Mercer’s Restaurant is located in Peoria Arizona. They are a family owned and operated restaurant since 1987. They serve comfort foods at reasonable prices and are open seven days a week from 6am – 8:30pm. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also offer daily specials.
Every table is full and people keep coming. Many people are here for take out too!
Mercer’s Restaurant is on the end of a mostly deserted mall.
The menu reads that salmon is a favorite here so I should get it?
So I ordered it.
Dinners come with salad or soup.
The above salad is what you get with dinners.
The baked potato is light and fluffy and I like the soft butter that goes with it. I also think that the tartar sauce is unusually good……The salmon taste similar to the frozen salmon from my local Safeway. The texture of the fish has a lack of succulence. It also contains that fishy taste……………………The carrots are not tasty to me. I can’t identify what is on them.
My husband got the chicken fried steak with potato salad. He said, “It’s ok but not the best.”
I tried the potato salad. It’s a little too creamy for me but does have good flavorings to it.
Why critique this?
Some people judge restaurants by the amount of business that they have.
H Mart is the largest Korean/American Supermarket Chain in America. They have around 85 locations nationwide and also have a few locations in Canada and London. We took a trip to our closest H Mart in Mesa Arizona and these are only a few of things we came across.
Interesting melons
fresh durian fruit
red skinned passion fruit
jujube crunch
fresh wood ear mushrooms and lots of other interesting mushrooms
fresh lily bulb
ginseng
The largest scallions
wagyu beef
yellow chives
garlic stems
green radish
salted egg salmon skin
wasabi pea crackers
live fish …actually the fish section was very large and didn’t smell either. They also offered a lot of frozen fish too..
dried fish
wafu dressing
After we shopping we decided to have lunch in the Market Eatery also known as the H Mart Food Court.
Here is Paris Baguette. Lots of baked goods.
Food Garden
Sogongoong Tofu & BBQ – This was my first choice but they were out of the mackerel I wanted to try.
Jeong’s Noodle
Meisen Katsu – breaded cutlet meals
Korean Fried Chicken
Da Pan …This one seemed interesting to me. I thought I’d like the spicy chicken topaki and my husband thought he’d like the bulgogi Risotto. They also have some weird sounding dishes like Dorito Mac and Cheese here.
This is pretty weird…..It looks like a pizza but it is without crust. I didn’t know that they would sprinkle cheese on it. It’s made of chicken, chewy rice cakes, fish cakes, cabbage, carrots in a sweet but medium spicy sauce….The sauce taste something like that sweet sauce that goes on cabbage rolls. This is weird to me…….It’s a lot of sweet sauce….It came radish kimchi with a soup that frightened me….because I thought looked like urine so I didn’t even try it. Good thing this chicken dish was a big portion because me and my husband ate this because the other dish we both couldn’t stomach.
We thought we would be getting something like this because it is the picture of the dish from the business posted as menu on www.Yelp.com It looks good doesn’t it? I also remember our last food critic from our local newspaper wrote about how great this dish was…..I guess Da Pan made him this version.
www.Yelp.com menu
But we got this instead.
I tell The FORKING Truth so I have to say that……..It’s really grosser than it looks. Honest to GOD!>>>It’s like they took a brick of cream cheese and put the bulgogi in a blender with the cream cheese with not much else and mixed it with rice.
It’s like vomit on a skillet.
I did better with some of the vegetables that I picked up at H Mart.
Endives fried in chicken fat with lime, peanuts, basil, mint, yellow chives
Bok Choy Garlic Stems & Chestnuts in Banchan Sauce
I came across this recipe by chef Louis Robinson and decided to give it a try. It’s delicious. It is also very easy. Mix up easy marinade. Then marinate your boneless, skinless chicken thighs for 2-3 hours. Cook them up and enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 servings
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons yuzu juice
1/2 teaspoon togarashi
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
Directions
Mix up the soy sauce, sesame oil, yuzu juice, and togarashi. Put your chicken thighs in a gallon zip lock bag and then add marinade, squeeze out air and zip it up. Squish the marinade around the chicken and refrigerate around 2 hours but no longer than three. Take chicken out of the refrigerator and let it warm up around 30 minutes. You can can cook it however you like. I did mine in a fry pan on medium high heat at around 5-6 minutes a side. Add sesame seeds.
Serve with vegetables or a salad. (Mine is with Asian style cucumber sesame scallion salad. (That recipe was posted only two days back)
Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Thighs with Yuzu and Sesame
A special THANKS to chef Louis Robinson so I could do this Forking Amazing Dish!
Maya Ice Cream Rolls serves a variety of Thai Style dressed ice cream rolls. The ice cream is made right in front of your eyes on a special metal sheet that freezes the cream. Then the ice cream gets scraped off the sheet into a roll shape.
In addition to the ice cream rolls Maya offers sweet and also savory crepes. Some of the crepes are tiki masala, fajita, Nutela, and Biscoff.
You can seat yourself inside or on the patio.
Doors to the patio.
I tried the tropical fusion ice cream rolls.
