Mercer’s Restaurant is located in Peoria Arizona. They are a family owned and operated restaurant since 1987. They serve comfort foods at reasonable prices and are open seven days a week from 6am – 8:30pm. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also offer daily specials.
Every table is full and people keep coming. Many people are here for take out too!
Mercer’s Restaurant is on the end of a mostly deserted mall.
The menu reads that salmon is a favorite here so I should get it?
So I ordered it.
Dinners come with salad or soup.
The above salad is what you get with dinners.
The baked potato is light and fluffy and I like the soft butter that goes with it. I also think that the tartar sauce is unusually good……The salmon taste similar to the frozen salmon from my local Safeway. The texture of the fish has a lack of succulence. It also contains that fishy taste……………………The carrots are not tasty to me. I can’t identify what is on them.
My husband got the chicken fried steak with potato salad. He said, “It’s ok but not the best.”
I tried the potato salad. It’s a little too creamy for me but does have good flavorings to it.
Why critique this?
Some people judge restaurants by the amount of business that they have.
H Mart is the largest Korean/American Supermarket Chain in America. They have around 85 locations nationwide and also have a few locations in Canada and London. We took a trip to our closest H Mart in Mesa Arizona and these are only a few of things we came across.
Interesting melons
fresh durian fruit
red skinned passion fruit
jujube crunch
fresh wood ear mushrooms and lots of other interesting mushrooms
fresh lily bulb
ginseng
The largest scallions
wagyu beef
yellow chives
garlic stems
green radish
salted egg salmon skin
wasabi pea crackers
live fish …actually the fish section was very large and didn’t smell either. They also offered a lot of frozen fish too..
dried fish
wafu dressing
After we shopping we decided to have lunch in the Market Eatery also known as the H Mart Food Court.
Here is Paris Baguette. Lots of baked goods.
Food Garden
Sogongoong Tofu & BBQ – This was my first choice but they were out of the mackerel I wanted to try.
Jeong’s Noodle
Meisen Katsu – breaded cutlet meals
Korean Fried Chicken
Da Pan …This one seemed interesting to me. I thought I’d like the spicy chicken topaki and my husband thought he’d like the bulgogi Risotto. They also have some weird sounding dishes like Dorito Mac and Cheese here.
This is pretty weird…..It looks like a pizza but it is without crust. I didn’t know that they would sprinkle cheese on it. It’s made of chicken, chewy rice cakes, fish cakes, cabbage, carrots in a sweet but medium spicy sauce….The sauce taste something like that sweet sauce that goes on cabbage rolls. This is weird to me…….It’s a lot of sweet sauce….It came radish kimchi with a soup that frightened me….because I thought looked like urine so I didn’t even try it. Good thing this chicken dish was a big portion because me and my husband ate this because the other dish we both couldn’t stomach.
We thought we would be getting something like this because it is the picture of the dish from the business posted as menu on www.Yelp.com It looks good doesn’t it? I also remember our last food critic from our local newspaper wrote about how great this dish was…..I guess Da Pan made him this version.
www.Yelp.com menu
But we got this instead.
I tell The FORKING Truth so I have to say that……..It’s really grosser than it looks. Honest to GOD!>>>It’s like they took a brick of cream cheese and put the bulgogi in a blender with the cream cheese with not much else and mixed it with rice.
It’s like vomit on a skillet.
I did better with some of the vegetables that I picked up at H Mart.
Endives fried in chicken fat with lime, peanuts, basil, mint, yellow chives
Bok Choy Garlic Stems & Chestnuts in Banchan Sauce
I’ve tried pastrami at many restaurants around metro Phoenix. Some of the places that I have been to are Chompie’s, Scott’s Generations NY Style Delicatessen, Miracle Mile, Goldman’s Deli, JJ’s Delicatessen and a few more that I forget the names of. Most of these places that I mentioned are at least ok and some are good. Some are inconsistent…….like on one trip the pastrami was very good and the next time is was very bland…. As far as I know none of these places brines their own pastrami…..There is a world of difference when a place brines their own pastrami….It’s like places that don’t brine their own pastrami are like watching television on a black and white TV. And places that so brine their own pastrami are like watching technicolor………That is the difference in taste.
