Kansas City Food Blog

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

Get Your Sugar Fix at The JCCC Pastry Shop
If you need an eclair stat, you have just a few more minutes to get over to the Johnson County Community College Pastry Shop. Every Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. during the semester, culinary students crank out homemade pies, tortes, and chocolate candies. It's a classic bake shop that just happens to be on a college campus.

Mix It Up
It is time again to witness bartenders from across the city come together to see who'll make the last cocktail standing. The third annual Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition -- a benefit for the Halo Foundation -- is Sunday, November 22, at the Uptown Theater. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. with the 11 finalists mixing their drinks (one original, one classic cocktail) live and on-stage to compete for the $1,000 grand prize. Tickets are $5 at the door.

​​​Here are some random newsy items from my reporter's notebook.

Chili Cookoff Benefit

Great chili comes from the heart, so the third annual chili cook-off sponsored by the Wyandotte Homeless Services Coalition is a no-brainer. The event is slated for Thursday, November 19, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Wilhemina Gill Services Center (645 Nebraska Avenue) in Kansas City, Kansas. Entry is $5 with proceeds going to the Milla Massey Scholarship Fund for "youth who face homelessness." 

Nadia Pflaum

Tubs o' goodness

​Holy casseroles. Eighteen of them, to be exact. It was a great turnout on a chilly, wet night, which means Kansas City's first casserole party was truly a success. Fork yeah!

After seeing 18 casseroles lugged through the doors of Pryde's Old Westport, each swaddled in warming towels, I had a whole new respect for Emily Farris' original, Brooklyn-based party -- can you imagine taking a casserole on the subway? Farris told me that one year, a lady shlepped her casserole from New Jersey (a two-hour trip) to compete. And no, she didn't win.

Nadia Pflaum

Gina, Andy, Stewart and Carter chowed down

​Sadly, "Deconstructed Manicotti," my entry with Katie Bartle, wasn't a winner, either. She'd baked Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, spinach, penne pasta and cherry tomatoes with egg as the required "binding ingredient." (My job consisted of bringing the serving spoon.) Still, we mustered up some applause for the three dishes that stood above the rest, according to the four judges: Gina Kaufmann from KCUR's Walt Bodine Show, Andy Dandino ("The best eater I know," Farris said), Stewart Lane of Lon Lane's Inspired Occasions, and Carter Holton, a pastry chef from the River Club and Le Fou Frog.

Nadia Pflaum

MC Farris

​Third place went to Chris Cindric and Katherine Whitson for "Jordan's Birthday Request," a mother's Mexican-inspired casserole creation that she said her son craves. Shannon Grantham took second place for her "Hunka Hunka Burnin' 'Role," which she revealed to contain a vegetarian meat substitute (gasps all around!). The Casserole Cassanovas (aka Jenny Harris and James Patterson) were the big winners with "Cluck, Cluck, Toot, Woo!" another Mexican casserole that contained loads of cheese, Ro-tel, chicken and beans (hence the toot). The winners took home fancy new casserole dishes from Pryde's.

We losers, meanwhile, availed ourselves of the free beer. Thanks to Farris (who had signed copies of her book on hand) and Pryde's for an educational, if fattening, evening.

Thank you Record Bar, for pepper-infused vodka.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

Weird things always happen on Friday the 13th. So you might as well embrace the spookiness and get to Californos for its Haunted Bar. Scary movies are promised at the Westport haunt for the freaky evening that kicks off at 10 p.m.

If you're still figuring out what to serve for Thanksgiving, Off the Vine Design & Cellar can help with a Thanksgiving wine tasting from 6:30 to 8 tonight at the Gaslight Grill in Overland Park. Joe Ancona of Vineyard Brands leads a tasting of eight wines and ports that pair with traditional Thanksgiving foods. The tasting is $10 for non-members, $5 for members. Make the required reservation by calling 913-681-7960. 

​It's soup season -- so bring your choices for best bowl in the city as Charles Ferruzza answers questions and takes stock of the situation on The Walt Bodine Show at 10 a.m. today. If you need some inspiration or are looking to stir the pot, Fat City listed the Top 10 soups in Kansas City earlier this month. 

The discussion can be found on your airwaves at KCUR, 89.3. Charles will be fielding your calls about soups and chili alongside Walt and a panel of food writers and critics.The show is streamed live and you can call-in at (816)-235-2888.

