Because one cannot live on BBQ alone, even when that BBQ is from Kansas City, I didn’t only eat burnt ends during my Worldcon trip, though I might have made it appear that way. I also wanted to experience the fine dining side of Kansas City at least once. So after a bit of research, I chose Bluestem, where Chef Colby Garrelts had won the 2013 James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest.

And based on what I experienced with Ellen Datlow, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Pat Murphy, and my wife, I could easily understand why.

We chose the three-course dinner option—though if we’d wished, we could have gone for meals of five or ten courses. It was not a set tasting menu, in we had multiple choices for each course, so aside from the amuse-bouche and mignardises below, everything else represents my dishes alone, not those of my companions.

But believe me, we all left happy.

Amuse-bouche: Saffron arancini

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