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This week my sister and I checked out some interesting Mexican places in Kansas City, Kansas. The area we concentrated on is called Armourdale. Years ago it was an area populated with mostly Eastern European and German immigrants working in the meat packing industry and the railroad. Today it's 90% Hispanic with many restaurants and shops.
El Taco Nazo was our first stop. They had a large menu with English on some of the items, but not all. There was a separate breakfast menu. We had one order of huaraches with barbacoa and an order of sopas with pollo con adobo. Both were large masa cakes that had cheese added to the masa dough, then fried on a flat top griddle. The huaraches were oval, the sopa were round and more crisp. The barbacoa was shredded beef, similar in texture to pulled pork. Lots of cumin, garlic and pepper, but not enough salt. There was a ton of beef on the two huaraches. It was covered with sliced avocado, lettuce, onions and chihuahua cheese. The salsa that came with the chips was made with roasted tomatoes and chlies and was very spicy. It was great on the barbacoa. Three different bottled hot sauces were on each table.
The Sopas were wonderful. They were topped with tender, juicy chicken, not at all mushy, in an intensely flavor adobo sauce. It was a nice rusty color with just enough heat. It was about perfect. The sopas came with avocados, lettuce and crema instead of cheese. We had horchatas to drink, which were refilled at no charge. The place is, how should I say?...a dump! But it was clean and the service was friendly.
Next stop was El Pollo Rey. It is a store front rotesserie chicken place. You have your choice of one half chicken or a whole chicken. That's it. All chicken comes with a stack of warm corn tortillas, beans, rice and two different salsas. The chicken was really moist and redulant of spices. The beans were the whole bean kind, not smashed. The salsas were good. The rice was a too soft for my taste. It is incredibly inexpensive. $6 for a half chicken with all the side dishes.
Reyna's Bakery is right down the street. It's your typical pan dulce sort of place, with piles of brightly colored rolls, buns and cookies. They also have rolls for tortas in different shapes. There were filled pastries that resembled croissants, some with fruit paste fillings and other with custard fillings. On the weekends they sell tamales, too. The pastries average 40 cents each and are seriously sweet. Perfect to have with strong coffee.
Next time I would get smaller items at each place and go to a few more places.
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El Taco Nazo, El Pollo Rey, Reyna's Mexican Bakery, Kansas City, Kansas Mexican Food
Feb 3 2007, 11:21 AM
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