BPT @ Side Pockets, Wichita

I made a quick trip to visit family in Wichita, KS. While there, I decided to find the biggest and baddest BPT (breaded pork tenderloin) sandwich in the city. I sought recommendations from a couple of Wichitit foodies that I follow. Neither of them had tried a local BPT, but they shared their knowledge of what they had heard around their circles. After consulting them and doing my own research online, I decided to try Side Pockets as they had a Giant Pork Tenderloin sandwich on their menu.

First off, the BPT was not in fact very large. It was average sized, about the size of the fast food BPT from Culvers. The breading was pretty bland. The tenderloin had been smashed so thin that there was more breading than meat. The tenderloin itself was dry. Perhaps it was old or cooked too long. Either way there was no juiciness to this pork.

They included several toppings, but no condiments. I appreciated the tomatoes, lettuce and pickles just to add some flavor, color to this sandwich. They gave me a LOT of pickles. It looked like a little pickle pile. The pickles were able to be in every single bite of the sandwich and even overlap at times. I would add mustard or mayo from home to each bite just to give the sandwich more moisture and flavor. It still couldn’t save this poor tenderloin.

Overall, it was one of the worst breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches I have ever had. If you ever visit Side Pockets, do yourself a favor and order something else on the menu. The “Giant Pork Tenderloin” will just disappoint you.

#KCFoodie #CulinaryAdventures #ExploreYourCity #WichitaKS #NotRecommended

Empathy

“Mental entrance into the feeling or spirit of another person”

I saw her there at the front of the crowd. Tears streaming down her cheeks and her shoulders convulsing with each sob. Her tiny little body, which had seemed so grown up to this point, was now engulfed in the massive arms of her youth pastor. Everything she was, at least everything she had pretended to be for this entire week of camp, now came crashing down around her with her tears. The way she dressed, walked, talked; she wanted to appear older, too mature for God. Nothing was going to change her. She was too cool, too popular. God had other plans.

Now here she was; her facade shattered to pieces. Her heart the same. With her heart now broken, God begins to reassemble the pieces into a new, beautiful creation. The corners of her mouth turn upwards into a tremulous little smile, yet still the tears come.

First, tears of grief, pain, sorrow and repentance. Slowly her tears of agony turn into tears of joy. Inside she feels each sin lifted from her like an enormous weight. The pain is chased away by overwhelming happiness as if sunrise has finally dawned on a cold, dark night. You can see it on her face. God is inside her now, and He’s cleaning house.

Brokeness, joy, redemption; it hits me like a punch in the gut. My head and heart are a swirl of thoughts and emotions. I can feel her beating heart inside of my own. Empathy, I think that’s what this is called. Why me? Why now? I barely know this girl!

It doesn’t matter at this point. I cannot stop my tears. For some reason God has allowed me to feel her heart. To share her soul for but a moment. I can sense her joy, her hope for the future and her new life. She’s getting to start over again. She has a long, beautiful road ahead of her, and now she knows that He will always be beside her.

Godspeed, child. May you never forget this day nor He who will walk with you throughout your lifelong journey.

#NatsJourneys #PersonalThoughts #MyStories

Casual, Old School Dating

Whatever happened to casual dating? Dating just for the fun of it? Dating in order to get to know someone better? Dating just because?

When did dating get so serious? When did simply “talking” with someone become considered the beginning of a romantic relationship? When did we take all the fun out of dating?

I say let’s get back to old school, casual dating. Back to a time when a single date wasn’t taken so seriously. A time when you could go on various dates with different people and others didn’t think less of you because dating wasn’t only for romantic relationships.

I want the kind of dates that make you laugh, let you let go, be you and make memories. I want the kind of dates where I get to know someone better and we become better friends because of it.

I want the kind of dates where I’m not putting on a facade, pretending to be someone else. The kind of dates where I’m not worried about where this is going or how this will turn out. The kind of dates where I can just live in and enjoy the moment. The casual kind of dates where I will make good memories not regrets.

