Kansas City Food Blog

​Mr. Goodcents recently launched a new product line of flatbread pizzas and, in an effort to determine whether that was a good idea, I brought home a white cardboard box filled with a foil-wrapped pizza.

"You're going to like it," the cashier told me and I wanted to believe him.

The options are straightforward. A cheese flatbread pizza is $3.49, while a pepperoni or chicken alfredo pizza will set you back $3.99. You can add any of the standard dress items (lettuce, banana peppers, pickles, tomatoes) for an additional 50 cents.

I opted for the pepperoni with no additional toppings. If you add a regular drink, the total is $5.48 with tax.

My first impression was promising. The rectangular, thin crust looked like the promo picture and was still hot after its quick trip through the rotating griller.

​With the Cheesy Gordita Crunch officially returning to Taco Bell menus today -- the hard taco inside the fried shell seems to disappear and reappear like the Loch Ness Monster -- it only seemed right to put it up against one of the other new menu items.

The crispy potato soft taco (crispy potato bites, Pepper Jack sauce, shredded lettuce and cheddar cheese) is the lucky entrée, because I'm not ready to face its starchy big brother -- the bacon, potato and cheese burrito. As an aside, those looking for employment, shift managers are needed at the Taco Bell on 103rd and State Line (816-941-4223), but keep in mind that "smiles [are] required."

The crispy potato soft taco has the classic smell of all soft tacos -- the rich, almost sweet smell of flour tortilla, like bags of sugar that have been in your pantry for an indeterminate period of time. Underneath that is a hint of fried potato and what lies ahead for your palate.

​To the Gentleman who chose to lick his ketchup packet (and all of his kindred spirits),

I guess in your mind, it was only natural to lick and suck at the tear in the ketchup packet -- your cavernous mouth was already open and it was your teeth that made the initial tear. It certainly seemed like something you had done on a few previous occasions. Perhaps, you were the kid who managed to eat a ketchup packet with each fry, considering the condiment to be a better meal choice than the potato.

But sadly you are a kid no longer. You are a grown man, sitting in the middle of a fast food establishment with a mounting pile of empty ketchup packets on your tray. If there is an opposite of Craigslist's Missed Connections, this is it.

If I said Manwich, your first thought would likely be a drippy, beef-filled sloppy joe. ConAgra Foods hopes to change that through Manwich's new advertising campaign, which focuses on the fact that each serving of the tomato-based sauce has a full serving of vegetables.

"The fact that Manwich has a full serving of vegetables in each serving was something we were keeping to ourselves and had never communicated to consumers before," ConAgra representative Becky Niiya tells Media Daily.

The vegetables in Manwich are a secret just being revealed? That seems an odd bit of phrasing. Before now, was ConAgra concerned that Manwich eaters would be aghast to learn that there were vegetables in their meat sandwich? It's also difficult to make an argument for vegetables when your main ingredient -- tomato puree -- is a fruit.

​The economy is going to affect the depth of candy bowls this year.

Time magazine notes that a recent study by the National Retail Federation showed that people will be spending an average of $56.31 for the holiday. That's $10.23 less than last year. And of that, 46.5 percent of the people surveyed are planning to cut back on candy.

But The Chicago Tribune asserts that people don't have to worry about ending up with an empty pillow case: 

The retail federation survey shows 93.7 percent of respondents plan to buy candy this Halloween -- nearly 600 million pounds of it, according to the Nielsen Co. Nielsen said that while consumers traditionally wait until the last minute to get a better deal, they still choose name brand candy over store brand candy 95 percent of the time.

I recommend a new mantra: Skip the fun size and head straight for the full-size bars.

​You might love pizza, but you're no Craig Scharoff. The Chicago Tribune has the story of the man from the Chicago area, who is 22 days into a bet that he will eat only sausage pizza in October. There's a "low four-figure sum," on the line as one of Scharoff's co-workers, Ronnie Kaplan, is documenting the challenge on the LTHForum -- a Chowhound-like Web site.