The ice cream is vanilla based with added mango, pineapple, coconut and condensed milk. This one is delicious!
Here’s the choco loco.
This one is chocolate based with brownies, chocolate chips and chocolate drizzle. This one is only mildly chocolate flavored.
There is another location of Maya ice Cream rolls in Arrowhead Town Center (The Mall).
Their website is incomplete at the moment but you can find Maya Ice Cream Rolls on Facebook.
I made Asian marinated chicken thighs with yuzu so I wanted to make a nice light side dish and I happened to have 2 cucumbers and some scallions that I needed to use up so here it is. This make either 4 small side servings or two larger servings.
Ingredients for two servings
4 cucumbers , peeled, seeds removed, cut in sticks
8 scallions – cut diagonally
2 common large red radishes – match stick cut
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon mirin
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
4 dried bird’s eye chili – crumbled
1/4 cup cilantro leaves – chopped
3 Tablespoons sesame seeds
sea salt to taste
Directions
Everything goes in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Salt to taste and ENJOY!
Asian Style Cucumber Sesame Scallion Salad
Enjoy!
It will go well with yuzu and sesame marinated chicken thighs. (I’ll publish that recipe in two days)
yuzu & sesame marinated chicken thighs with Asian style cucumber sesame & scallion salad
******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS *****Smashers EATS is a casual full service not too fancy inexpensive restaurant located in a strip mall in North Phoenix Arizona. The main dig at Smashers EATS are various smash style burgers but they also offer other things. They also offer appetizers, salads, various sandwiches, a few entrees, some pasta dishes, a children’s menu, milk shakes, some desserts and alcohol. They also do make some home made desserts …….I heard that the specialties are cheese cake and cookies….but they are made on Tuesdays so by the weekend they are all gone.
It looks like you order at the counter but you don’t and seat yourself instead.
The walls are bricked and decorated with lit stain glass panels.
A few big screen TVs are on the walls. The Table tops are unique with carving and colors.
My husband went with a 6oz. green chili burger (doubled (ANOTHER 6oz….for $3.00 more and brought some burger home for the dogs) and picked onion rings as his side.
Under the seeded bun top are some pickles, lettuce and tomato slices. In the mouth was a juicy nicely seasoned delicious burgers with a good amount of melty pepper jack cheese, bacon and green chilies. He got a generous amount of crispy onion rings with it too!
I had the house cured pastrami melt with Cole slaw as my side.
Just the way I like it!
Really greatly thin grilled toasty marble rye and the tasty delicious flavorful pastrami. It had the just right amounts of sauerkraut Russian Island dressing and melty Swiss cheese. WOW! It was a YUM-DINGER! The Cole slaw was really great too. Nice fresh and crunchy with the just right amount of sweetness.
I don’t know how everything is at Smashers Eats but the smash style burgers and the cured in-house pastrami melts are recommended.
******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS********
I haven’t found a website for Smashers EATS but they are on Facebook.
Halo Halo Kitchen is a casual Filipino Restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona. This restaurant is mostly cafeteria style and also offers some grocery and desserts. Parking is easy because they are in a strip mall. You might be wondering what does Halo Halo mean? The restaurant might be named after Halo Halo the popular Filipino dessert of shaved ice, evaporated milk, and may contain boiled beans, coconut, palm tree starch, jelly, potatoes, and fruit.
Halo Halo Delux
Here is the cafeteria line.
You either order what is on the line or order off a menu board. They offer all day Filipino breakfast plates called silog plates that were only $8.95 today. (subject to change)
Today (Saturday) They also have Lechon (roasted baby pig). I noticed that the Sunday special is Filipino spaghetti with fried chicken.
Halo Halo offers many other Filipino foods that are a fusion of Spanish, Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian & American. I made a cheat sheet of some of the dishes so I’d know what they are.
fish case mostly sold out alreadymenu
Halo Halo is also part grocery store with dry goods, frozen foods and refrigerated food and also sells pastries and desserts.
Once you decided on your order you pay and seat yourself with a number card. They will run out whatever you didn’t get to pick up.
After your meal you might want to visit the dessert bar for a Halo Halo, a boba slushy or a flan.
Some of the dishes we tried here were.
all day breakfast Sisig plate with pork.
corned beef Sisig plate (our mutual least favorite)
grilled pompano fish with bittermelon vegetable medley and steamed rice
tofu, eggplant, vegetable dish with rice
coconut chicken
adobo pork
beef dish
adobo pork more recently (this plate was only $6.75….subject to change)
It doesn’t cost much to dine here. Two meals today were only with tax $18.00.
That was a taste of Halo Halo Kitchen in Phoenix AZ.
I was looking for those blocks of achiote because that tasted amazing with the vegetarian pibil I recently made. For some reason I couldn’t find the achiote at the store and picked up a box of Sazon seasoning instead. So I made Spanish Style Stewed Turkey leg quarters with it and man did this come out FORKING Great! I also used local award wining James Beard Nominated chef Silvano Salcido Esparza’s BBMEXQ seasoning salt. I don’t mean to brag but I am very good at stewing chicken and turkey so I knew exactly how to come up with this. This recipe made 6 – 4oz portions of turkey for me. You might have to thin it a little with some water or stock. The next day the potatoes and vegetables will absorb even more liquid…Your idea of serving size may differ.
