This kind of meal can probably only be found in Missouri.
There’s a pretty cool Web site out there called Chowhound for people who are really into food and finding new restaurants in their area. The site is divided into regions and cities around the U.S., and it seems to be a pretty active community. If you hunt around for a while, you’re sure to find some new recommendations for your area.
However, as with any online community, you’re going to end up seeing some dissent and pretentiousness. Since I mostly peruse the Kansas City area, I’ve noticed a heavy emphasis on restaurants on the Missouri side of the metro area. Kansas? Not so much.
This sort of Missouri-snobbery happens all the time in Kansas City. There are basically two sides to the discussion:
- Missouri people: The Johnson County (Kansas) suburbs are the worst place in the world. Nothing but big SUVs, rich people and chain restaurants. They’re so entitled, just existing in some sort of sterile corporate bubble and living in shoddily-made houses in the suburbs. I bet they aren’t even aware enough to know how miserable their vain, suburban lives are. I hate Kansas.
- Kansas people: Mortified by Missouri; enjoy large parking lots.
This dichotomy is understandable, to some extent, because there are far more independent and local restaurants on the Missouri side, since that includes the midtown and downtown areas. But, I can say I’ve had great meals at many places on the Kansas side of the state line.
Julie and I have often joked that we should publish book entitled something like “A Guide to America’s Best Chain Restaurants.” We could eschew all attachment to hip, independent eateries and just dive fully into becoming franchise connoisseurs.
Out of boredom, I decided to act on this impulse and created an account on Chowhound with the username “rockinthesuburbs,” with the full intent of recommending every Johnson County eatery I could think of. The first thread I found was for dessert options in Kansas City, and the previous responses were predictably mostly from Missouri-based places. So I stepped in with my inaugural post:
“Oh, so many good options!I just love Perkin’s for the best pie in the area. So many to choose from! I believe there is one around 87th and I-35.
If you want ice cream, look no further than a little place called Baskin Robbins. Great ice cream, great atmosphere and — best of all — there’s several of them in the area, so you never have to search too much to find ice cream. Enjoy!”
I thought it was pretty funny.
Unfortunately, a moderator did not find it as funny, and my post was deleted six minutes later.
I’ll bet you that the mod lives in Missouri.