Monthly Archives: July 2023

The Vetri Cucina Pre Theater $99. Menu is Worth a Fork! At The Palms Las Vegas NV

Leave a reply

The Vetri Cucina is a high quality Italian Restaurant by award wining cookbook author and restauranteur Marc Vetri. The Las Vegas location in the Palms Casino Resort is on the 56th floor with breath taking views of Las Vegas.

Inside is a bar and a main dining room and a couple private dining rooms.

I noticed that they iron the table clothes to make them extra crisp.

At the Las Vegas Location in the Palms Casino the emphasis on the menu just happens to be small shareable plates. We were at the Palms to see a show so it seemed like a great idea to try the Pre Theater menu. It is 4 courses of two choices to try so we went for one of each!

All the tables are set with high quality heavy silverware, hand made water glasses, and these FORKING adorable FORK Charger Plates.

They started us out with amazing delicious bread and HOUSE CHURNED butter.

In reasonable time we were served a really yummy sweet onion crepe with truffle parmesan fondue.

and a fresh and light blue fin tuna crudo with salsa verde and artichoke.

Both great especially the crepe!

Next were the pasta courses.

Beef cheek agnolotti with balsamic beef jus.

and (our favorite) almond tortellini with truffle and parmesan.

Entrees were roasted goat over HOUSE MILLED polenta.

and wood roasted black cod with squash blossom and tomato conserva.

We finished with house made black cherry gelati.

cucumber sorbet

And then they sweetened us up more with raspberry gelee and mixed fruit bonbons.

Everything we tried was prepared to perfection and the service was very attentive and informational. Plates were also cleared quickly.

I have to say…….

The Pre Theater Menu from Vetri Cucina in the Palms is………..

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Vetri Cucina At The Palms 4321 W Flamingo Rd Las Vegas NV – 702-944-5900

www.VetriCucinaLV.vom

www.Palms.com

Every THING is subject to change

The Forking Truth

EZ FORKING Scrumptious Bread Crisps & Blue Cheese Butter with Herb Sauce Recipe

Leave a reply

A long time ago I used to go to Eddie’s House Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ and he used to serve complimentary bread baskets. Those bread baskets contained an assortment of breads and these flat crisp breads with blue cheese butter and pistou herb sauce (pesto without nuts). A few years ago I published a similar recipe. I did get the crisp bread recipe from Epicurious. This is pretty much the same recipe for the crisps but in my current oven I need to bump up the heat 25 degrees for the crisps to come out the same. The rest is even easier than before because I decided that you don’t need to measure the butter and blue cheese. Just blend a stick of butter with a wedge of blue cheese. For the herbs I grabbed a handful of basil, some leftover marjoram, some green parts of scallions and olive oil. Portion size is always difficult to determine because I don’t know if you want one small piece or several pieces. This makes three flatbreads that I’m guessing are two servings so I will round this to 6 servings.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

1 3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil + extra for brushing or spraying the flat breads

sea salt flakes – to taste

poppy seeds – to taste

sesame seeds – to taste

1 – 4 oz stick butter (doesn’t matter if salted or not) – room temperature

1 wedge (around 4 oz or more) blue cheese – room temperature

handful of herbs

extra virgin olive oil to blend

Directions

Here’s the difficult part………picking a temperature for the oven……….In my last oven I made these same flat breads at the Epicurious suggestion of 450 degrees F for ten minutes……I tried that and it doesn’t work in my current oven so I cranked it up to 475F and then the crips came out. You can try 450F and if yours is still raw then crank it up to 475F till done.

After you pick your oven temperature……In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, water, and oil. Divide the dough into three balls.

Roll the balls on parchment paper and top the dough with plastic wrap and roll the dough into a flat bread. Remove the plastic wrap and spray or brush with olive oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and sea salt flakes. Transfer your raw flat bread on parchment paper to a sheet pan and place in your oven for about 10 minutes.

Repeat with 2nd and 3rd dough balls.

I’ve found out that you can bake two in the oven but in my oven the flat bread on lower rack needed two more minutes.

For the blue cheese butter just blend the blue cheese with the butter.

For the herbs remove any stems and blend with olive oil.

This is FORKING Delicious!

EZ Bread Crisps with Blue Cheese Butter and Herb Sauce

A special THANKS!!!!! to Epicurious for a FORKING fantastic bread crisp recipe and also to Chef Eddie that was from Eddie’s House for this amazing idea!

