Over the years I posted some easy recipes and now, when the City Market is brimming with fresh produce, is a good time to revisit a few of them. Some of the posts may look miss-formatted and Flickr stopped showing some of the photos when they took away their free photo hosting that used to come with the my internet service. If something is missing please let me know.
As always, these recipes may or may not be authentic, but that’s how I cook them so deal with it. I know of at least one person who tried a few of these and survived, and hope so will you.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1951 which was the “most devastating of all modern floods for Kansas City since its levee system was not built to withstand it”. Six weeks after the flood the Life Magazine article described the cleanup and reconstruction efforts ahead of the President Truman’s visit to the area.
Few days ago I was getting a haircut and noticed that some culinary business next door had been replaced by a Mexican Bakery.
I asked the lady who was cutting my hair if she tried it yet, but she sounded hesitant to try something different. I, on the other hand, can’t pass a bakery of any kind without checking it out. I’ve been to a Mexican Bakery (Panaderia) before and our local grocery stores frequently sell Mexican traditional baked goods, reflecting Olathe’s rapidly growing Hispanic population. Panaderia San Luis opened at this location little over 3 months ago and seems to be staying busy. It offers a variety of pastries like familiar fruit-filled turnovers, as well as a huge selection of Mexican baked goods.
Most of the items are made in the store (I noticed a different address on the package of tortillas) and are priced 60 cents and up.
Pastries that are not so obvious or priced differently are marked in English and Spanish.
My usual pet peeve with ethnic businesses is their neglect of potential mainstream customers. Many times a curious shopper shows up but feels intimidated or overwhelmed by the amount of unknown items and no one around to explain what they are. Panaderia San Luis got this right – not only everything is clearly marked, the owner is there to explain and answer questions in English to your satisfaction. The experience is very different from my first visit to a Mexican Bakery in Kansas City, KS where no one seemed to speak English and I had to watch the other customers to figure out what to do. Instead of a basket you get a tray and a pair of kitchen tongs, then bring your loaded tray to the checkout.
Panaderia San Luis located at 2077 E.Santa Fe in Olathe is a nice addition to a growing list of authentic eateries in my neighborhood and a definite step up from your grocery bakery department both in quality and freshness.
I hope they stick around.
*this post is not sponsored or compensated in any way.
1. I did a local meme and checked out the new downtown grocery store. While I was pretty impressed with various lunch options, I think they missed another money-making opportunity. They could sell tickets to observe sushi-eating douchebags in their natural habitat, conveniently located right in the middle of the store. Couple of couches and some pop-corn is all that’s needed for douchebag-watching which provides countless hours of entertainment while the home-grown sushi connoisseurs are getting mercury poisoning in real time.
2. This one is more of an RFP. I would like to have a device such as when I yell at other drivers they can actually hear me. I feel like I have a lot of valuable information to share, some great zingers and one-liners, as well as timely observations about their driving, and it’s not fair that all this just bounces off my windshield. This has a potential to become a valuable tool which will revolutionize on-the-road communications and help other idiots with their driving.
As a matter of fact, there were hardly any prepackaged foods at that time, store clerks weighed and wrapped everything to order, which contributed to the long lines.
At the time the unrefined oil wasn’t my favorite because of its pronounced smell and taste of the roasted sunflower seeds, but a few years ago I tried a salad dressed with it and realized how much I missed that taste.
Unrefined oil is pressed from the sunflower seeds with minimal processing allowing it to retain its natural taste. The byproduct of the oil production used to look like this…
…and is normally used for feeding cattle. During the starvation years of the WWII it was considered a treat for the people and my parents recalled eating it in their younger ears. I tried it once, it’s just compressed sunflower seed shells and solids and it tastes accordingly.
*tomato is for the illustration purposes only and does not come with oil.
Locally the unrefined sunflower oil can be purchased at the Russian store (as much as I advertise for them anonymously I should never have to pay for anything there, ever!).
Look for the similar words as I underlined on the bottom of this label “нерафинированное” which means “unrefined”. There is usually an English label as well, but the one I have didn’t say if it was unrefined. Refined oil has no taste, so there is no point of making a trip to get it there. 1 liter bottle is $4.19.
This oil is good on salads as well as for cooking; pan-fried potatoes are my favorite. However, I want to emphasize that it has a fairly strong smell and taste, which may be too much for some people, but if you don’t mind extra virgin olive oil you shouldn’t have a problem with the sunflower oil either.
1. I did a local meme and checked out the new downtown grocery store. While I was pretty impressed with various lunch options, I think they missed another money-making opportunity. They could sell tickets to observe sushi-eating douchebags in their natural habitat, conveniently located right in the middle of the store. Couple of couches and some pop-corn is all that’s needed for douchebag-watching which provides countless hours of entertainment while the home-grown sushi connoisseurs are getting mercury poisoning in real time.
