Well Fed On the Town

And orders polenta.

Okay, so I am still working on the punch line, but despite that, this type of thing happens to me a lot because I live in Kansas City.  When you live in Kansas City, you have a lot of choices when it comes to steakhouses.  However, I don’t eat meat, so I have very special criteria when it comes to choosing my steak joint: the quality of their non-meat dishes.  (In case you’re wondering, the portabellas at Ruth Chris take the prize for the best veg fare at a steakhouse, but they are a little on the pricey side.)

So for my everyday vegetarian-dining-at-a-place-that-specializes-in-meat can only be found in Kansas City at the Hereford House, a Kansas City tradition for delectable steaks.  Their amazing non-meat dish is two triangles of perfectly deep fried polenta with a corn meal crust in a slightly salty marinara with black olives, artichoke hearts, and blanched asparagus.  It’s not healthy vegetarian cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, but it is amazing.

I still remember the first time I had this dish.  I was meeting my mother by the airport.  This really limited our choice of restaurants since we had to pick a place that she liked and that she could find driving.  (For those who have not flown into Kansas City, the airport is sort of out in the middle of a field.)  Oh, and she had to have a coupon for it.

That being the case, we ended up at the Hereford House by the airport, me grumbling the entire time about being veg, yet having to eat at a steakhouse.  I figured I would be dining on side dishes and rolls until my wife pointed out that they have polenta.  I tend to be a pretty big fan of polenta, so I had to order it.  Quite simply, it is the best polenta meal I had ever had.

In fact, my wife and I love it so much that we will go to the steakhouse just to order their vegetarian entrée.  None of the wait staff have given us crazy looks…yet.

Oh, and it should be mentioned that while I was munching on polenta and mopping up the red sauce with some of the Hereford House’s amazing rolls, my mother was happily eating her eight ounce filet, twice baked potatoes, thick and rich steak soup.  Everything she had looked and smelled amazing.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that if you need a great steak, come to Kansas City.  But, if you need a really great meal of Italian polenta, come to Kansas City and go to the Hereford house.  And don’t take no for answer.  They say they don’t serve it on Saturdays, but it’s always there.  I swear it’s so good, you’ll never miss the meat.