The onion rings were my favorite. They appeared to be freshly battered and were cooked just right. The $7 serving was enormous. We both had plenty of them and there were still many left over.

We paid our first visit to Taste of Africa in southern Overland Park. The African restaurant opened last summer in the space vacated by the Burnt End BBQ when it moved to 119th Street. The menu is somewhat limited, but had several items which looked appealing.

Linda has the Samaki wa Kukaanga (deep fried whole tilapia fish with seasonings topped with lime wedges) which came with the choice of two side dishes for $11.50. We didn't see or taste the lime, but that is OK, as I'm not a big lime fan. She chose Ugale (corn meal mush/ corn fufu) and fried plantains. The mush was a large white block with a texture and taste that made me think of a block of grits. The plantain slices were fairly thick and sweet. Very enjoyable.

I went with the Serengeti Platter - Ng'ombe (beef stew), sautéed cabbage, sautéed kale, rice and chapatti for $13.50. The stew was very good. Just meat and sauce with out vegetables. The sautéed kale was delicious. The cabbage was lightly seasoned with curry and I wasn't impressed with it at first, but it was much more enjoyable with a little of the sauce from the stew. The chapatti was a roll of thin bread. Not the spongy, sour bread from Ethiopia, but something filling the same place in a meal.

Taste of Africa

The point of this trip was mainly to make sure there were no changes other than pricing and to update our photos. Also to see if there were any after effects from the fire in December. The pork ribs were dark & crispy on the outside, but still juicy and tender on the inside. This was the first time I have had LC's sausage, which has a somewhat coarse texture. I enjoyed it, but it was less of a hit with the rest of our party.

While we were eating, a Kansas City Barbecue Tour bus pulled up and the small restaurant filled up. Apparently it was either the $40 two restaurant "ribblet tour" or the $65 four restaurant "original KC barbecue tour."

Returning to Kansas, we visited the Johnson County Museum in Shawnee. We have had a page about the museum for many years, but they didn't permit photos in the museum, so it was limited. The museum recently contacted us to tell us that they now permit photos and are otherwise more visitor friendly these days.

LC's BBQ packed with the tour group

Johnson County Museum

However, the food is much like the other locations. The pan fried chicken, chicken gizzards, mashed potatoes, cottage fries, green beans, soup and gravy were all very good. The cinnamon rolls were good fresh, but don't do well when taken home and Stroud's large servings are largely about the food you take home. For example, after a generous meal, I took home enough gizzards and cottage fries for two more meals.

Are server was struggling a little, but other employees did a good job of covering for her and our service didn't suffer.

We updated our pages devoted to the Richard H. Schmidt Museum of Natural History in Emporia, Mount Sunflower, and Great Overland Station in Topeka.

I would like this better with some pieces of onion and pepper, but it is still very good as it it.

I followed up with a stop at the nearby Ernie Miller Nature Center. The largest exhibit gallery was being remodeled.

This evening, Mary and Linda helped me make a first visit to Twisted, a counter service sandwich, wrap and taco restaurant near Johnson County Community College. I had heard wonderful things about their Cajun Mahi Mahi fish tacos. The sweet, spicy taco lived up to the hype. The BBQ chicken wrap. Southwest chicken sandwich and Cajun chicken tacos were all OK, though the sandwich had too much pico de gallo which soaked the bun.

Listing for Taste of Africa and Twisted were added to our Overland Park Restaurant Guide.

Twisted

The Italian susage and meatball submarine sandwiches were both good, but the pizza was the standout. It is among the best pizzas I have had in Johnson County.

The signature Ruben sandwich was disapointing. It had way too much bread for the amount of filling and not enough dressing. It was mostly about eating grilled rye bread.

The burnt ends are good, though at $10.69 with one side, the serving of meat seemed a little small. I would like the price to drop about a dollar and a half, a second side dish added, or the meat serving made larger.

So we drove a couple of miles south to Austin's Bar & Grill, but discovered that there would be a long wait for a table.

Giving up on the game, we then made our second visit to Foody's. 

I had the chicken fried steak sandwich special, $7.99 with curly fries. The large, thick sandwich came without white gravy, but was still tender. The breading was nothing special.

