Prairie Village

What’s the mark of a good bakery?

“You can taste when butter is used,” Food Critic Carlton Logan told host Gina Kaufmann on KCUR’s Central Standard. “You can tell when real ingredients are used. It has a very different taste compared to something you get in a supermarket.”

Logan, along with critics Charles Ferruzza and Jenny Vergara, searched out the best bakeries — and best baked goods — in and around Kansas City this year.

Here are their recommendations:

From hearty loaves of bread to sweets from around the world, local bakeries are doing interesting things.

We talk to a local bakery customer about his weekly order for a loaf of challah — and about the tradition and ritual around buying bread. We also visit a bakery that makes treats from around the Americas, then the Food Critics search out the best baked goods in and around Kansas City.

Guests:

Summer's on the horizon. And as temperatures start to rise, our thoughts turn to the drinks and dishes that'll help keep us cool.

From an old-school shrimp cocktail to spring rolls — and, of course, don't forget ice cream and shaved ice — KCUR's Food Critics searched out the best iced and chilled dishes in Kansas City on Central Standard.

Here are their recommendations:

Mary Bloch, Around the Block:

From the old classics to “interactive” cocktails — and don't forget mocktails — there’s a drink for everyone in KC.

Whether you like your drinks fancy (made with local spirits, fresh herbs and juices and more) or something more simple (usually involving just one type of liquor), KCUR's Food Critics searched out the best cocktails in and around Kansas City in our annual look at libations.

Here are their recommendations:

Mary Bloch, Around the Block:

The relationship between schools and the communities to which they belong is crucial.

We air highlights of conversations with performing artists from the Kansas City area who wowed audiences here and across the country. Actress Cinnamon Schultz explains how she tackled the complex role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Operatic tenor Ben Bliss recalls meeting Placido Domingo for the first time and Nedra Dixon brought Billie Holiday to life on stage. Finally, the great Bobby Watson, explains what happened when he took a wrong turn while in the White House for International Jazz Day.

Some people have strict rules when it comes to cookies.

"Can we agree ... any cookie that does not have butter as an ingredient should never be made?" Charles Ferruzza asked host Gina Kaufmann on KCUR's Central Standard.

Ferruzza, with our other Food Critics, searched out the best cookies in and around Kansas City — with and without butter.

Here are their recommendations:

Mary Bloch, Around the Block:

It's the holiday season, which means it's time for cookies. Whether you like them soft and chewy or hard and crunchy, KCUR's Food Critics search out the best cookies in and around KC.

Guests:

For the past six years, Jyoti Mukharji has opened her home kitchen to teach Kansas Citians about Indian cuisine.

But to her fans, her classes are more than just about cooking. Mukharji peppers her talk with personal stories and health tips, then the class ends in a dinner party around her dining room table.

Tenor Ben Bliss is considered a rising star in the world of opera. And, like opera diva Joyce DiDonato, he grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. Bliss credits "the support of arts and education and public education" for leading to his musical career. It's something, he says, he "got a really good dose of growing up."

Bliss's father is a freelance cartoonist and his mother sings with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City chorus.

It’s a misconception that we can’t get access to fresh seafood here in the landlocked Midwest.

Locally, we can get catfish, trout and now shrimp grown in Oak Grove, Missouri. And fish wholesalers bring seafood from far-away oceans to KC.

Jazz saxophonist Dan Thomas opens for Marilyn Maye this weekend.

Thomas is the associate director of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. He's also the bandleader of Voyage, whose other members are pianist Wayne Hawkins, bassist Forest Stewart and drummer Mike Warren (no relation to the KCUR contributor of the same name).

Dorothy Hughes and Neil Melton are the Republican candidates facing off in the Kansas District 21 House race in northeast Johnson County. Guest host Sam Zeff gets their positions on education, tax breaks and more on the run up to the primary on August 2. 

In Kansas, you can carry a concealed weapon anywhere, unless there’s a “no handgun” sign posted at eye-level at the entrance.

Currently, it’s up to local governments whether or not to allow concealed carry in their public buildings. If they don’t want handguns in their buildings, like any business, they have to post that “no handgun” sign.

If you're ever invited to the Prairie Village home of Linda and John "Topper" Johntz, be prepared for your jaw to drop.

Opera superstar Joyce DiDonato won a Grammy this year for Best Classical Vocal Solo.

The Prairie Village native and mezzo-soprano was the star of a TV special titled "Homecoming" produced by Kansas City's KCPT and PBS Arts. The concert with the Kansas City Symphony at the newly-opened Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts was broadcast nationally, and now, she has a new disc out titled "Drama Queens," which she recorded in Italy in July.

The dark streets of Kansas City hold many secrets.

Jazz singer and pianist Karrin Allyson is in town this weekend to perform at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.

There will be no November vote in Prairie Village on a proposed sales tax to benefit parks. The City Council has killed the issue on a vote of 6 to 5.