The barbecue of Kansas City is legendary, rightfully so. But K.C., MO, also is home to four-star fried chicken dinners and some of the best blue-ribbon steaks in all of the Midwest. At the other side of the state, St. Louis has its own fine barbecue customs as well as custard that sets the Midwest benchmark. The Gateway City is home to 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. And there’s Branson, which has its fair share of tourist-trap restaurants with forgettable food, but also boasts a number of hidden gem dining opportunities well worth a detour.
America's distinctive regional dishes are often associated with cities: the creamy grits of Charleston, the pig sandwich of Memphis, Buffalo wings, Cincinnati five-way chili, San Diego fish tacos, Chicago...
If Dr. Seuss had been a restaurant reviewer, he would have liked soda fountains best, for they are where Pink Elephant punch and rootbeer Black Cows line up alongside...
Originally Published 1997 Gourmet Magazine After a good day of boldly eating where no food writers have eaten before—truck stops, diners, smoke shacks, even the occasional scurrilous road-house that anchors...
Chicken dinner is all America's homespun meal, but it is dished out differently everywhere you go. Rhode Island likes its birds presented family-style, with pasta shells in red...
What a yummy trip it is to eat one's way from Chicago to L.A. along old Route 66! This tour of 21 excellent stops along the way includes some...
In 1946, when Bobby and Cynthia Troup drove their Buick convertible from the East to the West coast in hopes of finding a future writing songs, Cynthia suggested to...
Is there another dish as diverse as pizza? It can be an utterly simple tomato pie – nothing but sauce on crust – or it can be a multi-meat...
Branson, a city of countless entertainment theaters, not to mention zip lines, wax museums, and mini-golf courses, is a tourist Mecca. But that doesn't mean it lacks good places...
Road Trip Overview Beginning in Kansas City, Missouri and heading along Interstate-70 toward the heart of Kansas, this 284 mile long road trip will take participants to a variety of...
Great Soft Serve There is so much inferior soft-serve ice cream (aerated, chemically-flavored), that soft-serve in general has a bad reputation among ice cream lovers. But there are exceptions, soft-serve...
Grilled Cheese From pressed-flat, wafer-thin, white-bread-and-Velveeta cooked on a lunch-counter flattop to effulgent bouquets of imported cheese melted between halves of an artisan bun, the best grilled cheese sandwiches have...
The Real Thing Barbecue's newfound nationwide popularity has put burnt ends on menus across the country, but in all too many cases, the burnt ends are bogus. The best burnt...
Airport Food Food in airports is better than it used to be, but when we arrive by plane, we can't get out of the terminal fast enough. By rental car,...
Unique Regional Dishes After 40 years and 5 million miles spent on the road looking for America's best regional food, we've assembled a list of the quintessential, must-eat food in...
One day to taste St. Louis's best Roadfood? Not counting the enigmatic St. Paul (an egg foo yung sandwich sold in Chinese restaurants), toasted ravioli (which has gone national),...
Twelve champion chocolatiers, from the Oregon coast to downeast Maine.
Of the hundred five-star barbecue parlors around the U.S.A. this dozen is the crème de la crème. .
Even before Calvin Trillin declared Arthur Bryant's to be "possibly the single best restaurant in the world" in a 1974 Playboy magazine article, Kansas City was famous for barbecue....
Although ice cream tends to be more butterfatty, frozen custard tastes richer because it traditionally is made with egg yolks. Even when eggs are not part of the formula,...
Many restaurants serve steak, but some places are dedicated to it. Although no great steak house is cheap, some of the best are extremely informal (like Doe's Eat Place...
Fried chicken is popular all across America and so different everywhere that it is not possible to say what city, state, or region does it best. While the process...
When barbecue migrated up the Mississippi from its homes in the Deep South and in Texas, it took on a new personality -- similar to what happened to the...