I know there is a time and place for those serious, romantic dates. I know eventually you’ll find someone you want to commit to in a monogamous, romantic relationship. But why do we all start things that way? Why do we take dating so serious?

I want to go back to casual dating. Dating where romance and physical intimacy isn’t yet on the table. Dating where you are just enjoying each other’s company and having fun.

I want coffee dates, lunch dates, adventure dates, theme park dates, cruising dates, museum dates, exploring dates, food truck dates, going for a walk dates, picnic dates, bring your puppers to the dog park dates, lazer tag dates, zip line dates, go kart dates, playing a game dates.

I want casual, old school, fun dating to be the norm again. Let’s have more of that! Who’s with me?

#OldSchoolDating #CasualDating #DatingForFun #WhySoSerious #MakeDatingFunAgain

Slim Chickens

Slim Chickens, a fast casual chicken chain, was founded in 2003 in Fayetteville, AK. There are currently 69 locations (65 in the U.S., 2 in the U.K. and 2 in Kuwait).

They offer a fresh take on southern style cooking. At Slim Chickens the food is made fresh and community is key to their continued success.

I have been to a half dozen different locations, but for this restaurant review I went to the location at 9001 135th street in Overland Park, KS.

Their menu is expansive. I spent WAY too much money trying as many items as I could. I should have brought someone with me to help me eat, because several of the sides are meant to be shared (okra, mushrooms, pickles).

The chicken tenders are lightly breaded, cooked when you order them and delightfully juicy. They vary in size. They are excellent tenders. You can easily taste how fresh they are. They do not need a dipping sauce, but if you want one…..

Slim chickens offers a large varity of sauces to try. 17 sauces: Slim sauce, Cayenne Ranch, Honey Mustard, Ranch, Blue Cheese, Gravy, Honey BBQ, Garlic Parmesan, Korean BBQ, BBQ, Buffalo, Sweet Red Chili, Spicy BBQ, Hot, Sriracha Garlic, Mango Habanero and Inferno.

My favorite is the Slim sauce. If you read my earlier blog on sauces, then you’ll know that Slim’s sauce beat out all the other competitors (9 restaurants in all) to be named best chicken dipping sauce in the world (IMHO).

Let’s move on to sides…

The potato salad is a regular sized side dish. It has various cuts of potato, and it is delicious.

“You could eat just the potato salad as your whole meal.” #NesfederNotes

The Mac & Cheese is a regular sized side dish. I would love to have this recipe! It is by far the best mac & cheese I have ever had at a restaurant. This picture doesn’t do it justice. As I understand, it is a mix of four, white cheeses.

The Fried mushrooms at Slim Chickens are freshly made, full mushrooms. Be careful when indulging in these delicacies. You can burn your mouth by biting into a mushroom when all that hot juice shoots out. Fried Mushrooms are a large side, which means they are meant to be shared. They come with ranch, but you can name whichever dip you want to use.

The Fried pickles are a large side, and the only disappointing thing I have ever tried at Slim Chickens. If you know me, you know I LOVE fried pickles. I have tried fried pickles at many restaurants. I travel around the area just to try different fried pickles. Despite all of their advertising for them, the fried pickles at Slim Chickens have always disappointed me.

Lastly, desserts. Slim Chickens offers seasonal cheesecake desserts in collectable mason jars. Currently, their strawberry cheesecake is in season. These desserts are delicious, but filling. I rarely ever have room to try them.

Slim Chickens is a wonderful restaurant with a large enough menu to satisfy many tastes. As far as chicken places go, it is probably my current favorite. Unfortunately, it is more on the expensive side. Expect to spend about $10 per meal.

