Tag Archives: #PhoenixFood

PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (Downtown) Phoenix AZ – Worth a Fork! FANTABULOUS!****With Revisit

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PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (downtown there is another more casual PA’LA in Phoenix) is a wood fired, ever changing, fine dining sort of Mediterranean-ish, sort of Italian, laced with Japanese sort of restaurant. Somehow the flavors can be magical together. At this restaurant you will find small plates, a few sandwiches, a couple salads, two pizzas, fresh made pasta, fresh amazing wood fired seafood and a few specials. At the moment this restaurant serves lunch (Tue.-Sat.11-3) but dinner is only on Fridays and Saturdays (5-10) (subject to change).

They have an indoor-outdoor bar.

It looks like this when you walk in.

From my seat I can see the open kitchen and the wood fired oven.

Here’s the view from the other side.

There are a variety of traditional tables and partial booths. You can’t see the large mirrors behind me that make the room look enormous. Bright light comes in from the windows out front and upstairs. They only use the upstairs when needed. The decor sure doesn’t look like Phoenix to me……Look at the chandelier..

There are lots of details and big cherubs on it. It reminds me of Vegas….maybe Chicago….Maybe certain parts of Philly?…… When I see it and the big curved booth I see this in my head.

Robert De Niro with Joe Pesci. I can visualize them dining here.

Or maybe it looks more like this?

Anyways….

We start out with the pickled white anchovies with fennel crackers.

The anchovies are sprinkled with some fruity mildly spicy pepper and have a splash of a quality olive oil. The fennel crackers might be Taralli (Italian fennel crackers)

I went for the fish of the day plate. It was sea bass. It was described coming with Fresno chili and fregola (Italian cous cous shaped toasted pasta).

The fish is tender, moist, and flaky. It has a nice tasty sear. There are all kinds of flavors and surprises in the fregola. I taste bitter greens, pickled fennel, stringy things that I thought were sprouts but taste like spicy ginger…I taste an Asian sauce…. and there is a special red pepper flake. It really just dances together…It’s fiendishly great!

My husband went with the pasta of the day dish that came with shrimp.

The sauce was made with Bianco tomatoes. It’s a very good some sort of wheat or grain rigatoncini pasta and a very well made sauce. I heard that the shrimp were delicious.

We saved room for a little dessert.

We shared a little dish of smooth rich chocolate called pot de creme topped with pistachios and a little pistachio and fruit biscotti that was a great sweet ending to a FANTABULOUS meal out.

I have to say PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (Downtown Phoenix AZ) is…

Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.PalaKitchen.com

We returned.

The menu and special board differed.

Service differed too and we had the same server.

She brought out our appetizer and main meals together.

Our appetizer was the Niman Ranch Prime Beef Skewer.

The beef had mushrooms between each piece. The beef was as tender as butter and did taste very good. The polenta was very plain but creamy.

For my main I had the albacore brown rice bowl.

The fish was lightly seared and seemed very fresh. It had a little Asian rice seasoning and sauce on it. The brown rice was chewy and was adorned with pickled onion, some extra thin shreds that tasted like ginger, cucumbers, tomato, and avocado.

My husband had the roasted mushroom pizza with mozzarella and salametto picante.

The pizza was extra thin and very chewy.

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A little Taste of Namaste Indian Restaurant – Scottsdale AZ – Worth a Fork! ***With re-visit

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Namaste is an Indian Restaurant located in a shopping center in North Scottsdale Arizona. This is a small family ran business. The owners are the cooks and their son serves tables. During the day (10:30-3 ) they offer their menu and a lunch buffet with a little over a dozen items that change every day. They offer some dishes that you don’t find at other Indian Restaurants like BEEF vindaloo.

Across the buffet is a series of paintings telling the story of the Taj Mahal.

There are other paintings around the restaurant.

It’s small but cozy. They offer both booths and traditional tables.

Bright light comes in threw the glass front windows.

We decided to try the buffet today.

With the buffet they made us fresh naan. We started with hot steamy garlic naan and they later brought us plain naan.

