Ireland and Scotland

The trip (at least to the former of the two places) that some Catholic Irish-Americans would categorize as more of a pilgrimage than a vacation (or holiday, if you will). I am just Heinz 57 enough to treat it as much more recreational, educational, and culinarily based than as a religious experience. However, I want to be careful to not understate the importance of what I experienced in either place. There is so much history on that side of the pond. I know that I can not come close to understanding it all, given the short time that we were over there. Nor can I even relay 100% of the little bit that I know to you, but I will do the best that I can (as I sit here drinking the Scotch that I brought back from Scotland, for inspiration).

I don't know how you all get pumped up for a holiday (yes, we will be using as much of the Queen's English as possible today, so prepare yourself for that and turn away if you cannot cope), but I like to have a little pre-holiday holiday. Since there are no direct flights from KC to Dublin (the first stop on our journey) and connections always suck, we used some Southwest points to fly to Chicago (where we were able to find a direct flight to Dublin) and stay a night before our long transatlantic haul. While we were in Chicago we met up with some friends for some late night food and drinks but made sure to get to bed early enough to get in an AM workout since we are training for the Kansas City Triathlon (as you know, I love me some triathlons).

Cinnamon sugar and Reece's minis

After our AM workout, my craving for street food kicked in and we headed over to Beaver's Donuts for a breakfast of champions. Amazing mini donuts, made fresh on the truck, and Cuban coffee! If you are ever in Chicago, make sure not to skip out on this one. But enough about Chicago, this post (that is already shaping up to be pretty long and we haven't even gotten to the point yet) is about the Celtic nations.

Fast forward (through an awesome airport dinner at Tortas Frontera and a long red-eye flight) to the next day, our arrival in Dublin. The first thing that we experienced after we got off the plane confirmed one of the most common stereotypes about Dubliners: They are some of the friendliest people that you will ever meet! The first friend we made in Dublin was Freddy, a cab driver. Freddy didn't just take us to our hotel; he answered any questions that we asked, told us about any historical buildings that we passed, and when he dropped us off he gave us his cell number and told us to call him 24/7 if we needed anything whether it be a ride or a restaurant recommendation. After helping us with our bags he began to cut up with the head bellman at the hotel, you can tell that Freddy makes his rounds, but this is also just how people are there! This is not just a cab driver putting on a nice face for customers, they get the fare either way, they do not have to say anything to you (In Scotland you will find a good mix of those that do and those that don't want to talk, but in Ireland we did not have a cab driver that was not friendly, no matter the time of day).

My favorite Freddy story came when we were inquiring about home values on the particular street that we were on. While explaining that home prices were ridiculously low because of Ireland's recent recession, he did take time to point out that all of the row homes on that street had doors that were painted different colours. He informed us that this tradition dated back to the Victorian era in Ireland. Ireland was still under English rule when Queen Victoria died and when the Royal Family asked that everyone paint their doors black in mourning... ... the Irish decided to paint the doors yellow, red, blue, green, or whatever colour they felt like. This tradition still stands today.

I believe that I have said it before, but if I haven't, I will say it now: When we travel to places, we do not like to do pre-scheduled tours and such, we like to be on our independent traveler tip. With that, we are free to come and go as we please and fill our days with what we want to do. So we appreciate when cab drivers are informative. We also appreciate not being stuck on a motorcoach all week, but there are some further-out and more touristy places that you may want to hop on a coach for a day simply because it is easier and more informative than driving yourself. SIDE NOTE: I strongly recommend against renting a car unless you REALLY want to drive to each little town on the coast and travel on your own schedule. I had always told myself that driving on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the road would be pretty easy, but it is hard to even remember which way to look when you are crossing the street since the US street system is so ingrained in our brains. It is best to leave the driving to the professionals. Don't be that tourist that causes a wreck and holds up traffic!

Cliffs of Moher

We did choose to take a day trip on a motorcoach to the Cliffs of Moher, which was gorgeous! Standing 214 meters (or over 700 feet) tall, the cliffs are not just something impressive to look at. They are like a caricature of the Irish weather and landscape. The grass is as green as the Irish countryside. The towering cliffs, as seen from the ocean, remind you of the stone fences that stand throughout the Irish countryside (particularly in County Galway, which I can talk about next). And the weather can cycle through anything that it has in its repertoire within seconds. It can be foggy one minute, raining the next, and then clear out as soon as it came on. We went through about 3 full revolutions of that rotation in the hour that we were there. The winds blow hard enough that they could turn an elephant into a kite. Which makes it even more mind-boggling why would-be Darwin award recipients (mostly dumb college-aged kids) would hop the stone fence, that has been erected to protect visitors from the edge of the cliffs, just to get a picture of themselves a few feet closer to the edge. There is even a sign to memorialize all of those that have lost their lives at the cliffs. I beg you, if you ever find yourself at the Cliffs of Moher, please do not be these people!

