After spending the morning at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, I typed into my cell phone \"Where is a unique place to have lunch near the Phoenix Indian Medical Center?\" and sent the text to KGB (542542). As we ventured into the hot sun, I recieved my answer...Sacred Hogan Navajo Frybread\n\n*ding!* one of the few Native American resturants in the city that I HAVEN'T reviewed yet!! Let's go!! After lunch plans with one of my favorite Navajos fell through - I guess a Navajo Taco would suffice! :P \n\nWe entered the blue and white tiled room and were met by a very tired Navajo girl who spoke of problems with the DMV throughout our meal. We sat down and took it all in, the small glass case with bottles of hot sauce, pottery and earrings for sale; the pepsi frige that held nothing but Shasta soda. Uber rez! lol and the lack of a public restroom (BOO!!)\n\nI ordered a double Navajo burger and my mom got the Pima Taco (beans are crushed as opposed to the Navajo tacos where the beans are whole) and two teas. We sat down and waited for our tea, which, to our annoyance, didn't come until our food did. We asked for ketchup and salsa and the hot sauce was NOT good. I have no idea what the heck that stuff was... but it wasn't cute. They would've been better off opening up a can of El Pato or Tapitio than dispensing that stuff. I think it was bad. The ketchup was good though! :P \n\nThe food itself... was meh. Nothing great. I didn't really read the menu, or I would have noticed that the burgers come with roasted green chilis... something I'm not a fan of... but I chose to just go with it and eat it anyway. The chili brought a nice kick to things. The burger itself was just a burger, it needed something... like CHEESE! I love cheese! :P \n\nThe bread was kind of tough... and obviously Navajo... made with the superfind Blue Bird Flour which is like GOLD in the Navajo Rez... women LITTERALLY make dresses out of their cloth Blue Bird Flour sacks! And I could tell they used powdered milk in their recipe, when the edges are significatly thick it's the milk reacting to the hot oil. When the dough is fried when fresh... it creates an awesome fluffy affect... but at Sacred Hogan, there were cracks and flakes on one side of the bread which means that the dough was left out in the elements and not kept covered and moist... which is kind of gross... the dough gets hard and when fried creates these little tiles that are hard and the rest of the dough loses moisture which makes the bread lose its flaky goodness. \n\nMy mom wasn't thrilled with her Pima Taco... as a Pima, I guess she oughta know what its supposed to be like! She said it was okay, but the salsa made it not so good. She prefers the light crispiness of FBH, so do I. the ONE thing I like about this place is their lunch special... they will make half a taco, of your choice... for $5!! That's pretty rad! \n\nTo my yelpers, I say skip this place. The tables were dirty and grimey and not in a good way... where its part of the ambiance, like Carolina's. The staff stared at us the entire time we ate and complained about their personal problems. The food took over 20 minutes to make and the worst food crime... they brought back the MONSTROSITY that is the Indian Dessert!!\n\nWTF?! No one eats like this on the rez!! NO ONE!! If you want to loose some toes, eat this fucking thig! A whole frybread, topped with a scoop of ice cream, chocolate syrup and cinna-sugar! That is disgusting... i'm sorry. it's gross! These flavors cannot possible be good!! If you want a nice dessert, JUST get a plain bread with EAITHER honey OR powdered sugar!! GEEZ!\n\nTo answer Mr. K's question... The FBH uses a simpler recipe of flour, salt, baking powder & very hot water. It's hyper use of baking powder creates it crispiness... and Navajos are not as liberal with their baking powder and some use powdered milk which creates a thicker more rich frybread. Both tribes typically use crisco veggie oil or shortening to fry their bread in, but some of the old timers still prefer good ol' fashioned lard! Navajo frybread is usually smaller in diameter, where as O'odham bread is usually larger, but thinner... ummm... think of Navajos as the chicago deep dish of Frybread... and O'odham as the New York thin crust of frybread!
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