We do take out during the pandemic because dining in involves risk to exposure to the coronavirus. All restaurants are struggling these days and since we are spending so much less than we normally do we are doing take out as much as possible.
Our first take out of the week was from Pita Kitchen ( a casual Greek Restaurant) in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
We both got Greek Salads mine was topped with a chicken kabob and my husband’s salad was topped with gyro meat. The gyro was great like it usually is. My chicken had good flavor but was on the dry side today but not bad. We always enjoy the fresh baked pita bread here. I had plenty to share with my dogs.
Our next take out was from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante (Italian Restaurant) also in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
Today we went with a few specials.a delicate pasta with eggplant, pesto and pine nuts, Chicken piccata, a side salad and chicken pizziola. Everything had really good flavors and the bread is always great too! The dogs couldn’t wait to try some.
We treated ourselves to the AMAZING fried chicken from Confluence in Carefree.
Confluence is a small but upscale restaurant that serves modern American Cuisine. The moist chicken came with blue corn grits, broccoli and this incredible honey mustard chili-tepin sauce. As delicious as it was…and IT WAS! I saved half for latter so we could splurge on dessert. We got sake poached pears with angel cake and yuzu curd with almond brittle……This was all amazing! I shared some chicken and a small amount of cake with my dogs.
Our next take out came from a small Indian Restaurant called Wraps ‘N’ Curry. When they first opened most of the menu was naan wrap sandwiches. I recently noticed that they fully expended their menu and offer over 20 different Indian dishes. They make a DELICIOUS onion stuffed naan bread called onion kulcha.
Today we tried the Karachi Chicken and the Vindaloo Chicken.
Both dishes were nicely spiced but not very hot with heat. The Chicken in both was incredibly moist and tender. My bigger dog was incredibly excited to try some.
Last take out oof the week was from Stratta Kitchen in Scottsdale.
They have a family pak special so we gave it a try for lunch and dinner. A few of the things we had before are different now. The salmon is not med/med-rare any more and is now a kabob. The chop salad is made with much less egg and avocado now but everything did taste good. Below is my take out from Stratta Kitchen from just a few weeks ago.
I shared some salmon with the dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all that delicious food”
That was week 24 of Take Out in Metro Phoenix AZ During the CoronaVirus Pandemic.
Fry’s had corn on sale for almost free so here is what I made with some of the corn. These corn cakes came out FORKING AMAZING! They are full of flavors and finish with a little heat. Some of the ingredients might be hard to find but can be found at Mexican Grocery Stores. Your corn cakes won’t come out as delicious unless you make these corn cakes the way I did. Also my idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. I made 16 very small corn cakes so I would say two corn cakes is a small serving but I can totally see many people would prefer the serving size to be larger like 4 corn cakes each. So this recipe makes between 4-8 servings depending on your appetite.
Ingredients for 8 very small servings
2 cups corn kernels – cooked (my corn was cooked in covered pans of water in the oven with 2 oz of butter and small amount of sea salt 350 degrees F for 90 minutes. The corn comes out juicy and sugary sweet)
1 egg – beaten
2 oz cotija cheese = shredded + plus extra for serving
1/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1 Tablespoon hatch chili – (fire roasted peeled seeds removed) – fine chopped
2 Tablespoons scallions – sliced thin
2 Tablespoon cilantro – chopped
1 Tablespoon (heaping) epazote – chopped
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 chile-tepin peppers – crumbled
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
non-stick spray or oil to fry if you prefer frying with oil
optional a little sour cream to serve with
Directions
One cup of corn kernels goes in your mixing bowl. The other cup of corn kernels gets blended smooth. Mix them together and then mix in all the remaining ingredients. Spray your fry pan with non stick spray. Get your pan fully heated on medium heat. Use a teaspoon and make smaller sized cakes. They will need 3-4 minutes a side. Keep going till you are done. Serve with some grated cotiija cheese and maybe a little sour cream.
