What the Heck is a Sonoran Hot Dog?
- Jeff Davis
- Feb 15
- 3 min read
I recently had the opportunity to try out a new food truck called Sonora Bites, who specializes in Sonoran style Mexican food. I've never really heard much about that region's style of cooking before so I decided to check them out.
Being a little ignorant of the various regions, my basic knowledge around town was that there was "authentic Mexican" and there was "TexMex". Nothing generic there right? I decided to do a little online research and here is what I discovered. Sonora is a Mexican state south of Arizona. Due to its more arid climate, agriculturally, the focus was more on raising livestock than farming. This translates to a cooking style focused on grilled meats, simple fresh ingredients, and primarily using flour tortillas over corn tortillas. So was Sonora Bites legit? Here's how things went down.
The food truck is currently working out of the parking lot of the St Thomas Church at 2692 East 5th Ave in Columbus. We pull in and find the truck in the back of the lot behind the church. As I walked up, I noticed one difference that most trucks don't have, a large charcoal grill going behind the truck. That's definitely an interesting twist. I introduced myself to Brenda, who invited us to check out the new business. She was really excited that we showed up and proceeded to let us try various samples of what they made.
She started by letting us know that they made their own flour tortillas. So that's one Sonaran item checked off. I watch one of the food truck members pop out of the truck and put some meat on the grill. A few minutes later, he pulls it off the grill, hops back in the truck, and out the window pops a Carne Asada quesadilla. The steak was tender, juicy and flavorful. Of course, grilling it made it even better.
She then handed us a dessert option that they make that was by what I can assume, was a pie crust like quesadilla with a caramel inside and dusted with a cinnamon sugar mixture. I didn't see it on the menu at the time so it may be a trial item. I have a major sweet tooth so I really enjoyed it .
Next was a ceviche mariscos. This one was too pretty to eat. Well almost. It was ceviche with onion and peppers and potatoes on a bed of cabbage, served on a corn tortilla. Yes, they use corn tortillas also. I've never tried anything like it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Everything was fresh and had a nice little crunch with the cabbage and corn tortilla.
I finish that off and out of the window pops the answer to my biggest curiosity of the trip.The Sonoran hot dog, or "doggo". This is the flagship item to the food truck. Brenda tells me that not only are the flour tortillas hand made, but also their buns. So here's this large, fresh bun, loaded with cheese sauce, avocado, chile verde, tomatoes, and other toppings on nothing other than a bacon wrapped hot dog. That's right, bacon wrapped. Everything's better with bacon! This thing was a hot mess, but in a very good way. I was actually shocked that I wasn't wearing half of it by the time I was finished.
By this time, I'm stuffed and thanking Brenda for letting us try the wonderful food. Then she stops us and says "wait, we have one more thing for you to try". Oh goody, I'm ready to pop and hoping that it is something small to sample. I wasn't that lucky. She hands us this big plate of loaded fries covered with cheese, onions and peppers, and on one side chopped doggos, and the other half carne asada. Now I'm trying to figure out if I can shift my internal organs around enough to try this monster. I managed enough room to try a little bit of each and was glad I did. The fries were nice and crispy, and able to hold up against the cheese sauce. The carne asada was just as delicious as before and who can beat the bacon covered hot dogs.
Needless to say, I didn't eat anything for the rest of the day.
If you are ever around the east side of Columbus then I'd say to give Sonora Bites a try. It was nice to try good food from a true regional source.
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