About once a year I make my pastrami, rye bread or rolls, some sort of mustard and a slaw. This year I used sake instead of beer in my mustard so I did a little Asian Twist on slaw and it came out really great! Serving size is always difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a tiny side cup or a true side order. This stuff really is tasty. You might eat more slaw than you normally do. I will guesstimate 6 large servings (large to me for slaw) but you might really get 8.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1/2 small cabbage – shredded thin on mandolin
1 carrot – shredded
1/2 onion sliced thin on mandolin
2 small avocados – mashed
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 Tablespoons bonito flakes – split onto 2T& 2T (sold at Asian Markets) (2T for salad and 2T for finishing)
1 teaspoon dry dill
1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parley
1 Tablespoon wasabi powder (or to taste..)
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon shiso fumi furikake (sold at Asian Markets) (for finishing)
1/4 cup scallions – either sliced thin or on a diagonal (for finishing)
Directions
In a large bowl mix up the dressing. Combine the avocado, yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, granulated onion, garlic, chives, parsley, wasabi, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. Mix well. Mix in the cabbage, carrot, and onion. Mix well.
Serve
Finish with bonito flakes, furikake, and scallions
Avocado Wasabi Slaw with Furikake and Bonito Flakes
There is always something new, weird, different, limited and special edition out there in the wonderful world of food. We never know WTFork we will come across when we shop for food. Below are a few of what I’ve found while shopping for food.
Up above are
DIFFERENT – Trader Joe’s Strawberry & Yogurt Pretzels. They look and sound tasty….Maybe they are????????
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Trader Joe’s VEGAN Peanut Butter Caramel coated Popcorn. Sounds tasty…don’t know.
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Trader Joe’s cheese & truffle flavored corn snacks. These are Very GOOD and are made with real truffle.
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Trader Joe’s Crispy Thai Chilies & sesame seed snack……I almost bought them. Maybe next time? Hope that they are still there.
DIFFERENT – Trader Joe’s Cassava and Coconut tortilla chips. I don’t know if I would like the coconut taste with salsa?
DIFFERENT – Trader Joe’s HOT crispy habanero peppers. Sure why not?
WEIRD – Trader Joe’s House cranberry cosmo Wine cocktail in a can. …..(ick)
NEW – Trader Joe’s dark chocolate dipped puffed peanut corn snacks……..OMG these are really great and extra hard to stop eating. Good luck stopping.
WEIRD – Twice shakers seasoning blend. For people who are to lazy to crush up a Twix.
WEIRD – Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnadust seasoning blend….Great for the same people that are too lazy to crush up cinnamon toast cereal. Just be stupid and buy all the leftover crumbs from the factory.
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – General Mills Plentiful cereals in peanut butter coated flakes with nut and seed clusters….and cinnamon almond butter coated flakes with nut and seed clusters….his same brand of cereal put out a cereal called Clusters…..They thought they’s be slick changing the name…….
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW? Post Premier Protein in mixed berry almond flavor ???
DIFFERENT? and maybe NEW? = Post Premier Protein chocolate almond cereal..?????
NEW and maybe LIMITED EDITION – Pringles Scorching Wavy Loaded Nachos potato formed chips….Loaded nachos usually the Pringles are flavored well…but their chips are pressed potato and who knows what else.
DIFFERENT – Bumblebee Brand wild caught tuna seasoned with sriracha…….Not sure if that would be good? Would the sriracha be too strong without mayo for the tuna? But maybe it is good? I wonder?
DIFFERENT – Magnolia UBE sweet purple yam premium ice cream…..at a regular grocery store.
And there is usually something Oreo to be found.
DIFFERENT – Mrs Freshley’s Delux Oreo Mini Brownies with Oreo cookie pieces.
This recipe is by Gabriela Duhart who is a consultant with Humane Society International. I came across this recipe and thought wow it would be pretty cool to make carrot lox. I thought I’d give this recipe a try on my home made mini bagels (mini bagel recipe not published as of yet)
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 carrots – boiled for 8 minutes and cooled
2 Tablespoons caper brine (liquid from a jar of capers)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon miso paste
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped dill
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2/3 cup warm water
Directions
Slice the carrots into thin strips or sheets using a fine knife or vegetable peeler.
in a bowl (or a ziplock bag) combine the remaining ingredients and the carrots.
Marinate the carrots in the refrigerator. One hour will add little flavor. I tried them after letting them sit overnight and I thought the dominate flavor was soy sauce. Then I let them go longer. I thought I got the most and best flavors around 5 days latter.
Remove carrots from marinade and serve.
