About Regional Flavor
The barbecue of Kansas City is legendary, rightfully so. But K.C., MO, also is home to four-star fried chicken dinners and blue-ribbon steaks. And let’s not forget St. Louis, which has its own fine barbecue customs as well as custard to die for. The Gateway City offers a multitude of unique specialties that include toasted ravioli, St. Paul sandwiches (egg foo young on white bread), and a sweet tooth’s best friend, gooey butter cake.
Missouri Regional Specialties
Barbecue
With a smoke-cooking heritage that derives from both deep south and Texas traditions, Kansas City is a barbecue lover's paradise. Both pork ribs and beef brisket are at their best, not to mention chopped and sliced pork, hot links, and even mutton. Sauce plays a major role in KC barbecue, adding spicy drama to mellow meat. And to the east, St. Louis has its own treasure trove of great smoke-cooked meals.
Gooey Butter Cake
A low-rise pastry with a tender crust around the edge and a middle that is custard-soft and overwhelmingly sweet, gooey butter cake originally was simply yellow cake mixed with butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar. City bakers have taken the idea and run with it, creating such flavors as banana split, white chocolate raspberry, Amaretto, Butterfinger and funky monkey. Center cuts are dripping-moist; outside segments tend to be a balance of gooeyness and plain cake.
Slinger
Also known as a Wilbur, the Slinger is a kitchen-sink breakfast unique to St. Louis. Eaten for lunch or breakfast or as a pre-dawn prophylactic for an oncoming hangover, its exact configuration varies, but a typical slinger would be two hamburger patties sided by fried potatoes, topped with a fried egg or two, completely blanketed with chili, then garnished with grated cheese and chopped raw onions.