Monthly Archives: September 2025

Pastrami Seasoned Turkey Patties (or Balls) Recipe

I saw someone on TV make pastrami meatballs and I thought it was a good idea. I didn’t like the way they made them so I made many changes. You can make them as meatballs for meals or appetizers or you can flatten meatballs so they fit better in mini buns for appetizers. Serving size is difficult to determine because I don’t know if you want an appetizer, snack, lunch, or dinner portion. I got 65 meatballs from this recipe (I made my meatballs slightly heaping when I scooped them.) . For an appetizers I would suggest 1-2 a person. For lunch about 3 a person. Dinner would be 4-5 a person.

Ingredients

Non Stick to spray baking sheets

2 tablespoons canola oil (to cook onions and bell pepper)

1 large onion – fine chop

1 large red bell pepper – fine chop

8 medium cloves garlic – ground to paste

6 eggs – slightly beaten

1+1/2 cup panko

1 Tablespoon mustard powder

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon smoked sea salt – preferably course and home made

1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

fresh ground black pepper to taste – grinders do differ – I gave mine about 30 twists

3 pounds ground meat – I used ground turkey

Light spray of olive oil for finishing meatballs

***************************************************

Spice mix for the exterior of pastrami-ish balls

4 Tablespoons ground coriander

1 Tablespoon Fresh ground black Tellicherry peppercorns

1 Tablespoon smoked paprika

Directions

Pre-Heat oven to 350F degrees.

Spray baking sheets with non stick Spray.

On medium high heat cook the fine chopped onion and pepper for about 5 minutes and then set it on the side to cool.

In a small bowl combine the spice mix for the exteriors of the meatballs (coriander, Tellicherry black pepper, and smoked paprika. Mx it up and set the small bowl to the side.

In a LARGE bowl add garlic, eggs, panko, mustard powder, db sugar, smoked sea salt, Aleppo, cinnamon, coriander, paprika, allspice, cloves, ginger, black pepper, ground turkey, cooked onions and bell pepper. Mix well.

Roll into meatball size and roll each ball lightly into the spices till lightly covered. Place on sheet trays till done. Spray lightly with olive oil.

Ovens do differ but they should only need about 15 minutes in your preheated 350F oven. (I had one more pan and 5 more meatballs to go in after these came out)

You might want to make my rye rolls or buy rye bread for the pastrami balls or patties.

Small Rye Rolls and Cocktail Size rye rolls

I blended three different mustards (brown, Dijon, Chinese, and added honey and I think that tastes best with them)

Pastrami Seasoned Turkey Patties on mini home made rye rolls

People went wild over them!

Enjoy!!!!!

The Forking Truth

Soru Ramen – Las Vegas NV – Very Bland – Spongy Meat – Old Fish – BLECH! NOT Worth a Fork!

Soru Ramen has five locations around Las Vegas Nevada. They all have impressive 5-4 star averages on Yelp so when one recently opened near me I thought it was worth a try.

I walked in and it was deja vue. I see New China Cuisine Restaurant inside. I thought these were two separate restaurants….But NO they are not.

Inside they offer the New China Cuisine Menu (American/Chinese) and the Soru Ramen Menu.

I was going to order the Chicken Ramen. But I asked my server if it was made with real chicken or a powdered mix and she said powdered mix so I ordered something else.

We started with a spicy tuna roll.

It came with old dried out hard wasabi and old looking ginger that might have been left out from the day before.

The sushi was made with OLD tasting fish and we had to send it back.

We are sorry that we are here now.

Sadly our meals came out fast and we decided to give them a try.

I ordered the Yakisoba with Chicken but the person that ran it out called it Chicken Chow Mein so I am not sure what I got.

It seems like it is missing the egg that was in the description. WOW it feels like oil in my mouth and is next to flavorless. It is not tasty at all. The chicken in it is moist and tender but flavorless and sits in oily spaghetti and a small amount of vegetables.

