Tag Archives: #foodies

NEW WEIRD DiffERENT Limited and Special Edition Foods October 2023

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

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

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!

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

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

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

My Trip to Ramen Aku North – Las Vegas NV****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS****Ramen Aku is a ramen and Japanese style chicken restaurant with two locations in Las Vegas. he North location on North Decatur Road is small but is a full service restaurant with a variety of booths, half booths and counter seating.

They serve canned green tea from Japan here.

We started out by sharing the bulgogi gyoza.

The bulgogi (marinated and grilled Korean Style beef) is in crisp fried dumpling with a soy-like sauce for dipping. Have to say that these are very tasty…….I think anyone would like them.

I tried the chicken ramen in their chicken broth (#2 spicy) with added corn and fresh minced garlic.

The chicken is good…………They also forgot the egg that is suppose come with this…..Now The FORKING Truth is that the chicken broth taste like from a dry mix with extra salt. This is very hard to stomach. This is substandard in my opinion.

My husband tried their Ultimate signature ramen with fried chicken, fried shrimp, and pork belly.

The proteins and the hot sauces are good. This broth isn’t as bad as the chicken broth. This one is a combination of pork broth and the chicken broth. My husband doesn’t know why but he didn’t enjoy his ramen either.

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

This restaurant is highly rated as a 4.5 on Yelp.

That was my trip to Ramen Aku North

6572 N. Decatur Blvd Las Vegas NV – 702-331-7190

www.RamenAku.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Bun Bun Chicken – Casual Chicken Restaurant – Las Vegas NV – Worth a Try! ******UPDATE NEW OWNERSHIP, Some Changes and MEXICAN FOOD

Bun Bun Chicken is a casual order at the counter type restaurant in Las Vegas Nevada on the north end. Most likely you will order something chicken here and it will probably be messy but very tasty.

This restaurant specializes in serving breaded chicken breasts that they call fingers but are bigger than fingers in very messy but extra flavorful sandwiches, salads, and more. A few of the appetizers they offer are cajun fried corn, buffalo cauliflower with feta cheese, and brussels sprouts. They also offer wings, 16 varieties of chicken sandwiches. One sandwich is vegetarian cauliflower and the other is a burger. All of them come mild, regular or hot and come with fries and a drink. They offer what they call chef’s specials……that are entree salads, deluxe French fry plates, a nacho plate, waffle plates, a kids menu, soft beverages, desserts, and MORE!

Recently the ownership changed and the new owners added MEXICAN FOOD.

We started out by sharing a small order of macaroni and cheese.

It’s not so small. I’m surprised that the pasta has some bite to it. The cheese sauce taste like it actually has real cheese in it….This is very seasoned and is slightly smoky.

On a second visit we tried the buffalo cauliflower with feta cheese.

It’s fried nicely and doesn’t seem oily at all. It’s tasty. My husband loves it. I like it but the buffalo sauce is very sharp to me (but I am very sensitive). Most people will love this.

On a Third visit we tried the Brussels sprouts. They are fried with garlic and parmesan cheese….tasty.

For my main I tried the Ace of Salads (breaded chicken, romaine, tomatoes, pickles, corn, onions, shredded cheese, crispy onions, sauce) in regular heat.

I taste one piece of chicken first…..I thought it was tasty but mild…I thought mild but all of a sudden I’m getting this building heat….and it stays hot……..I think the heat is from the sauce that is sprinkled …….also THIS ISN’T A LIGHT SALAD…but it is tasty and packed with flavors. The lettuce is surprisingly extra crispy too. This salad is extra generous in size and depending on your appetite you might only be able to eat half.

Under the NEW OWNERSHIP the Ace of Salads was different this time.

The chicken is still good but they forgot whatever made this salad spicy…Oh Well

If you can’t take heat and all those textures maybe the bun bun salad (chicken, romaine, tomato, onion, pickles, and sauce) is for you?

I accidentally ordered the regular chicken thinking that was the medium spicy since my last salad seemed so spicy to me….Turns out that regular is no heat at all and is milder than mild…Oh well live and learn. It’s tasty but the Ace of salads had a lot more going on with it and a delicious hot sauce on it.

I had to finally try a sandwich and went with what they call – Guac Bun (2 fingers, avocado, tomato, grilled onions, jalapeños, and sauce) in “hot”

It’s massive…I have to cut it in half.

I have to say that this chicken is really delicious and moist……At first I thought it was too hot but latter figured out that the jalapeños were SCORCHING HOT and the sandwich was actually quite delicious but messy after removing the hottest jalapeños ever.

My husband tried the Sunny Bun in “HOT”(chicken sandwich with cheese, sauce, sunny side up egg, and pickles and requested sauces on the side ((a ranch style sauce and bun bun sauce like special sauce).

The bun is lightly toasted and the well seasoned egg is fried nicely. You can’t see it in this picture but there is a LOT of cheese sauce on this sandwich.

You can’t pick this up so you have to use a knife and fork. I tried a small piece of chicken without any sauce……It is hot. Hotter than the regular but if you eat it in the sandwich…..According to my husband it is far less hot and just tasty. The fries are also very well seasoned.

