This makes me happy. Check out this article in the KCstar this week about the Broadway Cafe. I am glad to see the better coffee prevail. I hope this increases their business and the starbucks faithfull don't travel a couple extra blocks to get their stale excuse for espresso.

dear santa.

.barrett

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More to come...

PIZZABELLA

Last Friday, lunch time was rapidly approaching and I could see I was not going to be able to get away from my desk to take part in our weekly tradition of enjoying a nice long Friday lunch with some co-workers. I had not packed a lunch because I had planned on going out. I had to get something for lunch quickly to get back to the office and continue working. I kept drawing blanks on where to go, either it would take too long or it just didn't sound full filling. I then remember seeing the sign for a new pizza shop that was supposed to open soon a few blocks over on Baltimore St. I hopped in the car and headed that way in hopes that this place would not only be open, but be the food I needed to quench my hunger and get me back as soon as possible. The restaurant was open and it was quite an experience. First of all, its a pretty attractive little building with wood slats and that form not only interior and exterior walls but that also make up the bench that fronts the restaurant and the ceiling of the lobby. Its a quaint space with a decently sized dining room and an exposed kitchen with wood fire ovens. I could see that this isn't the place to get in and out of quickly, at least not today or at this time, so I placed a take away order. The Pizza Chorizo, home made crust with chorizo sausage, pesto, roasted peppers, and ricotta cheese. It was delightful. I am so happy that there finally is a dedicated pizza place in Kansas city now that offers authentic flavors and cooking styles. I love seeing things on the menu like prosciutto, arugula (it's a veg-i-table), fresh mozz, fresh basil and many, many more. I think there are restaurants in Kansas city that offer really great authentic style pizza as part of a larger menu, but it is nice to have a pizza joint doing it right.

latte art

I just thought I would post a nice example of Latte Art. This is Dan's, [my favorite barista at the broadway roastery] handy work. Oh, and the coffee was delicious too.

saturday morning breakfast

This past Saturday morning was a very rainy one, in turn a very lazy one. After way too many hours of just lying around I felt inspired to get up and attempt to make something delicious for breakfast. After being educated on the proper way to poach an egg by Abstract Gourmet, I decided to give it a go. One turned out pretty nice, the other not so much. I also decided to make a little hollandaise inspired sauce to drizzle on top. I don't even remember what all I put in it. A little of this and a little of that...All in all it turned out pretty nice. I love rainy weekend mornings.

Architecture tempts buds too

I have decided to post some photos of the new addition to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. I won't do things like this often as I am trying to steer this blog more towards the delectable. However, certain things beg to be talked about or seen. Having said that, here are some photos I shot of the Bloch Building last week. It was the first time I had been there to photograph it, which is a crime in itself. I think this is a beautiful addition to Kansas City and absolutely I love passing it on my way home from work everyday.

cooking and architecture

A Friend of mine recently brought this book to my attention. Being that I am formally trained in architecture and informally a wanna-be cook, it seems right up my ally. Here is a blurb from Archinect explaining a bit about the book.

'

'Since time immemorial, cooking and building have been among humanity’s most basic occupations. Both of them are rooted in necessity, but both of them also possess a cultural as well as a sensory, aesthetic dimension. And while it is true that cooking is a transitory art form, it gives expression to the periods of human cultural history just as architecture does. Moreover, both arts accord a central role to the materials employed. Both involve measuring and proportioning, shaping and designing, assembling and composing.This book pursues the astonishing parallels and deeply rooted connections between the art of building and that of cooking. A variety of essays takes up questions of materiality and proportioning. Attention will also be given to food cultivation and architecture, to the places where meals are prepared as well as a range of different culinary spaces. With articles by Annette Gigon, Stanislaus von Moos, Claudio Silvestrin, Ian Ritchie, and others.'

I think I will read this book. I will keep you updated on the matter.

posso avere un cappuccino por favore!

I saw this link on another blog i frequently visit, jimseven, I had to post on here as well. If there is anyone reading that doesn't know me directly, I along with many friends studied architecture in Italy a couple years ago. For me, among many other things, it marks my discovery of coffee. I had been drinking coffee to stay awake in studio for a little while by then, but it wasn't until my daily cappucini that I truly developed a love for espresso. So, if you would like read why "Marco Lion, the head of Italy's parliamentary agriculture commission, is worried that the "true identity of Italian coffee" could be lost because, he says, many cafes in Europe do not have the faintest idea how to make a good cup." click here to read more.

top 5

Time for some interaction from the readers. I have yet to receive a comment on my new blog; so, either no one is reading the blog or I just have not been interesting enough to elicit any kind of response from the reading body. In an effort to get some people involved, I want to hear what everyone's top 5 favorite things in the kitchen are. First, I will share my top 5 favorite things in my kitchen.

