Van Leeuwen is a high or higher quality supermarket French Style Ice Cream. I found this brand ice cream for sale at Sprouts grocery and Walmart. Sprouts sells their regular flavors of ice cream and I noticed that Walmart sells Leeuwen limited edition flavors that happen to have more ingredients in them.
I saw Limited Edition Leeuwen Cherries Jubilee so I thought I’d give that a try.
I open it up and try some.
It’s really creamy with a great mouth feel but it isn’t sweet at all. It taste more like alcohol than cherry ice cream. The cherries taste like alcohol too. It also has a slight sourness to it. WTFork is in here?
It’s not bad…I don’t feel the need to throw it up but it’s not a flavor that I would go for again. To me it taste more like a rich creamy and chunky bar drink without the buzz.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Bourbon Cherries Jubilee. I do note that your forking thoughts may indeed differ.
In case you never read my blog before. The Forking Truth happens to be a variety food blog. I go to restaurants and take photos and write about my experiences. I do recipes here. Some are mine, some are from great chefs, and some are chef inspired. I also write about different foods I try or just see from the grocery store. I write about anything food related. Thursdays are my freestyle day and can be about anything.
The reasons why many food bloggers stop blogging probably isn’t that they’ve run out of ideas. It’s probably because they are tired of all the online money grabbers crap we come by. The latest money grabber I’ve come by is Facebook. They ask for $42. dollars daily and in exchange will let a little over a thousand readers see my posting. I get similar messages from Instagram too and I’m sick of it. The other big one comes from my blog hosting company. They want a yearly extra fee of $240. so that I am able to “Like” other people’s blogs so in return they will “Like’ my blog. According to them I ran out of “Free” likes.
I just thought I’d put The FORKING Truth out there.
Don’t worry I’m still posting and not not asking for any money from anyone.
These are some of the difficulties of Food Blogging.
Oh and I thought I’d add a little more food to today’s posting.
I’m making a lot of different chicken breast dinners stuffed with different fillings.
This one I made real fast and didn’t jot down what I put in it but I made mixed vegetables (cabbage, carrots, peppers) with gyro seasoning and stuffed them in chicken breast that I opened up and pounded thin. Rolled it up. Season the outside with gyro seasoning. Then they get vacuumed packed. Sous vide at 146 degrees F for around 3 1/2 hours. Chilled and froze some. The refrigerated ones heat up in 350 degree F oven for 30-40 minutes and they come out FORKING AMAZING!
OH MY GOSH I made a Great Discovery! I decided to try Monzu Italian Oven & Bar in Las Vegas Nevada not too far from the Strip. They happen to offer a Chef’s Table Menu. with a few different choices. We picked the $62. menu that offers a meat and cheese board, salad, pizza, pastas, meats, vegetables, and desserts. We got high quality delicious foods and got way more than we could eat too!
Whatever you pick they start you off with very special house made Italian Country Sour Dough Bread and house made creamy ricotta cheese drizzled with quality olive oil and some herbs.
Next is a snacking plate of all kinds of things.
On the left are eggplant salad and olives. Up top is mortadella, lemon beef. prosciutto. In the middle are fried breads, down below are a variety of cheeses. On the left side are bacon wrapped dates and fried anchovies with sage.
Next is salad.
It’s mostly arugula, heirloom tomatoes onions, and the crispest sweetest fennel that I have ever tasted anywhere.
We got to try this really unusually AMAZING pizza.
Instead of sauce this pizza is spread with date cream. It’s topped with arugula, scamorra cheese, ricotta, and heirloom tomatoes with prosciutto.
After that are two bowls of pasta.
We tried the light pillow-like gnocchi with walnuts and a creamy gorgonzola type sauce.
We also tried pasta with a red eggplant Norma sauce.
Then we tried this really great fish house quality Seabream with delicious potatoes and a specialty vegetable called sea asparagus.
The skin was perfectly crisp too! and the fish just melted in your mouth.
We also received petite lamb shanks with potatoes and vegetables.
They even gave us a generous plate of dessert too!
Biscotti, cannoli, and an Italian doughnut drizzled with honey and sour orange rind.
Now that is a deal!
