Katie Nell
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Posts posted by Katie Nell
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Either when she chatted with us on egullet or when I met her (I can't remember,) she said that they would be running re-runs until at least the Fall, I think. I'm pretty sure the move to PBS was set in stone, but I could be wrong.
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I work right up I-29 from Zona Rosa. In my opinion, Tomfooleries is an ok place to go for a drink after work with my co-workers, if I can't drag them down to one of my favorite bars in Westport. Nothing much sets it apart from the generic bar 'n' grills that dot the landscape up here. As for Zona Rosa itself, the first time I drove into there, I was immediately struck by how much it felt like Disney World - some bizarre combination of Main Street, USA, and that fake movie set backdrop that looks like a city street. Creepy. I feel the same kind of anxiety there as I get walking through Oak Park Mall. I think it must appeal to people who are attracted to new places they are already familiar with. My best friend's mother moved up to Tiffany Greens recently from the middle of Johnson county, and she loves Zona Rosa. She thinks that people from down south will flock to it because it's "like the Plaza, only in much safer part of town."
And yeah, dining options up here are pretty limited. I mostly hit up Chipotle or Panera on those rare occasions when I forget my lunch and can't stomach a burger from our Aramark cafeteria. I may have to give In A Tub a try - it's hard to tell which of the quirky strip mall restaurants are worth trying, and which are a waste of time, and that's not one I would have picked based on it's name. And there are alot of crappy places to spend your restaurant dollar up here.
Welcome, Dividend! I see you've been online for a few weeks but I'm afraid this is the first I've noticed. Great to have you.
In some apparent form of self-flagellation, I seem to find myself in one of the twilight zones everyday. I think it's some kind of penance for not working for a while. Whatever the motivation, I found myself on the 119th corridor a couple of hours ago. Now I fully appreciate Z's comment about the mirror-image affect between ZR and that area (whatever it is called). I still haven't felt the need to subject myself to the 151st area. I'll have to work up a lot more guilt about slothfulness before subjecting myself to that. Your comments about 'a new place to go that seems familiar' and the Disney/Main St/movie set facade are spot-on and I'm afraid I know Oak Park syndrome well enough that I got a vague queasiness reading your post.
It looks like the KC population on eG is tipping northward, with Z's and UE's relocations and your work location. Surely there's something up there that won't cause some kind of coma (whether boredom- or grease-induced). Happy hunting.
And I'll sign-off with the standard apology to Katie for dissing her hood. Maybe I should just make it part of my tagline.
Yes, welcome dividend... nice to see new faces, or at least new names!!
Moosnsqrl, (you have one of the hardest names to type, at least for me!) you may have to add cwench to your apology list too!
In all serious though, I think there are bad parts and good parts to anywhere you live... you just have to decide what matters to you most. Myself, I like that I only have a 5-minute drive to work, (among other aspects) or better yet, a 5-minute drive to get my happy-ass out of my boring job and home!!
And it's not like I can't visit other areas of KC, and we do, often! You take the bad with the good, no matter where you are! But, hey, I'm from Topeka, so I know all about that! 
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Okay, okay, my fans are asking for me...
I had a salad like jgm except I went for the Baby Arugula and Watercress Salad with fresh Goatsbeard Farms Cheese, Missouri Strawberries, Pistachios, and Balsamic Vinaigrette (okay, I admit it, I consulted the website for the description!) For my main I had the Sauteed Wild Salmon with Potato Puree, Morel Mushrooms, Wild French Asparagus, and Foie Gras Cabernet Sauce... Whew! It was my first for a few things... my first pork belly (thanks jgm!,) my first morel, my first wild asparagus, and I had thought it was my first taste of foie gras, but the bf reminded me that I had indeed had it once before! So, it was a fantastic night for me! I was a little scared of the pork belly, because I'm a little timid when it comes to meat textures, but it truly was amazing... such an intensity of flavors! I really loved the wild asparagus and the sauce on my salmon was to die for! The salmon itself was really lovely as well!
And then on to my favorite part, the dessert, of course! (u.e. I'll be glad to take the title of KC's resident sweet tooth!) John brought out his grandmother's snickerdoodles with a trio of ice creams... Tahitian Vanilla, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and my personal favorite, Brown Butter Banana! (It would not hurt my feelings at all, John, if you PM-ed the recipe for the Brown Butter Banana!
) And then, because I think John thought jgm was so cute , he brought out an extra scoop of Rum Raisin ice cream! It was a wonderful evening and I can't wait to bring my bf back to try everything... I know he would have loved it too!
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Katie-
My bad. I thought you liked On the Border.
Actually, I'm a New Yorker who has lived in Topeka for 19 years. And no, I'm not in the witness protection program (One of the guys at the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago asked me if I was)
No problem... just wanted to clarify... wouldn't want anyone to think I actually liked On the Border!
I was born and raised in Topeka, so I definitely am aware that there are lots of wonderful Mexican restaurants there!
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In all seriousness, will they be doing call-ahead seating or anything? That place is going to be BUSY.