The Forking Truth

My FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Dulce De Leche Brownie French Ice Cream

Leave a reply

Van Leeuwen makes very rich high and higher quality French Style Ice creams. Their regular and seasonal flavors are sold at Sprouts Grocery and their Limited Edition Flavors are sold at Walmart. I came across their Dulce De Leche Brownie Flavor at my local Sprouts so I thought I’d give it a try.

I open it up.

It looks like mostly vanilla with a little swirl.

I dig in and taste some…….It’s different than most Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Instead of that rich ice cream feel in your mouth this one is sort of icy like ice milk…….(almost like Italian Ice)….. The icy texture is odd……I don’t know if it’s suppose to be this way or if I got something that was mishandled (allowed to melt and refreeze?). …… I get a little taste of the dulce de leche……It’s good but isn’t much. This flavor also runs extra sweet……..I love sweets more than most people but this is a bit too sweet for me.

I take another taste.

I hit some brownie that has very good with a deep chocolate taste but the texture is a paste and not a brownie…….It’s a brownie flavor fudge….I’m kinda disappointed because I wanted to bite into a real brownie.

I’m not really a fan of this flavor.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Dulce De Leche Brownie French Ice Cream. I do note that YOUR FORKING Thoughts may differ.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to FireRock Steakhouse Las Vegas NV****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

Leave a reply

******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS*******FireRock Steakhouse is a reasonably priced American Restaurant bar and gaming type place in Las Vegas Nevada. They have a large bar inside and multiple dining areas inside. They also have an outdoor patio (that is not dog friendly).

They started us off with complimentary fresh baked soft fluffy bread and butter that was very light in texture like angel cake.

The burgers that they serve here are 8oz fresh ground daily from the steaks they serve.

I tried a jalapeño smash burger (jalapeños, banana peppers, topped with a roasted jalapeno, onion strings, jalapeño mayo, and cheddar cheese and fresh fruit as my side) I asked to leave the cheese off but it was forgotten. The server offers to have the kitchen remove the cheese….I declined that offer and ripped the cheese off myself…..Got lucky the cheese ripped off clean and my husband enjoyed adding it to his burger.

I love spicy foods but whatever kind of peppers are in here are not edible to me. After I remove the peppers I can taste the burger. The burger does have a really good beef burger taste but is very dry today….Oddly even my husband’s medium rare hangover burger is dry without any moisture to the beef…and his over easy egg was cooked hard.

These burgers should have been very good….Not sure if their beef-fat ratio is right or more probably the cook they had on just SQUISHED all the juice out of them while they were cooking?

The server took my burger off the bill since they didn’t leave the cheese off at my request.

That was my trip to FireRock Steakhouse in Las Vegas Nevada….I’d give it one more try but would get something else.***********UPDATE*****SADLY *******After my visit I read on two different websites that FireRock is closing this Las Vegas Location at the end of the month…. 🙁 Not sure if I will visit again.

*********UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS***********

FireRock Steakhouse 5990 Centennial Center Blvd Las Vegas NV – 702-656-6001

www.FireRockSteakhouse.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Lemongrass & Lime – A Thai Bistro Las Vegas NV – Worth A Fork!

Leave a reply

Lemongrass & Lime – A Thai Bistro serves traditional, modern, and street food style Thai dishes. They have two locations in Las Vegas Nevada. One location is in Summerlin and the one we went to is in Centennial Hills. The Centennial Hills location doesn’t have a bar but wine is available.

Inside they have a mix of traditional tables, booths, and half booths.

This restaurant was awarded a Best Of Vegas for 2022 award from The Las Vegas Review Journal.

We started out by sharing mashed potato stuffed rice papers in masaman curry called, Golden Pouch.

OMG YUM!!!!!! These are truly FORKING AMAZING! WOW! I’m speechless.

The pumpkin curry with chicken is also just as delicious!

It has chicken of delicious sweet pumpkin, a red curry base, coconut milk, carrots, bell peppers and fresh basil.

My husband tried the spicy basil with combination (beef, chicken, & shrimp) with an added fried egg.

It was also delicious!

The food here comes in spice levels of one-ten. I ordered number six and that was just right for me. My husband ordered number eight and he ate it but I thought number 8 was too spicy. He said he would order #7 next time.