Author Andrew Smith likes Kansas City so much, he's coming back!

​Prolific author and lecturer Andrew F. Smith, who was in town earlier this year to talk about his book Hamburger: A Global History, returns to Kansas City tomorrow to talk up his new book, Eating America: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine. Smith speaks at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library Thursday, November 12 at 6:30 p.m. (reservations are encouraged), discussing several of the essays in the new book, which traces "the major moments" that shaped the way Americans eat now. (You can see a sample of Smith speaking on the subject here).

Smith's book touches on that first Thanksgiving dinner; the first real American restaurant -- New York City's Delmonico's ("Places that served food and drink prior to this," Smith tells me, "were mostly taverns"); the industrialization of American farms, the beginning of food processing in America; the distribution of food and, of course, the grocery stores: from A&P to Wal-Mart.

Smith has been writing about culinary history for three decades and has already completed a book on one of his favorite subjects: the role food played in winning the Civil War, for publication in 2011.

He's also a fan of our town. "I really like Kansas City and love eating there," he says. "Of course, when I've already done the barbecue tour, so when people offer to take me out to dinner, I'm up for anything!"

​Sometimes it pays to give. Three local food drives are offering incentives to encourage people to donate canned goods to help feed the hungry.

Guitar Center is sponsoring a nationwide food drive through November 15, with the Overland Park store (6700 W. 119th Street) and the Independence store (3911 Bolger Road) participating locally. Customers get a 10 percent-off coupon in exchange for donating a nonperishable item in a benefit for Harvesters.

If you want to go see the Andy Warhol exhibit at Union Station, bring a can of soup for a $4 discount on Tuesdays and Wednesdays or a $2 discount on Thursdays through Sundays. Paying with cans? It's an idea that Warhol would have liked. The food drive promotion runs through November 25.

Finally, you can turn three cans of food into a free medium cup of coffee at this Thursday's opening of Dunkin' Donuts in Overland Park (7720 W. 151st Street). George Brett is scheduled to be on hand for the grand opening and to kick off the "Dunkin' Donuts Coffee for Cans" promotion to benefit Harvesters. A 53-foot trailer remains on site until Friday, so let's try and fill it.   

[Image courtesy of Guitar Center]

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

The Hen House Holiday Celebration -- a benefit for Harvesters -- runs from Friday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to Sunday (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) at the Overland Park Convention Center. Public television's Katie Brown holds cooking demonstrations on Friday at the food expo and there's a hot dog eating contest slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday. The $5 admission gets you access to try food and beverage samples, as well as a reusable shopping bag to take home. 
 
If you are still disoriented from Halloween candy, that's likely the only reason you didn't know that Kansas meets Kansas State on the gridiron this Saturday. You might as well be surrounded by hundreds of fellow fans, who you can cheer with or taunt, depending on your loyalties. That will be happening in the central courtyard of the Power & Light District, where the game plays on the big screen above the KC Live stage. Admission is free, with drink and food specials beneath the heat lamps.

Former Magic Pan employees will reunite Saturday at the RecordBar

​Back in the early 1980s, Tom Damico was a waiter, serving crepes at the old Magic Pan restaurant in Seville Square on the Country Club Plaza. One of his Magic Pan co-workers, Sherri Blades, later married Bob King and a few years later, Tom, Sherri and Bob all worked together -- you know how servers move around from restaurant to restaurant -- at the Hyatt Regency Hotel; Sherri was at the Terrace Restaurant, Tom was at J. Patrick's Lounge.

Flash forward to more recent times. Tom Damico owns a construction business but also plays in a band called Two Drunk Minimum with actor-musician (and former waiter) Dean Vivian and musician and former Monastary waiter Dann Searcy. Sherry Blades King also performed with the band -- until earlier this year, when her 15-year-old daughter Sierra King, a student at Park Hill South High School, was diagnosed with leukemia.

Sierra is battling the illness at Children's Mercy Hospital. To help Bob and Sherri with expenses, a group of friends and former co-workers have organized Sierrapalooza, a fund-raising event to be held this Saturday, November 7, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the RecordBar, 1020 Westport Road. Two Drunk Minimum performs with Missouri Woodland (featuring Gary Paredes and Royal Scanlon) and InLike, Youth Band. A $20 suggested donation can be given at the door.

