The chili was spicier than it had been on my first visit and needed no added hot sauce. It had a spice I am not used to being in chili. I'm not sure what it is, but it is used in some Indian dishes. In any case, it worked well. 

The fish tacos were a little unusual - the fish was long chunks, like fish & chips. But I still enjoyed the tacos.

The smashwedge was tow wedges of iceberg lettuce, topped with bacon, chopped tomatoes, red onions, blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing. Both attractive and tasty, it looked impressive enough the a stranger passing our table stopped to ask what it was.

My OhTingOhBokum (spicy squid sautéed with vegetables in red pepper paste sauce on top of thin noodles) was still good, but lacked a certain something which I had liked in the flavor. I'm not sure what it is, but I think they may have changed kind of oil which they use.

Meals at Chung's Rainbow Restaurant are still very reasonable. My squid was $10.95 including rice, a clear soup, kimchi and pickled radish. There are only a couple of meals which cost more than $12.

That was a big mistake. I was very pleased with the food. The salsa was superior and the $7.29 avocado chicken salad was very good and a large serving. Shrimp tacos and deep fried ground beef tacos were good, but the fish taco was heavenly - one of the very best tacos I have had in Kansas City.
 

For lunch, we revisited Backfire Barbeque in Kansas City, Kansas - a first of its kind theme restaurant based on the Orange County Choppers TV show on the Discovery Channel. 

We visited Backfire BBQ shortly after it opened in 2009 and frankly weren't that impressed with the food during that visit. The food was much different today. 

The menu has changed to include more BBQ items and we tried two of them this day. Linda had the $16.99 beef burnt end platter with fries and pit baked beans. The burnt ends weren't the crispy chunks we are used to at most Kansas City BBQ places, but were broken up and were flavored with a good sauce throughout.

I had the Sunday afternoon special called the "patio pig party," a serving of a smoked whole hog with grilled corn and baked beans. Wow, that was good pork and the corn was good too. I also had the chili. It wasn't very hot, but was very flavor and tasted great with a little added Tobasco Sauce.

The only disappointment was the beans which were soft and fairly tasteless.

smoked whole hog

Shawnee Mission Park is a four seasons destination with things as diverse as a 53 ace dog off-leash area, 130 acre lake, and a base for radio controlled aircraft.

Then on the the Lawrence Busker Festival. There were at least 6 stages with continuous performances, scattered around Massachusetts Street, with more street performers set up along Mass. The three day event is free, other than tips to the performers. 

My favorite performances included KC Ukesters, the MamaLou Strongwoman Show, Alferd Packer Memorial Sting Band and the Voler aerial artists.

We drove on to Topeka for supper at Specks Bar and Grill. 

Specks Bar and Grill began in 1957 as the Seabrook Tavern. The Tavern was sold a few years ago, it had stayed good, but closed earlier this year. Fortunately, Carl Maichel and his wife Debbie (daughter of the original owners Franklin "Speck" Benge and Lou Benge) returned to reopen the Tavern as Specks.

Specks is famous for serving burgers up to 3 pounds in size, on buns made inhouse. They also have such treats as mountain oysters and house made fries, chips and onion rings. 

We sampled the house burger (which includes Swiss cheese, American cheese and shaved ham), potato chips, onion rings, mountain oysters and the fresh ground pork tender sandwich. The only disappointment was the chips, which didn't seem different from those from a bag.

The biggest hits were the burger, pork tender (not "pork tenderloin") and oysters. The mountain oysters were more tender than they are many places and went well with the cocktail sauce.

Voler - Thieves of Flight
 
 

Specks Bar and Grill

We had good, if not outstanding food. The best parts of the meal were the steak, baked potato, garlic bread and apple pie. The fillet was better than the ribeye. Our meal for two including beverage and tax came to just less than $40!

The small bar and grill was busy, but the servers were working well together and the service was good. The chicken wings were better than average and all of the food was good.

I was not impressed with my grilled catfish, but did enjoy the waffle fries and green beans which came with it. I thought that the hand breaded pork tenderloin and steak which my friends ordered were much better.

The Gaslight grill can be expensive and makes things look even more expensive by not including the prices in their online menu. But there are some good buys. At $18, this dish is one of them. The mixed green salad with cranberries, blue cheese crumbles and poppy seed vinaigrette was only $3 when ordered with an entree.

I think that 5 Guy's makes a better burger, but Smash Burger has the edge in most other category. The atmosphere is much more pleasant and there is a much larger selection of items. Smash burger has things like onion straws, salads and other sandwiches.

I was accompanied by one of the staff who often got into the cages with the animals, or petted them from outside the cages. I particularly liked the wolves, leopard and two young African lions. I was close enough that I had to be careful that the animals didn't swipe at me or the camera. I was careful and the only animals that I actually touched were some wolves who I scratched and allowed to lick my hands. 

