Is Denver's Native American Restaurant Worth The Hype? TOCABE Review
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- čas přidán 7. 03. 2024
- Tocabe American Indian Eatery is the only Native American restaurant in the Denver area. As I hail from the East coast, specifically New Jersey, I have never been exposed ever to American Indian cuisine so for me it is the only Native American restaurant I have ever been to!
Native American food can include many different items, but Tocabe in Denver, CO specializes very much in fry bread. Fry bread is a staple in American indigenous food, and it has some controversial origins. Many people within the Native American community view Native American fry bread as representing oppression and tragedy, as it was invented out of necessity due to its ingredients consisting primarily of what the US government rationed to American Indians on reservations. To me though, food is always uplifting, and while we should never forget the dark aspects of history we can also see foods such as fry bread as a symbol of resilience and creativity in difficult times. For example budae jigae, also known as Korean army stew, after all was also created due to rationing and necessity but today Korean people still love to eat it and there are even restaurants that specialize in it.
No matter how you view the history however, my take is American Indian fry bread is delicious. Tocabe offers variations of the dish, such as stuffed fry bread recipes, however in this video I opted for the Indian taco. Also known as a Navajo taco to some, it is sort of like a Mexican huarache dish, with fry bread as an edible plate with delicious toppings on top. I opted for ground bison here. I also wound up getting some of the famous Tocabe bison ribs.
This is one of the most unique video topics I have ever done and I cannot wait to share this topic with you all. I hope you all learned a thing or two about the Tocabe Native American fast casual restaurant, as well as Native American food in general!
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Restaurant Deets:
Tocabe, An American Indian Eatery
3536 W 44th Ave, Denver, CO 80211
Music from @musicforvideolibrary
Nice UA! I’m Native and I appreciate you spotlighting this restaurant. If you’re ever in Phoenix, please visit the Frybread House. Just remember that a lot of these dishes served at restaurants represent contemporary dishes. Frybread was a result of government food rations and Native using what they could to make tasty items. Unfortunately, there are debates within Tribal communities because even though frybread tastes good, it’s very bad for you and represents desperation during the government rations era.
Maria's Frybread and Mexican in Phoenix is also good.
I must say this is the first video ever seen about native American food great video these must be seen more
I agree, I wish more people had opportunities to be exposed to Native American cuisine
@@uaeats That was the Chipotle version of "Native American Cuisine" That was embarrassing
@@johnmalerba804it does look that way. a restaurant with set dishes might seem more authentic
@johnmalerba804 Most people would not eat traditional Native American food. They didn't have spices and seasoning
I was thinking that. I didn't even know that was a thing!
The Bison is *super* less fatty than Cow. That's why the ribs are quite a bit tougher than cow/pork ribs. They're basically all muscle.
Either they wanted the ribs to be that tough or they just aren't cooking it right. You can make any lean, stringy, tough piece of meat tender if you cook it low and slow enough.
Yeah I was surprised to see bison ribs on the menu. In Jersey there are diners that serve bison burgers, and it's mostly done as a "healthy" option because the meat is very lean. How it's served in the taco is a perfect way to go IMO.
Hey man, if you ever find yourself in Tampa, Florida.. you must check out a coastal-Native inspired restaurant called Ulele, its on the Tampa Riverwalk! no lie one of the best meals I have ever had. We sat outside on the patio and the food was outstanding. I recommend trying the Native Chili, its a unique blend of alligator, venison, bison, duck, chuck, cranberry beans and it's just really, really well done. The service was also very warm, welcoming, engaging and highly professional. Ulele is a gem and a must try!
Being a member of the Navajo tribe id would like you to come to the Navajo Rez and try the tacos. 👍🏽
I'd love to someday!
Definitely!!
I'm a Native and a Native Coloradan! I'm so glad you're putting Tocabe on the map. It's so delicious!!
Hey Yui, great video!
I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a CZcamsr eating Native American food.
Great exposure to this Native American cuisine.
I’m sure once people have seen your video they may venture out to Denver Colorado just to check out this restaurant.