The food really was so delicious that I have to say-

Lemongrass & Lime – A Thai Bistro is-

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Lemongrass & Lime – A Thai Bistro

8431 Farm Rd. Las Vegas NV – 702-566-4727

www.LemongrassLime.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Peppermill Las Vegas NV – American Diner Style Restaurant on The Las Vegas Strip

Leave a reply

The Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge is an old time American Diner Style Restaurant located on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. This restaurant has been featured in many movies and many celebrities have been spotted here. They offer many of the usual diner food menu items like breakfast, appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrees, and more.

Inside is lots of neon everywhere with an energetic atmosphere.

They have many velvety booths and comfortable counter seating.

They use multi color sugar crystals that might make you fart a rainbow.

Anyways-

We started out by sharing the appetizer called, “cauli-fire.”

Perfectly fried and breaded cauliflower that was spicy and tasty that also seemed free of oil. The sauce that came with them was very tasty and was called poblano ranch. A nice tasty starter if you can handle a little heat.

While I wait for my main I observe the action in the open kitchen.

In reasonable time my berry salad arrives.

There is no mention of garlic toast coming with this salad so I don’t know if I was suppose to get it….?

I received cheesy garlic toast and a spinach salad with strawberries, red onions (that seem marinated in something sweet) sliced almonds, and tender tasty and maybe wood fired chicken breast tossed in raspberry walnut vinaigrette. The salad was suppose to contain blue cheese but the blue cheese never made it to the plate.

My husband tried the pastrami burger.

It’s a half pound burger topped with lean pastrami Swiss cheese, and a mayo-mustard sauce, pickle, and fries. I was told that it was a very good burger.

Peppermill is for when you want nothing fancy on the Las Vegas Strip. Parking is easy because they have their own parking lot.

Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge

2985 Las Vegas Blvd S Las Vegas NV 702-735-4177

www.PeppermillLasVegas.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Cheesy Mini Corn Pudding Stuffed Peppers with Salsa Macha Recipe

Leave a reply

I had these baby bell peppers that I had to use so I was thinking cornbread…..Then I thought cheesy cornbread. Then I made them so darn cheesy they were pudding and I topped it with a FORKING AMAZING salsa macha. You can buy salsa macha from many stores and Mexican grocery stores but the recipe on The FORKING Truth is FORKING AMAZING. Don’t mean to brag…BUT…If I was on a competition show…I’d WIN for this. If a restaurant served this they’d be written in the newspaper for this dish. That is how FORKING AMAZING they really taste!…..Anyways…… This recipe makes at least 24 mini stuffed peppers…I ran out of peppers but had enough to do at least 5 more. I’m figuring around 8 servings thinking that you are going to eat about three mini peppers a serving.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup masa de harina

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter – melted (doesn’t matter if salted or not you adjust salt)

sea salt – to taste

1 egg – lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 cup shredded mature cheddar

2-3oz sliced mature cheddar (this is for topping the corn puddings)

3 Tablespoons salsa macha

24 mini bell peppers

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

The baby bell peppers get sprayed with oil and go on a sheet pan. Roast the peppers until cooked. Ovens do differ…in my old oven this would take only 15 minutes. In my current oven this took 30 minutes.

Line mini muffin pan(s) with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl add the cornmeal, masa de harina, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cheese and mix well, Add the melted butter, egg, milk, You will need a little salt. I used salted butter and added about 5 turns of salt from my salt grinder.

When the peppers are cool enough to handle remove cores and stems. Split them down the middle and put them in the cups.

Fill about 3/4 of the cup with corn pudding mixture. Then top each with a chunk of cheese.

This goes on the middle rack of your preheated 350F oven. For around 15 minutes.

Serve warm and top with salsa macha.

They are FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS!

Enjoy!

Cheesy Mini Corn Pudding Stuffed Peppers with Salsa Macha
The Forking Truth

Maybe I hit them on a bad day?

Leave a reply

I only read positive things about EllaEm’s Soul Food in North Las Vegas Nevada so I thought I’d give them a try. They won a “BEST OF VEGAS” by the Las Vegas Review journal and have mostly very positive reviews on Yelp. On purpose I didn’t use the restaurant name in the title of this posting because it not my intention to bring anything negative to this restaurant. My only mission is to tell……The FORKING Truth.