Kaplan explained the rules of the bet to The Tribune:

Scharoff "must eat sausage pizza for every meal during the month of October. The pizza must contain crust, sausage and cheese. All toppings, with the exception of lettuce on Taco Pizzas -- yes, he loves them -- and arugula and prosciutto -- he has no idea what either of these are -- must be cooked into the pizza. He cannot have dessert, chips or side dishes of any kind. No salads, no cereals, no slaw. Any significant caloric intake must be pizza."

​As a boy growing up on the East Coast, there were certain inalienable truths. Among them was that the only place to get bagels and cheesecakes done the right way was New York City.

And to this day, cheesecake remains a food that, outside of Manhattan, isn't the same. Whether it's a question of water or baking practices, or simply because it's a food that can't be replicated because it has already been fixed in my mind, the ideal of a slice of New York City cheesecake holds its value.

It is the same axiom as a Philly cheesesteak. Outside of Philadelphia, a given sandwich may be a cheesesteak or some unholy combination of cheddar and chopped steak, but it isn't (and shouldn't be called) a Philly cheesesteak. Take a cheesecake out of New York and you've got an entirely different dessert. 

​
Three words I thought I'd never type together: Taco Bell cupcakes. But the taco chain is apparently test marketing cupcakes -- as well as a new line of smoothie offerings -- in California.

The OC Register's Fast Food Maven gave a thumbs down to both potential new product lines after sampling vanilla and red velvet cupcakes and a Strawberry Banana smoothie. But the list of what could be in the dessert case by the register sounds fascinating:

In fliers mailed to residents near Buena Park and Tustin, Taco Bell lists the following new items: Crispy Mini Empanadas, Atomic Bacon Bombers, Warm Stuft Cookies, Dulce Dippers, Cheesy Churro Fries, Mini Churros and Jalapeno Cheesy Bread.

​Screw brunch -- it's time we talked about the ultimate breakfast-lunch hybrid: the donut sandwich. Woman's Day has put together a list of 7 daring donut sandwiches that range from craptacular to heart-stoppingly beautiful.

The sloppy joes (pictured above) sound a bit out of my league; however, a fried chicken patty between two halves of a jelly donut could be a state fair winner. And although I'm proud of them for breaking away from traditional woman's mag fare, Woman's Day missed a few examples. Please read on for the other uses of donut as bread.

​The world of food science has come up with the radiant fryer, which purports to be able to create the consistency and taste of fried food without dumping it in a fry-o-lator.

Food processing engineer Kevin Keener, Ph.D., of Purdue University, has invented an oven that exposes food to infrared light in order to cook it faster -- meaning the oven can apparently reduce the amount of oil and associated fat by 50 percent.

"It will cook the inside," Dr. Keener explained. "It will cook the outside and create that crust just like it would in hot oil immersion frying."

The news story shows his product in action. It looks like a series of baskets that pass in front of a bank of infrared lamps. Apparently the small version of the oven can produce 300 dozen donuts in an hour.

​Will sweets-loving children turn into not-so-sweet adults? That's the inference of a new British study that suggests that children who consume a lot of candy are more likely to be violent later in life. 

Researcher Simon Moore of Cardiff University wanted to see if there was a relationship between diet and risk-taking behavior. When he cross-referenced questions on candy and crime, the results were interesting:  

Moore's analysis suggests a correlation: 69% of people who had been convicted of a violent act by age 34 reported eating candy almost every day as youngsters; 42% of people who had not been arrested for violent behavior reported the same.

In an effort to see whether there was a direct correlation between diet and behavior, Moore sought to eliminate potential differences in geography and parental conduct. And he came to the conclusion that grabbing candy and committing a crime may have the same root cause -- a lack of impulse control.
 

​One of my first assignments as a reporter for a community newspaper in Lynn, Massachusetts, was to interview Don Durkee, the co-owner of Durkee-Mower -- the makers of Marshmallow Fluff. For those unfamiliar with Fluff, it's a marshmallow spread that can be used for Rice Krispy treats or in fluffernutter (Fluff and peanut butter) sandwiches. 