The $62. Chef’s Table Menu at Monzu Italian Oven & Bar in Las Vegas NV sure is-
I’m not making desserts too often these days but We did eat a few of these Chocolaty Beet Brownies recently. I made them around two years ago and the brownie part still was FORKING AMAZING. We couldn’t believe how delicious they were. I hate to brag but they were better than most desserts from fine restaurants. Look them up on www.TheFORKINGTruth.com for recipe.
Chocolaty Beet Brownies with Beet Caramel, Beet Meringues and Chocolate Drizzle
My local stores Walmart and Safeway grocery have exploded with all these New and Different Reese’s products. I’m a fan of original Reese’s so I thought I’d give them a try.
Honestly it’s kinda hard to tell how they are. They are similar to the regular original Reese’s Cup but sort of melted. The chocolate and peanut butter are both much softer. Maybe slightly less flavorful….They are harder to enjoy because they are too soft. Maybe they’d be good with ice cream? I prefer the original to this creamy version. I would not buy them again.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Reese’s Creamy. I do note that your FORKING Thoughts may indeed differ.
This is a collection of the very best foods that I have tried from Metro Phoenix AZ Restaurant since the beginning of the year. They are pictured in the order I tried them.
The Kengi burger from Then Burger – red Leicester cheese, teriyaki, caramelized onion, arugula, yuzu aioli, Noble bread Bun
The Kengi Burger from Then Burger in Glendale WAS worth traveling across town for. The burger is unusually delicious and flavorful and all the other ingredients are just magic here.*******UPDATE********Then Burger recently lowered their prices and shortened the menu. *******The Kengi Burger is NOT on the current menu.****** (but we can hope that it will return)
******UPDATE******
Unfortunately things do change. Then Burgers at the time of my second visit are no longer a blend of sirloin, short rib and chuck. They changed them to all chuck and they taste different and cook up different. Also the Kenji burger has been discontinued. I tried a marrow and mushroom burger. My husband tried another drugstore burger.
Both beef patties were dry like a hockey pucks. I had to send it back because this is a 36$ burger. I was promised that they could do better so I let them try. In reasonable time our second burgers came out. Again both dry like hockey pucks.
I FORKING have no idea on how the burgers are now but the first burger I had here was the FORKING BEST in all the land. I can only hope that Then Burger returns to the original recipe……..Maybe they will change again…..???????
Then Burger 9220 W Glendale Ave Glendale AZ – 623-328-9388
www.ThenBurger.com
Pastrami Sandwich from Little Pickle1st Brisket Sandwich from Little PickleLox from Little Pickle
Little Pickle KILLED it three times this year. TO DIE FOR Pastrami……I have to tell The FORKING Truth because that is my thing….The first time we tried the Brisket it was FORKING AMAZING……on a 2nd visit it was so different…not awful ….. but not amazing. I did contact Little Pickle about it and they told me that their help didn’t follow the recipe???????? I don’t know what happened there……..But then I tried the lox and it was like 100 times better than what you can get anywhere else in Phoenix. So they still killed it three times this year. I sincerely hope that the brisket returned to the original recipe.
This restaurant may or may not relocate soon….
Little Pickle – 2501 E Camelback Rd Phoenix AZ – 602-466-7098********UPDATE Little Pickle has CLOSED***** but is expected to reopen very close to the same location.
www.LittlePickleAZ.com
This was the best chicken taco that I’ve had in a long time. Who knew that it would come from a food truck? The chicken had a great developed flavor and a delicious char taste, flavors, and was tender and delicious. The tortilla was hand made and the salsa seemed house made. That handmade tortilla was incredibly delicious too.
Good Eats Only Mexican Kitchen Food Truck 623-521-8473
You can find them on Facebook
12 oz. N.Y. Strip – SW seasoning spice blend, bone marrow butter, tepary bean mole negro …from Tia Carmen
Tuna crudo – (corn coconut broth, smoked chili oil, dill) from Tia Carmen
Tia Carmen makes many magical dishes. The Tuna Crudo alone is the single best dish that I tasted anywhere last year. This year it still is the best or among the best. The New York Strip is also an incredible dish. The tepary bean black mole FORKING takes a year to make!
