Chocolate comes in more flavors now. There is milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate (white chocolate is controversial and some people would say to not include it) and there is ruby chocolate.
My first experience trying the ruby chocolate flavor was from That’s Amore Gelato shop in North Scottsdale AZ.
Ruby is on the right half
To me it taste like a berry. I would say maybe raspberry or mixed berry with raspberry.
The very next week I found the NEW LIMITED EDITION Ruby Cacao coated Haagen Dazs ice cream bars so I bought them to try. I have a bar next to my 7in knife.
We usually share a dessert so I’m cutting it in half.
The flavor in the candy coating is more intense than from the gelato. it’s more sweet and tangy……Here I get maybe more of a raspberry taste but it finishes with a sort of milk chocolate taste that I didn’t get with the gelato. I can’t wait to see ruby chocolate bars and higher end ruby chocolates coming out soon. I bet they will be even more intense with different flavors. If I see them I will try them and let you know how they are.
Those were My Forking Thoughts on the Ruby Chocolate that I’ve tasted so far.
Around 140 Phoenix area restaurants were participating in fall restaurant week (September 18 – 27 2020). Most of these restaurants were offering three course dinners for $33.00 & $44.00 a person.
The first restaurant that I was excited to try was Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale because they were offering a fresh truffle option. I was going to do Sel in Scottsdale first because their menu sounded really special too but because of the fresh truffles at Zinc I figured that I better do Zinc Bistro first because the truffles will taste better now and might not be as good next week.
Here’s my take out from Zinc Bistro.
The food was mostly very good. My soup was missing the parmesan crisp but it still was a delicious treat. The dinners were really great with complex interesting sauces….. But I traveled across town to do this take out and my fresh truffles were left off. My husband called to let them know that I didn’t get my fresh truffles to take them off the bill since I didn’t get them. The manager apologized and took my whole meal off the bill since I was disappointed. That was as generous as any restaurant can be. I DO appreciate that but I still missed out on fresh truffles.
My next restaurant week take out was from The Mission (a modern Latin) restaurant in Scottsdale.
A few things were missing from the descriptions on the restaurant week menu. My stone fruit salad was missing the goat horn dined cucumbers that sounded so interesting. My husband’s chorizo porchetta (lower left) was missing cotija cheese, possibly white bean puree (my husband insisted the little white tub wasn’t beans….we couldn’t identify what it was….) and arugula. Besides that there were some other issues. My salad was good but my fish was a little dry and fishy tasting. I did enjoy the chiltepin achiote sauce. It made my fish taste better. It’s hard to tell the size of the fish from my photo but if you compare it to the pork belly appetizer in the upper left hand corner you might be able to tell that it is a very small sized dinner. It didn’t come with the sliced vegetable on top of the fish and doesn’t look like the example this restaurant made to impress the press. (press picture is below…..My fish dinner is also pictured below the press photo)
www.facebook.com
I saw this on Facebook so I thought I’d get a nice piece of fish instead od two very small dry ends.
There were some other issues.
I didn’t try it but I was told that the crispy pork & cola glaze pork belly was dry.
The chorizo porchetta was very large but also was very dry with even dryer sausage and not much flavor.
I was told on the phone when I was ordering that the dessert that I wanted wasn’t available for take out so we tried the other two options that were carrot cake and pumpkin bread pudding. I do note that I normally don’t care for carrot cake but can usually eat some. This one I tried a taste and I couldn’t eat. My husband couldn’t eat it either. I’m not even sure why I found the cake inedible……I didn’t really like the bread pudding but the sauces and toppings were very good. My dinner was very small portioned so I still was hungry and had to eat something so I ate half of the bread pudding.
I was saving Sel in Scottsdale for my last take out for restaurant week but sometime after their restaurant week menu was posted they changed their menu a little bit.
We were both good with corn soup, grilled asparagus salad with black truffle fondue and other stuff. A grilled New York and the Halibut. The seconded course sounds so amazing…..Grilled asparagus salad with black TRUFFLE potato fondu, GRAFRETTE (waffle cut sweet potato), organic farm EGG 63, caramelized onions…WOW!!!!!!
Then the day I was going to order take out I saw this on the Sel Website.
It’s still a very nice menu but it isn’t as great for us now. We are both good with corn soup as course one. The amazing sounding asparagus salad was replaced with a tomato stack………..My husband can’t eat a plate of raw tomatoes so this doesn’t work for him. …..(so we can’t go….(BAH!). He also would have ordered the Grilled New York over the Filet Mignon.
Bummer…….. maybe the change of menu was better for some people?
The Forking Truth is that Fall Restaurant Week in Metro Phoenix AZ 2020 wasn’t my favorite. 2020 isn’t my favorite year either.
