Kansas City
If you ever find yourself in the “Plaza” section of Kansas City (MO,KS?)(its close to the border, give me a break), first of all consider what it is that brought you to this particular region of a world that has over 15.77 Billion acres of habitable land mass.
After a moment of reflection and hopefully epiphany or profound clarity, accept your fate and head West down the main strip of The Country Club Plaza away from the exquisite shopping and retail options. As you get away from this capitalist playground and head into the residential neighborhoods that sit directly on the Midwestern Continental Divide of the Kansas and Missouri border, I recommend closing your eyes as you walk up a steep 15% grade hill and imagine that you have been teleported to the harsh urban topography of San Fransisco California. (eyes closed walking is done at own risk and EJD blog owns no liability)
Now that you have entered a Bay Area mindset, walk into Chingu Coffee (which makes a decent iced latte if you are in the market for some caffeine) and walk through Chingu to find Bay Boy Specialty Sandwiches which shares a roof and operates out of the back of Chingu. There is a small deli counter and sando operation, a few low tops, and a single booth that houses a double sided video game setup that boast OG Xbox, a complete guitar hero setup, and some original Nintendo consoles. In other words, like the coolest corner booth ever.
But I digress. The real reason I am writing and still fantasizing about Bay Boy is their made from scratch, in-house, Dutch Crunch bread. Apparently this is something that is well known from the Bay are (although news to me) and when I tell you it is the best sandwich bread I have ever had… it might be an understatement. I would classify it somewhere between a mini sourdough loaf and a semi-sweet dinner roll. I’m going to need you to check the picture to get in the head space, but this bread was soft, it was absorbent, it had a faint sweetness, and it was baked to have a slight crunchiness on the top (but not enough to hurt the top of your wittle mouth).
They have all the basic sandwich classics, and a couple out of the ordinary creations, such as their Kimcheese sandwich made with made-in-house Kimchi. (I didn’t try, but I will be upon return)
For my first dive into Dutch Crunch euphoria, I went with their Wagyu Nebraskan, which is essentially a classic reuben but uses Wagyu beef for their corned beef. And since this blog is about being dangerous, I went ahead and added 1/4 lb of pastrami to it as well. The Kraut is top notch, the cheese melty, the Wagyu corned beef decadent, and need I say again, the Bread… Show stopping. It soaked up all the juiciness, it held its own with over 1/2 pound of tasty beef, and it left a mark on me that I will not soon be forgetting.
So next time you find yourself in Kansas City, sure they love barbecue here, but take a quick mental vacation to the West Coast, grab a friend to duel Free Bird with on guitar hero, and Go Eat Something Good at Bay Boy Specialty Sandwiches.
Eating James Dangerously 