All the dishes that we tried were all very flavorful but nothing was spicy. We were told that they don’t put out the spicy dishes on the buffet so it can appeal to everyone. A few of the dishes that they offered today were – tandoori chicken, curry chicken, butter chicken, a ground lamb dish, dal, salad, chutneys, sweets.

The buffet was good so we decided to take out a few spicy dishes to see how they really are. We tried chili chicken chef hot.The chicken is tender…It’s flavorful and MIGHTY HOT! The rice was cumin scented.

and BEEF vindaloo chef hot. Also scotching molten HOT! The stewed beef cubes were very tender. The chunks of sweet potato gave some relief.

OMG! They are scorching molten hot! I’m so glad that they don’t dull the food.

Then we went back and tried some other things.

onion bhaji

Onion Bhaji – garbanzo bean flour coated spiced onion fritters with tamarind sauce…tasty and delicious!

aloo tikki choley

aloo tikki choley – potato patties with hot North Indian chick pea curry, mint chutney & tamarind date chutney.

onion chili naan
onion chili naan have lots of flavor inside
achari fish masala & kadai chicken

Achari fish masala ( achari spice blend, yogurt, onion and ginger) & kadai chicken (spicy chicken with onions, tomato, ginger, bell pepper, and kadai masala spice)

That was a Little Taste of Namaste Indian Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ.

Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

wwwNamasteScottsdale.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

SWB A Southwest Bistro in The Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale AZ – Worth a Fork! Detailed upscale foods!

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The SWB Bistro (A southwest bistro) is located in Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale Arizona. It’s kind of a blend of fine dining in a casual resort atmosphere. It looks like this when you enter.

It’s just a few steps down or you can use an elevator.

Here is the other end of the restaurant.

Tonight it was around 100 degrees F but the outside was nice cool and refreshing with the misters so we sat outside tonight and saw a friendly duck or two splashing around in a water feature.

It was restaurant week so not all but most of the goodies aren’t normally on the menu like the nicely detailed Dungeness crab and octopus with piquillo cream, red onion, huitlacoche and preserved lemon.

Everything was tender moist and delicious.

We both thought the cream of corn and poblano soup was amazing. My husband gave me the most wonderful compliment and said, This taste like something you would make.”

The flavors were amazing…..You do taste the poblano and it finishes with sweet creamy corn. The soup is rich and has delicious accents of queso fresco…pops of medium spicy chile de arbol and cilantro…Just amazing! This soup is on the lunch and dinner menu so you can enjoy it just as we did.

It was hard to decide on what dinner to pick but I went with the free range stuffed chicken.

It was the moistest, most tender, most flavorful, chicken that you can ever hope for. It seemed like it was in a marinade that broke it down and then was sous vide and finished somehow to crisp the skin up….The chicken was truly astounding and was placed in this marvelously great green mole sauce sauce accented with crispy cancha corn. On top of that a mound of ricotta, a crisp squash blossom and some micro greens adorned the plate.

The sous vide venison was just as incredible.

This came with yuca, English peas, pistachio and chimichurri rojo.

TWO desserts (and two glasses of wine) were included with restaurant week. Both of the desserts were WORTH EVERY CALORIE!

Cherry cheesecake empanadas with the most delicious chocolate sauce ever.

Tres leches cake with caramel croquant, strawberry and Chantilly cream.

It was a FANTABULOUS dinner!

Parking does cost here. Tonight it ran $8. an hour for self park and the valet cost $10. plus tip.

Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.Scottsdale.Hyatt.com

Everything is subject to change and often does change.

The Forking Truth

Dining Out With DOGS in Metro Phoenix – May 2021 – Twisted Italian, Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery, Culver’s

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Dining out with dogs is just a “Fluff Story” about taking my dogs out to eat. It all sort of started when my dog Louie was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and was only expected to make it another three months or up to six months if we were lucky. Louie was already old and couldn’t do a lot but he always enjoyed eating and still loved going out to eat so I took him out to eat as much as I could. Instead of the 3-6 month diagnosis Louie made it another 17 months. Today I take my current dogs out to eat as much as I can.