It remains the only interview in which I was starstruck. Mr. Durkee is an unassuming, slight man who is proud of his family's tradition in Lynn and of the marshmallow treat that, once confined to the East Coast, is now being shipped worldwide. Indeed, it was not Mr. Durkee that struck me speechless, it was the chance to tour the factory where they made one of the foods I associate most closely with my childhood.

​As stadiums have developed into architectural marvels, granting people incredible 360 degree views and changing the skylines of cities, expectations for concessions have dramatically increased alongside the number of seats.

So when the Dallas Cowboys unveiled their $1.15 billion stadium, it's fair to say that excitement about the food being offered was fairly oversized. But when the Dallas Morning News went to sample the stadium offerings, the concessions were underwhelming.

​God bless venture capital and crazy vending machine ideas. These are the areas where we need our best people if we are to excel as a society. The two have combined for what sounds like a winner: on-demand ice cream. 

The New York Times reports that MooBella, the makers of a vending machine that creates made-to-order ice cream, have just received $18 million in funding for a test roll-out of 100 machines. The system takes room temperature ingredients, flash freezes them via liquid nitrogen (hello semi-practical application of molecular gastronomy), and kicks out ice cream in under a minute. 

The company, based out of Taunton, Massachusetts, brings together ice cream flavor developers with engineers, in order to make sure you have a touch screen for ordering a freshly made ice cream with your choice of mix-ins from a machine. The technical details of how it works are here, but the average person should be happy to know that the system can produce any one of 96 flavors in 45 seconds.

The machines have been tested for the past two years at "two secret locations." Although for a time that was the food court at Boston University.

MooBella doesn't consider the Ice Creamery System a vending machine, but instead calls it "an ice cream shop on wheels." The machines don't accept credit cards or cash and require an attendant in a food court or cafeteria to process the transactions. According to its Web site, the company apparently plans to expand outside of New England in the second half of this year.

[Image via Flickr: marionare]
 

​When you grow up in one region of the country and then move to another, you bring along food traditions that are completely unknown to your local friends. Realizing this is as disquieting as suggesting that what just happened is exactly like a movie that nobody has seen.

For me, this occurred last Halloween, after I'd hung donuts on a string from the top of a door frame for a party I was hosting. Apparently, this fat-laden East Coast alternative to bobbing for apples is not well known here in Kansas City, if it's known at all. Until I scrabbled together an explanation with a Sharpie and printer paper, people wondered why half-melted chocolate Entenmann's were dangling from the ceiling.  

​You never think that big things are going on in the candy aisle in terms of innovation. We still eat Sky Bars and Valomilks, after all.

But then you stumble on something like Halloween Dots and it makes you wonder if the candy world isn't in some sort of upheaval. With flavors like Blood Orange and Candy Corn, and neon green versions of the movie theater stalwart, a paradigm shift is probably needed. It's like the ending of Rocky IV. If dots can change, than anything can change. 

Fruit-flavored Dots were introduced in 1945. The candy, made by Tootsie, was fairly staid until 2003 saw the release of tropical dots. Yogurt flavors came on the scene four years later -- two-toned, two-flavor dots that are likely gobbled down by the same folks who approve of yogurt-covered pretzels. And this year, we have the Halloween-themed gum drop-like candies.

So hold on to your hats; the candy aisle will be getting a little freaky. If you're wondering which direction we're headed, The Tomorrow Show on CBS has offered up a few possibilities. The candy episode looks at the rise of sour candies amid the disturbing fact that the average American consumes 24.5 pounds of candy per year.

Beyond unconventional flavors, host Mo Rocca has guest Frank Bruni, The New York Times' restaurant critic until a month ago, try a chocolate inhaler. 

