Tag Archives: #food

The Great Las Vegas Taco Festival 2023

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The Great Las Vegas Taco Festival was held at Craig Ranch Park in NORTH LAS VEGAS Nevada October 27-29TH 2023. Besides TACOS there were all kinds of things like a car show, carnival rides, margaritas, eating contests, a chihuahua beauty contest, craft venders and MORE! (If you were there the right day and right time)

We tried ………

An award wining mango habanero taco and a bulgogi beef taco from El Chino.

Both tacos are tasty but the spicy chicken taco is the one to get here….It really developed with lots of delicious flavors.

Next we try

the chicken and rib eye tacos from 911 Tacos & Beer.

Both tacos had ingredients in them that wasn’t in their description on their sign…..But still both are tasty and flavorful with tender fillings.

We also tried El Fuego Tacos.

We tried an asada and a chicken taco. These ran extra salty today. I can’t eat either taco.

Moving on

FINALLY fish tacos

From Ole Manny’s Seafood Shack we tried a shrimp and a fish taco and their hot habanero salsa.

Both are good…..The taco shells are the tastiest so far on these. The fish is fried perfect and seems free of oil….It’s tricky figuring out on how much salsa to use here because the salsa is extra strong but the right amount of drops makes it very good.

Going to fit in one more taco.

We tried a chipotle chicken and a birria taco from Slanging Tacos.

These both have extra tasty shells with lots of flavor to them….These both also are larger tacos with lots of filling…… The chicken taco is very tasty but it’s the tasty sauce and tasty shell that is delicious…..The chicken needs those flavors to be good. The birria is good but you have to buy the consume separately.

That was what we tried at The Great Las Vegas Taco Festival

Craig Ranch Park

628 W Craig Rd NORTH LAS VEGAS NV

702-633-2418

www.ProjectTaco.com

The Forking Truth

Halloween Special Edition – Frightful Horrifying Foods Served in Las Vegas NV 2023

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This is a collection of the most frightful horrifying foods served to us in Las Vegas Nevada in no particular order. OK my claws are out and here it is…….

At Casa Don Jaun downtown besides cold chips that seemed purchased and oregano laced salsa I tried a chicken fajita salad. I got an uninspired warm salad that was topped with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and chicken that was drowning in salty soy sauce. Oh and a glob of guacamole. YUK! It tasted like they used half a bottle of soy sauce to make this.

The chicken ramen was made with good chicken but the broth was below standard. It tasted like some sort of instant broth with added salt. This was absolutely terrible and most of the ramen they offer at this restaurant is made with this too. I had the chicken ramen. Not all but most of the ramen they offer is a combination of pork and chicken broth.

At Victories Cafe in The Cannery besides being served over microwaved rolls that turned hard……I tried the Asian Chicken Salad. The chicken had a weird texture…..It was tender but unusually dry??????But it was the sauce on it that made me gag….It was very sweet…It just didn’t taste good.

The rice was good from Little Hong Kong but everything else was below standard……My husband tried the Szechwan beef that was hard and chewy in a sauce that we didn’t care for….Sadly we tried Mandarin hot braised vegetables and they were in the same exact sauce as the Szechwan beef. Maybe the worst dish we had there was the vinegar marinated milkfish…..I had Caribbean vinegar marinated fish before that was delicious. The fish dish from Little Hong Kong has all dried out and chewy and only tasted like old fish and vinegar…….

Sometimes you get bad food at food festivals.

Recently at the USA Today Wine and Food Festival I tried this piece of beef from Kusa Nori……Somehow they made this saltier than salt….I thought I was going to be sick after tasting it..

Same thing happened at the Great Las Vegas Taco Festival.

I wasn’t able to eat either of these tacos from El Fuego. They were so over salted that to me they weren’t edible.

Back to restaurants

EllaEm’s Soul Food won a Best of Vegas Award so I thought they’d be good. OK maybe it’s my bad for trying the fish…..(not the best) but you can clearly see problems with most of the sides. I had mixed vegetables that look like from frozen that have nothing added to them. In the middle are sweet potatoes that are sweet beyond belief. To the right is macaroni and cheese that is all dried out. My husband also had a very dried out chicken fried steak.

