A Vegetarian in the BBQ Capital

I was in training in Kansas City, MO (KC) in the work-week of July 27th, along with a couple of my colleagues. Though I visited MO numerous times, this was my first trip to KC. While I was waiting for my luggage in the airport, one of the locals mentioned that KC is the barbecue capital of the world, and wished me luck on finding good vegetarian diet! On the way to the hotel, I did notice that BBQ places are pretty much every where.

Later, one of the (exclusively carnivorous/very friendly) folks we went to dinner with, quipped that he prefers not to eat anything that has no parents! His comment reminded me of a few bumper stickers I came across.

Surprisingly, we (one of my colleagues is also a vegetarian) managed to find tasty vegetarian (sort of) entrées at many places, including Jack Stack Barbecue, a famous BBQ place. One of the eateries we went to is an Indian restaurant with a catchy (spicy?!) name. Among Asian restaurants, I am used to seeing Chinese places with funny names, like Wok on Fire, Woks Cooking?, Wok in the Park, and Wok and Roll.

I feel good when I see an Indian restaurant name with no "Taj" in it - over use of "Taj" makes people think that India has nothing but Taj Mahal, snake charmers, and sadhus. A few other places where we found menus with some vegetarian-friendly items are: Gordon Biersch, Vinino, Panera, Jazz, and Blanc Burgers.

Another conspicuous thing (in addition to ubiquitous BBQ places) we noticed was the friendliness of the locals; every one seemed to be eager to strike a conversation. One of the guys who came from NYC said that he was flabbergasted by the jovial nature of the locals. Will post more on KC later.