The Bourbon Cellar is a small independent steak and seafood restaurant in North Scottsdale Arizona. The owner is also the chef and does the in house butchering. Inside is sort of rustic with lots of wood, bricks, bourbon barrels and American Flags.
Outside is a lush dog friendly patio with a water feature.
I’m not a burger person…Most burgers are just food that is very filling. A few are tasty out there and some burgers out there are of a higher quality……..but none are like The Bourbon Cellar’s Prime Filet Ground in House Burger……..I’ve been here several times and I just can’t get past the ground-in-house prime filet burger. This burger is different.
Here is a closer look. All beef does taste different. Especially ground beef. Commercial ground beef just isn’t up there with ground in house beef. Commercial beef is much gamier tasting…..with a slight sourness to it. It’s that dead cow taste….I know it because I used to cook up a few hundred pounds of beef when I was a cook. It does smell like a dead cow. Ground in house beef is a cleaner taste and doesn’t smell as bad at home when you grind your own beef.
It is an amazing big burger so I cut it in half and remove the toppings.
This burger is great but it isn’t cheap and might run you more than most burgers you eat. The bourbon pickles that I added (90cents) and onion ring topping (90cents) are really great. The onions rings are super great because they are shattering crisp and the onion doesn’t pull out when you bite into it. But it is the burger that is the main event here. It’s seasoned to perfection. I think “medium” is perfect here….medium rare would be too much raw meat. It’s like eating a really great steak. It’s so flavorful. I think it’s maybe the best tasting burger that I have ever tried. It’s so good that it shouldn’t be covered up with stuff. I love stuff….but then it covers up this amazing burger. You really have to eat it open face…It’s that good.
My dogs are always happy to help me with the other half.
Even the cole slaw was good. It was made fresh to order and came out after my burger.
It was very crisp and fresh.
We tried one different thing off the menu and went for the macaroni and cheese appetizer.
This was made fresh to order and did take some time but it is a perfect mix of cheesy and creamy. (Gave my dogs some too)
The ground in house prime filet burger from The Bourbon Cellar is Worth a Fork!
I had around a cup of leftover cooked cabbage and around 20 wonton wrappers in my refrigerator. I also recently made Justin Chapple’s recipe from Food and Wine Magazine (minus the bacon) chili crisp condiment. You can also buy chili crisp from an Asian Market or on-line but it’s easy to make so do what you want.
All I did was chop of the leftover roasted cabbage and flavor it with fresh chives and chili crisp (around a heaping teaspoon I think.
Then I put a small amount into the center of a wonton wrapper. I wet the edges of the wonton wrapper with water.
Started pleating up the wrapper on both sides.
Some I did round shape. I just hand squeezed them.
Boiled the plated ones. Salted the water with Red Boat Salt.
Boiled the round ones and added a little beet powder to the water.
Dressed the dumplings with more chili crisp and more chives.
Today I am mentioning the black owned restaurants that I can personally recommend. I do note that I haven’t been everywhere in metro Phoenix so other great black owned restaurants are out there that you should want to visit too. The restaurants mentioned are not in any particular order.
I had dishes that were to die for from The Larder + The Delta in Downtown Phoenix.
It’s a cute little casual restaurant in Phoenix that offers high quality Southern American Inspired Modern Cuisine.
This Hoppin John is like no other. It’s FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS! It’s earthy, spicy, deeply flavorful with interesting textures. It’s a Hum-YUM-Dinger!
A LONG While back I had the very best of the hot chicken sandwiches that I have tried anywhere. It was like a religious experience.
I had many delicious hot chicken sandwiches before but this one had the best and most delicious flavors of any hot chicken sandwich that I’ve ever had. One thing that really stood out was that the chicken was the only one that still tasted like it was on the bone. Then this one also had many layers to it that were the most delicious. It was so amazing that I wonder why this sandwich isn’t often found on the menu.
During the pandemic The Larder + The Delta did hot chicken take out.
They did re-opened for dine in service but these are uncertain times so you must contact them for up to date details.