As promised above: The stone walls/fences. I will not say that there are none, because surely there are, but I did not see any plain wooden or chain linked fences during our time in Ireland. All of the fences that we saw were made of stone. Most of them date back to the 1840s, when the modern farming practices took over. They divided up the land and that is how it is still divided today. However, those are not the only stone fences that you see, there is a much deeper history than that. Pre-historic inhabitants built stone fences as far back as 5000 years ago (the age was calculated by the depth of the fence that was burried in peat, which grows at a rate of 12 inches per thousand years) and during the great potato famine (when many Irish-Americans emigrated to the US) the British made the Irish build a wall to get rations of food. You can tell pre-historic fences by their construction, there is no mortar covering the top and the stones are arranged in a way that leaves wind holes in the fence so that the wind does not knock it over. You can also tell the fence that was subsidized by the Brits (because they were being pressured by the international community to help the Irish out, but were unwilling to give them something for nothing, so they made them build a wall to nowhere), as these walls go over hills in a nonsensical routing that looks like it just goes on for days. The British wall (as I will call it here) is in stark contrast with the neatly arranged farm walls, you will know it when you see it.

Other things that you will notice as you travel through the Irish countryside (and the Scottish as well) is that the road signs are in two languages. One is English, the other is Gaelic (pronounced "Gay-lick" in Ireland and "Gah-lick" in Scotland, but the Irish people will call their form of Gaelic "Irish"). The two languages are not the same, but they are similar. They have some of the same words and phrases, but the pronunciation is a bit different. I actually read an article in the paper, while we were in Ireland, about whether continuing to require Irish as a subject for all primary school students was a good idea or not?

Irish Coffees

It was in Doolin, a small town near the Cliffs of Moher, that we had the best fish and chips of the entire trip (and we had some excellent fish and chips all over both islands). O'Connor's is a 300 year old pub that we stopped into just after visiting the cliffs on a reco from our driver Ray (another awesome Irishman). After having spent the day riding across the island, in fairy forts (the birthplace of the Leprechaun), visiting St. Bridgit's church (whom we will talk more about later), and trying not to get blown off the Cliffs of Moher, I was so ravenous that all of my sense had escaped me and I forgot to take a photo of the most amazing fish and chips ever! My apologies! I did however get a picture of the damn good Irish Coffee that O'Connor's serves.

Guinness @ Guinness

You may remember me teaching you how to make real Irish Coffee here. We indulged in plenty of Irish Coffees over the few days that we spent in Ireland!

Irish Coffees were not the only alcoholic beverages that we partook in while in Ireland. We also went to St. James' Gate, or the Guinness Storehouse as it is better known. We had heard that Guinness is better in Ireland than in the US, like a lot better, and had always believed that it would be, but words cannot describe how much better Guinness is in Ireland than it is in the US. They teach you how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness, then you get to drink the pint that you poured while looking over the entire city of Dublin. Whether you are a Guinness homer or not (and I am not), it is really breathtaking what you can see up there!

Panorama of the Gravity Bar at Guinness

Kilmainham

"Guinness's", as the locals call it (I also believe that this could possibly be the origin of "Walmart's" and "Target's"), is not the only place that you need to see while you are staying in Dublin. Kilmainham Gaol (or "Jail" for those that are not hip to Irish pronunciations) is where you can learn more about the fighting between the British and the Irish that I mentioned earlier between the painted doors and the "fence to nowhere", and the political prisoners of those rebellions. If you tour the gaol, you will also easily see how Notre Dame got the nickname "Fighting Irish".

Dublin is a pretty small city, it is very walkable. If your hotel is centrally located (like ours was), it is easy to walk to Grafton Street, "Guinness's", Jameson, Kilmainham, and any other touristy spot that you may want to see. One thing that you may be told, when visiting Dublin, is that "3 days is more than enough to see everything that you want to see". We were told this by more than a couple people and it could not be farther from the truth! True, 3 days is more than enough time to see all of the touristy things that you may want to see. However, 3 days is not nearly enough time to see all of the pubs, enjoy all of the food, and meet all of the people that you will want to.