There is always something NEW, WEIRD, DIFFERENT, Limited and Special Edition out there in the wonderful world of food. I never know what I will come across. I don’t get out much during the pandemic so most of what I saw…I saw on line.
Up above is-
NEW – General Mills Cocoa Puffs in Brownie Crunch….I am confused by this….Brownies are either fudge-ee or cake like aren’t they? If I have a crunchy brownie it’s stale so why would I want Brownie cereal that is crunchy?
NEW – General Mills Lucky Charms with Honey Clovers…made with REAL honey instead of artificial honey… Looks like the cereal contains marshmallows so why isn’t this cereal called Lucky Marshmallow Charms and Honey Clovers?
NEW – General Mills Vanilla Vibe Minions with Marshmallows that is naturally and artificially flavored. Looks like fish tank stones……..
NEW – General Mills Star Wars cereal. Box says it’s fruit flavored with marshmallows….Oh Joy……..just like the last two cereals……
SPECIAL EDITION – Kelloggs’ Cookies & Creme Krispies – This is silly…just FORKING buy a box of Rice Krispies and break a few Oreo Cookies in it if that is what you want……(I would never FORKING want it)
NEW – Toblerone Almondy Chocolate Cake…..Sounds good………
LIMITED EDITION Apple Pie Kit Kat – could go either way….might be good…might suck?
NEW – Snickers Peanut Brownie Squares – Sounds good but I’m not going to try it. The original Snickers is good but I tried one of the new flavors and it was GROSS! It was all just goo that didn’t even taste good. So I’m not trying any new flavors of Snickers.
NEW – Lay’s Potato Chips – Nashville Hot Chicken, Philly cheesesteak, Wavy Carnitas Street Tacos, Chile Relleno, Kettle New York Style Pizza…WOW! They all sound delicious but you know how that goes……Some of them just might be delicious! Others might be revolting.
NEW – Topo Chico lemon lime hard seltzer……Not for me…seems like strong soda to me.
NEW – Liit hard Long Island iced tea……..not everything hard is good……..
LIMITED EDITION Mini Chips Ahoy with yellow and blue chips. That doesn’t sound good…to me. Don’t see why there are Minons on the Ritz Bits and Teddy Grahams.
NEW – Minions cookies…I don’t see a flavor on the package…..maybe they are unflavored?
LIMITED EDITION – Oreo Mini cookies with yellow cream…..(Big deal….yellow cream…same as yellow snow…so there are a few cute Minions on the package…big whoop dee doo!)
Well that was the New, Weird, Different Limited and Special Edition Foods out there for August 2020. Who knows What The FORK I’ll come across next month.
I was sort of gifted with a case of Mexican Mangos. We don’t eat many mangos. I don’t want to make a dessert I don’t need. So I got the idea that mangos are sort of creamy naturally and they are very sweet. I thought I can just blend them up and freeze them.
So I blended them up.
I poured them into a container and put the container in my freezer. For the next day about every 8-10 hours I’d scrap the harder frozen ends to distribute the freezing mango.
Around 24 hours latter I have a tub of frozen dessert without any added sugar, colors or added fat.
Easy One Ingredient Mango Ice
This would be amazing with added strawberries. It would be great with pineapple and or coconut. I would also like it with little chunks of crystalized ginger. Maybe shaved chocolate would be tasty too.
We got many places around North Phoenix where you can take out DELICIOUS food for $10.00 or less around North Phoenix. One restaurant that is on my local rotation is Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Bistro in North Phoenix. They are a pho free Vietnamese Eatery that offers around a dozen different Banh Mi Sandwiches and many other Vietnamese Favorites except for pho. Pictured up above is the noodle bowl. It’s a lot of different flavors in one (or two) meals. Minty salad, fried shallots, tasty protein that taste even better with fish sauce, lots of rice noodles and a tasty egg roll for me.
Here’s the shaken beef Banh Mi my husband recently got.
shaken beef from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery
Below is a $5. Chicken and cabbage salad and on right are the potstickers $4. They are delicious and tasty. The $5.00 is the right size for many people. The papaya salad and the lotus root salad both come with shrimp and are the same size as the chicken and cabbage salad.