Individual dishes (1-10 scale):

Chicken Tenders = 9 Great

Sauce (Slim Sauce) = 10 Perfect

Potato Salad = 10 Perfect

Mac & Cheese = 10 Perfect

Fried Okra = 6 Decent

Fried Mushrooms = 8 Really Good

Fried Pickles = 3 Disappointing

Dessert = 7 Good

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

#CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #ExploreYourCity #SlimChickens #Recommended

Wahlburgers

It’s been awhile since I did a burger restaurant review. A Wahlburgers opened in Olathe, KS and I decided to check it out.

Walburgers was founded in 2011 in Hingham, MA a town just outside of Boston. Brothers Paul, Donnie and Mark Wahlberg launched a sit down, burger restaurant based on their family meal times. There are currently 31 restaurants across the U.S. A reality television series about the restaurant on A&E is now in it’s ninth season.

Paul, a professional chef, has crafted a menu of burgers, sides and entrees. Wahlburgers has a full bar and features specialty drinks.

The ambiance is casual with a decorative industrial look to the interior. Metal chairs, pictures of various menu items on the wall, quotes on the ceiling and (in this location) a little bit of love to the Olathe crowd. Happy green is my favorite color and this place has a lot of it!

This restaurant even has it’s own gift shop full of Wahlburgers memorabilia. Eating here is an experience.

The menu has notes beside certain items detailing which family member (including mom) likes it the best. I ordered the Our Burger (Paul’s choice). 1/3 lb burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, government cheese, Paul’s housemade signature wahl sauce & pickles.

The 1/3 lb beef patty was delicious (though it looks small in the picture). The lettuce was finely shredded, the tomato ripe and the pickles perfectly crunchy. The cucumber flavor was still very present as if the cucumbers hadn’t set in the pickle brine very long. I liked them!

The government cheese was disappointing. I know the Wahlburgers grew up on government cheese, so it probably taste like childhood memories to them, but to me it just tastes bad. It ruined what would otherwise have been an excellent cheeseburger.

The fries were standard fare. Nothing impressive. I got some Wahl sauce to dip them in. Wahl sauce wasn’t really very good either.

For sides, I tried Housemade Chili and Smoked Bacon Mac ‘N Cheese. The chili was nothing special. Honestly, I prefer Wendy’s chili.

I was excited about the mac ‘n cheese, but it ultimately disappointed me as well. Apparently using government cheese ruins every dish it’s included in.

The adult frappes are a cool idea. I liked the idea of the Fluffanutta. This is a pic of the Birthday cake my friend ordered. He thought it had a very strong alcohol flavor to it.

Overall, Wahlburgers was a bit of a disappointment to me. I liked the decor (especially the happy green). I didn’t realize going in that it was a sit down restaurant with waitstaff. That increases the cost due to tipping. This certainly didn’t help the already overpriced menu items. Wahlburgers just isn’t worth the cost.

Individual dishes (1-10 scale):

The Our Burger = 6 above average

Fries = 5 average

Chili = 5 average

Mac ‘N Cheese = 3 disappointing

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟

#CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #ExploreYourCity #Walburgers #NotRecommended

Hospital food in Wichita KS

It’s been a long time since I wrote a restaurant review blog. Now I’ll tell you why. I’ve been deep undercover doing research on hospital food in Wichita, KS. 😉

I recently spent a good deal of time in hospitals in Wichita. There are several hospitals, but Wesley and St. Francis are the biggest two. I spent time in both places trying out their food.

OK. I was in the hospitals for other reasons, but the food was the best part of those experiences (except for surviving to live awhile longer). Let’s take a look at them…

The Wesley menu. Specials change daily. Always two options for specials plus you can order anything else you want.

A simple sandwich.

Breakfast at Wesley. The pancakes are good. The turkey sausage is not. (order the pork sausage links)

Pot roast was good. Gravy was bland.

Asian chicken and rice. Not impressive.

Chicken breast with gravy, green beans, potato and bun. This was really good!

Cheeseburger! (in Wesley, not paradise) I’d order a side salad with most meals. The dessert selection is really good too.

Beef stroganoff. Decent, but not as good as my mother used to make.

