Luxury foods can be wonderful, but I find often that they are just rare, and fine, but not necessarily better than the things I can afford to eat regularly. I love foie gras, and that is sort of unique. Pour some brandy into chicken livers though, and I am in heaven. I have had oestra caviar, and it was really good but honestly I like salmon roe better. I like fresh oysters, and since I have to fly to the coast to get really good ones, I guess that counts as super expensive. I wish some smart person would figure out how to grow tasty truffles in the US. That's a taste that can't really be duplicated by anything else. Now, ask me about porridge, I am an aficionado. The only abalone I ever had was fried by my great aunt in CA, and it was a tough little item.

I love Nihari, and have been making it since discovering this lovely stew at a local Pakistani restaurant. MM, that spicy hot, gingery, oniony sauce made super creamy with wheat flour, so good. However, today I went to the store for the ingredients, and they were selling beef bones for almost $5 a pound!! I couldn't do it. So I got pork neckbones instead, for 89c a pound, which felt much better. Plus I love pork neckbones. Yes, yes I know this would not be an ingredient in Pakistani Nihari like, ever. I felt sort of sacreligious or something, as if I was really breakin' some rules. However, it's on the stove and smells maddeningly good. I think I may be on to something :)

srt double post somehow

If you have enough money to fund this thing but don't want to work long hours, I'd say your best bet is to import an expert breakfast cook from China to be your private chef. It would be way cheaper, you would make that person pretty happy probably, and you would have the food you want. Of course, then you couldn't swan around in your own restaurant.

Running a restaurant is hard work. Even people who work hard and are knowledgeable about the biz frequently fail. On the other hand, if you have plenty of money to throw down the hole, and perhaps the ability to fund a restaurant and pay a simpatico and expert manager (and the money and knowledge to keep him or her from stealing your shirt), sure, have at it. If you have people who are willing to invest, even better.

ABC Cafe on 87th St in Ov Pk is great. It's about 4 blks east of 35 Hwy, near the JoCo library central branch - not sure of the intersecting street. Dim sum to order. Open noon to midnight, closed on Monday I think. Lots of hot pot options, congee, and a variety of steamed fish. If you are after chicken feet and fried intestine and salted fish, they are on the menu in abundance. Hong Kong cantonese, really good and very friendly service for a chinese restaurant of this type. Try the turnip cake with XO sauce on the appetiser menu section, OMG tater tots from heaven. If you are white American, they tend to serve you shrimp with no shells or heads, just ask for them to leave the heads on and they will.

Jen Jen's is pretty good but the service tends to be hostile. Joy Wok in Lenexa is also good, on 87th too but much further west.
Oh, they also have a version -sorta- of hainanese chicken rice, called ginger chicken, that is lovely.

I salt canteloupe and similar melons. My mom always did, and I learned it was good. Never thought to try it with other fruits, but maybe I would eat them more if I start. Will report back!

I love this subject.

Also love egg sandwiches. My usual is an egg fried medium, so the yolk is just sort of runny but not runny enough to drip on me in the car, on pepperidge farm very thin whole wheat toasted lightly, with some mayo - or better, miracle whip (that's old fashioned american "boiled dressing" in a jar, for the snobs out there), a leaf of iceberg, salt and pepper. This takes 5 minutes and I like it better than an egg mcmuffin which btw takes longer to obtain.

Another favorite is my imitation of a breakfast from the Paradise diner in Lawrence KS, now defunct. More of a sunday thing, it involves chopped up and steam/sauteed cauliflower, onion, peppers, definitely some thinly sliced carrots, cooked until just tender and wrapped in a browned-in-butter whole wheat tortilla with lots of mild cheddar or american cheese. And hot sauce of some kind for garnish, usually louisiana style. Lately I like yucateca habenero too.

I also love peanut butter on toast, usually on that same pepperidge farm very thin whole wheat, it's a very nice product. I use smuckers natural, that's what I grew up eating and the sort of peanut butter I like. Sometimes I sprinkle some tamari or fish sauce on it. Just for the extra salt and umami I need in the morning. If you feel like living large and have time, sprinkle the umami ingredient over the two halves spread with peanut butter and run them under the broiler for a minute till they brown and blister a little. Heaven.

Edit: Egg McMuffins are pretty good, actually

I make a few things over and over, and they're mostly my evolved versions of family meals my mother made - true test of time :) These are not very gourmand-ish, but they taste good.

Pork chops baked with rice - Short-grain brown rice, in a casserole, topped with sliced canned or fresh tomatoes, sliced green peppers, chopped onion and pork chops. Cover with 50/50 broth and milk. Bake in a moderate to slow oven.

sausage with eggs and green pepper, stuffed into pita bread and eaten as sandwiches - sunday night supper.

Stuffed meatballs: make bread stuffing, I usually use something premade like pepperidge farm. Ground beef or lamb, made into a thin patty and then wrapped around a loose ball of stuffing. Bake in a mushroom cream gravy with lots of (thawed) frozen green beans in it. I sometimes make the cream sauce but Campbell's works. MMM. One pot meal.

Green chile pork or chicken - pork country style ribs or chicken thighs, cover with canned hatch chiles, chopped, a little broth but don't submerge in liquid, cover and cook in a slow oven till falling off the bone. Slightly thicken the chile sauce with some flour. Recombine with shredded meat. Makes great burritos.

Birrieria Michoacana moved to 719 Kansas Ave, KCK

Reece anchovy-stuffed olives! God I love them

Well, mac n cheese is delicious, so craving it is perfectly understandable. I love Amy's Whole Wheat Shells & Cheeze, which might be slightly more better for ya. Stay away from Hudsons, that is some bitter, rancid stuff. When I make my own I use ricotta in addition to cheddar and velveeta. Probably not any lower fat, but it makes it feel a bit lighter

I get cravings for protein in the winter. Right now it's fish cakes. Had to make them last night for dinner. Had a fish cake sandwich for lunch on Pepperidge Farm Very Thin Whole Wheat, toasted with cabbage (shredded) and some tartar sauce I made with low fat hellmans, dill pickles and capers. Pretty yummy. Also been buying beef head barbacoa at the carneceria, that stuff is luscious, making tacos out of it with black beans and cabbage. So good.

I love a baveuse omelet made with American cheese. Diner style, but not the fluffy kind. There's one place in KC that reliably does this, proof of kitchen culture because it's a chain of sorts (town topic) and the other location six blocks away does not do it like this. I can do it at home but only if I have a nonstick pan which I don't at the moment. Delicious. Cooked fast on a hot griddle and turned over before it gets hard.

If I cook scrambled eggs, I try for fluffy but not dry. High heat at the first few seconds and then really low to finish. Don't stir too much after the first high heat stage for bigger "curds" of egg. Dill is good on top, or finely chopped chives,

AGE: 44

MONTHS/YEARS ON THIS BOARD: around 10, a couple different sign-in names or periods of lurking

CURRENT CITY: Kansas City

PROFESSION/FIELD OF WORK: Law, ugh, for over a decade. Currently working hard to figure out some other and more pleasant way to make not much of a living however.

CULTURAL BACKGROUND: half norwegian (3rd gen) and half American mutt, english/german/swede/irish/etc.

CHOWHOUNDER SPECIALTY: generalized foodie, I like to make stew of all kinds from all cuisines, it's interesting. Like old cookbooks. Not a baker really but I make good fruitcake.

FUN FACT: Love my little yippy dog Frodo - see, that tells you all kinds of things about me :)

My sister, who is what some call "crunchy conservative" (very religious, lots of children, all organic, healthy fats, no grain kind of eating) makes her own butter from unpasturized goat milk, and it is orgasmic. I bring a nice baguette when I visit her, and then have to eat it hiding on the porch with that beautiful butter, so the kids can't see the bread (they crave it). I wish she would stop with the no grains thing, since this butter really deserves bread. On the other hand, she is 40, has 5 kids, and is an amazing looking size one.

I like d'bronx ruebens, and they have pastrami too. There's one at around 95th & Metcalf

888 Market in Ov Pk sells both. I think it's made there. Also a lot of bakery items.

Crab bisque is delicious, but my very favorite is cream of celery, home-made like my mother did every christmas eve. One celery plant, one onion, sauteed just a little in butter, roux made with that, and milk /water in equal shares, enough to make about half a gallon. Salt and pepper, and just before serving, chop up about four ounces of mild cheddar or colby into small dice, and stir in for richness. Simple and very good.
I think the celery was because we were too poor for oysters, but it is a lovely soup.

I love canned mackerel too. Much better in macaroni & cheese than tuna. Also makes my little dog mad with desire for leftovers, lol.

