Author Archives: The Forking Truth

Some FANTABULOUS Dishes from Fabio On Fire Peoria AZ – Worth a Fork!

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Fabio On Fire is an Italian Restaurant and MORE in Peoria Arizona. Fabio On Fire besides being an Italian Restaurant also happens to be a pizzeria, bakery, gelateria and a mobile catering service. The restaurant offers, Neapolitan pizzas, seasonal specials, hand made pastas, house made baked goods, house made gelato, bar drinks and wine too.

Fabio at work
inside

This is an award winning restaurant.

The porchetta dish is officially one of the best dishes of the valley according to Phoenix Magazine and was featured on the cover (Feb. 2022)

My picture of it isn’t as good but it certainly was a Fantabulous dish.

Porchetta – wood fired pork belly, chickpea hummus, rosemary focaccia

Whatever you choose you are going to start with the complimentary FANTABULOUS ciabatta puglese bread…possibly the tastiest most delicious bread in the valley…

ciabatta puglese

All the pizzas are very good but maybe the very best bufalina pizza in the valley is this one. It goes a few steps further than others that you can find.

bufalina pizza

The cheese is the best bufalina from Italy….But unlike most bufalina pizzas out there the high quality imported cheese gently melts on the pizza instead of being baked like at most places so you can taste it more and is enhanced with the best flavors that bounce all over……balsamic, bitter arugula, sweet tomatoes, and a rich certified San Marzano tomato sauce.

Certain times of the year spinach raviolis are a special on the menu. These raviolis are layered with flavors…..

The spinach raviolis are in a delicious slightly creamy walnut sauce. The pasta has an extra taste and maybe it was cooked in a little vegetable stock that adds another layer of taste. They might be the tastiest ravioli anywhere.

I’ve tasted vodka sauce at a few different Italian restaurants but none of them where as delicious as the vodka sauce dishes I’ve tried from Fabio On Fire. They do offer a lobster ravioli in vodka sauce on the regular menu but I was lucky to try a few specials with that delicious vodka sauce.

One special was smoked salmon pasta in vodka sauce.

Another was –

Arugula and sweet tomatoes with pasta and vodka sauce.

Off the regular menu you can get these incredible butternut squash stuffed purse shaped ravioli in an amaretto laced rich sage cream sauce……vegetarian or with crispy prosciutto di parma. These are really a treat to eat!

butternut squash ravioli

My husband loves the orecchiette with broccoli and sausage. He said that it is very good.

I don’t have a good picture of the halibut special that was offered several times but I can tell you that the halibut seemed as fresh as from a fish house and was prepared as well as from a fish house and came with extra fancy vegetables…..It was very good and maybe was the best fish dish offered on the west side of the valley.

Often wood roasted lamb is a special of the evening.

wood roasted lamb

The most delicious desserts and BEST gelato can be found here.

The baked goods do change up now and then.

strawberry rum cake

But this strawberry rum cake was amazing.

Fabio makes the best gelatos. Some of the flavors I’ve tried were blood orange, pistachio, brownie, passionfruit, peach, cherry, and STRAWBERRY.

All the gelato was amazing and delicious but the strawberry for sure gotta be the BEST strawberry gelato in the country. If you taste it then you WILL agree!

These were a few of the FANTABULOUS Dishes from

Fabio On Fire

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Fabio On Fire

8275 W Lake Pleasant PKWY Peoria AZ

623-680-5385

www.FabioOnFire.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of Zuzu Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

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Zuzu Restaurant is located in the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale near to Old Town Scottsdale in Arizona. This restaurant is named after the Hotel Valley Ho’s Matriarch of the family known as Zuzu who they say was an amazing cook with great hospitality.

Zuzu

Zuzu the restaurant offers brunch, happy hour, dinners, cocktails and more!

Zuzu has a sort of club-like or lounge type of atmosphere.

inside
inside

They also offer patio seating for when the weather is nice.

A few items offered for early bites are things like avocado toast, for sweet eaters they have breakfast cinnamon buns, Moroccan style hummus, and garlic stuffed pretzel bombs with mascarpone.

They also offer salads, and brunchier foods like eggs Benedict, huevos rancheros, breakfast fried rice, half chicken and waffles.

