Salsa is a tasty dip made from fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeños, spices, cilantro and vinegar and or lime juice. I usually prepare my own but I can’t all the time so I need to pick up a jar every now and then. I do find that most jarred salsa is awful and doesn’t taste like salsa. So I am on the hunt for jarred salsa that taste ok.

I decided to try a jar of Guy Fieri Original Salsa. Guy Fieri is a Restauranteur, Cook Book Author, Food Network TV Host and Television Personality. He gives the impression on TV that he knows something about food…especially bar grub so I thought I’d give his salsa a try after being on the hunt for a long time.

I open the jar and it doesn’t look like salsa. It looks like jarred spaghetti sauce.

Salsa from a Mexican Restaurant near me looks like this. The salsa pictured below is bright and fresh tasting with chunks of real tomatoes, hot peppers, fresh cilantro and garlic.

So I go and take in the aroma of Guy Fieri’s Salsa before I taste it.

WOW it smells like cumin……….. we are talking Donkey Boats of Cumin.

Then I go to taste it.

It taste kind of GOOD but in a spaghetti sauce laced with lots of cumin kind of way and not like salsa……. This salsa lacks that fresh salsa taste and texture….it’s more like cooked down tomatoes  with lots of cumin and some cooked vegetables.

It does have a little heat and some other flavors but it’s very heavy with and mostly CUMIN.

I guess “Flavor Town” is mostly flavored with cumin.

Lets see what the bottle says.

Lets take a better look at the ingredients.

Oddly it does taste better than most of the other jarred salsas I tried….It’s good but in a weird way…….because……………. it doesn’t taste like salsa to me………. (to me) It’s  salsa that taste like spaghetti sauce flavored with cumin.

Your opinion may or may not differ from mine.

Go and try it and see what you think.

The Forking Truth

Falafels are deep fried patties or balls made from chickpeas, fava beans or both. They usually are flavored with fresh parsley, scallions, garlic, cumin and coriander. The best falafels are said to have a crispy exterior and a moist flavorful interior.

Recently a professional food critic from a local magazine wrote that the above falafel was the best falafel in all of Metro Phoenix. I kept reading this over and over because I thought I was seeing things….because………My experience did differ to say it mildly as possible…..While I found that the falafel pictured above had a desirable crispy exterior the interior although fluffy and slightly dry was mostly tasteless and totally lacked fresh herbs and any flavors a falafel traditionally has. The falafels I tried only tasted like  sesame seeds. Honestly I thought these Falafels were among the worst I ever tried anywhere.

I’ve had not all the Metro Valley has to offer in falafels but I tried more than a few so it’s not like I’m a falafel virgin.

The above fresh herb falafel is green inside and is fresh with flavor. This one didn’t have the crispy exterior but it had great flavors and didn’t leave any grease in my mouth. A few I tried not pictured here were greasy. This came from a place no longer open for business in Scottsdale.

The Falafel pictured above rates very high on a popular review site. I don’t remember if this one had any crunch but I remembered that it lacked flavors. You can see this one lacks herbs. I remembered I never wanted to go back. This one came from the Arrowhead area…not sure if this place is in Peoria or Glendale.

The above Falafels were seasoned well and were herby with a great crisp exterior. These were among the best that I tried in Metro Phoenix because of the flavorful interior and the crispy exterior.

Solid good crunchy Falafels from my favorite falafel fast food kind of place in Tempe.

This Falafel hasn’t won over any love from Professional Food Critics yet but it is among the better with a crisp exterior, and a moist fresh herb flavorful interior. Also the Eggplant dip from here was delicious with lemon and smoke. Got this one in Scottsdale.

Here’s another Falafel from a newer restaurant in Phoenix. It’s an decent Falafel….Not my favorite but not bad and OK.

Here are falafels from a newly opened place in Scottsdale. They have the correct flavors but have like a really weird soft wet meatball texture.

Back to the professional Food Critic’s pick…”Best in Metro Phoenix”….(????????????)

It’s a fact that I don’t know if the Food Critic got the same thing I tried pictured above from this same place. (As you know experiences may differ…..) The Professional Food Critic wrote for all of Metro Phoenix to see that the above Falafels are the BEST that Metro Phoenix has to offer…….

Is it possible that the recipe has changed????? ……..Is it possible that almost tasteless dry falafels are the best?????

