FOODIES

This has quickly become my most favorite chicken soup of all time. (Go to Sabor in Old Town Square if you want to give it a try. It’s delicious!)

The sancocho soup at Sabor. It is one of my favorite soups in the whole wide world.

I had it for the first time when we treated Jenni and Rene to birthday dinner at Sabor last month and have been hooked ever since.

Brian ordered some empanadas which were delicious also. You know what I just realized? I forgot to use the gift certificate for Sabor that Cory and April gave us. Now we have to go back! LOL.

Thanks for the gift certificate, Cory and April!! You guys are the best.

We treated Jenni and Rene to dinner at Sabor last night. It was basically a post-birthday celebration of sorts. Jenni’s birthday was on the 26th, which we were out of town for, and Rene’s was on the 30th. As for me, I was celebrating the fact that I bought my first size 0 jeans in about half a decade. Although, I’m on antibiotics and couldn’t celebrate to the fullest. Everyone else was drinking, but me!

We started out with platanutres (plantain chips), which are like the banana chips we have back in the Philippines except they are cut lengthwise and are served salty rather than sweet. They give you avocado crema and chimichurri sauce for dipping. It is my absolute favorite thing to get at Sabor. I can’t visit the restaurant without ordering some platanutres.

We also ordered some fried calamari, which I really like, but also have to eat more of now because I don’t get enough iodine apparently.

The guys both had fire roasted chicken and chipotle cheddar mashed potatoes. The only difference is that Brian got the chimichurri sauce with his dinner, while Rene asked for the mango sauce.

Jenni had a boring Caesar salad that she mostly just played with. I could have sworn that she didn’t eat any of it. I think she just moved the lettuce around. =P

I normally get the adobo pork with rice because the pork is tender and has great flavor and I like rice… a lot. I would eat rice with every meal, if I could. However, I wasn’t all that hungry after the platanutres and the calamari so I just had a bowl of the sancocho soup instead.

I’d never had soup with slices of avocado in it before. I thought it was odd but, since I like avocados, I thought I would take a chance. The soup was delicious and I was glad I ordered it. I think I have a new favorite at Sabor now.

Brian and I shared a slice of chocolate cake for dessert.

Rene and Jenni both asked for flan. I had some of Jenni’s flan too actually, so I totally indulged that night. But then, I just had soup for dinner rather than having a full entree, so I figured it would be alright.

The flan at Sabor has really good consistency and good flavor. Jenni and I both liked it except for the topping they put on it, which we didn’t care for. In the Philippines the top of the leche flan consists of caramelized sugar. Jenni knows how to make it, so I made a special request for Christmas. It would be a real treat to have Filipino flan for our noche buena this year. I can feel myself getting fat and not being able to fit in my new size 0 jeans just thinking about it. Mmmm… Mmm… Yum! It’s so totally worth it, though.

Brian and I had lunch at Sabor the day before he left for Vegas.

Old habits are hard to break. We are gradually falling back into our old ways. I just hope I don’t start getting fat again.

A friend of ours we play OGame with told us about Sabor Latin Bar and Grille a few weeks ago. He said it was outstanding. I think he was a little inebriated when he was giving his recommendation so I didn’t pay too much attention.

I did have the opportunity to try Sabor at lunch with a couple of coworkers on Thursday. He was absolutely right! Food at Sabor is outstanding!

I saw the “Tostones” banana chips on the appetizer list and was immediately drawn to it. I love banana chips. Whenever we went to Healing Waters, they had these muchie bags and I would always pick out the banana chips. Sometimes we would buy banana chips at the grocery store for muchies at home while watching TV. So I ordered some for us to try.

The “Tostones” were nothing like I expected. These are actually plantain chips, sliced very thinly lengthwise and salted. So they were not sweet like regular round banana chips. I had never savored anything like these before. I’m not sure how they are prepared. They look like they have been dehydrated and then fried. They are very thin and crispy. They’re served in a vase-like presentation vessel with sauce holders on either side for chimmichurri (a delicious concoction of olive oil and herbs) and avocado crema for dipping. Avocado crema makes me think of guacamole, but this is ten times better. Personally, I don’t like guacamole but I really enjoyed the avocado crema. I preferred it for my chips over the chimmichurri.

You cannot get “Tostones” anywhere else in Wichita and I always like it when a restaurant offers something new and different. Right away, Sabor made my list of favorite restos in Wichita.

For lunch I had the 9-oz. slow roasted pork adobo with orange-garlic mojo sauce and Latin rice for my side. It was delicious! The rice was average. It is really hard to fancy up or mess up rice so it usually is pretty blase. However, the pork was outstanding! I would venture to say that it is probably the best pork I’ve had in a very long time. I guess I should have been more adventurous and tried the other sides, but I’m pretty boring and like to eat what is familiar to me. It works because even if the food disappoints, I still get my fill. I haven’t gained all this weight for nothing, guys. I am a true food lover.

Anyway, my friend Jan had rice with black beans and 10-oz marinated churrasco steak with red wine mole. She said her steak was cooked to perfection and was absolutely delicious. She loved her meal so much that she made a happy plate. Actually, we both did. I savored every bite of my slow roasted pork. I’ve never had a meal that I have enjoyed as much. Sabor is the best thing to ever happen to Old Town Square.

Naturally, since I enjoyed my food so much I had to drag Brian there. After lackluster performance at poker on Saturday, Brian and I went to Sabor with Eli and Jenni. They already ate at Sumo but they hung out with us and had drinks while we ate.

Just as I expected, Brian loved the “Tostones” also. We wanted to get the Sabor parrila plate for two and try most of the menu items at once, but we got stuck at a high top table at the bar because they were so busy. There wasn’t much room for anything on the table. Brian and I opted to order our own entrees. He had the half fire roasted chicken with chimmichurri sauce and Yuca steak fries on the side. They didn’t have seasoned fries on the dinner menu as they had on the lunch menu. I thought that was weird, but it’s nice to know that they have different offerings at dinner. Some places have exactly the same and there is really no reason to go at night when you can go at lunch and enjoy the same food for less.

Brian said the Yuca fries tasted just like potato fries. I was worried that he wouldn’t like it so that was good. He also said that the chicken was very good, even better than Red Rock chicken. That is quite a statement because chicken is Red Rock’s specialty! I didn’t get to try any of his chicken because I wanted to save as much room as I could in my belly for the pork adobo. After the last time, I was really, really looking forward to it. I had Brian try a couple of bites of my pork adobo and he said it was very good also.

They actually do the pork adobo a little bit differently at dinner than at lunch. At lunch, I had it in one piece and had to slice it myself. Slicing the meat didn’t require much effort as it was cooked so well and the meat was so tender that it pretty much just pulled apart. At dinner, the pork was already sliced/pulled apart for me and served on top of my Latin rice. Amazingly, my pork adobo at dinner was even better than the perfect one I had at lunch. It was more tender and more flavorful. Improving on perfection is an outstanding feat and for that I thoroughly commend executive chef Jason-Paul Febres.

To heck with tangoing with your taste buds. Go to Sabor and become a complete and total slave to your taste buds. Go once and you will find yourself there again and again and again. I’m actually trying to think of ways to get my parents, my in-laws, and other friends there. Of course, I’m going to drag them there at different times so that I can go repeatedly. LOL. That’s the plan anyway.

Sabor Latin Bar and Grille
309 N. Mead
Wichita, KS 67202
(316) 201-4880