They offer a few southwest style plates like fish tacos.

grilled fish tacos – red snapper, pineapple slaw, spiced crema, avocado, cilantro, flour tortillas

If you are a burger or sandwich person they also offer that too on the brunch menu.

2.0 burger – 8oz. patty, griddled onions, roasted garlic, pickles, fry sauce, American & provolone cheese

Happy Hours are 4-6pm and all five offering only cost $6-$7 each. (subject to change)

Happy Hour offerings are……..Moroccan Hummus, Whole roasted cauliflower, garlic stuffed pretzel bomb, Brussels sprouts, and chicken chicharrones.

For dinner some of the offerings are grilled Portuguese octopus, salt roasted beets, scallops, sea bass, pork shank, beef filet, and a SURPRISE dinner called, “Zuzu Take The Wheel.”

That was a Little Taste of Zuzu

Zuzu – located in the Hotel Valley Ho Scottsdale AZ

6850 East Main Street Scottsdale Arizona

480-376-2600

www.HotelValleyHo.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Potato Topped Peruvian Style Turkey Meatloafs with Onion Salsa Recipe

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This recipe is my artsy variation of the Peruvian Dish Papa Rellenas………Just so you know Papa Rellenas are fried potato croquettes stuffed with seasoned beef filling with hard eggs. I did similar flavors but did something different. A word of warning…….This recipe called for several different Peruvian Peppers that you might not have… I used aji panca paste in the meatloaf for the main flavor. I used dried yellow Peruvian peppers in the Onion salsa (they are really great….a flavorful not too hot pepper) I recommend just a little bit of aji amarillo paste to flavor the potatoes (or a Peruvian sauce made with aji amarillo paste)……I also garnished with Peruvian Sweet Drop peppers. or me this recipe made 6 portions that aren’t the biggest.

Ingredients for around 6 portions

1 1/2 lbs potatoes – peeled, quartered, boiled till fork tender with a generous amount of salt (usually golden potatoes are used but I used russets because that’s what I had)

aji amarillo paste – to taste (or you can substitute spicy cilantro sauce RECIPE under Peruvian Roasted Chicken) (this goes into the potatoes or also delicious huancaina sauce….I made it not sure if published…love both these sauces……THEY ARE SO FORKING DELICIOUS….You should make them and keep small portions in your freezer like I do….You will thank me.)

1 egg – lightly beaten

3 eggs – boiled 7 minutes ( I washed mine off and added them 7 minutes in with the boiling potatoes because I knew that the potatoes would only take about 15 minutes)

1-lb lean ground turkey 93%

1/4 medium onion – fine chop

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 Tablespoon aji panca chili paste

14 olives – chopped

2 eggs – lightly beaten

1 mini red bell pepper – chopped (or around maybe 1/4 of a regular red bell pepper)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 Tablespoon slightly heaping Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base (I use this instead of salt because it adds more flavors and uses less salt)

1/4 cup golden raisins – lightly chopped

1/4 cup fresh parley leaves

non stick spray

1 red onion – cut in half, sliced very thin on mandolin

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

yellow Peruvian dried chili flakes – to taste

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

The first things to do are to boil the potatoes, then the eggs (if you haven’t already). The potatoes get mashed with either a very small amount of aji amarillo paste or a small amount of yellow cilantro sauce (that is made with aji amarillo) If you used a good amount of salt to boil the potatoes then they probably are seasoned enough…If not add some salt as needed. The eggs should go in an ice bath when done. When they are cool enough to handle peel them and keep the potatoes and eggs to the side.

Set oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a sheet pan or pans with non stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl combine the minced red onion, garlic (4), aji panca paste, olives, eggs, red bell, cumin, 1/2 t. black pepper, oregano, vegetable base, raisins, and parsley.

If you have a round ring pat the meat mixture into a ring on your non stick sprayed baking sheet and pat 1/2 an egg into it.

Repeat till you are done. This made 6 meatloafs for me.

I had only a little bit of meat left so I patted them on top of the eggs.

Then I scored the potatoes in the bowl in half and each half in thirds so I’d know about how much potato to put on each one.

You can just scoop them out if you don’t do pastry bags.

These went in the middle rack at pre-heated 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

While they were cooking I made the onion salsa.

In a medium size bowl combine the onions, garlic, dried yellow chili flakes to taste, lemon juice, cilantro, and sea salt and salt and pepper to taste.

If the potatoes aren’t brown enough you can broil them for about two minutes.

