June 17th 2020 Quaker Oats announced that they will be changing the name Aunt Jemima and her image from their products because its origins are based on a racial stereotype.
The Aunt Jemima web site was still up June 17th 2020 and it looked like this. The home page was a picture of their products. All of them were Aunt Jemima except for one Cap’n Crunch.
Then an ad for Cap’n Crunch rolls by with promise of “Boatloads of Breakfast Fun!”
The rest of the site was still Aunt Jemima.
Quaker Oats says good bye to Aunt Jemima……….But is it hello to Cap’n Crunch?
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
Maybe half the meals that I ate out or take out are salads. Lately I’m mostly but not entirely supporting restaurants that are near to home. I thought others might like a taste of the salads of the #UpperWestSide of Metro Phoenix AZ. The Upper West Side are parts of the Way North Phoenix, North Glendale and North Peoria and are zip codes 85383, 85382, 85310, 85308 and 85083.
Up above is. really great salad from Sala Thai in Peoria. It’s the spicy lemon salad with chicken and is among my favorites.
Here is the select your own salad from Phila-Deli in Glendale. It starts at only around $7.50. It’s fast food priced but it’s a whole bunch better than fast food.
Basically across the street (or highway) is Skewers Mediterranean Grill in Glendale and they also offer really nice $7.50 salads.
On the left is a gyro salad and on the right is chicken kabob salad.
I got a few salads from Fabio On Fire in Peoria.
Up above is the pear salad.
Here’s the strawberry spinach salad from Fabio On Fire.
My favorite meal from Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol in Glendale is the Chicken Fajita Salad.
It is usually inconsistent. The amount of chicken is either a lot or small and either moist or dry. Seasonings differ. It might include the peppers, onions and avocado or not. The ingredients differ some on each visit. Instead of dressing I use their tasty salsa that is currently the best salsa in town.
Pita Kitchen in Glendale makes one of the most delicious Chicken kabobs in metro Phoenix so I get it on a Greek Salad.
They marinate it with delicious seasonings. It has a delicious char taste and 19 out of 20 times it is insanely juicy and is always delicious.
The meal I get most often at Cucina Tagliani is their Strawberry and Goat Cheese Salad with Chicken.
Sometimes I get one of their Caesar salads.
Caesar with chicken….(and one of my dogs)
Caesar with salmon, artichokes and pine nuts……..(and one of my dogs)
The Black and White Cafe in Glendale offers a few salads.
This is the California Chicken Salad from The Black and White Cafe.
I got several nice salads from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante.
Farro Salad with avocado, pesto, mozzarella and chicken. (this one was way more than one meal….I think they gave me extra by accident)
Salad with added Sicilian Tuna
Strawberry Chicken Salad
I did get a few nice salads from The Social on 83rd in Peoria but the ones I got are no longer on the menu but both salads were very good.
Those are most of the salads that you can find on The Upper West Side of Metro Phoenix AZ.
Everything is subject to change….We hope things change for the better.
The stay at home order has expired and we had dramatic increases of covid-19 among residents in Arizona. We just might be in the second wave oof the virus now. Nothing is for certain and you can never be careful enough. These days during the global pandemic shopping for groceries can be deadly.
I’ve been getting most of my groceries delivered to avoid other people who may be carriers of the virus. Over the weeks and months we experienced errors, substitutions and disappointments getting groceries delivered. I didn’t know about the dramatic increase of covid-19 cases and deaths on the day I went out grocery shopping. If I knew how bad things really are this would have been a different story.
