TEXAS MONTHLY now has a barbecue editor!

From the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/us/texas-monthly-hires-full-time-barbecue-editor.html?hpw

crankin’ away

and a scene I painted taken from a photo taken by a pal of mine, Mike Farmer. It’s at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX

Altercation at the counter

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Everything for tamales.. and baluts, too!

Boy howdy! I’ve been seeing how easy it is to procure tamale-making materials and hardware here in Kansas City. The tiendas and carnicerias in the barrio where I live have several models of tamale steamers for sale. Here’s the bucket version, which probably works well on a cajun Cooker.

Bucket type tamale steamer

Of course, there are several options for masa, from the Maseca & Masa Harina commercial brands and the stores sell five-pound plastic bags of fresh tamale masa.

prepared masa

And the hojas de maiz are readily available nearly everywhere. I was at the big Asian supermarket downtown a few days before Christmas and Latinas were buying scads of packaged frozen banana leaves “para tamales de Navidad”. Just down the aisle I found a display of baluts (a Filipino bar snack of unborn duck eggs) right next to the durians. Nummers.

durian

So fill up your steamers with tamales, folks!

In the steamer.

Buen provecho, y’all. Y un prospero año nuevo!

Tacos al pastor en Kansas City, MO.

These were all take-out orders..

Tacos al pastor from Carniceria El Torito!

And they are only a buck on Tuesdays!

Tacos al pastor from Taqueria Mejico #2

At this place one can sit down and have a Bohemia, a much better beer than Dos Equis.  I would be happy to shill for Bohemia since I am a lot more interesting than the most interesting man in the world. I’ve read he’s really from Brooklyn and formerly a lawyer.

Here’s a painting from the wall of the Carniceria El Torito (on St Johns). Nice place, nice folks.

Pintura de chancho

End of Two weeks in Kansas City.

Well, the high point turned out to be during the 4.5 hour layover in DFW where I got to meet one of my culinary heroes. I was at a gate in the D concourse where my Richmond flight was to leave after a flight to Mexico City left. It turned out the flight to Mexico City was delayed and an elderly lady sat down across from me. I noticed that DSK was inscribed upon her rolling duffle and she looked familiar. I went over to her and said:

“Pardon me, are you Diana Kennedy?”

She said she indeed was Diana Kennedy and we had about a 10 minute chat where I told her that I had most of her cookbooks and had really appreciated her work. She told me that she’s working with a couple of ethnobotanists on a huge volume on chiles and that she and José Andrés are planning to do a presentation at the Kennedy Center on the Deiz y Seis de Septiembre.

I asked if I could take a photo of her and she said “Get someone to take one of the both of us!” So here it is..

Una encuentra con la maestra!

After this, I had to check the departure screen and had to hoof it to concourse C.  I heard some guys saying that they’d seen Roger Staubach in the concourse.

Roger who?

~~~~~

The two weeks in KC were quite good, BTW.  I saw my wife,  and my son and his wife (for a few days on their way back to Toronto) and my mother-in-law, who had arrived Tuesday from Oregon.

We ate asian dumplings at BLUE KOI

Pork dumplings at BLUE KOI (we ate there three times!)

Great mezze at LITTLE EGYPT (sorry, no photo but here’s one of the Farmer’s Market which opens at 5:30AM. These guys aren’t “hobby farmers“! No sir!)

Kohlrabi

Samosas, kebabs, & rooh afza (a chilled & delicious pink rosewater & milk drink) at CHAI SHAI

Lamb kebab & rooh afza (we ate at Chai Shai twice)

and I made the rounds of various taquerias getting a fix of serious Mexican food which is not to common around here, except at LA MILPA

La Guacamalera (they make guacamole at your table in some places)

And several BOULEVARD ales were quaffed. BTW, BOULEVARD has joined up with DESCHUTES brewery from Bend, Oregon and they will be in the KC area in a few months. Be still my heart.

At the corner of Proust & Powell:

I guess a flaneuse can’t be a foodie.

Supposedly Walt Disney's KC studio.

Birria de Chivo at Chapala

Birria de Chivo is a goat stew from the western and central Mexico. Here’s another post on a recipe from another blog..

http://masaassassin.blogspot.com/2009/04/birria-de-chivo-recipe-goat-stew.html

They have it every day at Chapala, across from Oona’s workplace. What I had last week was great.

Birria de Chivo. Muy sabrosa!