Monthly Archives: September 2020

Korean Inspired Chicken and Vegetables Dak Galbi Style based on www.KoreanBapsang.com Recipe

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The funny thing is that I was going to make Korean Fried Chicken. I started researching different recipes for the marinade so I’d know what to do and somehow on the way I started reading recipes that I thought were more interesting and healthy. I came across Dak Galbi on www.KoreanBapsang.com . It’s basically chicken in a spicy Korean sauce with vegetables, rice cakes and perilla leaves for serving. The vegetables recommended for this dish are sweet potato, onions and green cabbage. You just make the sauce, marinate the chicken a short time and sauté in a pan. Simmer till everything is cooked and tender.Since this dish is traditionally made with rice cakes it normally isn’t served with anything else but you might want some rice or noodles with it. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. For me this makes around 4 smaller servings.

1 lb boneless chicken breast – pounded – cut in bite size pieces

2 Tablespoons Guchugaru Pepper flakes

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon Korean Curry Powder

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons Rice Wine

1/2 Tablespoon corn syrup (I used honey)

2 Tablespoons Gochujang (I would recommend to only use a Korean Brand….American Brands do not taste similar)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon grated ginger

Optional – This is not in the recipe but I added some chicken stock to the recipe to make it saucy. (didn’t measure but I think it was less than a cup)

1 lb brussels sprouts – shaved

1 medium onion – sliced extra thin on a mandolin

a carrot – sliced very thin

5 oz red skin potatoes – sliced very thin

a little seaweed for finishing

a few chopped scallions for finishing

Directions

In a small mixing bowl mix up the sauce/marinade combining the red pepper flakes, sugar, curry powder, soy sauce, rice wine, corn syrup, gochujang, garlic, sesame oil and ginger. Put your chunks of chicken in a one quart zip lock bag and add the sauce you just made. Massage it all around the chicken and let marinate 30-60 minutes.

Get a large fry pan on medium high. Add the chicken and then add the vegetables. The pan will be crowded but melts down reasonably fast. Occasionally stir. When it starts to look dry add some chicken stock. By the time everything looks almost ready turn down to simmer and let it go about 15 minutes.

Serve with a little seaweed and scallions.

Korean Inspired Chicken and Vegetables Dak Galbi Style based on KoreanBapsang.com

A Special THANK YOU! to www.KoreanBapsang.com for sharing your world with us.

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth is that Fall Restaurant Week Phoenix AZ 2020 Wasn’t My Favorite

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Around 140 Phoenix area restaurants were participating in fall restaurant week (September 18 – 27 2020). Most of these restaurants were offering three course dinners for $33.00 & $44.00 a person.

The first restaurant that I was excited to try was Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale because they were offering a fresh truffle option. I was going to do Sel in Scottsdale first because their menu sounded really special too but because of the fresh truffles at Zinc I figured that I better do Zinc Bistro first because the truffles will taste better now and might not be as good next week.

Here’s my take out from Zinc Bistro.

The food was mostly very good. My soup was missing the parmesan crisp but it still was a delicious treat. The dinners were really great with complex interesting sauces….. But I traveled across town to do this take out and my fresh truffles were left off. My husband called to let them know that I didn’t get my fresh truffles to take them off the bill since I didn’t get them. The manager apologized and took my whole meal off the bill since I was disappointed. That was as generous as any restaurant can be. I DO appreciate that but I still missed out on fresh truffles.

My next restaurant week take out was from The Mission (a modern Latin) restaurant in Scottsdale.

A few things were missing from the descriptions on the restaurant week menu. My stone fruit salad was missing the goat horn dined cucumbers that sounded so interesting. My husband’s chorizo porchetta (lower left) was missing cotija cheese, possibly white bean puree (my husband insisted the little white tub wasn’t beans….we couldn’t identify what it was….) and arugula. Besides that there were some other issues. My salad was good but my fish was a little dry and fishy tasting. I did enjoy the chiltepin achiote sauce. It made my fish taste better. It’s hard to tell the size of the fish from my photo but if you compare it to the pork belly appetizer in the upper left hand corner you might be able to tell that it is a very small sized dinner. It didn’t come with the sliced vegetable on top of the fish and doesn’t look like the example this restaurant made to impress the press. (press picture is below…..My fish dinner is also pictured below the press photo)

www.facebook.com

I saw this on Facebook so I thought I’d get a nice piece of fish instead od two very small dry ends.

