Going Out Like a Lion ...

It's the last Sunday of the month here in the 'ville, and we just got back from Kansas City, where Cheshirewoodgie and I spent a weekend with part two of our wedding anniversary celebration.

Friday found us staying at the Plaza Marriott, with an excellent view of the Kansas City Plaza. Woodgie spent a bit of Friday walking the Plaza and stopping at a gourmet cheese shop, Better Cheddar, while I was at work, and then after meeting up at the hotel, we discovered quite possibly the best Indian restaurant in KC (almost as good as, and probably better than, gasp!, our previous fave, Swagat). The restaurant, Korma Sutra (the name a play on a certain, ahem, book of Indian origin), has two locations, one of which is in the historic Westport area in KC.

We had their combination platter, featuring a dizzying array of dishes, including a free first order of papadam (lentil wafer) for an appetizer, followed by chicken samosas, a sublime coconut soup, bowls of a just-right spicy lamb saag and chicken tika masala served with a generous helping of basamati rice, two kinds of naan (regular and onion), and for dessert, galub jamin and cubes of frozen mango ice cream (which appeared to be frozen cubes of mango rose lassi).

Honestly, calling Korma Sutra a "better" restaurant than Swagat does a disservice to the latter. We both attempted to determine what the difference was. To be honest, we think it's that the style of Korma Sutra's cuisine was a little spicer, with the flavors bolder and more traditional, while Swagat's items are very good but a little too "Americanized" in contrast.

Needless to say, we left happy. And quite full.

Saturday found us with Lauren's friend Jenny touring the KC Home and Garden Show at the Bartle Hall Convention Center, which is turning into an annual pilgrimage for us. As always, we spent the afternoon wishing we had more home space, and thinking of ideas for things to do to our home. If anything, I know that should we ever win the Powerball lottery, that we are getting Viking appliances ... actually, we would settle for a Viking range; Lauren's heart has been set on an Aga , but from what we understand, using one requires changing your whole style of cooking to accomodate it ;-).

We had planned to head down to Union Station this afternoon (Sunday) to catch the KC Rail Experience and Science City exhibits, but we were a little bit worn down after the previous two days. The party next door to our room kept us up for a bit, so we were both a bit tired. At first, we had headed off to the hotel's hot tub in hopes that by the time we got back to our room, the party would have moved down to Westport, but the neighbors continued rowdiness required a small call to the desk due to the excessive noise and alcohol consumption. We'll save Union Station for a later day.

Instead of doing Union Station, we journeyed over to Cho Ga, our favorite Korean restaurant over on Metcalf Ave., with a prior stop at a Whole Foods (actually, a Wild Oats that is transitioning), for our foodie fix; neither one of us had ever been to one before, as we don't live in an area large enough to support one, so it was a treat for both of us.

So that ended part two of our anniversary ... not sure yet what we'll do for next year, but we hope it is just as entertaining.

Back from the RenFaire

Hi all,

This past weekend found us down in Kansas City for several events:

1. The 3rd Annual Kansas City Chocolate Festival: A charity event held at the Overland Park Convention Center, it featured free samples (including not one but two separate chocolate fountain stations), and cooking demonstrations.

2. This year's KC Renaissance Festival: Where Lauren and I found out that our favorite bagpipe/world music band Tartanic is not, to quote Monty Python, "bleedin' demised" like the infamous parrot. We were afraid that the band had gone their separate ways after an announcement on their old website earlier in the year, but when we got to the fair, we rejoiced to discover that the group survived a partial break-up and is continuing its mix of on-stage comedy and traditional pipes and Middle Eastern drumming at venues nationwide. And that kicked off a fun Sunday of shopping, light noshing, and later, a great dinner (we once again did Korean at Cho Ga) afterwards.

3. We also celebrated Lauren's birthday (she's 29 again, seriously!). Lauren and her friend Jenny both celebrate their September birthdays with a dinner and gift exchange, and we decided that instead of their meeting up in St. Joseph, MO as usual, we would head down to KC and combine it with the RenFest and Chocolate Festival gatherings.

