I only read positive things about EllaEm’s Soul Food in North Las Vegas Nevada so I thought I’d give them a try. They won a “BEST OF VEGAS” by the Las Vegas Review journal and have mostly very positive reviews on Yelp. On purpose I didn’t use the restaurant name in the title of this posting because it not my intention to bring anything negative to this restaurant. My only mission is to tell……The FORKING Truth.
Everyone was welcoming and friendly when we walked in. Eventually we ordered and they started us off with a warmed up cornbread muffin with soft butter.
The cornbread muffin was very good. Moist but slightly sweet with a good corn flavor to it.
Then the meals come.
I got the grilled red snapper. Today it was a bit fishy tasting and maybe was the best part of the plate. The mixed vegetables seem like from frozen and are laced with water and nothing else. In the middle are sweet potatoes that have a texture like mush and are sweeter than any dessert out there. I have no idea on how they were able to make them sweeter than sugar. The macaroni and cheese might have been good at one time. Today it’s over done and dried up.
The country fried steak was also over done and dried up. My husband said that this isn’t the best……
Maybe they were having a bad day? ……That made my day bad too!
On the other hand it was nice that they let a lady bring in her dog in a stroller.
Awwww the dog owner and dogs are so cute together. She obviously loves her dog very much.
As much as I enjoyed the service, cornbread, and the heart melting dog moment in dining room……
For my taste I don’t expect to be going back anytime soon.
Pho Mai Mail Is a Vietnamese Restaurant located in North Las Vegas Nevada. They offer most of the usual Vietnamese foods like banh mi baguette sandwiches, rice plates, noodle bowls also called bun, stir fry and more.
It’s casual with some wait service inside.
We tried an appetizer called chicken egg rolls, and we also ordered iced tea, a rare steak tendon and meatball pho, and a grilled chicken vermicelli bowl.
The first plate out is the pho.
I didn’t try it but was told that it was reasonably good.
Next the chicken egg rolls come out with fish sauce.
These are kinda bland but fried nice………
Next my grilled chicken vermicelli bowl comes out….(I guess I’m not getting the iced tea……)
I used to get this plate often at another Vietnamese restaurant. At the other Vietnamese restaurant the fish sauce was a tasty dip to the chicken……The fish sauce at Pho Mai Mai is very fishy tasting and I can’t use it. The chicken at Pho Mai Mai is developed with flavors but also is a little dried out and chewy. It is flavored different and has a smoke flavor that I’m not used to. Also no pickled vegetables here, no cilantro, no crispy shallots….To me this seems like a more stripped down version than what I was used to.
That was my trip to Pho Mai Mai in North Las Vegas NV.
2520 E. Craig Rd North Las Vegas NV – 702-916-0929
I haven’t found any sort of webpage for Pho Mai Mai.
A.Mano is a very unique novelty American Style Pizzeria and Restaurant located in Las Vegas Nevada. They offer the usual appetizers pizzas, pastas, salads, subs and more……But they also offer these things called, “FATBABY’s” that are hollowed out loaves of bread sticking straight up in the air filled with your choice of pasta that is topped with a generous amount of cheese. They also offer, “PIZZA PIE-ZONI (1/2 pizza & 1/2 calzone) and PASTA -PIE-ZONI (1/2 pizza and 1/2 pasta in a calzone). They even have CRAZY KNOTS that are different. The knots come in flavors like chicken Alfredo, bolognese and cheese, and mushroom truffle and cheese. Soft beverages are served here.
This is a very small restaurant with only around seven tables inside.
They have cheese related signs all over the walls here.
We decided to try a small plain pizza and a lasagna fat baby.
Here’s the pizza.
The pizza is actually very good. It has a delicious thin crust with a crispy bottom. The sauce is a rich tomato sauce. The cheese is very thick but easy to eat. The pizza is also nicely seasoned and is embellished with fresh basil.
Here’s the lasagna fat baby.
Lasagna Fat Baby
It’s a BREAD-ZILLA!
It’s a loaf of bread that is embedded with a cheese lasagna and is topped with a melted cheese tomato sauce. It’s tasty. Not a lot of lasagna in here. It’s mostly bread. Something different. It’s something funny to try.
That was my trip to A.Mano Pizza & Italian Cuisine.
The Pepper Club is an artsy kind of restaurant and sushi bar by James Beard award wining chef Todd English. This restaurant is located in the Arts District of downtown Las Vegas Nevada.