There were some other issues.

I didn’t try it but I was told that the crispy pork & cola glaze pork belly was dry.

The chorizo porchetta was very large but also was very dry with even dryer sausage and not much flavor.

I was told on the phone when I was ordering that the dessert that I wanted wasn’t available for take out so we tried the other two options that were carrot cake and pumpkin bread pudding. I do note that I normally don’t care for carrot cake but can usually eat some. This one I tried a taste and I couldn’t eat. My husband couldn’t eat it either. I’m not even sure why I found the cake inedible……I didn’t really like the bread pudding but the sauces and toppings were very good. My dinner was very small portioned so I still was hungry and had to eat something so I ate half of the bread pudding.

I was saving Sel in Scottsdale for my last take out for restaurant week but sometime after their restaurant week menu was posted they changed their menu a little bit.

We were both good with corn soup, grilled asparagus salad with black truffle fondue and other stuff. A grilled New York and the Halibut. The seconded course sounds so amazing…..Grilled asparagus salad with black TRUFFLE potato fondu, GRAFRETTE (waffle cut sweet potato), organic farm EGG 63, caramelized onions…WOW!!!!!!

Then the day I was going to order take out I saw this on the Sel Website.

It’s still a very nice menu but it isn’t as great for us now. We are both good with corn soup as course one. The amazing sounding asparagus salad was replaced with a tomato stack………..My husband can’t eat a plate of raw tomatoes so this doesn’t work for him. …..(so we can’t go….(BAH!). He also would have ordered the Grilled New York over the Filet Mignon.

Bummer…….. maybe the change of menu was better for some people?

The Forking Truth is that Fall Restaurant Week in Metro Phoenix AZ 2020 wasn’t my favorite. 2020 isn’t my favorite year either.

The Forking Truth

Take Out Food During The CoronaVirus Pandemic In Metro Phoenix AZ Week 28 – Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante, The Mission, Angelina’s Pho & Grill, Tim Finnegan’s

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Experts say that take out food is a less risky option during the pandemic than dining in….. So to me it makes sense to do take out instead of dining in. All restaurants are struggling these days and we missed two or three vacations this year so we treat ourselves to extra take out food and try to help support small business restaurants. It makes me feel a little better about missing out on things and I feel better thinking that I am doing a good deed to help support small business restaurants.

This week we went to Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide for take out. Took my dogs on the way for a car ride. They love car rides. They knew where they were when we got here. They love Bottega.

My husband got the red lasagna and I tried the seasonal special of butternut squash ravioli. All was good here. They make delicious breads at Bottega that we started out with. The ravioli are what I call the flat style type because they are sort of on the flat side and don’t have much filling so they look a little flat. That makes them lighter so they aren’t too heavy. I also should mention that the filling that is in the raviolis is very flavorful and delicious. I like the way all that fresh sage infused the pasta with sage flavor. My in-laws make ravioli in this flat shape too. I also had this style ravioli at the Italian Restaurant that use to be in this spot many years ago called Tutti Santi. Gave my dogs some meat that was leftover from lunch.

It was still restaurant week so we thought we’d try the Mission at Kierland in Scottsdale.

We took out a stone fruit salad, crispy pork with cola lime glaze, red snapper al pastor, chorizo porchetta, carrot cake and pumpkin bread pudding. Some things were missing from the descriptions. The porchetta was missing cotija, bean puree and arugula. The salad was missing the goat horned brined cucumber and the fish came with sauces but little else. I did enjoy the chiltepin sauce that came with the fish. I thought it was really great and some of the other sauces were very complex and delicious that I tried. A few weren’t for my taste. These meals did not travel well and all were dry when we got them home. The driest of all was the sausage…..My snapper was a very small portion so I still had room for dessert ( look at top left appetizer because it is nearly the same size as an appetizer). I was told the dessert I wanted wasn’t available for take out so we tried the other two desserts that they were offing….(carrot cake and pumpkin bread pudding) I tried the carrot cake and it wasn’t for my taste or my husband’s taste. I’m not a big fan of bread pudding for dessert but the sauce and toppings were very good. My dogs didn’t mind the meat being dry.