Bob Taylor’s Ranch House might be one of the oldest Steak Houses in Las Vegas. My husband found out that his burger was thrown on the grill from frozen. He asked for medium – rare but he got grey in the center and all dried out. I tried the BBQ chicken salad. They did give me tender chicken but it was covered in a cloyingly sweet bbq sauce and was served over warm soggy iceberg lettuce.

We had a good visit to Secret of Siam Thai Restaurant so I wanted to go back because they offer a lot of different fish dishes on their menu. I tried the green Apple Pompano……The slaw that came with it was delicious……..but……

The fish was horrifying…….It came out like they boiled it in glue. I dug and dug with my fork and it was next to impossible to get flesh to eat….But when I managed to get a small morsel……..ICK!

It’s FORKING gross…..It’s that old fish taste.

That was The Halloween 2023 Special Edition of The FORKING Truth where I shared the most frightful, horrifying foods served to me in Las Vegas NV.

Have something good and don’t go hungry on Halloween.

I drew this….

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Little TASTE of USA Today Wine & Food – Las Vegas NV

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The USA Today Wine & Food Festival was held Saturday October 28TH in Trivoli Village in the Summerlin part of Las Vegas Nevada. The tickets were general admission and VIP. The VIP tickets got you in one hour early (12:00), a few more tables to sit at and entitled you to more wines to pick from, and two additional tastings.

One tasting was

prosciutto wrapped grapes

and the other was

black Angus filet with squid ink risotto topped with shrimp from Harlo Steakhouse.

Everyone could try the following.

I thought among the best tastes today TWO came from Ichiza……One was an Asian beef dish with rice that was delicious and tender. The other was some sort of layered cracker with two kinds of fish (I think both were tuna) One layer was a fish with a curry sauce. The other was seasoned with rice.

To me the very best bite of the festival came from Anima By Edo.

It was all high quality and unusually delicious together. Wagyu pastrami, torrija, caciocavalla cheese, port balsamic glaze.

One thing was not edible…to me ….and also my husband………

This Angus beef from Kuta Nori almost made me sick from too much salt…….It seemed saltier than straight salt.

There were a few more things that were good or ok.

My husband ate something shrimp from The Crab Corner.

This swai from California Fish Grill wasn’t so good over uninspired rice.

Hussong’s Mexican Cantina made pretty good Margaritas. I didn’t try the Duck appetizers but I heard that they were pretty good.

Goufrais Southern Californian Chocolate taste like thick chocolate frosting to me.

My husband tried a tiny pulled pork slider. He said it was ok. I didn’t catch where it came from but I think it was from Project BBQ.

In The Black Cookie Company made a variety of cookies….With nuts, nut free, and gluten free varieties…….Tried a few that were ok.

Crossroads Kitchen offered plant based meat-like cigars that were tasty and a pastry with onion, almond, and a vegetarian egg.

If you are here at the right time you might catch some demos.

Crazy Pita arrived late. I tried part of a pita with hummus spread on it. They told me that they were preparing meat dishes that will be ready later.

Evel Pizza offered BBQ beef pizza

Soul Foo Young was a no show.

Refrigerator chilled pork sandwiches from Sr Frog. And something crab in the other cups.

Lots of sliced meats, cheeses, fruit, crackers and more at Boar’s Head.

And some of the cheese comes with rind.

That was a little Taste of USA Today Wine & Food 2023 Las Vegas

www.WineandFood.USAToday.com

The Forking Truth

Panch Phoron Butter Spiced Cauliflower Recipe

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Panch Phoron (also spelled a few different ways Phoran) Is a North Eastern India 5 spice blend. Panch Phoran is equal parts of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black mustard seeds, nigella seeds, and fenugreek seeds. You toast the seeds till fragrant, let them cool, and then grind. After I made this I thought it really needed just one teaspoon of sugar to brighten the flavors. Then it needed one teaspoon of sea salt and one teaspoon of a pepper……..Out of the spices I have (and I have many) I thought Aleppo pepper would be the best tasting. This got mixed with one stick of melted sweet butter and it transformed cauliflower into something amazing. Each cauliflower and serving size out there might be a different size. For me this made 6 dinner side servings.