I don't know, but I hope it's bigger than their Manhattan location! It is t-i-n-y! I would bet it sits around 60 max!
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No Coco Bolo's in Topeka as of now, but god only knows what else is going to pop up on Wanamaker in the future. My daughter used to eat there when she was at KSU, and liked it.
Katie- If you consider On the Border (the TGI McFunsters of Mexican) good Mexican food, you really need to eat at one of the many fine family owned REAL Mexican restaurants when you're in Topeka. See, outside of JOCO, there are non-chain restaurants. Heck, you may even want to venture into wildest KCMO and go to Ponak's!!
I think you must of misunderstood me... I HATE On the Border! And I know plenty about REAL Mexican food... just come to my house! We get out of JoCo often, actually. But, still glad to see some Topekans on the board!
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Updating my own thread...
From a KC Restaurant Guide e-mail:
CoCo Bolos, a New Mexican Wood Fired Grill and Cantina is opening mid-June at 151st and Nall in Leawood. The unique menu has a large selection of choices featuring tastes from the Gulf Coast, South Texas and Southern New Mexico. Lunch and dinner will be served 7 days a week including brunch on Sunday. For more information, please call 913-681-0400 or visit our website at http://www.kcrestaurantguide.com/cocobolos.htmSo excited! And it's close by for me!
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Why does Target even have mayonnaise anywhere near hot dogs?
Frankly, it took me some time to get used to the Eastern habit of putting mayonnaise where ketchup should go.
Eastern? Eastern? Listen, I grew up on the east coast, and I also worked at a hot dog stand in high school (impressive, yes?); I never saw anyone put mayo on hot dogs until I moved to Detroit and hosted visitors from Ohio. I just figured it was part of the whole white gravy phenomenon.
Actually, I had hamburgers in mind when I first wrote of this "Eastern" habit--although I was exposed to mayo on a burger when I ate my first Whopper at a Burger King in Overland Park, Kan., at about age 13, no other burger joint within a 150-mile radius served burgers topped with mayo.
I beg to differ... Bo Bo's Drive-In in Topeka has been doing it for years and years and years! (see my pick for best onion rings in the Best of KC) Personally, can't stand the stuff on my hamburgers though... it's just not right!
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Okay, we covered wobbly tables, but what about wobbly booths or "wimpy" booths?! I can't tell you how many booths I've sat in back to back with another booth and there's been a 5-year old child or a 40-year old man kicking the back of their booth so much so that I can't even think straight by the end of the meal!!
Don't even get me started on movie theatre seats!Ditto to treating young customers like crap! I probably tip better than most if you treat me right! And don't give me "that" look when I order tap water!!!
Edited to add one more: If I come to your restaurant every day, some sort of acknowledgment might be nice! If I'm a regular, treat me like one! When I was in high school, we went to the same place to eat every day for lunch, and not once did they say "Hey, how's it going today?" or "Will it be the usual today?" Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name...
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Lunch Tuesday is looking to be Tonic, a new place for me. more later.
Joiei...
The chocolate tasting is a very fun dessert and always tempting at Tonic, but the apple crisp is SO good... if you get dessert, I would try the apple crisp! Have fun!
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FYI...
Cassis is having a $15 wine tasting with Martine's Import Company June 6th, from 5- 8 pm, reservations recommended. Appetizers will be served as well. Seems like a good deal!
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It was then that I realized that lousy parents have their own special karma.
I'm actually quite an attentive parent--probably too much so--but clearly I did something really bad in a previous life, as the following will attest:
The whole family has gone out to dinner at a new, funky restaurant. One of the specialties of the house is a kids' drink that's super bubbly and produces lots of smoke (courtesy of dry ice.) Naturally, my kids think this is the coolest thing ever.
My 7 year old daughter takes a sip of her green apple concoction and pronounces it "Yummy!" Then she burps REALLY loudly. (We try not to laugh, because we know it's not funny to be impolite--but we really can't help ourselves.)
Then my 5 year old son takes a sip of his bubbly, smoky, cherry drink. "Ooooooh," he says, a little too blissfully. "That's so good, it tickles my pee-pee!"
Needless to say, we made all the other parents feel very proud of their offspring.
wonderful!! simply wonderful!! you need to send that one into parenting magazine!!
Had us laughing!! Excellent!
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Am I correct that Tiffani would have used the money to travel and pay off debts--not to open a restaurant?
Yes, correct as usual King Friday, and she cried while saying it too!
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Another thing that I thought was weird... Tiffani's dual menu... when she first talked about it, I thought that every guest would get a dual plate, but it seemed as if every other guest got a different plate. This doesn't really make sense to me. I could see if I were at a table with my b.f. and we shared back and forth, but I think that would be a little weird at a table with people you don't know as well. And what if you were jealous of what your next door neighbor has? This just didn't make sense to me at all.
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I was wondering about the point when the producers asked Tiffini about her dessertas and she took credit for everything. Based on what we, the audience, saw, and what Dave said, she had nothing at all to do with those desserts. And I wondered, "why is she blatantly lying to them when they have footage of what happened?"