Below is a rice plate. It a large amount of tasty meat with a double scoop of rice, a fragrant pickled salad and a pork egg roll.
Rice Plate
Another restaurant that we enjoy is Taco Fusion in Glendale.
They sell the BEST tacos in the area!
It sure doesn’t cost much to eat from Taco Fusion. Most tacos are less than $3.00 each and are made on hand made tortillas that just TASTE BETTER than from most taco places. It isn’t just the tortillas….The FILLINGS ARE DELICIOUS TOO!
I usually don’t even like carne asada from not all but most places. It has to have a really good flavor and be tender for me to eat it. I do really like the carne asada tacos here. My personal favorite taco at Taco Fusion is their mild chicken habanero taco on flour with pineapple salsa and a little pico. That taco is stuffed with flavorful moist dark chicken meat. It’s even better than chicken tacos I ate in Mexico. I also like their fish taco but I prefer that one is better on a corn tortilla. My husband eats the different styles of asada tacos here and he always tells me that they do shrimp tacos very well here. The salsas differ everyday. Sometimes they have.a real interesting black salsa that’s next to too hot but really delicious. I really enjoy their pineapple salsa because it usually has so many flavors in it. All the salsas I tried are good but you have to ask for the salsas. They also offer cilantro rice and two kinds of beans here and MORE.
Also in Glendale is Skewers Mediterranean Grill.
I get big beautiful salads here for only around $7.50.
On the left is my chicken kabob salad and on the right is the salad with shawarma. Look at the GREAT LOW pricing below. You get your meal as a pita, rice bowl, fry bowl, wrap or salad like I always get.
Almost across the street from Skewers MG is Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
My husband enjoys the cheese steaks from Phila-Deli but they cost over ten so we will talk about the really great $7.50 salads that Phila-Deli offers. (My salad was 75cents extra because I added avocado.)
You can get a very good salad for only around $7.50 at Phila-Deli to FILL YOUR BELLY!
We also like Rocket Burger in North Phoenix for burgers, Mexican Fish sandwiches maybe the largest collection of bottled sodas anywhere and MORE!
It doesn’t cost much to eat from Rocket Burger. Not all but more than half of the menu is priced under $10.
On the left is a cheese burger with a big fried chili pepper on it. At the right is the Mexican Fish Sandwich. The slaw and rocket sauce are so tasty that you can slap it on a hamster and the hamster will be delicious.
In Glendale we love going to CHZBURGR. They offer great cheese burgers, FORKING delicious crispy chicken thigh sandwiches, hot dogs, milk shakes, SPECIALS and more!
Most of the time I get the Crispy Chicken Thigh Sandwich with added Calabrian Peppers because IT’S FORKING AMAZING!
It’s crisp! It’s delicious, It’s Juicy! It sort of POPS from the house made pickles! The bun is delicious and not too big. It’s just perfection. My bigger dog is usually well behaved when I eat but when I have this sandwich she slaps me for some.
My husband gets the Triple cheese burger.
He said it’s just so perfect he can’t get anything else.
CHZBURGR is a GREAT Place for $10. or less. During the pandemic CHZBURGR offers the safer Curbside Pickup.
In North Phoenix on Bell Rd inn an older strip mall is Wraps ‘N’ Curry. They offer aromatic delicious Indian Food in fresh made naan wraps and many Indian Dishes and MORE! Below is one of their delicious wraps that you can order for take out that is only around $9.00.
Wraps ‘N’ Curry expanded their menu since opening and now offers at least 20 different Indian dishes priced at $9.99.
In North Phoenix is the home of Chino Bandido A sort of Chinese and sort of Mexican and Other foods type of restaurant. According to Food Network Chino Bandido offers (starting at $9.35) NINTY THOUSAND different combination plates. You get a BIG Pan of food that is BETTER than fast food and cost LESS than fast food if you figure that amount of food you get for your money. During the pandemic they even offer curbside pick up. Once I got the veggie salad combo with the Chili Relleno.
