Hot Diggity Dog @ The Dawg House

As sometimes simple is best, it never hurts to go back to the basics. This past weekend some good friends of mine introduced me to the "Dawg House"! This small establishment is in another strip mall, but at least they have a worker, flinging around a sign outside to draw people's attention in.

The Atmosphere: As soon as I walked in,  I felt like this was definitely a locals hanging out. From the retirees to the landscapers, these people knew where to go for a good old "hot dog".  You simply walk right up and look at a board, and order right off of it. It is one of these type of place with a small enough specialized menu (a variation of hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and beef sandwiches)

The Food: I ordered a "Chicago Style Dawg" with the traditional toppings of mustard, pickle, tomato, onion, neon relish, celery salt and sport peppers on a poppy seed bun for myself and then I order a Chicken Tender Sandwich and plain hot dog for my daughter  not know what she would like to eat today (but at least it would give me more to try!). The food all came out within 4-5 minutes hot and fresh! The Chicago Dawg, was very good and tasty with all the toppings and a very soft bun. The appearance of it was just like you would see in a picture of a perfect Chicago Dog! The fries were hot and perfectly cooked with a nice crisp taste. The Chicken Tender Sandwich which came with lettuce and tomato on french bread was good as well. The 3 large chicken strips that were very lightly breaded and had a good seasoning to it. The chicken was fried perfectly, where the chicken was not overcooked and dry. I would definitely recommend mayo, barbeque or some other sauce on the sandwich. 2 thumbs up for the person in charge of deep frying as both the fries and chicken tenders were cooked to perfection. Given my 3 year old, likes things pretty much plain, she had the traditional dog, which was just the right amount of flavor, not overly salty. The hot dogs are made out of Vienna Beef and you could taste the quality. 

The Service: This fast food joint is pretty simple. You walk in order at the counter, then they serve you at your table. Nothing fancy, just a good old mom and pop type place. Again, I think fast food places like this could do so much better if they just had someone walk around to help pick-up or ask if you want refills.

WOW Factor: There are not too many places around that I consider I would go to specifically for a hot dog. Let alone a traditional Chicago Dog. A couple of things that caught my attention as well was the Italian Beef sandwich. I saw several people order those and I definitely think I will order that next time to try. Again, not too many places where you can get a good Italian beef sandwich with the hot giardiniera.

Nothing gourmet here, but I would say it is a great place for good ole' American food! Hot dog and fries!

Dawg House

1308 N. Federal HIghway

Pompano Beach,  FL 33062

(954) 781-1955

Food Truck Pile Up @ Miami Food Trucks!

So I have heard about this "food truck chasing", seen it on the food channels and now finally got to enjoy it! In the old days, I would never even think that food trucks would be able to offer good food. As we would probably think food trucks prepackage food that is made in the morning and sold the rest of the day, this was the complete opposite. Gourmet food, cooked to order on a large UPS type truck equipped with a full kitchen! Today, the "Miami Food Trucks" held an event at JM Lexus Margate where there were about 25 vendors, ranging from cheese steaks and chinese delights to gelato ice cream floats and cupcakes. Everything looked so good, I basically could only eat three meals! Here are my thoughts on the three I tried, but I definitely am going to be a Miami Food Truck chaser from now on!

 My first stop had to be the Asian fusion Truck, called "Dim Ssam A Gogo" by Sakaya Kitchen. With so many people, I really didn't get a chance to study the menu, so I went with the cooks recommendation of the pork buns stuffed with 8 hour roasted pork with cucumber pickles and , ssamjang sweet chili sauce. 

 Even thought it did not look like a lot of roast pork, the meat was extremely tender, the cumber pickles were completely different than any other pickles I have ever tried and the soft bun with the soaked sweet chili was excellent. Again, a completely shocked experience with "food trucks"

Next on the menu, as we can never go a week without Mexican, was an order of chicken nachos from Nacho Mama's Mexican Grill.

Now, I must admit as I first took a glance of these nachos, it was a good size portion but it didn't wow me. But then...I took a bite and the taste of the freshness of the salsa, guacamole, coolness of the sour cream and mojo seasoned chicken pieces completely changed my mind. I would definitely order these again, but couldn't say that they were too unique. 

Third stop was "Mangia Mia Italian Kitchen". It wasn't even two hours into this event and they were already starting to run out of some of their specialties, such as the Arancini (italian fried rissota rice balls). 

As I waited in line and started hearing the chatter of food truck followers, the meatballs were definitely one of their delights. Now, come on how good can a meatball sandwich be! Well, I ordered up the "Smasher" (2 meatballs smashed between garlic toast) and an order of the "Garlic Fries".

This picture might make the sandwich look small, but it sure was stuffed. The smashed meatballs were extremely moist and seasoned perfectly. I am not sure if I can even explain how good the meatballs tasted as I felt like it was some kind of... hmmm I don't even have words to explain how good it was. The garlic fries had freshly minced sauteed garlic with salt and parmesan sprinkled on. Fried perfect, not oily and the perfect amount of seasoning. 

Now I had passed several trucks that had signs that simply said "fish tacos', so as stuffed as I was, I had to at least try someone's fish tacos. "Nacho Bizness" was one of the smaller trucks with 2 cool guys cooking and a lady taking orders while whipping up their "ginger lemonade".

As I go to the window and saw a closer look at their menu, my tastebuds just started going as I saw the variety of stuff. I asked the lady, which is better the steak or fish taco, she started off saying "well the fish taco has a pineapple slaw" and I just had to stop here say I will take one of those. Who turns down a "pineapple slaw" on a fish taco!

This $4 taco (or 2 for $7) might again look small in the picture, but it certain was well worth every bite. I might be frugal, but this taco was worth every ounce! The grilled mahi mahi was fresh tasting, the pineapple slaw gave it an amazing taste and then the hint of salsa and cilantro made it perfection!

I realize this post did not follow my usual format of atmosphere, food, service, and WOW factor. But all I can say is that you must go to www.miamifoodtrucks.com and then go to the next event closest to you! Each of these vendors have followers that seem to travel to where ever they go. And if these vendors did actually have permanent standard restaurants, then I would expect long lines and gourmet prices as their food is well worth it and completely unique in flavor. If you have an extra moment google the miami food trucks and take a look at the different vendors menus. I didn't go even into all the wild menu items each vendor has. Happy chasing!

Oh, and one last bonus shot as I can never forget about my daughter's food desires! She had to get the special of all special ice creams, the "DORA" ice cream!

Wrestling The Taco @ El Jefe Luchador

Well, I definitely found a new place to get a quick bite for lunch in the Deerfield beach area. El Jefe Luchador (Spanish for the "wrestling boss" ) is another little place in a strip mall that has definitely made a name for itself. It is owned by the same owners of Charm City, which I definitely will do a review on at some point in time for their amazing burgers.

The Atmosphere: If you can imagine a Colorado type personalty, down to earth, happy young individual, that is the type of workers that were there. As soon as you walk in, the place is clean and contemporary with many of the "Luchador" mexican wrestling face masks all over. The lunch crowd was definitely there and there were people both eating in and taking-out

The Food: Right from the start when you look at the menu you are amazed. When I first thought of this taco joint, I was thinking that it was just the usual beef, chicken, or pork tacos...but no, completely different and unique! Yes, they have the chicken, pork, and steak, but think of their pork with spice and pineapple or their citrus garlic pork. So again, completely different then what I thought. Everything is a la carte, so I was able to order 3 different tacos (a lime-chili grilled chicken, a fried chichiron pork belly, and of course the asian taco "Ultimo Dragon") and a side of chips and guacamole. All 3 tacos were extremely tasty. How many of us can say we ate a taco that was a pork taco, with hoisen salsa and kimchee slaw! I love chips and quacamole, but I have to say it was a little bit of a let down. The chips were more of the thicker type made from the tortillas that did have a nice salt and pepper taste, but the guacamole just seemed a little bland. My friend Adam, did have a quesadilla "El Jefe Luchador" that had pork, grilled pineapple and fried sweet potato that looked flavorful and he gave it the thumbs up. 

                    

     

The Service:  Given this is more of a fast food type restaurant, we didn't really have much interaction besides ordering the food. But again, greeted with a smile and down to earth. Yes, it would have been nice if someone came around and asked if you would like a refill, but then again this is a fast food restaurant.

WOW Factor: All the amazing different types of tacos/quesadillas they have. I had never thought of going to a taco joint and having their special of the day "fried pork belly" or an asian taco that had kimchee, but I had to try it today and I was very impressed. The taste, flavor, sauce, moisture of the meats, was perfect. If these same dishes were served at a high-end gourmet restaurant for 3 times the price, you would never know that you could get the same at this "hole in the wall" restaurant.

I definitely will be coming back and spreading the word about this "hardcore Mexican street" food!

El Jefe Luchador

27 S. Federal Highway

Deerfield Beach, FL  33441

www.jefetaco.com (just check out the menu and you will want to go!)