Kansas
Travel Blog
Chronicling
changes to KansasTravel.org and Keith's exploration
& photographing Kansas restaurants, attractions, museums, festivals
and art. Contact him.
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Thursday
- February 3, 2022: I had lunch at Selamta Ethiopian Restaurant and
Bar in Lenexa. The name and ownership of this restaurant changed a few
years ago and I had not been here since then. I don't know Ethiopian food
well, but have had it occasionally for many years. The storefront restaurant
has a fairly small dining room, but the restaurant widens out at the bar
and there were several people settled down at the bar.
I
ordered the Meat Combination, which they describe as a mix of red sauce,
turmeric mixed sauce, roasted beef, collard mixed beef, carrot mixed beef
and turmeric mixed chicken for $16.99. It looked like their were two servings
of the turmeric mixed chicken, with no carrot mixed beef. The chicken dish
was not very spicy and I am not a carrot fan, so that was 40% of the meal.
the beef in turmeric mixed sauce and roasted beef were both fairly spicy
and I enjoyed them both. The collared mixed beef was OK. The injura (sour
spongy bread used to pick up the food) was not as sour as some, which is
more to my liking. That said, although I like the style of picking up the
food in the bread, it doesn't add to my enjoyment of the dishes and after
a few bites I switched to using a fork.
The
service was friendly but rather slow and I noticed the people at another
table become impatient and go up to the bar to pay.
Overall,
I would be fine returning with someone who would like to eat there, but
probably will not pick it out myself.
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Meat Combination |
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Friday
- February 4, 2022: I drove to Kansas City, Kansas to photograph several
Quindaro town site locations with fresh snow. Quindaro was established
by abolitionists in late 1856 and became the home of many former slaves.
My destination was the Quindaro Underground Railroad Museum. The museum
is housed in two rooms of the Vernon Multipurpose Center and is open on
weekday mornings. It appears that the main purpose of the museum at this
time is to preserve, books, photos, clippings and a few artifacts, but
needs a curator to organize things in context and better communicate the
interesting history of this community. At this time I feel that the collection
is more of a research tool than a museum.
I
drove to the Armourdale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas to have lunch
at Wolfe-Es Restaurant. which styles itself as an American Diner. The 30
year old restaurant does serve diner style food, but other than breakfast
items, has a short menu for a diner. It has been under the present owner
for three years and I was told they still use many scratch recipes from
the previous owners.
I
had a pretty decent pork tenderloin sandwich, the first I have had since
early last year. It was typically sized and pretty good with mayo and onion.
The French fries did not appear to be house cut.
Some
people have called this place a dive. I don't think being a dive is a bad
thing, but this restaurant is too clean and well kept for that name to
apply. Online reviews also say it is cash only, but that is no longer true.
On
my way home, I stopped at Wyandot National Burying Ground in downtown Kansas
City, Kansas and Turkey Creek Waterfall in Merriam to take more photos
with the light snow cover.
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Quindaro Underground Railroad Museum
Pork tenderloin
Wyandot National Burying Ground |
Saturday
- February 5, 2022: Linda joined me in paying the third visit to Smoketown
BBQ in Overland Park, Kansas. I ordered a small chili ($4.89) with onions
($0.39) and 6 wings ($9.59). The chili was a real treat, meaty with only
a few beans and lots of flavor, while not being very spicy. I usually want
my chili hotter, but was quite happy with this and will have it again.
The wings were small, but I was given 9 instead of 6. They were smoked
and lightly finished in a deep fryer. They were served with BBQ sauce and
while I liked them, didn't satisfy the flavor profile that I am usually
thinking of when i order wings - Buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing
for dipping. I would order chicken instead of wings.
Linda
got the half chicken dinner ($13.49 with Texas toast and the choice of
two sides). It was a very small chicken, but had nice flavor from the smoking
and rub. It was very lightly sauced, but need no more sauce. Linda was
as impressed with the Texas toast as I was when I sampled it last month.
