KC Food Wars: Ribs Parts 2 & 3

Last week, we ventured out to City Market for Ribs Stop Number 2 at Winslow's. Our first impression was not a good one because there was not a customer or worker to be found! We did go on a Tuesday night, but you still don't expect to be the only people there. We eventually did find a server and sat out on the "debatable" city's largest patio.

Once again, our server knew nothing about Rib Wars and after about a ten minute wait while she asked her manager, we were finally offered buy one ribs, get the second half off. Not the deal we were originally promised, but we did it anyway.

Here we go!

Scoring:

Tenderness of meat- 16
Flavor- 18
Value- 9
Ambiance- 13
Sauce- 9

Grand Total- 65 out of a possible 100 points

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed these ribs because of the flavor. The menu boasted that the ribs stood on their own without the sauce and it was true, in my opinion. Which was also a good thing, because as Judge Jessica pointed out, "the sauce is a little too vinegar based for this KC girl."

Judge Dan commented that he "really enjoyed the patio. Sauce-wise, I also prefer a thicker molasses based sauce. I don't like the sauce to drip off my ribs."

So, besides being the only people there and the waitress not knowing about the promotion, I thought these were above-average ribs because of how flavorable they were. At $12.99 for a half slab of ribs, it's a lot of meat, but again, no sides come with it. So far, these ribs were better than Zarda's because they more consistently tender and much better flavor. However, none of us liked the sauce as well.


Third Stop: Johnny's (not the bar but the bbq place in Mission, KS).

So, our BOGO ribs promotion only lasts this month and we're kinda running out of time to hit up all the spots. We decided to get our third ribs to go and take them over to Bree's house for our weekly Bachlorette party. Jessica picked up the ribs and thought the place was pretty cool. It seemed fairly new, nice and clean. The best part was the staff actually knew about Rib Wars and was excited about it!

Scoring:

Tenderness of meat- 16.5
Flavor- 15.5
Value- 17
Ambiance- 16
Sauce- 12.5

Grand Total- 77.5 out of a possible 100 points


The value at $9.99 was by far the best we've had. Again, no sides but a much more reasonable price. These ribs were also beef which made them have a completely different flavor than that other two. They were the most tender we've had. Still a little fatty, though.  Overall, we all agreed they were the best so far based on flavor and tenderness.

We also got yummy fried macaroni bites, which were good. But basically, the ambiance and friendliness of the staff really set it apart.

Well, we've still two more stops to go! Can't wait! Laura

It's back- KC Food Wars: Ribs Part 1

We're back for another month of gaining weight, also known as KC Food Wars. This time, it's a pretty big challenge. Who has KC's best RIBS? I mean, we're talking barbecue, and this is serious.

Our first stop was Zarda's. Now, I've been to Zarda's in Blue Springs before and it's always been one of my favorites because I really like their sauce. Barbecue is judged by people in different ways. Some judge it by the meat. I judge it by the sauce. Zarda's has GREAT sauce. It's sweet with a kick of tang.

We decided to hit up Zarda's second location in Lenexa. Both restaurants are similar in that it's casual and family friendly. You order at the counter and then pick up your tray of food yourself. I asked my co-judge, Jessica, what she thought about that and she made a good point by saying it's a good method for a fast meal or if the restaurant is busy. Instead of waiting on service, you get your order in right away. Good point, JJ!

So, we are scoring the ribs much like how we scored the burgers. We have five categories and each judge will score on a 1-5 point basis. 5 being the ultimate best and couldn't be any better, 3 being average and 1 being awful. Our categories are: Tenderness of Meat, Flavor of Ribs, Sauce, Ambiance of restaurant and Value.

Since it was just the two of us today, we doubled our scores. For our remaining judging, hopefully we will have four judges.

So, at Zarda's the special was buy one rack of ribs and get a sandwich free for participating in Food Wars. So we ordered a full rack of short end ribs with a beef brisket sandwich. Please note, no sides were included, so we also ordered some fried pickles. Okay, actually I wanted those!

Right away, one negative thing was the cashier didn't know about the Food Wars special and had to ask a manager. Come on people, tell your staff what's going on!

Zarda's uses only locally sourced pigs for their ribs (bonus) and cooks them 17 hours over Ozark hickory smoked wood (another bonus)!

Here we go! (The Best score a category can get is 20).

Tenderness of Meat- 12
Flavor of ribs- 12
Sauce- 14
Ambiance- 14
Value- 12

Grand total: 64 out of a possible 100.

Ok, so tenderness. The cashier told us the short ends were less meat, but more tender. We scored these on the average side, because the tenderness was hit and miss. Some bites were truly tender and fell right off the bone. Then, you would get a bite that was really tough. JJ concluded that it was cooked well, but probably hadn't been the best quality of meat.

Another big factor that I did not like, were the chunks of fat located throughout the ribs. It was a huge turnoff for me to take a nice bite of the meat, only to have to spit out these gross fat bits.

Flavor. This again was judged average because it was good, but fairly smokey flavor.

Sauce. As I noted before, I love Zarda's sauce but JJ thinks it's a bit spicy.