My Top 3 all brine the pastrami in-house.
#3 Smasher’s Eats in North Phoenix
Smasher’s Eats is a newly opened restaurant around North Phoenix. The specialty of the restaurant are their smash style burgers. (that according to my husband are very good) but the special amazing dish that really surprised me was that they have a house cured pastrami melt on the menu….It’s full of delicious flavors. It taste like typical east coast pastrami…..I was shocked when I tasted it. It’s DAM GOOD!
#2 The Thursday pastrami special from Little Miss BBQ Sunny Slope Phoenix.
This is really REALLY to die for………! They use a higher quality meat than what the deli places use and it’s FORKING Delicious. This is a pastrami that eats like a dinner. It’s one of the BEST!
#1 I have to give it to Confluence in Carefree AZ because their pastrami sandwich is FANTABULOUS and is TOP OF THE LINE.
This pastrami sandwich is like no other because it’s made from wagyu beef that is so buttery and really just melts in the mouth. It’s an EXTRA special treat. The pastrami is spiced and smoked to perfection. It’s adorned with brussel’s sprout coleslaw, a thousand island with a little kick, gruyere cheese, grilled Jewish rye bread and a house made dill pickle. You also have a choice of house chips, salad or for a little extra their amazing fries with three dips. (The only bad news is that the menu is ever changing at Confluence so you might miss this on the lunch menu.)
Oh and my home made cured and smoked would fit into this bunch too!
Forking Amazing Smoked Pastrami with my Easy Rye Rolls and my Spicy Beer Mustard
Those were THE FORKING BEST Pastrami that I tasted in metro Phoenix AZ so far.
I’ve been making pastrami and tweaking my recipes for years. My November 2020 recipe is where I have to stop because it can’t be improved……(I don’t want to brag but this pastrami is up there with the best that I have ever tasted!!!)……..I also need to mention that pastrami making is ALWAYS A RISK….Even if you do everything correctly it is possible that your pastrami won’t cure properly and can spoil. That is why most deli restaurants don’t brine their own pastrami and pay others to do it for them. No matter how great the recipe is I have to tell you that the pastrami must be carefully smoked for the very best flavor. I tried to delete my old recipes for pastrami that isn’t smoked but people complain right away if I delete a recipe so I gave up on deleting recipes. Hopefully you will follow my November 2020 Recipe instead of a prior recipe. The last pastrami came out so delicious that I did a whole brisket instead of a half brisket. I doubled the brine…the only difference is that I had some dried chili water from making a salsa leftover so I added that to the water portion of the brine. I did run short on rub so I had to triple the rub.
I squeezed out all the air that I could but it wasn’t enough so I put something heavy on the top so the water would be all around the brisket.
Every day I squished the bag to mix up the brine all around the brisket.
After 6 days the brisket got rinsed and blotted off and then rubbed with a spice blend of mostly coriander, some black pepper and a tiny bit of smoked paprika. My brisket didn’t fit in my smoker so it had to cut it in half.
Then the brisket goes in the smoker for around 7 hours. (It can be longer if you want longer but around 7 hours was perfect for my taste)…….(I used pecan wood that got changed a bunch of times (thanks to my husband)).
Then the brisket gets covered tight in pans and goes in a low oven. (my oven was set at 210 f but I suspect might run lower and all my thermometers read a different temperature so I really can’t tell the exact temperature but I get everything to come out so who cares…)
My bigger dog felt the need to guard the oven with the precious pastrami in it.
The pastrami went in the oven around 7pm……and early in the morning around 5am it still wasn’t done so around five am the oven got turned up to 240 f.
“I am waiting a long time for this pastrami but it smells heavenly”
The pastrami finally got done around 10am.
“I’m waiting for some………..Hurry up…I’m starving”
Then the pastrami sits on the counter till it gets to be room temperature. It fills up the house with FORKING DELICIOUS SMELLS>>>>>>>>>Next it gets refrigerated over night so it can get set and sliced without ripping it apart.