I
do wish that the employees would take a few Covid precautions.
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chili & chicken wings |
Tuesday
- February 8, 2022: I need to try the ribs at Smoketown BBQ in Overland
Park before I can do a review on this restaurant and stopped here for lunch.
I had the $15.89 rib dinner with 3 ribs, two sides, pickle and texas toast.
I felt there should have been more meat for the price. The ribs were tender.
Although the meat was nicely smoky, there wasn't much flavor from seasoning
in the cooking.
The
only side I hadn't tried was the macaroni & cheese. It was fine, if
not a standout.
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Rib dinner |
Wednesday
- February 9, 2022: I had lunch at the Peanut
on Santa Fe to update its review on our Overland
Park Restaurant Guide. I got pictures of the current menu and enjoyed
an old favorite, the 3 wings and fries with house made blue cheese dressing.
As usual, the wings are quite large, though not that meaty. I like the
black peppery hot sauce which many people think is the best in Kansas City.
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3 wings & fries |
Thursday
- February 10, 2022: The much awaited Buck Tui BBQ, a Thai influenced
Kansas City BBQ restaurant in Overland Park, opened to curbside only sales
tonight and we ordered online. We don't usually visit brand new restaurants,
but with takeout only, we thought it was worth a try.
We
arrived to find 6 ot 7 vehicles already waiting curb side. From outside
it appears that there is much more work to be done before they will open
inside. The photo at right was taken after most of them left.
We
enjoyed the dishes we sampled, but I felt they suffered from the 15 minute
drive taking them home. We look forward to having their food again when
we can dine at the restaurant.
The
first food photo has the Buck Tui Banh Mi (Smoked chicken, chicken liver
mousse, ginger pickles, jalapenos, crusty hoagie with one side for $14)
and a half slab of ribs (With rice and pickles for $21). The fries are
not listed on the menu, except as a side option with this sandwich. The
ribs came with a choice of two sauces from a long list.
The
second food photo has Buck Tui Noodles (Pulled pork, egg noodles, scallion,
bean sprouts, cilantro, ginger $14), Brisket Egg Rolls (Brined brisket,
cream cheese, scallion, sweet & sour sauce $9), and Brisket Noodle
Curry (Brined brisket, coconut curry, roasted small potatoes, long bean,
vermicelli noodles, Thai chile, peanut $18. The cream cheese in the egg
rolls was a hit!
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Buck Tui BBQ
Banh Mi & ribs
Noodles, egg rolls, curry |
Sunday
- February 13, 2022: I added a new review of Smoketown
BBQ in Overland Park, Kansas.
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Monday
- February 14, 2022: I added a new page devoted to Moss-Thorns
Gallery of Art at Fort Hays University.
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Wednesday
- February 16, 2022: We had supper at Meat Mitch Barbecue at Ranchmart
in Leawood, Kansas. The much anticipated restaurant by a well known KC
BBQ Pitmaster had been in the process for 4 years. It occupies a 6,000
square foot storefront and has a lot of covered outside dining space, though
that space was not open. We were happy to see that all of the employees
who were interacting with the public were wearing masks.
You
order your meal at a counter and are given glasses to serve your own fountain
drinks. A server comes to your table to see if you want drinks from the
bar and otherwise assist you. The server brings your food and collects
your payment at the conclusion of the meal. Our server was quite helpful
and did a good job of answering questions. The manager also stopped by
the table to check on us.
We
ordered the Pitmaster Platter. The $42 combination is intended to serve
two and we had enough meat to bring some home. It includes smoked burnt
ends, black angus carved brisket, three rib bones, pulled pork, smoked
turkey, smoked rope sausage, bbq pit beans, potato salad & French fries.
I liked all of the meats, with the brisket being my favorite, closely followed
by the pulled pork. The sausage was a little bland for my palate. The ribs
were the most smoky of the meats which were all served un-sauced.