The personal sausage pizza is really good (and filling)! I’d always save a slice for a midnight snack

Chicken parmesan with pesto noodles and cauliflower. Sounds impressive, but was lacking in flavor.

Ranch noddle and veggie dish was really good!

Chicken Pot Pie. A+

Meatloaf with gravy. The meatloaf was OK, not a fan of the gravy.

Chicken strips with mashed potatoes and country gravy. This was one of the best meals at Wesley. Simple yet packed with flavor. #ComfortFood

It was a mexi chicken dish with sour cream. Could’ve used more spices. Was far more bland than I expected.

I tried the salmon. Not recommended. The corn at Wesley always needed butter and pepper to make it taste decent. Luckily they provided that.

The St. Francis menu has a few pictures. It’s larger, but has no daily specials except soups.

Dinner at St. Francis differs from Wesley. Asparagus is a side item option (bonus points), but their white country gravy is disappointingly lacking in flavor.

Tried chicken tortilla soup at both hospitals. Wesleys looked and tasted homemade. Spicy and watery. St. Francis’ was thicker and full of chicken. Lots of protein in this one, and tasted great! #winnerwinnerchickentortillasoupdinner

Flat bread pizza you make yourself. I made a meat lovers supreme. This was an excellent food option!

Sesame chicken stir fry. Pretty good.

All in all, the food at both hospitals was pretty decent. I would never recommend staying in a hospital just to try the food. I’m a professional. Do not try this yourself. 😉

Foods I tried at both hospitals and the winners:

Chicken tortilla soup – St. Francis

Country gravy – Wesley

Pizza – St. Francis

Cheeseburger – Wesley

Pot roast – St. Francis

Meatloaf – Wesley

Both hospitals had their pluses and their minuses. Both had goid sized menues. Both had options within the dishes to make them to your taste (pizzas, burgers, sandwiches).

Due to the daily specials (2 for lunch, 2 for dinner), Wesley had more variety in their menu. I know St. Francis has an award winning menu, but for me, the winner was Wesley.

Have you ever been in a hospital with a unique or interesting food options? Let me know about them in the comments! 🙂

#HospitalFood #CulinaryAdventures #EveryDayisanAdventure

Five Guys

Five Guys burgers and fries was founded in 1986 in Arlington, VA. They are a growing burger chain that focuses on known ingredients and fresh made dishes.

For this review, I visited the location at the Olathe Pointe retail development in Olathe, KS.

The menu is simple: burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, fries, shakes and drinks. Building your burger has lots of options for toppings. All the toppings are free.

Since your food is cooked when you order it, Five Guys has free peanuts to munch on while you wait. This is awesome!

A sign in the store tells you where the potatoes used for their famous french fries are from. Sometimes they even list the name of the farmer.

You get a lot of fries with each order. The cook filled my fry cup, then dumped all the rest of the fries into my bag. I got regular fries, but cajun fries are also available. All fries are cooked in peanut oil.

I ordered a cheeseburger with everything I could get added for free. It was really messy! Ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle, cheese, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, grilled green peppers. It was a delicious, sloppy smorgasbord of a burger. I only ordered a single burger, but I was given 2 beef patties. (BONUS!)

All the toppings kept sliding off. I used a lot of napkins. This is not the kind of burger you take on the road with you. In retrospect, as much as I love green peppers, those are probably a bad idea for a burger topping (even though they are delicious).

My Five Guys feast! Note the empty peanut shells. I had been snacking while they cooked my food. It was certainly delicious and definitely filling. I took home lots if leftover fries (and even a few peanuts). 

Total cost for my meal (including taxes): $12.46

Individual scores (1- 10 scale):

Peanuts = 10 they’re the Best Peanuts Ever because they’re free!

Fries = 6 Decent

Burger = 7 Good

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟🌟⚡
#CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #ExploreYourCity #FiveGuys

Smashburger

Smashburger was founded in 2007 in Denver, Colorado. It’s a burger joint focusing on fresh ingredients and unique options not found in many competitors. For this review, I visited the location in Olathe, Kansas.