Ingredients for around 6 side servings

1 cauliflower – break down to florets

optional – 1 onion – cut into slices

optional -3 carrots – cut into slices

optional 8 mini bell peppers – long way – slices

1 stick sweet butter 4 ounces – melted

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon course sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

non stick spray

Directions

Set the oven to 450 degrees F.

Sheet pan(s) get sprayed with non stick spray and put to the side.

The cumin, fennel, black mustard, nigella, and fenugreek seeds get toasted till fragrant. You can do this in a pan stove. in a pan (but in a low oven) or in a bowl in your microwave for about 30 seconds. This needs to cool and then you blend the seeds in a spice grinder. This seed mixture gets mixed into the butter along with the sea salt, sugar, and Aleppo pepper.

The cauliflower and optional vegetables go on sheet pans in a single layer and get drizzled with all of the Panch Phoron Butter.

This goes in a preheated 450F oven for at least 30 minutes or until browned and fragrant. At 30 minutes I thought mine wasn’t done yet so I turned the heat up to 475 and left it in just 15 minutes more and I thought perfect.

This made the house smell so FORKING AMAZING!

Even my husband came out and wondered what that amazing smell was.

Panch Phoron Butter Spiced Cauliflower

This is one that almost everyone will enjoy!

The Forking Truth

NEW WEIRD DiffERENT Limited and Special Edition Foods October 2023

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There is always something new, weird, different, limited, or special edition in the wonderful world of food today! We just never know what we’ll come across when we shop for food. This month I saw lots of chef style frozen dinners at Walmart and lots of new flavors of ice cream and a few other things.

Up above is NEW – Gordon Ramsay Fish and Chips (beer battered pollock and thick chips) I sure do wonder if chef Ramsay with all his Michelin awards will eat this frozen dinner from Walmart?

But wait there’s more!

NEW – Chef Ramsay Lasagna with bolognese sauce and mushroom risotto.

There’s still more!

NEW – Chef Ramsay lemon caper chicken and slow roasted beef in red wine sauce.

NEW – Chef Ramsay four cheese macaroni

NEW – Chef Ramsay chicken pot pie and Shepard’s pie.

I think Guy Fieri is more Walmart Style. (all but one contains pork…oink OINK!)

NEW – Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Cheesy chicken enchilada bowl

NEW – Guy Fieri’s Flavortown sweet and sour pork bowl

NEW Guy Fieri’s Flavortown sloppy Joe Mac & Cheese

NEW – Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Cheesy lasagna with pepperoni marinara sauce

Also NEW at Walmart are frozen meals by famous singer and actress Patti La Belle.

NEW – Patti’s Good Life by Patti La Belle – Chicken & waffles, Collard Greens, Mac & Cheese, Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Kardea Brown is a chef and a Food Network host. She also has frozen dinners at Walmart.

NEW – Delicious Eats by Kardea Brown – Country Kitchen Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, Country Kitchen Chicken Pot Pie, Southern Kitchen Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.

Chef and TV host Andrew Zimmern has NEW frozen dinners too!

NEW – Andrew Zimmern – Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, and caramelized onion pulled pork Mac & cheese

NEW – Andrew Zimmern Turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans

At Costco here I’ve found these different almonds.

DIFFERENT – Blue Diamond Bold Korean BBQ Almonds.

NEW – Magic Hat Gummies that turn your tongue blue in 4 flavors (ick…. why?)

NEW & LIMITED EDITION – Van Leeuwen French Style Ice Cream in Champagne, Kiwi Burst, Apple Pie

NEW & LIMITED EDITION Van Leeuwen French Style Ice Cream in – MALT MILKSHAKE & FRIES, Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll, Sticky Toffee Pudding

NEW – Entenmann’s – chocolaty glazed – cookie donut and glazed cookie donut (these are frozen ice cream sandwiches)

DIFFERENT AND WEIRD – Stranger Things Scoops Ahoy The Void – I don’t know WTFork this is.

LIMITED EDITION – General Mills Naturally Flavored Pumpkin Spice Cheerios.