I found this thread searching on chicken and dumplings, while I luxuriated in my bowl of sweet sue carbs. I confess to a real fondness for some of this stuff. And the joy of cooking chapter (lunch, brunch and supper dishes IIRC) consisting entirely of canned or otherwise ready-made food combos, is my favorite cookbook segment ever. I mean, mixing condensed tomato soup with liverwurst!! what's not to love about that, I ask you. :)

In addition to Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings, I've got a soft spot for Hormel canned tamales, canned corned beef, Campbells Pepper pot soup, among other salty, bad for me canned products. I don't eat fast food, but I guess this is my version.
While I have never bought the whole canned chicken I have been eyeing this product with interest, today might be the day! I did recently suffer a defeat at the hands of potted meat product, it was the wierdly gritty texture that upset me more than the flavor. Also some interesting-looking but (to me) unimagineably vile-tasting preserved tofu I recently tried.

BTW, mother didn't feed me these things, with the exception of canned corned beef (one small can hashed with a LOT of potatoes was a regular end of the month dinner).

Currently I want canned shad roe and cannot find it. I think I became aware of this possibility due to my wonderful Louella Shouer cookbook Easy Recipes for Two. This is a great book and has a super chapter for cooking on a hot plate with only one burner

I loved the 3 I have seen. I like it that there is more than just cooking. It's the "mind of the chef", so it's fun to get to know said chef a little through the non-kitchen spots. Very entertaining TV, and Chang is charming.

ABC Cafe, really good cantonese food open til midnight I think -dim sum to order, red cooked hot pot dishes, steamed fish, stir fried things. Congee too. At 87th and 35 sorta, a few blocks east

The first time I ever ate lobster some close friends offered to cook it for me, "the way they get it in France." They boiled the bugs, cut them in half, cooled thoroughly, and served with a mildly garlicky, lemony home-made mayonnaise. A simple watercress salad on the side. It was divine!

Bierocks! Cabbage and hamburger stuffing. If you have hamburger. Or Cabbage and cheese.

On the main subject, I have truly enjoyed fine steaks in fine restaurants, but plebian that I am, a cheap sirloin or t-bone special and a baked potato makes me pretty darn happy if the house can get it together to provide a sharp knife. To all restaurants, please stop with the dull serrated knives, they're horrid. Tanners over in Lenexa on 87th has a good strip special. Not anything like fine dining, but tasty and cheap, and will feed you for three days. Also, the tween Twighlight fan grafitti in the ladies' room is hilarious. It's a family place, lol.

mmm, fat Asparagus is the best. I peel them. nothing better with a lovely steak. Try rubbing them with butter and grill with a liberal seasoning of lemon pepper & salt

The big lots at 7408 Nieman Road Shawnee, KS has those delicious rye triscuits with caraway that are so hard to find

There's some good chinese here. ABC cafe (87th st, Ov Pk, excellent like 30 times for me), Jen Jen ( 91st & Metcalf, Ov Pk pretty good but not as friendly) ; Bo Ling has pretty good dim sum. I am a ks native so can't compare really to the east coast offerings, but I can tell good food usually. I think these will mostly make you happy. GREAT mexican, try El Pollo Rey 900 Central KCK; Birria Michoacano on 7800 10th st north of Central, KCK; El Camino Real ( 7th & Minnesota, KCK); lots and lots of other good servicable taco/basic mex places in KCK . Good foodie/fine dining, the Rieger in crossroads, Michael Smith/Extra Virgin usually pretty good in Crossroads; Austrian Grunauer in Crossroads; Several fun American places also in Westport MO; Blue Stem (fine dining) also in Westport; Good egyptian/ lebanese/ palestinian etc here and there, several very good fried fish takeouts (KCK, KCMO). Some good sushi/ japanese, I am no expert but I have been happy at Eddokko in Lenexa KS. There may not be a bazillion of each kind of ethnic place, but they have to do an ok at least job or out of biz. Kansas City Metro is pretty diverse and it's a good place to live and eat. Also the produce at farmers' markets is amazing.

I have always used Spike to flavor my tabbouleh. It's crazy umami, that stuff. I'm pretty sure that among other things it contains quite a bit of yeast. I learned about this ingredient as a teenager working in a mostly vegetarian deli (think moosewood cookbook). It's a great addition though, and everybody who eats my tabbouleh says it's the best they've ever had. I used to use it in place of salt, but now buy the salt-free version so that I have more control of the seasoning.
http://spike-it-up.com/our-products/