I don’t FORKING know!

The Forking Truth is……..You aren’t always going to agree with food critics.

REMEMBER EVERY FORKING THING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE and your experience (or my Forking experience) may or MAY NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

Photo via www.MSN.com

Over the past few weeks we had a bunch of Forking Weird Food Related News Stories.

In the beginning of the month we had the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest where 70 Hot Dogs and buns were inhaled by Hot Dog Eating Champion Joey Chestnut.

A $10,000. Edible Pizza Bikini can be made for you from the Villa Italian Kitchen. (I don’t know if any where sold?)..

The Phoenix New Times reported a story about Cream Cheese Topped Tea and Fruit Drinks that are a thing in parts of Asia and are found here in Mesa AZ.

I saw on TV Watermelon Selfies…you balance a wedge of watermelon and try to place it under someone’s face so it looks like they are wearing a watermelon wedge.

I think I came across at least three different pizza related sneaker stories. One was a phone sneaker that dialed Pizza Hut and the others were Pizza decorated sneakers.

But the one story that’s burnt in my head is the Guy Fieri (Food Network Host and Restauranteur) Swimsuit. It can’t Forking be unseen.

Guy Fieri’s Face printed on a $49.00 Swim Suit.

Photo via www.MSN.com

It can’t Forking be unseen.

Forking Weird Food Related News.

The Forking Truth

www.MSN.com

www.FoxNews.com

www.CBS.com

PhoenixNewTimes.com

KTVK

I very rarely eat fast food because nearly every time I try it there is something wrong with it and it’s always horrible. Over the past 12 months I only tried fast food twice.

Last November I tried some fast food fish from a fast food seafood chain near my house and got this filet of fish.

It was oil logged with a nasty old oil taste. It wasn’t even cheap and was expensive. It was Forked up! I felt really bad because I offered a piece to my elderly dog I had at the time and the food was so bad my poor old dog spit it out.

A new to Arizona Popular Fried Chicken Restaurant opened not too far from me and the independent place I planned to do Take Out at wasn’t serving food that day….So it seemed like a good day to try the Fried Chicken and we got some sort of family pack that included several assorted pieces of fried chicken, extra soft rolls

and two sides. We picked Macaroni and Cheese with Mashed Potatoes.

The Fried Chicken was almost good. The Chicken was fried nicely, was crispy, seemed oil free. The meat was very tender too! But a careless person working there put enough FORKING Salt on the crust to melt snow off a driveway. That chicken was lethal. That much salt can kill a person.  I had to peel off the crust to eat the chicken. I guess I should be happy and not complain because at least the chicken was cooked in fresh oil. YIPPY!

That’s FORKED UP!

The family meal also came with rolls…They were sweet and super soft like I never felt before……I don’t know how they can possibly be this squishy soft……I think they might be made from yoga mats……the rolls are like.. artificial bread…YUK!

The Halloween Orange Colored Macaroni and Cheese was really scary. It doesn’t even taste like cheese………………….It actually taste like eating a tub of margarine with added chemicals. It was sickening.

Lastly the mashed potatoes are also inedible. The potatoes are unusually thick with lots of pepper and another flavor that I can’t identify that isn’t food related. I don’t know what THE FORK it was…….I  was more upset about the potatoes than the salty chicken because the salt was a slip that I understand. Maybe the salt container lid fell off and the person said Oh well…I’m not tossing all that chicken…..but……The mashed potatoes didn’t taste like food! Neither me or my husband could eat the potatoes….my husband tried to eat the potatoes with the enclosed gravy and he still couldn’t stomach them either. Who knows what kind of person made it?…….  ICK!

Fast Food is Usually Forked Up!

NOT WORTH A FORK!

Did I hit these restaurants on off days…….?

Do they make food this bad all the time………??????????

Would they be in business if they do ……..??????????.

Is it possible that some people don’t care what food taste like and will eat anything…….???????????

“You get more food when your not picky…remember the picky ones don’t make it in the jungle.”

“But I only want the food to taste edible”

“It’s Fast Food Human……you forking get what you get and there are 5 lights up there too!”

For me Fast Food from 2 national chains……2 out of 2 times was Forked up!

In my case fast food was Forked up 100% of the time.

The Forking Truth is that your Forking experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth