Bloom Baking Co. in the City Market knows what to do with strawberries.
With the warmer weather, strawberry season has come a bit sooner. Desserts and salads with fresh strawberries are popping up as a sweet red harbinger of summer. Even though NPR dampened the party a bit with yesterday's piece on why store-bought strawberries can be beautiful but tasteless, there are still plenty of outstanding strawberry dishes on menus. Here are five to help you celebrate the upcoming season.
People are obviously unable to resist a free mustard drizzle.
The world has had a few days to digest the news that Pizza Hut has managed to smuggle a hot dog in its pizza crust for a new menu item available in the United Kingdom. Here's The Guardian's delightful take on the pizza-strosity:
I soon neared the end of my slice and its bedoughed, pink-brown phallus. I took a tentative bite. It was a hot dog sausage. It was rubbery and processed and salty and smoky. How, in its own filthy way, could it be anything other than delicious?
Indeed. Since Pizza Hut has clearly defined the future of pizza, Fat City has decided to offer five more pizza-crust frontiers that we should strive to cross in the coming years.
The sun is out. A cookie from your childhood, Oreo, turns 100 years old today. Tuesday is looking just fine. Kraft Foods has a special, limited-edition birthday cake Oreo to mark the occasion, and the Chicago Tribunehas all the relevant stats and history about the most famous of sandwich cookies.
Beyond just eating a cookie, Fat City thought to point you toward five Oreo-filled eats in town that you can either dunk in milk or enjoy sans glass.
It's been warm enough to enjoy the patio at Story most of this week.
Wednesday is the day when meal planning tends to fall by the wayside and you're just looking for somebody else to get you through the week. Fat City is here to help. Today, we've got five things you can eat and drink this week. And the best part is that all of them require exactly zero amount of cooking or cleaning on your part.
With the blood orange, it's the inside that counts.
The blood orange is the kind of food I've always pictured sailors suggesting as a cure-all for scurvy. The crimson flesh and juice have a vitality that lets me know, like Groundhog Day, I can make it through another six weeks of winter. Around town, blood orange dishes and cocktails are popping up on menus — there are five possibilities after the jump (please add any others you've recently enjoyed in the comments). If you're looking for the play-at-home version, Saveur recently wrote a nice love letter to the unique member of the citrus family, with plenty of recipes.
It's not winter until you're wrapping your hands around a warm mug of hot chocolate. Back in 2009, we sought out some of the finest representatives from gas stations and grocery stores and restaurants across the metro. This week, we've decided to update the list with some new options and five cups of hot cocoa that are a mug above.
5. Aztec Hot Chocolate from Hi Hat (5012 State Line, in Westwood Hills) — The tiny coffeehouse in Westwood Hills (the recent site of a cash mob) makes a spicy, rich hot chocolate using bark from the Aztec dark chocolate sold next door at Annedore's Fine Chocolates. Call ahead; it's a winter special that's not always on the menu.
This is one of the finest roasted chickens in the city.
We don't all get the chance to huddle around a fire and wooden spit so often these days; but there's still something primal and comforting about roast chicken. And unlike the caveman days, you're not left hoping you get the burnt side instead of the raw side before the advent of the rotisserie. This winter, here's five roast chickens that are worthy of being called your dinner.
These cookies should make it into someone's stocking.
If you're panicking because you looked up and it's suddenly five days until Christmas, let go of that stress, grab a Nutcracker Ale and let someone think you've been planning ahead for at least 10 days with our help. Fat City has put together a quick list of five local foods (and/or cooking devices) that are easy to get your hands on and will earn you a healthy amount of Christmas cheer. Also, it's the first night of Hanukkah for those looking for a gift to put something a fire-safe distance from their menorah.
Jack London penned an entire short story about how a piece of steak might have made all the difference in a man's life. But the real difference maker in chefs' lives these days is pork. Certain parts of the pig remain affordable and versatile, meaning you're always going to see pork belly and shoulder on menus around town. Here are five tasty pig dishes around town to get you started on working your way from tip to tail.
In the shadow of McDonald's, the green and yellow awning of Runza beckons cars from Johnson Drive. The Nebraska chain has been dishing out bierock (which they call a Runza sandwich) in Mission since May, but I've managed to steer my car past without a second thought. That all changed yesterday when it was 2 p.m. and I had a serious hankering for crinkle-cut french fries. The good news is that their fries are the best version of the crinkle-cut fries that you remember from school lunches — hot, fatty and salty. As for their signature sandwich? I'm still trying to figure out what I think of it.
A block party in Westport and other weekend possibilities
Aaron Confessori plants his Boot in Westport
Does it bother you to dine alone?
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
Spin Neapolitan Pizza opens in Lenexa on Monday