​Most foods have changed between the time your parents ordered them and today, but milkshakes are one of those items that have withstood the test of time. Restaurants have flirted with reinventing the frosty drinks -- mostly by adding alcohol.

But when Adam Ried, the kitchen equipment specialist from America's Test Kitchen on PBS, suggests it may be time to shake up the milkshake -- it's worth considering. Ried, who is also a food editor, has a new cookbook called Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes. It brings in a whole host of potential new ingredients, including fruit jams and spices.

It's time for a new generation of milkshake drinkers to experience new flavors, Ried tells The Houston Chroncile:

To not modernize the milkshake would be to miss an opportunity.... Minds and palates are wider open than ever before. Milkshakes can act almost as a culinary tabula rasa because they take so well to such a wide range of flavors.

Among the 100 recipes offered in his book is a maple and bacon shake that would seemingly defy any attempts to chug with a straw.

On his book's site are four sample recipes, including a bananas foster shake and lemon-buttermilk shake. I'll never forget my first love, the black-and-white shake (vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup), but I'm intrigued by the idea that I might enjoy new flavors. After all, my palate has changed considerably since I was eight years old.

[Image via Flickr: kurisuuu]

If you find yourself in a pie-eating contest at any of this weekend's festivals, Fat City wants to give you the best chance of surviving with your dignity intact.

You don't want to end up like this blogger -- hoping that your love of food is enough to get you through the competition. So here are your top five strategies for either taking the gold or keeping the pies down, whichever's more important to you.

1. Get yourself a nickname. Intimidation is a big deal and if you're not a large man or woman -- you might as well have a pie-eating moniker that sounds like you know what you're doing. Bad puns are a decent place to start -- something like the Cherry Gobbler.

2. If given a choice, don't choose a pie flavor you love. You don't want to ruin a pie that brings you joy. Instead opt for you second choice to avoid lasting repercussions.

​Americans probably feel like they have a nagging spouse when it comes to the media's relentless coverage of our face-stuffing spiral into obesity. Most people get it -- they're not fat between the ears. We are overweight as a people.

And yet, sometimes a story appears that reminds us why we are the vikings of plates -- we conquer all foods that dare pass before our forks and knives! Please put your sausagey fingers together to welcome deep-fried butter!

The Dallas Morning News notes the newest entry at the Texas State Fair, which consists of golf ball-sized frozen chunks of butter, rolled in dough and then deep fried. Melted butter apparently oozes out when you take a bite of the food-on-a-stick. Texas is officially a hot mess. 

​Off-menu items are like the hidden door in the bookcase -- you've got to be able to tell cashiers exactly which button to push on the register in order to reveal the hidden wonders at your favorite fast food restaurant.

Mental Floss published a list of 10 off-menu items at popular fast food chains -- but as with so much of the Internet, the best information is in the comments and suggestions that follow the story. A double grilled quesadilla at Taco Bell is a good idea. The chili cheese burrito, however, sounds like it was left off the menu for a reason. 

Starbucks retired the strawberry-blended lemonade from the menu (it debuted 2006), but it's still available in stores. It's among the items recommended as Starbucks hacks, complete with ordering lingo, on barrista Jule Ann's site.

McDonald's "Mini Mac" is a double cheeseburger made like a Big Mac. It sounds a lot more appetizing than the Snack Wrap Mac -- a Big Mac shrunk and stuffed into a flour tortilla rolled out earlier this year. And at Burger King, I've taken advantage of the magic word "frings," which gets you something similar to a Winstead's 50-50, half-onion rings, half-fries. 

​Food science in the hands of someone evil can be as devastating on your stomach as something off the Volcano menu at Taco Bell -- you know, the menu with the big signs proclaiming "the good hurt." Taco Bell isn't an emo ex-girlfriend. There is no good hurt in relation to that drive-thru.

Sloshspot has compiled a list of the "20 Food Innovations That We Could Have Done Without." In hitting a number of packaged food products and beverages, the list is a nice walk-through of the items that masqueraded as food over the past few decades.