I only got to eat at Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen once (because this place is pretty far for me) but everything we tried was delicious. My husband said that the red beans and rice were really great. He usually only eats this dish in New Orleans…because usually it is usually only good in New Orleans.
He also enjoyed the Shrimp Po Boy.
Hot Chicken Sandwich
I had some sort of hot chicken sandwich that was different but delicious. If I remember correctly I think it was made with his own hot sauce and specialty remoulade sauce. The fries were seasoned with Old Bay.
Currently Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen operates out of a food truck so you have to look up their schedule.
At a food festival in Peoria (Devour The World) I enjoyed the food from Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe very much.
I decided that I should try the Ethiopian Restaurant Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe myself. (PHX)
We got a couple dishes on one large platter lined with injera bread and served with rolls of it. Everything was DELICIOUS! There were three kinds of lentil dishes, vegetable dishes…..a couple meat dishes and in the middle was this insanely delicious dish called Doro Wat. It was a great experience.
We enjoyed many dishes from Carribbean Cuisine in Glendale. I do note that this is a very small place that is mainly open for take out. (possibly only take out during the pandemic)
Red Snapper
Jerk chicken
Curry chicken
Oxtail (not always ready because this takes hours to prepare)
Escoviitch
Everything was delicious from Caribbean Cuisine.
We enjoy Desert Island Eatery and Cafe very much. This is a Caribbean Restaurant that also serves Vegan foods. Inside is only three tables but they recently added a patio. Currently during the pandemic they are Take Out only and the patio is not in use.
Our mutual favorite dish here is the Curry/Jerk Chicken combo that comes with cabbage and your choice of rice and peas or yellow rice.
Combo with Jerk Chicken and Curry Chicken
We are both crazy about this curry and jerk chicken. Many other people in town love it too and this restaurant has been expanding the menu and their hours.
D’s Jerk Hut recently opened in Phoenix. They offer Caribbean and some vegan foods sort of cafeteria style. It’s sort of like a buffet behind the cashier and your order is kept warm in a warming oven.
We tried a number of things there.
Above is small sized jerk chicken and curry chicken. The jerk chicken his less spiced and less hot than all the other jerk chickens that I’ve tried. I really liked the curry chicken here. It was very flavorful and falling off the bone.
Here’s medium sized brown strew chicken. It’s very flavorful and really good but this one gets the developed flavor from the bones and there are lots of bone fragments in it.
D’s Jerk Hut is the only place that I have found Jamaica’s national dish Ackee (a fruit) and Salt Fish. It’s VERY Unique….You have to go to D’s Jerk Hut to try it.
The Breadfruit and Rum Bar is another place for Jerk Chicken and other Caribbean foods.
Friday night jerk chicken for two special from The Breadfruit & Rum Bar in Phoenix
We’ve enjoyed numerous dishes from the Breadfruit and Rum Bar from Festivals that we’ve been to. Often The Breadfruit and Rum Bar served us our favorite bite from various food festivals. Each Jerk Chicken that I tried taste different and the jerk chicken here is also very unique. Ours that we took out was more breast meat with all kinds of flavors that danced on the exterior of the chicken. There also was this WICKED mighty nuclear HOT sauce to pour onto it (If you dare). Ours came with nicely prepared farm fresh vegetables.
These were the Black Owned restaurants that I can recommend personally recommend.
The Larder + The Delta (PHX)
Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen (Food Truck)
Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe (PHX)
Caribbean Cuisine (Glendale)
Desert Island Eatery (N.PHX)
D’s Jerk Hut (PHX)
The Breadfruit and Rum Bar (PHX)
Again I haven’t been everywhere and I know that there are other great ones out there.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
Lay’s Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Potato Chips have been out for a while now but I finally got up the nerve to try them. About a year ago I tried several different flavors of Lay’s potato chips that just didn’t do it for me so I gave up trying new flavors until recently.
These Lay’s Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Potato Chips smell just like a jar of dill pickle!
I got to look at the ingredients.