Our most recent take out is more typical of what to take out. I got a chili Relleno again because it is good! They use a real pepper that doesn’t taste canned (like from certain more costly restaurants) The cracker coating is unique and all that cheese is darn tasty. I like the emerald chicken with scallion ginger sauce. I get lots of rice and lots of black beans. It’s more food than I can eat and could be two meals for some people. They also give you a BIG complimentary snickerdoodle for dessert.
That was EIGHT $10. or less food from Restaurants for Take Out in North Phoenix AZ
You can never be too careful. Take out is a less risky option than dining in these days during the coronavirus pandemic. All restaurants are struggling these days so we are doing take out as much as possible. Besides there isn’t much else to do safely these days besides staying home.
Our first take out of the week was from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a Vietnamese Eatery that offers most of your Vietnamese Favorites except pho, Meals are very large portions and can be two meals for some people. Prices are very low and I believe everything on the menu is $10. or less. They even offer $4. & $5. menu items. My husband had the shaken beef Banh Mi Sandwich. I know the beef is ribeye but it is as tender as filet mignon. It’s delicious and you can’t go wrong with a shaken beef Banh Mi. I got the chicken & egg roll noodle bowl.
There’s lots of rice noodles and a pile of refreshing minty salad, tasty chicken covered with some fried shallots, crushed peanuts and an egg roll for me. (there are other choices). You can mix the whole thing up and eat it dressed with chili sauce if you want. Or just eat it the way it comes. Just make sure to dip the protein inn the fish sauce because it makes it taste even better. This is a very large platter and can be two meals for some people. My dogs sure didn’t mind helping me out with this.
Next take out was Moroccan/Middle Eastern Cuisine from Alzohour Market ion Glendale. We’ve enjoyed many amazing dishes from Alzohour Market.
We got two jerk chicken curry chicken combos from Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a very small mainly take out restaurant that offers Caribbean Food and Vegan Options.
The food is always delicious. The chicken meat is always developed with great flavors and is always falling off the bone. They give you a very generous portion of food that might be two meals for some people. Both the jerk chicken and curry chicken are delicious. I think they make the best around. Sometimes it is saucier than other times. It’s CRAZY GREAT when you get it a little extra saucy. My dogs sure don’t mind samples.
Our next take out was from Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
Their salads might be the best deal in town! They are only around $7.50. Many other places charge over $12. for salads that aren’t as good. My husband likes the cheese steaks at Phila-Deli. The people there are extra nice. They also have treated our dogs extra nice when we dine on the patio. My dogs are always happy to help eat Phila-Deli Food.
Our last take out of the week was from Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide. They are a casual Sonoran Style Mexican Restaurant.
I got my usual chicken fajita salad and my husband got the carnitas fajita. They gave us chips and salsas. The chicken was really good today and they loaded the salad up with lots of caramelized onions. I had plenty to share with the dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat alll that delicious food”
That was week 23 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic in Metro Phoenix AZ.
The restaurants we did take out from-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Ratery – North Phoenix
Allzohour Market – Glendale
Desert Island Eatery – North Phoenix
Phila-Deli – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide
Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
Fry’s supermarket was practically giving corn away for free so we got some and I did something different but delicious with it. Made easy to roll pasta dough. I cooked the corn in the oven with seasoning and water. The corn got a really great flavor to it and the water had a good flavor to so I made it into sauce. You will have FOUR extra ears of corn that you have to freeze and use for something else. You also will have a small amount of leftover corn filling that would be delicious to have in an omelet the next day. I made mine into raviolo. They are larger than ravioli. You can make yours into whatever shape you want. Mine made me 7 LARGE raviolo. To me that is 7 servings. But my idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. I thought one was enough per person but my husband said he’d prefer two.