According to my husband I got the more flavorful plate.

He said that the best of everything we tried here was the egg. But there is absolutely no flavor in the dish. He thought the chicken seemed like already pre cooked and sliced spongy meat. He said no flavor in the pork.

Old fish

Hard like a rock wasabi

Old browning ginger

Bland oily chicken & noodle dish.

Bland tasteless ramen with spongy meats

Like OLD and aged hospital food for the elderly.

Soru Ramen – BLECH

NOT Worth a Fork!

This is Forked Up!
Not Worth a Fork

Soru Ramen

5515 Camino Al Norte North Las Vegas NV

702-580-2136

www.SoruRamen.com

Every THING is subject to change

The Forking Truth

Sunday Brunch at Flecha Cantina – Las Vegas NV

Flecha Cantina is a Mexican Style Restaurant by Actor and Local Resident Mark Wahlberg. Flecha Cantina is located nt too far from the Las Vegas Strip and the Airport. This restaurant offers most of your Mexican Favorites like tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and fajitas. They also offer other dishes like goat cheese with pistachios and spicy tamarind sauce, potato poblano soup with bacon, salmon fajita salads, sea bass, cochinta pibil, rib eye steaks, and SUNDAY BRUNCH. In general we enjoyed all our previous visits to Flecha Cantina. Below are pictures from previous visits.

So this time we tried the Sunday Brunch (subject to change but was $46. a person)

You enter and wait in the lobby until your table is ready and while you are waiting they offer you a complimentary drink with alcohol (margarita, champagne with orange juice, etc.)

They walk you around the buffet stations if it is your first buffet visit.

the bulk of the buffet choices but tables are all around with more offerings On the right side are several breakfast type dishes and chicken fajitas. The other side is rice, beans, enchiladas, etc

on this table is the taco bar toppings, ice cream, cotton candy, and a chocolate fountain for dipping strawberries.

Cheese enchiladas

street tacos

None of the desserts are labeled but it is easy to tell that below is gelatin.

They gave us complimentary chips and salsa but I didn’t eat any so I’d have room for buffet food.

This is my first plate.

I took a red and a green cheese enchilada, vegetables, chicken fajita, breakfast potatoes and a corn muffin.

The chicken fajita is actually very good but I wish they had maybe a tortilla and some guacamole so it would be more like a fajita. The vegetables and potatoes are good. The corn muffin is surprisingly tasty.

Not thrilled with either enchilada because both are mostly just tortilla and have almost no cheese inside.

I was at the taco bar and saw shreds of all the different meats on the one set of tongs that they were using.

So I complained to the manager. He brought me what I was going to get but instead of from the buffet my two street tacos were fresh made in the kitchen.

Chicken & Carne Asada Street Tacos

I was full after the chicken taco and gave the beef taco to my husband. He said they were both much better than what he had off the buffet.

We were full but tried some dessert.

One was a lime cheese cake. The other was something chocolate. on the plate are chocolate covered strawberries. The only ones I could eat were the chocolate covered strawberries. The other desserts are so dense and heavy that they just aren’t my style.

I do note that Flecha advertised on their website some items that weren’t actually offered (turkey, ribs, salmon) and when I asked about those items my server said that they only bring them out on holidays)

That was my trip for Brunch at Flecha Cantina

6683 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas NV

702-728-2774

www.FlechaCantina.cm

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Old School Pizzeria (Rock Springs Drive) Worth a Fork! – Las Vegas NV

Old School Pizzeria is a casual Pizza Restaurant with three locations in Las Vegas Nevada. They are slightly different from other casual pizza restaurants. Most offerings are made in-house. They use local and organic as much as possible. Commercial yeast is not used here. The dough is 100% sour dough culture with a five day fermentation. This results a more developed flavor and easier digestion with less carbohydrates.

It looks a bit like a school inside.

What to order?

