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!

El Patron

I typically do not frequent Mexican restaurants that are primarily either marketed by or frequented by gringos. It is not that those Mexican restaurants are not or cannot be good, it is just not the type of Mexican restaurants that I am looking for. When El Patron was first mentioned to me, it was by white people from Leawood, which immediately raised a red flag with me. Thus I continued to inaccurately judge El Patron, until a couple family members came in town from California and wanted to go out to dinner. We thought it would be the perfect mix of authenticity (as it IS located on SW BLVD after-all) and upper-scale atmosphere (as heard from the Leawood reco).

When we walked into El Patron, it was indeed filled with gringos, but one look at the menu dispelled any thoughts that I may have had of unauthenticity at El Patron. Skimming through the menu that is occupied by a plethora of entrees that contain Nopales (cactus) immediately made me a fan El Patron. I was first introduced to Nopales as a child, by immigrant farm workers who ate grilled Nopales (by itself) on homemade corn tortillas, lets just say I had to try El Patron's crack at this classic Mexican food!

First, we ordered drinks, all of which were great. The Margarita was an obvious choice, and it was good. However the game changer was a house cocktail, the coconut mojito. The coconut mojito had the mintiness of your standard mojito with the creaminess of the coconut, it was really fantastic, we will be ordering this again during our next trip to El Patron.

The chips and salsa (which are in no way shape or form a reason to go, or not to go to a Mexican restaurant) were very good. The chips taste homemade, but are not. The chips come with two different salsas: mild and spicy. Both salsas are very good.

The entrees: My wife indulged in her all time favorite Mexican dish, the Tacos Marineros (fish tacos). She was gracious enough to let me have a couple bites and it was divine. The "lightly breaded" tilapia was truly lightly breaded, making these tacos a great lighter meal option. The avocado, squeezed lime, and mango salsa combine with the tilapia for a truly great fish taco.

I went with the Arrachera con Nopales (skirt steak with cactus). The grilled skirt steak was just like the carne asada that my friend's mother used to make. The nopales were tender and delicioso! The beans and rice (that I normally hate as most restaurants) were not just edible, but actually good. The meal was tied together by a chile toreado, just like those served with my favorite gas station tacos in Dallas.

For the birthday of one of our group members, we got a sopapilla. The sopapilla was awesome! It came topped with chocolate, whipped cream, and fried ice cream. Pretty much everything sweet and delicious (and equally terrible for you) all on one plate.

El Patron is a fantastic little place on the boulevard and we will definitely be back!
 

Tamale Wizard

After having the BBQ tamale and strawberry pecan tamale from Indios Carbonsitos, I was hungry for more unique tamales. When I first heard of Tamale Wizard and saw the menu, I thought it would be a must stop on my tour of authentic Mexican joints. Man, was I surprised when I walked in the door and saw a bunch of Gringos behind the counter! I thought I had just been dooped, but after talking to the guys, they are just a bunch of Gringos that share my extreme affinity toward Mexican food (but are much better at making it than I am).

A little background on the culinary genious that is Tamale Wizard. The propriator's son told us that he (the son) learned how to make tamales by cooking with his ex-girlfriend's family. His dad owned a food cart and began letting him sell his interesting takes on this Mexican classic. They got started as a food cart, then a food truck, now a restaurant. The rest, as they say, is history.

What you see to your right is as follows:

Mallory's plate (top of photo): black beans, green chile and cheese tamale (topped with jalapeno lime salsa), smoked pork tamale (topped with mango banana salsa).

John's plate (bottom of photo): black beans, smoked pork tamale (topped with mellow habanero salsa), sweet potato and black bean tamale (no salsa), and green chile and cheese tamale (topped with jalapeno lime salsa).

All of the food was amazing! I was a bit hesitant to try the sweet potato and black bean tamale, even though I pretty much love everything that is made with sweet potatoes blindly, I just didn't know how it would work as a tamale. I was pleasantly surprised with it, as we both agree that it was far and away the best tamale that we tried. The mellow habanero salsa was very good, it had the flavor of the habanero, but is very mellow, as the name states. The best salsa was the mango banana. I am just a sucker for that sweet flavor on the spicy tamale, I guess that is what growing up around KC BBQ has done to me.

