South Dakota

The beef propaganda continues into South Dakota.

Kansas

Nu Way Cafe, Wichita Kansas

“Can I get you kids a couple of root beers in frosty mugs?” the waitress asked as we entered the empty Nu Way Cafe. It was 10:45. Perhaps a little early for a loose beef sandwich, but our breakfast was light and it was time for a snack. We settled in at the end of the long, low, L-shaped counter and ordered a couple of regular Nuways to go with our root beers. For a good fifteen minutes was nearly empty—just the server, the fry man and us. Then, just as we were starting to worry that no one came to the Nu Way anymore, save for Road Food-reading out-of-towners, a steady stream of regulars began to trickle in. Apparently, Wichitans wait until eleven o’clock, and not a minute sooner, to get their Nu Way fix. Most customers ordered the same meal as us, and almost all started with a frosty mug of root beer, except for the man who got his “on the take.”
Our Nuways arrived sliced in half and wrapped in paper that was already turning translucent with grease. We had ordered them as they recommend, with a tangy mix of mustard, diced onion, and pickle topping the crumbly beef. With the crisp and thinly breaded onion rings on the side it was the perfect taste of Wichita.

this is what a salad bar salad looks like

...in Fredonia, Kansas

sometimes Internet can deceive

So, it turns out that the Tuesday market in Webb City and the Wednesday market in Tulsa don't start until later in the season. Major BUMMER. So the new plan is to drive, and to drive some more. The West is calling! I will post on food related adventures encountered along the way, so stay tuned!

The Greater Springfield Farmer's Market, Missouri

In peak season, the Greater Springfield Farmer’s Market is an impressive sight with over 90 vendors filling the Battlefield Mall parking lot. The market we drove up to Tuesday morning was not this peak season market.
Dad Bigbee, proprietor of the Fassnight Creek Farm right in Springfield, told us it’s been unseasonably cold this spring (we noticed) and that April temperatures in Missouri could reach into the eighties. This Tuesday morning the high was closer to fifty and the number of vendors fewer than twenty. Among this number were several meat stands, one with eggs, one coffee vendor, one bakery, and a knick-knack vendor or two.
From Dan, the only vendor offering the spring produce options of spinach or some good-lookin’ leeks, we bought our one purchase of the market, a bag of spinach, picked the previous night. Sadly, there were no other options for a kitchenless meal, so lunch today will be a simple spinach salad.

Columbia Farmers Market, Missouri

Following the disappointment and misery of the St. Louis market, the bright and sun-shiny Columbia Farmer’s Market was a welcome sight. Like most farmer’s markets I’ve encountered, Columbia’s had its fair share of hippies, but this being God's Country, it also hosted a decent amount of organic religiosity—just enough to make a pair of coastal heathens a little uncomfortable, but not enough to keep us from trying the sizzling beef samples.

We entered the market with the intention of scrounging up a tasty lunch that did not involve ground beef or greasy potatoes, so abundant in this part of the country, and succeeded brilliantly. At the Uprise Bakery stall we found a sunflower rye bread good enough to make me consider staying in Columbia forever. Nutty and dense, it’s the best bread I’ve eaten since I left San Francisco. Next we hit the one and only stall selling cheese, or any other dairy, Goats Beard Farm, where we decided on a simple round of fresh goat cheese.

Next door to Goats Beard we found the Deep Mud Farm stall, where new-to-the-game farmer Jeremy was selling his mixed spring greens and arugula. We bagged enough to make a salad and, with his recommendation on where to find some good olive oil in town, set off for the southern Ozarks with our delicious market finds.