Speaking of trying all of the food (since this is technically still a food blog, I guess, for now), I had a list of foods that I wanted to try in Ireland and Scotland. It was not an extremely long list, but it was important to me. Here it is: In Ireland I really wanted to try black pudding and white pudding (preferably part of a full Irish breakfast). In Scotland I felt like I owed it to myself to try Haggis. I also knew that both places have extremely rich fishing grounds and wanted to find some fresh seafood (like really fresh).

Irish Breakfast

I had expected black and white pudding to be sausage like, because the makings of black pudding are very similar to blood sausage and the makings of white pudding are similar to black pudding but using fat instead of blood. I did not know how off the mark I was. I personally did not think that either pudding reminded me of sausage. They tasted instead of predominantly the barley that comprised them with the blood and fat respectively acting as little more than a binding and flavouring agent. They were both seasoned with savoury spices and tasted delicious! They went perfectly with the rest of the Full Irish Breakfast (pictured to the right). I will speak more about Haggis when I get to the Scotland part of the trip (if you are still reading by that point).

A short note about "bacon" in Scotland and Ireland: When we think of bacon in the US, we think of belly bacon. When they think of bacon, more often than not, they are thinking back bacon. You can get belly bacon over there, but it is not as popular.

Mussels and other pub fare

I also made sure to try pub stew. Each traditional Irish pub has their own unique recipe of stew. Most variations involve at least a little Guinness and/or beef, but some do not. Fish and chips was the main dish that everyone chose to order while in Ireland, but fresh mussels were excellent as well.

If you get a scampi (small lobster native to the Irish Sea and other waters around these parts) in a seafood stew, do yourself a favour and suck the head (especially if you have never done this). The most tender (almost fall apart in your mouth tender) and delicious meat is in the head. It may be a bit weird at first, and people may look at you, but you will be happy you did. And if people look at you for something like this, then they obviously don't know the best way to eat food, so disregard their opinion anyways.

To chase down your meal, as an appetizer to it, or both, you will probably want a fermented beverage. Since we have already been over Irish Coffees I will skip straight ahead to the beers while noting that if you are a fan of Irish whiskeys that you probably already know more than I would type here about them anyways. If you do not know anything about Irish whiskeys, plan a trip to Ireland and find out about them. But back on task with the beers: You know about Guinness (or at least you should) but you should also know that Ireland has many more beers that are worth trying besides just "the dark stuff".

There are a lot of Irish beers that we have in the US that I expected to see more of in Ireland. For instance Murphy's (which I later found out is pretty much isolated to County Cork). But surprisingly enough, the most common beer in the pubs (excluding Guinness) was Heineken. Heineken was then followed by a slew of other lagers from Holland, the US, and so on. You will occasionally find a Smithwick's but anything past that is like pulling teeth. This boggled my mind that bars that I frequent in the US will have more Irish beers available than the pubs in Dublin. I think that a lot of this has to do with money, politics, and... Big Brother trying to keep the little man down.

Galway Bay Brewery glass

The Irish are slowly starting to find out that there are beers out there with taste to them. Luckily, our hotel was situated atop one of a very few craft beer bars in Ireland, Alfie Burns (named after the famous Irishman). The restaurant is owned by the Galway Bay Brewing Company, one of the dozen or so craft breweries that have begun to teach Irelandians about craft beer. The craft beer scene in Ireland really didn't start to boom until about 3 years ago, long after the craft beer movement in the US and other countries was well on its way. Galway Bay owns a few other gastropubs, including the Brew Dock, that as the name suggests is right by the dock.

To confirm another stereotype about Ireland, we made friends or had conversation with complete strangers at almost every bar or pub that we sat down in. The most notable of which were a couple members of the Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society! Look them up if you are ever in Dublin. Check them out here. Or contact them and offer to send them some craft beer that they cannot get over there, they are thirsty for more flavour! We sat and shot the breeze with them all night, they are awesome (uber American word used intentionally here) people!

Other conversations of note: Our new friends from the Dublin Ladies Craft Beer Society informed us that St. Bridgit (whom you may remember from visiting her church earlier and who was actually the first missionary to Ireland, even before St. Patrick) is the patron saint of brewing and that she had a vision that she would have a place in Heaven next to a lake of eternal beer (that she would be serving to everyone).

For those hesitant to visit Ireland (disclaimer: this disclaimer does not apply to Belfast and Northern Ireland), Ireland is an extremely safe country and you can walk anywhere at any time of day and feel safe. You have to be smart about your belongings, do not leave your stuff laying on the bar and go to the toilet. Your things will grow legs and walk off, but those are things that you would not do at home either!

