Restaurant patios around the city are abuzz with al fresco diners eager to sip and sup under the stars. Festivals are in full swing, serving up barbecue, cotton candy and street food. Farmers markets on both sides of the state line supply shoppers with local produce for bountiful dinners on the grill.
Beer nerd alert: Saison-Brett, a limited-release Boulevard brew, hits taps and retail shelves today. The farmhouse ale, based on the Kansas City brewery’s popular Tank 7, is dry hopped and bottle conditioned with various yeasts, including a wild strain called Brettanomyces, which gives the beer an earthy quality that pairs well with portobello mushroom, nutty Gruyere and English Stilton, a blue cheese.
Save the new date! The Star’s Food Truck Friday, cancelled due to inclement weather earlier this month, has been rescheduled for June 7.
“I wanted to fall head over heels with the Boot, but I’m old school when it comes to love,” reviewer Jill Wendholt Silva writes of the new Italian restaurant in Westport by budding chef/owners Aaron Confessori and Richard Wiles. “I want something I can count on.”
On Thanksgiving Day, The Kansas City Star profiled Jamie Svejda and her struggle to provide her family with nutritious foods. Soon after, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s Hospital, where she works as a receptionist, called to offer her backpacks and drawstring bags to help carry the load.
Drawing on more than 15 years of hands-on experience with her grandmother — and pushed by talented teachers — Sammy Jo Claussen outcooked hundreds of young chefs from around the country en route to winning a $90,000 full-ride college scholarship and the title of “Best Teen Chef.”
Chicago-style dogs: We got ’em. Still looking for a Chicago-style hot dog in Kansas City? Well, we’re happy to report that we found one, folks.
Chicago is the capital of the Wiener Republic, and you really can’t get a bad dog in the city. But where in Kansas City can you find a hot dog that's worthy of the Windy City?
A high school teacher's recipe for sucess: Raw talent and lots of hard work. The yield: More than $1 million in scholarships.
Jenny Vergara recalls the day she stopped apologizing for Kansas City’s restaurant scene. The Lenexa blogger, who dishes about the local food scene at www.makingafoodie.com, was sipping cocktails with Marshall Roth on the patio of Le Fou Frog, the funky French bistro just east of the River Market.
There are no white tablecloths in Swagger. There are no sautéed veal sweetbread appetizers or thyme roasted diver scallop entrees. The most exotic menu item is the Suribachi burger — tempura Angus beef with wasabi coleslaw ($9.95).
There's an old saying that in polite social circles one should never discuss religion, politics or sex. In Kansas City you might add barbecue to the list. Almost nothing gets barbecue fanatics riled up as a discussion of Kansas City's best.
Never underestimate the power of bacon — or the Internet. A pork-on-pork recipe got started in KC, took the Internet by storm and is now getting attention on TV.
The masked mammal's meat takes a long time to prepare, but it’s cheap and makes for some good eating.
Regular readers of Lauren Chapin’s restaurant reviews and food columns knew she grew up on a farm near Weston, where seasonal eating was simply a rhythm of life.
Lauren Chapin, The Star’s restaurant critic for the last eight years, died Wednesday at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City.
While there seems to be consensus on several points, including geography, service and smart shopping, everyone’s taste is different, so drinking inexpensively means deciding what works on your palate and with your mood. The more you sample, and the more you look beyond the big-brand, no-surprise wines for variety and value, the more bargains you will find.
July is grilling month in the The Star’s House + Home and Food sections.
Chefs use marinades to make foods tender and infuse them with flavor. But scientists have discovered marinades also act as a barrier to potentially carcinogenic substances that are created when meat and fish are cooked over flames. Using a marinade before grilling reduces HCA (heterocyclic amines) by 92 percent to 99 percent, according to American Institute for Cancer Research (aicr.org).
Whether you order chicken spiedini at an Italian mom-and-pop ristorante or the Olive Garden, chances are good the benefits of grilling lean chunks of meat over an open flame will be overshadowed by the dish’s overall fat content.