They have a few ingredients that are unexpected like whey and sour cream…..???? Why whey and sour cream? They don’t go into spicy dill pickles!
Here are the chips up close.
The chips are smaller in size and are a little powdery.
I taste one. It’s almost too hot and *****IS*****too vinegary for me.
My husband loves them and is woofing them down.
The chips for me are painful to eat slow.
If I eat them faster they don’t hurt my mouth and they really do taste like spicy dill pickles.
Pretty good and worth a try! …Just don’t eat them slow.
I tried many great dishes in 2020 in Metro Phoenix Arizona this year. I haven’t been everywhere but I’ve gone to lots of places. Most of the food I did this year was take outs because that is how we rolled most of the year. Here are the best that I’ve tried in no particular order. I do warn you that I live around the upper west side of the valley so it’s not logical to bring back food from too far away. I also might have forgotten a few great ones. It’s hard to remember a whole year. I note that I do happen to fancy fish when I go out because it is hard to get fresh fish to cook or eat near my home. Chula Seafood and Nelson’s are 40-45 minutes of mostly highway driving for me.
Combo with Jerk Chicken and Curry Chicken from Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix
The Combo with Curry & Jerk Chicken is so good from Desert Island Eatery that I can’t move on to try something else. I must note that this food is always good. The take out version is slightly drier because all the sauces soak in…..but it is always very good. During the pandemic Desert Island Eatery installed a patio but are converted to take out only. Maybe that will change in a few months????
From Confluence is Carefree I got an amazing dinner. Everything is perfection and delicious but that special bit of magic is the way that way that everything is so flavorful and the way goes together. It’s like here’s a green bean…WOW I never tasted a green bean like this before…………but then the magic really happens when Parsnips, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, red quinoa and pomegranate go together so amazingly well. It’s just magical.
Flaming cheese from Greek Palace in Peoria
The Flaming Cheese from Greek Palace is Peoria is Awesome! I’ve had flaming cheese before but this one is the next level…YUM!
I have to give another to Confluence for their Lunch Fried Chicken with Chilitepin Honey sauce……I’ve had this one a few times and the sides do get changed up now and then but that fried chicken is among the Yummiest Tastiest Best. YUM!
Tacos are not part of my heritage but I’ve tasted many tacos. I tasted many tacos on several trips to Mexico. I’ve also tasted many tacos from many of the taco festivals in metro Phoenix and then some. The mild chicken habanero taco from Taco Fusion in Glendale is one of the BEST chicken tacos that I have ever tasted. It’s served on a hand made flour or corn tortilla (your choice). You do have to ask for the salsas….I think the chicken taco is best with the pineapple salsa.
OMG These sandwiches are a THOUSAND Times better tasting than they look. The smoked corned beef special from Naked BBQ is a wonder of the world. It’s a crime that this isn’t on the menu. It’s so great that I would tell a vegetarian to eat it.
🙁 🙁 🙁 Sadly we lost the really great fast but unusually delicious food from CHZBURGR in Glendale. This sandwich was a million times more delicious than it looks. Crispy well seasoned delicious juicy super flavorful breaded chicken THIGH, a special bun from Philadelphia, crafted pickles, mayo, honey mustard (I added Calabrian peppers) Was just awesome. My husband used to enjoy the flat style CHZBURGR. (It was greasy in a good way type of cheeseburger.
The Bianco Pizza (middle) is among the best pizzas in Metro Phoenix from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale. It is made with hand pulled in house mozzarella, creamy rich ricotta, Sicilian oregano, garlic, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil (I add on Calabrian peppers). It’s just a taste sensation!
All the food from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery always makes us happy. Here are those tasty pot stickers and the lotus root salad. This great lunch was also only $9.
The salmon from Twist Bistro & Gallery in North Scottsdale was unusually great! It’s pretty rare to get salmon cooked to such perfection. I enjoyed this a few times and several other dishes from Twist Bistro and Gallery.