1_the Santoku knife.

Everyone has a favorite knife. One that no matter what needs chopping, dicing, or mincing always ends up in your hand. This J.A. Henckel knife is awesome. I love the way it feels in my hand whether I am chopping some basil or carving up a chicken breast.

2_the mixer.

Alright alright I will admit that one of the reasons this is in my top 5 of the kitchen is because it is cool as hell looking. I love the way this looks on my counter. I have only used it a couple time in the year that we have owned this fabulous piece of machinery. But, it does look pretty damn cool and don't act like that pink isn't the bomb.

3_the coffee cups

I love these cups. My wify got me these for Christmas last year. they are a bit big for an espresso and a bit small for a black coffee. But, they are perfect for a macchiato (my favorite espresso based drink). I have been trying for the past year to master a macchiato, I have been struggling a bit with the espresso extraction, but that is a different post for a different time.

4_the Emeril pans

This is a beautiful pan set. Whether or not you are an aspiring chef on a budget or a seasoned vet, you can't go wrong with this set of hardware. And, they look pretty on your stove top.

5_the wine opener

All the way from Chianti.

The Chocolate Block

Last night some friends, my wife, and I all decided to venture north a couple blocks and enjoy the 2007 art fair at the Country Club Plaza. Before we left we met at my house and partook in some hors d'oeuvres and wine. We started the night with a bottle brought back from Sonoma, Artessa's Element (blend of Cabernet sauvignon (51 %), merlot (29 %), syrah (15 %), others (5 %)) it was delicious. We intended on just drinking one bottle; however, the wine (as it usually does) just made us want more wine. So, to get to the original point of this entry, the second bottle we opened was a bottle simply called The Chocolate Block. This wine was very unique. I can't say that I have ever had any wine quite like this one. It seemingly is a combination of every wine under the sun, blended delightfully to create flavors of liquorice, mint, and kitchy enough...chocolate. The nose was big and bold soaked in sulfur. As far as texture, this 2003 is prime and ready to dink right now. I am very glad we decided to open that second bottle. I had two of these Chocolate Blocks just sitting in the wine fridge waiting for that random day when I decide to dip into the library wine. If we had not opened this bottle last night I would not have known that I probably shouldn't put off drinking the second one for much longer than another year. So, to wrap this up. I bought this wine 2 years ago and Tchopitoulas ( a since closed, fabulous little wine/coffee shop in the crossroads of KC) I was waiting to dink it with the misconception that it was one of those wines that can sit in a cellar for 15 years before it peaks, when in fact it is perfection right now. If you are lucky enough to have this bottle in your collection or happen to come across this bottle in a store...buy it and drink it now. You will enjoy this smooth, sensual wine with an almost complete absence of tannins (hints the wines lack of ability to age much further). If I were to do it all over again, I would drink it with some bitter sweet chocolate or some other food that offers a hint of sweetness.

the VINO

Alright, I know it has been entirely too long since my last entry, and being that this blog is only a few weeks old...that is Busch league. I apologize.

So, about the wine. While the California buzz is beginning to wear off I still feel it necessary to at least briefly speak of the wine we tasted and enjoyed. It would take me a week to simply name all the wine we tasted, that is assuming I can remember them all, so I will just mention a few of the front runners.

2003 Opus One:$165.00

While this particular wine is fantastically delicious, I would definitely have a hard time spending 165 dollars a bottle. I am not gong to sit here and tell you that I don't see what's so special about it, because I do. It is damn good. The wine has a velvety softness that is balanced perfectly with an ample, not overbearing, amount of tannins in the finish. Even though the wine served in the Opus One Partner's room (fancy name for tasting room) was a bit young, the winemaker suggests letting the wine rest for five to seven years, it tasted extremely well balanced had a barrage of flavors attacking the tongue. I would recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to taste this wine, take it. However, I cannot endorse the price tag.