But then I thought that perhaps I am a victim of the producers, who edited the whole dessert thing, cutting out any "in depth conversation" between Tiffini and Dave to make it LOOK LIKE it was all Dave's idea and execution. In other words, they wanted to make Tiffini look like a liar to create drama. Except when asked at the Judges Table, Dave did seem to take all the credit....
Thoughts?
I don't know... she definitely seems snakey (is that a word?!) enough to do that sort of thing, although, she also seems smart enough to realize she would get caught too! Lee Anne did say in her question and answer session something to the effect that Tiffani is way worse that she was portrayed, so I have no doubt in my mind that she would take credit for something like that!
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Sounds like a very fun road trip, but I think I would have excluded the big guys! Everyone's been to McDonald's, etc!
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I was speaking to a friend on the weekend - someone who is hyper-sensitive to the paranormal. (He's had more than a few hair-raising ghost experiences.) He was staying at Poet's Cove resort, on South Pender Island last year. Following dinner, he was on his way to the washrooms, but stopped en route to look at a large painting which caught his eye in the hallway. As he was admiring the artwork, he literally felt a hand reach behind and under his collar - jerking him back with a sudden strong tug! Noone was there, of course - and the hair on his neck went straight up! He's heard since that an electrician has refused to go work in the basement at the building because of an intense creepy experience. (I've learned that Poet's Cove was built over an ancient Native burial site.)
I am sooooooooo glad we decided not to spend our honeymoon night there... that was the original plan! Please tell me that the Hotel Eldorado is not haunted!! Not that I believe in that sort of thing...
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Wrapped Sandwiches as in any food wrapped up and sealed--burritos for instance--I think this may be more of a food phobia. Just the thought of biting into a huge wrapped log of concealed food is a complete turn off for me. I like my sandwiches on bread or "open" like delicious warm tortillas that I fold around the fillings of my choice.
Yes, it's the fear of the unknown! You never know what's behind that cloak of a tortilla!!
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I hate to admit it, but I hate dining alone. I am sure it is some psychological thing, but I feel so uncomfortable dining alone. I always feel like people are staring at me and wondering why I am dining alone. It always reminds of the scene in "The Jerk", when Steve Martin goes into high class restaurant and says to the maitre'd, "Table for one." and a spotlight follows him to the table. This is exactly how I feel.
I know it is silly. I really don't know how to change this feeling.
If it's any consolation, I usually make up very romantic stories (in my head, of course) about solo diners and their fantastic lives and why they're dining alone!!
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How about a salad of fresh mozarella balls with tomato, sweet onion, and fresh basil with balsamic viniagrette?
You get the added benefit that it will kind of look like a big bowl of golf balls.
Great idea - bocconcini golf balls! And maybe you could add "tees" (carrots? bell pepper?). And divot repair tools made of what? I can't think of anything naturally occurring that bears any resemblance to one but I'll work on it.
Building on this idea, you could imprint them with cheesecloth for texture!
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Remarkable that even though she won none of the 3 rounds of the Quickfire challenge, and clearly lost 2 of them, Tiffani still advanced. In the third round, the tasters actively avoided eating her food.
I realize that Dave effed up when he only created 2 dishes for the final round of the QFC but he also clearly won a round too, which is more than Tiffani can say. And even in that final round, it was fairly clear that his beef dish was the most popular of the lot. I don't see forgetting a dish as that big a deal because it can always be sent out late . . . not great, but it happens from time to time. And late food is certainly better than lousy food, IMO.
The challenge was begun with a mention that the tasters' opinions would be the determining factor as to who advanced. But in the end, Dave was eliminated for forgetting something of which the tasters weren't even aware (until Tom mentioned it to them). It's pretty obvious at this point that the producers of the show wanted Tiffani in the finals and that she was going to get there regardless of how she actually performed in the challenges.
=R=
This was my beef (pardon the pun
) with part 1, yeah, Dave screwed up, but the customer didn't even notice! I thought Tiffani's little speech at the beginning was interesting! I wonder if she really will take her behavior into consideration in the future! Yeah, right.
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Corn Chowder is really speaking to me for this occasion... I think it would make a great pairing with some of your braised dishes, and the corn should be really good around that time.
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and I’ll show you a couple of my favourite restaurants.
*Deborah*- Could you maybe give us a little bit of a teaser of what restaurants you might be visiting? I'm taking notes for our trip in August!! Can't wait!
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Bananas. I must be the only cyclist on the face of the earth who doesn't like bananas. Oook: the taste, the texture, and most of all the smell. If my husband wants them, he needs to bring them in to work and eat them there.
Don't like bananas either!! They make me gag too...
okay, I'm weird, what's wrong with me?!?
Retro food. What does it mean to you ?
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I love Bananas Foster! I am also a huge Tiramisu fan, even though it may be tired for some people, it's yummy to me always!
I've been thinking about doing a more "gourmet" version of Pigs in a Blanket lately... you can't get more retro than that!