Chocolate Chip and vanilla ice cream are meant to be together.
When I grabbed a Shatto Ice Cream Sammich out of the freezer at the Prairie Village Hy-Vee, I almost put it back. A single sammich costs $3.99. At that price, unless it's filled with meat and cheese, it's hard to justify the cost. So while I like you readers, I wasn't ready to drop a $20 bill to try all four flavors (vanilla and chocolate chip, caramel sea salt and oatmeal-raisin, vanilla and chocolate brownie, and strawberry and sugar cookie). But then I opened the package, and my sticker shock turned to shock over the incredible cookies made by Erin Reynolds Brown, the owner of the Dolce Baking Co. and Shatto's partner in its latest product.
The green-tea ice cream from Jun's is like a spa for your mouth.
Dessert at Japanese restaurants is often an afterthought. It feels like a concession to diners. And that kind of halfhearted approach to the last course is how we end up with abominations like fried ice cream.
The saving grace for Japanese restaurants has always been mochi: the Japanese rice cake molded into little balls and filled with sweet paste or ice cream. But Jun's (7660 State Line Road) in Prairie Village has another option, green-tea ice cream, for those who doggedly believe they can squeeze in a bit more food after ordering too much sushi.
I've often wondered why more places don't serve soup in a bread bowl. It's like a one-pot meal for your plate. If done right, you might not need utensils. That's probably not the case for the Pane Rellenos at El Salvadoreno (7926 Santa Fe Drive) — you will be picking up your fork and knife at some point — but the stewed chicken sandwich is exactly what every bread bowl should aspire to become.
Your meat gets it own box like a meat-based pastry shop.
The beauty of a pig is all in the eye of the bacon holder. And the prettiest sow in town might just be the Local Pig (2618 Guinotte). The brand-new butcher shop in the East Bottoms has a case that keeps being bought out, and after only two weeks, a waiting list for its butcher-box subscription (a weekly 5- or 10-pound box of chops and cuts).
Once unwrapped, it's not going back in the plastic.
Holiday breads get unfairly dismissed, along with Christmas cookies. Just because something is a classic doesn't mean it should be forgotten. Exhibit A in our quest to get back to the bread-making basics is arguably the most famous of the quick breads — Irish soda bread. And let us tell you the seasonal offering from Farm to Market is a real humdinger.
The first place that comes to mind if you're headed to the Kansas side for tacos is Kansas City, Kansas. But it might just be time for you to reprogram your GPS. Fogones Mexican Delights (11200 Johnson Drive) opened this past December in Shawnee, and the Zavala family's tacos (The Shawnee Dispatch recently ran a nice profile) are well worth the drive.
You don't have to settle for a combination plate in the food court at Oak Park Mall. Instead, I want you to take your $8, make two stops and leave with the finest food option in the mall. First up, is Paciugo Gelato — a free-standing gelato kiosk that will sell you a small cup (up to three flavors) for $4 (including tax). I opted for dark chocolate and top-seller salted caramel.
The Filling Station is hiding dessert in plain sight every morning. This is no off-menu, special-password dessert. Instead, it's the chocolate muffin (a regular in the rotation) that is, in actuality, a moist, rich brownie with a smattering of powdered sugar on top.
But because it's labeled a muffin, you can simply pass it off as a regular breakfast option. "Honey, I was being healthy. I had a muffin this morning," you can say when you get home. But this is no regular muffin. It's a decadent brownie that would be comfortable in the case at Andre's or Dolce. Forget the box of sweets this Valentine's Day. Just seal the deal with a bag of these muffins.
We may need to redefine the ice-cream-treat category. Yesterday, Christopher Elbow rolled out the first batch of his ice-cream bars, and the freezers at Glace were stocked with vanilla bean, black cherry with toasted almond, and fleur de sel with hazelnut croquant bars.
The new product, which Elbow hinted at in The Pitch cover story about the opening of his new shop in Leawood this summer, is in both Glace locations (4535 West 119th Street and 4960 Main). At $4.31, the ice-cream treats are not cheap. But the latest innovation from Elbow — the first to truly marry his chocolates and ice cream — delivers strong flavors worthy of a fiver.
Great chefs and writers have one thing in common. They sometimes just need a little editing to get it right. In a world where ingredients are being discovered like plant species in the rainforest, it can be hard to hold back. But one dish that I recently enjoyed on the Extra Virgin patio has found a way to make simplicity transcendent. Here's why you need to order the grilled bread & ricotta.
A block party in Westport and other weekend possibilities
Sama Zama serves serious snacks where a cinema once stood
Does it bother you to dine alone?
Aaron Confessori plants his Boot in Westport
Chef Charles d'Ablaing wins 2012 Golden Fork Award
Walking the aisles at Natural Grocers
Parkville's Rusty Horse Tavern is now open and serving burgers and beer
New Plaza Bo Lings opens on June 11