My husband slices up the pastrami better than me so I let him.
The dogs watch and anticipate.,,,,,,
Now they get some.
For a whole day the whole house smelled like FORKING DELICIOUS PASTRAMI.
Forking Amazing Smoked Pastrami
You might want to try my recipes for easy rye rolls and home made spicy beer mustard.
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite!
I kept thinking about my recent restaurant week dinner from SWB in Scottsdale. Every dish I tried exceeded my expectations and EACH dish was a FANTABULOUS dish. I zeroed in on this dish because it is offered on the lunch and dinner menu..
I usually don’t even ever like cream based soups but this one was different and was not too heavy and had layers of flavors that were delectable. First your mouth gets the velvety sweet corn accented with the right amount of poblano taste. Just enough poblano to make the corn more interesting….But leaves you with that perfect corn finish. You get more layers in your next spoonful because you go for a little chili oil and maybe some queso fresco and a bright grassy little pop of cilantro.
The cream of corn poblano soup from SWB Bistro in Scottsdale (Hyatt Regency) is one FANTABULOUS Dish and is Worth a Fork!
Universal Yums is a gift or subscription service for a box of international snacks. You have a few different size choices.
I get the basic Yum Box and it comes with a booklet of facts, trivia, a recipe and information about my snacks.
Lets try a snack.
Ummmm…Now these are tasty! They are little cookies filled with a chocolaty filling that is laced with a small amount of hazelnut and tahini. These are tasty…Now they are gone.
We got a Yum bag with Mastic Toffees and Melon and Lime Chews.
Oh joy……..(not really)…Turkish sour watermelon gummies. I just don’t do gummies and ESPECIALLY Don’t FORKING do sour gummies. But I will ask my husband to eat one.
Next is a coconut & coffee snowball cake.
I like coconut but never liked coffee so far. I thought maybe I haven’t had good coffee yet and that is why I don’t like coffee? I tried two bites. I think I would like this if I liked coffee. The cake is moist with a nice texture and the exterior is very unique. The center cream isn’t terrible. I would like this if I liked coffee, Coffee just taste like bitter coffee grinds to me……
Next……
Baharat spiced cracker chips in taco flavor…??? They are odd to us….They are very powdery chippy crackers……..The powder texture sort of bothers me more than the odd flavors….They are very salty, they are onion-ee, there is sweetness to them, They finish very sweet….They sort of stick to my teeth.
Only two treats left….
Here’s tahini halva…..Not bad…It seems like light fluffy frosting that taste like sesame seeds instead of something too sweet.
Last treat
These are just plain chickpeas that are salted. These are GOOD! The texture doesn’t break my teeth like most bagged chickpea snacks. These you can actually eat in salad and do have a nice natural chickpea flavor. These I would buy if I saw in the store.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Universal Yums – Turkey 2021
The FANTABULOUS Dish means…..top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Mole Negro – Rubbed Smoked Wagyu Brisket from Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix Arizona (at the Biltmore) Is CRAZY FORKING astonishingly delectable. It’s juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and OOOOohhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooo FANTABULOUS! It just might be the best tasting brisket that I have ever tried……
It also comes with hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, three salsas (verde, roja and mango pineapple) Peruvian rice and black beans.
Just drop what you are doing and try it now because it is FANTABULOUS!
I picked up this bag of Lay’s Spanish Tomato Tango Potato chips from the Asiana Market in the Deer Valley part of Phoenix. These chips are from India…..I thought they’d be from Spain since it reads Spanish on the bag. Well Spanish sounds good so lets give this bag a try.
It’s a very small bag of chips and it only weighs around 2 ounces.
Here’s the back of the bag.
Here’s the ingredients.
I’m so glad that they used edible vegetable oil instead of inedible vegetable oil. I see that some flavors are natural and other flavors are identical flavoring substances…LOL!
I open the bag and take a whiff.