(Image via Flickr: colonnade)

 

​Anthony Spino III, who with his brother Vito runs the family's Italian restaurant, Anthony's, at 701 Grand, has a deal for you this month: Bring twenty bucks and a packaged mix (brownies, cakes, biscuits, muffins) or board games and/or personal hygiene products to the restaurant on Wednesday, November 18 and get a dinner and wine tasting to benefit ReStart Inc., an interfaith ministry working with the homeless.

Anthony and his girlfriend Kymberli Cutler recently donated a new stove to ReStart's Youth Emergency Shelter. "They only had a refrigerator and a microwave," Spino says. "They needed something they could really use for cooking. Right after we paid to have an electrician get enough power to the stove, the kids at the shelter baked cookies for the firefighters down the street. That's why we're encouraging our patrons to bring in cake, cookie and muffin mixes, so they kids can continue to learn to bake things."

ReStart also needs the personal hygiene items (shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes) and board games, Spino says.

For the November 18 event, he'll have two seatings, the first at 5:15 p.m. and the second at 7:30 p.m., for dinners that include a soup, a small entree and dessert as well as wine samplings. For reservations or more information, call 816-221-4088.

 

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

Dust off your costume. With Halloween falling on a Saturday night, this weekend has the potential for greatness. Quaff Bar & Grill has a Night of Mayhem, with drink specials and a costume contest from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Facebook Friends get in free, everybody else it's $5.

Californos' annual Halloween Bash starts at 8 p.m., with the costume contest three hours later.

The Power & Light District's free Halloween concert kicks off at 8 p.m., with the costume contest judging at 10:30 p.m. First place gets $1,000 -- which should cover your drinks for the night.

​Charles Ferruzza will once again be answering questions and stirring up conversation on The Walt Bodine Show at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Friday's topic? Candy -- so bring your sweet memories, candy gripes, and arguments for the best chocolate on the shelf.

The discussion can be found on your airwaves at KCUR, 89.3. Charles will be fielding your calls about gummy, taffy, and the works alongside Walt and a panel of food writers and critics.The show is streamed live and you can call-in at (816)-235-2888.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of listings. In this post, all our problems are solved.

Sadly, there is no great Missouri Ocean. And yet you can still enjoy a glass of wine by the sea -- by the Inland Sea Winery, that is. The West Bottoms winery holds tastings on Fridays between 4 and 7 p.m. at 1600 Genessee, Suite 160. 

Used to be, the only way you could experience Waterfire was if you went to Providence, Rhode Island. You no longer have to take an airplane. You can enjoy gondola rides on Brush Creek this Saturday for the free arts event that's literally fire on top of water. As soon as it's dusk, Waterfire is open for business and it runs until midnight. Steak lovers take note: Capitol Grille and the Plaza III Steakhouse join Brio and Houston's as the food vendors for the Plaza event.

You've also got two chances to help someone else this weekend. The first is for barbecue lovers and poker players. The Delta Battery Armory is holding a Poker Run and Cookout benefit on Saturday for the families and soldiers of the 1/129th FA Delta Battery. Registration is at 9 a.m. with a cookout scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $20. 

 

The ancient Mayans prized the beverage created from the cacao

There was quite a bit of hype leading up to last weekend's opening of Chocolate: The Exhibition at Union Station, so I wondered if there would be a line to get into the interactive touring show -- created by Chicago's Field Museum -- on Sunday afternoon. The answer was no, and that was fine. After all, who wants to fight crowds for a glimpse of the historical relics?

Of course, many of the "relics" in this particular exhibition are artfully constructed replicas depicting the history of chocolate: the cacao pods and seeds growing in the MesoAmerican rain forest, the Aztecs and Mayans who ground the seeds and blended them with spices to create a beloved beverage (one thought to serve as an aphrodisiac). That drink apparently enchanted the Spanish conquistadors, who brought cacao seeds back to Europe. There, variations of chocolate emerged -- first as a hot beverage made with sugar and milk and, later, as the confection we know as chocolate candy.

The exhibition is beautifully mounted but text-heavy and not nearly as "interactive" as one might hope. (Small children won't have much to do while the adults stop to read all that historical text.) That said, the collection of Meissen and European porcelain chocolate cups and saucers was beautiful. According to some of that text, saucers were invented to keep drops of hot chocolate from spilling on elaborate 17th-century gowns.

The exhibition -- which runs through January 3, 2010 -- exits into a rather modest "gift shop" that includes a variety of imported and domestic chocolate candy and bags of dried chocolate-flavored pasta. Why pasta? You'll have to do a little more reading to find out: It can be cooked and served with a mole sauce or, the package suggests, "as a dessert."

 

 

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

It takes some time to make a good batch of chili and that's why the Lenexa Chili Challenge starts on Friday night at 5 p.m. More than 100 teams are expected to compete in this year's event, with the contest in Old Town Lenexa (corner of Sante Fe Trail Drive and Plfumm) starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday and winners being crowned at 4 p.m. Admission is $2 and there's a chili hotline if you need more information -- 913-541-8592. 

Don't know your favorite beer? You can find one among the offerings from 70 breweries at the third annual KC Beerfest on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Legends at Village West. Our recommendation: Make a beeline for imports Hitachino and Black Sheep Ale. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

Let's start the weekend right: with free beer. Boulevard offers free samples of its fall beer, Bob's 47, paired with free offerings from the Fork & Screen at AMC Studio 30 in Olathe. The event (from 5 to 8 p.m.) is tied to the release of the movie Couple's Retreat. To attend, you have to have a movie ticket.

Pizza Bar in the Power & Light District celebrates its grand opening tonight, with Mix 93.3 FM sponsoring Slice of Life, a benefit for the Children's Miracle Network of Greater Kansas City. Tickets are $30 for the 6-to-10 p.m. event. 

Still got that green sweater? Then you're ready for this weekend's Weston Irish Festival tonight (5 p.m. to midnight), Saturday (11 to midnight), and Sunday (12 to 10 p.m.). Chow down on Dublin Coddle and corned beef sandwiches while enjoying an Irish coffee or an O'Malley's Festival Ale in any of O'Malley's Pub's three underground cellars. Tickets are $8 on Friday, $10 on the weekend.

Ruth Reichl says her book will be the legacy of Gourmet Magazine.

If you were driving through the Country Club Plaza last night about 10 p.m. or so, you might have seen the contingent of Foodie types -- Making of a Foodie blogger Jenny Vegera, or the slight lawyer who calls himself The Ulterior Epicure -- trudging back to their cars lugging a big ol' green hardback book. The tome was newly published Gourmet Today, the five-pound (at least) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardback with more than 1000 recipes compiled by the staff of Gourmet and its editor, former New York Times restaurant reviewer Ruth Reichl.

​Reichl (today's guest on KCUR-FM's Up To Date with Steve Kraske) was the featured guest last night at a book-signing dinner hosted by John McClure, the chef-owner of Starker's Restaurant. The dinner was such a popular draw that McClure's staff was forced to use two different dining rooms for the overflow crowd. Reich's publicist stopped by the table where I was sitting with American Restaurant chef Debbie Gold, writers Kimberly Stern and Darren Marks, magazine editor Zim Loy, radio personality Vicki Watson Walker and Master Sommelier Doug Frost -- who appears on the new PBS reality show The Winemakers on Saturday night. The publicist whispered a warning: "Please do not ask Ruth about Gourmet. She will not answer questions about it tonight."

Reichl's decade as editor-in-chief at Gourmet ended, quite unexpectedly, this week when publisher Conde Nast pulled the plug on the 68-year-old glossy food magazine. Reichl's comments about the book (which features a sticker announcing "A subscription to Gourmet magazine is included with the purchase of this book") were bittersweet. She praised her staff for the hard work on compiling and testing the recipes for the book: "Even the simplest recipe in the book, spaghetti with Pecorino romano and black pepper, which has only three ingredients, was tested over 12 times," Reichl said.

"I don't think there will ever be a book published like this again," Reichl said. "This will be the legacy for Gourmet magazine."

 

Grilled swordfish, left, and a hot Kentucky brown highlight the new menu.

​
While there are plenty of new and interesting exhibits at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, diners should be excited to learn about the new fall lunch menu at Cafe Sebastienne.

Although Executive Chef Jennifer Maloney changes the dinner menu weekly to account for seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, the lunch menu changes only seasonally.  