If you are dining out with dogs there is a lot that you need to know. Not all restaurant patios are dog friendly. It is always BEST to call a restaurant first before attempting to dine there with your dog. You don’t know if the patio could already be booked for a party. It is also ALWAYS BEST to dine with your dog at off times. It is always BEST to avoid as many people and other dogs as possible. Not all people love dogs and some complain. Other people are allergic to dogs. It is also best to avoid other dogs because dog tend to bark at each other and this could be considered to be a disturbance and you might be asked to leave. It’s BEST to dine with dogs at off times.

Do you know that most of the food and drink that you consume can be harmful or even toxic to dogs? You need to get a list of what foods are safe and what foods to avoid to give to dogs. Usually a sauce free lean piece of meat is usually a good choice. You should also bring a water bowl for your dog.

You have to consider the temperature in Phoenix when dining out with dogs. All dogs like people do have different heat tolerances. Usually 90 degrees F and up is too hot and very dangerous to dine out with dogs. Your dog is not as heat tolerant as you. They wear fur coats. They absorb heat cup their paws and they can’t sweat. Ninety degrees F and up it is always best to leave your dog safe at home.

You also need to be aware that there are some rules to dine out with dogs. Your dog must close and by your side at all times. Dogs are NOT permitted to sit on restaurant furniture. Dogs are also not permitted to eat off of restaurant plates.

Got all that?

I think we are ready to dine out with dogs.

Our first trip is to the Twisted Italian in Peoria.

They only have two sets of tables out front but this restaurant is officially dog friendly and is listed on www.BringRover.com

They start us out with bread, oil and vinegar.

Then we share the southwest hand made pierogi.

The pierogi are tasty but are not dog friendly. I break off just a tiny end for the dogs to taste.

For my main I had the citrus salad with added salmon.

My dogs liked the salmon.

My husband had the antipasto salad.

The dogs got some cheese off of that salad.

www.EatTwisted.com

We were lucky because it is starting to heat up in Phoenix but today around 11am the weather was still pretty cool so we made it out to Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix. They specialize in serving Banh Mi Baguette sandwiches and offer most of your Vietnamese favorites except for Pho.

Today I got the salmon firecracker rolls and the chicken cabbage salad.

This cabbage salad is delicious. It’s made with tender marinated chicken breast. It’s herby with cilantro and mint and has a light vinaigrette dressing. The salmon roll is really different with nicely prepared salmon that is moist…It’s wrapped in seaweed with a nice crisp wrapper and Asian seasonings. It rest over more cabbage and comes with an Asian dressing. I can’t believe that these are only priced at $4 & $5 each.

My husband got the beef Banh Mi.

The beef in it is so delicious and tender…..It seems like a very flavorful filet to me but I know that it is ribeye. It’s really great! We always love coming here.

www.BanhMiBistroAZ.com

Now it is getting too hot to dine out with dogs. It is suppose to be close to 100 degrees here today. At 10am it is only 83 degrees F so we took the dogs to Culver’s so they could eat something out. (Culver’s is a national fast food chain but the butter burgers are never from frozen and the cod is always hand battered to order. They also serve daily made frozen custard) We ate someplace else.

Here we are at the drive threw…(the dogs know what they are getting).

Then my big dog pushes my small dog out of the way so she can see the burger coming.

Nobody is on the patio so we feed the dogs half of the burger.

I remove the bun for the dogs. They only need some meat and cheese.

This is some of the burger. It feels very moist and looks caramelized.

The dogs always enjoy food from Culver’s.

www.Culvers.com

We hope that you enjoyed Dining Out With DOGS in Metro Phoenix AZ May 2021. It’s heating up in Phoenix so the dogs might be mostly dining in. We will see you when we can!

The Forking Truth
In Memory of Louie 5-5-2001 – 3-3-2017

My Trip to Sel Restaurant Scottsdale AZ for Spring Restaurant Week 2021

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Sel is a small modern upscale restaurant located in Old Town Scottsdale Arizona. The name Sel is also French for salt.

Salt may symbolize amazing benefits and is a choice at meals.

They have an outdoor patio.

Inside Sel also has an open kitchen.

There is a cozy dining room and bar.