We buy ground Bison at Costco and use it mainly for burgers. I don't find it to be gamey at all and it's quite a bit healthier, supposedly. Good video!
Native American is one of my favorite foods that is often hard to find, even here in the US. I went to a state fair when I was a little kid back in the 1990s, and had the best food I ever tasted, which was Native American cuisine. I've been chasing the taste ever since, but nothing has ever measured up.
Thanks for the vid, will definitely check out this place next time I'm in Denver!
Wow, that spot you went to in the 90s must have been amazing!
This restaurant is so interesting to me, I am from Australia and we don't have anything like that here. food looks delicious
How is the kangaroo meat?
The fried bread reminds me of something I used to have as a kid in Mongolia called Boortsog, in fact it looks identical to it. Boortsog is usually eaten with syrup or even condense milk as a desert. But you can also eat boortsog with rice congee.
You’re Great! Love your Videos
Been eating fry bread tacos for years. Special occasions only. The Smithsonian has a great Native American restaurant. We have a great NA restaurant in the Bay Area too.
Havasupai tribe near the Grand Canyon area, super good fry bread! I loved the Native American tacos there!
Awesome UA! Keep it up!
Tocabe has been a favorite of mine for years.
When I took my girlfriend (who is from Mississippi) there on a date, I tried to explain that she can't puck it up like a taco. Being the sassy southern belle she is, she took that as a challenge.
I have photos of her all dressed up for a night out, shoving her dinner in like a "regular taco". Lol. Plus, I got her hooked on Native cuisine.
loving the frequency of the uploads 😊
They closed the southern Denver area site on Arapaho! We tried to visit one time and they were occupied by some kind of other business. We had been there a few other times before and the food is great! Good to see the other one up north is still around. A must try place.
yeah I was bummed about that, just started working in the Denver tech center again, and... no tocabes on Arapahoe... sob
Great video 😊
Bison is much more lean, you can replace any form of beef with it, I did while living in Montana and I miss it.
UA we have Native American days here in the midwest and one of my *very* favorite foods is when they take a turkey and dig a huge hole in the ground, line it with hot rocks and then bury it and let it cook for hours. Man when they bring it out it's just amazing.
Glad it was a success for you, I remember seeing it on DDD a few years ago and I wasn't sure but the Indian Taco looks great. I really like ribs, but maybe bison is too lean to cook that way, like you said.
I’m surprised there are not more Native American restaurants.
Me too!
hoping tocabes starts a trend! most of us get our fixes at native American events like pow-wows
Under rated for certain 🍁
Great reviews 🏹
Less talking and more VO. You let your food get colder/tougher (bison) I myself went to Tocabe years ago, and I was not disappointed… those Blackberry bison ribs were THE bee's knees! The fry bread was on point and they had sauteed vegetables like I'd never had my entire life. So melt in your mouth delicious! I can't wait to go back for those ribs!
Wow that's very different than what I ate when I was there... Didn't even know about tocabe. Great video will have to check it out on my next visit because I'm definitely going back for a second pass of moewwolf denver
Very interesting video. This type of cuisine is new to me. New subscriber here 👍
Nice to see that an underrated cuisine is being spot lighted
Greetings from Denver!
Funny you mentioned the fried bread is like 油条. It reminded me of the Chinese 油饼 which is more like a round fried flat bread instead of a stick like 油条.
Been to Tocabe many times. We love the bison ribs. The sauce makes a big difference. It's a blueberry BBQ sauce.
I'm glad you broadened your taste buds the taco looked amazing ❤
I first tried this place in 2017 and it was sooo good!!! I make sure to go back any time I'm out in Colorado.
Sitting Bull as an Avenger? Bison burgers are absolutely delicious.
Marvel did a Lakota dub of The Avengers. Will be on Disney+ in a few weeks.
Very cool! I'm from the east coast & totally like the idea of a "local" food place in Colorado being.. When I first had a Buffalo burger years ago I loved it
When I lived in Aurora I went there twice. They had a dessert frybread that was pretty good. I also had a taco.
This place is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! THE FOOD IS GREAT!