The menu

The Rock Springs Drive location has wait service at dinner time.

We normally dine or do take out at the Craig Road location. We came to the Rock Springs Drive Location because I wanted to try some dishes that they don’t offer at Craig Road.

Like The mozzarella sticks –

WOW they are enormous. If you eat two you might get stuffed. You get four mozzarella sticks and they come with red sauce and creamy garlic-mascarpone. Oh and yes they are also good too!

I tried the tortellini in vodka sauce.

We both think that this is very good.

I was surprised that my husband didn’t try the spaghetti and meatballs……

He tried the Calabrese Pizza (artisan salami, hot peppers, black olives, cheese, sauce)

She of the dishes and take outs we had from the Craig Road Location below.

Of COURSE Old School Pizzeria is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Old School Pizzeria (3 locations)

1930 Rock Springs Drive Las Vegas Nevada

702-847-5774

www.PizzaOldSchool.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Falafel Flavored Ground Turkey Balls Recipe

I’m on a roll creating different flavors of meatballs. I use ground turkey for most of my meatball and meatloaf recipes but you can use whatever ground meat that you want. With this recipe I made about 90 meatballs. I don’t know if you want to use them for appetizers, lunches, or dinners so I can’t determine the amount of servings. I would suggest 1-2 meatballs a person if using for appetizers. 3 meatballs a person could be lunch, and 4-5 meatballs a person can be a dinner serving. They came out really delicious. You’ll be glad to try them. I would suggest serving with hummus and either pitas, rice, or couscous.

Ingredients for about 90 meatballs

3 pounds ground turkey

1 cup panko

1/2 cup chickpea flour

6 eggs – slightly beaten

1 Tablespoon canola oil

1 large onion – diced

1-2 red bell peppers – diced

8 cloves garlic – ground to paste

1 bunch parsley – remove leaves from stems and chop

1 bunch cilantro – remove most of stems and chop

1+1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 slightly heaping Tablespoon cumin

1 slightly heaping Tablespoon ground coriander

1+1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

non stick spray

black sesame seeds for finishing

white sesame seeds for finishing

sea salt flakes for finishing

olive oil for spraying

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray sheet pans with non stick spray.

In a sauté pan on medium high heat cook up the peppers and onions or you can cook them off in your oven on a sheet pan but it will take a little longer. When the peppers and onion are room temperature you can add them to you large bowl with the ground turkey, panko, chickpea flour, eggs, garlic, parsley, cilantro, cayenne, cumin, coriander, and cardamon and mix well.

In a small bowl mix together black and white sesame seeds and add some sea salt flakes (I didn’t measure but it seemed like about a cup of sesame seeds and maybe a tablespoon of sea salt flakes)

Scoop the balls and roll them in the seed mixture and place on the pre sprayed pans.

They need about 15 minutes in the oven if you made them the size I made them.

After I made them I froze a good amount. Then I saved some for a gathering and reheated them on a nonstick sprayed sheet pan with dipped in water wonton wrappers and served them up with hummus I whipped up.

Falafel Flavored Ground Turkey Balls

To reheat 20-30 minutes in a 350F oven (with or without wonton wrappers) These were a great big hit!

Enjoy!!!!!

The Forking Truth

Newly Opened! Kin Dee Thai Kitchen – Worth a Try!

Kin Dee Thai Kitchen recently opened in the North/West part of Las Vegas Nevada. It’s not a fancy place but they do have wait service. On one side of the room they have traditional tables. On the other side they have half booths.

We started out by sharing the fried chicken dumplings.

It’s white meat chicken with onions stuffed into crispy fried wrappers with a sweet chili sauce on the side.

The green curry is more complex than some of the others out there but it is also thinner. It’s embellished with carrots, peas, peppers, white eggplant, and better bamboo shoots that don’t taste like can. The white meat chicken is masterfully tender. This also came with steamed white rice. I ordered a number four out of five for heat. It was almost to spicy hot for me so I would order a #3 next time.