I’m baking less these days but was thinking that over the years I baked many delicious breads here. One thing I learned about baking bread is that all recipes for bread are not accurate. I know almost every time I follow a bread recipe I always have to make adjustments. Every brand of flour is ground different and produces different results. Also when you measure some people pack more flour into a cup than other people. There are other factors that also produce different results such as altitude, humidity, different ovens. The good news is that once you make your first really nice bread you almost don’t need a recipe for bread because you will learn quick what the dough should feel like. He are the breads. My apologies in advance if the recipe isn’t 100% accurate because of different brands of flour or other factors.
Up top is a beautiful classic boule bread.
Next one is dukkah feta cheese and barberry bread.
Little Saigon is a small but charming Vietnamese Restaurant located in Old Town Glendale Arizona. They offer a large patio out front.
The building is lined with lots of plants and I noticed many pomegranates.
The first thing that you see when you enter is a large but clean fish tank. The last few times that I was here I got seated in the small dining room to the side. Here is another dining room were we picked up our take out.
Our timing was perfect and was ready and placed on a table the moment we walked in the door.
We started out by sharing the Bo Cuon La Nho (beef wrapped in grape leaves with vegetables, fresh herbs and rice paper.
If you never had this before then you can think of it like making a fajita but different. On the right is the rice paper. You have to soak a sheet of rice paper in warm water to make it soft. Then you add a stuffed grape leaf. Top the grape leaf roll with some rice noodles, fried shallots, peanuts, mint, cilantro, radish and roll it up like a burrito.
You’re not done yet. Your mini Vietnamese burrito gets wrapped in lettuce and then you dip it in fish sauce. Enjoy! After we finished these off I went to my main. This time I tried the Ga Xao Xa Ot (Chicken & Vegetables in lemongrass soy fish sauce)
This is not like anything I tasted before…It’s moist dark meat boneless chicken with broccoli and carrots in this sweet and funky sauce that has mild heat to it.
My husband tried the Tom Xao Thap Cam Cay (spicy shrimp stir fry with vegetables).
It looks like a nice assortment of vegetables. It has cabbage, snow peas, tomatoes and carrots. I was told that it was good but was very light with the heat.
The last time that I dined in I had the chicken and cabbage salad. It was refreshing crisp and light. It was just right on a hot Arizona day.
My husband had a pork rice plate with shrimp.
There are many more dishes that I want to try here so more are coming in the future.
That was a Little Taste of Little Saigon Restaurant in Old Town Glendale AZ.
I haven’t found a website for Little Saigon.
They are located at 7016 N 57TH Ave Glendale 85301
Call them for more information 623-939-6136
Everything is subject to change and we hope things do change for the better.
We do take out food during the coronavirus pandemic because experts say that take out is safer than dining in. All restaurants are struggling these days and there is little to do safely so we do take out as much as possible.
One take out we did was from Banh Mi Bistro in North Phoenix. They are a small Vietnamese Eatery that offers most of your Vietnamese favorites except for pho.
Today I got the curry chicken with rice and my husband got the noodle bowl with grilled pork and shrimp. The food is always delicious, prices are very low and portions are very large. Not all but many of the meals can be two meals for some people. The owners are also very nice all the time. This is one of our regular spots. My dogs always love sharing the food from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery.
Next take out was from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale. They specialize in serving certified Neapolitan Pizzas. They also offer Roman Style Pizzas, American pizzas, Italian food and MORE!
Today we got the Tavola Mista (meats and cheeses, vegetables and more plate) an Italian Stallion Pizza (house made mozzarella, San Marzano Tomatoes, sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto di parma sopressata) and a Bianco pizza (house made mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, fresh basil, Sicilian oregano and extra virgin olive oil) with added Calabrian peppers. Everything was delicious and we shared some with the dogs.
I haven’t been to Little Saigon in Old Town Glendale in a long time. It’s a charming little Vietnamese restaurant that offers a long menu of many different Vietnamese foods. Decided to do take out there. The owners are family with the Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in Phoenix.
We tried some things that we haven’t tried here before. We started with the beef wrapped in grape leaves. It’s something like Vietnamese fajitas. You take a grape leaf that is stuffed with beef. You add a variety of vegetables, fresh herbs shallots, peanuts and rice noodles. You stuff them in a rice paper and wrap with lettuce and dip it in fish sauce.
They are very tasty……lots of good flavors here! It’s a treat!
For my main I had the Ga Xao Xa Ot (spicy chicken onions vegetables in lemon grass soy fish sauce. The dark meat boneless chicken was tender and tasty. The sauce was funky and kind of sweet. It was different but good to me. I never had anything that tasted like this before. But it wasn’t too spicy…just mild with slight heat. My husband enjoyed the tom xao thap cam cay (spicy shrimp stir fry with vegetables). It was good but also mild heat. My dogs enjoyed the food from Little Saigon too!