The interior is spacious and simplistic. Tables, chairs and booths. An understated, clean look with a simple color scheme.

They inclue a small waiting area for to go orders. Orders are cooked in the back, and brought to you by a runner.

The menu was good sized. Lots of options: burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, sides, drinks, shakes and malts, even a “build your own burger” option.

I downloaded their app and joined their club. That gave me a free entree with purchase of a drink and side.

I ordered a classic Smashburger, a drink, fried pickles, Smashfries and crispy brussel sprouts.

The feast (drink not pictured)!

The burger ($5.49) was really good. Smashed beef, onion, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, mayo, cheese and special sauce all on a toasted egg bun. I liked the burger. It was small enough to be manageable with a good proportion of each ingredient. The bun was soft, but held together well. The only difference from their advertized pictures was that mine seemed to have white onion, not red. 😕 I liked the special sauce and I’m very curious what’s in it.

The Smash fries ($2.29, regular size) are small (think McDonalds size) natural cut, tossed in rosemary, garlic and olive oil. They are DELICIOUS! They are messy; not greasy, but oily. Eat them quick because they aren’t near as good when they’re cold.

The crispy brussel sprouts ($2.99) were my surprise of the meal. They things were absolutely amazing! I’d never seen brussel sprouts on a menu at a burger joint before, so I took a chance. They did not disappoint! Cut in half, grilled to a crisp on the outside, tossed in olive oil and seasoning; these sprouts were my favorite part of the meal. Highly recommended.

Now for the disappointing part of my meal: fried pickles ($2.99). If you know me, you know my love for fried pickles. I have traveled all around the area trying fried pickles at every place I could find them (still have many more on my list). These were not good fried pickles. 😟

Pickle chip cut, thinly breaded, too salty and too much seasoning. I honestly got a little upset in my stomach after eating a bunch of these. Had to wash out my mouth with Dr. Pepper and eat some fries and sprouts to eliminate the taste. Not recommended.

p.s. I should mention that the fried pickles and brussel sprouts both came with buttermilk ranch to dip them in. With the brussel sprouts I didn’t need it. With the pickles, even ranch couldn’t save them. 😢

Total cost for my meal (including taxes): $11.24

Individual dishes (1-10 scale):

Classic Smashburger = 8 Really Good

Smashfries = 7 Good

Crispy Brussel Sprouts = 8 Really Good

Fried Pickles = 2 Bad

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

#CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #Smashburger #ExploreYourCity #Recommended

BurgerFi

BurgerFi first opened February of 2011 in Lauderdale, FL. With nearly 100 locations, BurgerFi is a rapidly growing restaurant chain.

BurgerFi focuses a lot of attention on the details of their environmentally friendly stores.

The restaurant had an open (lots of windows), industrialized (lots of repurposed metal and a big fan for cooling) look to it. Set in a beautiful location (Park Place), this would be a great place for lunch on a warm spring or summer day. Lots of outside seating and a little park with live concerts within walking distance.

The seats really weren’t comfortable, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here simply for the food.

I visited the BurgerFi location at the Park Place development in Leawood, KS. Park Place is an upscale living/shopping district across the street from the Sprint HQ campus and next to Leawood Town Center.

The menu was fairly expansive. Shakes, concretes, soda, wine and beer were all included. Various burgers, multiple sides and toppings for the fries (garlic parmesan, chili cheese, etc…) gave lots of flavor variety. They even had hot dogs and 2 choices for vegan/vegetarian burgers. They do seasonal flavors as well. Currently the loaded chili cheese burger is on the menu with $1 from each sale donated to St. Judes children’s research hospital.

I kept it simple and ordered a BurgerFi cheeseburger with a Cry Fry(a mix of onion rings and fries) for the side.