On another visit I don’t remember what sandwich my husband asked for but we think they gave us a buffalo chicken sandwich without the buffalo sauce (chicken, bacon, crispy onions, pickles, cheese sauce, bun bun sauce (on side at request), and ranch sauce (on side at request) in spicy hot.

Whatever it was my husband was very happy with it. He wants to go to Bun Bun Chicken regularly. The fries were hot and fresh and seasoned nicely.

He got this Buffalo sandwich with the NEW OWNERSHIP.

When my husband complained they latter brought him the fried onions, cheese sauce and bacon…….

On another visit my husband tried the MONSTER BUN (2 fingers, mac & cheese, jalapeño poppers, pickles and sauce. He enjoyed it!

We also tried two tacos.

Fish Taco

Chicken Taco

Both tacos come double shelled on white corn tortillas. We both thought the fish taco had more flavor than the chicken taco. The chicken was moist but didn’t seem seasoned. The salsa seemed good.

That was a little taste of Bun Bun Chicken – Worth a Try!

Still a bunch of stuff we haven’t tried yet.

On all the visits the chicken was moist, tasty, juicy, and very good.

Bun Bun Chicken is Worth a Try!

Bun Bun Chicken and Mexican Food

5861 W. Craig Rd Las Vegas NV – 702-844-8835

www.BunBunChickenAndMexicanFood.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Taste of Unstripped Food Festival Las Vegas NV

Vegas Unstripped is about 30 of Las Vegas’s most acclaimed and creative chefs. This is an “OFF THE STRIP EVENT” downtown in the Arts District on California Street Between Ester’s Kitchen and Garagiste Saturday October 14 2023 7pm – 10. Tickets were $150., They include unlimited tastes and also include cocktails, and are non profit.

www.VegasUnstripped.com listed the chefs that are expected.

Nearly all the foods that we’ve tried was next level FORKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! There was more food and drink than I could do but all but one thing I tried was over the top amazing! Also not all of my photos came out but here are most.

frogs legs

Asian style chicken

Tuna pasta adorned with burnt kimchi aioli

guacamole and salsa macha tostada – YUM!

tuna tostada – YUM!!!

Really complex flavors from this chicken wrap

vegetarian African food – delicious

That Korean fried chicken really just melted in your mouth. The hamachi was also delicious.

I didn’t try this one but my husband said that this was very VERY VERY Good!

I have to say that this was the very best barbacoa I’ve ever tried.

Amazing flavors here.

LOOK at the way they melt that incredible cheese on their amazing bread.

I was looking forward to this..because this is from a Bravo Top Chef….but passed because the short rib was rabbit. My husband did try it and said the flavors were very interesting.

Very good food from another Bravo Top Chef.

We both thought that the potato was super amazing!

oxtail with interesting embellishments.

That was just a taste of Vegas Unstripped.

www.VegasUnstripped.com

The Forking Truth

Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Cakes Recipe

I saw a picture of this lemon poppy seed cake that I thought looked delicious so I started to make this recipe. Thankfully I stopped to re-read the directions and I found a long list of complaints about the recipe not working out. Also some people complained about the taste and how heavy the cake was. When I made the batter it was heavy like pizza dough so I can imagine it would be very heavy. I had to fix the recipe and made over 6 changes and added ingredients to make it taste better. The temperature needed to be changed as well. I made the recipe easy to prepare and it came out lemony, delicious, moist, and not too heavy or too sweet. I’m bringing these Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Cakes to an event that I’m going to. This made 16 mini cakes.

Ingredients for about 16 servings

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter – room temperature

3 eggs – lightly beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

2 Large ripe lemons – You need all the zest for the cake. Juice from one for the cake, and juice from the second lemon for the glaze

1 + 1/3 cup flour

1 + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon PURE lemon extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

non stick spray

1 cup 10x sugar – for the glaze

Juice from your 2nd lemon – for the glaze

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Pull out two trays of cupcake pans. Line 16 with cupcake liners. If your liners are very thin then you should double them. Spray the cupcake liners LIGHTLY with non stick spray.

In a large bowl add the eggs, sugar, butter, poppy seeds, all the zest, juice of ONE lemon, flour, baking powder, extract, salt. Hand mix with a fork till smooth.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake liner till 3/4 full.

These go on middle rack till cooked. Ovens do differ and cupcake liners differ slightly in size. My first rack with 12 was done in 16 minutes. My second rack of four was done in 18 minutes. At around 15 minutes you should test them with your finger. If they feel done then they are. If they feel soft and raw on the top they need a little longer…..

The glaze only takes a minute to prepare. You can do that while the mini cakes are in the oven or after you take them out.

In a small bowl add the 10x sugar and the juice from your second lemon and mix well.

Spoon about one teaspoon of glaze over each lemon poppy seed mini cake.

They came out lemon-ee, moist, delicious, light, and not too sweet.

ENJOY!!!

Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Cakes
The Forking Truth