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
I struct GOLD when I accidentally discovered that when I made my smoked mushrooms and then fried them crispy that the mushrooms turned into something astonishingly wonderful. I found out that it is the easiest thing in the world to smoke vegetables. Most vegetables only need around 15 minutes in the smoker. I smoke some vegetables every time I smoke some fish or a pastrami….(So far that is all that I have smoked)…. To be honest I didn’t like the flavor of the smoked seafood mushroom on alder wood…..I thought that maybe if I fried it that it would taste better? I just dredged the (I used seafood mushrooms) mushrooms into cornstarch and fried them up. I had no idea the flavor and texture would change so much and turn into something shattering crisp and CRAZY delicious. Then paired the mushrooms with provolone cheese, heirloom tomatoes and something mild like eggs….or even a flatbread is just FORKING FANTABULOUS!
Universal Yums is a international snack box gift box or subscription service. You have a choice of a few different size boxes.
They all come with snacks and a booklet with games, trivia and a recipe.
This month the snacks are from Spain. My expectations were pretty high because Spain is well known for having amazing foods and astonishing canned fish. (I was hoping for some really great canned fish)
I got a squashed cake. The cake is soft and the filling is very paste-tee……
Next are spicy mango gummies. They smell sort of like mango. They are not spicy. Not a favorite. It’s like gummy whipped taffy with a weird flavor.
These smell awful. They smell just like when you walk by an old fryer with old oil. They are suppose to be bacon and cheese flavored bugle shaped corn snacks. But they don’t have bacon or any cheese in them. Won’t get fat eating these….
This month I got a Yum Bag….Usually we get a Yum Bag but last month I didn’t. the top candies are Spanish Chocolate Toffee. They are soft like Tootsie Rolls…After a few chews all the chocolate flavor disappears and it’s like edible plastic. The pistachio candies on the lower end of the Yum bag are suppose to be soft and rich?….I think I got defective candies because mine are hard and are strong enough to pull my teeth out. It taste like the flavor is sprayed on. After about a second you don’t need the candy anymore.
Next are little sugar coated caramels……..They taste good but do have a slightly artificial finish……
Last snack
Lemon pepper potato chips……They smell like normal potato chips…..They are nice and crisp in texture. For me they are too acidic….I can’t eat them but my husband can…Bah they were almost good with a nice potato flavor.
Those were my thoughts on Universal Yums Spain 2021 Your opinion may differ!
The FANTABULOUS dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite!
Valentine is a small restaurant located in a vintage furniture store in the Melrose District of Phoenix Arizona. They serve high quality coffees, brunch foods, cocktails, nature wines and dinner on the weekends. Most of the food served is wood fired and laced with the southwest.
I was planning on trying the grouper that I saw on the on-line menu but on my arrival it wasn’t on the menu so I went with the chicken…………
They use high quality Two Wash Ranch Chicken and you get not half but a whole small bird. OMG it is SOOOoooooooooo tender, SOOOooooooooo moist and SOOOOooooooo flavorful. It’s magical. It’s like a million bucks….Every FORKING bite is an explosion of flavors. It’s smoked but not too smoky and it’s unbelievably delicious. It’s just FANTABULOUS! The sauce is so chicken-eeeeeee and a little smoky. It taste amazing with the chicken, cabbage and durum wheat berries. To me the little white pile on the plate is a little odd but also delicious….There is this pile of kerned yogurt with dill…It makes me crave a pita…..Oh and did I mention that this is a large portion? I’ll eat the rest another day.
The chicken from Valentine in Phoenix is one FANTABULOUS Dish.
Uncommon is something different……An uncommon restaurant offers something unique. Rawhide at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler Arizona is a Western themed 1880’s mini town. They have a Main Street, gun fights, stage coach rides, train rides, gold panning and a steak house that offers rattlesnake. You can have fun on the rides, shop a little and see a gun fight and then drink at a saloon and or eat at the steakhouse.
www.Rawhide.com
Singh Meadows in Tempe AZ is also uncommon. They offer a produce stand with farm fresh produce and a breakfast/lunch cafe that also offers just plucked farm fresh foods. You can sit inside, on the patio or a by a duck pond or grab a meal on a blanket in the meadow. Now where else can you do all that? Hours are very limited so it’s best to call them. They usually are open only for breakfast and lunch on weekends during harvest times.
I haven’t found the website for Singh Meadows but they are on Facebook. (Slight Update********On my last visit I noticed only breakfast and vegetarian meals were offered)
********UPDATE>NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS during the pandemic and UPDATE AGAIN JUST REOPENED*******The Hot Chick in or near Old Town Scottsdale is very unique. It’s a kind of time warp of the “Hippy Era,” fried chicken, and lots of games. You order at a indoor camper and the rest of the trip is up to you.
www.TheHotChickAZ.com
Maybe one of the most unusual and uncommon restaurants out in Metro Phoenix might be Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa AZ. They offer organ music during dinner from one of the biggest Wurlitzer organs in the world. They also offer pizza, pasta, salad and ice cream.
www.OrganStopPizza.com
Organ Stop PizzaOrgan Stop Pizza
That was 4 uncommon restaurants of Metro Phoenix Arizona.