Even the buildings wear green on St. Patrick;s Day

Dubliners were extremely apologetic about the actions of those around the city, as we were there over St. Patrick's Day (St. Patrick was actually quite different from the man that you hear about in the legends, but that is a story for another day). The friendly, fun-loving people that they are have no tolerance for people that get out of control. Don't get me wrong, it is almost expected that you will drink while you are in Ireland, you will probably be encouraged to drink a lot, but you are to hold your liquor! They also warned that it is hard to find a Dubliner in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day, which I found to be not true. The influx of so many French, German, and American tourists does inflate the city's population and dilute the Dubliners, but they are still there. Despite all of the pre-apologies and pre-warnings we did not see a single Irishman get out of hand or be the slightest bit rude! The only rude people we really encountered were French, and after discussing this with a friend that we made at Alfie's it was confirmed that French people are not just assholes in their own country, they are assholes in everyone's country (especially when they are on holiday). The Dublin parade saw much less drunken debauchery than even the Kansas City parade did this year. A drunken idiot punched a police horse at the Kansas City parade this year, for crying out loud!

Other good food finds (on the fresh seafood front): We took the train from Dublin out to a suburb called Dalkey. We went looking for fresh seafood, but also found a lovely little town and an island with history that is larger than it's square footage. My favorite Irish-American Chef Shaun told me that if we had time to make it to Dalkey that we had to check out Ouzos, a restaurant that he used to work in. Ouzos was founded to remedy the inability of Dubliners to get fresh seafood.

Ouzos bread pudding

Once upon a time, it was impossibly to get fresh seafood in Dublin. All seafood was caught in Ireland, shipped to be processed in France, and then shipped back. The owners of Ouzos decided that was not good enough. They could not purchase from any of the commercial fisherman, as the fisherman could not break their existing contracts with the seafood processes. So what does a restaurant owner do when they want fresh seafood and cannot get it? They buy their own boat, of course! Not only does Ouzos serve some of the freshest seafood that you will find, but they have some of the best seafood chowder as well (not to mention the second best bread pudding that I have ever had, second only to Chef Shaun's)! The back of the menu will even tell you about the every day grind of being an Ouzos "fishing-boat captain" (in my Forrest Gump voice).

The only bad part, and I mean the ONLY bad part, about going to Ireland over St. Patrick's Day was that you cannot get any NCAA Tournament games over there. Not even on an app on your phone, the app can tell from your IP address that you are not in the US (trust me, I tried). However, you can find other sports to entertain you while you are there. They play futbol, but it is not nearly as big as it is in England and other countries. The two biggest sports in Ireland are Rugby and Hurling. We were actually fortunate enough to be there during their Rugby match against France in which they sealed their 6 Nations Championship. It was pretty cool! People were walking down the street requesting high fives for Ireland rugby (and who am I to deny someone a high five?). But when we got to Scotland (another member of the 'six nations'), without even asking, we were informed that no one wanted to talk about rugby.

I guess this is as good of time as any to make our transition over to Scotland. One the whole, Scotland was even prettier than Ireland, albeit less friendly (as mentioned about the cabbies above).

We flew from Dublin to Edinburgh (pronounced "Edinboro"). Edinburgh was probably the most beautiful city that I have ever seen! The "new" buildings in the city centre were built in the 1800s, the old ones were built in the 1600s and 1700s. Sadly, a lot of the storefronts on the ground floors of these buildings have been commercialized and turned into Gap, H&M, and Nike stores, but some of them still house locally owned restaurants and traditional Scottish tailors.

On that note, some of you will be excited to know that the hipster movement has made it across the pond (for which I blame every last one of you that wears glasses with no lenses in them). We ate at this nice little hipster restaurant that was situated between the Edinburgh Castle and the university (righteous place for a hipster restaurant, right?). This was where I experienced my first taste of haggis.

Haggis and Mash

One might assume that haggis has some sort of foul odor or game-y taste to it by all of the disgusted faces that you get from culinary hard hitters when you mention it. Even a good chef friend of mine described haggis as an acquired taste that you can get used to, but never really enjoy. This reaction seems to be reasonable given the ingredients of haggis, but I have eaten street tripe in Mexico after all, so I figured "what the hey?". I was pleasantly surprised to find that haggis was not only absent of any foul taste or odor, but was downright good. I could not believe it! I even tried it another morning, for breakfast, just to confirm that I didn't just get a batch of good-tasting faux haggis. It was confirmed. My reco: Do not shy away from haggis, embrace it. It tastes like any other well seasoned minced meat.

View from our room in The Caledonian

After our hipster haggis, we found a food cart selling Brazilian crepes. We were not in Brazil, but I cannot pass up cart food of any kind (ever), and our crepe was delicious!