Friday afternoon I drove to Wichita to revisit several of the places on our Unique Kansas Restaurants page.

First up was Bomber Burger on the south east side. The tiny bar & grill first opened in 1951, and it has been in the Rickard family since 1985. Chris Rickard, who presently runs it, took over in 1997 following the death of his father, Paul Rickard. The burgers are grilled slowly, so they stay very moist, though they are all cooked well done. They are spinkled with a little garlic powder & other spices. The fresh cut fries are also good.

Following the meal, I drove along the Big Arkansas River from the Keeper of the Plains, south to Watson Park, stopping several times for photos. Much longer was spent at the fairly recently built Lincoln Street Dam & Bridge, where a beaver was quite active.

Before heading to my motel, I also stopped at the original Nu-Way Cafe, which has been serving crumbly burgers and wonderful in house made root beer since the 1930s. I had a medium Nu-Way burger, small onion rings and a pop. Much have they have done in the past, although I did not have a coupon, they gave me the coupon price for the combination - only $4.99. All of the food was good, with the handmade onion rings being the best.

The menu is quite limited, the Nu-Way Cafe does a good job on those things which they offer.

Beaver  (Castor canadensis) below the Lincoln Street Dam

Nu-Way Cafe

The first attraction visited today was the Kansas Aviation Museum. Although I had photographed the museum many years ago, somehow a page had never been made and some of those photos are now out of date.

The museum occupies a beautiful WPA completed building which was the Wichita Municipal Airport terminal from 1935 to 1951. The Aviation Museum displays its larger aircraft outside the building, but there are many smaller aircraft and displays inside the building. Wichita has long been called the "The Air Capital of the World" and there are exhibits devoted to several of the firms which have been head quartered in Wichita or had major facilities here, such as Beechcraft, Cessna, and Stearman Aircraft. Volunteers open a couple of the larger airplanes for viewing each day.

Driving on to Hutchinson, I took new exterior photos of the Strataca. The old photos said Kansas Underground Salt Museum, which was the original name. I think the original name was better for marketing several ways, or even Stratica Underground Salt Museum.

There were several other stops in Hutchinson, starting with Roy's Hickory Pit BBQ. The 33 year old family run BBQ has become almost iconic. After taking some photos to update the listing, I had just the mild Polish sausage which is my favorite meat at Roy's. I would have enjoyed it more without so much sauce.

Sacks 5th Avenue in Hutchinson was busy today, despite (or because of) a sign that says it will be auctioned on April 1st. There is no mention of the sale Google news and even the auction house's website doesn't mentions Sacks by name. Sacks is a locally owned hamburger joint in an old gas station building with the walls lined with old photos plus rock and roll and automobile memorabilia.

Before leaving town, there was one more stop at R-B Drive In, where I had a pork tenderloin sandwich and a copy of the current menu. I noticed nothing new here. The server made one major error, but was mortified when she realized it and apologized several times.

It was time to start a winding drive toward home, but there were several more stops to make. The first was in Cassoday for some photography on block long main street. Driving east on a dirt county road, I stopped to photograph the fire that were being used to revitalize the range land. Despite it being very dry, some of the fires were over a large area and I didn't see anyone monitoring them.

I paid my second visit to Teterville,  a small community which formed near the Teter Oil Fields in southeast Kansas in the 1920s. The community is long abandoned and just a few foundations remain.

Teter Rock was a pile of local rocks which James Teter erected at a high point on his land as a guidepost for homesteaders searching for the Cottonwood River. As Teterville grew, the rocks were used in the construction of several of the buildings and the Teter marker disappeared. 

Teter Rock was reconstructed in 1954.

Supper was at the Chicken House in Olpe. It had been a few years since the last visit. Most things are unchanged, but the pies are no longer baked in house and the Freedom fries are called French fries again.

The last community visited was Emporia, where I took many photos of the Soden's Dam Falls, Soden's Grove Bridge and the nearby All Veterans Memorial. There were also a few photos taken at Red Rocks, which was the home of the famous journalist, William Allen White.

Kansas Aviation Museum
 
 
 

Strataca
 
 

Sacks 5th Avenue
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Teter Rock
 
 
 

Soden's Dam Falls and Bridge