Potato Topped Peruvian Style Turkey Meatloafs with Onion Salsa

ENJOY!!!!

The Forking Truth

NEW WEird difFERENt Limited and Special Edition Foods Out There September 2022

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There is AWAYS something new, weird, limited, and special edition out there in the wonderful world of food. We never know WTFork we’ll come across when we shop for food.

Up above is –

LIMITED EDITION and DIFFERENT (see Limited Edition in the upper right corner) – Frieda’s Angelcots…..I know fruit and vegetables are seasonal but it is always weird to see them marked limited edition. These are a different variety of apricots. Might be heavenly…or maybe they are devilishly wrong?

WEIRD – Unicorn Confetti – cake batter cookies………..I prefer my cookies to taste like cookies…..I make cake batter when I make cakes……Cookie batter and cake batter are not interchangeable………So the cookies are WEIRD……Also why are sprinkles (Jimmies and also known as twinkle coat) called unicorn confetti now……?……Is that a nice way of calling those things unicorn poop?

DIFFERENT and also WEIRD – Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! 3X All MEGA Bigger Berries…….Maybe?…. someone screwed up at the factory and created something that they have to sell as a snack.

DIFFERENT & kinda WEIRD – General Mills Cocoa Puffs instant artificially flavored and with other natural flavors (?????) Oatmeal with crunchy topping. Gosh this one is weird in too many ways. Artificial and other natural flavors (what on earth can they be?????) Oatmeal isn’t puffs……I bet the topping is just crumbs of Cocoa Puffs cereal that usually is thrown out……

WEIRD – Nickelodeon Slime Kellogg’s Green Apple Jacks with red scary looking apples on the box????? Made with natural…….and OTHER (OTHER NATURAL?????…what could that be????? Lizard snot??) natural flavors that make your milk turn GREEN! No wonder why there are so many whack jobs in the world. This stuff is the food (and chemicals) that turns people into crazy lunatics.

EVEN WEIRDER – Kellogg’s AppleJacks with Spooky Marshmallows. That box is horrifying. How can anyone buy that for children. Just looking at it gives me the creeps.

LIMITED EDITION – General Mills Lucky Charms with Magic Gems…….OH Lordy it’s just another cunning way to sell the same cereal with more marshmallows…….

Same Old Stuff MOSTLY- but WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K Original with toasted grains and an old goat on the package…….BAHHHHHHHH Bahhhh

Same Old Stuff but also kind of WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K with Red Berries that are really strawberries……and another old goat on the package. This just seems weird and creepy.

WEIRD – Kellogg’s Special K Flakes & Almonds that are chocolate dipped that are flavored naturally and other natural? flavors added…………This is weird because cereal is suppose to be a healthy food. The chocolate coating turns it into dessert….(might be good? in ice cream). This is also WEIRD because it not only has natural flavors but also has added OTHER natural flavors….My gosh what can those OTHER natural flavors be? Cockroaches? spider spit? canned armadillo farts?

WEIRD – General Mills – LOL Surprise Cereal….WTFork is this?….Surprise it’s cereal? Looks like it has those mandatory marshmallows like many of the child’s theme cereals have. No wonder why so many kids grow up to be assassins these days.

NEW – Pop Farts – Oh no my bad I guess I need bifocals…..POP-Tarts ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Peach Cobbler and on side of box it reads proudly baked in the USA. How could that be? They should lie and blame it on someone else. I guess this is a box of Pop-Farts.

DIFFERENT – DJ * BBQ Br Bohemian RUBSODY all-purpose seasoning. Cute name for a spice blend but weird scary looking label. The guy is screaming or looks like he is in pain…..????? Or maybe he just tasted the stuff and it must suck a lot?

NEW – Heinz Black Truffle infused honey and Hot Chili infused honey…….Sounds SWEET to me!

NEW – Heinz mandarin orange miso crunch, chili pepper crunch. and roasted garlic crunch……..Chile Crunch is this amazing condiment that adds flavors, textures and heat to foods. It makes anything plain interesting, (potentially) delicious and spicy. I make my own…..not to brag but any of the chili crisp that I made were all better than any jarred one that I have purchased so far…………. but I am intrigued by the mandarin orange miso flavor……That one is interesting…..The Chili pepper crunch should taste like you basic chili crunch…all chili crunch does already have garlic in it so I am guessing that maybe this variety has extra garlic and sounds like the least flavorful. Just my thoughts…I could be wrong.