And salt shakers on the walls of the bathrooms.

This week (May 2021) it was restaurant week and Sel was offering a three course tasting menu for $44.00 a person with an optional wine pairing for $50.00 a person. Tonight they were only offering the restaurant week menu with a few add on options and a cocktail menu but not a wine list.

We are more wine people than cocktail people. We usually get a bottle of wine with dinners but since there are no wine bottles on our menus we went with the optional wine pairings.

Our first course was sweet pea & wild ramp vichyssoise.

it was topped with mint and a buttermilk emulsion. It taste like cold creamy pea soup with a potato base to me with mint. Whatever it is….the soup is good.

Our second courses were…heirloom tomato and roasted beet salad.

This salad is very unique. There are stringy things on the plate that have a little curly parsley-like heads with slightly pinkish stems. Here is a closer look.

Gosh the tomatoes are amazing…they taste just picked like from a tomato plant in New Jersey but I know they must be local. There is also some pickled ramp, very good creamy Crow’s Dairy goat feta cheese, a tasty lightly fermented red pepper & brown butter emulsion. The puffed forbidden black rice didn’t make it to our plates but the rest of the salad was very good. (the dark stuff on the plate are the beets)

For my main I went with the Thai Basil Crusted Alaskan Halibut.

I received a nice meaty piece of fish that was flaky and lightly dusted with Thai Basil. It was in a tasty slightly spicy miso curry with roasted sweet corn, some fresh spinach and micro greens. The miso curry goes expertly well with everything.

My husband got a very nice upscale kind of grilled filet mignon plate.

The filet was prepared to perfection and was flavorful and tender. There also was fancy romanesco cauliflower, white truffle and black garlic jus braised potatoes and bordelaise sauce.

That was my visit to Sel in Scottsdale AZ for Spring Restaurant Week 2021

From a prior brunch at Sel we had…………

Black truffle deviled eggs with dijon vinaigrette and tarragon aioli with crisp chicken skin and micro greens

Piri Piri chicken with lemon blueberry ricotta Dutch baby pancake

Iberico pork skirt steak with poached eggs, potato patty, arugula preserved lemon slaw and Creole hollandaise

Flourless chocolate tiramisu with hazelnut praline and dulce de leche gelato

www.SelRestaurant.com

Everything is subject to change and often does change.

The Forking Truth

First Taste at Renata’s Hearth Phoenix AZ – Worth a Fork! ****With re-visits

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Renata’s Hearth is an upscale modern Latin laced with the South West style restaurant located in the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix Arizona. The Biltmore recently re-opened with a 70 million dollar renovation and this brand new restaurant. You can be seated indoors or out doors.

the patio

Renata’s Hearth and part of the patio

Cushy masculine furniture. Parts of the dining area have a view of the patio.

one dining area

inside

inside

Some of the magic happens here……Cocktails are made here and I see lots of high end tequilas.

Some cocktails are smoked.

They offer Jamon Iberico. (****Update the Jamon Iberico plate is not on current menu)

It’s the highest end ham that you can eat. It’s made from special black footed pigs that only eat acorns to produce a ham like no other that dissolves in the mouth. Jamon Iberico is something special we usually find in Las Vegas or mail away for.

We also shared a Spanish watermelon salad.

It’s made with grilled sweet watermelon, queso fresco, baby arugula, and sherry vinaigrette. It’s light, refreshing and delicious.

There were many choices on the menu tonight. They offered around 5 entrees and around 6 different family plates. All but the luxury 44oz Oaxaca spiced wagyu tomahawk steak you can order as a single dinner. It was hard to decide so we shared two single orders of family plates.

The grilled branzino.

and the mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket.

These dinners came with delicious Peruvian style rice & black beans (that are refillable), hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, and three salsas (verde, roja & mango pineapple)

Our branzino was cooked perfect and was very moist inside. The sweet peppers and sauces are so delicious on the fish.

But that mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket knocked it out of the park. It was juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and oh so FANTABULOUS! In case you don’t get what I’m saying……The mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket was FORKING GREAT!

I thought both portions of the family plates (half sized or single were very generous to me….)