LIMITED EDITION – Snyder’s of Hanover Beer Flavored Octoberfest Pretzels….BURP!

Saw some different dog treats.

DIFFERENT – Milk Bone Stacked Cookies Molasses and Peanut Butter

DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Dogsters Ice Cream Style treats in nutty and cheese….

and

DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Dogsters Ice Cream Style Treats in Cheesy Bac’n

And there’s usually something Oreo.

LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco Oreo Cookies in artificially flavored Red Velvet.

We that was the NEW, WEIRD, DIFFERENT, Limited and Special Edition Foods out there for October. Who know WTFork we’ll come across next month.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Public School 702 – Las Vegas NV

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Public School 702 is a casual full service American Restaurant and Bar that is laced with a little bit of global inspirations type of Restaurant in the Downtown Summerlin Part of Las Vegas Nevada. This restaurant offers lunch, brunch, dinner, and recess ( a cute name for happy hour).

You ride up the escalator to the entrance.

Inside is spacious and is decorated with planets from science class.

There is also lots of books and encyclopedias all around (not pictured). Inside they offer a variety of different seating. They have traditional tables, community tables, and booths. There’s a bar area and an outdoor patio.

We started out by sharing the five onion and cheddar dip with house prepared potato chips.

The chips are shattering crisp and are very good! The dip is very creamy……today it taste more like cream cheese than cheddar cheese……. I also don’t taste five onions in it but it is mildly onion-ee and still tasty.

For my main I tried the bourbon & peach glazed salmon.

Today this one is slightly disappointing because the fish is overcooked and this dish also ran very sweet and lacked a bourbon taste. However the fish sits in a bed of quinoa that is embedded with tomatoes and peaches. I do have to say when I mentioned the overcooked fish to my server they did offer a remake…But I usually refuse re-fires (especially when I can’t look into the kitchen) Because I have worked in restaurants and have witnessed things that I don’t want to speak of that happen in the kitchen when customers send food back.

Anyways- The Shrimp and Grits are better than the salmon.

My husband tries the shrimp & white cheddar grits. This dish is a little different than what you get from other places. (bacon, tomato, corn, kale, in a creamy beer blanc sauce. Also the grits are pre-made and sliced and browned)

He said that the shrimp were cooked nicely.

Not perfect but some things are tasty……..You might do OK here…….

That was my trip to Public School 702

Public School 702

1850 Festival Plaza Drive – 702-997-0465

www.PSontap.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Lunch Specials at the Geisha House – North Las Vegas NV

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Geisha House is the first Japanese Hibachi Restaurant of Las Vegas Nevada. They offer sushi, sushi rolls, Japanese cuisine Japanese Fusion cuisine, and Teppanyaki.

I noticed that they offer weekend lunch specials so we thought we’d give them a try. One of the specials is called the hibachi lunch special. This one includes a 4 ounce New York Steak, 5 shrimp, 3 ounces of chicken, strawberry rice, vegetables, salad, soup and sauces.

It’s a ton of food for around $25. and it includes a soft beverage.

We also shared the Sushi Lunch Special. This one is one or two sushi rolls and choice of salad. (the prices differ depending on the rolls you pick from around $11-$20)

I picked the salmon and asparagus salad.

It was made with crispy rolls of salmon and tempura asparagus and covered with drizzles of the teppanyaki sauces.

The regular spicy tuna roll was very good.

For our second roll I picked the spicy tuna tempura because it was one of the only rolls that didn’t contain crab mix.

Those are the lunch specials at Geisha House.

Geisha House

6572 N. Decatur Blvd North Las Vegas NV – 702-399-3329

www.GeishaRestaurants.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

MRKT Sea & Land Restaurant North Las Vegas NV – Couples Special – Worth a Fork!

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MRKET Sea & Land is a quality steakhouse and seafood restaurant located in the Aliante Casino Hotel in North Las Vegas Nevada. They have a lounge and bar.

But it’s in the main dining areas where you can try a couple’s special.