DIFFERENT – Norita Sweet Sriracha Miso all purpose sauce….Never heard of a sauce like this before……?????

LIMITED TIME ONLY – Pringles Scorchin Hot Ones Los Calientes Verde. These my husband picked up. I can’t judge them because I can’t eat them….I’m sensitive to too much vinegar. For me they have so much vinegar in them that is painful to my mouth. My husband thinks that they are really good so he gets to eat the whole container himself.

Maybe NEW & a little DIFFERENT – Icelandic vanilla & strawberry lingonberry Skyr. I read that Skyr yogurt is creamier than regular yogurt and is less sour. I got a coupon from Safeway to get one free so I did. I tried the strawberry & lingonberry…..I liked the rich creamy texture. I also ;liked the less sour than regular yogurts…..But they might well just offered unflavored because there hardly was any fruit in mine….Mine had just enough fruit to pollute plain yogurt and left me disappointed. I don’t know if I got an off batch or just that flavor is lacking?

Maybe NEW and DIFFERENT – Icelandic Privisions in wild blueberry & bilberry…..I never heard of bilberry,,,,) And the other flavor is peach & cloudberry…..you sure don’t come across cloud berries very often……These sure are DIFFERENT.

Halloween is coming soon (unless the world blows up from all the marshmallows and artificial coloring in cereal these days)

LIMITED EDITION – Junior Mints with black and orange centers…….?? It’s always fun to discolor someone else’s teeth!

DIFFERENT and probably LIMITED EDITION – Chocolove Bites in Pumpkin Spice. Might be good? Don’t know.

DIFFERENT and probably LIMITED EDITION – Favorite Day Naturally and OTHER Natural flavored Candy Apple flavored pretzels…..Ummmm Natural flavors and OTHER natural flavors??????

And there usually is some sort of Oreo.

DIFFERENT – Here’s Nabisco Caramel Coconut ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Cookies with coconut pieces.

Oh LORDY found another Oreo

LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco Brookie-O – Brownie, original, and cookie dough ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED TRIPLE Layers of creme……..man oh man what a treat?????????

Well that was the NEW, Weird, Different, Limited & Special Edition foods out there for September 2022. Who knows WTFork I’ll come across next time?

The Forking Truth

Spiced Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots with Dates

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This week I had cauliflower and carrots so I came up with this. I’ve done a lot of Yotam Ottolenghi recipes and one of the the spice combinations that he uses is smoked paprika with Aleppo pepper together. It’s so simple but taste so good. I added saffron to the mix and a few other things. I used these vegetables as side dishes for dinner. Portion size is difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a small side or a full plate for a meal. For me this made 7 side dishes.

Ingredients for around 7 servings

1 small cauliflower – break down to florets

2 lb carrots – peel if not organic, slice 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick

1 small red onion – peel, cut in half, slice

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons water (the water helps to bloom the saffron)

pinch saffron – crumble

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1/2+ 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (1/2 the salt is to season the vegetables and the other 1/2 is for cooking the carrots. (or to taste…you might want more or less ((I used my homemade lightly smoked pecan sea salt)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 lemon – just the zest

3 oz dates – remove pits and slice

2 Tablespoons parsley leaves – chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Precook slightly the carrots. You can do this stove top or in the microwave oven. Timing is difficult to tell you exactly because all carrots are different sizes. Mine were very large carrots and I put them in a microwavable bowl with around a cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt for 7 minutes. I usually have normal supermarket size carrots that would be more like 3 minutes on the stove top or 4 minutes in the microwave.

In a large bowl add the cauliflower, carrots, and onions.

Either stove top in a pan or in a microwaveable bowl add the oil, water, saffron. paprika, Aleppo pepper and bring to boil. This mixture gets poured over the big bowl of vegetables. Mix it up. Spread out in a single layer on sheet pans. Sprinkle lightly to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt.

Use the middle rack and put the overflow on the lower rack. This will need around 25 – 35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes. You want the cauliflower slightly charred. Switch the lower rack vegetables with the middle rack vegetables and check every 5 minutes till done.

When vegetables are finished add the lemon zest, chopped parsley, and dates.

Spice Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots with Dates

ENJOY!!!!