Humane Society Vegan Carrot Lox on home made mini bagel
I think that if you are vegan that this is a good recipe………..but……. It doesn’t actually taste like real lox plain. But it almost taste like lox in the home made mini bagel all dressed up. Those were my FORKING Thoughts on The Humane Society Vegan Lox Recipe.
The Collins Bros. Chophouse is located in Scottsdale Arizona and is a sister…..or is it a “brother” restaurant of the chef Christopher Collins Common Ground Culinary Group of restaurants and catering. Across the street from this NEW Chophouse is “brother restaurant” Grassroots Kitchen & Tap, and also Sweet Provisions – Ice Cream, Candy, and Dessert Shop. Other “Brother” Restaurants are……. The Collins, The Macintosh, The Brotherly, Arcadia Catering, and soon to open St Urban.
The Collins Bros. Chophouse offers a very similar American Comfort food menu to the other Common Ground Restaurants but with a few Chophouse additions. They offer a rotating menu of seafood soups, fresh oysters, other starters, salads, burgers, sandwiches, rotisserie chicken,
The Rotisserie
house specialties and butcher shop. A few of those items are baby back ribs, Scottish salmon, Maryland style crab cakes, prime ribs, center cut filets, and a dry aged porterhouse. They also offer a children’s menu.
Outside they offer a patio with misters.
Inside was very busy and it was difficult to photo dodging servers, customers and management.
insidebar and kitchen area
My husband started with the HH two buck shuck.
HH – Two Buck Shuck
Three fresh oysters with cocktail sauce and drawn butter. He said that they were fresh tasting but not the brine-ee type.
We shared another Happy Hour food and went with the cauliflower wings.
They have a crunchy panko type coating and are made with sriracha aioli and are topped with cilantro and sesame seeds. Tasty but they are more like nuggets than wings……They are good for most people but might be slightly salty to sensitive people.
For my main I went with the rotisserie chicken chophouse style.
It a half rotisserie chicken (breast, small thigh, tiny leg, with really perfect onion rings and Pommery mustard sauce. The chicken seems infused with good chicken flavors. I tried the thigh and that is juicy and good. The breast has good flavors but is a bit dry tonight. It’s tasty with the mustard sauce.
We also shared a side order of mixed greens.
They are fresh and seasoned nicely. They are a mix of greens. Some are spinach, it looks like Swiss chard in there and some greens are artichoke hearts.
My husband tried the bone-in veal parmesan (served Thursday – Saturday) with house made pasta, San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella and red pepper flakes.
He said the veal was tender but could have been seasoned more. I tasted a small piece of pasta and the sauce did seem bland. He thinks that the red pepper flakes might have been missing.
Desserts are not to be missed at the Collins Restaurants. I was too full for dessert tonight so I did take out a coconut cream pie because it is always a winner.
It’s not as pretty as a dine-in version but still is just as delicious the next day. It is really FORKING Delicious! Even my husband who is a hater of coconut cream pies loves it.
They gave me a second dessert. The butter cake…..Maybe by accident? Or maybe because the coconut cream pie looked sort of damaged?
It’s a very different looking butter cake. I’ve never seen one that looks like this before. Usually they are all melted and very gooey looking. They also gave us ice cream (that made it home on a 30 minute ride, whipped cream that is very buttery, and strawberry sauce. Both me and my husband have never liked butter cakes. I guess they just are too buttery for us…..But this Butter cake is different. It’s more like a pound cake….We can eat that…It’s just a good cake! YUM!
Collins Bros. Chophouse is Newly Opened in Scottsdale AZ
www.CollinsBrosAZ.com
8220 N Hayden Rd Scottsdale AZ
480-699-0811
Everything is subject to change…an it usually does.
West Hut African Cuisine is located in the Midtown Area of Phoenix Arizona. It’s located across from Park Central.
It’s casual inside with wait service.
At the time of my visit only soft beverages are served but it appears that a liquor license is pending.
We started out by sharing the kelewele (spiced tasty plantains)
The entrees don’t have African Names.
I tried the dish called The West Hut with chicken with jollot rice (Ghana style). Most of the entrees are chicken, beef, or goat.
I received a skin on, bone-in chicken leg and part of breast covered in a tomato based sauce with a side of spicy pepper sauce. I also received plain plantains, a little salad garnish and the jollot rice. It’s all tasty. I think anyone would like it.
My husband got the I Love Spinach dish with chicken and Fufu.
He got either the same chicken or a very similar chicken but the spinach is tasty and flavored different. It’s also slightly spicy. Neither of us ever had fufu before. It’s really interesting. You pinch some off and make a tortilla to eat the food. The fufu almost taste like mashed potatoes but with little flavor.