Ingredients for about 7 servings (plus extra corn)
2 eggs (pasta)
3 yolks – plus save one egg white for sealing ravioli (pasta)
1 1/3 cup flour (all brands of flour are ground different so you might need more or less (pasta) + extra for dusting the dough
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (pasta)
2 pinches sea salt (pasta)
6 ears corn peeled
4 oz salted butter – cut in half
2 Calabrian Chili Peppers – fine chopped
1-2 garlic cloves – minced (I used one clove but it was oddly large)
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme – in two portions for two pans
All the liquid from cooking the corn – sauce
8 oz heavy cream – sauce
4 Tablespoons corn starch – sauce
2 ears cooked corn kernels – filling
5 oz wild mushroom brie cheese – filling
2 Tablespoons sliced scallions – filling
around 1/4 cup corn meal to rest ravioli or raviolo on
a little extra virgin olive oil to sprinkle on ravioli or raviolo so they don’t stick
finish with some fresh parsley
grated Italian cheese
Directions
Make dough. Combine two eggs and three yolks and mix well. Add olive oil and salt and mix well. Add flour..Start with one cup and add more if needed. (I usually need 1 1/3 cup but every brand of flour is ground different so the amount you need will differ). Knead the dough and when smooth wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
Now cook corn.
Set oven to 350 degrees f. The corn goes in two large pans (I use 1/2 buffet pans) 3 ears in one pan and three ears in the other pan. 1/2 the butter, Calabrian Chili, garlic, water, bay leaf and thyme go in each pan. Cover pans tightly with foil and place them in the middle rack of oven. Let them cook for 90 minutes. Then remove the pans from the oven. Use thongs and let the corn cool off. Throw out the bay leaves but DON’T THROW OUT THE LIQUID. Leave the liquid cool some on the counter. (It smells wonderful and all those flavors are infused into the corn)
When the corn is cool enough to handle make the filling.
Kernals get removed from the ears of corn. Mix the kernels with the cheese and scallions. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator.
Make the sauce. Get a big cup or a bowl and mix the corn starch with a cup or two with a whisk so you don’t get lumps. The corn liquid, corn liquid mixed with corn starch and the heavy cream go in a pot on medium high heat. Mix well so you don’t get lumps. Once it bubbles turn the heat down to medium and let it reduce till you are happy with the consistency. (this takes a while) Take off heat and set to the side.
The quick and easy part is rolling the dough. Roll it out till it’s nice and thin. You will need to dust both sides with a little flour.
Cut dough however you want and paint edges of dough with egg white. Then stuff the dough with some filling. Edges of top dough also get egg white. Lay the top dough over the bottom dough and press them together and try to get the air out of center.
The stuffed pastas rest on a pan with corn meal (so they don’t stick) till you are ready to cook them (cover with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. Gently boil for around two minutes or until it floats. Serve with sauce and a little fresh parsley and grated Italian cheese.
Corn and Wild Mushroom Brie Raviolo in Creamy Corn Stock Sauce
During the pandemic I’ve been doing takeout instead of dining in because it’s less risky. Since I’ve been just doing take out I noticed that the food has been better in general. I usually get a few HORRIBLE dishes a few times a year. Outside of dry chicken a couple of times I really haven’t had any bad food. I’ve been more careful with my restaurant selections and mostly but not entirely go to restaurants that I know. Here is a collection of NOT ALL but some more of the BAD and or DISAPPOINTING foods I had in Metro Phoenix. My bad experiences might be humorous for you to see.
The crust taste burnt from this deep dish pizza restaurant. I waited around an hour for this to be served to me. They told me that they pre-bake the crust and these pizzas come out that way. WOW if I did that like this nobody would tell me to open a pizza restaurant.
Bad food can come from a food truck. The next one came from a food truck in Metro Phoenix.
The fried dough had a rancid taste and was suppose to be stuffed with corned beef. I think they used the deep fryer for frying not fresh but very old road kill.
The next one seemed like a culinary wonder after this.
This restaurant serves the most uninspired fajita salad I ever had with the worst salsa and chips I’ve ever tasted. Bagged chips and jarred salsas are superior to what I tasted. Not to mention that somebody dripped something with strawberry into one of the salsas on its way to me. I have no idea why this is a popular restaurant.