The Halibut special from Fabio On Fire in Peoria was amazing. It might be the very best fish that you can get on the west side of metro Phoenix. The gelato…especially the strawberry is also the best…maybe in the whole darn country. That little ear pasta is also pretty darn special.
I got an amazing Forking Delicious feast from The Barrio Cafe in Phoenix. Everything was Forking Great! I sure wish her fabulous smoked salmon was still on the menu. I loved it so much!!!! Everything was FORKING delicious even down to the spicy ketchup condiment.
The Fried Chicken Take Out Special from FnB in Scottsdale was incredible. Even all the sides were EXTRA SPECIAL….I never had such GREAT sides with great fried chicken before.
This dessert from Confluence in Carefree was incredible. It’s yuzu curd with angel food cake, nuts and sake poached pears. It was incredible. It was just as spectacular as the food from Confluence.
The other BEST dessert (and Fabio’s gelato) was this noodle cheese pastry from Alzohour Market in Glendale. Actually most of the food from Alzohour Market is incredible.
My first take out from Stratta Kitchen in Scottsdale was completely amazing. The salmon was one of the best that I had in Metro Phoenix….The bread was Noble Bread and is great, The Caponata was the best I’ve had and that chocolate fudge cake was a really awesome treat. Since my first visit prices were cut and some things are not the same. You get smaller amounts of bread and appetizer. The fish is now smaller pieces cooked to well on a skewer. It’s still really REALLY good but not Phenomenal like it was.
The salmon from Tarbell’s Tavern is maybe the best salmon that you can get in metro Phoenix. Everything here was delicious. There is this Indian spiced cake that came with it that also was memorable.
The sand dabs from Lure Fish House were crazy fresh and delicious.
The beets with Smoked Salmon from FnB in Scottsdale was well crafted, detailed and delicious. You can almost taste it just by looking at it. Actually everything we had from FnB was incredible. It was had to pick one plate from that visit because EVERY FORKING PLATE is deserving for here.
Lemon sole in a basil white wine broth with fennel salad and house made noodles from Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale. It was all prepared to perfection and was also interesting and a little different.
The salt crusted whole striped bass from Bandolero Cocina de Mexico is as good as fish can get. The fresh flavor and texture was incredible. The mojo sauce was also really extra great!
My husband said that this pork shank he got from Ocotillo needs to be on this list. He really enjoyed it. I enjoyed a salmon meal that was pretty darn good too.
Desi Fusion
I just started going to Desi Fusion in Peoria. I forgot to photo the South Indian Fish Curry. That was really great! Really everything I tried so far was great from Desi Fusion. Sometime next year I will know what dishes I like the most.
My take out from Seoul BBQ and Sushi in Phoenix also blew me away. Everything was delicious and they might have made a mistake and accidentally gave us too much food. They gave us a complimentary vegetable pancake and 16 side dishes. Our mains were a chicken bulgogi and a bibimbap. Everything was delicious!
The market salad from Pizzeria Bianco at Town and Country was amazing. This was the BEST bitter greens salad that I have ever tried. It was the only one that tasted balanced to me. The gorgonzola and the sweet Asian pears help to tame the bitterness of the radicchio leaves. Bravo!
From Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante on Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide I got this incredibly delicious tender falling off the bone Chicken Cacciatore that was laced with DELICIOUS Calabrian Chili Peppers. Underneath it all was creamy cheese polenta.
My take out from Mrs. Chicken in Phoenix is deserving of a SPECIAL MENTION. They are a Nashville Style Chicken Restaurant. They do deserve a special mention because Mrs Chicken is a 40 minute drive for me and the chicken had a shattering crisp exterior and a juicy perfectly cooked interior when I got it home. (I brought home a lot of chicken this year…even from some closer places the chicken came home dry.
We both got the two piece dark meat on the bone.
The Better Dishes I tried from Metro Phoenix Restaurants 2020
I’ve subscribed to Universal Yums at www.UniversalYums.com . It’s a subscription service where you can subscribe or gift international boxes of snacks in a number of ways. Some of the basic offerings are a Yum Box. The Yum Box is six snacks, comes with a small booklet with, fun facts, trivia, a recipe and more and runs around $15.00 that includes shipping.