It’s restaurant week so we thought we’d try Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale because they were offering fresh truffles.
A few things were forgotten (including the truffles) but the mains were very good. I had an excellent Faroe Island Salmon. It was cooked to perfection. It came with carrots, roasted celery root, a salad of purslane and crispy sun chokes with truffle vinaigrette and this amazing barigoule (artichoke) sauce. My husband enjoyed the Prime Flat Iron Steak. It had this special black pepper crust, It was delicious and came with lots of seasoned fries and a complex sauce. My dogs sure enjoyed some meat scraps from Zinc Bistro.
P.S. my husband called to let them know they forgot the truffles so they would remove the truffles from our bill. They were extra generous and removed my whole meal from the check.
We decided that we could squeeze one more restaurant in. Our last take out of the week was from Squid Ink Sushi in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.
I haven’t tried their sushi yet but I did notice that they offer many dishes besides sushi that sound interesting. I wanted to try their Scottish Salmon because Scottish Salmon isn’t found anywhere in the Upper West Side. The salmon was prepared reasonably well and came with a variety of vegetables, LOTS of sliced avocado and tasty sushi rice. I think it’s a great find to find Scottish Salmon like this for only around $15.00. My husband tried the Beef Yakisobsa. It was also reasonably well prepared. It was made with very tender filet mignon and also came with a nice assortment of vegetables and Asian flavored soba noodles. As per usual my dogs couldn’t wait to try some.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all this delicious food”
That was week 27 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic in Metro Phoenix AZ.
The restaurants we did take out from this week –
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Bistro – North Phoenix
La Piazza Al Forno – Old Town Glendale
Little Saigon – Old Town Glendale
Zinc Bistro – Scottsdale
Squid Ink Sushi – Peoria/#UpperWestSide
Every THING is subject to change and we HOPE it DOES CHANGE for the better.
The Forking Truth is that It seems like my local Costco (a paid membership grocery/warehouse) in Phoenix Arizona doesn’t care about the pandemic anymore. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am NOT talking about shopping at Fry’s or Safeway or any of the other local supermarkets. Shopping at regular places is different because they don’t pay people to stand at the entrance to check for masks. I am only taking about my visit to Costco because they are different. They are a paid membership grocery/warehouse that PAYS people to check for membership and for entering the store wearing masks. Last week many people entered my local Costco and didn’t wear masks and some people wore masks improperly. Costco used to have the highest standards. They’ve installed plexiglass walls between the cashiers and customers.
They used to sanitize the shopping carts. They used to only let in a certain amount of people at a time.
They used to have 6 foot spaces marked on the floors. Costco pays employees to check people entering for membership cards and also for wearing masks.
It seem like things have changed. I saw all this on my last shopping visit last week. I tried to block out part of the customers faces for privacy.
The Forking Truth is that It seems like my local Costco stopped caring about the coronavirus pandemic. They pay people out of our membership dues for people at the door to screen for mask. They can’t control the people who don’t care about using their mask correctly but they should control the amount of people they let in that don’t wear masks. They can and help stop the spread and should. I also note that I don’t know if all Costco locations are similar. I am only talking about my local Costco in North Phoenix AZ.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
Here are the most delicious $5. or less foods from restaurants around north Phoenix that I have tasted in no particular order.
Pictured above is the $3.00 delicious Beetroot Salad from a little casual restaurant called Skewers Mediterranean Grill in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide . Next is their fresh herby delicious $3.00 tabouli.
My next favorite is the $3.00 Eggplant salad pictured below on the right. But everything is tasty. They also offer hummus and eggplant dip at similar prices.
All these reasonably priced goodies come from the small casual Skewers Mediterranean Grill in Glendale/Arrowhead/#upperWestSide.
Also in Glendale is Taco Fusion. They offer very good tacos on hand made tortillas. The tacos are smaller sized but are bigger than street tacos and are stuffed generously. They make a variety of house made sauces. If you can do spicy ask for the interesting flavorful but very (FORKING) hot black salsa. Get the regular salsa, the pico and the pineapple salsa if they have them. Our favorite tacos here are the mild chicken habanero (with pineapple salsa), carne asada, jaas, Lorenzo, fish (ask for corn tortilla here) and my husband likes the shrimp and barbacoa. We also like both beans they offer. Depending on what tacos you pick you might be able to get two tacos for around $5.00.
Below are 7 mostly different tacos and a container of black beans.
Wraps ‘N’ Curry is located in North Phoenix. They offer a $2.99 Naan Menu.
I’ve had their naan on a wrap sandwich but more recently I did try the stuffed chicken naan ($2.99 on the appetizer part of the menu). It was stuffed with boneless chicken breast, cilantro and Indian spices. It was different and also very tasty.
