The next main event was Oklahoma Joe's, reputed to be to
Kansas City what the Franklin is to Austin; here, having
learned our lesson from past visits, we queued up half an
hour before opening time, were admitted 15 before, and were
recipients of a pound of pretty good brisket right at
opening time.

Condition One solicited nominations for the next stop; I
gave an endorsement for the ribs at Brobeck's but warned
about the brisket. Later I heard that a few had ignored that
warning and were disappointed, while those who got ribs were
happy.

lili and I were tootling down the highway, and lo and
behold, Stroud's, so our tentative plan to revisit Brobeck's
was derailed. We ended up collecting about 8 FTMMers, anyhow
enough to get the circular private dining room.

The food was not so good as last time, the frying not as
expert, the coating underseasoned. susiesan's husband and I
got the half order of livers and gizzards to split, which
was as always a huge portion and sufficient for two. Sadly,
the bowl of cream gravy, which in the past had been ignored,
was deemed necessary this day. Over my protests lili got
white meat chicken, which was woefully overcooked and not
very tasty at all.

There was talk of Arthur Bryant's or one of the two BBQ
joints down Blue Parkway, followed by Foo's, but lili was
feeling a tad peaked, so we abandoned everyone and went
directly to our headquarters, the HGI Independence, where
we took a break from meat with a couple bottles of wine,
these being the Peter Lehmann Shiraz-Cab (Barossa) 10 with
its tart plumminess with an odd note of butter pecan and
the somewhat less interesting but jammy and pleasant Nugan
Third Generation Shiraz (SE Australia) 11.

I forget why lili went by herself to the KC Smokehouse
(just a couple miles from the hotel) - maybe I was asleep
or something -; but she came back with some quite decent
burnt ends, well smoked, well marbled, with a too-sweet and
rather ketchupy sauce on the side.