Tia Carmen 5350 E Marriott Dr PHX AZ – 480-293-3636
www.TiaCarmenDesertRidge.com
Puchka snack from Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine
The Puchka snack with passion fruit was a TIDAL WAVE of flavors. I tried it at the 2023 Dish Fest but it was from Feringhee Modern Indian Cusine. I’d love to go to that restaurant but it’s a 45 mile hike for me.
Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine – 3491 W Frye Rd Chandler AZ – 480-534-7178
www.Feringhee.com
This next one is really amazing but very hard to single out a single dish because the menu often changes…….If any beef cheek is on the menu when you happen to go here it would be crazy to miss out on those beef cheek dishes here………Once you try one it’s actually life changing. Nobody else’s can compare. Same with a lot of the other dishes. Fish dishes are always amazing. The desserts are also more detailed and more complex than from maybe any other restaurant I’ve been too. Actually when you go to other higher end restaurants you get disappointed because their desserts seem like nothing compared to desserts you get here.
Confluence in Carefree serves high quality modern-American foods. The chef is well seasoned and is very masterful. He has worked in impressive restaurants including Binkley’s.
The food is always masterfully prepared. The chef himself prepares the food …not a second line cook and also not some young kid that just started cooking. The Chef himself is cooking.
Here is the aged gouda and caramelized onion tart. It contains Iberia chorizo, horseradish, sunflower seed, arugula, pomegranate molasses, and freeze dried honey.
No other restaurant will serve such a detailed and complex dessert like the smoked butterscotch tapioca pudding.
Embellishments are blueberries, pepitas, candied butternut squash, and smoked vanilla creme faiche . The main courses are always perfection. If you catch a menu with beef cheek on it that is an absolute must get dish.
Confluence – 36889 N Tom Darlington Dr Carefree AZ – 480-488-9796
www.RestaurantConfluence.com
It’s worth driving across town to dine at Alzohour Market and Restaurant in Phoenix for many of the dishes. BUT I DO WARN YOU that service is done by one woman that also is your chef, runs, the market, and clothing store so you are going to wait a while. The dish that she is most famous for is the B’Stilla. It’s her handmade pastry with chicken, sugar, almonds, and cinnamon. Other dishes that you might want to try are the grape leaves, kashe bademjam (eggplant & walnut on a sizzling skillet with vegetables and pita bread) tangines or mixed grill plates. Desserts are also not to be missed because the pastry is hand made in house. The baklava is really great and not too sweet. Maybe my favorite is the noodle pastry stuffed with cheese and topped with pistachios.
cod tangine
Alzohour Market & Restaurant
7814 N 27TH Avenue PHX AZ – 602-433-5192
www.Alzohour-Market.Business.site
You sure don’t find much laffa bread or lolas in Phoenix. My Spot Mediterranean Grill recently opened in North Phoenix Arizona. This is a super casual kosher Israeli type restaurant. The One dish that blew me away was the beef lola on laffa bread.
It’s like a giant burrito…I’ll open it a little so you can look inside.
The beef inside is amazing and isn’t like any other out there. It’s full of delicious flavors and is really moist and tender. Tahini sauce, spicy pickles, a spicy sauce, onions, cabbage really go amazing together. I recommend to get this with the works so you get all these flavors…….The laffa bread was also fresh made. This was a great surprise treat that I doubt you can find anywhere else in Phoenix.
My Spot Mediterranean Grill – 1601 E Bell Rd PHX AZ – 602-612-3955
www.MySpotKosherKitchen.com
The Banh Mi Baguette Sandwiches from Banh Mi Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix are always good. The shaken beef is almost like filet but is really ribeye. I like the chicken one too! My husband switches back and forth between the beef and bbq pork. We also do noodle salad bowls here, rice plates, and curry chicken. Portions are very large and can be two meals for some people. Prices are reasonable.
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery – 2340 W Bell Rd PHX AZ – 602-843-3637
www.BanhMiBistroAZ.com
Fabio On Fire makes the most delicious bread that I’ve tasted in Metro Phoenix. He makes this very special ciabatta pugliese bread with a hundred year old starter…….But it doesn’t stop there…..It keeps going and going……….Phoenix Magazine named his porchetta as one of the top 100 dishes of metro Phoenix. His Neopolitian style pizzas are FANTABULOUS and the crust has a developed taste unlike other pizzas out there that are flat in comparison.