I was full and didn’t need dessert but they all sounded delicious. I was talked into just a single scoop of cantaloupe sorbet (instead of the three scoop normal portion listed on the menu. ( the cantaloupe sorbet is made local by Novel Ice Cream)

Gosh it’s delicious. It taste better than the cantaloupes I just bought from Safeway. Even the Mexican Wedding cookie is delicious.

That was my first taste of Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix AZ at the Biltmore.

We went back for a 2nd visit.

They started us off with complimentary wagyu New York steak tacos.

Gosh the steak in them is buttery soft.

We also had the radish salad.

and the Basque Sandwich bites (Jamon Iberico, manchego, truffle oil, polenta fries, and romesco sauce.

I didn’t eat the sandwiches but my husband said that they are like really tasty grilled cheese.

Tonight we shared a single order of the mesquite smoked jidori chicken.

The chicken is really perfect and juicy….even the breast….On ours the leg is a stronger with smoke taste so here I prefer the breast because I like less smoke taste on chicken but my husband likes the smokier leg better so this worked out perfect for us. This plate also came with Peruvian rice, black beans, grilled baby bells, grilled scallions, house made tortillas and three salsas that were all delicious.

We also shared the roasted Chilean Sea Bass.

This was truly amazing…It might be the best Chilean Sea Bass that I have ever had….So delicious with that mole verde……..Really REALLY Forking delicious. I ate well so I was too full for dessert.

3rd visut we started out by sharing the sardine escabeche.

The can is for display. The sardines are obviously fresh and good. In the middle of board isa light refreshing apple fennel slaw and on the end is high quality sour dough bread.

We also shared the Chile relleno.

It’s all vegetarian and tasty. It’s poblano peppers with faro, cauliflower, Mahon cheese, mole negro and cashew cream.

The smoked wagyu brisket and sauces differed this time.

The brisket no-longer comes with the bottomless rice and beans. If you want the rice and beans it’s $18.00. The sauces all taste different too. The red sauce is mild now, The green sauce is milder too. Instead of the mango habanero salsa there is a creamy sauce that taste like it has chipotle in it. This batch of brisket is good but isn’t crazy amazing like the first one I enjoyed. It’s much less succulent with less flavors and is barely warmed up.

We ordered a street corn to go with dinner.

It’s fresh corn with lime, cilantro, pimento, smoked goat cheese and some cotija cheese. It’s tasty anyone would like it.

The entrance now is accented with candles and musicians.

I have to say that Renata’s Hearth is Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.RenatasHearth.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

The FANTABULOUS DISH – The Mole Negro – Rubbed Smoked WAGYU BRISKET from Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix AZ at The Biltmore – Worth a Fork!

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The FANTABULOUS Dish means…..top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.

The Mole Negro – Rubbed Smoked Wagyu Brisket from Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix Arizona (at the Biltmore) Is CRAZY FORKING astonishingly delectable. It’s juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and OOOOohhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooo FANTABULOUS! It just might be the best tasting brisket that I have ever tried……

It also comes with hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, three salsas (verde, roja and mango pineapple) Peruvian rice and black beans.

Just drop what you are doing and try it now because it is FANTABULOUS!

Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.RenatasHearth.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Taste of Confluence in Carefree AZ – GREAT VALUE Fine Dining – Worth a Fork!

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Confluence is a small restaurant that serves an ever changing menu of farm fresh modern elevated American cuisine located in Carefree Arizona. They offer patio dining with a view of the mountains. They also offer a cozy dining room and bar seating.

They always start you off with a house made bread.

Today it was a generous slice of crusty sourdough served with oil and white balsamic vinegar.

We started out with a hot appetizer of gnocchi.

The gnocchi were pan fried and were elevated with morel mushrooms, cured goose egg yolk, ramps and thyme.

For dinner I usually go with a fish dish because Confluence serves some of the best fish dishes in the valley and it’s hard to get super great fish dishes in the valley…….(but really everything they serve is always excellent)………. Today I went with the filet mignon. This is the first time I ever ordered a steak from here for dinner.

