Dinner at the Taqueria Mexico on Kansas Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, feels like dinner in Mexico. That's partly because it's a cinder-block building with interior walls lined in mint-green linoleum. But what we really like are the rustic murals depicting life south of the border. Sandy deserts are prickled with tall saguaro cacti, cattle skeletons and vultures. Short, dry grass grows under cottonwood trees outside a mission. Men in sombreros lead burros around a pastoral landscape. Dark-blue mountains repose under snowcaps against a turquoise sky. The artist, whose name is Raoul, tells us he studied painting at an art school in Mexico; he's lived in Kansas City for twelve years, working as a housepainter. Every once in a while, though, someone asks him to paint a mural -- and the city would feel a lot warmer if that happened more often. His phone number is painted on the wall.