It might have been foolish, hazardous or possibly fatal but we went out grocery shopping this week. We might (or might not) have been partially protected from catching the CoronaVirus. Wearing a mask only stops other people from catching your germs but when you add a filter you possibly are filtering out a little of what its coming in. I also read that NONE OF THE FILTERS WILL PREVENT YOU FROM CATCHING CORONAVIRUS. You have to look at it this way….You might be slightly protected (if your mask fits correctly with a filter). So that means if you get maybe less % of the virus. It’s a possibility that you might get struck with the virus but maybe might have better chances of surviving because you won’t get as much of the virus in you. Of course you have to still worry about distancing, hand washing and possibly eye shielding. I also use onion goggles to shield my eyes. But there is GOOD NEWS TOO…Most people won’t catch a significant amount of the virus. Most people will not die from the virus……Or so we’ve been told.
I thought Costco would be a safer choice for grocery shopping because they don’t let customers in without a mask. They now don’t limit the amount of shoppers like they did in prior weeks.
Nearly everyone at Costco was wearing a mask. I did see one person without a mask and a few other people pulled their masks down under their noses to breath.
Costco was stocked up on most things and seemed to carry most of what they normally carry.
The check out lines seemed much longer than normal….I guess the distancing makes the lines much longer. Plexiglass shields have been installed between you and the cashier.
That was week 12 of Grocery Shopping during the CoronaVirus Pandemic. Not sure how I will be shopping next time.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
Nothing is for certain. Leaving your house can be deadly during a pandemic. You can never know if you are careful enough to avoid catching the coronavirus. For me it is far too dangerous to dine in with others. I feel somewhat comfortable with take out because I wear a filtered mask and eye goggles (my onion goggles that don’t look too bad) I feel that I am 80% safe and won’t fully catch the virus protected that much. Some scientist believe with distancing that you won’t catch enough of the coronavirus in outside air to be deadly. With that information I feel less risk dining outside. This past Saturday the temperature wasn’t too high for Phoenix so we took a chance and dined out on the Cucina Tagliani Patio in. This is an American Italian Restaurant that offers most of your usual American Italian favorites and also several healthy options and lots of vegetable choices. I don’t know of any other restaurant that offers around a dozen different vegetables that you can add to a meal or have on the side.
Today I ordered a Caesar salad with salmon and added on artichokes and pine nuts.
Got a decent piece of salmon and it’s prepared reasonably well. The greens are fresh and the dressing is house made. I guess they forgot the croutons but I don’t need them anyway because there’s complimentary garlic toasts on the table. Oh did I mention that the patio is officially dog friendly?
My husband got the spicy rigatoni with added sausage.
I think they gave him extra sausage?……….Well that was nice.
I can’t believe how quiet the patio is today.
We were the only ones dining here at lunch.
We’ve been coming to Cucina Tagliani for years. It’s close to home, I like the healthy options, my husband likes the American Italian food and we enjoy the comfortable patio with misters and funny old fashioned Italian music that fills the air here.
Louie is no longer with us but was a big fan of Cucina Tagliani.
The Papa’s Platter (with Louie) Veal Parm, sausage lasagna and two manicotti
salmon with asparagus and spinach
SPAGHETTI SQUASH lasagna
My usual goat cheese, strawberry and chicken salad.
chicken piccata over SPAGHETTI SQUASH instead of pasta
Chicken Caesar salad
chicken pasta pepperchini
chicken wrap with healthy fruit side
Stromboli
GRILLED chicken parmesan (instead of fried) over SPAGHETTI SQUASH
sausage lasagna with meatball
minestrone
steak gorgonzola over SPAGHETTI SQUASH
chicken dynamite
take out salmon dinner with asparagus and spaghetti squash
I don’t get dessert here often but the chocolate mascarpone cake is very good.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together” “We also are available to help you with your leftovers from Cucina Tagliani any time”
That was my second patio dining during the pandemic at Cucina Tagliani in Glendale. I appreciate the healthy options and the comfortable patio with misters.
www.CucinaTagliani.com
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I thought I’d feature some of my favorite Caribbean, Ethiopian and Southern American Food that I’ve tried in Metro Phoenix. I do note that I haven’t been everywhere so there are many other great places out there. These are just some of my favorites that I enjoyed most.