“DOGS WIN! “When meats are dry we get MORE!”

We also did take out from Angelina’s Pho & Grill in Glendale/#UpperWestSide. (This restaurant by same ownership plans to change name to Lemongrass Vietnamese Bistro)

We took out the house stir fry with shrimp, chicken, egg, vegetables and rice noodles. We also took out the pan grilled salmon with vegetables and rice. The food is always different here. It’s also always different every time you order it. It’s a new restaurant every time you visit. Even the decor and paint change often. However the pho is always good and pretty much stays the same. The pho is officially among the best phos in the valley according to our local paper. Prices are always very reasonable. If I tell The Forking Truth….(like I always do) The service is usually bad…When you dine there sometimes you have to ask to get your beverage. They never clear plates. While you are still eating they will drop off a check and never ask you if you want dessert even though there was a dessert case filled with fancy desserts…Even when I phoned my order in I was put on hold…..sort of…..the person forgot I was on the phone and had a long conversation with someone. After maybe ten minutes of listening to their conversation I called back and the line was busy. I had to call a third time to order…… But the food is always at least good more often great so we go back. Dogs were happy to try some.

I haven’t been to Tim Finnegan’s in a while so we did take out there. It’s an Irish Restaurant located in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.

We ordered food items that we haven’t had here before. In the past we tried the fish and chips, a wasabi Caesar salad, corned beef, Shepard’s pie and those things were very good. Today we tried corned beef and cabbage taquitos, ahi tuna salad and bangers and mash with Heinz breakfast beans. Both of didn’t care for the taquitos because the filling was a blended up paste. The texture was off-putting to me…..but maybe other people might like it this way?? The ahi tuna salad was ok but not really too much like salad because it was over what seemed like slaw to me. The bangers and mash were all full of good flavors. Texture of banger was not the sausage type but more like a hot dog type. Gave my dogs some leftover dry porchetta from another take out.

That was week 28 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic.

Restaurant we did take out from-

Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide

The Mission – Scottsdale

Angelina’s Pho & Grill – Glendale/#UpperWestSide

Tim Finnegan’s – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide

Every THING is subject to change and we HOPE it DOES CHANGE for the better.

The Forking Truth

NEW WEird DIFfereNT Limited and Special Edition Foods out there for September 2020

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There is ALWAYS something New, Weird, Different, Limited or Special Edition out there in the wonderful world of food. These are what I came across lately. Halloween is only a month away so most of the Halloween foods are out by now.

NEW -Up above are Reese’s Peanut butter Franken Cups with green cream. I bet they still taste good!

NEW – Hershey’s Monster Kisses I love the little white tear papers that say creepy, yikes and eek. I wish they’d offer them all year long. The wrappers are great too decorated with bats and eye balls!

NEW – Hershey’s cookies ‘n’ creme Fangs. This looks more like a brick in the mouth than a fang in the picture….just saying

NEW – Hershey’s Vampire Kisses. They sound good with strawberry filling. If they are good they should offer these too all year long. I think it would be cute.

NEW – KitKat Witch’s Brew…..Not sure what these are. I don’t see any description on the package……??????? Could it be grasshopper flavored?

NEW – Snack Club Chili & Lime Tajin Peach Rings …….I’m not a fan of gummy things so don’t go by me on this one.

NEW – Totino’s Takis Fuego Hot Chili Pepper and Lime Bites with a cheesy mozzarella filling…..??? I like spicy and mozzarella….they sound intriguing but I don’t know if they taste good.

LIMITED EDITION – Cap’n Crunch’s Halloween Crunch with ghost that turn your teeth green…..Excuse my bad it says on box that turn MILK green….Is it my imagination but that thing in the spoon doesn’t look like a ghost to me and looks more like something x-rated to me.

NEW – Artificially flavored Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats in caramel chocolatey chunk….(ick…no I don’t have to try it)

NEW – General Mills Cinnamon Cheerios made with REAL cinnamon instead of artificial cinnamon!

NEW – Post Dunkin’ cereals of Mocha Latte and Caramel Macchiato…a lot of people out there love this stuff so maybe it’s good?