After all of this eating we retired to our hotel (The Caledonian) that happened to have a pretty sweet view of the Edinburgh Castle! This was probably the nicest, and most beautiful, hotel I have ever stayed in. It is an old train station turned hotel. They even brought us wine and fruit in the evening to enjoy the lit up view of the castle with.

The other big food item that I had in Scotland was a Scottish Breakfast. It is similar to the Irish Breakfast in some ways, but different in others. Where the Irish Breakfast comes with mushrooms, the Scottish Breakfast comes with beans. The Scottish Breakfast also comes with a potato scone (which tastes like the lovechild of a pancake and a pita bread). The Scottish Breakfast is very good, but the Irish Breakfast is the clear winner in this battle!

The next day we visited the Edinburgh Castle. The views were awe-inspiring! If you ever get a chance to visit Edinburgh, the castle is a must.

Just one wall of the hallway that is the world's largest
Scotch whiskey collection

And just outside of the castle, you will find the Scotch Whiskey Experience where you learn about the 4 primary regions in which Scotch whiskey is produced and sample whiskeys from those 4 regions (as well as a blend). You learn about the stereotypical tastes that you will find in Lowland (citrus), Highland (floral), Speyside (fruit), and Islay (peat) Scotches. I learned that I prefer the Lowland Scotches, of which I brought home a litre of Auchentoshan. I also learned that Lowland whiskeys are not the most popular, which does not help my hipster score (but I like it because I like it, not like it because it is unpopular). Scotches are aged in breathable barrels and take on the flavours of the elements that are in nature around them. The Scotch Whiskey Experience is also home to the largest Scotch collection in the world.

Another trend in Scotch is to age in multiple barrels, of different wood types, rather than aging them for longer. This results in younger Scotches with wider flavour profiles. Old Scotches are still popular with the old guard, but you will see more and more of the new as well.

Doubletree Dundee

After leaving Edinburgh, we took the train north to Dundee. The ScotRail, by the way, kicks the CTA that we took to the O'Hare airport, in Chicago, in the giblets! ScotRail trains are new, clean, have free WiFi, and have seats with good lumbar support. How much more could you ask for?

Another question you may get if you are a tourist staying in Dundee is "You must have family there, otherwise I cannot imagine why you would stay there.". Not so! We were just using Hilton points to pay for our hotels and the Dundee Doubletree was a nice, conveniently located hotel that is close to a train station that you can use to take a day trip to Loch Ness. It's a nice town and a nice hotel. But that is not all. Dundee is only a 20 minute ride from St. Andrew's golf course, the birthplace of golf! If you are into that sort of thing. I personally am not, but I know that a lot of people are.

One of my favorite things that we did in Scotland was take the day trip up to Inverness (and subsequently Loch Ness). The town is amazing! There is a chocolatier called So Coco that makes the best hot chocolate (which you will probably need, FYI) and pretty good food too. It is even better than the hot chocolate that we had at Coolhaus, in New York. There are numerous local restaurants that line the river that will serve you some of Scotland's best seafood. And then there is Loch Ness!

Loch Ness

Loch Ness is the largest loch in Scotland, by volume (not by surface area, and not the deepest, but the most voluminous). Perhaps you have heard of it, as it is the home of the fabled Loch Ness Monster (although we should discuss the term "monster" since she has not killed anyone in almost 1450 years, when St. Columba went out and prayed over her, as our tour guide informed us). We went out on the loch and then to another castle before heading back into Inverness just in time for another So Coco hot chocolate before we had to catch our train back to Dundee.

"Sheeps"

You see plenty of sheep on the train ride. Some of those sheep will end up in Shepard's Pie, which is still very popular over there and very delicious. Anther thing that you will find in Great Britain (while it is still called that, as Scotland will be voting for it's independence later this year, should that be the popular selection) is high tea. Yes, that is still a thing. Yes, they take it very seriously. Yes, you get a shortbread cookie with it.

The food we missed out on: In Scotland I had also wanted to try a fried Mars bar and a Scotch Egg. We had to skip out before we got to those things, but both are available at Scottish chip shops. It is said that they will fry anything, and I believe it. It is also said that Scottish chip shops are where the fried Mars bar (that are often associated with carnivals, and funnel cake trucks, in the US) was invented. Perhaps I will get to them next time.