My husband tried the Spicy Basil with chicken at number five heat.

Number five for heat is too hot for normal people. It was too hot for my husband but he ate it anyway. It’s good but we prefer this particular dish to be more infused with basil.

Kin Dee Thai Kitchen is Worth a Try!

Kin Dee Thai Kitchen

6710 W Cheyenne Ave Las Vegas NV

702-463-8851

www.KinDeeThaiKitchen.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Made In Argentina – Las Vegas NV

Made In Argentina is casual restaurant with wait service. They are located not too far from the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. They offer a very unique menu of many types of food to pick from. A few of the offerings are breakfast, empanadas, hummus, falafels, pickled eggplant, prosciutto with potato salad, breaded items called milanesas, NY steak, skirt steak, short ribs, flap meat, pastas, sandwiches, salads, pizza, Mediterranean plates, house made desserts and more.

Inside is a sort of international soccer theme with lots of keepsakes adorning the walls.

We started with a habanero and cheese empanada.

It’s very large for an empanada. It came with three nicely made sauces – chimichurri, red chimichurri, and habanero. The empanada is tasty but very spicy.

I tried the chicken kabob plate.

It came with very good flavorful moist chicken, cucumber and tomatoes, hummus, rice, and pita breads.

The chicken was a petite amount but was very good today and the hummus was creamy. Pita breads were very average but the sliced baguette was tasty and was nicely dressed with herbs and butter.

My husband tried the lomo saltado. (steak with onions and fries).

Flavors were ok but this steak was very tough.

Since they make their very own house made ice cream we gave it a try.

The flavors were good but it was served a bit hard to enjoy.

That was my trip to Made In Argentina.

Made in Argentina

5190 S Valley View Blvd Las Vegas NV

702-635-7939

www.MadeInArgentinaLV.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Bravo Top Chef Winners SPECIAL EVENT Dinner at Stubborn Seed Las Vegas – Chef Jeremy Ford & Chef Mei Lin

This was the Top Chef Winners Special Event Dinner at Resorts Hotel/Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. This dinner was held in Jeremy Ford’s Stubborn Seed Restaurant. Both Chef’s are Previous Bravo Top Chef Winners.

Anyways – Both chefs worked this event. (There they are below)

Entering we pasted by the bar.

The front of the main dining area

And we got seated in the area that resembles a greenhouse.

The Welcome Bites were –

Wagyu Beef Tarter Cannelloni with Papaya Ferment and Cured Egg

Foie Gras Tarts with Mango and Pinenut Crust

and

Warm Celery Root with Crispy Maittake Mushroom, Mustard Cream, and Caviar

First Course –

Citrus Cured Kampachi – with Green Tomato, Green Chili Mustard Condiment and Coriander

Second Curse was –

Kimchi Udon – It was suppose to be made of House Kimchi, Shaved Brussels Sprouts, Poached Egg, Garlic Sesame, Australian Winter Truffle. (Mine was missing the shaved Brussels Sprouts, My husband’s also contained mushrooms that didn’t make it to mine. I don’t taste the truffles but it is possible that some are in there)

Third Course Steamed Black Cod –

Above there is no mention of Shrimp Mousse in the center of the Cod so I mentioned it to our server and they were kind enough to serve me a Plain Seared Barramundi in Sichuan Broth.

Fourth Course –

Black Garlic Glazed Wagyu Short Rib – Beef Fat Aioli, Pickles, Lettuces, Herbs

Dessert

Wild Strawberry Tart – Chiffon Cake and Vanilla Bean Cremieux

Micro Macarons with Check

Peanut Butter and Jelly

That was The Special Event Dinner of the Collaboration of Bravo Wining Top Chefs Jeremy Ford and Mei Lin

Stubborn Seed – Las Vegas

3000 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas NV

702-676-6908

www.StubbornSeed.com

The Forking Truth