Once again, food coloring is a direct indicator of a product's potential gross-out factor. It would appear as though color is offered in lieu of taste in the hopes that you'll be distracted enough to remember blue ketchup or french fries fondly the next time you're in the grocery store.

​You can imagine the title -- "When Good Chefs Go Bad" -- when Esquire recently asked well-known chefs to sample fast food, uncover the secrets of chains, reveal their guilty pleasures and talk about burger joints. 

Top chefs actually loved several chains, including In-N-Out and Dairy queen, but spewed their wrath on others. Some of the best quotes:

On Taco Bell:

"Utter bastardization of one of the finest cuisines in the world. What the fuck is a chalupa?" -- Joey Campanaro, The Little Owl, New York City

On White Castle:

"I like White Castle, but White Castle does not like me." -- Craig Hopson, Le Cirque, New York City

​This is the time of year when ice cream always sounds good. However, some of the offerings uncovered by Better Homes and Gardens might not sound as appealing. Ice cream is apparently the next frontier for unusual tastes.

At first the list is tame, with flavors like sweet corn and grilled potato. Corn seems an easy leap for cream; after all, its natural summer sweetness works well in cold soups and risotto. And, naturally, bacon is now an ice cream flavor -- why now, since Whole Foods sells a bacon-studded cheddar cheese and there's even bacon lip balm on the market.

Although BHG still acknowledges that the unlikeliest ice cream flavors (at least for American tastes) are found in Japan, where chicken wing and pit viper ice cream are among the sweet and savory options. If you have any doubt, just watch Bizarre Foods' host Andrew Zimmern try octopus, snake and beef tongue ice cream.   

"This smells like seafood yogurt," says Zimmern. It only gets worse from there.

Since most of these flavors are not likely to hit Kansas City's shelves any time soon, you'll have to experiment at home. But rather than pureeing extra squash or attempting to bring together a burnt end sundae (which doesn't sound half-bad), you might want to start with ice cream sliders.

The faithful recreation of mini burgers in ice cream form with puff pastry "french fries" and strawberry puree "ketchup" looks like a winner for even the most vanilla of palates.

[Image via Flickr: Lee Coursey]

​Today marks the official eight-month anniversary of Vee's Sweets and Treats, the storefront bake shop at 8005 Paseo where the owner, Allie Vee Toney, sells what may be the biggest apple fritter in town -- it's about 8-inches in diameter and as thick as a paperback novel -- as well as doughnuts, iced Long Johns, an array of luscious-looking cookies and her signature sweet: cheesecake cake. That's right, it's a combination of layer cake with a cheesecake-like topping. Today's flavors are strawberry, lemon and plain. Toney will give curious patrons a sample before they have to commit to a full slice.

Toney's shop also sells deli-style sandwiches -- brisket, corned beef, peppered beef, turkey, salami -- during the lunch hour. The summer hours for the shop are 6 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

​After driving by this unprepossessing building at 3840 E. Truman Road for years, I finally stopped to have lunch at Portia's Cafe this week. Friends of mine, including a really fussy Foodie type, have been extolling its virtues for a long time.

Yes, there really is a Portia in the kitchen and she's owned this diner for 23 years. I understand now why it's a secret among its devotees: It kind of looks like a small-town jailhouse, thanks to the stone facade and the heavy bars on the windows -- but is as clean and neat as pin inside. There are two rooms: the front room, which boasts a few tables and a counter or the sunny, well-lit side room furnished with a half dozen or so of those gray plastic portable tables sold at Costco.

In the side room, the concrete block walls have been whitewashed and there's a blackboard listing all the daily specials. I mean, it ain't glamorous, but that's why the regulars -- mostly blue-collar and construction workers -- like it so much. The food is inexpensive, the portions are huge and dinner specials are served with baskets of light, fluffy Parker House rolls. My friend Truman had that day's special: two thick slices of meatloaf smothered in brown gravy and served with two sides, stewed cabbage and macaroni cooked in tomato sauce. It was supposed to also come with mashed potatoes, but Truman substituted Portia's hand-cut french fries, which he raved about. If you want a different kind of fried spud, Portia's offers Curly Q fries and tater tots.

