Kansas City: a food biography

Description

Kansas City : the nation's hospitality crossroads -- "Here stands a city built o' bread and beef" : Kansas City's natural and material resources -- Prehistoric and Native American foodways of the Kawsmouth Region -- The Old World meets the new -- Contributing to Kansas City's greater good : immigrants and their food traditions -- African American contributions and Kansas City's southern traditions -- Kansas City markets and groceries -- "Kansas City, Here I Come" : historic restaurants at America's crossroads, 1860s-1970s -- Kansas City home cooks and homegrown festivals -- We've grown accustomed to these tastes : Kansas City's signature dishes.;While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train, automobile, or airplane. As Kansas City's adopted son, Fred Harvey sagely noted, "Travel follows good food routes," and Kansas City's identity as a food city is largely based on that fact. Kansas City: A Food Biography explores in fascinating detail how a frontier town on the edge of wilderness grew into a major metropolis, one famous for not only great cuisine but for a crossroads hospitality that continues to define it. Kansas City: A Food Biography also explores how politics, race, culture, gender, immigration, and art have forged the city's most iconic dishes, from chili and steak to fried chicken and barbecue. In lively detail, Andrea Broomfield brings the Kansas City food scene to life. Kansas City : the nation's hospitality crossroads -- "Here stands a city built o' bread and beef" : Kansas City's natural and material resources -- Prehistoric and Native American foodways of the Kawsmouth Region -- The Old World meets the new -- Contributing to Kansas City's greater good : immigrants and their food traditions -- African American contributions and Kansas City's southern traditions -- Kansas City markets and groceries -- "Kansas City, Here I Come" : historic restaurants at America's crossroads, 1860s-1970s -- Kansas City home cooks and homegrown festivals -- We've grown accustomed to these tastes : Kansas City's signature dishes.