Wheat Street Dogs Review

Wichita continues to have a growing food truck culture, and one of the newest additions to the group of trucks is Wheat Street Dogs.  They're a vegan hot dog cart that started earlier this year and have been pretty good reviews. They were near work for me the other day, so I decided to try them out.  I am by no means a vegan (see my other food reviews), but I have no problem branching out and trying something new. 

The cart makes their dogs themselves, from a variety of began ingredients.  They currently have a few specialty dogs and their standard Ball park dog.  I saw this month they had a Banh Mi dog, and had to give it a go.  A banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich that I am always drawn to, so this dog had a bit to live up to.  The hot dog was prepared it looks like by having been heated up in a water bath, and then placed on a small flat top grill on the cart to finish it.  This was a nice touch because it also let them give the bun a little bit of a toasting which was a nice addition.  The owner warned some customers after me this one might be a little spicy, since it had both jalapenos and a sriracha mayo, but I went ahead and added some extra sriracha just to kick the heat up a bit more.

 The toppings for the dog were delicious and plentiful.  The daikon and carrots had been done just right, so they were still crisp and had just a right amount of sour tinge.  The mayo and hoisin were at good levels, although I wish there had been a little more kick to the mayo.  If I hadnt added the sriracha there would have been little heat overall.  The only other minor complaint was I wish the cilantro had been a little more chopped up, because it fell off right away on the first bite.  The bun was also good, although it might be a little thick for all the other toppings that were loaded on.  As to the dog itself, I liked the taste.  A little less sweet than regular hot dogs tend to be, and it was certainly of a good size overall.  The hoisin suce paired very nicely with it in every bit.  The only issue I had was that it tended to be a little chewier.  Not a big detriment, but something I was not expecting really.

I'll need to try them again when they dont have such a tempting specialty dog to give the regular ball park a full on try. But Wheat Street Dogs are likely going to find more fans and add a very different take on food here to the Wichita scene.

Food Review: Dempsey's Biscuit Co

I am a sucker for fried chicken.  I am also a sucker for spicy food.  When Dempsey's Biscuit Co opened up just a short jaunt away serving Nashville Hot Chicken, I was ecstatic.  My wife is not a fan of spicy food, but they have Chicken and Waffles on the menu so its normally not difficult to convince her that we need to make the trip.

Dempsey's is a good sized space with a large patio seating area outside.  In warmer weather we always try to sit out there, and despite the proximity to a fairly busy road the traffic sound is never bothersome.  However, this week's trip saw the temps starting to dip so we opted for indoors.  The restaurant used to do walk up ordering at the counter, but now does table service which I think ends up being a little bit better for dinner.  They have a full selection of sodas and an excellent Beer and Cocktail menu.

I have always ordered a biscuit sandwich while there, which amounts to a nice chicken breast served open faced on one of their home made "Batch 7" Biscuits.  The biscuits are always light and fluffy with a slightly sweet flavor that is a nice touch.  The biscuits are large as well.  The chicken comes in three level of heat: Hot that is a little spicy and sweet, Hot Hot that has a good kick, and Reaper, that is extremely hot. The first time we visited, I ordered a Central, but asked them to top it with a Hot Chicken since it normally was just a fried egg sandwich.  The egg was very well cooked with the yolk wonderfully runny, and the bacon was nice and crisp.  I had ordered the Reaper sauce then, and it was hot but not the fiery inferno I had been lead to believe.  On the side was a perfect compliment of 'slaw that was heavy on the vinegar (the purple stuff in the picture).  It acted as a great cooling agent and was still good and crisp on its own.

The Central, With a Chicken

Our next visit I forgot to document, but that might be a good thing.  I opted that time for the standard Hillside, again with the Reaper sauce.  I don't know if the first time they just had not given me the real stuff, but this time I felt the fire.  I like spicy food, and this was hot enough to make me sweat bullets.  It was not the most enjoyable heat though, because it basically blanked my mouth on the first bite.  I resolved then not to order Reaper again, having already now trodden down that path twice.

This last visit was probably my favorite sandwich so far, the Clifton.  Sausage gravy over fried hot chicken with bacon is basically an artery clogging dream.  The gravy like the biscuits had a slightly sweet flavor that I think went very well with the hot sauce of the chicken.  The  only complaint I have is the gravy is just a tad too thin, and I wish it was a little thicker to really stick to the chicken.  The chicken like the previous two visits had a nice crisp and was super tender and juicy in the middle.

The Clifton, sans excellent 'slaw

The one true downside to this trip was that when ordering the 'slaw, instead of the delectable puple cabbage version that previously enticed me was a rather bland out of the bag style side.  Its a big downgrade to the meal overall to miss out on the other.  I know they still make it, since another person in our party had their sandwich topped with it. But both my wife and I got the boring stuff to accompany our meals.  I hope this was more of a stock issue than a full time change, and next time I'll make sure to just ask for the purple stuff to start with.