NEW – Limited Edition Haagen Dazs Ruby Cacao Ice Cream Bars – Oh yes I did! They are different. Sort of raspberry on the outside than ends with a milk chocolate aftertaste…..really different.

NEW – Red Truck Old Bay Seasoned Beef Jerky. Why The Fork not?

NEW – Quaker Hot & Spicy Buffalo Ranch Rice Crisps….sounds good…don’t know

DIFFERENT – Quaker Everything Rice Cakes – Sounds like it would go well with cream cheese?

DIFFERENT – Select Edition Deep River Mango Habanero Potato Chips….Sounds intriguing…..?????

DIFFERENT – Andean Gourmet Plantain & Coconut Chips in coconut, passion fruit and pineapple flavors……..???? I think it would be a treat to add to cereal or oatmeal.

NEW – Kahlua Nitro Cold Brew made with Rum and Coffee Liquor……Might be good?

NEW – Coca Cola with coffee…….Not for me but I bet many people will like it.

DIFFERENT – Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Thins…..???? I tasted the cauliflower thins from Costco and they were awful to me so I’m not going to try anything called cauliflowers thins even though I like cauliflower.

DIFFERENT – Trader Joe’s Turkeyless Plant Based Protein Patties…Are you going to gobble them down?

NEW – French’s Mustard Beer……?????………Not for me but might be good to wash down pretzels with.

SPECIAL EDITION – UTZ Halloween Mini Cheddar Cheese Balls. Don’t cry BOO hoo to me if you didn’t get any.

This next one I think is fake news….Someone sent it to me and I can’t find a thing about it anywhere….but it is funny so I included it.

MOST LIKELY IMAGINARY LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco Cheeseburger Oreo Cookies

Dug a little deeper and I did find a NEW Oreo.

NEW – Java Chip naturally and artificially flavored Oreo Cookies with coffee flavor cream and naturally and artificially flavored chips…..oh boy (;() what a treat…….

Well that was the NEW WEIIRD DIFFERENT Limited and Special Edition Foods out there for September 2020. Who Knows WTFork I’ll come across next month.

The Forking Truth

Yotam Ottolenghi Inspired Cabbage with Burnt Butter Black Garlic & Pumpkin Seeds

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I came across chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for Brussels sprouts with burnt butter and black garlic. Wow what a genius combination of things that I never would have thought of. Bunt butter, caraway seeds and black garlic is quite a combination. I didn’t have brussel sprouts at home but I did have cabbage so I thought that I can make a similar dish with cabbage. My recipe isn’t exactly the same but offers similar flavors. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. I also used a small cabbage so a bigger cabbage might give even more servings and also might take a little longer to cook.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 cabbage – cored – quartered – each quarter gets cut in 3 or 4 smaller wedges (I used a smaller cabbage)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil – to be sprayed or brushed on cabbage (I used a spray bottle so I didn’t measure…I honestly don’t think that I used this much oil)

fresh crushed sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1.75 oz black garlic (maybe around 2 Tablespoons chopped)

1 Tablespoon dried thyme

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

1 Tablespoon tahini

2 Tablespoons pomegranate seeds

Directions

Set oven to 500 degreed F.

Use a sheet pan (or two) and spray or wipe lightly with extra virgin olive oil.

You remove the core of the cabbage.

Then you quarter the cabbage.

Then each quarter gets sliced into 3 or 4 smaller wedges that go on your sheet pan. Then the slices get either sprayed or brushed with extra virgin olive oil and get seasoned with fresh crushed sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

This goes on preferably a middle rack in your ore-heated 500 degree oven for around 15 minutes. It’s not done yet. Flip the cabbage wedges over on other side so you can brown up the other side. Depending on size if will need 10 to maybe 15 minutes more.

While you are roasting the cabbage you should make the sauce.

In a small bowl add the caraway seeds, black garlic, thyme. Leave it on side.

In a small fry pan on high heat add the butter. It will turn brown quickly. Then take it off the heat. Now add the caraway seeds, black garlic, thyme, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Blend till smooth.

Pour over cabbage.

Add toasted pumpkin seeds.

Finish with a little tahini and pomegranate seeds.

Yotam Ottolenghi Inspired Cabbage with Bunt Butter, Black Garlic & Pumpkin Seeds and pomegranate

Serve right away and enjoy!