The two new dishes that caught our attention are the Swordfish and Hot Kentucky Brown, because both contain the same applewood bacon as the well-known Cobb Salad. The Swordfish ($16) is grilled swordfish on smoked tomato sauce with creamy polenta, sauteed greens and that applewood bacon. And the Hot Kentucky Brown ($12.50) is an open-faced, oven-roasted turkey sandwich with applewood-smoked bacon, tomato and cheddar Mornay sauce on toasted sun-dried tomato bread. You may now pass out. 
 
While there are plenty of other new additions, a few of the old standbys remain, including that  Cobb Salad ($13) and the popular Fish Tacos ($14.50). Lunch is Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. You can find out the latest on menu changes and special offerings at Cafe Sebastienne's Twitter page.

And speaking of apples ...

​We might not have Miley Cyrus, but Kansas City is going to get a Guy Fieri show. The nickname-labeling, punky-haired host of the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives plays the Midland Theater on December 7.

The Guy Fieri Roadshow with Australian flair bartender Hayden Wood (despite what you're thinking this is not The Thunder From Down Under) is described as "food, rock n' roll, and everything they won't let me do on TV."  As to what that entails, you'll have to pay Ticketmaster $35.25 (before convenience fees) to find out.

Fat City was there last year when chef Anthony Bourdain (host of the Travel Channel's No Reservations) came to town for a talk at the Midland and had a revealing session with the media at the Bristol the night before. Bourdain candidly explained why this arrangement can be lucrative for chefs and can provide the stability that's often missing in the grind-it-out existence of restaurants. 

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

This weekend is the biggie -- the American Royal Barbecue competition is back for its 30th year. More than 500 teams are expected to compete between Friday and Sunday. Gates open today at 3 p.m. Tickets, $13, are available online.

Your drink special of the weekend is at Granite City Food & Brewery in Zona Rosa, where (the first Saturday of every month) $3 gets you an Outdoor Concert: vodka, peach schnapps, chambord, cranberry and pineapple. After two of these, you'll be dancing to a band that nobody else can hear. 

After spending the day over at Kemper, grab a slice of moon cake on Saturday night from the Fortune Star Chinese Restaurant in Shawnee Mission, and get over to the Kansas City Chinese Association's Moon Festival in Olathe.

​After a successful soft opening this weekend, Brookside's new Julian (6227 Brookside Plaza) is up and open for all comers to check out food "that won't break the bank, monetarily or calorically," according to Chef Celina Tio. 

"I wanted to create a restaurant that I would want to eat at. It needed to have the right price point, a chef-driven menu, and as many local products as possible," says Tio. 

The dinner menu reflects that. Starters range from "green eggs & ham," a soft yolk in a spinach flan with prosciutto toast ($6), to house-smoked trout and potato chive pancakes ($8). Three sandwich choices are led by the "b.e.l.t." -- bacon, egg, lettuce and tapenade mayo with fries ($9).

Dinner could be a four-hour braised shorts ribs "pot roast" ($15) or fish "tacos" with egg, cliantro, lime and spanish rice ($14). Boulevard Pale Ale macaroni and cheese with broccoli is $10, and sides -- cheesy grits, cheesy broccoli, onion rings -- are $4. 

Tio also wants diners to know that she hopes to keep vegetarians happy by offering substitutions of tofu or housemade saiten. If you've followed her career from her time at The American, you'll be pleased to see one of her signature dishes -- the lobster "shepherd's pie," ($22) is on the menu, too. 

She also expects to do well with a line of mini desserts ($4), including baked chocolate puddin' with a giner donut, grilled pound cake with caramel apples and sea salt, and organic squash cheesecake with its very own brittle.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

While it's not quite a dry run, particularly because they're promising a biergarten, Oktoberfest kicks off in Lee's Summit today. With an entire tent for bratwursts and two stages of entertainment, the festival spans three days -- Friday (5-10 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m. to 10 p.m.), and Sunday (1-5 p.m.). It's in downtown Lee's Summit at the corner of 3rd and Douglas.

Likewise, it's never too early to prepare for Halloween, and that means learning how to make popcorn balls at Velvet Creme's 4th annual Popcorn Festival. The free event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the company store (4710 Belinder Road in Westwood) on Saturday. All proceeds go to Children's Mercy Hospital.