We walked in late on a Friday night and they were sold out of almost everything. Most people would have been offended by this, but I take that as a sign that they have good food. I would much rather have food from a restaurant that is nearly sold out over a restaurant that has not sold a thing.

One big takeaway that I got from our visit to Tamale Wizard (aside from noting that they had a full collection of Mexican drinks and Boulevard beers) was that they have multiple vegetarian menu items. I am not a vegatarian, nor do I care if a place has vegatarian options ("why then would you notice that?" you ask?). I noticed that the black beans, sweet potato and black bean tamale, and green chile and cheese tamales were all vegetarian selections because that means that they were able to make these delicious tamales while making them slightly more healthy by omiting the lard that you get in a lot of tamales.

 

El Pollo Rey

El Pollo Rey has two items on the menu: whole chicken and half chicken. They know what they do and they do it right! The chickens are cooked whole, on a wood fire grill, then quartered upon order. Your half/whole chicken comes with tortillas, rice, beans, grilled onions, and salsa. The general idea is to separate the chicken from the bone and make wonderful grilled chicken tacos with it.

The chicken is out of this world! The chicken is flavored with an understated delicious rub. It is the second best chicken I have had in my life, second only to my dad's BBQ grilled chicken with his homemade sauce. The tortillas are good, but not great. They are fresh, but the tortillas are not the reason you're going there to begin with. The rice is solid, pretty much your standard Mexican rice. The salsa has the look and consistency of applesauce, and is delicious! Which is saying a lot, coming from a salsa snob like myself. The beans had little slices of Mexican hot dog in it. I was not a huge fan of the chunk of chicken fat in my beans, I am not a fan of places that put pork fat in beans either, but the flavor of the beans was incredible. Its hard to argue with results.

When you drive by El Pollo Rey, you can smell the wood smoke coming from the stack. They used to be located in an old hole in the wall store front, but have recently upgraded to an old Dairy Queen building. More capacity = more delicious chicken. I recommend this place to anyone looking for some great chicken or anything slightly outside the box. Plus you can't beat all of that food for just $6.50 per half chicken order.

Los Alamos Market y Cocina

I ride my bike by Los Alamos Market y Cocina all the time and see the interesting metal sculptures outside. They have little metal men in sorbreros, metal flowers, chimineas, and usually pinatas too. They have a board out with the daily specials on it (It's usually tamales). I have always wanted to stop in and try it, but they close a little early, so by the time I am ready for dinner they are closed. I was finally able to give it a try one weekend that I had a slow saturday and it was everything that I had hoped for.

Just looking at the outside of the market and restaurant, you can tell that they served authentic Mexican food inside. Upon entering, you see the glass door to the beer cooler straight ahead, 2 or 3 aisles of Mexican specialty food items to your left, and a counter to your right. I asked the man behind the counter where I placed my order, he pointed me to the back. When I got to the back, I saw 6 hispanic women cooking, laughing, and just enjoying making good food. The woman that took my order was very helpful, it took me a minute to decide, but she was very patient. I finally decided on the Tamales El Jefe. That is beef tamales covered in more beef chunks and some kind of Mexican gravy (for lack of a better comparison). It came with beans and rice and the lady told me that I could go get whatever I wanted to drink out of the cooler. I chose a grapfruit Jarritos (which is my favorite flavor of Jarritos) and it went perfectly with the tamales el jefe (it really goes perfectly with everything). Sitting at the tables with the Mexican themed tables cloths, the pinatas hanging from the ceiling, and watching the cooks work thier magic had the perfect ambiance to accompany my Mexican meal. As I was finishing my meal, all of the lights went out because they had overloaded the breaker, it was just like Mexico! When the lights went out, one of the regulars at an adjacent table yelled out "Everything's free!", everyone had a good laugh. They even poked fun at the young man who went downstairs to flip the breaker, making sure to ask him if he was scared before he went down. I had a great time and will definately be going back!