Chef Todd English – April 2021 – Big Boy Cook Club Cookout at Ocotillo PHX AZ
According to the Pepper Club’s Website they call themselves an Asian Ocean Fusion Sushi Bar and Upscale Beverage kind of restaurant.
This restaurant has an outdoor patio lined with dog bowls. Indoors is a large bar area, some traditional tables and mostly smaller bar tables.
We tried two amazing appetizers. Today (lucky us) they had a $5. special on salmon collars with ponzu sauce.
WOW! This was fresh as can be and prepared to perfection. It just melts in your mouth.
We also tried some sushi. Tried the yuzu hama (yellowtail and yuzu kasha ((Asian condiment of yuzu citrus, garlic & pepper)) )
Unique and delicious! Even the rice is nicely seasoned just so.
For my main I tried the JFC Sandwich (Japanese fried chicken thigh, citrus slaw, really amazing pickle chips, spicy JFC sauce, and truffle fries.
I never had chicken like this before. It’s crispy but is so tender and moist that I can break it up with just my fork. GOSH it’s FORKING Delicious! All the flavors together are delicious. The pickles cut threw and make it pop! The bun is tasty and toasted nice but I need to skip most of it and the fries so I have room to try dessert. The fries today seem kinda average so I’m good skipping most of them. The fries also seem to lack a truffle flavor today…But the chicken sandwich is amazing. It’s hard to see but they also branded the bun.
It reads the Pepper Club by Todd English.
My husband tried the Aztec Turkey Combo (Turkey, Gruyere cheese, baby arugula, Vermont cheddar, and tomato soup)
The tomato soup is rich delicious and also laced with cheese. My husband said that this was the best turkey sandwich that he has ever eaten. The turkey is great, lots of quality cheeses, artisan breads. It’s just the best!
The signature dessert is a French toast ube (Japanese sweet potato) with fruit dessert. I saw them and they look beautiful but are also humungous so I went for the Ube churro.
It came with a little ice cream and was a just right sweet ending.
I got a nice big fat cauliflower that I had to use and some walnuts I keep in my freezer and blue cheese so I was able to come up with this recipe easily. Going forward my new oven roasts different than my last oven so I need to turn up my recipes a little and most things seem to take a little longer. So it is very important to know that ovens really do differ. Your cauliflower might not be the same size as the giant one that I was lucky to get at a great price….SO…that also means that servings may differ too. I got six side servings out of this one but often I only get 4 servings from a cauliflower. I’ll say 4 servings because I usually can only find 4 serving cauliflowers.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 cauliflower – break down to florets
1 onion – rough chop
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes – slice in halves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup walnuts
4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons walnut oil
1 garlic clove – either chopped or ground to paste
1 Tablespoon date syrup
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup blue cheese – crumbled
1/4 cup toasted walnuts – slightly crumbled
1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin
sea salt – to taste
crushed black pepper – to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Cauliflower florets, bought cut onion, sliced cherry tomatoes go on a sheet pan(s) and get sprayed generously with olive oil. Do a light sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper. Place in preheated 425F oven until lightly charred…..(ovens do differ…in my old oven this would be 30-45 minutes…in my current oven it is more like 50-60 minutes.)
While the cauliflower is roasting use a stick blender and lightly blend the walnuts with the vinegar, oil, garlic, and date syrup. You might want it still a little chunky and not like peanut butter. Set to the side.
When the cauliflower is done assemble and serve. Add the walnut vinegar sauce. Finish with a sprinkle of walnuts, blue cheese, golden raisins, and scallions. It’s delicious and most people will enjoy!
Roasted Cauliflower with Walnut Vinegar Sauce, Walnuts, Blue Cheese, and Golden Raisins
There is always something new, weird, different, limited or special edition in the wonderful world of food. We never know WTFork we will come across when we shop for food. This month it was CRAZY…..I saw so many new or different Reese’s foods.
Up above is
DIFFERENT – Betty Crocker – Reese’s Puffs complete peanut butter pancake kit…..?????I don’t know how these pancakes stack up to others?
DIFFERENT – Betty Crocker – Reese’s peanut butter and peanut butter chips coffee cake mix with brown sugar streusel – Coffee cake is supposed to be eaten with coffee. Peanut Butter Coffee Cake might be better with something jammy.
DIFFERENT – Betty Crocker – Reese’s Pieces Cookie Mix.???? Might be good???
DIFFERENT – Betty Crocker – Reese’s Brownie Mix. It looks good pictured on the box. Maybe it’s better there than working on my guts or butt.
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Reese’s KING SIZE Crunchy Peanut Bar. Might be good!