The Forking Truth

Hot Pot For Days Restaurant Peoria AZ – Worth A Try!

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Hot Pot For Days is a casual Vietnamese Hot Pot Restaurant located in Peoria Arizona across from Desert Diamond Casino. Maybe you aren’t familiar with hot pots? It’s basically a big boiling pot of soup and you add all the vegetables, noodles, and meats to it that cook in your soup that you want.

Hot Pot For Days offers four kinds of broth – pork broth, spicy sate beef broth (not so spicy), Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour (not so spicy), vegetarian (owner recommended not to get because she said it was the least flavorful………..I mentioned that because..remember ……….I tell The FORKING Truth)

Next you can try all the meats that you want. The meats that you can get served to you are – prime beef brisket, chuckeye, beef tongue, chicken breast, pork belly, catfish, salmon and sometimes an extra seafood.

Not done yet…here comes the fun part.

You go to the buffet and you can pick buffet things like – octopus, mussels, whole shrimp, fish cakes, tofu, eggs, a few kinds of noodles.

Vegetables like carrots, onions, bok choy, broccoli, Asian greens, daikon, hard squash, zucchini, and scallions.

Here it is.

inside

Not sure why but Hanukkah garland decorates the front desk in September…

Hanukkah garland

ANYWHO-

Today we picked a ying/yang pot of spicy sate beef broth on the left and Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour on the right.

I got a big plate of vegetables and some noodles to cook up in the boiling broth. They also give you a condiment to add a little more flavor to the food.

We also got plates of different meats and fishes to cook up in the broths.

I only tried the beef broth and the Thai Style broth. I thought the Thai Style had more going on with it than the beef broth. Both are suppose to be spicy but are on the very mild side for spicy. I tried a few different meats, The brisket, chuckeye, chicken, salmon and the catfish. Usually catfish is my least favorite fish but for some odd reason it taste the best to me out of what I tried in the Thai style broth……It just complements that flavor better.

I’d say Hot Pot For Days is With a Try! (current price subject to change is $25.00 for all that you can eat)

I have not found a website or Facebook page

Hot Pot For Days

9284 W Northern Avenue Glendale Arizona

623-877-9492

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of The Larder and The Delta Phoenix AZ – Unique Southern Cuisine Arizona Laced – Give It a Try!****UPDATE CLOSED EXPECTED TO RELOCATE

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*****UPDATE CLOSED******EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******The Larder and The Delta is a small sort of Unique Southern Cuisine laced with Arizonian ingredients in a new way kind of Restaurant located in Downtown Phoenix Arizona.

They offer patio seating.

patio

They offer seating at the bar.

bar seating

They also offer regular indoor seating.

inside

On my most recent visit we found out that they use QR code menus so you do need a cell phone to dine here.

The menu does change every so often but some of the things you might find are-

The hoping John – This one is different and is vegetarian and was made with Sea Island field peas, Carolina gold rice, and herbs. It’s was full of so many flavors and textures.

The cauliflower – smoked blue cheese, celery, Cutino’s Hot Sauce. As far as I know this dish has been on the menu consistently. It’s also vegetarian and is sort of like vegetarian hot wings.

On a recent Restaurant Week Menu they offered very UNIQUE beignets with black garlic-peanut-romesco sauce.

I only got the eat the K.F.C. Sandwich once but it was truly the FORKING BEST Hot Chicken sandwich that I’ve tried anywhere. What does K.F.C. stand for?…..Kentucky FORKING Crack Sandwich? What I still remember most is that this sandwich had the very best delicious chicken flavor…… Also all the other flavors from the slaw, thick pickles and the right sized bun just went magically together…..It was different……… This sandwich was not the spiciest….but was the most delicious…..This one was on the menu years ago for lunch. I JUST FOUND OUT that this sandwich….(I’m guessing smaller in size………Hopefully the same recipe?)….Is on the Happy Hour Menu…….. (Wed-Fri 4pm-5:30).

Recently I enjoyed the Ethiopian Fried Chicken Restaurant Week Special.

Ethiopian Fried Chicken

This was delicious and crispy with a lot of flavors and heat….I was surprised that this was or seemed spicier than the hot chicken sandwich….Or maybe it just seemed hotter without a bun, slaw, and pickles to blend with? It was delicious and came with a vegetable-ish relish called chakalaka. The chakalaka had some of the similar beans from the hopping Johns but was spicy.

