Posts Tagged ‘travels’

This past weekend I went home to celebrate my mother’s birthday and have a mini vacation to celebrate autumn in Kansas City, one of my favorite things in the entire world.  I went to the Andy Warhol exhibit at Union Station, Pierpont’s for lunch, the KC Renaissance Festival (in full garb as my sisters and I used to work there), Vaughn’s Apple Orchard, Weston Red Barn Farm, and made butternut squash soup plus baked apples with vanilla ice cream for dessert. A whirlwind weekend, but perfect from beginning to end.

Each time I visit Chicago it always gets easier to navigate, and harder to leave.  This time around I felt like I breezed through the city, rarely needing to look at street signs, instead merely following familiar paths and my gut.  I’d like to say if I lived there it would lose its novelty, but well, I have lived there and can categorically say it’s my favorite city in the US and my heart aches a little every time I leave.

I spent my first night with my aunt in Geneva, a western suburb where we had tacos and margaritas at Bien Trucha, a new hot spot in her town.  Then it was off to downtown with Melissa where we stayed in the theatre district, got to attend “An Evening With Kevin Smith” after pining for it for over 5 years, have one of the best hamburgers in my life at David Burke’s Primehouse, and once again have some of my favorite French-Vietnamese food at Le Colonial, an old favorite 2 blocks from where I used to live.

So yesterday I got back from my fun little vacation to Charleston, SC. What a gorgeous place, inside and out. Just beautiful architecture, flora, people and food. Something I kept remarking on was how good the entire city smelled.  Like flowers and breakfast breads and salty air.  We had a ton of fun visiting some truly remarkable houses and sites, walking the city, eating lots of great seafood and just relaxing.  Here’s a (very) small selection of the photos I took – mostly the food since, well, that’s always my favorite part anyway.

For the rest of the week I will be on vacation in Charleston, SC with my best friend Rach from Cornell.  Being huge devotees of the 1980′s miniseries “North and South” (with Patrick Swayze and Kirstie Alley – don’t tell me you don’t remember it!) we plan to visit some truly gorgeous historical homes and plantations they filmed at, see the beach, relax, and of course, eat some amazing food.

I’ll post pictures hopefully during the trip but otherwise, see you Monday!

I love Kansas City.  Although I’ve lived in many other cities ranging from tiny rural Iowan towns to downtown Chicago on the Gold Coast, KC is not only my ‘hometown’ I have sentimental ties to, but I genuinely love it as a city for its attitude, culture and of course – food.  And ask anyone what defines KC gastronomically and they’ll inevitably say either steak or of course, barbecue.

Now I’m not going to get into a debate of which BBQ is best because that’s like debating religions, but I of course will choose KC style over Carolina, Texas, Tennessee or anything else you throw at me.  I love the sweet-vinegar combo sauce, the array of specialties (ribs, pulled pork, etc) and class range from your hole-in-the-wall places (Bryant’s) to your frou-frou white tablecloth BBQ (Jack Stack).

And a trip to KC for me is never complete without a visit to Arthur Bryan’ts BBQ on Brooklyn near the jazz district in downtown KC with my best friend Shaffe.  We always get the same thing (burnt ends for him, pulled pork for me), have a 2 hour conversation to catch up on everything since I’ve been gone and inevitably gorge on amazing meats, lard fries and dill pickle slices.  We wax philosophic about the quality of the meat that visit (it changes every time), how good the fries are, the portion size, etc.  Some could say it’s poor service that it varies so wildly every time we visit, but to me, that’s part of what makes Bryan’ts… well, Bryant’s.  You wait in line forever, you shyly give them the plate and firmly ask for your order, watch as they pile perfectly smoked and cooked meats onto pieces of white Wonder bread, and hopefully they’re generous.  Slathered in the most beautiful sauce you’ll ever eat (Sweet Heat, please) with fries so bad for you it’s best not to think about it, you can eat and know KC is defined by BBQ and to me, that defining BBQ is Arthur Bryant’s.