First off, the onion rings are HUGE. There were only three in the order, but they were so massive, three was more than I needed. I see why a single onion ring is an option to use as a topping for your burger. They tasted pretty good.

The fries were skin on, medium sized and lightly salted. You can also get salt less fries. I ordered from the BurgerFi app, so I didn’t have to stand in line. This made knowing all the options so much easier. I even got some house made BurgerFi sauce on the side to dip stuff in. No charge. The sauce worked well with both the fries and rings.

My cheeseburger included every free thing the app said I could add (I’m a sucker for free stuff). Cheese, pickles, grilled onions, tomato, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, mayo and BurgerFi sauce. It was messy. Next time I’ll try the ketchup/mustard/mayo combo or the BurgerFi sauce. All four made for a messy, very slidey burger.

I didn’t add anything that cost more $ like grilled mushrooms, extra meat (waygu) extra cheese or several other sauces (garlic aioli, etc…). Like I said earlier, BurgerFi is chock full of options. Use the app to get the full experience. They don’t all appear on the menu, but the app walks you through each one.

The burger was excellent! The potato bun worked well with the excellent beef patty. The pickles were crisp, the tomato fresh and the lettuce a nice color contrast and welcome light flavor to the heaviness of the meat cheese and bun.

The food was simple, yet delicious. Top quality beef cooked to order. Fresh veggies, and a wide variety of chef inspired sauces to try. Hot dogs, a children’s menu, vegan/vegetarian options. Tasty sides (also cooked to order) and literally hundreds of drink options (wine, beer and a Coke Freestyle machine). BurgerFi is NOT lacking on options for every taste.

Total cost for my meal (including taxes) was $13.04
Individual dishes (1-10 scale):

Cheeseburger: 9 Great

Onion Rings: 8 Really Good

French Fries: 7 Good

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟⚡

(the lightning bolt is the best image I could find for a half star. The score is 4 and a half stars)

#NatsJourneys #RestaurantReview #FoodieFinds #CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #BurgerFi #Recommended #ExploreYourCity #LeawoodKS #GoogleLocalGuide

Larkburger review

100% grass fed, black Angus beef

Skin on French fries hand cut every day

Tomatoes fully ripened in store

Sushi grade tuna

All sauces and dressings made in store

This is Larkburger.

Larkburger is a small, regional chain hailing from Colorado. I went to the first location outside of Colorado at the Corbin Park shopping district in Overland Park, KS.

The store was clean and modern looking. It had a “bar” with individual seats with plug ins for your laptop or cell phone like seen in many mall food courts. There was a nice outside sitting area, draped with hanging lights though it was too cold to go out there.

Built in an newer, expanding shopping district called Corbin Park. The views were unimpressive as they were mostly the other stores (Dave & Busters, etc…) in the area. Larkburger sits on the far west side of Corbin Park.

The menu was a decent size, and the fountain drink selection included a few regional micro brew sodas. Prices were significantly higher than other burger joints. Larkburger is one of a growing trend of chef inspired burger chains. All the food is natural, fresh, organic and made to order. This leads to higher prices.

I ordered a well done, Larkburger (regular size $6.59) with Tillamook cheddar (cost $.79 extra) and a side of truffle & parmesan fries.

The burger was quite good. Black angus beef with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and house sauce (a lemon aioli). A good burger with a crisp, clean taste. I don’t think it was quite worth the cost. Next time I’ll order the small size and during happy hour when it is significantly cheaper.

The truffle & parmesan fries ($2.99 for small $3.59 for regular) were absolutely delectable. Expensive but delicious! Skin on, shoestring, hand cut russet potatoes with grated parmesan, Italian parsley and black truffle sea salt.

From friendly staff to good food, I quite enjoyed this restaurant.

Total cost for my meal (including taxes) = $13.01

Individual dishes (1-10 scale):

Larkburger original = 7 Good

Truffle & parmesan fries = 8 Really Good

Restaurant score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

#CulinaryAdventures #KCFoodie #LarkBurger #ExploreYourCity