Everyone was welcoming and friendly when we walked in. Eventually we ordered and they started us off with a warmed up cornbread muffin with soft butter.

The cornbread muffin was very good. Moist but slightly sweet with a good corn flavor to it.

Then the meals come.

I got the grilled red snapper. Today it was a bit fishy tasting and maybe was the best part of the plate. The mixed vegetables seem like from frozen and are laced with water and nothing else. In the middle are sweet potatoes that have a texture like mush and are sweeter than any dessert out there. I have no idea on how they were able to make them sweeter than sugar. The macaroni and cheese might have been good at one time. Today it’s over done and dried up.

The country fried steak was also over done and dried up. My husband said that this isn’t the best……

Maybe they were having a bad day? ……That made my day bad too!

On the other hand it was nice that they let a lady bring in her dog in a stroller.

Awwww the dog owner and dogs are so cute together. She obviously loves her dog very much.

As much as I enjoyed the service, cornbread, and the heart melting dog moment in dining room……

For my taste I don’t expect to be going back anytime soon.

Even if I just hit them on a bad day.

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Pho Mai Mai North Las Vegas NV

Leave a reply

Pho Mai Mail Is a Vietnamese Restaurant located in North Las Vegas Nevada. They offer most of the usual Vietnamese foods like banh mi baguette sandwiches, rice plates, noodle bowls also called bun, stir fry and more.

It’s casual with some wait service inside.

We tried an appetizer called chicken egg rolls, and we also ordered iced tea, a rare steak tendon and meatball pho, and a grilled chicken vermicelli bowl.

The first plate out is the pho.

I didn’t try it but was told that it was reasonably good.

Next the chicken egg rolls come out with fish sauce.

These are kinda bland but fried nice………

Next my grilled chicken vermicelli bowl comes out….(I guess I’m not getting the iced tea……)

I used to get this plate often at another Vietnamese restaurant. At the other Vietnamese restaurant the fish sauce was a tasty dip to the chicken……The fish sauce at Pho Mai Mai is very fishy tasting and I can’t use it. The chicken at Pho Mai Mai is developed with flavors but also is a little dried out and chewy. It is flavored different and has a smoke flavor that I’m not used to. Also no pickled vegetables here, no cilantro, no crispy shallots….To me this seems like a more stripped down version than what I was used to.

That was my trip to Pho Mai Mai in North Las Vegas NV.

2520 E. Craig Rd North Las Vegas NV – 702-916-0929

I haven’t found any sort of webpage for Pho Mai Mai.

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A.Mano Pizza & Italian Cuisine Las Vegas NV – Fatbaby’s, Pizza Pie-Zoni, & Crazy Knots OH MY

Leave a reply

A.Mano is a very unique novelty American Style Pizzeria and Restaurant located in Las Vegas Nevada. They offer the usual appetizers pizzas, pastas, salads, subs and more……But they also offer these things called, “FATBABY’s” that are hollowed out loaves of bread sticking straight up in the air filled with your choice of pasta that is topped with a generous amount of cheese. They also offer, “PIZZA PIE-ZONI (1/2 pizza & 1/2 calzone) and PASTA -PIE-ZONI (1/2 pizza and 1/2 pasta in a calzone). They even have CRAZY KNOTS that are different. The knots come in flavors like chicken Alfredo, bolognese and cheese, and mushroom truffle and cheese. Soft beverages are served here.

This is a very small restaurant with only around seven tables inside.

They have cheese related signs all over the walls here.

We decided to try a small plain pizza and a lasagna fat baby.

Here’s the pizza.

The pizza is actually very good. It has a delicious thin crust with a crispy bottom. The sauce is a rich tomato sauce. The cheese is very thick but easy to eat. The pizza is also nicely seasoned and is embellished with fresh basil.

Here’s the lasagna fat baby.

Lasagna Fat Baby

It’s a BREAD-ZILLA!

It’s a loaf of bread that is embedded with a cheese lasagna and is topped with a melted cheese tomato sauce. It’s tasty. Not a lot of lasagna in here. It’s mostly bread. Something different. It’s something funny to try.

That was my trip to A.Mano Pizza & Italian Cuisine.

A.Mano Pizza & Italian Cuisine

5601 N Tenaya Way Las Vegas NV – 702-464-5090

www.AmanoLasVegas.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth