Taste of Omaha 2015

If you're a foody and you're in Omaha, then the Taste of Omaha is your ComiCon. Now, I would have been there anyway, but since I convinced my uncles to have a booth there for the Lithuanian Bakery, I was there anyway. This is a good thing as it afforded me three days to sample the goods throughout the event. Here's a quick SparkNotes review of all that I had. It's in alphabetical order, so don't think I'm ranking them or anything.

The Back 40 

317 Main St., Macedonia, IA, 51549 (712) 486.2687

This one time, at the AppleJack Festival, my dad had BBQ pork nachos. He physically retched after a few bites. I thought it was pretty good. I did not get the pork nachos here.

If what I had here was any indication, this little bar and grill in Macedonia is one hell of a restaurant. 

The BBQ sauce was Sweet Baby Ray's I believe. 

The pork sliders were very, very good. Tender meat, plenty smokey, and the bun was in the same vein as a King's Hawaiian roll, though not quite as sweet. At was amounts to $2.50, this was a good value for a festival.

Mac and Cheese. perfect on a hot day! (/sarcasm)

The smoked mac and cheese was of the KFC variety, though much, much better, obviously. I could taste plenty of smoke throughout the cheese sauce. Very creamy.

Chicago Dawg House

3157 Farnam St 68131 (402) 504.1234

The guy who runs this shop has a deep understanding of marketing, as he's all over the place, including being a regular caller/character on Todd 'n' Tyler and 1620 The Zone. He also has a pretty good understanding on what makes a good hot dog. I've had a few from him, including the namesake Chicago Dog before. I'll just say the one I had from the cart outside the Shedd Aquarium was better, but not by much. This time, however, I had the other Chicago classic: the Hot Italian Beef.

I'm sorry, I was walking and trying to take a picture with my phone. At least its in focus.

The giardiniera was nice and spicy. The beef was tender, and well seasoned. And of course I got it dipped so the entire thing was sopping and messy. Solid sandwich. This was a half size, and at what amounts to $3.75, not a bad deal either.

Curri

1028 S 74th Plaza 68114 (402) 614.0009

Alphabet soup.

The beauty of the Taste is you have the opportunity to try things you might never otherwise try. The beauty of working an event like the Taste gives you the opportunity to barter the stuff you brought to sell to eat the stuff other people brought to sell. In this case, those two beautiful things met in one place. I've never had Indian food before, and they approached my table offering a trade (they did this twice, actually). So, without money coming out of my pocketbook directly, I accepted.

This looks like Indian comfort food.

First I tried the chicken tikka masala. The sauce was very creamy and spiced with flavors I wasn't familiar with. It wasn't spicy, per se, but there was a little bit of kick. I wasn't a huge fan of it to be honest, but my dad, who was with me at the booth, loved it. The rice they served with it was an odd long grain white rice I've never seen before. All in all, I wouldn't turn it down if it was placed in front of me, but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to order it.

I thought with the bright red color of the chicken, it would be spicy. I twas not. It was just delicious.

The next day they came by to trade again, and this time they brought over tandoori chicken and, um, I'm not really sure. I think it was the chat on the menu, which after a little research on Google is actually spelled "chaat." I would be willing to bet that Taste screwed that spelling up.

The chicken was perfectly juicy and, again, full of flavors I didn't recognize. the chaat looks like, essentially, a spicy chickpea sauce over rice. It was a lot spicier than I thought it would be, which isn't a bad thing. Good little side dish.

La Casa

4432 Leavenworth St. 68105 (402) 556-6464

Hey, they got a roach coach!

Their pizza is constantly in the top 3 for pizza places in Omaha, and oddly I've never had it before. Personally, for me, it goes Orsi's, Mama's, and Roman Coin. I'm not sure I'll put La Casa anywhere in there after the slice I had, but I can totally see why people have such a high opinion of them now.

I wanted the beef, but I only had six tickets, and the hamburger was eight. This pepperoni was six.

Hey, the pizza was very, very good. Thin crust that wasn't soggy, and was actually nice and crispy, a miracle for pepperoni pizza. but at what amounts to $3.75 for this single slice, there were much better deals around.

Little España

11036 Elm St. 68144 (402) 557.6738

I've always wanted to try España in Benson but I've heard it can be pretty expensive, so I jumped at the chance to try it at the Taste, especially after I saw some folks walking around with bacon wrapped stuffed dates. Unfortunately, by the time I visited on Sunday, they were out of those, so I tried the stuffed peppers.

I'm not sure if they were supposed to be warm or cold. The ones I was served were cold. Nevertheless, they were amazing.

The peppers, called piquillo peppers, were sweet and not at all hot. They were stuffed with a soft goat cheese and almonds, and covered in a balsamic reduction. These were most likely the best thing I tasted all weekend, but at $3.75 for three peppers, on the expensive side, thus confirming my fears about the hit to the pocketbook. In a completely related note, look for Little España as my next review.

Nothing But Goat Grill

No permanent place, it's a food truck. Lexington, NE (308) 651.0327

Goat? Goat!

When I saw these guys were going to be there in the newspaper, I knew I had to try them out. I've had goat once before, at Guaca Maya when they happened to have it on the lunch buffet. I remember it having a very beefy flavor, and since it was very slow roasted, the meat was super tender and fell apart when you picked at it. So I got a brat.

Um, I only remembered to take a picture when I was on my last bite. Sorry.

As you can see, it certainly looked like a proper brat. But the flavor was completely different. It was very smoky, almost too smoky. It was stuffed in natural casing, so there was a very satisfying snap when you bit into it. The kraut he put on it was tangy, and probably something like Frank's kraut. All in all, I think I'd rather have a real brat than this one, especially when it cost me, essentially, $8.75. I should have gotten the burger.

Salty Dog Bar & Grill

2411 S 24th St, Council Bluffs, IA 51501 (712) 256.4851

It was a long walk over the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge to get here, but this was worth it.

Well, they kept things simple with only one thing on the menu. What so you think I got?

Unassuming, but brilliant.

They were grilled to perfection, with a great smoky flavor, tender and juicy. The ranch was unneeded. And at $3.75, there are places that have wing specials that cost more than that! Great value, especially at a festival.

Thai Esarn (aka Thai Spice)

555 N 155th Plaza, 68154, (402) 493.9944

I want to be where these guys were next year. It was always busy. Really good spot.

Only after doing some research into these guys did I realize that I've eaten here before. They must be in the middle of a rebranding, because the roof outside their storefront says "Thai Spice." Anyway, they've got some really good stuff there, and in no way did what I got this weekend represent what I've had there before.

I love sweet chili sauce.

The crab rangoon was slightly sweet to my surprise, but good. The vegetable ball was hot and kinda bland. A whole bunch of "Eh..." going on here.

Taste of Asia

333 N 78th St. 68117 (402) 905.2258

These people were so generous, it was unbelievable. You should go there just so I can start to repay them.

Okay so these guys were right next to us, and there was almost no trading going on because they just straight fed us all weekend. Like, we tried to give them some slices of torte, and sure, they accepted some of the time, but they mostly turned us down. That's why I have so many pictures to show here.

I can't count how many of these I had. So many egg rolls...

The egg rolls they fried fresh right there before serving them, and they are out of this world. They had pork ones and veggie ones. Each had that really thin, transparent rice noodle that is common in Thai cuisine. They suggested a sweet fish sauce to dip it in, and that was excellent, as well.

Lots of peanuts.

They made a ton of pad thai, which is why I had so much of it. It was slightly spicy, and though the sauce that coated the noodle was good, I just kinda wish they put more on it. 

I've never had pho before. Now I need to find more pho.

As I said in the caption, I've never had pho before. I'm familiar with it, though, as my Vietnamese friends rave about the stuff on their Facebook every winter. And normally, in summer, a hot soup really isn't high on my list, but, being Nebraska, that Saturday morning it was 49°, and by the time I was given this bowl, it was still only about 60°. Now, never having had it, I don't know where this ranks in the world of pho, but I loved this stuff. The broth had a surprising amount of ginger, the noodles were a lot longer than I gave them credit for (which must be an Asian thing, having long noodles like that), and the beef was in big wide, thin slices. A little bit of chili oil went a long way, but all in all, it was delicious.

I've seen people make Korean wings before, but I've never had them. What was I thinking?

Finally, the Korean wings. Sweet, kinda spicy, fried to perfection. What a sauce. Gotta get more of these the next time I visit the restaurant.