New York - again

Now before I say anything I must point out that this isn't my first time to New York City and it won't be my last. NYC is one of my favorite cities in the world and I always love visiting. There is something about the energy in NYC that I love. I could spend my time just walking the city exploring everything from restaurants to museums to shops or simply just relaxing in a park and people watch. I've said at various points that I could live here but I'm not sure if I would enjoy it as much. But now I'm getting off the point of this post. Right now I'm sitting in my hotel room on the last night of my trip and wanted to share the many things that I've experienced on this trip. I'm here for work which requires much of my time focused on those activities but my evenings are free for adventure. I normally see broadway shows while I'm here, and this trip is no different. But there have a been a few extra things that have occurred that I would like to share.

Cash Cab - have you ever seen that show where people get into a cab and are asked to answer questions on the way to their destination to earn money? We'll I have and always thought it would be fun to do. While I didn't get to actually do this, they did have the cash cab and host outside of our hotel next to a food truck they had as part of publicity stunt. So while waiting in line to get food I got to watch cash cab. It was cool.

SMASH - Last year a new show appeared on TV called SMASH. It's fictional story surrounding a group of people trying to create and cast a show for broadway. Clearly my music geek side was drawn to this show. Now I know that they film everything in New York and thought it would be cool to see them. Well on Wednesday night, walking back to my hotel after a show, I saw a restaurant closed for "filming" and all of these trailers. I never could figure out what they were or who was staring but knew I got to see a film set. Well this morning I saw a twitter picture of the cast of SMASH standing outside of the restaurant that we passed. Next time I'll be sure to stand around and see if I can see any one.

Annie - This was one of the shows that I saw. I was a little weary about it but also interested. I've grown up only watching the movie and wasn't sure how I would enjoy it on stage. I had nothing to worry about as the production was great. The girl who played Annie was amazing and had a great voice for an eleven year old. She gave me chills when she sang. The actress playing Miss Hanagan was just as good as Carol Burnett. The show stealer was the little girl who played Molly, the youngest of the cast. She was hysterical. It's a great show for children of all ages.

Once - the other show I saw was the 2012 Tony Award Winning Best Musical. It is set in Dublin, Ireland and has this guy who is giving up music as his heart has been broken. He runs into a Eastern European girl who pushes him to continue with his music as people need to hear his songs. Throughout the course of a week they continue to connect and write music all while falling for each other. The play ends with a vague ending that allows you the audience to determine what happens next. I found this to be a truly amazing show. The music and story were to be described as "hauntingly beautiful". The actors also played all of their own instruments and the dialog in between songs was amusing. I clearly understand why this won best musical. A co-worker had shared that after she saw the show a couple of weeks, she just didn't want it to end. I completely agree. It was amazing and I recommend if you can see it you should. Side note - they have one of the bars on stage so you can get drinks before the show and at intermission. I did this and can say I stood on a broadway stage. One thing I can cross off my bucket list.

This has been a great trip and I'm ready to come back soon. Here are a few pictures:

KC Restaurant Week Day 3

It's been a couple of days since my last post and figured I should update it now before I got behind and it was another 6 months before I posted again. On Wednesday I took a break from restaurant week as I had tickets to see Billy Elliot the Musical. It's one of the 5 shows of the broadway across america season this year. While I've seen it on broadway in New York, it was just as enjoyable here. Always glad to see it.

On Thursday I picked back up with restaurant week to try EBT. EBT was originally a department store in Downtown Kansas City that closed in the 60's. The owners of the department store opened this restaurant on the south side of the town and incorporated parts of the store for atmosphere. One of these things is the original elevators where put in and are used as tables for customers to sit. On this night to EBT we were able to sit in them as it wasn't very crowded. Overall the meal was good. Here is what I had.

1st course - EBT house salad with mixed greens, shaved carrots and celery, shredded cheddar, tomatoes, and a garden vinaigrette. This was a good salad similar you would get at most good restaurants.

2nd course - Roasted beef tenderloin - This was a slice of whole-roasted beef tenderloins, with roasted garlic-truffle whipped potatoes and mixed vegetables. It was finished with a peppercorn cream sauce. Everything was good but the peppercorn cream sauce made the dish.

3rd course - for dessert I had the carrot cake. It was good with a nice cream cheese icing.

Overall this was a good meal that I really enjoyed.

KC Restaurant Day 2

So today was another day of trying out restaurant week. Tonight the restaurant of choice was Michael Smith. This is a locally owned fine dinning by James Beard award winning Chief Michael Smith. I've been wanting to try this restaurant as I've enjoyed his other Extra Virgin. Here is their website for the restaurant www.michaelsmithkc.com.

The dinner was a 3 course meal that was just as great as I expected. Here's what I had:

1st course was a Braised Pork Tortellini with a tomato ragu. Everything in this dish was great from the homemade pasta to the pork filling.

2nd course was a Pan Fried Hanger Steak with broccolini, mashed potatoes and a red wine mushroom sauce. The steak was very tender and delicious. You didn't even need a knife to cut the steak. The sauce was a perfect compliment to the steak. The rest was the good too.

3rd course was a warm pecan and apple bread pudding. It was cooked to perfection.

They also have a great wine list that compliments the food.

Overall I really enjoyed this meal and will be going back again to try out the rest of the menu.

Below are some photos of my meal in the order the courses were served.

Take 2

So I haven't been the best about updating this blog as regularly as I liked. The good thing is I can restart this whenever I like. So here is take 2. Now is a great time as it's restaurant week in Kansas City. While it started on Friday, tonight was the first time I was able to actually participate since I was out of town. So I decided to try Grunauer. This is an Austrian/German restaurant located in the Freight District downtown. I had never been here before but had heard tons of great things. Now is a perfect time to try it out. Here is what was on the menu:

First course was an Obatzda - a camembert and paprika spread on fresh rye with chives - this was really good. The amount of the spread was more than I would have normally put on the rye but was still very good.

Second course was the seasonal potato soup - it was very smooth and creamy. I needed some bread to make sure there wasn't a drop left in the bowl.

Third course was a traditional schnitzel - it was a pork tenderloin breaded along with a potato cucumber salad. The pork was cooked to perfection and the potato salad was light and refreshing. I also got to try the Prokholt or goulash. It was delicious as well.

The fourth and final course was an apple strudel - it was topped with homemade cream.

Overall this was a great meal and I will be going back to try some of the other things on their menu. I'm not sure why it took me so long to try this out. Here's their website to learn more about them. www.grunauerkc.com

Here are a few pictures of my meal.