On my last visit we tried the Onion Kulcha $2.99.
This was very tasty!
I’ll try another one next time.
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix really kills it with the $5.00 or less food and offers 9 tasty options. My favorite $5 meal is the chicken and cabbage salad.
It’s a good size for me and has a good amount of deliciously seasoned chicken in it. I also like the tasty $4 chicken potstickers.
Here is a better picture of the potstickers.
My other favorite salad is the $5. lotus root salad. (lower right)
I love the refreshing flavors in it. It comes with shrimp but I gave up shrimp a long time back and I don’t eat shrimp. I already gave the shrimp to either my husband or dogs. Their papaya salad is also good. I added that picture because I didn’t remove the shrimp yet.
This is a collection of the most delicious $5. or less food that I have tasted in North Phoenix AZ.
Experts say that take out is a safer health option during the pandemic than dining in so we do take out. This week we did take out from Tarbell’s The Tavern in Phoenix. This restaurant is by chef Mark Tarbell. He is a highly decorated multi award winning chef and wine expert. The tavern offers elevated bar foods in a rock n roll man cave atmosphere. They offer the safest option curbside pick up. We took out the seared salmon, Scotch beef, a salad and coconut cream pie.
WOW! This salmon is really great! It’s so silky. Very few restaurants prepare salmon this well. This one is very different with sides of tomato broth and AZ honey mustard. It’s delicious! The curry potato cake is a really nice treat. It taste like it came from an Indian restaurant. I did taste the Scotch beef. WOW great flavors there and it was made with good wine too! The coconut cream pie was also very good. I think they accidentally gave me extra. It’s a large portion and we are getting 4 servings out of it but it very rich and delicious with this chocolate surprise coated crust. Treated the dogs so some salmon from Tarbell’s.
We also did take out from CHZBURGR in Glendale. They also are still offering the safest option that is curbside pick up. They serve the greatest cheeseburgers and fried chicken sandwiches in town. We ordered the crispy chicken thigh sandwich with pickled jalapeños. We also ordered a triple cheeseburger with tater tots.
I thought my sandwich was a little different today but everything still was delicious. My dogs were happy to help me with the chicken sandwich.
We love Taco Fusion in Glendale. They serve the best tacos closest to me. They serve Sonoran Mesquite Style Tacos that are slightly bigger than street size tacos on hand made tortillas that really taste good.
My favorite taco is the chicken mild habanero taco. I think I like it best on a flour tortilla with pineapple salsa (if they have it). I also like the fish taco and the carne asada. (I don’t like carne asada at most places but it’s always tender and flavorful here) My husband likes all the beef tacos and especially likes the shrimp taco here. They opened just before the pandemic and used to offer a salsa bar packed with many delicious salsas…Now they cut it down to a few salsas a day and you have to ask for them. My dogs are always excited to try some.
Last take out of the week was from Fabio On Fire in Peoria/#UpperWestSide. This is a place for Italian Food, Neapolitan Pizzas, fresh baked goods and the best gelato maybe on earth. They offer curbside pick up here.
We got the ravioli ai funghi porcini, strawberry gorgonzola salad, and gnocchi sorrentina. Everything was delicious. Have different dog friendly leftovers for my dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all this delicious food!”
Week 26 restaurants we did take out from –
Tarbell’s The Tavern – Phoenix
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Taco Fusion – Glendale
Fabio On Fire – Peoria/#UpperWestSide
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
It’s kind of fun to try different flavors of potato chips. A few are really great. Some are beyond terrible and most fall in-between. I really enjoyed the regular Lay’s Seaweed Chips from Taiwan so I thought the Spicy Roasted Seaweed Chips could be another winner.
The bag is small and only weighs around one and a half ounces.
Here’s the back of the bag.
Here are the ingredients.
There are many ingredients and these chips also are made with milk and fish.
I open the bag and take a whiff.
These chips smell strange. Kind of like something fried like pastry and tea…..
Now I am afraid to taste them……
I go and do the duty not expecting much.
PHEW!
They don’t taste as bad as they smell.
I eat a chip the way I’d normally eat a chip.
They are small chips with a powdery surface. They have a pleasant crunch to them. A slight sweetness, but more salty than sweet and more than anything they have a medium heat to them that builds a little. You do taste seaweed but it isn’t the dominate flavors.
I try to eat a chip very slow to taste it differently.
YUK…..can taste the fish this way and something that taste like burnt tea….
WOW they aren’t horrible if you just eat them but they aren’t great either.
They aren’t even as close to as good as the regular Lay’s Seaweed flavor is.
Not the best….but not the worst either
Don’t eat slow. You need to munch them down to skip over some of the flavors.