2000 Seven Lions Winery Zinfandel: $31.00

This wine definitely gets the Noshery's vote for best taste of the visit. I have a special place in my heart for a good Zin. I love the big, bold, wrap your tongue up flavors that a great California Zin gives you. Notes of cherry, tobacco, and leather smoothly move through your mouth and then the tannins hit, big and bold, perfectly balanced with the fruit. I loved this wine. Unfortunately, the winemaker has recently passed away and apparently the winemaker and the family whom ownes the winery were very close. So close that they decided to, instead of seeking out a new winemaker to continue the operation, close up shop. This fantastic boutique winery is done producing this old world style wine. I read a review that put it this way. If you are lucky enough to find this bottle, buy three. One to drink now and two to save.

2000 Camelia Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon: $35.00

This is the last wine I am going to write about tonight. I decided to include this wine because it was the best cab sav I had while in wine country. Every single place we visited was pouring a cab sav and every single place said it was the specialty of the winery. Only one stood up to what I would expect a 'specialty of the winery' wine to taste like. This wine was everything you want in a cabernet sauvignon. It was a beautiful dark purple, with deep flavors of black cherry and plumb with very present but soft tannins, a lingering finish that leaves you desperate for another taste. I tasted this wine with a semi-sweet 70% cocoa chocolate and I must say, it was awesome. I definitely recommend this wine if you can find it. I am under the impression that this wine is not sold in liquor or wine stores, but is available online. Having said that, go online and buy two bottle when you get a chance.

A wine lover once told me that when you find a wine you like, buy two bottles. One for tonight and one for the library.

Cali

The nosh in San Fran

This past week I spent time in San Francisco as indicated in the previous post. I was extremely looking forward to a new experience with dungenous crab. I am pleased to say that my anticipation was met with joyous flavors. When we arrived in San Fran we rented a car and headed straight for Fisherman’s Wharf. Let me paint a bit of a picture for you.

I expected a place called fisherman’s wharf to be extremely commercialized and touristy when in fact it seemed exactly the way I would imagine a fishing pier to be on the coast of main. The crab shacks were rough and a bit dirty. Not a dirty in a way that makes you want to steer clear, but dirty in the way that a hole in the wall bbq joint in Kansas City serves ribs on newspaper. A sort of authentic dirty. A sort of attractive dirty. A much different scene from the nearby Pier 39, which in my mind is the Disney world of piers.
My first dungenous crab meal was a crab cocktail consisting of the crab meat from different parts of the crab. I believe meat from the claw, knuckles, and body of the crab was all included in the cocktail. I simply dropped a tiny bit of cocktail sauce on top and enjoyed the hell out of it. It was delicious.

My second experience with this beautiful crab was in the form of a sandwich. After a long morning of site seeing in the bay area we decided one last crab meal on the water was in order. We went back to the same stretch of crab vendors on Fisherman’s Wharf and dined on the delicious fish before boarding the plane and heading back to KC. This time however, I decided on a large hoagie style bun stuffed with a crab salad of sorts. It seemed to me that the salad consisted of about 99% crab and a splash of mayo (just to hold it all together). The crab was fresh enough and delicious enough to stand strong and sweet almost entirely on its own. Simple and divine. Needles to say, my experience with dungenous crab was a fantastic one.

Deep Sea fishing

An absolute world of experiences occurred between my two wharf dining experiences. The first being deep sea fishing off the coast of Sausalito. We left our hotel in Sausalito at 430 in the AM. Heading out to sea we floated right under the golden gate bridge and then watched the sun rise behind us over the magnificent piece of engineering. After a two hour boat ride away from land we threw our lines in. We originally began fishing for king salmon by dropping our bated hooks and trolling for a bite. After about two hours of this with no bites to speak of, our captain came out and said that it was too nice of a day to spend it hoping to catch a fish. He asked us if we wanted to head out to sea an extra two hours and fish for rock cod. A much smaller fish than the salmon weighing in at an average of 3 lbs. versus the 45 lb monster of a salmon. However, he said it was almost guaranteed catch. So, we decided to bring up the lines and head out. After a short two hour, beer filled boat ride we arrived at 3 rock islands that these fish call home. All of a sudden the cap through the engines in reverse until we came to a quick stop, stuck his head out his window and yelled throw them in. We did just and that and I am not lying when I say that our lines were not in the water for more than 5 minutes before we started pulling fish on the boat. After about 2 hours we had all caught our limit…10 each. There were nine of us on the boat equaling 90-three pound rock cod. Our deck hand, Alex cleaned all the fish and turned our 90 whole fish into 180 filets.

