Can you still pu pu in Kansas City?
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It used to be a hell of a lot easier to find a pu pu platter in Kansas City.
I guess it helps to know what a pu pu platter is: a combination plate of popular Chinese-American appetizers, typically crab rangoon, fried chicken wings, spare ribs, egg rolls, and teriyaki beef on skewers that could be heated up on the tiny brazier that came along with the platter. (Some restaurants also offer that other great faux-Polynesian standby, rumaki — water chestnuts and livers wrapped in bacon and fried).
The whole pupu trend sort of came along with the tiki craze of the 1950s and ’60s, although a Los Angeles restaurant, Don the Beachcomber, was reportedly serving a version of this combo platter as early as the 1930s.
The question is. Why would anyone want a pu pu platter now?
Pu Pu was one of the objects of desire discussed on the May 1 edition of the Central Standard program on KCUR 89.3; the topic was “Throwback Dishes,” and writer-photographer Bonjwing Lee wondered if any local restaurants still served this delicacy. The answer: not too many.
It’s probably time for the Polynesian restaurant trend to come back into vogue. Until recently, Kansas City seemed to always have at least one venue that served fruity but potent cocktails and so-called Polynesian or “Hawaiian-style” dishes. Back in the 1950s, it was the Bali Hai Room at Bretton’s. Then came the Kon Tiki Lounge on Main Street, the Kona Kai in the Plaza Hilton, and an outpost of the popular Trader Vic’s chain in the Westin Crown Center Hotel. (Trader Vic’s called its platter “Cosmo Tidbits.”)
Those restaurants are all gone, but a few Chinese-American restaurants still offer some variation of the classic pu pu theme, including the Wok-N-Roll Express at 7000 West 83rd Street in Overland Park (egg roll, crab rangoon, chicken wings, fried jumbo shrimp, and crab rumaki for $7.95) and Ramen Bowls in Lawrence.
A lesser-known restaurant, the Steam Bowl, at 5017 Independence Avenue, was a surprise find. No one seems to know exactly how old the family-operated restaurant on the far East Side is, but former cook Long Kim bought the venue 20 years ago and is still the head cook.
The unassuming restaurant looks like the kind of place that would do more of a carryout business than dine-in (and does), but the little dining room is clean and pretty, and even if it doesn’t offer those pretty Trader Vic’s-style cocktails (no booze is served here), the food — mostly familiar Chinese-American dishes like General Tso’s chicken and Princess shrimp — is pretty good.
The pu pu platter, a staple here for many years, features all the favored choices in a segmented wooden bowl (and yes, a little Oriental-ish brazier with a blue flame), chicken wings (they taste prefabricated), very tasty spare ribs, crab rangoon, teriyaki beef skewers, and big fat egg rolls.
It’s priced at $9.25 for two people, and it’s easy to make the starter combo a light meal on its own or a launching pad for a big plate of moo shu pork.
