Sitting right now in the Midwest Airlines departure lounge in Kansas City, waiting for our flight back to San Francisco.  A quick recap of the final few days in KC, most of which were spent sampling local delicacies and enjoying the company of friends and family.

Right: Emily and Chris go out for fried chicken.

Monday afternoon we took my niece to lunch with my grandparents at Stroud’s, the “home of Pan Fried Chicken”.  They claim to be the only restaurant in KC that pan fries chicken.  Whether that is true or not, I don’t know.  But they sure turn out some tasty home style cooking.

Below: chicken noodle soup

Above: three pieces of Stroud’s crispy pan fried chicken.

The verdict: Stroud’s makes tasty fried chicken, very crisp.  The meat itself, though, doesn’t have a lot of flavor.  The side dishes, especially the heavenly mashed potatoes, are great.  And their slogan (“We choke our own chickens”) is priceless.

Later in the day I scanned a lot of old photos from my grandparents’ photo albums.  I’ll share more of these in the coming weeks, but here’s one from when I was just about six months old.  My uncle, who is a photographer, took the picture.

Monday evening we stopped by the Honorary Royal Thai Consulate.  Yes, there is a Thai consulate here in the greater Kansas City area.  I applied for another one-year business visa, something I will have to do every year for the foreseeable future.  A year ago when I applied, the Consul General, who is an American woman, didn’t spend a lot of time talking with me.

This time, however, I brought Tawn along and we ended up spending a half-hour at her house (the family room of which is the consulate), talking about Thai politics, etc.  She told us that she thinks we should have children and went on about her frustration that proposition 8 passed in California.  Kind of unusual, huh?

That evening, we continued that Thai theme and met Jack, a Thai friend who has lived in KC for a decade or more, down on the Plaza.  Country Club Plaza is beautiful this time of year with all the holiday decorations.  Here’s a view:

We ate at Houston’s, a small chain operated by the Hillstone restaurant group.  For a chain restaurant, they have a good wine list and excellent pork ribs.  Knife and fork tender, which is how I like them because I don’t like to gnaw on rib bones.  From the top down: Ribs with cous cous and fries, Hawaiian rib eye steak with baked potato, double-cut pork chop.

There’s a little more to share but I’ll have to do it from SF as we’re about to board.  Have a happy and safe new year’s eve!