We had fully planned on eating these fish that night at our hotel in Sonoma until we hit a bit of a snag in the plan. The hotel had no grill for us to use and even if we had one, they would not let us grill on the premises. So what we did next was the best decision we could have made. We had heard the Mexican restaurant across the street was fantastic. So, we went over and simply asked…if we provide the fish, will you cook it and make us fish tacos at no charge if we run up a hell of a bar tab. They took us up on the offer. So, that night we ate the best, freshest, fish tacos I have ever had. The fish was topped with fresh house made pico de gallo on corn tortillas and served with white beans and rice. We were in heaven. Oh, and we did in fact run up one hell of a bar tab that night. We ran the bar entirely out of Pacifico and Corona.


The next morning was the beginning of a three day wine tasting. However, I will continue later with my thoughts on the vineyards we visited in Napa Valley and Sonoma County (from Opus One to Beringer) and a breakdown of the wine we tasted. And, the Noshery’s favorite wine from California (and it's not the wine pictured below).

going back to cali

Tomorrow I will be heading out to California. Spending one day in San Francisco, one on the water (deep sea fishing), and the rest in Sonoma and Napa, it is sure to tempt the buds of taste on several levels.
San Francisco, and more specifically fisherman's wharf is known for its dungeness crab. This particular type of crab is fairly big measuring up to 10" wide. I am very excited for this experience because I have never had the pleasure of eating dungeness crab. A lot of my family is from the east coast (Chesapeake bay area) where blue crab is the crab of choice. I have been eating blue crab since I was old enough to walk and absolutely love it. I am curious to see the differences in the two meats. From what I understand, if I venture down to Pier 39 I will find vendors selling cups of dungeness crab meat. I have been told that the way to eat this meat is to drip some hot sauce on it, grab a cold beer and head to the water to enjoy. Let me tell you, that sounds like a little piece of heaven to me. I guess I will find out tomorrow night.
The second day of the trip, I am heading out to sea. We will be fishing for king Salomon in the cold waters of the Pacific, off the coast of Sausalito. I think that we get to keep anything over 40". I will be making to trip with some buddies so there will be plenty of people to potentially land a large enough fish to cook for dinner. I will be sure to take a lot of photos so that you can see what we actually end up catching and hopefully cooking.
The rest of the trip will be spent cruising the vineyards of Sonoma and Napa. I know we have some tours set up at Robert Mondovi and a tasting at Opus One. We wanted to get in at Dominus, however no tours are offered. Maybe a glimpse from the street will be afforded. I would also like to try Girard, Hess, and maybe Gessup cellars. If anyone has any suggestions on good tours or even just good wine that we owe it to ourselves to taste, please let me know.

Anyway, off to Cali I go.

Accurso's

The Noshery's choice for Italian in Kansas City.



I love Italian food. For whatever reason, I have grown up eating Italian food. There is not an ounce of Italian in my family, no matter how badly I wish there was. I have to give my dad the credit for the Italian influence. I remember as a little kid eating at Villa Capri (kc), Gorozzo's (kc), Marco Polo (kc), Baroni's (chi), the Rose Bud (chi), just to name a few. Having said that, I have developed favorites in the area.

I am an longtime patron of the old school Italian joint on main street, recently upon suggestion from friends and colleagues, I decided to venture across the street to Osteria Il Centro. I felt a bit of guilt as I walked in the doors of Il Centro, being that I was literally 20 feet away from the best meatballs in town and was in fact walking in the opposite direction. Perhaps I should have listened to my guilt and fallowed my heart back to stuffed mushrooms that will melt your heart and perhaps, if your not careful, change the way you think about Italian restaurants in KC.

The charm of this place is fantastic. It is everything you would expect from an Italian deli straight out of the Soprano's. An old brick building donning a red and green neon sign out front. You walk in and are immediately greeted by an old wood bar that runs the entire length of the restaurant, separating the casual seating from the formal dining space. Don't mis-understand the name. The once deli is now fine dining trattoria with such items on the menu as eggplant parm, stuffed mushrooms, calamari, and the best meatballs in town, not to mention a plethora of pasta options and Chef Mario's filet. Everything I have tried on the menu has been divine. Joey Accurso walking around paying a little visit to every patron adds a truly Italian feel to the place.

I started this post with the intention comparing Accurso's and Osteria Il Centro. However, I am afraid my obvious affection for Accurso's would inflict undo judgment on Il Centro. Il Centro is a fantastically quaint space with a beautiful wine list and perhaps the best bruschetta in the city. However, after dining there with my wife on our one year, my affection lies with Accurso's. You better believe the next time I am in the mood for Italian anywhere near midtown Kansas City, you will find me at Joey Accurso's Main Street Deli.