The next restaurant was very good when they opened. Unknown to me at the time the chef left and they must have let the dishwasher take a shot at cooking for them.
Smelly tasting fish topped with lots of raw tomato paste and served with two styles of splats of blended corn.
That wasn’t the only bad dish.
Below are the gooiest pierogi in the world.
This restaurant went out of business shorty after this.
This steak was so chewy that I didn’t even bring it home for my dogs. I was able to eat the potato cakes but something was wrong with them and that side of pond slim on the plate was disgusting. This upset me so much I didn’t eat any beef for a year.
Last week I gave you the worst taco I ever was served so here is the 2nd worst taco I ever tasted.
The 2nd worst taco I ever tasted came from the 2019 Taco Festival. This taco wasn’t just salty but it tasted like it was made with 50% salt. Some poor boob must of accidentally dropped a container of salt into the taco mix and said oh well. This was so salty I thought I was going to turn into a pillar of salt. I spit this out so I wouldn’t get sick.
You know of lava cakes?….. well the French name for lava cake is fondant. Well these people served me a Fon-DON’T
The chef from this restaurant didn’t put a molten filling in this thing. He gave me a lump of solid frosting. Who wants a solid lump of frosting? It seemed like someone besides the chef wrote the menu for this restaurant without training the person in charge of cooking. Although this was a promising restaurant that did serve some delicious dishes this restaurant has closed for business)
This next one came from a well known Asian Restaurant.
Guess I hit them on an off day. The dumpling were soggy and falling apart.
This comes from another well known restaurant. It was made special to look like vomit for me.
EVERYTHING was HORRIBLE from this Meditertanean Restaurant that is out of business now.
They served me falafels that I almost broke my teeth on because the chick peas weren’t cooked and were hard as rocks in them. The shawarma tasted like it was grilled chicken baloney and all these goodies came with a decomposing pickle.
I enjoyed lunch a few times at a well known Italian Restaurant so I thought I’d enjoy dinner there…..Well I was wrong again.
My dinner was overcooked and my vegetables that came with my dinner seemed like they were over cooked many times for like maybe two weeks.
I heard about a fish fry restaurant and wanted to give it a try.
The owner seemed very nice and was very conversational. But WOW EVERYTHING WAS AWFUL. It seemed like it was a combination of poor cooking skills mixed with restaurant equipment failure. The macaroni was gooey and cheese seemed water downed. The sweet potatoes seemed old. The tarter sauce was thinned down…..but the fish……was FREEZER BURNT. It’s was like eating crunchy astronaut dehydrated fish. My husbands plate had similar and different problems. After we tried everything and everything was horrible we threw it all out in the trash. This place is still in business so there is a possibility that she improved the food she serves there.
This next one was very disappointing from a restaurant that was newly opened at the time.
On the left was suppose to be corn and jicama slaw. There wasn’t any corn or jicama in the slaw so that was disappointing. The sandwich was also disappointing. Besides being impossible to eat as a sandwich the white sauce was suppose to be green curry coconut that sounds very good but it was just a tangy loose white liquid. I did mention these things to the manager before I was about to write about them. They told me not to criticize them because they were busier than expected and newly opened. I just told them that if someone told me that they might be out of a few things then I would be alright and know what to expect. That’s fair shouldn’t a paying customer know what to expect? Later the owner said nasty things to me on line and told me never to go to his restaurants again. A few weeks later he sent me another email that just read – You Suck!
Anyways-
Over cooked and over salted fish can happen at one of the finest restaurants in Phoenix. (but the rest of the meals were excellent)
Sometimes desserts can be horrifying. It really upsets me when desserts have foreign objects in them that I have to spit out.
I complained about this and the waiter told me it was part of the dessert. (jerk)
I went to a certain Filipino restaurant where I enjoyed the meal so we splurged for dessert. My fork couldn’t penetrate the dessert because it was hard as a rock. It took my husband a long time but he finally busted it apart with his hands.