Are you still here?!?! Have lots of recs for you!
If you want those to be tender those ribs you need to put a little tiny bit of beer in there with some of that sauce wrap it tightly and foil and let it cook in the oven at 325 degrees for like 2 hours
What did the buffalo say to his child when he dropped him at school? Bison!
UA Eats drinking game: Every time UA says, ‘Why don’t we?’ Chug!
@gregoryjmorris9878 UA Drinks why don't we
Oh man, that fry bread looks amazing.
UA if you're ever in Ballsack Kentucky you have to try the lemon pepper rotisserie chicken we have at the local Food Giant.
Frybread tacos 🌮 so yummy glad your colorado trip has been amazing
interesting pairing those ribs and the sauce, but if you think about it, fruit and meat go together really well, just take melon and serano ham together for example. right now im working in austria for the winter and they pair their wiener schnitzels with this thing called preiselbeeren, which is also basically a cranberry compote with a few herbs added, really tasty as well.
Funny that you are in Denver. I'm going there in two weeks.
Enjoy! Also prepare to have a headache for the first 1-2 days due to the altitude 😂
There's a restaurant/store in Windsor Ontario Canada called Native Wonders. I recently visited in February and it's so well worth it.
Nice never had Native American food love to try it I’ll look around in Phoenix Arizona 😊
I used to live up the streeth from there, growing up. I enjoyed it the couple times I went
Why did I get recommend your channel. Interesting though chill personality too.
I had bison in a burger recently and it was excellent in that form. Ribs wouldn't have been something I expected considering how lean bison meat is.
Actually one my favorite places to eat, the bison is pretty good. Fry bread is delicious…..miss Tocabe now that I have moved to Texas. Looking forward to eating when we visit again.
DDD great episode
I love that place I have eaten there lots of time and I have had their food at the Denver Powwow..
My man, you’re supposed to dip that smaller fry bread in some protein like a spoon or preferably soups of sorts. That’s how us Natives do it in Oklahoma. Like some corn soup lol. That Indian taco looks beast.
LOVE corn soup! I had growing up & miss it.
In canada frybread is more often called bannok and is usually served with butter or jams and indian tacos is usually bannok, chili and cheeze
Tocabe is awesome. Used to live in that neighborhood and it was a go to on occasion.
But if you wanted the best ribs it was "The Ragin' Hog" BBQ just across the street in the Safeway plaza.
I've never had bison but I'd wager a guess that people enjoy the ribs for the chewy texture, like tendon and cartilage in Asian cuisine. I have eaten a lot of fry bread though, my grandpa would make it when he'd visit. A simple sort of hack is to buy frozen dough, just let it thaw and proof on the counter, cut it into pieces and fry it up.
Boil fresh ear corn in water with a little salt/sugar. Cut corn from cobs with a knife. In a bowl, add the cut corn, Grease (Bear is best, Bacon works, or lard)- mix well. Add broken up walnuts, maple sugar- mix again. Heat a bit. Serve. Delaware Nation style corn.
huh... I'm from the South Denver Metro Area and I've never heard of this place. Gonna have to stop by sometime!
Best Bison Burger.
Notable.
Bowness Road NW.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
You’re welcome.
Amazing review. Fry bread is greasy. Great observation.
Lots of good for here in Denver 💯
Bruh that bread looks just like Tibetan bread called Woeshang Balay. The native American food looks wonderful, can't wait to go and try it.
Try the fry bread warmed up, slathered in butter and cinnamon sugar, or butter and honey.
Bison can dry out way too easily. They really shouldn’t mess up the cook on them!
Good job. Yeah the ribs looks tough.
We have some amazing fry bread in AZ. My fav is a simple ground bison, cheese and hot sauce. Or honey and butter.
Different cuts of bison may be relatively easy to find. Ground bison is actually quite easy to find, and as some noted, most Costcos have it. Steaks might be somewhat easy to find at certain retailers - especially specialty markets. Finding bison ribs is probably not that easy, and this place says that they buy directly from a specific rancher.