If a single glass of red wine is good for you, imagine the curative powers of several dozen. The Village West WineFest brings more than 200 wines to Chateau Avalon this Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. There's something for beer lovers, too: a beer garden with more than 50 varieties. Admission is $50, while entrance to the VIP pavilion costs $100 at this fundraiser for the American Red Cross of Wyandotte County.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

Black Cover Records gets the weekend off to a rocking start -- pairing Indie music with craft beers at the Black Clover Records Beer Fest. The fourth annual event starts Friday at 5 p.m. with more than 30 breweries in attendance, including new Belgium and Mikkeller. Tickets are $30 for the tasting and show.

The Mission Arts & Eats Festival starts to night from 5 to 11:30 p.m. and continues on Saturday (7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.). The sixth-annual event is also the site of the Battle of the Brisket State Championship -- a sprawling event that feels like a tuneup for the American Royal next month.

Grilling isn't just about meat. Get a tutorial on grilling perfect vegetables as part of the Kansas City Community Gardens Fall Family Festival and Harvest on Saturday. A pumpkin toss and peanut harvest are just part of the happenings at the Swope Park festivities, which run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $2. 

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

The festival circuit continues and there's still something for everybody. Beer lovers, meat lovers, and vegetarians -- get ready to overeat.

It's not October, but that doesn't mean your lederhosen can't make an appearance at Oktoberfest. Learn how to properly slide a beer down a bar or go to beer school at Worlds of Fun's annual German Festival the next two weekends. The two beer gardens are open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

As long as you're learning how to drink beer, you might as well improve your skills on the grill, too -- you'll need to know how to cook sausages for when your home version of Oktoberfest rolls around. At their annual open house, Full Boar 2009, the folks at the Harley-Davidson Factory gives free factory tours and Backyard Bash will be on hand to lead barbecue prep demonstrations.

Even with your new grilling abilities, you won't be a match for the cooks at the 48th Annual Greek Food Festival. Gyros abound at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation (120th and Wornall). The event runs Friday (6 to 10 p.m.), Saturday (noon to 10 p.m.), and Sunday (noon to 6 p.m.). Admission is free. 

​Every food purchase you make has an environmental impact -- that is a fact. But what if you decided to try to eliminate that impact? You'd have to apply the same rules as every movie involving time travel -- do your best not to change the world around you, knowing that it's likely impossible.

That's the premise for a documentary being released in New York City and Los Angeles today. In No Impact Man, writer Colin Beavan, as part of a book project, spent a year trying to go off the grid while still living in New York City with his wife and young daughter. They swore off restaurants and grocery stores as part of a quest to be completely neutral in terms of environmental impact. 

Some steps were moderate -- knocking out water bottles and styrofoam coffee cups -- but Beavan's family took it farther when they quit eating beef. It gets serious when they spend six months without a refrigerator, although they continue to use their gas stove. They also composted indoors and began a small urban vegetable garden.  

It's easy to sympathize with Beavan's wife, Michelle, when she laments: "The food is the hardest part ... because I can't eat anything that tastes good." They apparently eat a lot of porridge. 

Besides the economy collapsing if everybody followed all of Bevan's steps, the film raises serious questions about how much you can (or would choose) to live without -- especially in regard to your food. Coffee and bottled water might be labeled as extras, but a refrigerator is basically a necessity. 

No Impact Man comes to the Tivoli Cinemas in Westport on October 16.

[Image via Flickr: guaravonomic]

​Helping people never tasted so sweet as the "Drive Out Hunger" Tour, sponsored by Cheesecake Factory and Feeding America, stops in Kansas City tomorrow from 7 to 10 a.m. 

If you are one of the first 500 people to bring two cans of food to the parking lot in front of the Cheesecake Factory (66795 W. 119th Street, Overland Park, Kansas), you'll receive a free slice of Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake.

Kansas City is the 11th stop on the 30 day, 30 city tour, that is hoping to bring 100,000 cans to local food banks. The cans collected on September 11 will be donated to Harvester's.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

You'll need the long weekend to enjoy all of the festivals going on around Kansas City.

First on your list should be the seventh annual Kansas City Irish Fest, which runs Friday to Sunday at Crown Center. Munch on a Scott egg and enjoy a pint of Boulevard Stout.

Fend off overzealous jesters in tights with a turkey leg -- the original food on a stick -- at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. The festival in Bonner Springs opens on Monday and runs through October 16.

You don't have to travel quite so far back in time to attend the Santa Cali Gon Days -- a celebration of pioneer times at the Independence Square. Despite the apparel on display, it is all fair food all the time at this festival. Pig out on funnel cake and corn dogs. And lastly, enjoy the Melon Festival on Saturday at The City Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's a chance to say a proper goodbye to watermelon.  