The owner said nothing was wrong with his dessert. He said if I heated it up it would turn soft. WOW! I didn’t know that I should bring my own oven to heat up his hard as rock desserts.
*****THE I ALREADY ATE PLATE******
Sometimes food can be disappointing because they serve you “The I already ate plate” I do note that this wasn’t a tasting menu for lunch…….This was a regular lunch entree.
This was my $16.00 lunch salad that came from a restaurant that is out of business. (and WTFork did they do with the other half of the egg?….I was still hungry and could have used it)
******THE I ALREADY ATE PLATE********
Here’s another “I already ate plate” The food was very good from this restaurant but this is not a tasting restaurant.
This restaurant is also closed for business.
This last one is a bonus extra and was something my husband had somewhere in metro Phoenix at one of the places I showed you bad food from last week.
It might be the WORST crispy chicken sandwich in Metro Phoenix. They sure don’t give a cluck about what they served there. My husband said the cheese was a mix of hard and melted. Chicken seemed like processed and prepared over done in a microwave because of the rock hard texture and the blown out chicken middles.
Well those were only some of the bad and disappointing foods Part 2 from Metro Phoenix Restaurants.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
There are all kinds of salsa verde recipes out there. The Mexican Style Salsa Verde made with tomatillos is very popular. Other salsa verde recipes are basically herb sauces. My favorite salsa verde recipe that I’ve come across is the chef Richard Blais recipe for salsa verde. I’ve discovered that now I’m making salsa verde semi regularly. It’s so delicious and goes so well with just about any protein. The other reason why I’m making it so often is because it’s a great delicious way to use up your fresh herbs so they don’t go to waste.
Below is a picture of what I put in my no measure salsa verde.
In the orange colander is all my leftover tarragon, lots of parsley leaves, scallions and a little cilantro. (tarragon is really delicious in salsa verde………)
You need a chopped up hot green or yellow pepper ….I like using my own pickled hot peppers (the pickled adds something and it helps make the sauce stay fresh.
You need something sweet I used honey because it is a preservative.
You need fresh squeezed lemon.
You need olive oil
capers are very good in salsa verde.
Depending one how it taste you might need salt.
Maybe you might use a small amount of water to thin the sauce.
It comes out amazing all the time. You can play around with the sauce. Maybe add something like almonds for a different taste. Richard Blais uses golden raisins for sweetness and also uses anchovies for depth and salt flavor.
Unless I make a trip to Nelsons or Chula Seafood it is hard for me to buy fresh fish. I have purchased inedible fish from Frys, Safeway and Costco. I have paid top dollar from AJ’s Fine Foods and got less than fresh. For those reasons I mostly gave up preparing fish at home and enjoy eating fish out or taking it home these days. The dishes below are not in any particular order. Here are some of the fish dishes I took out from restaurants since around March 2020.
On the right is the grilled salmon from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide. It’s a good size portion that is prepared reasonably well and I like that you can have healthy options like double vegetables instead of pasta. I had spaghetti squash and asparagus. My husband had a shrimp and pasta dish that night.
The best tacos near to my house are from Taco Fusion on Glendale. My favorite taco from them is the mild habanero chicken taco with pineapple salsa but all their tacos are good. They even use hand made tortillas. On the right is their fish taco. Doesn’t taste like a fish taco from Mexico but it is a good taco and is better than most fish tacos I try out . My husband says that the shrimp tacos here are really great so I’ll take his word for it.
Everything from Confluence in Carefree is extraordinary!
These are the halibut lunch tacos from Confluence. Nobody prepares fish as masterfully as from Confluence. The crispy skin on fish actually can taste good and stays crisp from beginning to end. Even the finest restaurants anywhere can’t do that as well. If you like to eat fish than you must take the splurge and try one of their fish dinners.
You can even get fish from Rocket Burger in North Phoenix.