The Wife's favorite Chicken and Waffles

I rate Dempsey's Biscuit Co. pretty highly in terms of places to visit in Wichita for a meal.  The value ratio is excellent since the food is so good, and the price is pretty standard.  You get a lot of food as well.  The service tends to be good, although it varies on your server.  It also is never too long of a wait from order to getting your food.  The only downside would be if they've stopped serving the purple 'slaw as standard, but even then the chicken is just too good to stay away for long.

Home Cooking: Sausage and Peppers with Tomato Sauce

While I was back home visiting my folks we had dinner at an Italian place that I got sausage and peppers at. Its one of my favorite straightforward meals, but my wife is only lukewarm to it. So when I got back home and she was visiting family with the baby, I decided to Make myself some with a little light tomato veggie sauce.

Making your own sauce is (more of a culi I guess) is pretty easy. It takes a little time but is easy and well worth it. I started with 5 Roma tomatoes, a stall of celery, and 4 carrots. First I let the celery and carrots sweat in a bit of olive oil until they started to get nice and soft, about 10-15 minutes of medium low heat.  Then I added 2 cloves of garlic and the tomatoes, and continued to let that go for about another 10 minutes or so.  Finally I tuned the stove to low, added a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar (more or less to your taste), and a half a cup of chicken stock.  I also added a bit of rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper and salt to round out the flavor and give it a little kick.  I let that simmer then the rest of the time.

Everything in and starting to smell good.

After a bit of simmering

It was then time to start the peppers and sausage.  Added a little more olive oil to a cast iron pan. and added 2 large green bell peppers and a medium white onion.  Set them to one side and added the sausages as well to the pan.  I let the onions and peppers get good and caramelized and soft, so about 12 minutes with the Sausages.  I seasoned them with salt and pepper.

Starting them out

At this point I also boiled some pasta.  I would have preferred some spaghetti, but the store had a special on these spirals that had a box of them for 75 cents.  So I couldn't say no.

Finished product

This made a ton of sauce, and was extremely tasty for several days worth of noodles and sauce. 

The Kitchen Restaurant Review

One of my favorite things about Wichita has been the revitalization of Old Town, especially along Douglas.  The area had looked run down for years, with the historic train depots sitting mostly idle and a lot of empty store front spaces.  One of the newest restaurants to take over a space in this area is The Kitchen, a New American restaurant that prides itself on using seasonal selections and a friendly atmosphere.

My wife and I went around 1230, deciding to get a nice lunch to celebrate our anniversary.  We were greeted when we came in by a call from the kitchen saying to seat ourselves at any open table.  Our server came over promptly and took drink orders, as well as our appetizer order (I have mentioned before my wife loves appetizers right?)  We settled on the spinach artichoke dip. 

The house made tortilla chips had a good crunch and the right amount fo salt.  The spinach dip was ok.  I think the amount of artichoke was a little low to the high amount of spinach.  Not bad, just not a show stopper.

My wife ordered for her lunch an ultimate grilled cheese sandwich, while I ordered the Italian Panini.  We both decided to up order to the side of fries, largely because the chips were a small bag of unknown distributor. 

I wish I had this a little less blurry, but I was holding the baby

Both our sandwiches were excellent.  Mine was stuffed with meat, and the mozzarella cheese was super melty.  The tomato tapenade was not really prevalent, but helped provide a little acidity to the sandwich.  My wife also enjoyed her's, which had a little more of the tapenade than mine did.  It featured Havarti, cheddar and brie inside of it.  We both agreed the fries were very good, with a good crispness and good salt.

All in all we had an enjoyable lunch  The wait staff was very friendly and  our wait was very short.  The dining room was at a great temperature as well.  The only complaint we had was the price.  My wife's sandwich was a bit small, and it was nine dollars.  Mine was well stuffed, but eleven dollars was pretty steep for a sandwich and chips.  Not the biggest complaint in the world but the value was not as high as I would have hoped. 

Hawaiian Noble House Food Truck Review

As I mentioned in the Kamayan review, Wichita has a burgeoning food truck business.  One of the other peculiar cuisines to make it to us is the Noble House Hawaiian truck. After a rainout for softball, my wife and I decided to try it out.  I was determined to try the Poke, a dish that the truck is well known for (as well as Hawaii in general).  Poke is a raw fish dish, where the fish is cured by citrus or vinegar and is irresistibly tasty.  I had to get it, because my wife is not a fan of Ahi Tuna dishes, so I never get to try them at home or as appetizers when we're out.  We had several friends raving about the physical location they have, with what a good value and tasty meal it was. 

We ordered our food, and it came out rather quickly.  Just one guy was in the truck but he was efficient.  My wife got the Huli Huli Chicken.  We were both a little disappointed by the portion size for the cost of the meal.  While I wasn't expecting a massive pile of tuna, I was expecting more than the small styrofoam container that also had a layer of rice in it.  The chick was also a bit dry my wife complained, until she got down to the bottom where there was a big puddle of the sauce.  I was much more pleased with my Poke.  The tuna was melt in your mouth tender, and the sesame cure was light and pleasing.  My one downside was that there were a lot of onions in it.  Not a bad thing typically, but that several large pieces had obviously not sat in the cure long enough.  This meant several bites were interrupted by a jarring onion bite.