A Special THANKS! to Yotam Ottolenghi for coming uo with his FABULOUS Brussels sprouts with burnt butter and black garlic recipe. Without it I never would have made cabbage in a similar way.

The Forking Truth

Some of the Bread Recipes that you can find on The Forking Truth www.TheForkingTruth.com

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I’m baking less these days but was thinking that over the years I baked many delicious breads here. One thing I learned about baking bread is that all recipes for bread are not accurate. I know almost every time I follow a bread recipe I always have to make adjustments. Every brand of flour is ground different and produces different results. Also when you measure some people pack more flour into a cup than other people. There are other factors that also produce different results such as altitude, humidity, different ovens. The good news is that once you make your first really nice bread you almost don’t need a recipe for bread because you will learn quick what the dough should feel like. He are the breads. My apologies in advance if the recipe isn’t 100% accurate because of different brands of flour or other factors.

Up top is a beautiful classic boule bread.

Next one is dukkah feta cheese and barberry bread.

Dukkah Feta and Barberry Bread

Pumpernickel Bread

Pumpernickel Bread

Pizza bundt bread.

Bunt Pizza Bread

Rye Bread

Rye Bread

Twisted Date Bread

Twisted Date Bread

Hatch Chili and Roasted Red Pepper Challah

Hatch Chili and Roasted Red Pepper Challah Bread

Socca Bread

Socca with sautéed red peppers and onions

Butternut Squash Cinnamon Buns

Butternut Squash Cinnamon Bun

Scaccia Bread (also known as lasagna bread)

Scaccia also called Lasagna Bread

These are some of the breads that you can find on The Forking Truth.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of Little Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant in Old Town Glendale AZ

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Little Saigon is a small but charming Vietnamese Restaurant located in Old Town Glendale Arizona. They offer a large patio out front.

The building is lined with lots of plants and I noticed many pomegranates.

The first thing that you see when you enter is a large but clean fish tank. The last few times that I was here I got seated in the small dining room to the side. Here is another dining room were we picked up our take out.

Our timing was perfect and was ready and placed on a table the moment we walked in the door.

We started out by sharing the Bo Cuon La Nho (beef wrapped in grape leaves with vegetables, fresh herbs and rice paper.

If you never had this before then you can think of it like making a fajita but different. On the right is the rice paper. You have to soak a sheet of rice paper in warm water to make it soft. Then you add a stuffed grape leaf. Top the grape leaf roll with some rice noodles, fried shallots, peanuts, mint, cilantro, radish and roll it up like a burrito.

You’re not done yet. Your mini Vietnamese burrito gets wrapped in lettuce and then you dip it in fish sauce. Enjoy! After we finished these off I went to my main. This time I tried the Ga Xao Xa Ot (Chicken & Vegetables in lemongrass soy fish sauce)

This is not like anything I tasted before…It’s moist dark meat boneless chicken with broccoli and carrots in this sweet and funky sauce that has mild heat to it.

My husband tried the Tom Xao Thap Cam Cay (spicy shrimp stir fry with vegetables).

It looks like a nice assortment of vegetables. It has cabbage, snow peas, tomatoes and carrots. I was told that it was good but was very light with the heat.

The last time that I dined in I had the chicken and cabbage salad. It was refreshing crisp and light. It was just right on a hot Arizona day.

My husband had a pork rice plate with shrimp.

There are many more dishes that I want to try here so more are coming in the future.

That was a Little Taste of Little Saigon Restaurant in Old Town Glendale AZ.

I haven’t found a website for Little Saigon.

They are located at 7016 N 57TH Ave Glendale 85301

Call them for more information 623-939-6136

Everything is subject to change and we hope things do change for the better.

The Forking Truth

Take Out Food During The CoronaVirus Pandemic in Metro Phoenix AZ Week 27 – Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery, La Piazza Al Forno, Little Saigon, Zinc Bistro, Squid Ink Sushi Peoria

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We do take out food during the coronavirus pandemic because experts say that take out is safer than dining in. All restaurants are struggling these days and there is little to do safely so we do take out as much as possible.

One take out we did was from Banh Mi Bistro in North Phoenix. They are a small Vietnamese Eatery that offers most of your Vietnamese favorites except for pho.

