Dakotan Foods

We'll be heading out of South Dakota this weekend, and we wanted to try some traditional Dakotan foods. So we picked Dakota Steakhouse as our restaurant for the evening, and we were not disappointed. 

Appetizers

We started the night with two appetizers: fry bread with honey butter and chislic. Fry bread is a traditional Native American bread made by frying a dough mixture of flour, water, and salt until golden brown. It can be served on the sweeter side with powdered sugar or honey, or it can used as part of a savory dish, served under meat, beans, or chili. We are familiar with fry bread from Wisconsin, but we're always ready to try other versions. 

Chislic is cubed red meat, usually beef, deep-fried or grilled and served with dipping sauce. Our specific chislic was steak tips, skewered, and served with cilantro-lime sour cream. This ended up being my favorite part of the meal.

Soup

My meal came with a choice of soup, so I had the Three Sisters Soup. The three sisters of the vegetable world are beans, corn, and squash. They earned the name "three sisters" by the Lakota Sioux because they are grown together. The soup had the perfect flavors for the fall.

Entree

Josh's entree was rib eye steak with fried mac and cheese. 

Bison, or buffalo, is a staple South Dakotan meat, and it is much leaner and more tender meat than beef without being gamey. Since I wanted to try bison, I ordered the "Tatanka filet," which was a bacon-wrapped buffalo tenderloin, with a side of Brussel sprouts. The bison was beautifully cooked, tender and delicious.

Dessert

For dessert, Josh tried their apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

And I tried kuchen, which is South Dakota's state dessert. Kuchen, pronounced as "koo-ken," is German for "cake." It is a mixture of cake, pie, creamy custard, and usually fruit. This one, in particular, reminded me more of custard, and it was served with berry sauce and fresh whipped cream.

After a meal like these, I'm considering a career in reviewing restaurants! Anyone hiring?