Canal in Dublin

The weather: The whole time that we were there it was cold and drab. Not as cold as the -5 degrees F that it was when we left, but the lows were probably 45 F with highs around 55 F. There is much less variation in the temperature there. And it does rain a lot, how else do you think it stays to green? We did luck out and get at least a little sun each day that we were there, which we were told is very rare. It was even nice enough for us to get in some outside runs some days. We took a nice jog along the canal in Dublin (photo to the right taken on said run), it was beautiful and the canal water was so clear.

On the way back home, we laid over in Chicago again. We spent our short time in Chicago starting our beer passports at Goose Island and sticking with our doughnut theme that we started when we came through the previous week (only this time we went to Do-Rite Donuts). I am not a huge fan of the "throw bacon on anything and it makes it better" trend that has been going on in food for some time, so I bit into the maple bacon donut from Do-Rite expecting it to be overrated and possibly even hate it. It was the best of the 6 donuts that I had! It tasted like pancakes and bacon, together, in one. I still do not like the trend, but I cannot be a Do-Rite hater, all of the doughnuts were fantastic!

I hope that I have been informative (and not put you to sleep) while trying to teach you just a small part of what I learned while on holiday across the pond. If you have any questions, please ask me (whether below in the comments or by email), I would love to talk about it more in depth! But the only way to truly experience the culture is not by reading a blog post but by going over there yourself and living it. Happy eating and happy travels!

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!

Dixon's Famous Chili

If I had a dime for every person that has told me that they have "the best" chili, or that their chili is "famous", I wouldn't have to work and I could do this whole poorly written blog thing full time. But Dixon's Famous Chili actually has famous chili! They have been in the same spot for almost 100 years and Presidents have dined there! Dixon's is not chili in the sense that we think of it today, but it is historically important and is pretty dang good too!

Dixon's chili is not the tomato/meat/optional bean based stew-like concoction that most of us think of when we hear the word "chili". Dixon's is more what you think of when you think of ground beef taco meat. In fact, that is one of many ways that Dixon's serves their chili.

You can get your chili straight up, topped with cheese and/or onions, covered in ketchup (which is actually a lot tastier than it sounds), soupy (covered in the soup that the beans are cooked in), or juicy (covered in the ground beef juices, not the Notorious B.I.G. song). As I mentioned, you can also get the chili on hard shelled tacos, sloppy Joe, spaghetti, or smothering a pair of Jim's Famous Hot Tamales (which is my preferred way of eating it).

For those unfamiliar with Jim's Famous Hot Tamales: These are not Mexican style tamales, but rather New Orleans style tamales. They are still made with corn masa, but rather than stuffed with meat and wrapped in corn husks they are flavoured with broth and cylindrical in shape. The story goes that a man named Jim moved to Kansas City, from New Orleans, and started slanging his creole favorite from a cart. The tamales caught on, and now you can find them at most every Shell station in Independence and KCMO (and Dixon's).

The inside of Dixon's looks like a classic diner. Checkered table cloths. Banquet style tables. The type of place where you don't have to feel shy about sharing a table with a couple complete strangers.

Dixon's very much reminded me of the chili joint that Bourdain featured on No Reservations (Fred and Red's), during his trip to Joplin. Save, of course, the gastro-intestinal side effects that they talk about at Fred and Red's. There were no side effects to speak of, except awesomeness!

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!

The Flea

After hearing how great Westport Flea Market is, from so many people, I had to stop driving by it and stop in to see for myself. I have been driving by this place for years, every time I go to the Westport Sunfresh for groceries. The concept was lost on me; I could not figure out why a restaurant was named "flea market" and every time I looked at their delivery vehicle it reminded me of the Mutt Cutts van from Dumb and Dumber. This place seemed to straddle the line between quirky and kooky. But they could not be all that lost, they do use McGonigle's ground chuck for their burgers, after all.

The burger itself was very good! Not the best I have ever had, but a very good chuckin' burger. I would give it honorable mention. This is in no way an indictment on the Flea Market, but more-so a statement of where the KC burger community is at the moment. This is not a fancy pants burger like you will get at BRGR, Blanc, Red Door Grill, or Providence NAK (and no burger can compete with my muse, the Indios Burger). But this is more of a straight up, blue collar burger: 10oz hamburger (with cheese and onions optional). The burger lets the chuck speak for itself.

The beer list was large, not the largest by any means, but at the same time tap contests between restaurants have gotten a bit out of hand. So I don't really mind a restaurant not having more than 44 taps. They still had all of the seasonal boulevards, and a few more obscure beers. I was able to get a Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat, for those of you who know what that is. They even have domestic light lagers (AB and MillerCoors products) for the lames. This large beer list does lend itself to a pretty insane (albeit early, 2-5pm) happy hour special: Any of the 44 tap beers for $0.99.