Our server was helpful guiding us threw the menu and made suggestions.
West Hut African Cuisine Newly Opened in Phoenix AZ – Check it out!
I sure learned a lot from Chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry (and Radish…..online the radish is omitted from the name of recipe ) aguachile recipe. I had no idea that you can lightly cook strawberries and come up with such an amazing strawberry sauce that is truly amazing. I just had to do parts of the recipe different. I also didn’t want to throw out vegetable and fruit solids that tasted so good and added healthy fiber and nutrition to the dish. I cut out some of the straining. I also cut out picking out seeds from tiny chitepin peppers (who does that?), and icing up and drying chopped scallions before serving (it really is a nice touch but………). Also picking off cilantro leaves one by one. The big one that I couldn’t agree with was not using one third of a roasted pepper because it was just too much roasted red pepper…….(how could that that be?….the roasted pepper is so darn delicious. By not doing all those things I guess what I made is no longer aguachile and really is a cold soup. >>>>>>>>Also I think I simplified the cooking of the strawberries. It is also very hard to keep a simmering bowl of water under a bowl with 2 pounds of strawberries for an HOUR…..I made that easier by cooking them in a low oven. This recipe was based from chef Claudette Zepeda’s Food & Wine Magazine Recipe. It came out delicious anyway. You need to know that this is a very time consuming recipe…I cut out some steps and it still is very time consuming. You are welcome to strain everything all you want if you care to. If you strain everything you will have a true aguachile but you also will end up with much less.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 red bell pepper – roasted – stem, skin, seeds, removed and chopped
2 1/2 pounds strawberries – stems removed, quartered divided into 2 pounds and 1/2 pound that is reserved for topping the aguachile
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 medium scallions – root cut off – white and light green chopped – separate the dark green part and trim thin on a diagonal
1/4 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped and reserve 6 of the thicker stems, chop the stems but keep them separate
4 regular radishes sliced thin or use any radish you want. You just need a little to garnish each bowl.
radish micro greens for garnish
optional sea salt flakes for finishing
Directions
Set your oven to 180 degrees F.
In a large baking dish or pan add 2 pounds (remember you should have reserved 1/2 pound) strawberries. Sprinkle the strawberries with salt and sugar. Cover the pan and place on the middle rack of your preheated oven. This stays in the oven for an hour.
Take a break…or do the next step and put it off to the side and into the refrigerator.
Combine the cucumber, lime juice, lemon juice, chiltepin peppers, bell pepper, white and light green scallions, reserved cilantro stems. Blend till smooth.
By now your strawberries should be out of the oven. You need to place them in a colander over a bowl to catch the juices that leak out. This will take another HOUR.
All the strawberry juice gets added to the cucumber/strawberry juice mixture. Blend up the strawberries till smooth and add that also to the cucumber mixture till smooth.
This needs to chill in the refrigerator a few hours before serving.
Assemble – divide the aguachile into 4 servings. Top each bowl with the remaining strawberries, radish slices, cilantro, scallions, radish sprouts. Add flaked salt if you like.
Strawberry Aguachile Style Cold Soup
A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for inspiring me to do my twist on their amazing recipe.
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen, and dynamite! WOW what a great surprise . You just don’t always know when a FANTABULOUS dish will show up. This salad just blew both of us away. It’s only named Arugula salad. I picked it to share as an appetizer instead of chips because it sounded lighter and healthy. I wasn’t expecting jaw dropping fireworks of flavors……
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar in Peoria AZ
This salad is made of avocado, watermelon, red onion (pickled), pico, toasted pepitas, cotija cheese, and this MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette.
I need to mention as astonishingly delicious as this salad is ………I must mention that it is spicy HOT. Borderline too hot for me but it was so DAM delicious I had to keep eating it. You get sweet from the watermelon, creamy from the avocado, hot and delicious from the MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette, Umami from the cheese, yummy from the pepitas and the right amount of bitter from the arugula. It’s far more delicious than I can describe. You can also add on protein to this dish if desired.
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar is an official FANTABULOUS DISH and is WORTH A FORK!
REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar
15703 N 83rd Ave Peoria AZ (a second location is in Phoenix)
About once a year I make pastrami and about once a year I make rye bread or rye rolls and a mustard. I usually make a beer mustard but this year I didn’t have any beer at home so I thought what tastes like beer here?….I thought Sake! So I made one jar of Sake Mustard. It’s similar to the beer mustard but is a bit sweeter. You do need a spice grinder to make this mustard. I made it a mix of ground and whole seeds…This recipe makes the perfect amount to fill a small Ball 1/2 pint canning jar. I’ll guesstimate around 8 servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
4 1/2 Tablespoons black mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
3 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
2 allspice berries
7 juniper berries
2 Tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 Tablespoon ground mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
5 Tablespoons sake
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon mirin
Directions
Grind up the mustard seeds except for the reserved seeds if desired. Grind up the allspice and juniper seeds and mixup everything that is left together (honey, garlic, pepper, turmeric, ground mustard, salt, sake, vinegar, mirin.