I have to start out with Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix because they served me the very best Jerk Chicken and Curry Chicken that I have ever tried anywhere. (that includes one place in the Caribbean too!)
Combo with Jerk Chicken and Curry Chicken
It’s the best! So flavorful…..So Delicious! Just falling off the bone and full of flavors…..Just the BEST!
I also enjoyed Caribbean Cuisine in Glendale a number of times and everything I tried there was delicious.
I also liked how they had some fish dishes that were different to me. I really enjoyed this escovitich fish. It’s a mild white fish that seemed like it was marinated with herbs and spices and maybe vinegar and seemed lightly fried. The rest of the plate was scrumptious too.
My husband always liked the oxtail here but sometimes it’s not available due to it takes many hours to prepare.
I’ve tried Ethiopian Food from various food festivals that I enjoyed but made the trip to Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe in Phoenix.
Here we got our own mini buffet of many things. One of the BEST chicken dishes I tasted in Metro Phoenix has to be this Doro Wat in the middle of the platter. Everything was delicious here but that doro wat was really special.
Hot Chicken Sandwich
Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen now operates from a food truck. They serve New Orleans Cajun type foods like po boys, red beans and rice, jambalaya and more. I had this (I think it was called Louisiana Style Hot Chicken?) sandwich. It wasn’t like other hot chicken sandwiches but it was uniquely delicious.
Shrimp Po Boy
My husband enjoyed a shrimp po boy and an andouille sausage dish.
There’s also a modern southern American restaurant in downtown Phoenix that serves many FORKING AMAZING DISHES called The Larder and The Delta.
I had two different dishes there that were among THE BEST I’ve tried anywhere.
One dish was the Hoppin John.
It’s made of Sea Island field peas, Carolina gold rice and herb salad. It taste earthy, a little spicy, it’s deeply flavorful with interesting textures and crispy rice. It’s insanely delicious. You won’t be able to put your fork down till it’s down.
This next dish isn’t often on the menu but should be.
The K. F. C. Sandwich a mildly spicy fried chicken thigh sandwich with slaw and pickles.
I’m not sure what K. F. C. stands for here but it taste like it might mean Kentucky Forking Crack Sandwich. It was made of that special seldom found AMAZING MOUTH WATERING JUICY SUPER NATURAL DELICIOUS CHICKEN. It was THE BEST Chicken Sandwich I’ve ever tasted. It just could not be more delicious. The combination of the perfect not too big, the delicious slaw, amazing thick pickles and that oh so wonderful chicken was a taste bomb of deliciousness! I love great chicken sandwiches and there are a few of the super great chicken sandwiches out there but this is the first one that actually taste like the chicken was still on the bone. That perfect juicy chicken enhanced with delicious spices, flavors and textures. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
These were just Some Of The FOOD That Matters in Metro Phoenix that I have enjoyed!
Desert Island Eatery – North PHX
Caribbean Cuisine – Glendale
Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe – PHX
Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen – Food Truck
The Larder and The Delta – DT PHX
Give them a try and you will be glad that you did.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I discovered that it looks prettier to make deviled eggs into roses. It’s not very hard to do but might require a bit of practicing. The eggs come out delicious but you need a smooth filling or the rose tip will clog. Make any smooth recipe for deviled eggs. I usually just do a basic deviled eggs with Amora brand dijon and dust them with French red pepper. I suggest to season the egg white slightly too with a little bit of crushed sea salt and whatever pepper or paprika you like. Below is a cream cheese rose but the method is the same for just about any kind of rose you want to make.
First you need a rose tip.
Both tips are for roses but I used the bigger #104 Wilton Brand Tip
Then you insert tip (with out without a coupler) and fold down pastry bag and stuff.
Twist bag and push down filling to hold in filling and twist again. The shorter end of tip is away from you when you decorate.
Then you make a little mountain or Hershey Kiss size drop on a rose nail.
needed to use apple so I’d have a hand food my cell phone.
Then you squeeze out a little filling around the pointy tip and move the rose nail while you are squirting the little mountain.
Slightly below the tip make around three petals around the tip…
Then make at least five petals around the three but slightly lower.
Then a little lower make around seven petals. Scoop the flower off with a small spatula or butter knife.
I tried a lot of restaurants for take out during the pandemic. Most were good. Some old favorites are great for dining in but lost some of the magic with take out. But surprisingly some were GREAT beyond my expectations. Here are most but not in any particular order. One of the best take outs was from Confluence in Carefree.
This fried chicken with chilitepin honey is to die for. OMG it really is that good!
Binkley’s Dinner was pretty much over the top too!
It was the only take out dinner that felt like dining out when I ate the carefully packaged five courses.
A new restaurant that opened during the pandemic called Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale was also AMAZING!
They gave us these delicious complimentary muffins that were moist and seemed light as air. The muffins were studded with feta cheese and were laced with dill and also came with this warm honey butter with fresh chives…….(these alone were amazing)……We enjoyed an amazing appetizer. Both our dinners were incredible.
I had the salmon and it was one of the very best salmons that I had anywhere in metro Phoenix.
The Bianco pizza (left pizza) from La Piazza Al Forno just might be the best pizza in metro Phoenix……It’s that GREAT!
The untraditional smoked corned beef sandwich special from NakedQ BBQ in Phoenix just might be the BEST corned beef in ALL of ARIZONA! It was tender like butter but the flavors were just out of bounds!
The fried chicken thigh sandwich from CHZBURGR in Glendale is CRAZY CRAZY GREAT! I’ve been told that the cheese burgers are just as great!
Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix serves some the most DELICIOUS curry and jerk chicken.
The best tacos in town come from Taco Fusion in Glendale. All the tacos are really great but my favorite is the mild habanero chicken.
Alzohour Market serves delicious food. This time I had the chicken kabob and it is tender juicy and developed with flavors. All the food from Alzohour Market is delicious.
I may have forgotten a few and for the most part everything I took out really was good…but these are the ones that seemed the most memorable because they traveled well for take out and also were “knock it out of the park’ delicious.
Everything IS subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
Nothing is for certain and you can never be too careful. Dine in restaurant meals mean more contact with more people and germs flying threw the air conditioned air in restaurants. There are also other diners who are probably not wearing masks to hold in their droplets that might contain the coronavirus. We’ve done take out where we’d walk into a restaurant with a small amount of risk but curbside is safer. I note that I haven’t been everywhere but here are the restaurants that offered curbside pickup that I have been too..
Fabio On Fire (N Peoria)
At Fabio On Fire you order and pay on line. They communicate with you by text and a table is sanitized and your order will be placed on the table.
CHZBURGR in Glendale offers you to call in your order but it’s 100% touch free paying.
At Kawaii Sushi and Asian Cuisine you order and pay on line. You park at a special parking spot and call to let them know that you are there and they place your order on a table in front of your car.
The Grassroots Kitchen & Tap in Scottsdale also offers curbside pick up.
You order, pay on line pull into a curbside parking spot and someone runs out and drops off your order.
Vincent Market Bistro (Phoenix) offers curb side pick up.
We ordered and payed on line and gave them our pick up time. As soon as we drove in they asked who we were and placed our order in the back seat.
Chino Bandido in North Phoenix also offers curbside pickup. I don’t remember how we paid but I do remember a worker with a mask did run the food to our car.
The Larder and the Delta in Phoenix also did a curbside pick up. We paid over the phone and our order was placed on a pick up table outside of the restaurant.
Curbside pick up is also offered at Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. I don’t remember how we paid but I do recall that your order was placed on a table outside of the restaurant.
Tratto in Phoenix also offered curbside pick up.
We paid there and then we picked up at a table out side of the restaurant.
Binkley’s in Phoenix no longer offers curbside pick up and has returned to being a dine in fine restaurant again but they also were very careful and did contactless curbside pick up food a few weeks..
These restaurants we went to that had the safer curbside pick up were -.
Fabio On Fire – N Peoria
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Kawaii Sushi and Asian Cuisine – N Glendale
The Grassroots Kitchen & Tap – Scottsdale
Vincent Market Bistro – PHX
Chino Bandido – N PHX
The Larder & The Delta – DT PHX
Desert Island Eatery – N PHX
Binkley’s – PHX But as of this date (5-19-20) has discontinued curbside and has gone back to dine in service.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
These are the worst of times and also the worst of times for restaurants. Many restaurants already permanently closed because of the pandemic. We are trying to support as many restaurants as possible. As of May 14th there is no evidence that you can catch coronavirus by food (subject to change). Earlier reports stated that even if someone had coronavirus and prepared your food that it was unlikely that you would catch coronavirus that way too. I do note that I don’t know if that is factual. This week some restaurants have opened and now offer indoor dining again. It’s a fact that many people are still catching coronavirus and many people are still dying from coronavirus. I think I’ll still be doing take out for a while. At the moment I feel safer doing take out than dining in.
We packed up the dogs and did take out from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix.
My husband got a shaking Beef Banh Mi Baguette Sandwich.
I got a noodle bowl with chicken that comes with an egg roll. It’s way more food than I can eat but I had some help with that. (BTW – both dogs helped)
Next take out was from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale.
We shared an antipasto plate called Tavola mista and we had a Bianca Pizza with added Calabrian Chilies and a Savatore Pizza. My GOSH! These pizzas were FORKING AMAZING! I almost didn’t want to share but I did.
Next we packed up the dogs and went to CHZBURGR in North Glendale.
They had a really great curbside completely contact free ordering and paying system.
Soon I was enjoying a BIG JUICY DELICIOUS fried chicken thigh sandwich with added Calabrian peppers.
My husband already got his teeth into his triple cheese burger. He said it was a great as this kind of burger can be.
I guess we will be going to CHZBURGR more often.
Next take out came from Vincent Market Bistro.
I ordered the Arctic char with basil pesto and ratatouille but they accidentally gave me salmon with rice and asparagus. We also got fresh local peaches, a lemon pomelo tart, some complimentary desserts and my husband got the pork loin. (my husband did call to let them know that they gave me the wrong dinner and they did the right thing and took it off the bill) My dogs were there to try Vincents Market Bistro.
Last take out of the week was from Greek Palace in Peoria.
Both entrees were served with fresh side salads and warm pita bread. On the left is the firefighter place that is gyro meat with vegetables, spicy peppers and rice. I ordered the salmon. Today it came with lots of rice and peppers and onions. It was a very large portion of fish so I will be making two meals out of it but I did have my usual help with that too.
“Don’t worry, we are in this thing together”
That was take out during the coronavirus pandemic week 9. The restaurants we went to were-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery – N Phoenix
La Piazza Al. Forno – Old Town Glendale
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Vincent Market Bistro – Phoenix
Greek Palace – N Peoria
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I got this $17. jar of mustard for free when I made a purchase from yummy bazaar .com . It looks impressive and the mustard comes in a big crock that has some sort of plastic coating on the top near where the lid should be. I didn’t know how I should open this baby up so I started whacking the plastic off with a knife around the edges first. The ends of the plastic started coming off.
After most of the plastic on the ends got whacked off I stuck a little knife into the cork to lift it up.
I think that is a lot of work to do to open a mustard. I’m ok doing this but I imagine that many people could get injured opening up one of these mustards.
It really is a very good mustard though. It’s not harsh at all like most American Mustards. It’s very smooth, mild and creamy and is like mostly mild dijon with some grain mustard that is light with mustard grains and is laced with some cognac.
Now you know what to expect if you need to open a jar of Pommery Mustard Royal Cognac.