Gosh these chips smell really strange…
I smell sweet. I smell fried. I slightly smell cinnamon and a lot I can’t identify….Lets spilll some out.
The chips have ridges and are covered in an orange powder.
I taste one…..
It’s very strange.
It’s sour and sweet with other flavors that are laced with clove.
The sour is very strange….It’s not a normal sour like lemon or vinegar ……it’s more like tomato sauce that isn’t made right. Like when you don’t cook tomatoes enough or when you cook them too much and they start to ferment. Then you taste sugar like they attempted to fix the tomato sauce. I also taste the black pepper…..There are other flavors but they are overpowered by the clove that is really gross here.
Lay’s Spanish Tomato Tango Potato Chips is one of my all time least favorite flavors that I have ever tried.
I haven’t been everywhere but I have tasted some amazing dishes this year. There are many GOOD ONES that I can list here but narrowed it down to the ones that stood out the most……….All the dishes taste TOP of the line, They are all marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Bufalina Pizza from Fabio On Fire in Peoria – Is made with high end ingredients such as San Marzano Tomato sauce, imported buffalo cheese, oregano, garlic, arugula, reduced balsamic vinegar, farm fresh sweet tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil. This has all kinds of flavors going on. Also the heat of the pizza warms the cheese JUST SO and you taste the most exquisite mozzarella the way it was meant to be enjoyed instead of just heating it to death on the pizzas like most places do.
The ground filet burger from The Bourbon Cellar in North Scottsdale. This is a ground in house burger that taste more like a fine steak. I have no idea how this burger has so much flavor. I think that it is best to enjoy this burger open face with a knife and fork because it taste like a juicy steak.
Speaking of a juicy flavorful steak…..
The filet mignon from Confluence in Carefree is excellent and not your grandfather’s plate of steak. This plate came with fried green tomato, fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and the most buttery tender flavorful steak ever. (NOTE*******the menu at Confluence is ever changing with what is fresh from the local farms and does change often)
The Confit Wagyu Beef Cheek from Confluence in Carefree is a FORKING JAW-DROOPINGLY astonishing. …. The only bad news is that the menu from Confluence is ever changing so you might not be able to get this dish when you want it. But the good news is that this restaurant pretty much always is serving something amazing.
The Strawberry Gelato from Fabio On Fire in Peoria might be the best in the whole country. I take that back….because…It probably is the best in the country!
The Salmon Salad is very special from Pomo Pizzeria in Scottsdale. The salmon is from Chula Seafood. This one was melt in your mouth succulent with tasty grill marks. It POPS from the sweet grilled lemon and PINK PEPPERCORNS…that are a magical combination that I didn’t expect. The rest of the salad is fresh spring mix, gold beets, fennel and grape tomatoes…It’s only a salad so you can splurge for the Luna Gelato that is extra special too!
The Chicken from Valentine in the Melrose area of Phoenix was superb. It was smoky (but not too smoky), masterfully tender, moist, and flavorful. With that deep developed sauce, cabbage, durum wheat berries and kerned dill yogurt it was an explosion in every bite.
The Kokomo Chop Bowl from Little Cay Latin Caribbean Kitchen is one BAM-Diggitty-YUM-Dinger (When you add the seasoned Puerto Rican Pique sauce on the table) This Chop Bowl is full of yummy marinated chicken, yellow rice, black beans, curry mayo, rum soaked cranberries, add that pique sauce and it is FORKING BOMB!
I think a doughnut can be on this list if it is the FORKING BEST that I have tasted.
There is a donut shop on Bell Road in North Phoenix called Daily Donuts and Wings. I have only tried a few donuts so far and each one that I tried was the best of it’s kind that I have tried anywhere. I think my favorite might be the glazed lemon filled. These donuts are so fresh, have the perfect sweetness, seem light as air, and are DELICIOUS and overly easy to inhale.