Ambiance. Typical barbecue joint. Casual but nice, even partly rustic with nice wood paneling. The best part was the smell as you drove by. It just entices you to come inside. The biggest downside, to me, is the mere fact that it only has two locations, one in Blue Springs and one in Lenexa. So, neither is very convenient for us and let's face it, I hate Lenexa.

Value. A rack of ribs was $13.95. Now, you got a lot of ribs but it doesn't include any sides, which is disappointing. To get sides, you would have to order a platter which was around $20. That's on the high-end for a casual restaurant, in my opinion. However, I do disclaim that I'm not too familiar with the costs of ribs.

Here's our fried pickles (they were pretty good) and the brisket sandwich.

So, overall, the ribs were good because of the flavor and sauce but overall somewhat disappointing because of the inconsistency of the tenderness and the chunks of fat within the meat. I would definitely go back to Zarda's because of the sauce, but I would stick with brisket, ham or pork.

Our next try is coming soon...can't wait!!

I'm also tacking on another fountain that I found this week. It's number 93!

Behind UMB Bank at 49th and Main.

 Okay, it may not technically be a fountain but I'm still counting it!

More adventures to come! Laura

Celebration at the Station

Last weekend I enjoyed a really cool Kansas City tradition- Celebration at the Station! Every Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, for the past ten years, the KC Symphony plays a free concert in front of Union Station and everyone sits on the big hill at Liberty Memorial. People listen to the music, bring a picnic and just have a great time!

I love stuff like this and had so much fun!

Then it gets dark and out come an awesome fireworks show! Who doesn't love a good round of fireworks?!?

I had a very busy week (like usual!) and ended the week going to my first First Fridays in the Crossroads district. All the art galleries stay open and all kinds of cool people walk around, checking it all out! On our walk, we discovered the old Kansas City Star building at 18th and Grand. And right out front, a beautiful fountain!

No. 92- 18th and Grand, KC Star building





A little KC Star history. First of all, let it be noted that I look at their website kansascity.com every day and check out what's going on. The Star began publishing in 1880 and has won 8 Pulitzer Prizes. One of its claims to fame is Harry S. Truman once worked in the mailroom for two whole weeks. The other claim to fame is it employed Ernest Hemingway as a reporter for a short time.

Another busy week ahead for me...and more adventures to come! Laura

Money Museum, Central Library and more!

Lots of things to blog about today. This summer is shaping up to be a very fun one-- even if I don't get to take a vacation!

Yesterday was a super fun start to the summer. JJ and I had a wonderful lunch on the patio at Cafe Trio. The patio has a great view of the Nichols Fountain on the Plaza (minus the parking lot-ha!)

I had the Mac Daddy and it was DELICIOUS! The salad was also wonderful, it had the best dressing. Maybe my favorite part of the lunch were the two guys sitting at the table next to us. Both had the most adorable Australian accents!  It was impossible not to eavesdrop! :)

Then, we went to the Money Museum, which is just inside the Federal Reserve Bank at Main and Grand. This is a nice little museum with free parking and admission. We learned that the Federal Reserve bank is like the supervisor of all the banks in the region. They make sure all the banks have plenty of cash. We got to see part of the cash servicing area and watched workers package up millions and millions of dollars. They also had some robots that carried around the money and they were named Huey, Dewey and Louie!

Of course, this big, important building in KC, which was built in 2008, has a beautiful fountain right out front! Here's Fountain No. 91!

The Museum had lots of old coins and examples of different currencies, from what they used as colonies to Confederate money. They even had a real gold bar valued at over $688,000!

Every visitor to the Museum gets a free bag of cash!

Today, I visited the Central branch of the KC Public Library, right downtown. It is beautiful! Even the parking garage is cool!

Here's the entrance to the children's section.

The building used to be a bank. Here's a picture of how it was as a bank and now the beautiful library lobby.

Downstairs, instead of a vault for the Bank, it's a vault full of movies to rent!

There was an exhibit of wood-carved pictures from Missouri native, Fred Geary. Mr. Geary was an artist who worked for the Fred Harvey Company, designing postcards and book covers and all sorts of things for the hospitality company. He also did all these beautiful woodcuts in the 1930 and 40s. Many were Missouri landmarks, like this picture below of Jesse James' house.

Here's one more fountain to add, No. 90. This is a beautiful fountain right on the Plaza on 47th St. It's pretty cool how the water shoots out of the horses' noses.

That's all for now, more adventures to come! Laura

Real Life Where's Waldo?

Ok, so this week I was informed about an awesome thing that U-haul does. I'm sure you've all seen their new trucks with the picture on it and some random fact about a place in America. These graphics are not only beautiful to look at, but they all have a hidden picture in them too! U-haul's mascot "Sammy U" is hidden somewhere in every Venture Across America picture. This week at work, a U-haul was parked right outside our window and we literally spent the entire day looking for Sammy U! We finally took to Google to help us because we could not find him anywhere. I ended up tweeting the official U-haul Super Graphics account, who messaged the illustrator of the picture, who gave us a clue. We finally found the little guy but it was so faint on this particular truck that we would have never found it without help. Now I have a mission to find Sammy U on every U-haul truck I see!