The other issue with bison is that there's almost no chance of farmed bison being purebred bison. Even in the wild, a lot of bison has domestic cattle genes, where maybe a few herds in Yellowstone National Park are known to have zero cattle genes. A lot of farmed bison has been deliberately crossbred with domestic cattle.
Interesting...I have the bison ribs at least once a month, and it's always been very tender.
Tocabe means blue in the Osage language, as it was the favorite color of the owner's grandmother.
This restaurant offers a variety of toppings that go beyond a typical indian taco you would get at a pow wow.
The bbq sauce is a spiced up blueberry item called wojapi, a lakota / dakota dish that is usually made with chokecherries.
The bison being stringy isn't the cook's fault. Its just inherently like that. I don't know if its possible to get bison to "fall off the bone". That is the reason it is usually served ground; I've only ever had it ground. Its like a leaner ground beef with a bit more of a gamey flavor, which I like.
I went there once, and they make a good product.
❤
You have to get their hot sauce that they give you in a container and also drizzle it in honey. Makes a big a difference with a little sweet and their hot sauce is kind of tangy. They both were on the counter before Covid but now you have to ask
Thanks so much for another excellent video. As you expand your food boundaries, we grow as well. I know nothing at all about Native American food. I do suspect, however, that in some cases the foods here were not altered to meet mainstream American taste, but in fact were created just after Indians lost all their independence, were forced onto reservations, and encouraged to adopt the agricultural patterns of the European colonizers. Fry bread sounds suspiciously like something created to utilize wheat flour, refined sugar, and lard, which would have been given to the Indians as something of a compensation for being moved onto agriculturally unviable land and having the bison practically exterminated. Corn, pumpkin, gourds, squashes, so much of our food today owes so much to the Native Americans.
No Rocky Mountain Oysters?
You got the Dad jokes down!
I've never had fry bread but I am down with the "taco" concept. Those bison ribs looked super tough. I just don't see how a restaurant can offer "fast casual" and smoked meat at the same time. Your comment about smoking practices hit spot on. Good BBQ has no place in a fast casual concept.
actually most great BBQ is precisely fast casual. when you arrive as a customer do you expect to wait a long time for your meal or need to dress up wear a jacket attire? yes the cooking preparation process takes a long time, but not the dining experience.
Someone hates dickeys BBQ lol
might be huckleberries...
Unique or not unique. There are no degrees. Otherwise, you are the best food reviewer on youtube. Please keep them coming.
Half the time he doesn't know what h'es eating...unless its pizza or steak
@@DustyKid75you forgot pastrami. he's kind of an expert on that
Oh, and you need to put honey on the fry bread. So delicious!
I ate there. It eas great.
I was disappointed there weren't more authentic native foods or derivations of.
I wish there were more Native American restaurants, criminally underrated!
I've eaten here several times and ribs most of the time. The ribs are not fall of the bone but they are definitely not tough like what you got that day. I always get them because they are tender and tasty
You should go to wheat ridge while you're there
Check out Casa Bonita
❤❤❤❤😋😋👍👍
I live in a Denver suburb, and this is the first I've heard of Tocabe. I'll have to check it out though. Also Bison isn't that uncommon here, every grocery store i go to has ground bison right next to the ground beef.
Its called pry off the bone😂
That taco looks very tasty. Looks like a nice blend of different flavors with those ingredients.
I was interested in the medicine wheel nachos.
Ok one of your better videos in awhile , I felt like I was there , and what different choice of foods
Everything looks good to me. I don’t like my ribs too tender, takes away the texture and flavor. And of course Bison will be tougher than beef, it’s mostly muscle. And the fry bread does not look greasy at all compared to the Chinese donut.
You can't beat some good fry bread.
YUM!!!
😋😋😋😋😋
Safe Journey!
Yellowbird Blue Agave Sriracha!!!
I have heard that bison meat is lot better tasting then beef.
I love your honesty and reviews. But ... better background music and less didacticism.😊😊
Their hominy salsa is the best!
Those ribs reminded me of what we used to call road kill ribs.
The best frybread is made by mom or grandma.