I had a very good Patty Melt after the pretty young woman at the next table assured me it was the "best Patty Melt on Independence Avenue." I can't imagine higher praise. Another woman at an adjacent table ordered a burger and I noticed she had one man's name tattooed on her arm, another man's name on her foot. "She better stick with one guy," said Truman, "or she'll run out of body parts."

Truman was disappointed we didn't stick around for dessert: That day Portia was serving strawberry cake or lemon cake. But I'd eaten too many Curly Q fries.

Portia's is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Cash only.

 

Go ahead and make your Wednesday breakfast plans now, since tomorrow -- Wednesday, August 5 -- is National Waffle Day. A celebration is in order!

If you insist on making waffles at home, you might get into the real meaning of this holiday by watching Imitation of Life, one of the few American movies where pancakes and waffles mix with heartache, early race relations and frustrated​ maternal love. You'll never look at maple syrup with a dry eye again.

Yes, with a good waffle iron -- the kind you frequently see at garage sales and thrift stores -- and a basic waffle recipe (or this great malted waffle mix sold by Williams-Sonoma), it's easy enough to make hot, crispy waffles at home. But I still maintain the best waffles you can eat are those served in restaurants or diners.

Why? No mess to clean up, the waffles arrive ready to slather with butter and real maple syrup. The best waffles I've eaten in town have been, unsurprisingly, at Waffle House. The worst, hands down, are these.

 

(Image via Flickr: Monaz)

​Guilt is a powerful factor for people looking to stay on a diet or avoid fast food -- it's hard to look another person in the eye and ask for a bucket of chicken. But that's no longer a problem at a Jack in the Box in Bellevue, Washington, where customers can order via an automated kiosk, instead of a cashier.

The concept is simple. You order, swipe your card, and then pick up your order from a human. The machine allows customers to make substitutions or changes to their order, while subtly attempting to upsell drink or food items. 

Self-serve kiosks, which let customers order by selecting options on a touch screen, have been around since 2006, but are still not widely in use. Although Burger King, Taco Bell and Carl's Jr. have all test-marked the kiosks at one time, the technology hasn't come to Kansas City.

It remains to be seen whether consumers can efficiently order without a high-schooler to punch in their options. But with phones like the iPhone and Palm Pre, Red Box movie dispensers across the city, ticket kiosks at AMCs and Lowes, self-service checkouts at grocery stores, it would seem that America is ready for touch-screen ordering. However, watching the masses use any of these screens in real life shows that machines aren't making everybody's life more efficient. 

But if automated kiosks means McDonald's will stop putting sugar in all of the McCafes, this is progress, folks.

​Last month, Fat City ran a "Top Ten" list of the city's best cinnamon rolls and now every time I turn around, someone is handing me a cinnamon roll to see if where it would rank on an updated list. Since it would be rude not to at least taste these sweet offerings, I've been eating a few, including the soft, yeasty glazed version at right, created by Damesha Keeling. By day, the petite Keeling is a security guard -- she carries a gun and is totally no-nonsense. In her spare time, Keeling is a caterer, specializing in down-home cooking like cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, cakes and cobblers and from-scratch macaroni-and-cheese.

The business didn't start because Damisha has a passion for rattling those pots and pans in the kitchen. She started cooking seriously when her grandmother, retired nurse Edith Seawood, needed help preparing the specialties she used to make for family functions.

"She couldn't do all the things she used to do," said Keeling. "So I took over. We missed our grandmother's cooking a lot, so I've stepped in to bake the cakes, the cobblers and the rolls."

Keeling's reputation spread beyond her family dinners, so she's now catering small functions and providing comfort food for holiday meals. You could call it a different kind of security. Keeling can be reached at 816-726-4131 or at dr.keewood@yahoo.com.