Fun facts and RecipeTrivia
The larger offerings are the Yum Yum Box. All that above plus more and double the snacks for around $25.00.
The biggest offering is called The Super Yum Box. You get the above plus more and 20 snacks for around $40.00.
I let my husband pick out the first snack. He picked crisp almond cookies called Amarettini.
The cookies are very tiny and very crispy and are extremely almond forward. I think they are very good and the little bag is filled with more cookies than I imagined. This one is very good. I hope we didn’t eat the best one first again.
My husband picks the next one. It’s some sort of carrot/orange snack cake. Now this one I expected to hate because I’m not a big fan of carrot cake or most packaged snack cakes.
This is a first…….It’s surprisingly good and seems fresh. I don’t get the carrot. The cake is just moist. The cream is laced with orange and isn’t too sweet. I can eat this…It’s good.
Next we went to the Yum Bag and tried the Lemon Fizzy Soda Candy at the top of the picture.
OMG this isn’t sweet. It’s so tangy it is painful to my mouth. My husband just munched his down and said, not very fizzy or good. I painfully let mine dissolve thinking that it might get better. Mine didn’t get fizzy either and stayed painful till the last few moments. I would not try this one again.
Artificially ketchup potato chips….???????
I open the bag and they smell like ketchup….They do have the taste of ketchup but a little sweeter and also too tangy….my mouth is very sensitive and the chemicals in the chips burn my mouth…..Doesn’t bother my husband though.
I wanted to save this for last but we didn’t.
Novi chocolate hazelnut bar. This chocolate bar just melts in your mouth. It’s creamy milk chocolate that is full of flavor and even the hazelnuts are full of hazelnut flavor. I wish I had another one of these bars in my box. This one was really good.
Truffle potato chips.
I open the bag and get a slight truffle aroma. The chips are very small and are light and crisp. They do have a pleasant truffle kind of taste to them that lingers in the mouth a bit. Another very good.
Here are tarallini. They are little tasty lemon and black pepper laced micro mini bagel shaped crackers. These are very tasty. I could use another bag of these too.
Now I’m trying my last treat.
It’s a round chocolate ball that is called Tiramisu. I usually don’t like that dessert made with ladies fingers, espresso, cream and rum…..Well I will give this a try.
Ummm I get the espresso right away but it’s not too strong and quickly turns to a rich milk chocolate taste that explodes into my mouth. It’s seems very rich but also is very satisfying….Wow I like it!
Those were my Forking Thoughts on Universal Yums – Italy
A brand new restaurant called Belle’s Nashville Kitchen just opened up in Old Town Scottsdale and I wanted to try their Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich. I saw that they didn’t have a patio so we did take out.
We both got Nashville Style Hot Chicken Sandwiches. My side was a very large side salad and my husband got fries as his side.
Look at the fries they are very unusual.
They are sort of in-between a chip and a fry.
He’s a better look at the sandwich.
The chicken is crisp and has a medium hot spicy coating. Cayenne and paprika are the dominate flavors and the chicken breast is moist. I can tell you that the bun is eggy and soft. There is some creamy sauce on the upper bun with pickle chips. Under the chicken is a creamy slaw. When I tasted it at first I could taste blue cheese in it but after a bite of the chicken I didn’t taste the blue cheese anymore????????? (kitchen accident? had blue cheese dressing with my salad……maybe some dressing splashed on my sandwich….look at my take out package…..looks like someone wiped something out of it?)………Overall it was unique and tasty.
www.BellesNashvilleKitchen.com
We also did take out from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale.
They are well known for their Neapolitan Certified Pizzas and have been featured on Diners Drives and Dives a number of times on Food Network TV.
La Piazza Al Forno serves a variety of pizzas these days. Besides Neapolitan Certified Pizzas with hand pulled mozzerella they also offer Roman Style Pizzas and the New York Style weekend special pizzas. I heard that they also plan to offer Detroit Style pizzas in the near future. Besides pizza they offer some Italian foods and house made desserts.