NEW – Reese’s NEW Creamy & Crunchy cups. Some people like creamy and some people prefer crunchy peanut butter. I doubt that they can be as good as the original but I’ll give them a try!
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Reese’s Drizzled popcorn…?????
NEW – Reese’s Peanut Butter swirl and cups in ice cream …..Sounds yum!
NEW – Reese’s peanut butter ice cream sandwiches…??? They do sound good…..but?????
NEW – Reese’s peanut butter and chocolate cones duo…….Don’t know until we try?
NEW – Reese’s Peanut Butter Bar covered with chocolate-like coating and cake crumbs?
DIFFERENT maybe LIMITED EDITION and LEFTOVER – Reese’s Puffs cereal that is bunny shaped. Hop to it before it’s sold out!
This next one isn’t food but it sort of fits in here.
WEIRD – Reese’s (leftover) scented Easter Grass – someone must have been on grass to think this one up.
DIFFERENT – Reese’s Dipped Animal crackers covered in peanut butter and dipped in milk chocolate…..Ummm they sound good but????????
We are done with Reese’s….for now……Moving on.
DIFFERENT – Baileys’ Irish Cream Loaf Cake – Yes please!
DIFFERENT – Guinness chocolate stout cake – sounds delicious too!
LIMITED EDITION – Van Leeuwen Champagne French Ice Cream……..That just doesn’t sound good to me but I can’t say for sure unless I try it……???????
Sorry folks but the next one sounds good……
NEW – Entenmann’s Chocolatey Glazed Cookie Donut Ice Cream Sandwiches….They sound good but who knows? Could suck?
DIFFERENT – Hidden Valley Pickle flavored ranch dressing…….???? If you like ranch dressing then this might be good.
And usually something is Oreo.
cookie POP popcorn in Oreo flavor….who knew?
That was the new, weird, different, limited, and special edition foods out there for June 2023. Who know WTFork we’ll come across next month?
China Star is an all-you-can-eat and take out American/Chinese restaurant located in Las Vegas Nevada.
It’s not a fancy place and doesn’t serve upscale food but for what you it’s ok! (not positive but the regular price is low…something like $12…… I came on a holiday so prices were slightly more.)
One word of warning. They did have some of the food labeled but everything seemed inaccurate so you had to figure out what the food was yourself. That is part of the joy of buffets. It’s always a surprise.
Today they actually served the best strawberries that I’ve had in a long time.
I kept going back for strawberries.
A few of the offerings were-
Shellfish and garlic bread.
shrimp and fish dishes
pizza, dumplings and lo mein
beef, chicken, and pork stir fried dishes
sushi, edamame, seaweed salad and more. There also was a soft serve machine.
I didn’t take the fried shrimp but my husband said that they were pretty good today and the cocktail sauce was more flavorful than expected.
They offered two kinds of whitefish today and salmon. I didn’t try the salmon because you never get good salmon on a buffet but did try both whitefish. The one whitefish in the middle of the plate was actually very good. It was seasoned nice and not over cooked. The even milder whitefish (something like swai) to the right was cooked perfect but lacked seasoning. I added Mexican hot sauce to it and it was better. The vegetables were good. Chicken wing looked good. Had a good flavor but also had a spongy unappetizing texture. Went back and tried the teriyaki and that was pretty good.
Made a desert bomb!
Strawberries, vanilla soft serve, coconut pudding, and a doughnut.
It’s ok for what you pay.
China Star
4595 W Charleston Blvd Las Vegas NV – 702-870-1888
Tacos El Gordo is a family owned Mexican Restaurant with three locations in California and four locations in Las Vegas NV. The North Las Vegas location is extra casual. Most of the seating is inside but they do have a few tables outside for when the weather is nice.
On the menu they offer around a variety of beef fillings such as (carne asada, suadero-brisket, cabeza- head meat, lengua-tongue, tripa-guts, Azteca-grilled beef and cactus, masiza, ojos-beef eyes, sesos- brain) or pork (adobada-spiced, bouche-stomach, chorizo-spiced beef & pork, boche-maw stomach), for your tacos, mulas, tostadas, sopes, vampiros or quesadillas.
Ordering at the North Las Vegas location is slightly awkward.
Oh my what to get and where do I go?
When you take a closer look you can see that they have certain meats at the four stations. You might need to go to all four stations depending on what you are ordering.
You move down the line like you are at a cafeteria.
You can get some complimentary fried onions and jalapeño here.
Next you get your beverage, pay, and seat yourself.
cabeza and chorizo tacos
carne asada taco
If you eat beef or pork Tacos El Gordo is Worth a Try!