I liked the quirkiness of it, but it all kind of caught me a bit off guard as well. It is cash only (word to the wise), but that is fine. You do have to do food and drink orders separately, which is a bit odd. But everyone there was very helpful and friendly throughout the process. I also found out why they call it the Flea Market; there is a legitimate flea market inside (for those that are looking for a vintage Stretch Armstrong while you wait for your burger to come up).

There are some other pretty awesome things about WFM too: Karaoke night (for those that want to hear me belt out some O-Town or Simple Plan) and The Super Flea (which I may actually have to try my next trip). The Super Flea is a Man vs Food-esque challenge that involves: five 10oz burger patties, somewhere in the neighborhood or a half pound of cheese, 6 pieces of bread, and 3lbs of fries. So whether you are feeling like Pacquiao or Kobayashi, and are craving a nice ground beef patty, WFM has something for you.

Marv's Deli

Marv's may be located in the middle of Park Place in Leawood, but it will take you to a place that feels like the center of The Loop in Chicago. Owner Steve Kerner basically grew up in Chicago Jewish-style Delis. After cutting his teeth in the kitchen, Steve moved on to be the first Executive Chef for KC Hopps and later opened his own concept, In*gre*di*ent (Yes, In*gre*di*ent was Steve's concept. Do you love In*gre*di*ent? Good, me too!). Marv's is a bit different, but every bit, if not even more awesome! P.S. Yes, that is a real hot dog cart out front. No, it is not for looks. Yes, they do bust that bad boy out and start serving Chicago-style Dogs down by the Park Place Ice Rink (or whatever it may be in the season that you are reading this), and you know how I LOVE street food!

Named after Steve's dad, Marv (obviously), Marv's serves up old Jewish-style Deli classics and new trendy hits.  From the chopped liver to the Marvelous donuts, everything that I have had from Marv's is fantastic! 

Yes, that is right, I had the chopped liver! Admittedly, I had never been high on the idea of eating liver because it is quite literally the filter, but I gave it a shot and I was very glad that I did. Another thing that others may be weary of, when it comes to liver, is freshness. You never know how fresh this stuff is, you never see anyone order it, it has probably been sitting there the maximum amount of time that the health code allows. Not at Marv's, the liver is made fresh daily! 

Although the liver says chopped on the menu, it is not what I would think of a chopped, it is more like a dense puree than chopped chunks of liver, but that is fine. Having never had liver before, I don't know what I expected it to taste like. But whatever I expected it to taste like, it tasted nothing like that! It was sweet and peppery. The small chunks of hard boiled eggs and red onions served on it, that almost appear to be garnishes, compliment it well. But the real compliment is the almost pickle-iness of the soft, grainy, twice-baked rye bread (That stuff was amazing, I was fiending rye bread for days after that! I even started tasting rye beer differently afterwards.).

The potato pancakes, a Jewish tradition, were addicting, I had to literally force myself to stop eating them! Do not mistake potato pancakes for hash browns, or something so simple, the shreds of potato in potato pancakes are much thinner and are held together by a binder (often potato flour). Brought to you with apple sauce and sour cream, the traditional Jewish-style deli way. The way to eat them is to put a little sour cream on top, followed by a little apple sauce, eat, and repeat. Though Hanukkah may be over, Marv's serves them all year round.

The big dogs, what you really go to Marv's for, the sandwiches: range from traditional corned beef (piled high, as if there were any other way to have it) to Steve's awesome creations that have Chicago-centric names (and are also piled high, duh!). If you are as big of sandwich lover as myself (I may be second only to Jeff Mauro in my love for sandwiches), you will love Marv's. All of them are served with slightly sour pickles and really good house-made kettle chips, unless you want another side. My recommendation is to upgrade your kettle chips to the even more awesome potato pancakes, for a buck, you can thank me later.

Can't decide between the corned beef and the brisket sandwiches? That's fine, go with something like The Over and Under (named after the betting term "over/under", for those that are wager illiterate). I don't know why it's called The Over and Under, but it may have something to do with the fact that there is corned beef AND brisket Over and Under some pretty spectacular coleslaw. This is by far the best corned beef that I have had outside of my mother's kitchen! I am pretty elitist about my coleslaw, and this slaw is not slacking. Just look down the barrel of this guy, seriously.