Lunch was a revisit of Beethoven's 9th in Paola. The German restaurant is only open three days a week and this was my first time back in a year and a half. Linda had the zigeuner schnitzel (breaded, pan fried pork loin topped with sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms and a red wine sauce) and I had the Jaeger Schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce. It was good, but not the plate licking odd that I thought it was before. Linda really liked the rolls.

They have many German dishes on the menu and I really should get back there again and try some more. 

In the evening, we drove to the Legends in Kansas City, Kansas, to check into Chateau Avalon - a boutique hotel with themed rooms, nestled on a treed hillside.

We had the two level Castaway Room with a Jacuzzi on the main level and the bed tucked into the prow of a boat that is for some reason lodged in the trees. I liked the hotel, but the two level room didn't work. It seemed that what one of us wanted was always on the other floor and there were too many trips up and down the stairs.

A bottle of the house sparkling apple cider was waiting on ice when we arrived. They offer a number of "late night indulgences" and later we enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries with whipped cream

Our supper was at the Savoy Grill in Kansas City, Missouri. 

I love the traditions of the 107 year old seafood & steak restaurant, that was a favorite of Harry Truman. The service was very good, but we have been to too many fine restaurants in the past year and nothing really stood out. Linda had a fried seafood platter and I had steak poivre (a huge sirloin strip which was peppered, seared and served with cognac and red wine sauce). The steak had good flavor, but was fairly tough.

My favorite part of the meal was the lobster bisque, but even though it was very good, I have had better a couple of times recently.

Chateau Avalon
 
 
 
 
 
 

Savoy Grill

This time I had Fletch's spicy corn on the cobb and the atomic buffalo turds (cored jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese & marinated water chestnuts and wrapped in bacon). They were both very good. The corn reminded me a bit of the elote corn that I had in Cozumel.

Supper was at a new restaurant in Shawnee - Waxy O'Shea's Irish Pub. We were greeted by a gentleman at the door who appeared to be the incarnation of the (presumably) mythical Mr. O'Shea. That was the high point of the meal. My fish & chips and Linda's shepherd's pie were both OK, but I will try something else the next time. The menu appears to have more Irish dishes than most of the area's Irish pubs.

There is a second Waxy O'Shea's in Branson, Missouri.

Waxy O'Shea's Irish Pub

Johnny's chicken was OK, but unlike the way it was shown on Triple D, they served it with sauce on the chicken. I think I would have enjoyed it much more with the sauce on the side. The half chicken diner came with French fries, coleslaw & baked beans and was a good value at $9.69.

The pizza was just average, with a sauce that made me think of straight tomato paste without spices. Zepi's is probably a good choice for a party that has some people who do not want pizza. The rest of the menu is fairly varied. 

The onion rings were just something popped out of the freezer, but the chicken wrap was pretty good. I liked it that they offer a choice of dressings for the wrap and included additional dressing on the side.

Linda had the shish kabob (marinated filet mignon, skewered with onions, tomatoes and green peppers) for $18.69. The meat had a distinctive flavor which she enjoyed. She did wish the tomatoes had been cut into pieces so the cooking was more trough the vegetable.

My $19.99 lamb rack had 6 chops and was some of the best lamb I have had in a long time. I had the same complaint about the tomatoes.

The entrees came with the choice of two of basmati rice, baked potato and vegetables.

The food is still good, but  there continues to be service issues. There was a problem on our last visit in the Spring, but we still had a good time and lived with it.

When our food was brought out this time, they brought 2 meals for 3 people. The person taking the order had missed one order entirely. It was a long wait for the other meal to be prepared.

At 75, you pay when you order. So after eating the meal, we ordered a cobbler for dessert and paid for it at that time. And were then told it would take 10 minutes. It would have been better if they had said that before we paid, but OK.

So we waited. When the cobbler was finally ready, they couldn't figure out who had ordered it. Even though there were only two other tables with customers, we overheard the server asking another table if they had ordered dessert and had to get there attention.

I do like the food at 75, but it just isn't worth the server problems.

The best items at Cozy's Cafe may be from the breakfast menu, which is available all day.

I went with high hopes. The online menu listed burgers made from buffalo & elk, and when we waked in, I liked the interesting seating using old theater and airline seats in part of the restaurant. I was more than willing to overlook the too loud music.

But the food was nothing special. The onion rings and the buns used for the sandwiches were were sub par. The pork tenderloin tasted OK, but was mostly breading. The elk and buffalo burgers were so tough that it was difficult to stick a fork in them. I think they had gone straight from the freezer to the frying pan. 

The first new page is devoted to Geary Lake Falls, which is about 6 miles south of Junction City at Geary State Fishing Lake.

The second new page is about the new Michael Steven Gallery in Lincoln. The Gallery occupies part of the space at the Village Lines shop and keeps the same hours.

Not that the brunch was bad, but there is no reason to make a special trip for it. The biggest pleasant surprise, was the fruit smoothies.