Today we got the Italian Stallion Pizza and the Bianco Pizza with added Calabrian Chilies.
I’ve had many wonderful and delicious Neapolitan and Neapolitan style pizzas in metro phoenix but the crust here has a special tenderness and taste that is different. The hand pulled mozzarella (made in house) is also more flavorful. They also use a special higher quality milky ricotta that is special….It taste like fresh made almost like rich mascarpone. My favorite pizza here its usually the Bianco pizza on the right. It’s made with fresh hand pulled mozzarella, a high quality ricotta, Sicilian oregano, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and garlic. I always add on the nicely flavored not too spicy Calabrian chilies…that just makes it POP!…….. I’ll be honest like I always am….that is why this is The Forking Truth……….. The pizzas here are not consistent but still are always delicious. I strongly prefer when they make the Bianco like the one below. See they look different!
It taste better when they spread the ricotta cheese with the hand pulled mozzarella and it all melts together and taste great. The solution is to spread the ricotta yourself.
My husband usually prefers a meaty pizza. But in a few days gets to share my Bianco leftovers and always says that he really likes that pizza too!
www.LaPiazzaFamiglia.com
Our last take out of the week was from Sala Thai in Peoria /#UpperWestSide
Obviously Sala Thai serves Thai Food.
We enjoy the spicy basil dishes here because they hand chop the proteins and these dishes are infused with more basil flavor, have more heat and run less sweet than from other near by Thai restaurants near us.
Below was our take out. Spicy basil fried pork rice and spicy pumpkin basil with chicken.
Below is a saucier version of what I had.
That was week 37 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic in metro Phoenix AZ.
Lure Fish House has opened in the Gainey Village section of Scottsdale Arizona. They are a reasonably priced fish restaurant. I was told that the fish are flown in daily and all the vegetables they use are organic. They have only been open a month at this time and at the moment are only open for dinner Monday-Saturday but lunch and Sunday are suppose to be added soon.
Inside are booths, half booths, an oyster bar and tables. Not all but many tables were high tops.
They also offer patio seating that wraps around the front of the building.
Tables get marked sanitized so you know that you can sit there.
We ordered and they started us out with delicious fresh baked sour dough rolls and soft butter. We shared one and took the other two home. They are too delicious to waste.
My husband can eat more than me and tried a mix of east coast (blue point) and west coast (British Columbia) oysters.
The east cost oysters have larger more shapely shells. My husband said that the east coast oysters also had a brinier more salty flavor but the west coast oysters were softer.
For dinner I had the branzino with sautéed spinach and almond pesto cauliflower.
It’s a good sized fish with crispy seasoned skin. It came with a ramekin of what taste like lemon butter wine sauce. Everything was prepared reasonably well.
My husband tried the cioppino.
It’s a mix of fish (salmon tonight), clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops in a spiced briny seafood laced tomato broth with garlic toasts. Today this was slightly over cooked but my husband neglected to say that until we left.
Tried the blueberry cobbler for dessert.
It was nice and fresh tasting and not too sweet. The oatmeal crumble didn’t seem too heavy.
They offer a pay by phone option too!
Last time we did take out and took out The sand dabs with pineapple slaw and cilantro corn salad. (I really enjoyed this one a lot)
My husband had the tequila lime shrimp pasta. This was very spicy but delicious!
We also enjoyed the key lime pie.
That was a little taste and my 2nd nibble at Lure Fish House in Scottsdale AZ
Thanksgiving 2020 was a feast for two (plus two dogs) all week long. It started on Sunday. My sous chef (my husband) broke down the already brined turkeys (you always need at least two for all the stock you need) and cleaned remaining feathers for me.
He then made the turkey stock with two rib cages and the basics. (had two pots going)
The stock was the liquid gold for many of the dishes.
The first thing I used some stock in was the stewed turkey legs.