If you are a fan of meat pizzas you might want to try the salsiccia fungi.
That one is great but the pizza with the most bells and whistles might be the bufalina.
This one is that amazing developed crust that’s perfect….Topped with San Marzano D.O.P. tomato sauce, sugary sweet local tomatoes, bitter arugula, oregano, garlic, creamy imported bufalina cheese that melts into everything. reduced balsamic, and extra virgin olive oil. It’s just layers of great flavors that dance all over your mouth. This is either number one or at least one of the BEST pizzas in Metro Phoenix.
You’d be foolish to skip dessert here. Fabio makes most of the best desserts on the west side single handed……..His gelato is the best in Arizona…..Maybe the best in the country……
You’ll never taste strawberry gelato as fabulous. Today we tried half strawberry and half limoncello..
JEEPERS the limoncello is as great as the strawberry. Some of the other amazing flavors are peach, passionfruit, and blood orange. Fabio SHOULD sell his gelato nation-wide!
Fabio On Fire
8275 W Lake Pleasant PKWY Peoria AZ 623-680-5385
www.FabioOnFire.com
I made it back to Tia Carmen for lunch. I didn’t want to mention this restaurant twice but as great as these dishes were I had to.
This tomato salad is FORKING AMAZING.
The tomatoes taste so sweet and so farm fresh . You dip them threw this extra flavorful corn puree and charred corn dust. Fresh basil, pickled onions, and serrano chile pepper for a little heat. So delicious, light and refreshing. A perfect light appetizer to share.
This fish torta sandwich is far more delicious than I can describe. It taste so FORKING FANTABULOUS that I MUST MENTION IT!
Oh and my husband doesn’t usually even like fish and he even thinks it’s amazing. The fish torta is crispy mild perfectly prepared mild tasting white fish that is really great. But it is the embellishments of turmeric sweet onion jam, FRESH DILL, and this really good spicy mayo….a little cilantro, and this delicious toasted bun that taste FORKING INCREDIBLE together. The sandwich come with hay fries. The spicy mayo reminds me of espelette pepper but I don’t think they’d use that kind because that pepper is expensive …whatever it is it is really delicious.
Tia Carmen – 5350 E Marriott Dr PHX AZ – 480-293-3636
www.TiaCarmenDesertRidge.com
BEST of January-April 2023 – WORTH DRIVING ACROSS TOWN FOR!
I found this unusual Limited Edition Blood Orange Chocolate Chip French Ice Cream by Van Leeuwen at my local Walmart. I thought that sure is a FORKING interesting flavor. I’ll give this high fat ice cream a try.
This limited edition flavor has far more ingredients in it than their regular pistachio flavor. (Below is Van Leeuwen Sicilian Pistachio )
Below are the Limited Edition Blood Orange Chocolate Chip ingredients.
But it still seems more natural than a lot of other brands.
I open it up.
it looks sort of like cherry chocolate chip. I know blood oranges are a berry color and usually don’t look orange.
I taste some…….
This flavor is creamier or softer than most.
Actually each spoonful does taste different.
You get only a very faint citrus taste about one in out of every three or 4 spoonfuls……..Most spoons taste like vanilla chocolate chip. A few spoons are maybe like a faint berry taste.
It’s very good but is hard to identify as orange…. I’m yearning for some orange zest for this flavor to be better.
It’s actually better when you get less chocolate chips. The chocolate chips are EXTRA bitter…..they can pass as bottom of the pot coffee grinds.
It’s not bad but would be better with milk chocolate chips….The chocolate here is over-powering and bitter.
I asked my husband to taste it….He had a different FORKING Thought…He said it taste like vanilla with chocolate chips. He said he didn’t taste any orange or even citrus..but it wasn’t bad.
Not bad….so not a throw away.
I think this flavor might differ in every cup depending on the red swirls and chips that you get.
I was fortunate enough to taste some FORKING AMAZING foods this year in Metro Phoenix Arizona. A few of these FORKING AMAZING foods did get a change up already this year. I do note that it is also very important to know that It’s also possible that they can even FORKING DIFFERENT AGAIN!…..I mentioned them when they were great so you should know WTFork happened when I tried them again..