4. And I got my phone fixed ... my poor Treo needed a new faceplace, so I grabbed one off of eBay and took it down to a Sprint store in KC to have it replaced. Unfortunately, in the process of replacing the faceplace (which required some internal work), the tech managed to damage the internal camera (which is why we don't have good pics from the chocolate festival). However, the tech was able to replace the camera with a better camera from a newer model Treo, so all was set right on Sunday.

Back From KC

Got back from Kansas City this weekend; Lauren's friend Jenny and several of her friends were participating in this weekend's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 4k walk/run Downtown, and she had invited us to join their walking team, so we drove down on Saturday afternoon in order to stay overnight prior to the walk today.

Even so, we did find a few things to do yesterday. The afternoon found us at a regional cat show at the Overland Park Convention Center, where Lauren discovered a new favorite cat breed, and we kinda confirmed that one of our cats has some Maine Coon in her background. Afterwards, we stopped off at Oak Park Mall for a little shopping, including a small visit to the local Godiva chocolatier.

We then made our way over to Cho Ga, a Korean restaurant in Overland Park that we had been wanting to try since it opened earlier this summer. The last time we had Korean food was at a small place in Des Moines back in early 2006 (the former Ariang over on Douglas Avenue up in Des Moines, which reopened as Teriyaki House before the place, sadly, closed for good last year), so we were eager to try out a new venue.

Cho Ga

Lauren commented that the menu was the "most traditional for a Korean place she had ever seen", but we all enjoyed the selections we picked. Both Jenny's younger sister Beth, who was in town following an Americorps stint down South, and I had bulgogi (grilled, seasoned, and shredded beef roundeye and veggies done on a small grill) with chapchae (long cellophane noodle) and served with lettuce for wrapping the meat and steamed rice for a side, while Lauren managed to talk Jenny into trying the bibimbap (ground meat or seafood with veggies served in rice and served in a super-heated stoneware pot, with an egg cracked over the rice). Bibimbap presented this way is served hot enough that the egg cooks as it mixes into the rest of the ingredients, leaving the dish rather crunchy in texture. The sides (which we were given plenty of) were also quite varied and flavorful, ranging from onion cakes, to pickled daikon radish in spicy chili sauce, to bean sprouts, to kimchi, to an interesting apple with mayo salad.

The Walk

We left Jenny's condo early on Sunday morning, in order to make it to Union Station by around 7ish and find a parking spot. At Union Station, we were joined by some of the other members of Jenny's walking team and over 20,000 other walkers and runners.




















After checking out the various vendors, we went to the starting line near the Block fountain in front of Union Station. There, the "race" started, with the runners starting first, followed by the walkers. It was quite an amazing sight, seeing the street ahead of you packed from one side to the other with people, and the crowd stretching for several blocks ahead and behind.














Afterward, we checked out the sponsor and vendor tents (including the one from Energizer), but because the heat by then was getting into the danger zone (up to 101 degrees), we adjourned indoors to Union Station for drinks and some some air-conditioned rest before heading to the car.















Bollywood

After the race, Jenny and Beth had some errands to run at Wal-Mart, so they dropped us off at Jenny's condo in Blue Springs. After a nap for Lauren and some light reading for me, they returned from Wal-Mart, and we set off for Bollywood, a roughly year-old Indian restaurant that features a big-screen TV continually showing Bollywood Indian movies (so named because of their lavish production and dance numbers). We were pleasantly surprised that afternoon to discover that they have started offering an inexpensive (but very good) lunch buffet on the weekends, so we were able to indulge in a lot of our favorite curries, kebabs, vegetarian-only dishes, their garlic and herb naan, and desserts such as carrot halvah without hitting the pocketbook too hard.

Overall, we had a great weekend and we managed to avoid the worst of the heat as well, so it was well worth it, and now that we're home, it looks like we've got another good shot at some rain this evening.