Eat This Now: Turkish Elotes at Karbón
There’s a lot to love at Parlor, the food hall that opened last month in the East Crossroads. But if we had to pick a favorite vendor in there, it’d be chef Rachel Rinas’ Karbón, which draws influences from both the Yucatán and Turkey, and might just be the most unique concept in all of Kansas City right now. Take her Turkish elotes, to start. Traditionally, elotes are a hot ear of freshly cooked corn slathered in tangy mayonnaise and dusted with chili and cojita cheese. Rinas’ version swaps out the chili for her own unique za’atar blend. Za’atar, to hear her describe it, is a classic Middle Eastern blend of sumac, sesame seeds, and thyme. Rinas adds cumin and coriander, and you can smell it from 15 feet away. A bite of this stuff is creamy, tangy, savory and crunchy — a perfect introduction to what Rinas is capable of. It’s also, as we have happily discovered, a not-too-guilty late-night snack — corn being a vegetable and all.
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