On the left is a double cheese burger with a really big fried chili pepper but on the right is their super tasty Mexican Fish Sandwich. It’s delicious I have to have one once in a while. The slaw and rocket sauce are so darn tasty that you can slap it on a hamster and the hamster would taste good.
I would say among the top fish take outs was from Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale.
I had the Salmon dish twice. It was really great both times. Very few restaurants in metro Phoenix prepares salmon this well. My husband is just as found of their Shrimp Diablo dish below.
Aiello’s Italian Restaurant in Phoenix offers three course dinners with a bottle of wine and a candle for ($50.&$65.)
I got a generous pan of salmon with artichokes and a tasty potato croquette. The other dishes were tasty too!
In Peoria (#UpperWestSide) is the Twisted Italian and they offer a Friday Night Walleye Special. (It’s that BIG PAN on the left in the picture below.)
It’s more food than a human can eat and I tried to order it a few weeks before and it was sold out. Now I know why.
I also got a salmon salad from Chula Seafood in Phoenix.
It was prepared well and everything was fresh. My husband got some sort of grilled tuna sandwich that day.
Below was our take out from Vincents Market Bistro in Phoenix.
To be honest (like I always am) I didn’t order the salmon dinner but wound up with it. When we called them to let them know of the mix up they quickly took care of things. VMB has been a long time favorite of mine and I have enjoyed dining in here for a decade or so now. Dining in they always give you delicious fresh baked croissants and some of the best desserts in town.
Below is the really great Halibut from Fabio On Fire in Peoria #UpperWestSide.
The halibut was cooked to perfection and also was a large portion that came with fancy vegetables in a delicious sauce. This was really great!
We did take out from Wally’s American Gastropub in Scottsdale.
My husband said the meatloaf from here is really great. I liked the healthier grilled salmon with tomatoes and really tasty cauliflower. It was filling but light enough to add on one of their really delicious slices of pie.
FnB in the arts district of Scottsdale usually offers delicious wood grilled seafood.
Upper left hand corner is the Blue Nose with Citrus and Couscous
One of the plates to get from Scott’s Generations Restaurant and Delicatessen is the fish plate supreme (middle). It’s suppose to serve one person but I always get three servings from it.
It think it’s kind of special because you get to pick three kinds of fish for it. One fish I always pick is the smoked sturgeon because it cost around $40 a pound and you seldom find it anywhere. They offer belly and nova lox. (Belly is better but sometimes it runs too salty) and then I pick something like white fish too. I think it’s fun to get once in a while.
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix offers a few fish dishes. Bellow is the middle is the Lotus root salad.
I think it only cost $5.00 and comes with shrimp.
Nayana Japanese Kitchen recently opened in the Arcadia Area of Phoenix,
On the left side of the picture is a spicy tuna roll and the very tasty salmon yuanyaki.
Below is the amazing house smoked salmon from the Barrio Cafe in Phoenix (Lower Left)
WOW! it was all so delicious! YUM!
From Szechwan Cuisine in Glendale (on the left) I tried the fish with fungus in egg white sauce.
In the middle my husband tried the kung pao shrimp.
Also in Glendale we did take out from Taylor’s Chowder House.
On the left my husband got the dish that is called 2 plus 2 (2 cod 2 shrimp) and I got the Sole Florentine. They were very generous with the potatoes and fish in the 2+2. I like that they serve vegetables with the dishes.
We even did take out by Old Town Scottsdale and did take out from Starlite BBQ.
I tried the Hot Fried Catfish there and it was very good!
Went back to Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale.
The Grilled Hawaiian Opah Special was really good! (and so was everything else!) That beef sandwich and Moroccan Vegetable soup were really great too!
We did take out from a really special Thai Restaurant in Phoenix called Glai Baan.
On the left corner is their famous Mackerel fried rice. Everything was really great!
Stratta Kitchen recently opened in Scottsdale. I had another one of the best salmons there.
On the left is the mistral salad with added salmon. WOW this was a really great salad and a spectacular salmon. This was really special.
Those were 27 fish dishes we took out in Metro Phoenix so far in 2020.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