Ingredients for 6 servings
2 whole turkey leg quarters (preferably brined or dry brined)
4 carrots – peeled, chopped
2 parsnips – peeled, chopped
4 celery – chopped
2 small onions – diced
1 head garlic – fine chop
2 – 14oz cans chopped tomatoes (preferably Italian so they taste better)
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 cup water
4 small bay leaves
2 teaspoons sugar
2 (heaping) Tablespoons reduced sodium better than bouillon vegetable base. (I use this as a substitute for salt sometimes…It adds more flavor and has less sodium in it)
1 lemon – quarter
24 olives
2 potatoes – quarter
1/2 oz fresh thyme sprigs
4 packs Sazon (4 unopened packs weigh 24g)
2 teaspoons BBMEXQ Saladito seasoning salt made by chef Silvano Salcido Esparza
Directions
Set the oven to 350 degrees F and have a middle rack ready for your two pans. Do not use the oven for cooking other things or your cooking time will be increased.
Use either two large baking dishes or two buffet half pans.
Fill the pans equally with the carrots, parsnips, celery, onions, garlic, chopped tomato, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, water, bay leaves, sugar, vegetable bouillon, lemon, olives, potatoes, fresh thyme.
It should look something like this.
Get your 4 packs of Sazon.
Rub one packet on the front of each leg quarter and one pack on the back of each leg quarter.
Then place one leg quarter in each pan.
Sprinkle the BBMEX Saladito seasoning salt evenly over the tops of everything.
Cover tight with foil. Place on middle racks in the oven.
This stays in the oven till fully cooked and you can pull the leg apart. Ovens do differ so timing may differ. Mine took 3 1/2 hours. The house smells insanely delicious just before this gets done.
I don’t use thermometers for meat anymore because every thermometer that I have reads a different degree and they differ by a lot.
You want the turkey to be fully cooked with no blood and you want the leg to fall apart between the leg and thigh and you know it is done.
Pull the turkey quarters out of the pan to cool and in about an hour you can pull the skin off and pull the turkey meat from the bones.
In the stew part you want to remove the lemon wedges, the bay leaves and the thyme sprigs. This needs to cool to room temperature and then you can refrigerate it or freeze what you don’t need.
You might want to add some cilantro and pickled onions to serve.
Stuffed Chile Gueros are yellow chili peppers that you often find in Mexican restaurants. Often they are stuffed with shrimp or marlin fish. The heat of the peppers are always different. They run from extra mild up to spicy. More often than not they do have some heat in them. The sauce that goes on them is usually made with soy sauce and is very simple. Anyone can do this. This recipe is just for what you do to the chili pepper. Usually they are stuffed with shrimp or marlin but I have stuffed them with tuna before.. I think they’d be good stuffed with sardines too. I think almost any leftover meat would be good in them. Today I stuffed mine today with plain grilled tenderloin (just salt, pepper, a little oil) and stuffed it into the peppers and drizzled mine with a little bit of guajillo sauce I made. You can stuff them with whatever you like. These guero peppers come in different sizes so portions are difficult to judge. My guess is that this is around three servings for most size peppers. When I had them in Mexican restaurants the peppers seemed just heated up with the filling. I pre-roasted mine and mine are not traditional but Mexican Style.
Ingredients for around 3 servings
1 lb guero chili peppers – Use gloves – t cut and remove core and seeds
1 small onion – sliced extra thin
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice + plus more lime for serving
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, some fine stems ok – chopped or torn
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F
Set up your cleaned and cut peppers with cores removed on a baking sheet. Add the onion evenly to the peppers.
In a small mixing bowl mix together the oil, soy sauce and lime juice.
The liquid you just mixed up gets poured over the peppers. Add salt and pepper to taste. This goes in a preheated 400 degree oven for around 30 minutes or until the peppers are charred some.
Stuff the peppers with whatever you have.
The peppers and onions are tasty. Finish with some fresh cilantro.
I was reading a recipe on how to make creamy Jalapeño salsa. I was shocked at how much oil was used in their recipe. I only used a quarter of the oil, added way more jalapeños and added a small avocado that I had hanging around. My jalapeños that I used were on the mild side. Serving size is difficult to judge. This makes 8 or more servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
1 lb jalapeños – cut in half long ways, remove cores and stems
12 garlic cloves
2 cups water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 avocado – seed removed, flesh scooped out and rough cut
1/4 cup cilantro or epazote or a combination
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
Directions
The water goes in a sauce pot on high heat. Add the jalapeños and the garlic. Reduce to simmer and let them simmer 10 minutes. After 10 minutes of simmering drain the jalapeños and garlic. They get blended with the salt, lime juice, olive oil, avocado, pepper and herbs. Make any adjustments to the seasoning.