The buttermilk fried chicken that is usually on the lunch menu from Confluence in Carefree is a OMG YUM kind of plate. It’s incredibly crunchy and crisp on the outside. The interior is JUICY, flavorful, EXPERTLY prepared tender chicken…..but I didn’t mention that INSANELY delicious sauce on it. The sauce is called chili tepid honey mustard sauce. It is a little spicy but not too spicy and is really FORKING plate scraping delicious. I also note that for me this is a very large portion and I make two meals from the chicken. My husband eats more than me and just eats the whole thing.
Taco Fusion in Glendale makes VERY GOOD Tacos (especially the habanero mild chicken taco with pineapple salsa) on hand made tortillas that are delicious. But this corn cake from Taco Fusion is amazing. It has a great corn flavor and taste like it’s a mix of custard and cake together. It’s just an AMAZING dessert! It’s better than the majority of desserts we get out at most places.
But I must mention this one…..
I have to give it to Fabio On Fire in Peoria again. This Strawberry Rum Cake is so good I’d tell a diabetic to eat it. It was really so delicious! I had to mention it.
My husband ate something very special that I didn’t eat so I want to mention it.
He REALLY LOVED the slow braised osso buco from the Italian Daughter in North Scottsdale.
It was falling off the bone tender. He loved digging into the bone and enjoyed the marrow. The sauce was nice and rich with the perfect deepness. He really enjoyed this and wants to have it again.
These were some of the Marvelously Great Foods that stood out in 2021 so far. I do note that many others are out there.
When I do other people’s recipes I try to pick amazing recipes. I look for the most amazing recipes that I can find. I found this amazing sounding recipe on the web called textures of corn by a famous chef. This recipe was was a VERY complicated recipe that was something like 5 recipes in one. (corn parfaits, corn crumbs, purple corn crisps, peanut pesto, and corn salad) I think the recipe was full of typos. I don’t know if any part of the recipe was written correctly. Fortunately I was able to remedy everything that didn’t work out and came out with something even FORKING better than FORKING AMAZING.
The recipe starts with making a sweetcorn parfait that you chill and later char or fry. This was the recipe that worked more than most other parts. The corn parfait mixture was way too dry ……but was easy to fix by adding more liquid. I am not sure how much extra cream I added but it seemed like two or three times as much.
The next part was purple corn crumbs. I didn’t have purple corn and attempted this with yellow corn. You cook corn with salted water for around 40 minutes to a syrup consistency. I got my syrup consistency but I ran out of water at least 5 or more times. This recipe needs the water to be increased. I didn’t end up making the corn crumbles because I used this syrup in the next part of the recipe that didn’t work out.
I had the most trouble with the purple corn crisps. It is possible that the corn flour was ground different so a different amount of liquid might be needed. Anyways mine came out so dry that it was impossible to roll this into a dough. I added either 2 or 3 times the amount of butter and it was still too dry. Then I added the extra egg white that was leftover from the corn parfait…..STILL TOO DRY……Then I added the the syrupy liquid with the corn that I didn’t strain yet that I was suppose to turn into purple corn crumbs (with added biscuits)….This mixture gets chilled and latter rolled between two pieces of parchment. The mixture is suppose to turn into crisps at 248 degrees F for only 6 minutes. I did that and mine were raw. I upped the temperature to 300 degrees F and I think mine took close to an hour…. (but they do taste crazy FORKING Amazing) Now this baby is mine and it is FORKING INCREDIBLE….I will make again and publish.
Then I had trouble with the peanut pesto…mine turned into peanut butter. I fixed by starting over and crushed my peanuts in a grinder and added some dry parsley and some of the peanut butter.
The chalaquita recipe (Peruvian corn salad) was mostly very good. It is something that I will make again. I thought one lime was enough lime flavor for it. But the recipe says to use 5 limes.
This recipe was the most challenging recipe that I have ever done but in the end it really does taste like something that might be from the finest restaurant anywhere. I will have to make this again so I can write out a recipe that works. I am thankful to that chef who came up with the recipe because I wouldn’t have came out with this without it……..but won’t publish his name due to all the fails in the recipe.
Textures Of Corn – Corn Chalaquita, charred corn parfait, corn crisps with peanut pestoThe Forking Truth