Today I got the curry chicken with rice and my husband got the noodle bowl with grilled pork and shrimp. The food is always delicious, prices are very low and portions are very large. Not all but many of the meals can be two meals for some people. The owners are also very nice all the time. This is one of our regular spots. My dogs always love sharing the food from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery.

Next take out was from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale. They specialize in serving certified Neapolitan Pizzas. They also offer Roman Style Pizzas, American pizzas, Italian food and MORE!

Today we got the Tavola Mista (meats and cheeses, vegetables and more plate) an Italian Stallion Pizza (house made mozzarella, San Marzano Tomatoes, sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto di parma sopressata) and a Bianco pizza (house made mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, fresh basil, Sicilian oregano and extra virgin olive oil) with added Calabrian peppers. Everything was delicious and we shared some with the dogs.

I haven’t been to Little Saigon in Old Town Glendale in a long time. It’s a charming little Vietnamese restaurant that offers a long menu of many different Vietnamese foods. Decided to do take out there. The owners are family with the Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in Phoenix.

We tried some things that we haven’t tried here before. We started with the beef wrapped in grape leaves. It’s something like Vietnamese fajitas. You take a grape leaf that is stuffed with beef. You add a variety of vegetables, fresh herbs shallots, peanuts and rice noodles. You stuff them in a rice paper and wrap with lettuce and dip it in fish sauce.

They are very tasty……lots of good flavors here! It’s a treat!

For my main I had the Ga Xao Xa Ot (spicy chicken onions vegetables in lemon grass soy fish sauce. The dark meat boneless chicken was tender and tasty. The sauce was funky and kind of sweet. It was different but good to me. I never had anything that tasted like this before. But it wasn’t too spicy…just mild with slight heat. My husband enjoyed the tom xao thap cam cay (spicy shrimp stir fry with vegetables). It was good but also mild heat. My dogs enjoyed the food from Little Saigon too!

It’s restaurant week so we thought we’d try Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale because they were offering fresh truffles.

A few things were forgotten (including the truffles) but the mains were very good. I had an excellent Faroe Island Salmon. It was cooked to perfection. It came with carrots, roasted celery root, a salad of purslane and crispy sun chokes with truffle vinaigrette and this amazing barigoule (artichoke) sauce. My husband enjoyed the Prime Flat Iron Steak. It had this special black pepper crust, It was delicious and came with lots of seasoned fries and a complex sauce. My dogs sure enjoyed some meat scraps from Zinc Bistro.

P.S. my husband called to let them know they forgot the truffles so they would remove the truffles from our bill. They were extra generous and removed my whole meal from the check.

We decided that we could squeeze one more restaurant in. Our last take out of the week was from Squid Ink Sushi in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.

I haven’t tried their sushi yet but I did notice that they offer many dishes besides sushi that sound interesting. I wanted to try their Scottish Salmon because Scottish Salmon isn’t found anywhere in the Upper West Side. The salmon was prepared reasonably well and came with a variety of vegetables, LOTS of sliced avocado and tasty sushi rice. I think it’s a great find to find Scottish Salmon like this for only around $15.00. My husband tried the Beef Yakisobsa. It was also reasonably well prepared. It was made with very tender filet mignon and also came with a nice assortment of vegetables and Asian flavored soba noodles. As per usual my dogs couldn’t wait to try some.

“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all this delicious food”

That was week 27 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic in Metro Phoenix AZ.

The restaurants we did take out from this week –

Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Bistro – North Phoenix

La Piazza Al Forno – Old Town Glendale

Little Saigon – Old Town Glendale

Zinc Bistro – Scottsdale

Squid Ink Sushi – Peoria/#UpperWestSide

Every THING is subject to change and we HOPE it DOES CHANGE for the better.

The Forking Truth

Bundt Turkey Cabbage Roll With Sweet and Sour Tomato Sauce Recipe

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Fry’s had a buy one get one free sale on ground turkey and I had two heads of cabbage. I was thinking cabbage rolls…then I thought maybe they’d come out if I just made them in a bundt pan. The recipe might come out slightly better if you can find a very large head of cabbage. I had two small heads that have smaller leaves so I used around one and a half small cabbage heads..I don’t know if one large cabbage head is enough. Your cabbage bundt roll will taste better if you use left over rice that you made from stewing a chicken with some vegetables but many rice dishes will work here. I recommend to make this the day before you are serving it because it needs to chill over night and set. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. For me this makes 8 portions that I would serve with vegetables or a salad.