The fillet is very flavorful and is tender like butter. For me it’s a very large portion too. The flavors of the vegetables next to the steak go magically well together. They are fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and a fried green tomato. This plate cost much less than filet my husband had from a well known steak house and is so much better and a million times more flavorful. This has to be maybe the nicest best filet mignon plate that you can get anywhere. Prices for filet mignon start at what this steak cost and sometimes are $25. MORE and DON’T come with sides……and if you buy the sides they sure won’t be this nice……….. That is part of the reason on why it’s a great fine dining value to eat here. The tasting menu options are the other reason. They just knock it out of the park with them.

My husband got the Iberiaco pork loin.

It’s as pretty as a picture.

It was also prepared to perfection and came with corn grits, caulilini, brussel’s sprouts, and pomegranate.

For dessert we went with the lemon curd with shortbread, elderflower macerated strawberries and fresh mint.

Everything was equally stupendous!

That was just a Taste of Confluence in Carefree – Great Value Fine Dining

Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.RestaurantConfluence.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

14 Marvelously GREAT Foods from Metro Phoenix AZ Restaurants………….(May-2021)

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I haven’t been everywhere but I have tasted some amazing dishes this year. There are many GOOD ONES that I can list here but narrowed it down to the ones that stood out the most……….All the dishes taste TOP of the line, They are all marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.

The Bufalina Pizza from Fabio On Fire in Peoria – Is made with high end ingredients such as San Marzano Tomato sauce, imported buffalo cheese, oregano, garlic, arugula, reduced balsamic vinegar, farm fresh sweet tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil. This has all kinds of flavors going on. Also the heat of the pizza warms the cheese JUST SO and you taste the most exquisite mozzarella the way it was meant to be enjoyed instead of just heating it to death on the pizzas like most places do.

The ground filet burger from The Bourbon Cellar in North Scottsdale. This is a ground in house burger that taste more like a fine steak. I have no idea how this burger has so much flavor. I think that it is best to enjoy this burger open face with a knife and fork because it taste like a juicy steak.

Speaking of a juicy flavorful steak…..

The filet mignon from Confluence in Carefree is excellent and not your grandfather’s plate of steak. This plate came with fried green tomato, fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and the most buttery tender flavorful steak ever. (NOTE*******the menu at Confluence is ever changing with what is fresh from the local farms and does change often)

The Confit Wagyu Beef Cheek from Confluence in Carefree is a FORKING JAW-DROOPINGLY astonishing. …. The only bad news is that the menu from Confluence is ever changing so you might not be able to get this dish when you want it. But the good news is that this restaurant pretty much always is serving something amazing.

The Strawberry Gelato from Fabio On Fire in Peoria might be the best in the whole country. I take that back….because…It probably is the best in the country!

The Goat Cheese Creme Brûlée from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in North Glendale isn’t something that you would expect from an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria but is SUBLIMELY Spreadable and OH so edible….. It’s spiced goat cheese with fig compote and crostini. You crack into a shattering crisp sugar surface and then the party in your mouth happens….It’s so great that you can enjoy it for either an appetizer or even dessert. It’s a shame that the cacciatore isn’t still on the menu because that dish sure belongs here. It was the best that I have ever tasted anywhere. I had the cacciatore from Pizzeria Bianco and it was good but the cacciatore from Bottega tasted like TEN TIMES BETTER…..like so great you’d drive across town for…..Well I’m mentioning it because maybe it will return to their menu sometime.

The Salmon Salad is very special from Pomo Pizzeria in Scottsdale. The salmon is from Chula Seafood. This one was melt in your mouth succulent with tasty grill marks. It POPS from the sweet grilled lemon and PINK PEPPERCORNS…that are a magical combination that I didn’t expect. The rest of the salad is fresh spring mix, gold beets, fennel and grape tomatoes…It’s only a salad so you can splurge for the Luna Gelato that is extra special too!

The Chicken from Valentine in the Melrose area of Phoenix was superb. It was smoky (but not too smoky), masterfully tender, moist, and flavorful. With that deep developed sauce, cabbage, durum wheat berries and kerned dill yogurt it was an explosion in every bite.

