Kansas City

Kansas City

     Kansas City, the largest city in the state of Missouri, is always a fun town to tour through. Two major sports teams, the NFL Chiefs and the MLB Royals give fans a chance to catch a game almost year-round. There is a great walking/running path along Brush Creek, which is adjacent to The Plaza, a fantastic shopping area with lots of high end clothing shops, a Mac store (essential for most touring musicians when their computer inevitably crashes while working on songs or blogs), and a handful of restaurants. There are lots of Clubs, Theaters, and a large amphitheater that provide KC venues for just about every size band to stop on tour for a gig. 

     That said. Kansas City is primarily known for one thing, Barbeque. For me, however, when I go for barbeque in KC I go for a style that definitely wouldn’t pop into your mid, Mongolian BBQ at a place called Genghis Khan. Located at 3906 Bell St, it is right in the center of town. 

     When I was a kid, I had my first Mongolian BBQ experience in Los Angeles around the age of 8 and I was immediately hooked. The basic principal is a raw bar of thinly slice meats (beef, chicken, pork, and occasionally seafood), a vast selection of sliced vegetables (bean sprouts, water chestnuts, celery, peppers, carrots, etc), and a number of basting/marinating sauces (vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, ginger water, etc). You take a bowl and fill it with all of the ingredients you desire and take it to the grill man who cooks your meal in front of you on a huge round and flat grill. I always prefer to sprinkle sesame seeds on my prepared dish once the cook gives it to me. 

      I love that you can create your own concoction of flavors and ingredients. Mongolian BBQ’s typically have a few cheat sheets if you know roughly what you want your dish to taste like but don’t want to risk adding the wrong flavors. Unfortunately, this type of restaurant is becoming harder and harder to find but I always hit yelp when I get to town and see if there is one close. 

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

    Welcome to the first installment of my food and drink life on the road.  I’ve been a touring musician for 20 years now and in those two decades I’ve been around the country dozens of times as well as the UK, Australia, Japan, Western Europe, and South America. There is so much good food out there just waiting to be eaten and I’m doing my best to try new foods as well as visit iconic eateries in every city I go to. 

    Traveling as much as I do, I have the pleasure of eating at some of the tastiest and most unique places and often I’m able to visit certain cities more than once a year. This is helpful because when you’re craving a certain meal, but don’t live in the city that the meal comes from; you’re able to scratch that craving itch. Los Angeles is a prime example of one of those cities. 

    When you think of the food of Los Angeles the first thing that probably comes to mind, and deservedly so, is Mexican food. Everywhere you go around this city there is probably a Mexican restaurant, stand, or food truck within 100 feet. This is a good thing. Unlike most of the rest of the country, it’s fairly hard to find bad Mexican food in L.A. Finding the right match for your taste is the only tough part. For me, there is always one place that calls my name every time I’m here, Cactus Taqueria.  

   These days there a handful of locations but the one that I first ate at, and that I still go to, is the original location on Vine St., just south of Santa Monica Blvd. A tiny little stand that barely has enough room for the three employees that work there, this little gem pumps out my favorite tacos and burritos in all of LA. Their specialties in my opinion are the carne asada and the al pastor. Whether in taco or burrito form, these are my go to proteins. Their typical taco comes on a fairly small corn tortilla with cilantro, onion, and their salsa verde that sits atop my list of favorite salsas anywhere.  The burritos come in a flour tortilla with your choice of filling with rice, beans, cilantro, onion, and salsa verde.

       The thing that I crave more than anything from Cactus Taqueria, however, is their spicy carrots. Pickled in vinegar, onions, jalapenos, garlic, bay leaves, and some other magical ingredients that I wish I could figure out. I’ve tried to make them at home and I ask for them all the time at every Mexican restaurant I go to and I’ve never found better than what the Cactus offers. 

      Rarely does a trip to Los Angeles happen for me without a trip to the Cactus Taqueria and also a Korean BBQ dinner but I’ll save the Korean BBQ for a later blog.

Daxx