sweet potato, as I had expected, but was more like a traditional rice noodle that had some added pigment. The fresh fruit that came with my lunch was watermelon, as it was in season at the time. The two pan fried beef dumplings were fantastic.

My coworker had been to Choga for dinner and was telling us about the newly installed in-table grills and vent hoods, the concept of this is somewhat lost on me, I believe it is something you have to experience to fully understand. It sounds like a Korean hybrid of hibachi and fondue, I will have to go sometime for dinner to get a better understanding of it. I will surely post pictures after I do, but as you can see, they are brand spanking new.

Secondly, El Fogon, a self titled "Mexican Deli and Taqueria". El Fogon has authentic Mexican fare, I can attest to the authenticity of El Fogon. They serve street tacos, burritos, tortas, authentic Mexican desserts, and authentic Mexican bebidas (drinks, such as jamaica and horchata). We all know that I have an unhealthy love affair with authentic Mexican street food.

El Fogon is a deli style restaurant, in that you walk in and walk up to the counter to place your order. I loved the Mexican decor, Spanish music playing over the speakers, and soccer on the TV. It seems like it is a family operation and the whole menu looked great! I went with the tacos, they offered 5 different varieties (Carne, Pollo, Chorizo, Barbacoa, and Al Pastor), and at only $1.50 each I figured I could afford to try them all. The tacos were very good, not the best I ever had, but that is not at all an indictment on the tacos and more of a statement of the amazing tacos that I have had in my life.

The tacos came bare, they have a table of condiments that allows you can put what you want on them, I went with the traditional Mexican fixins (cilantro, onion, and squeezed lime, as if there were any other way to eat a taco). The corn tortillas (the only tortillas to have, in my opinion) were hand pressed and delicious. You can always tell if a tortilla is hand-pressed or made on an assembly line by the markings on the tortilla itself, not to mention the difference in taste (those who don't like corn tortillas are probably just forming their opinions after trying store bought corn tortillas). Anyways, on to the taco meats; all of the meats were solid options, but the Chorizo had to be my favorite. This is odd, because Chorizo is not usually my favorite street taco meat, but El Fogon's Chorizo is delightful! I do love salsa verde on my tacos, El Fogon's salsa verde had good taste (however, if you are a major heat seeker, you may want to try another salsa on your tacos, but the verde is good for me).

I had the Jamaica, a traditional Mexican drink made from the leaves of the Hibiscus flower, to go with my tacos. It was a tad sweet for my taste, but was the closest to the Jamaica that I had in Mexico that I have been able to find this side of the border. This is most certainly not the last lunch I will have at El Fogon!