Asian Invasion

"It's white meat and the Orient," Jo said before taking us over to meet 25-year-old Shaun Flo.

She led us upstairs through another bar area to the DJ booth. Shaun, clad in a French Connection "FCUK fashion" T-shirt, enlightened us a bit more about Asian Night.

"Honestly, the owner didn't want it labeled as such," he said. Shaun also worked at Trago and Arun Thai Place. Because he used to throw some all-Asian parties at Trago, he said, he was recruited to work at Kandi and just started DJ-ing there.

"So, Shaun, what's up with the fact that the Asians in KC tend to congregate at dance clubs?" we asked. "What is it about the oomph-oomph beat that lures them in?"

"It's not so much the dancing," he said. "They're more family-oriented. They're into friends and fun. Everyone in here, I called on the phone. The friends I grew up with came out tonight."

We'd have to debate his "not so much the dancing" claim. When we headed back into the main room, we saw that a breakdancing circle had broken out. After that display, the dance floor devolved into a general crotchal-assal grindfest. Off to the side, we noticed a sexy Asian chickie strolling around with a mass of dyed-blond Jessica Simpson hair and hot pants. We went over and met 24-year-old Sophia and her friend, 27-year-old Leslie. We had trouble talking over the noise, so Sophia gave us her MySpace page (on which she has posted many photos of herself scantily clad in lingerie— talk about a Tit Offensive). We did manage to shout a question about whether they'd encountered any creepy guys with Asian fetishes at Kandi. "I doubt it," Sophia answered, a bored look on her face.

The night was winding down, and the 1:30 last-call time was fast approaching. As the place cleared out, we started chatting with 27-year-old J.P., who was rocking the white-pants, white-jacket, orange-shirt look. He and his equally spiffy friends had just been to a post-wedding reception.

We caught a snippet of their conversation ("After Cory Aquino took over... ," someone said), so we had to find out more about this stylish and savvy crew.

J.P. told us he's Filipino— born in Manila — and that he used to live in New York City. He now attends law school at UMKC because his mom lives here. After talking a little about bars in KC, he declared his luv for Blonde, which he described as "fucking fantastic!"

High praise, indeed. As for us, we'll stick to the roller-rink atmosphere of Kandi. Who wants to couple-skate with us? And, of course, by that, we mean do shots. Just like in Darfur.