Sometimes a chicken dinner at The Larder and The Delta might look like this with chicken toe nails in the air.

Shrimp and grits are next.

Below was a recent restaurant week special.

Slow roast Niman Ranch Pork Loin

Possibly due to supply issues the Restaurant Week Pork Special was changed up some. It was advertised as a smoked and braised pork collar. Here it was a slow roast Niman Ranch pork loin with hominy and corn giardiniera. My husband thought that the pork had a similar taste to ham.

Something seafood is usually on the menu.

If I remember correctly this was an Ethiopian spiced snapper. The flavors on this one really were BANGING.

Excuse the bad photo above because you can’t see the BBQ meatloaf.

Desserts are casual here.

Cola Cake

M&M Cookie with Capt’n Crunch Ice Cream

apple cobbler

Apple cobbler

That was a Little Taste of The Larder and The Delta. Give it a try!
*******UPDATE CLOSED EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******

The Larder and The Delta 200 W Portland St PHX AZ

480-409-8520

www.TheLarderandtheDelta.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Potato String Wrapped Mexican Style Tuna Stuffed Peppers Recipe

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I made maybe the same Mexican style tuna last week and it turned out delicious so I thought I’d make it again but a little fancier. One of the KEY ingredients that makes this delicious are my home made pickled jalapeños. I even use some of the brine and that also adds good flavors. PLEASE do NOT BUY jarred jalapeños from the grocery store. They do not taste the same. It’s ok if you buy pickled jalapeños from a farmer’s market or maybe from your favorite Mexican restaurant…Or just make them the same way I did from here www.TheForkingTruth.com . You also might not have a spiral slicer to make the potato strings. They sell little pain in the butt ones that I don’t recamend. I also had and returned my Kitchen Aid Attachment that makes potato strings because it’s not so good…..Believe it or not the very best spiral slicer I’ve found is the Paderno Slicer that I found at one of those expensive kitchen stores at our high end mall.

Paderno Slicer

It comes with three kinds of blades. One for strings, one for wide strings. one for wide ribbons. It’s great for potatoes but I found that it’s too hard to use on carrots. (The box pictures it making carrot strings)

ANYWAYS-

Portion size is very hard to judge. I made 12 stuffed peppers wrapped with strings. I’m going to guesstimate three lunches or 6 appetizers.

Ingredients for around 3 servings

1 – 6.4oz pack of chunk light drained tuna in water

1/4 medium onion – fine chop

2 pickled jalapeno peppers chopped (or around 1/4 cup)

1 small heirloom tomato chopped (around 2 1/2 oz)

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup pimento stuffed green olives – chopped

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

1/4 cup cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped

1 Tablespoon capers

1/2 teaspoon dried epazote (they sell this at Walmart and Whole Foods but you can use a small amount of fresh if you have it or substitute oregano)

pinch dried mint

2 Tablespoons jalapeno brine

1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons annatto oil (had this leftover from a recipe I made a few weeks back…it easy or use 2 Tablespoons olive oil and add a pinch of ground annatto)

1 lb mini bell peppers (you really need around 3/4 pound but I rounded up so you wouldn’t be short……..)

3 medium size russet potatoes (around a pound)

olive oil – to spray to tops of the potatoes

non stick spray – to spray sheet pans

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

Set oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a sheet pan with non stock spray and set to the side.

In a big mixing bowl combine the tuna, onion, jalapeños, tomato. raisins, olives, scallions, cilantro, capers, epazote, mint, jalapeño brine, lime juice, annatto oil and mix well.

You need to make “T” shape cuts on the mini bell peppers and remove seeds and maybe some membrane.

You open them up and stuff them full and press the stuffing in so it isn’t loose.

Make the potato strings and wrap them around the peppers trying to keep most of the potato strings on the top.

I had a small amount extra so I kept that on the side on a non stick sprayed pan. (At the end they can be added to the tops of the stuffed peppers.

All the potatoes get sprayed with olive oil and you need to season them with salt and pepper.

These go on the middle rack of a pre-heated 425 degree F oven for around 30 minutes or until nicely browned. (I put the extra tray of potatoes on the lowest rack for the same amount of time.)

My dogs were very interested.

