Chocolate: The Exhibition in Kansas City

If chocolate is food for your soul then Chocolate: The Exhibition is a perfect way to educate yourself about this amazing food. I visited the exhibition at Kansas City, Missouri's Union Station, learned some things that I didn't already know, and heard several familiar stories.

The Field Museum of Chicago opened this exhibition at home, in 2002. It also has appeared (or will) in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis,St. Paul, Los Angeles, New York City, Honolulu, Houston, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Cleveland, Ohio; Omaha, NE; Dearborn, MI; Gainesville, FL; Albany, NY; Raleigh, NC; Norman, OK; Anniston, AL; and Anaheim and Redding, CA.

As I handed my ticket to a fellow at the front desk, he offered me a cocoa-dusted almond from a large candy box. An image at the entrance resembled an old-fashioned chocolate candy store. Inside, rainforest sounds and Latin guitar surrounded me throughout the darkened room. I learned that tiny flies or midges pollinate cacao flowers, which grow on lower branches of the trees and that fungi on the forest floor help cacao trees absorb vital nutrients. I also learned that cacao seed pods mature at 3-5 years of tree age.

I was vaguely aware of cacao's importantance in ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures. But here I found out that the Mayan people combined fermented, dried, and roasted cacao paste with cornmeal, honey, and chile peppers to make their renowned cacao drinks, which they frequently used for religious ceremonies. I also found out that the Aztecs considered cacao a luxury drink, to be ingested only by their elite; and it was also used as money and payment to gods or rulers.

I was reminded that, although Spanish explorers did not find gold in the New World, they did find cacao (as well as corn, vanilla, chiles, tomatoes and potatoes). And I learned that the Spaniards were the only Europeans to have a cacao/chocolate beverage for 100 years, after they added sugar to it for the first time.

I learned about cacao harvest and processing and when milk was first added to chocolate. I saw elaborately decorated Mayan vessels used only for serving their beloved cacao beverage, intricately carved wooden chocolate stirrers and porcelain and silver 'chocolate cups' favored by London's aristocracy, by the early 1700s.

Half an hour later, I craved a big chunk of rich, dark chocolate. You know its a great exhibit when it stimulates your tastebuds so profoundly.

CANstruction® Combines Art & Community Service in Kansas City

When an affiliate of the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Design Administration, founded the CANstruction ® event 16 years ago, little did they know how enormous their effort would become. The idea behind the project was to create structures using cans and other food/beverage containers, which would later be donated to food-related charities.

Today, the global anti-hunger project takes place in 100+ cities across the nation - including Kansas City, Missouri. Participants in last year's local event used more than 33,000 pounds of food to create their inventive structures, which translated into almost 27,000 meals for Harvesters - The Community Food Network. 

On January 13, 2010, 16 teams of local architects, engineers, contractors and students created 'sculptures' in the lobby at Union Station, made from food items such as  mixed nuts and bottled water, seen in the 'igloo' above, built by students from the University of Kansas Interior Design program. Local event sponsors include Price Chopper, Focus Architecture, BRR Architecture and Henderson Engineers, Inc.

George Butler Associates worked on a structure whose design they had planned months earlier, which incorporated green beans, pinto beans, and yams, to name only a few 'ingredients.' 

Beside this representation of beverage bottles, Focus Architecture worked to create a tornado effect that included hundreds of cans of black eyed peas.

A preview party for the massive exhibiton takes place on Thursday evening, January 14 (tickets are $20), and the exhibit opens to the public, Jan. 15-Feb. 10. Visitors can vote for their favorite sculpture by making a donation to Harvesters. Judges will determine winners of Best Meal, Structural Ingenuity, Best Use of Labels, Jurors Favorite and Honorable Mention, and the winners will then participate in the national CANstruction® competition.

Visit CANstruction® at Union Station and cast a vote for your favorite.

Holiday Trains at Union Station - Kansas City

Each year, since 2004, up to 25 members of the Union Station Model Railroad Volunteer Society have created a wondrous world full of model trains and miniature villages in the lobby at Kansas City, Missouri’s Union Station. By the Friday after Thanksgiving this 3,000-hour project opens to the public.

Measuring 60 feet by 64 feet, with thousands of miles of track, the display changes every year. During this holiday season there are 50 trains operating simultaneously, including the largest and most famous G-scale (1/22nd actual size). Train buffs will also recognize:

                -L-scale/Lego trains (1/38th actual size)

                -O-scale trains (1/48th actual size)

                -S-scale trains (1/64th actual)

                -HO-scale (1/87th actual)

                and N-scale (1/148th actual)

Visitors may see a delicate Ferris wheel turning beside a curvy roller coaster, Santa and his team resting atop a snow-capped roof, or antique cars traveling through an Art Deco streetscape.

 

Snow sparkles between the tracks, holiday lights decorate tiny rooflines, and a brightly lit theater marquee announces the current show. In fact, well over 100 individual lights accentuate buildings, signs and signals throughout the display.

 

Children of all ages will appreciate the breathtaking and painstaking detail of this holiday masterpiece, through January 3, 2010. And there’s no charge for a trip to this lovely fantasyland, although donations are gratefully accepted. (Please note: these photos are taken from the 2008-2009 holiday display)