Meat
Mitch has 6 sauces, 5 of which were already on the table. They are Naked
BBQ Sauce, described as rich, smooth & sweet; Yellow Brick Road, described
as Carolina-style mustard sauce; WHOMP! Competition BBQ Sauce, described
as rich, smooth with a touch of heat; Stay Hot! BBQ Sauce, described as
major heat meets a touch of sweet; Char Bar Table Sauce, described as spicy
tang with a zesty bit; and WHOMP! White Sauce, described as Alabama-style
white BBQ sauce.
The
Char Bar Table Sauce was my favorite of their traditional KC sauces, but
Yellow Brick Road was by far my favorite of the six. The White Sauce is
the only one which isn't already on the the table (probably because it
is kept refrigerated) and when our server brought it at my request, I asked
him what he thought it went best with. He said that he liked it with the
French fries. I normally love mayonnaise on fries, but this combination
of mayonnaise, horseradish, brown sugar and vinegar didn't appeal to me.
The
fries were fairly good. The are heavily seasoned and very salty. Some customers
may prefer to ask for them unseasoned. The beans did little for either
of us. The potato salad was traditional. I'm not a big potato salad fan,
but thought this was above average and worth bringing home that which we
didn't finish.
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Meat Mitch BBQ Sauces |
Monday
- February 21, 2022: We added a new page devoted to St.
Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Wilson,
Kansas.
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Wednesday
- February 23, 2022: We added a new page devoted to Wakarusa
River Valley Heritage Museum in Lawrence, Kansas.
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Thursday
- February 24, 2022: We had supper from the Tacos El Viejon food truck
in Shawnee, Kansas, which has been building a strong reputation. They have
picnic tables for seating, but it was a cold. windy night, so we picked
up our food and took it to the home of nearby friends.
Although
Tacos El Viejon has a Facebook page, they do not have a menu online. The
menu in place at the food truck is a listing of items without pricing on
the side of the truck. For $42 we got 11 tacos and 2 quesadillas, but don't
know how much was paid.
I
found the tacos dry and the meats lacking in flavor, but I was the only
one of the 4 of us who didn't care for it. I did like the foil wrapped
radishes, raw onion, cilantro, cooked onions & peppers that accompanied
the food.
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Tacos El Viejon |
Saturday
- February 26, 2022: We just learned this week that after a long Covid
related break, Jarocho has
reopened in Kansas City, Kansas. This is my favorite seafood restaurant
in Kansas and I have been particularly anxious to return and try the grilled
stuffed oysters which I saw prepared on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
during the break.
Arriving
at 5 PM, we were pleased to see that all of the staff was wearing masks
and that customers were required to wear masks while not at their table.
Kansas City, Kansas is still rated High for Covid.
I
had the oysters, which were stuffed with shrimp, Spanish octopus and blue
crab. It tasted quite good, but I wouldn't put it among my favorite dishes
at Jarocho. The oysters were rather small. A paired them with a second
appetizer, Ceviche Jarocho, which the menu describes as a sweet, sour &
spicy combo of fish and veggies. I had requested that they go light on
the lime juice and was very happy with the flavor and fairly large serving
size. The spices were just right for me, but may be a little hot for some
tastes.
Linda
had the Stuffed Trout, grilled trout stuffed with shrimp, octopus and crab.
which she enjoyed very much.
We
finished the meal with Flan and Churros.
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Stuffed Oysters & Ceviche
Flan & Churros |
Monday
- February 28, 2022: It had been nearly 2 years since I had last visited
Imo's Pizza in Overland Park, Kansas. While we do not have a page devoted
to Imo's, it does have a listing on our Overland
Park Restaurant Guide. Imo's is a small St. Louis based chain and serves
St. Louis style very thin crust pizza, which is topped with provel cheese
(a blend of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone cheeses).
I
had an all meat 10" pizza and a half salad, topped with provel and sweet
house made Italian dressing. Both were good, but they used to let me cut
the salad from the lunch special at a discount and they no longer offer
that option. The resulting meal was a little larger and more expensive
than I liked.
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Imo's Pizza |
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