And before you leave (or heck, before you even start your day), you have to pick up one (or a few dozen) of Marv's new gourmet "Marvelous" donuts. The flavours change weekly, some of them are pretty plane, some of them are pretty crazy (I think there were a Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch, two seperate flavours, one week). I had a plain donut with chocolate-peanut butter frosting. The donut was nice and dense, like I like them. My only request would be to get a bit more yeasty flavour to it without sacrificing too much density. That is not a knock, just a request for when Steve reads this and is working on his next set of donut recipes, the donuts are really wonderful!

Now, one thing that can be a bit confusing, is that Marv's is a sit down restaurant that serves deli food (so don't go in expecting a deli counter). Also, don't mistake Steve for some laissez faire owner. You can hear him calling out orders to the kitchen, under the sports ticker that is running the scores to all the games. There are TVs with the games on, in case you had money riding on one or something. The decor screams Chicago deli. It is a newer restaurant, but is still warm enough to make you feel at home (even if you are not from Chicago).

Happy Belated Turkey Day!

As I told those of you that read the last post, I spent part of my Thanksgiving Day with one side of my family, at the Golden Ox. Having been a lifelong Kansas Citian, I was pretty disappointed in myself that I had never been to the iconic Golden Ox. Although we didn't get the full Golden Ox experience, I formulated a pretty strong opinion about the place, and anyone that says that it is no longer relevant.

The smell of coals still smoldering on the charcoal grill fill the air. If it weren't for the thin gaps between the awards and pictures of Kansas City (and the West Bottoms) from yesteryear, you wouldn't be able to tell what the walls looked like. The dining room is dimly lit, but inviting. The whole place is just dripping with nostalgia, and not in some nouveau hipster-esque type of way, but in a great-grandmother's den room type of way.

The clientele were a rich melting pot of young and old, blue collar and white collar, racial diversity, and different socio-economic backgrounds, all coming together for a family meal and to give thanks on this day of Thanksgiving. The place was packed, it was all asses and elbows in there. The waiter told us that they were planning to feed something on the order of 2000 people that day, that sounded absurdly high to me. But sure enough, as we sat there eating, there did not seem to be a lull. There was always a line of people waiting to be seated.

The spread, on this day, was not the standard fare. The offerings were not dissimilar to what you could expect to have at a family Thanksgiving potluck. All of the usual suspects were there, but with a few surprises. Of course there was turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, "salads" (both of the lettuce and mayo based varieties), dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and the like. But this being a steakhouse, there should be no surprise that there was a lot more to offer (meat wise) than just turkey. There was pork loin, ham, smoked salmon and they even shreaded the dark turkey meat so that it resembled something like a shredded/pulled pork, it was fantastic! The smoked salmon was delicious, it was garnished with capers (that I believe were also smoked) and red onions, it really doesn't get much better than that! The shreaded/pulled dark meat turkey was pretty awesome as well!

The sides were good, don't get me wrong, but I believe that most of them were probably brought in (or at least a little bit pre-made and reheated). First of all, they could all be made from scratch, and I could be completely wrong, it has happened before (see Colby Garrelts' Rye). But that being said, this is not the kind of place that I would tell you to go for some killer side. This is the kind of place that thrived during the days when the only side option you had to go with your steak was a potato.

The Golden Ox opened in the late 1940s. Do you know who ate out, in Kansas City, in the 1940s and 1950s? NO ONE! Why would anyone pay to eat something that they could cook at home? The Golden Ox came to prominence by setting up shop right by the stock yards and serving you, literally, the freshest steak that you had ever had in your life. The stock yards have long since closed down, but the Golden Ox remains. I still get the feeling that when I go back for my steak dinner, and a stiff drink, the only side I would contemplate ordering is a baked potato.

Some view the Golden Ox as a dinosaur: slow and unable to adapt to change. I look at this quite differently: while culinary trends have come and gone, the Golden Ox still stands, after those trends have been long since forgotten. While a trendy restaurant like Voltare, that stands right across the street from the Ox, may taunt the powerful creature, none can ever challenge it's resolve. The Ox has stood, unwavering, holding steadfast to its identity, since the day that it was founded. The Ox has weathered many a storm, economic downturns, and floods. None of this has been strong enough to bring down The Ox. In fact, in the front of the restaurant, they hang pictures of the flooded bottoms, wearing it almost like a service man or woman would wear stripes. 

In a way, the sign (at the top of this post) embodies the restaurant. It is not new, it is not shiny, it may not have the luster that it once did, but it is still standing, and dammit, it is still important! I don't know if the Golden Ox will be able to take the crown from Anton's as my favorite steakhouse, but I will certainly be back to let them try! In this day and age when steakhouses that people mention as their "favorite" are all chains (M&S, Capital Grille, Ruth's Chris, etc.), you have to go get yourself some local flavour!