The Poke was good.  Maybe fewer onions next time

All in all, this was not the best first impression. A number of factors could be involved, and I'd be willing to give it another go.  I'm also in the mood to try their brick and mortar location, since its nearby our home. 

The Kamayan Truck: 50 Best Dishes in Wichita

The variety of food here in Wichita is one of the best things about the city.  And that wide range is also part of the burgeoning food truck landscape here as well.  One cuisine that a lot of folks might not find so often is that of the Phillipines.  Luckily, Wichita has a Filipino styled food truck that makes its way around town delivering fantastic dishes.  The dish that I dined on to complete the next is the one that the truck here in town is known for: Porchetta.  We visited the Kamayan truck following one of our YPLS Softball games, which lead to a bit of a long wait.  It was expected, with roughly 200+ people descending upon the brewery where the truck was parked, along with the typical crowd that would gather for a weeknight drink.

The tasty Porchetta.  Sorry its a bit blurry, was taking the picture in the car

While Porchetta is an Italian dish in its origin, the Kamayan Truck takes it for a Filipino spin.  The Pork Belly Roulade is filled with lemongrass, jalapenos garlic and scallions.  The pork belly is deep fried then in the truck, sliced and served to you.  The pork belly gets extra crispy, with the fat getting super well rendered and providing a crackling texture on the top.  The lemon grass gave it a fresh taste and helped to cut through the fattiness, but sadly I think because of the rush my portion got no jalapenos.  It was ok though, because the accompanying sticky rice with its sauce more than made up for the heat.  The rice itself was pretty unremarkable, but the sauce was a glorious sweet concoction, that was infused with a very spicy bite.  It had in it some chilies (Thai Hot I believe), what at first I had mistaken for sweet peppers.  This sauce was not for the feint of heart, but it gave the whole dish a wonderful kick.

I'd definitely try some of the other dishes the Kamayan truck has to offer, and I'll definitely try the Porchetta again with that sticky rice.  But double check to see how swamped they are, because these dishes take some more time to produce correctly. 

College Hill Deli: 50 Best dishes in Wichita

Wichita really isn't a city a lot of folks outside would expect to have amazing food.  It is however a treasure trove of dining options, ranging from Ethiopian to Vietnamese to French to New American.  The local newspaper tries to produce several lists throughout the year to help Wichitans find the best places to fill whatever craving you're searching for.  Recently, Denise Neil posted the 50 Dishes That Must Be Tried.  One of the restaurants and dishes mentioned here is one I've been meaning to taste fr a long time now.  The College Hill Deli is near our neighborhood, and has been around for several years now.  It serves mostly Mediterranean fare, with a few American dishes, like the Philly Cheese steak or a Burger.  My mission today though was the Beef Gyro, number 15 on Denise's list and number 1 for me on tackling this list. 

We made the trek on what was a wonderful weather morning, partly cloudy but warm.  We chose to sit outside on the patio, which offers a bit of shade and has fairly comfortable patio chairs to sit in.  We were some of the only folks there, but I could see the patio getting a bit crowded if people were trying to seat more than couple at the 6 or so tables out there.  Our server was pleasant, and checked on us several times throughout our meal.

My wife loves appetizers.  And I thought any place that serves Mediterranean food should have good hummus, so we got the starter plate to try.

 It proved to be a great idea.  The pita that came with it was warm and soft, and the hummus was topped with just the right amount of Olive Oil to add a nice flavor to the dish.  The hummus was an excellent creamy texture, and unlike some places in town was just the exact right amount of garlic to give life but not overpower.  Our server graciously brought us another pita as well, since we got a good amount of hummus to start.

Tasty Tasty hummus late

Shortly after the hummus arrived our main dishes came.  My gyro looked fantastic.

Gyro with Fattoush

The gyro was superb.  The sandwich was a good size, and the meat was plentiful in it.  The meat itself was well seasoned, and was very tender.  The meat also was very moist, always a tough task when making gyro meat.   The cucumber sauce on top was also excellent.  It had just the right amount of dill and salt to complement the meat, but not overpower it like I find so often with cucumber sauce.  I would have loved to have had another swipe of the cucumber sauce but thanks to the meat staying so moist it wasn't necessary.  The salad was good, and made an excellent light accompaniment to the sandwich.  It was fairly standard, well dressed.  The only downside was I would have preferred a bit more acidity, which the owner I think tried to bring by having several pickles in it.  I however am not a fan of pickles, so I moved most of them out.

For a start to the 50 dishes in Wichita, the College Hill Deli provided a wonderful jump off.  Its an excellent little spot to grab a nice light lunch, and hopefully will see much more of my business in the future.