Enjoy!
Sake Mustard
Here’s this years rye rolls.
rye rolls with sake mustard
Here’s this years pastrami.
smoked pastrami
Did it only slightly different. Basically the same recipe November 2020 but separated the point from the flat of the brisket and used the flat for pastrami. Actually my husband separated them for me. He volunteered so I let him do it because I thought I might hack it up. He also did the beautiful slicing.
George Yang’s Chinese Cuisine is located in the west camelback area of Phoenix Arizona. They serve mostly American Chinese Food like noodle dishes, egg foo young, moo shu, and fried rice. They also offer some foods that are somewhat upscale STYLE for American Chinese restaurants like filet mignon, scallops with mushrooms and zucchini, and black truffle fried rice. They also offer a healthy menu if you need your food steamed, gluten free or low carb. You can also find an extensive wine list. While this is not a truly upscale restaurant the service was impeccable in an upscale style sort of way.
It’s formal and neat inside.
Interesting bottles of liquors accent the wall
They offer many of the usual starters like spring rolls and crab puffs.
Our server said that they are Chinese French Fries that are better than regular French Fries. They are kinda like potato sticks that are tossed with onions and scallions that are mixed with a little bit of Asian sauce. They also are a very generous serving….actually all the plates are very generous from what we tried.
Tonight we shared the spicy fish and the black truffle fried rice.
The spicy fish is a mild white fish that is more crispy than spicy…..actually it is so darn crispy that they could win a prize for crispiest fish ever. I do need to add that the fish inside the hard crust is astonishingly prepared to perfection……It’s served with tender crisp broccoli and is in a black bean sauce that taste kinda sweet like spicy duck sauce and also salty from soy sauce.
Here’s the black truffle fried rice.
It’s not the usual fried rice. It does have a really nice black truffle aroma. It’s made with some sort of ground up black truffle. Most of the rice seemed steamed but it also is studded with a little bit of crunchy rice and soft fried egg.
Service was very professional and efficient.
That was my trip to George Yang’s Chinese Cuisine in Phoenix AZ (This is a sister restaurant of the George and Sons restaurants….so if you are a fan of them then you will be a fan of George Yang’s Chinese Cuisine)
Mrs Whites Golden Rule Cafe is located in downtown Phoenix near to Chase Field in Arizona.This soul food restaurant is an institution to Phoenix and has been in business since 1964. They offer very good not fancy but a limited menu of HOMESTYLE southern style comfort foods like……. fried chicken, smothered pork chops, fried catfish, oxtails, chicken fried steak, macaroni and cheese, cabbage and rice, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, soft beverages, and sometimes desserts. You also do need to keep in mind that you need to follow the golden rule here. You will not receive your bill and must go to the window to pay when you are done.
Celebrities have dined at Mrs Whites such as James Brown, Jesse Jackson, The Queen of Soul Herself Aretha Franklin, and according to AZCentral American Politician John McCane was a regular.
This isn’t a fancy place.
inside
It’s a bit old and worn. It looks like a little old diner inside.
Inside is a shrine to Mrs White.
I had the humble golden brown Southern Fried Chicken with sweet potatoes and macaroni salad.
The chicken was perfectly crisp and perfectly seasoned and moist inside. Nothing fancy or different…..Just perfect delicious fried chicken with some crispy fried skin. The sweet potatoes were very creamy and sat in this slightly sweet buttery liquid…….The corn bread is slightly dry like cornbread is suppose to be…(it’s the Yankee style that is moist and sweet)… I liked dipping the corn bread into the sweet buttery sweet potato liquid. It’s a large portion so for some this might be more than one meal.
My husband tried the chicken fried steak with macaroni and cheese and also the black eyed peas.
He said that the chicken fried steak really was the best one that he remembers eating. He also like dunking his cornbread into my sweet potato liquid. He liked the macaroni and cheese and the black eyed peas.
I didn’t stuff myself silly….although I could have and saved room for dessert but none were available tonight.
That was my trip to Mrs White’s Golden Rule Cafe in Phoenix Arizona
Worth a Fork!
Worth a Fork!
Mrs White’s Golden Rule Cafe
808 E Jefferson St PHX AZ
602-262-9256
I haven’t found a working website for Mrs White’s but they are on Facebook