At a certain deli called Little Pickle I tasted the most FORKING AMAZING pastrami and brisket. I was really maybe even more blown away with the brisket because I’ve never tasted that style so amazing.
It was magical. It had the perfect texture that melted in your mouth and this super incredible burnt onion flavor…..mixed with the beef flavor and other flavors.
I went back.
It taste completely different…..No delicious burnt onion flavor in the tasty melt in your mouth beef. It taste like it was maybe over seasoned with seasoning salt……..It’s not terrible or awful or anything like that but it is nowhere in the same ballpark as the first one I tried. I actually messaged the owner about this and he said that he didn’t change the recipe (???) He said he had trouble with his help following the recipes. Oh well at least it wasn’t awful and the rest of what I tried there was very good or amazing. On this same visit I got to taste the lox and it truly was the best silky delicious melt in your mouth fish ever. In case you are wondering the pastrami (and little pickles) was still amazing too.
Little Pickle was a Pop Up Restaurant in the Esplanade across from The Biltmore Fashion Square. It is expected to open somewhere in the Esplanade at some time during the year….Maybe you can find info at www.LittlePickleAZ.com
Then this year I also was lucky enough to try one of the most FORKING AMAZING BURGERS EVER ANYWHERE. Q-UP the angels singing! ******BEST BURGER IN THE FORKING LAND!****** At Then Burger in Glendale by Westgate near State Farm.
This burger was a blend of house ground sirloin, short rib, and chuck……cooked medium with a nice sear,.embellished with arugula, teriyaki, caramelized onions, and yuzu aioli………(insert angels singing…….LAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
So naturally I went back.
Oh FORK! They removed that burger from the menu. Ok I really did want to try a few others from the menu anyway. My first choice wasn’t available today so I picked something else.
I can’t eat this……..(I took two bites hoping only the first would be bad) This dry and not good tasting either….It’s like a hockey puck. It’s like if you can imagine the WORST Burger King burger that you’ve ever tried and microwaved it in the microwave oven till crisp and dead. ICK!
The server promises me that they can do better……I usually never send food back…..The only reason I sent it back was because I can’t eat this and it was a $36. burger.
In reasonable time the re-fire comes out.
Somehow they made this burger about as dry as the last burger…….(How the FORK did they do that?)
The server was very understanding and informed me at this point that they only make the burgers with ground chuck now and are trying to figure out on how to cook them. I sure HOPE I HIT THEM ON A FLUKE WORST DAY EVER…….Not in my wildest dreams would I ever imagine this to happen here. I did speak with an owner. Of course he invited me back but I am too busy to return. I would hope the problems got improved.
Then Burger – 9220 N Glendale Ave Glendale AZ – 623-328-9388\
www.ThenBurger.com
A certain Italian restaurant named Pomo used to make this incredible North Italian focaccia di recco.
It’s these two light as air thin crisp crusts stuffed with a delicious cheese filling. They offer an optional add on local honey for embellishment.
See inside. You can pull the cheese.
Now it’s different.
WTFork! It’s Different!
It’s all wet inside like a cheese sauce and the crisp crust turns soggy………The menu reads that it is suppose to have stracchino cheese inside not wet cheese sauce…..???????????
Pomo Pizzeria – 8977 N Scottsdale Rd Scottsdale AZ – 480-998-1366
I was out grocery shopping today and I noticed many NEW Reese’s products. Most were mixes for cakes, cookies, brownies, and pancakes. Then across from hair products were Reeses Crunchy Peanut Bars. I never saw them before and wanted to give them a try. I get my bar home and open it up.
WOW! It’s much larger and heavier than I was expecting.
How many servings is this?
3 or 4 looks about right. I cut mine into 4 servings. Each one is around Reese’s Cup Sized.
They are unique and different and maybe not like anything else out there. They really are packed with peanuts encased in a sweet peanut flavored sand and are lightly coated with something chocolatey. To me they seem slightly sweeter than my familiar Reese’s cups but still a little salty like a Reese’s Cup. They really are packed with peanuts. These bars seem less chocolatey than a Reese’s cup but are still good.
The taste of these Crunchy Bars really isn’t bad……I just wish they came in sensible sizing. like in patties, cups, or break off bars.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Bars. I do note that YOUR Forking thoughts may indeed differ.