You might want to add some avocado cream (a few recipes back) a few more scallions, and or a little tiny bit of fresh cilantro. I made some sour cream roses just to show off..

Potato String Wrapped Mexican Style Tuna Stuffed Peppers

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth

My FORKING UNFANTABULOUS Restaurant Experience of 2022 ……so far

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I do not enjoy writing about negative experiences but I do write The FORKING Truth ……..I also note I have not listed the name of this restaurant in the title of my story on purpose. Only my regular readers get to know The FORKING Truth. You also must know that everything and anything is always subject to change at anytime……and when the press goes and visits a restaurant usually a restaurant is on their best game. For us mere mortals we get what we get.

Aiello’s Restaurant is located in Central Phoenix Arizona in Moon Valley. They originally were opened and ran by Joe and Myrah Aiello in 2007 who have been in the restaurant business for much of their lives. Below is a picture I took of Joe in 2019 at The Italian Festival in Scottsdale. The Aiello Restaurant didn’t serve New American Fancy Food. They served East Coast Style Italian Food. It was good…..It was the type of food that you’d expect to get when you go to an Italian Restaurant. I think my favorite Aiello’s experience was from the 2019 Italian Festival. Aiello’s served a very good spread of many Italian favorites there. I remember me and my husband ate maybe 3-4 different plates from the Aiello’s there.

Feb 2019 Aiello’s at The Italian Festival

One of my other favorites from Aiello’s was the thoughtful take out special they offered during the pandemic. They offered take out dinner for two that included a bottle of wine and a candle for $65.

Aiello’s take out special during the pandemic

In 2022 the Aiello’s decided to retire and sold the business to someone local. The local people Tara O’Neale and Josh Johnson call themselves Truth and Alibi Hospitality.

Changes have been made inside and out. Outside a lot of the shrubbery has been cleared out. The inside is brighter and more open. The booths have been removed. The chairs got new paint finish and were upholstered with new fabric.

inside

Aiello’s is new again with new faces, new atmosphere, a new menu and a new attitude.

You can stop reading now if you don’t want to know how things changed on my most recent visit. Things started out as good as it got and then things started going downward until the crash at the end.

It was Restaurant Week and the menu sounded amazing. It sure was different from the original Aiello’s…..When I read the menu I thought the restaurant turned upscale Italian….. I also thought I’ve found something very special that I had to try….Maybe something exciting to write about?

Upon my arrival they incurred some sort of glitch with their reservation system. I had a reservation and the hostess insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…..My husband showed the hostess my reservation on his phone……………….She still insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…………..(WTFork?…why?…….)…………I was kinda thinking that I should leave…….I sure didn’t feel wanted there. Eventually we get seated by someone else……………but the weird thing is around thirty minutes latter my husband gets a text that our reservation from Aiello’s was cancelled……(WTFork?)

The only menu we were given was the restaurant week menu and they suggested to get the wine pairings and we agreed…..It sounded great…That’s what drew us in anyway so why not.

They started us off with toasted bread with squid ink black garlic butter.

complimentary bread with squid ink black garlic butter

I can tell you that the bread is decent with a nice crust but I didn’t try the squid ink black garlic butter. However my husband did……He just said that it was very strong tasting.

Next we got a giant meatball with polenta and tenderloin bruschetta and two glasses of wine.

giant meatball with polenta

The meatball was the single best dish of what we tried. It was good….My husband said that the polenta was very runny.

tenderloin bruschetta

The tenderloin was like eating raw meat……….It wasn’t seared or anything and was cold. I was told that it was marinated in tomato. There is some thin tomato sauce under the steak. It’s also a very large portion and is enough for a meal. I ate most of one….took the other two home to cook up better.

Here’s part of one I seared at home…..It was so much better this way and it took almost no time at all to make it much better…It’s tastier and much more tender.

seared at home tenderloin from Aiello’s

Next course was one of each salad offered….The prosciutto and grilled peach and the caesar and the two glasses of wine were forgotten so my husband asked for the wine.

prosciutto and grilled peach (the brown lines are balsamic…not grill marks)

My husband’s least favorite part of the salad was the peach…..It was supposed to be grilled but the peach turned out oil poached……………..

caesar

The caesar dressing taste like mayonnaise mixed with powdered cheese and the croutons taste like they were from a box………..(………..not the best………….)