Tacos El Gordo 3260 Losee Rd North Las Vegas NV – 1-702-641-8228
Lotus of Siam is a James Beard Award Wining Northern Thai Restaurant with a James Beard Award Wining Chef Saipin. Lotus of Siam has three locations in Las Vegas Nevada.
The Red Rock Casino location is very opulent and lavish with hanging lanterns, bamboo and lots of foliage.
just past hostess stand and part of bar area
Bar area
Dining room with open roof
We decided to try an appetizer of chicken wontons.
They are crisp with a small piece of plain chicken in them. They were served with a sweet sauce.
The last Thai dish that I was crazy about was pad prik king so I tried it here with salmon.
It looks similar but taste completely different. I don’t know what to think…I know the base of this dish is red curry so that means the formula here is very different………But the salmon was nicely grilled with char marks and is very moist and flakes.
My husband tried the drunken noodles with duck.
The duck is good but this also taste very different and much milder with flavors than we are used too. I do need to mention that the duck was prepared especially well.
That was my trip to Lotus of Siam Red Rock Restaurant Las Vegas NV
This recipe is a variation of the Ottolengi Test Kitchen’s Middle Eastern Mac ‘N’ Cheese with Za’atar Pesto. I made it a few months back and it was SO FORKING AMAZING!!!!!!!! Incase you don’t know Yotam Ottolenghi is a famous chef, restauranteur, and multi award and James Beard winning cookbook author. Anyways that Middle Eastern Mac ‘N’ Cheese really was FORKING Amazing…. so
Middle Eastern Mac & Cheese with Za’atar Pesto & Crisp Onions
I thought these same flavors would also be great on a flatbread so I gave it a try.
I made my own bread and my own crisp onions but you can buy a flat bread already made. I always just wing bread because bread recipes are very rarely perfect to the brand flour you buy. They are all ground different so your results will differ. I basically made the bread the way I try to describe on how I make pizza dough. You can look that up on The Forking Truth if you like. The onions are easy. Either you can buy them already made crisp in a bag or slice onions yourself and coat them in either flour or cornstarch and fry in oil on medium heat till crisp. After that all I had to do was to make a cheese foundation that taste like what was on the pasta from the original recipe and then make the pesto. Serving size is difficult to judge. This recipe makes enough to dress two 14 inch breads that I cut into 16 small slices. I don’t know if you want one, two, three, or four slices to eat? I think the majority of people will eat two slices so I’ll guesstimate 8 smaller servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
2 – 14 inch flat breads
1/2 cup crisp onions
5 Tablespoons butter room temperature – topping
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste – topping
1/8 teaspoon turmeric – topping
1+ 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin – topping
5 Tablespoons cream cheese
1 + 1/3 cup mature cheddar cheese – shredded
6 + 1/3 oz feta cheese – crumbled
sea salt – to taste
black pepper – to taste
1 lemon – zest & supreme the segments and chop the supremes, squeeze what’s left not to waste the juice – pesto
3 Tablespoons za’atar – pesto
1 cup either parsley, cilantro, or celery leaves or a bit of each – rough chopped – pesto
1 garlic clove – ground to paste – pesto
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts – lightly crushed – pesto
6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil – pesto
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil – to oil pan
Directions
Depending on your bread depends on the temperature you need. If you are using a purchased bread you only need to preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. If you are baking a pizza type dough then you would need a higher temperature on what your pan or stone can handle between 450 and 500 degrees F.
Make topping- In a medium bowl combine butter, garlic, turmeric, cumin, cream cheese, cheddar, and feta cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set to the side.
Make pesto – In a small bowl combine zest, lemon supremes, any lemon juice that you can squeeze from the skins you removed from the supremes, za’atar, cup of leaves (parsley, cilantro, and or celery), garlic, pine nuts, olive oil. You will want to blend this slightly. It is easiest if you have a stick blender. Or you can muddle it with a mortar and pestle.
Preheat your oven to at least 350 degrees F.
Place a bread on an oiled pan.
Spread 1/2 of topping on bread. (other 1/2 goes on 2nd bread)
This goes in oven till hot. (about 10 minutes)
Next – take out of oven and add up to 1/2 of pesto. (Some goes on 2nd bread)
Finish with crisp onions and slice and serve!
Cheddar & Feta Flatbread with Za’atar Pesto & Fried Onions
A Special THANKS!!!!!!!!! to Ottolenghi Test Kitchen so I could come up with what I got here!
