When the birria taco, or quesabirria, came on the scene, it took the internet by storm. The flat-top crispy fried tacos are filled with traditional stewy meat tethered to melty Oaxacan cheese and customarily plunged into a small pool of greasy, rich consommé. These aren’t your average street tacos. They are an act of hedonism, gleaming with grease and indulgent to their core. Now, the second wave of the birria trend is here, and our local chefs are on top of it. Say hello to your new indulgence: birria ramen.  It’s exactly what it sounds like. The rich, flavorful broth from birria, a Mexi ..read more

Before Jim Zhang opened his restaurant Rakar Dumpling House in Leawood’s former Winstead’s last April, he was importing and selling antique Chinese furniture to KC interior designers. Originally from Beijing, Zhang knows his home decor well after 20 years in the business. He also knows his dumplings. Photography by Caleb Condit & Rebecca Norden. Through Rakar (pronounced ray-car), the renaissance man has melded both his passions into a one-stop shop for Chinese food and rustic home goods. Somehow, he doesn’t get lost in either pursuit. Whether you’re sampling the dumplings or eyeing a vase ..read more

Veganism has long been the red-headed stepchild of food movements: tolerated but rarely respected by outsiders. Celebrity chefs—Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain—even made scoffing at vegans and their tofu-laden plates part of their brash personalities. But the plant movement prevails. Slowly but surely, veganism continues to make inroads into the mainstream culinary scene, if only for reasons of health and sustainability. Photography by Caleb Condit & Rebecca Norden. It helps that vegan chefs are continuing to prove that cardboard tofu and rock-hard breads are a thing of th ..read more

In its beginning days, when the Lenexa Public Market was still figuring out what it wanted to be, it was a hodgepodge of independent merchants hawking everything from tea towels and T-shirts to coffee and the occasional tamale. I know because I moved into an apartment across the street in 2017, the year it opened. The market was still finding its footing in the previously dormant suburban area. Part of Lenexa’s new city center—a massive development spearheaded by the city to create a “new downtown,”—the Lenexa Public Market (8750 Penrose Lane, Lenexa) has since established itself as an interna ..read more

There’s an old adage that says “no one wants to see how the sausage is made,” but the process of stuffing sticky raw ground meat into a slimy animal intestine deserves more respect. With respectable ingredients, the craft of sausage making honors old-world traditions with pride and KC’s early rich history of immigration, specifically from central and eastern Europe, has created the backbone of our current top-notch, humble—and sometimes overlooked—craft sausage scene.  Werner’s in Mission, Krizman’s in Strawberry Hill and Scimeca’s in Northtown are three long-standing establishments that ..read more

For this section of the magazine, I typically embrace the gluttonous task of dining out on the magazine’s dime to help determine where you, dear reader, should spend your hard-earned cash. I chose to waive that privilege this time around so I could attend an intensive whole-hog workshop in March. The three-day event consisted of a ten-person group taking part in the hands-on process of bringing a pig from pasture to table. To clarify, on the first day, I saw the pig wiggle its nose and sniff the air as we approached it with a loaded rifle. Two days later, we were tearing meat off its boiled he ..read more

Not long ago, the standard American diet called breakfast “the most important meal of the day.” It was, according to dieticians and grandmothers, in our best interest to jump-start our morning with a sufficient calorie intake to maintain energy throughout our busy days. However, as the West’s modern dietary practices are continually being reevaluated, research is starting to suggest a morning mealtime is more important than any other.  I imagine the dish that inspired the debate about breakfast’s importance is probably the indulgent, yet classic meal of biscuits smothered with gravy. Whet ..read more

Chingu was one of those new food joints that, upon its launch, brought me simultaneous hope and hesitation. As word began to spread that a new Korean restaurant from Keeyoung Kim, owner of Sura Eats in the Parlor food hall, was in the making, I scoured social media postings to stay in the know. Chingu’s Instagram teased with dewy, saturated pictures of noodle dishes and orange peel-garnished cocktails. Kim had joined forces with some of KC’s most notable media people, from photographer Alyssa Broadus to graphic designer Frank Norton. With the masses flocking to Westport’s newest hotspot, count ..read more

Raw oysters inspire the same debate as deep dish pizza, with lovers of the bivalves and layered pies insisting that if you’re not a fan, “you just haven’t had them the right way.” While the verdict is still out on the aphrodisiac-quality of oysters—supposedly the amino acids stimulate the sex drive—one thing can be agreed upon collectively: Raw oysters are the closest you can get to tasting the ocean. Some people would rather have the ocean deep-fried in a tempura batter, others want to slurp up its raw offspring. In the American city that is the farthest away from an ocean as you can get, tho ..read more

It’s my personal rule to wait until a restaurant has been up and running for at least three months before visiting. That grace period—industry standard among food critics, which I have not been until now—gives time to iron out the wrinkles that naturally occur when opening. While some people like to beat down the door in an effort to collect social clout from their first visit to a hyped new spot, I prefer to cool my heels and give a restaurant some time to settle in.  Opening a restaurant has always been tough, and it’s only gotten harder as of late. From chef knives to flaming stovetops ..read more