Every month the couple’s special changes. We hit them when they were offering the chateaubriand (filet of tenderloin) with salad, two side dishes and dessert for $125. subject to change)

First we were greeted with a bread basket with a sourdough loaf of bread, some baked pretzels and some pink salted butter.

The next course were Caesar salads…..

Next was the main event.

We got chateaubriand with an herbed sauce, grilled asparagus, and macaroni and cheese. To my surprise everything was delicious.

The filet tenderloin was also a very generous portion (20 ounces before cooking) so we had leftovers for another meal.

This even came with a choice of dessert. We went for the special dessert. It was a mixed fruit chocolate tart with banana ice cream.

I have to say-

MRKT Sea & Land’s Couple’s Special is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

MRKT Sea & Land Restaurant at Aliante Hotel Casino

7301 Aliante Pkwy North Las Vegas NV

702-692-7777

www.AlianteGaming.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Bomba Calabrese Marinated Chicken Thighs Recipe

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I wanted to prepare this pack of chicken thighs some way that was just tasty for anytime and not too fancy. I flavored olive oil with garlic, sea salt, and Bomba Calabrese (the Coluccio Brand). I only marinated the chicken one hour. Then I pan fried the chicken and it came out tasty and tender. Serving size may differ. I don’t know if you want the chicken for a small lunches or a bigger dinners? I got 10 smaller chicken thighs in my 3 1/2 pound pack so for me it around 10 servings.

Ingredients for around 10 servings

3 1/2 lbs chicken thighs ( got ten in my pack)

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon course sea salt

8 garlic cloves – ground to paste

2 Tablespoons (heaping if you use the PREFERRED Coluccio Brand) Bomba Calabrese – all the brands do taste different and they all offer different levels of heat. Of course I haven’t tried them all but Coluccio has a wider range of flavors than what I’ve tried from several brands.

Fresh basil

fresh tomatoes – I only had a part of a pint – cut in halves

sea salt – to taste

fresh black pepper – to taste

non stick spray

Directions

In a gallon zip lock bag add the olive oil, salt, garlic, Bomba Calabrese and mix well. Then add the chicken thighs. Try to distribute the liquid all around each chicken thigh. Leave this sit out one hour.

Shake them off before frying.

Spray a larger fry pan with non stick spray. Put the pan on medium high heat. When the pan is hot you can add thighs to your pan. Leave them cook until they get a brown crust on the bottom (mine took 8-10 minutes). Then turn them over for around another 5 minutes. Remove from pan and add salt and pepper to taste.

Now is when it’s best to fry off the tomatoes in the leftover oil and juices. When done remove them and clean the pan.

Fry up the rest of the chicken the same way.

Finish with some fresh basil.

They come out delicious and everyone will enjoy them. They re-heat amazing in a small amount of tomato sauce too!

Bomba Calabrese Marinated Chicken Thighs

ENJOY!!!

The Forking Truth

My FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Limited Edition Malted Milkshake and Idaho Potato French Fries French Ice Cream

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Van Leeuwen makes higher and high quality packaged French Style ice creams (French style is richer from egg yolks….extra fattening). Usually I find their higher quality ice creams at my local Sprouts Grocery. The Pistachio flavor only has three or four ingredients in it. I usually find the unusual limited flavors of Van Leeuwen Ice Creams at my local Walmart freezer. I came across the limited edition malted milk shake with Idaho Potato French Fries at my local Walmart so I thought I’d give this one a try.

I open it up.

I don’t see much of anything but it is the perfect eating temperature.

The texture does differ from other Van Leeuwen Ice Creams I’ve tried….This one seems more whipped and airy. YUMMMMM the taste of the malted milk is very good……unitil I hit a small chunk of cold hard French Fry. But the creamy part really is very good……..Then you get a small piece of cold fry and it sucks……..It is weird……..The flavors and textures don’t work together….but for some odd reason I felt the need to try it……….This would be really amazing if they replaced the cold hard fries with lightly crushed malt balls…….WHY-THE-FORK didn’t they do that? ……..?????????

Well those were my FORKING Thoughts on Limited Edition Malted Milkshake and Idaho French Fries French Ice Cream.

Your FORKING Thoughts may differ.

The Forking Truth