Our server stops by and says that our dinners would be out soon…..My husband lets the waiter know that we didn’t get our primo course yet…..(the cacio e pepe)….The waiter seems to be in disbelief……Soon someone runs the cacio e pepe plates to us and they forgot the wine again so my husband bothers someone to get us our wine.

cacio e pepe

The pasta is properly cooked but is in cream sauce……..(who does that?……..that’s not right….) It’s not the traditional Romano cheese and pasta water with pepper……Oddly the two cacio e pepe dishes taste different…….My husband ate his and then just tasted mine because I left a lot….He said mine wasn’t so peppery. I thought mine tasted more like white pepper than black pepper.

After the plates were cleared our dinners come out and the dinner wines never came.

duck breast with prosciutto and sage

Usually duck breast is served with rendered skin. Here it was not. Sadly the breast was on the raw side and was very tough. Even when I tried to give the leftover duck to my dogs it was so tough I couldn’t pull it apart to tear. The mushroom cherry risotto sounds good and looks good but it taste like it was made creamy with the addition of something like cream cheese spread. (ick) But it wasn’t as bad as the salmon.

salmon

The salmon came out with a slightly burnt but seasoned skin. I asked for it to be cooked medium but it came out past well done. I never expect fish house quality fish from an Italian Restaurant but this plate I consider substandard restaurant quality…….Nobody goes out to eat to get a plate like this…………ANYWAYS The well done slightly burnt fish was served over an unpalatable mound of olive tapenade (it’s FORKING AWFUL…Nobody can eat this) I try to eat some of the eggplant. It’s also awful ….the eggplant wasn’t prepared properly and it’s flesh was dissolved and was like a balloon filled with oil bursting out. The best part of the plate is the cooked spinach…It taste more like cacio e pepe than the pasta they served me.

We did inform the waiter that we never got the dinner wine pairing. He said, “I ‘m sorry for the LATE arrival.” (WTFORK is that?) ((WHAT LATE ARRIVAL?????? It never came…….) So he took $5. off per wine pairing.

That was my FORKING Most UNFANTABULOUS Restaurant Experience of 2022….

This wasn’t the story that I wanted to tell but I feel I must tell The FORKING Truth.

I sincerely do hope that these new owners find their way and fix things.

Aiello’s East Coast Italian

777 E Thunderbird Rd PHX AZ

602-547-3354

www.AiellosItalianRestaurant.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ. I sure hope it does.

The Forking Truth

Spicy Indian Style Mixed Vegetables

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I came across a recipe for a single vegetable Indian Dish. I purposely made it different by using a mix of vegetables, also by roasting the vegetables instead of boiling them. I also ACCIDENTALLY made it different by leaving a few things out….I thought it tasted done…. Well it’s delicious anyway. Portion size is always difficult to tell. For me this is 6 side servings.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 small broccoli crowns (the stemless broccoli tops that Safeway sells) – break down to florets

3 carrots – peeled if not organic and cut on diagonal half inch thick

1 onion – rough chop with pieces big enough that you want to eat

1/4 cabbage – rough cut

1 red bell pepper – stem & seeds removed, cut in strips

1 Tablespoon olive oil (this is to spray on the vegetables I don’t think that I used much more than a tablespoon)

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

1 Tablespoon brown mustard seeds

1 branch curry leaves (around 12 leaves Asiana Market sells them…I buy them and keep them in my freezer)

2 shallots – fine chopped

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 serrano chili – fine chop

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Set the oven to 425 degrees F

The broccoli cooks faster than the other vegetables. The broccoli either gets it’s own pan or goes on an end of a baking sheet so you can remove it when it’s done.

The vegetables go on baking sheets and get LIGHTLY sprayed with olive oil. Note that the broccoli will cook faster than the other vegetables. In my oven the broccoli was perfect in 20 minutes. The remaining vegetables took another 15 minutes. The timing might differ slightly because of size of vegetable or oven difference.

While the vegetables are cooking you can make the delicious sauce.

In a small fry pan on medium heat add the coconut oil, curry leaves and the mustard seeds. Keep cooking until you hear the seeds popping. Now add the shallots, garlic, and chili. Cook until shallots look transparent. Now add the cumin, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Turn off heat. Pick out the curry leaves. Pour onto vegetables when done.

Indian Style Mixed Vegetables

Enjoy!!!

The Forking Truth