Ingredients for around eight servings

2 heads cabbage – remove cores (I used around one and half small heads the rest I just roasted till crispy in the oven with a little oil salt and pepper)

splash vinegar – (I used rice wine vinegar but my next choice would be apple cider vinegar)

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base (instead of salt in the meat. Adds more flavors and cuts salt content a little)

6 garlic cloves – ground to paste

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

2 Tablespoons Aleppo pepper

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika

1/2 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 pounds ground turkey (93%)

1/2 medium onion – fine chopped or minced

1/2 cup parsley leaves – chopped

3 eggs – slightly beaten

3 cups rice – (any kind of leftover rice but preferably from a stewed chicken dish)

neutral non stick spray

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 onion – fine chopped or minced

3 small Calabrian chili peppers – fine chopped (or to taste any hot pepper you like)

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

14 oz crushed Italian tomatoes

3/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon honey

Directions

In a big sauce pot add the cabbage leaves. Cover with water. Add a splash of vinegar and a tablespoon of sea salt. Boil cabbage leaves for 15 minutes. Drain cabbage leaves. Put them to the side and let them cool a little.

In a BIG mixing bowl add the soup base, garlic, 2 Tablespoons tomato paste, Aleppo pepper, paprikas, ground coriander, ground turkey, 1/2 minced onion, parsley, eggs and rice. Mix well.

Spray a bundt pan with non stick spray.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Cover pan well with cabbage leaves and place leaves in a way so that they will fold over the meat.

Add more cabbage leaves and fill with meat mixture.

Cover with more cabbage leaves.

Spray some aluminum foil with non stick spray and cover the pan tight and squish the cabbage down so you don’t have big spots that are empty.

This is very full so you need a pan under it so you don’t get spills in your oven.

This goes in a preheated 350 degree oven on the middle rack for ninety minutes.

While the Cabbage Bundt Roll its cooking make the sweet and sour tomato sauce.

Heat up 2 Tablespoons of olive oil bon medium high heat. Add the remaining onions, hot pepper, tomato paste, sea salt, ground black pepper. Cook til onions are transparent. Add crushed tomatoes, water, balsamic vinegar and honey. It’s done. Take off heat and let cool and then refrigerate.

The cabbage bundt roll also needs to cool on the counter and get refrigerated over night so it can set. Squish the top down carefully because you want the bottom cabbage to lie flat as it cools and sets.

The next day heat them together. (whole or in sliced portions…I do sliced portions)

Bundt Turkey Cabbage Roll With Sweet And Sour Tomato Sauce

Enjoy! This really is Forking Delicious!

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth is that it Seems like my local Costco in Phoenix AZ Stopped Caring about the Coronavirus Pandemic

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The Forking Truth is that It seems like my local Costco (a paid membership grocery/warehouse) in Phoenix Arizona doesn’t care about the pandemic anymore. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am NOT talking about shopping at Fry’s or Safeway or any of the other local supermarkets. Shopping at regular places is different because they don’t pay people to stand at the entrance to check for masks. I am only taking about my visit to Costco because they are different. They are a paid membership grocery/warehouse that PAYS people to check for membership and for entering the store wearing masks. Last week many people entered my local Costco and didn’t wear masks and some people wore masks improperly. Costco used to have the highest standards. They’ve installed plexiglass walls between the cashiers and customers.

They used to sanitize the shopping carts. They used to only let in a certain amount of people at a time.

They used to have 6 foot spaces marked on the floors. Costco pays employees to check people entering for membership cards and also for wearing masks.

It seem like things have changed. I saw all this on my last shopping visit last week. I tried to block out part of the customers faces for privacy.

The Forking Truth is that It seems like my local Costco stopped caring about the coronavirus pandemic. They pay people out of our membership dues for people at the door to screen for mask. They can’t control the people who don’t care about using their mask correctly but they should control the amount of people they let in that don’t wear masks. They can and help stop the spread and should. I also note that I don’t know if all Costco locations are similar. I am only talking about my local Costco in North Phoenix AZ.

Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.

The Forking Truth