Tonight is Viva Los Royals. Samples of "authentic Hispanic food and beverages" are promised inside of Gate A. The first 20,000 through the gates get barbecue aprons.

On Saturday, enjoy Bingos, Burgers and Beer at The Brick. The fundraiser for Pendleton Heights runs from 5 to 9 p.m. with a suggested donation of $3. 

On Monday, Chick-Fil-A offers a free chicken sandwich to anyone wearing sports-related attire in honor of the college football season's kickoff games. You can snag one on your way to Liberty Memorial Park for the annual Labor Day Parade and Community Picnic.

[Image via Flickr: cedwardmoran]

Melon soccer, anyone?

​

The City Market, 20 E. 5th Street, hosts a Melon Festival tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the regular vendors offering melons "in all sizes, shapes, flavors and colors" according to the City Market's spokesperson Stephanie Spatz-Ornburn.

The scheduled activities include melon bowling (from 10-11 a.m.) and melon soccer -- from 11 a.m. to noon -- a seed-spitting competition, sampling of fresh melons (provided by the University of Missouri Extension, which will have melon recipes too), art activities using melons and Mother Nature telling stories.

"We will also be collecting perishable and non-perishable donations for Harvesters," said Spatz-Ornburn.

​At first glance, Midwestern Kansas City may not resonate as an international melting pot of cultures, but for the last 30 years, this city's Parks and Recreation Department has celebrated the diversity of KC's population with an Ethnic Enrichment Festival. The festival -- much like KC's ethnic community -- has grown over the decades, and this year's event at Swope Park, which kicks off today from 5 to 10 p.m. (and continues from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday), will be one of the biggest.

Parks Department spokeswoman Melinda Minks boasts that, in addition to a German beer garden, 37 food booths will feature everything from French crêpes and Bolivian empañadas to Lithuanian pastries (imported from a bakery in Omaha) and Brazilian feijoada. The entertainment pavilion has
been renovated, so patrons can watch performances in a cool, shady place this year. Adult admission is $3; children 12 and younger get in free. Parking is free, too.
​
If all the choices at the Ethnic Enrichment Festival are too overwhelming, Saturday's second-annual Soul Food Festival at Parade Park (the Paseo Boulevard and Truman Road) might be more manageable. Local and traveling food vendors will be on-site to sell single items and dinners, while Sugafoot's Ohio Players, Peabo Bryson, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Lakeside, Eldredge Jackson and Dru-Hill provide the entertainment.

"Since we aren't doing Rhythm and Ribs, this will be the first festival-type event this year at the 18th and Vine District," organizer Elbert Anderson explains. General admission tickets cost $28, and VIP tickets are $50 at the gate, which opens at 3 p.m. (The concert starts at 6
p.m.) See ilovesoulfood.com for details, including table reservations for the 21-and-older event.

​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.

The Missouri State Fair kicked off Thursday in Sedalia and runs through August 23. You should go if only for the pork chops on a stick or fried Snickers. The second-to-last-day of the fair will see a world record attempt for most exploding soda fountains, when 2,500 Pepsi bottles filled with Mentos will (hopefully) go off in unison.

UNICO's first annual Microbrew Festival will feature more than 40 craft brewers -- 15 of which are from Missouri. At Zona Rosa on Saturday, you can sample beer between 3 and 9 p.m. A $25 ticket at the gate gets you a commemorative sampling cup.

If you're saving your wallet for another night of drinking, The Brick is a good bet. Natural Light runs you a $1 a can during Happy Hour (4 to 6 p.m.) and $2 thereafter. Remember, it's your wallet, not your tastebuds, we're thinking of here.

Beer's not your thing? There's the 14th annual Kansas City Festival of Wine & Food at the Overland Park Convention Center on Saturday. Featuring more than 300 wines and food from 20 local restaurants, this event goes from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $50/$75 for different levels of wine tasting; it's a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. 

And finally, you probably need a contest to help you introduce your new pitcher plant to competitive eating. Adam's Rib in Overland Park, Kansas, hosts a challenge in which local celebrities attempt to get through 10 pounds of the Ultimate Brisket Burger in order to win money for their favorite charity. The spectacle begins at 3 p.m.