Turkey Leg Stew
We got two big delicious bowls of stew and LOTS of flavorful tender falling off the bone dark meat.
The stew got chilled over night and the next day I scrapped off the fat to use in my home made gravy.
I used more stock in my mushroom, chestnut and fig stuffing.
Mushroom Chestnut and Fig Bread Stuffing
One night I used the meat pulled from the rib cage to make Thai basil turkey (not photoed)
Made some Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon zest.
For one meal I made oven fried crispy turkey wings.
Forking EZ Oven Fried Turkey Wings
For one meal I made Turkey tostadas with orange guajillo sauce (didn’t photo or publish this one yet.
Made a few maple bourbon sweet potatoes with pickled sweet peppers. (it’s just sweet potatoes with butter and maple bourbon salt)
Made balsamic cippolini onions with cranberries that was made with some of the stock. (not photoed or published yet)
Crisped up some turkey skin.
Will make my potatoes soon.
Parmesan and Potato Mousse with Parmesan Crisps
Use my SousVide water oven to make turkey breast to perfection.
I also made Milk Street’s adaptation of Vivian Howard’s Sweet Fresh Corn Pudding (soufflé’s)
There are many things that I enjoy from Trader Joe’s. I regularly purchase their fresh farm raised salmon. I find that it is superior to the chain supermarkets and is even fresher than many salmons that I purchased from Costco and more expensive fish that I purchased from AJ’s Fine Foods on a few occasions. So far each salmon I purchased from Trader Joe’s has come out amazing and usually better than what I get at most restaurants.
The Israeli Feta Cheese is the best feta cheese that I have found in a store.
I have had Greek feta cheese at a fine Greek Restaurant in Vegas that was amazing but I never found great feta cheese in a store until I found this feta at Trader Joes. It’s less salty and less tangy than the typical feta you come across. This one is more milky and creamy. It’s the same kind of feta cheese that I had at the amazing restaurant Atlas Bistro in Scottsdale.
This Trader Joe’s wild caught canned mackerel is very good.
I also like that it is boneless and skinless.
Trader Joe’s TURKEYS ARE THE BEST (but sometimes come with some feathers)
Once you try a Trader Joe’s Turkey you will never buy one again from the big grocery stores. The legs and thighs are bigger with lots of dark meat. These turkeys have much more flavor to them. They offer brined turkeys so you don’t brine yourself. They come in regular brine or kosher dry brined. Either turkey comes out fabulous no matter what you do to them. The downside is that Trader Joe’s only sells these turkeys around Thanksgiving time so when they are gone they are gone.
Around the time they sell the turkeys you can also buy the Brussels Sprouts stalk.
Trader Joe’s sells all kinds of snack foods. One of my favorites is-
The one pound chocolate bar is very good!
If you eat chocolate this is a must buy. It comes in other variety’s too!
Look at the ingredients in this bag of junk food from Trader Joe’s.
It’s made of mostly peanut paste, corn grits, palm oil and salt. (is it really junk food???)
Ummmm…They seem light and airy and also crunchy with a mild peanut flavor. They are pretty good. They are sort of like cheese curls but peanut flavored. These Bamba peanut snacks are also only 99cents a bag.
Trader Joe’s sells limited food items that come and go.
I sure miss the Sardinian music paper crackers that they used to sell.
I also miss the sweet and spicy cherry peppers that they used to sell.
Here are some newer finds.
Trader Joe’s Italian Bomba Hot Pepper Sauce made from fermented Calabrian Chili peppers. This is different from other bomba sauces that I have tried. I like them all. Any bomba is better than no bomba.
Here is Trader Joe’s Yuzu Hot Sauce (YUM!) (it goes really great with the salmon)
Trader Joes Truffle Powder seasoning. It’s pretty good! It’s better than many of the oils.
Chili Onion Crunch….I can’t wait to try it.
I often buy plants and sometimes potted herbs.
I thought this cactus was kind of cute so I bought it. At the time I had no idea that it was wrapped up with a light feature.
Those were some of the things that I buy from Trader Joe’s.