The Kokomo Chop Bowl from Little Cay Latin Caribbean Kitchen is one BAM-Diggitty-YUM-Dinger (When you add the seasoned Puerto Rican Pique sauce on the table) This Chop Bowl is full of yummy marinated chicken, yellow rice, black beans, curry mayo, rum soaked cranberries, add that pique sauce and it is FORKING BOMB!

I think a doughnut can be on this list if it is the FORKING BEST that I have tasted.

There is a donut shop on Bell Road in North Phoenix called Daily Donuts and Wings. I have only tried a few donuts so far and each one that I tried was the best of it’s kind that I have tried anywhere. I think my favorite might be the glazed lemon filled. These donuts are so fresh, have the perfect sweetness, seem light as air, and are DELICIOUS and overly easy to inhale.

The buttermilk fried chicken that is usually on the lunch menu from Confluence in Carefree is a OMG YUM kind of plate. It’s incredibly crunchy and crisp on the outside. The interior is JUICY, flavorful, EXPERTLY prepared tender chicken…..but I didn’t mention that INSANELY delicious sauce on it. The sauce is called chili tepid honey mustard sauce. It is a little spicy but not too spicy and is really FORKING plate scraping delicious. I also note that for me this is a very large portion and I make two meals from the chicken. My husband eats more than me and just eats the whole thing.

Taco Fusion in Glendale makes VERY GOOD Tacos (especially the habanero mild chicken taco with pineapple salsa) on hand made tortillas that are delicious. But this corn cake from Taco Fusion is amazing. It has a great corn flavor and taste like it’s a mix of custard and cake together. It’s just an AMAZING dessert! It’s better than the majority of desserts we get out at most places.

But I must mention this one…..

I have to give it to Fabio On Fire in Peoria again. This Strawberry Rum Cake is so good I’d tell a diabetic to eat it. It was really so delicious! I had to mention it.

My husband ate something very special that I didn’t eat so I want to mention it.

He REALLY LOVED the slow braised osso buco from the Italian Daughter in North Scottsdale.

It was falling off the bone tender. He loved digging into the bone and enjoyed the marrow. The sauce was nice and rich with the perfect deepness. He really enjoyed this and wants to have it again.

These were some of the Marvelously Great Foods that stood out in 2021 so far. I do note that many others are out there.

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Pomodoro Italian Grill and Seafood in Cave Creek AZ – A Different Taste of Italian

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Pomodoro Italian Grill and Seafood is a higher end Italian Restaurant located just above Phoenix in Cave Creek Arizona. They offer appetizers, salads, fresh made pastas, fish and shellfish dinners, various meat dinners and a luxury tomahawk ribeye.

From the exterior to the interior it’s a very western looking restaurant like most things in the small Western Town of Cave Creek.

The tables are set with crisp linen, glassware, heavy silverware, a candle, and hand made plates.

They start you off with complimentary crusty bread and oil.

In interior of the bread is fluffy, moist and sort of sweet………It’s good but unique. I’ve never tasted bread like this in an Italian restaurant.

We started out by sharing the tasting trio of pastas (cacio e pepe, Pomodoro, and carbonara). To me this pasta is different. It is a different style with less tooth to it. The pastas are good but also are all unique and a little different from other similar pastas out there. My favorite of the trio is the Pomodoro (middle). The Pomodoro was made with very sweet farm fresh tomatoes and it’s laced with creamy rich cheese. It’s a more flavorful Pomodoro pasta than most out there because the pasta is also infused with tomato.

For dinner I had the Chilean Sea Bass.

The plump meaty mild fish was pan seared and was served over a stack of fresh grilled vegetables and was topped with a lemon butter caper sauce and came with a nicely grilled half lemon. The fish was fresh, moist and flaky. It was prepared to perfection.

My husband went with the veal osso buco.

It was slow braised and came with a mound of creamy polenta. It was good……but could have been braised in a richer deeper braising liquid.

Our server was efficient and knowledgeable.

Parking was easy because they have their own lot.

That was my trip to Pomodoro Italian Grill and Seafood in Cave Creek AZ.

www.PomodoroUSA.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth