Pigwich's banh mi is delicious, but it is filling.
Pigwich, the yellow sandwich trailer behind the Local Pig (2618 Guinotte Avenue), throws open its windows at 10:30 a.m. daily. Not long after that time this past Saturday, the world came to eat. Construction workers stepped down from trucks to join families looking for some fuel, before a stop inside the adjacent butcher shop, and folks from the East Bottoms neighborhood ready to two-hand a double cheeseburger.
Sandwiched between a construction project and the Freight House, it's easy to walk past Twenty20 (2020 Baltimore) and not know what you're missing. But the steady stream of regulars who live and work in the Crossroads is a good hint. This catering operation that also serves lunch is worth the effort of would-be Sherlocks.
The idea of Twenty20 makes sense. A caterer has everything that one would need to operate a luncheonette and represents another use for a space that would just be a commissary for evening events. The dining room is predominantly a second-floor alcove where you can watch your sandwich being made in the kitchen below.
There once was a dairy from Osborn That chose to raise cows over corn The whole tastes like silk Mint and chocolate milk When it's empty, you'll be left forlorn
Pint bottles of Shatto's Whole Chocolate Mint Milk - the second of five planned specialty releases (Chocolate Cherry was the first for Valentine's Day) - are in stores now. A tasting panel spanning three decades of humanity thought the milk reminiscent of everything from mint chocolate chip ice cream to the (as yet uninvented) highest end version of Ande's Candies. Of Shatto's first two efforts at doctoring up its chocolate milk, this is the more successful concoction.
Chocolate Cherry Bread is just the right amount of sweet.
The only real date you need for Valentine's Day is set to be baked sometime in the next 24 hours. Farm to Market's chocolate cherry bread hits store shelves tomorrow with new loaves being made through Thursday, February 14.
The bread begins as Farm to Market's sourdough. Then they add cocoa, semisweet chocolate chunks and dried tart red cherries. The end result is a dessert bread that you may end up eating for dinner. The limited edition chocolate cherry bread will be available at Hen House, Cosentino's Markets, Hy-Vee in Prairie Village and Overland Park (135th Street and Metcalf) and Whole Foods.
Forget buffalo meat. The oldest dish in the Americas may be the tamale. The name comes from the Nahuatl word tamalli, and versions of the distinctive, corn-flour-derived sustenance date back to the Aztecs and Mayans. Traditionally steamed in a cornhusk or a banana leaf, the tamale is also the first fast food, a portable dish that's filling enough to eat for breakfast before going out and hunting all day.
There are plenty of opinions on who serves KC's best tamales. Former restaurateur and cookbook author Lou Jane Temple, who frequently travels to Mexico, insists that there are no better tamales in the metro than those served at KCK's Tortilleria San Antonio.
"They're not heavy or doughy," she says, "but made with a light hand. The texture and feel of the tamales are amazingly light and satisfying."
I can't disagree, but my own vote goes to the freshly made pork tamales at El Patrón Cocina & Bar on Southwest Boulevard. They're addictive, with or without the creamy queso that accompanies the fragrant, corn-wrapped comfort food. And maybe even better than the pork tamale is the meatless version - no lard ever used, promises manager Jim Nimmo - with a fluffy, masa-dough wrapper enfolding cheese and strips of spicy jalapeño peppers. On a bitter-cold afternoon, tamales turn out to be not just nourishing but also warm comfort.
If you find a bottle, victory will be sweet indeed.
Life doesn't bring you golden tickets. It brings you limited releases, specialty milk flavors in glass bottles. Shatto announced on its Facebook page that it will be unleashing five small-batch flavors this year in honor of its 10th anniversary.
First up is Chocolate Cherry milk. Shatto is making only 2,000 bottles of the flavor. Bottles will be identified with the word 'SMOOCH' on the side (a nod to Valentine's Day) and are expected to be on shelves by this weekend (stores are getting deliveries today and tomorrow). If you're committed to getting a bottle, it's in stock at the dairy farm in Osborn, Missouri, right now. Each of the next four releases will have a signature flavor and theme.
Santa and the elves, a bowl of eggnog and a hip flask, and now you can add Port Fonda and Local Pig (2618 Guinotte Avenue) to the list of Christmas collaborators. Patrick Ryan, the chef and owner at Port Fonda, and Alex Pope, owner and butcher at the Local Pig, are working together to create roasted-pork tamales that will be on sale next weekend (December 21-23) in a benefit for Harvesters.
The Tamale Collaboration, as they've taken to calling it, is a different kind of buy-one, get-one offer. For every dozen sold at the Local Pig, a dozen will be donated to Harvesters to be distributed Christmas Eve.
"I was driving an order of sausage over to Port Fonda, and the idea popped in my head," Pope says, "Patrick's a big believer in collaborations, and the Christmas tradition of Latin American families having tamales just worked."
The words "coffee cake" are too elastic. They're as likely to end up on the side of a cellophane-wrapped, desiccated crumb cake as they are to be used. We'd be in good hands - albeit, slightly cinnamon-dusted hands - if all coffee cakes were to follow the lead of Frannie Franks. The 16-month-old cake maker out of Independence, Missouri, understands how to make a proper coffee cake.
In stark contrast to its ill-conceived brethren, the cake is not mono-textured. A rush of cinnamon in the soft buttery top gives way to a crunchy under layer that is lady-in-a-commercial-relaxing-in-a-bathtub moist. Frannie Franks' cakes (original and pumpkin) are available at the Roasterie Cafe (in Brookside, Leawood and the West Side), the City Market on Sundays (from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and the Hy-Vee bakery department in Liberty. For those with a gluten allergy, Frannie Franks also makes gluten-free coffee cakes.
Garlic knots are a good way to tell your body to get ready because this...is...happening. They're carb precursors, more bread than cheese, and when done right, all garlic.
The garlic knots at the Art of Pizza (1801 Baltimore) are fine examples of what you should order from the appetizer menu at a pizza shop instead of toasted ravioli (assuming you're not in St. Louis). A clever use for scraps of pizza dough, garlic knots done poorly can be teeth crackers or chewy dough blobs. But these have just enough crust topped with parmesan, oregano, basil and a generous gloss of garlic oil. Just a note: Have a bit of stainless steel at the ready because the garlic smell can stay with your hands well into the next day. Grab an order on a Friday between 4 and 6 p.m. when the Art of Pizza has a cheese pizza for $12 as a to-go special. That offer isn't available on First Fridays, so you'll have to wait until next week.
What could be the very best hot-dog shop in Kansas City only serves sausages. The closest that Haus (3044 Gillham Road), which opened earlier this summer in Martini Corner, comes to a hot dog is a bratwurst, but the spirit is there. The ratio of pretzel bun to sausage is right, no utensils are needed, and there are four kinds of mustard (spicy, whole grain, yellow and honey) on the table to spread at your will. I opted for the lamb, cumin and oregano sausage, and my only regret is that I didn't eat it naked.
Slow down. I'm referring to the dressing of my lunch, not my attire. The sausages, courtesy of the Local Pig, outshine the house-made toppings. Two come free with your order. While the grilled onions and sauerkraut were fine, their tepid temperature and the contrast with the flavor of the sausage meant they weren't bringing anything to this sandwich.
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