Here's a picture of what you're looking for:

Sammy U! Named after U-haul's founder, L. S. "Sam" Shoen

Here's the truck that was parked outside work:

Gary and Maddy looking for Sammy U.

We finally spotted him. As you can see, this was incredibly faint and small. But you can see the "U" and in real life (as in not a picture) you could make out Sammy's head and body.

I love this new adventure I now have! Every time I find a U-haul I am going to look for Sammy U!

Here's a video of someone else finding Sammy U which shows him much better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqK3dtK3YxY

I also recently discovered a cool exhibit on the walk to work. On Baltimore, between 13th and 14th, I noticed these markers. Each of them representated a planet in our solar system. It's actually to scale with Pluto at Union Station and the rest of the planets all the way to 13th Street. Just shows you how far out Pluto was (and maybe why it's not considered a planet anymore!)

Each marker had a planet and some facts about them. One interesting fact was it said I was reading the text by light that had left the sun eight minutes ago! Crazy! So, check it out sometime and learn all about our solar system!

Last week, I tried out another burger place on 39th Street, KC Smoke Burgers. This was a very unique experience! When you first walk in, you notice that everything has been written on with markers. It's rather odd. The smell is also very intense. It smells of wonderful smoked burgers!

We all ordered the cheeseburgers and they came out on little individual smokers! Pretty cool.



I really liked how they marked the buns with KC S for KC Smokeburger. The patties were huge and very flavorful. It almost was too much of the smoky flavor. The fries were excellent. One weird thing, no beer! I just found that to be incredibly odd to have a burger joint and no beer. Oh, well!

Found another fountain this week, hidden inside Power and Light at Main at 13th. It's inside the block, right beside Burger King Whopper Bar.

No. 89- Power and Light- block of Main between 13th and 14th



More adventures to come...Laura

April is for Anniversaries

This month marks the anniversary for Bruce and I together for 7 years!! Wow! It's been seven wonderful and adventurous years at that.

Just a couple of fun things this week. It hockey playoff time and the Preds are doing great! I hosted a hockey brunch last Sunday when they got to play on NBC. We had some delicious chocolate muffins, courtesy of Bree, and I made some sausage/egg breakfast casserole. It was my first try at it and it was very yummy!

I also got to attend my first Royals game of the year with Angie. It was great to be back at the K! Now, of course we all know that the Royals are off to a horrible start, but I still enjoy going to the games. The BEST PART of the whole night, though, was my Escobar getting his first home run of the year!! I love him!

I've already counted these fountains- they are No. 4 on my list!

 Friday night was another Preds game to watch on tv. This time, we went to the Blue Line, an actual hockey bar in river market. Okay, this is my new favorite place ever! They love hockey! It was so much fun to see the Preds eliminate the Red Wings from the playoffs! First time ever. There were even a few Preds fans at the Blue Line- who knew?!? I'm definitely going back to see the Preds in the second round.

Check out this burger I had!!

Two onion rings included! It was SOOOO good!

Myself, Adam and Bree at the Blue Line

I'll definitely be looking to recruit some more people to join in on the Preds bandwagon during this playoff run. All are welcome!

Til next time...Laura

Barney Allis Plaza and KC's Famous Dish Pizza

Tucked in between the Convention Center and Power and Light is a one-block green space called Barney Allis Plaza. There are some beautiful benches to sit and have lunch and of course, a spectacular fountain. This fountain was documented early on in my fountain hunting adventure. In fact, it was my very first documented fountain!

The Barney Allis Plaza Fountain at 12th and Wyandotte:

The park has a tennis court right in the middle, which is home to the Kansas City Explorers World TeamTennis. Did you know this even existed???

And apparently they are the 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONS! I am ashamed to say I did not even know about this!

Looks like their season is in July. I may have to check it out!

Find out more about the Kansas City Explorers: http://www.kcexplorers.com/teams/index.aspx.

Here's a short little time lapse video of the fountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pl8j-BvLKY.

Anyways, on the south side of the plaza was a picture of the first municipal building in Kansas City and its story:

In 1899, Kansas City built its first convention center. It was very proud of this achievement. They even had John Phillip Sousa come and conduct the opening ceremony. The convention center was going to be the host of the Democratic Convention but three months before the convention, the center was burned to the ground. Everyone assumed the Convention would have to be moved to another city but the city and people rallied and built a new center in less than 90 days in time! This building stood until the 1970's when the current larger Bartle Hall was constructed.

KC's Municipal Auditorium

Right across the street is the Convention Center

A view of the iconic spears of the convention center



So, it was pretty awesome to discover this neat park downtown,  and learn some more history about the convention center. Tonight, I discovered another wonderful Kansas City treasure: The Dish Famous Deep Dish Pizza.

I saw this pizza at Cosentino's and tried it out. It was delicious!! You have to like deep dish pizza to like it but the best part is it boasts to be the only locally handmade frozen pizza in KC.

Delicious!

Thanks for reading. I would love to hear if anyone else has been to the Barney Allis Plaza or tried the Dish Famous Deep Dish Pizza!

Til next time...Laura