Category Archives: Forking Thoughts

Random Forking Items of Interest

The Healthiest Cheapest and Best Snack Food can be made in your Forking Microwave Oven

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Carrot Chips- carrots are cheap about $2.99 for 5 lbs. Just slice them thin place in a microwave safe plate for about 3 minutes. Wipe the plate dry add a light coating of nonstick spray to your plate turn the carrots over and they only need 1-2 minutes more and you have chips. Finish with some fresh ground sea salt.

 

Potato Chips

Potato Chips- Potatoes are forking cheap. You can usually buy a ten pound bag of spuds for less than $3.00. Potato chips cook up faster than carrots in the microwave. Just slice them thin and try 3 minutes in the microwave. Wipe out plate or bowl and potato that isn’t done put back and microwave 30 seconds at a time till done. Finish with sea salt

 

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Pop corn not from a store bought bag with that yucky chemical goo but using dried kernels. Just 1/4 cup of kernels in a brown paper lunch bag that is folded close. Let the microwave go about 2 minutes (or when you hear the popping almost stopping) and you have cheap healthy pop corn. No fat is needed. Loose pop corn is very cheap and a 10 lb. bag will last you a year and it only cost about $1.00 a lb. I do note for the best tasting and textured pop corn you need to use the BIG kernels.

These are Good and that's The Forking Truth

These are Good, Healthy, Forking Cheap  and that’s The Forking Truth

Thanksgiving 2015 Got Forking Stuffed

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

Not many people can say they cooked a forking 500 turkey dinners all by themselves. But that was a long time ago. I think I worked harder on serving just 10 people than the 500 I did once. This year I cooked for only 10 people but made enough food for maybe 20. I prepared over 20 items. My husband prepared the mashed potatoes.  I know I didn’t have to prepare so many different dishes but I wanted too. To me Thanksgiving is an abundance of turkey, stuffing and potatoes that you share with who ever you forking can so you should offer all you can of those items and then some. Here’s what I forking served this year.

Fennel Fava Radish and Walnut Salad in Lemon Dijon Dressing

Fennel Fava Radish and Walnut Salad in Lemon Dijon Dressing

Thanksgiving Style Individual Turkey Meatloaf

Thanksgiving Style Individual Turkey Meatloaves

I prepared turkey four forking ways!

Sous Vide Turkey Breast with Oven Crisp Turkey Skin

Comments I got were..”.How did you cook this?” …..”This turkey is forking moist”……

Oven Fried Crisp Turkey Wings (425 degrees F for about one hour) (just drizzle them with evoo s&p garlic and paprika)

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Oven Roasted Turkey Legs

Herbed Turkey Gravy

Herbed Turkey Gravy

Traditional Stuffing and Rosemary Herb Stuffing

Traditional Stuffing and Rosemary Herb Stuffing

Leek Pudding

Leek Pudding

Cornbread Stuffing

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Mashed Potatoes

Potato Casserole

Potato Casserole

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Dates and some Brown Sugar

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Dates and some Brown Sugar

Sweet Potatoes with Cherry peppers, Figs, Green Onions and Balsamic Drizzle

Sweet Potatoes with Cherry peppers, Figs, Green Onions and Balsamic Drizzle

Some people really enjoyed the non-traditional Sweet Potatoes with Figs, Green Onions, Chiles and Balsamic Drizzle (add s&p drizzle evoo roast potatoes at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes vegetables for about 15 min)

Italian Style Beans

Italian Style Beans

Macaroni and Cheese

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Cranberry Sauce with Hibiscus

Cranberry Sauce with Hibiscus

Rainbow Carrots

Vegetable Essence Spinach with onion

Sweet Corn off the Cob

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Soaked Semolina Limequat Cakes with Sumac Citrus Mascarpone

Bouchons (Bouchon Bakery Recipe – very chocolate very moist individual cakes)

A few Chocolate Pots de Creme

Cinnamon Brown Sugared Chestnuts in Crispy Wontons (served with honey)

Cinnamon Brown Sugared Chestnuts in Crispy Wontons (served with honey)

Cinnamon Brown Sugared Chestnuts in Crispy Won Tons served with honey

Cinnamon Crumb Bars with Apple

Lots of wine

Guest brought the pumpkin pie

Hope you also had Thanksgiving Dinner too and got Forking stuffed too!

This was Forking Good and that's The Forking Truth

This was Forking Great and that’s The Forking Truth

 

WTFork AUTOMATED GELATO MACHINES

 

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I never have seen a forking automated gelato machine before.  It’s very hard to find TASTY gelato where I live. I do have the option of purchasing forking not so good gelato from my local supermarket or traveling about a forking forty minutes to a good gelato shop so this gelato machine wetted my appetite for a delicious refreshing gelato.

I looked at the machine and saw it takes credit cards or cash and offers gelato in twelve forking flavors of mostly gelato and a couple of frozen fruit confections. I picked banana cheese cake gelato because that sounded interesting and I didn’t want to get disappointed with a flavor I know and love. I thought the gelato would squirt out of a forking hose I saw. But no then a door opened up and I saw lots of little four ounce tubs of gelato.

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The hose lowered itself.

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And then lifts up my forking gelato.

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Then drops it down and I pick it up from a door.

The gelato is packed with a little wooden spoon and the gelato is hard as a forking rock so I walk around the mall with it for a bit until my hand hurt similar to frost bite.

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By banana cheese cake flavor did have a creamy banana taste and little chunks of store bought like cheese cake in it. Not the worst and not the best gelato as it was ok. My husband’s pistachio was less creamy and had an abundance of almonds in it and was way more almond than forking pistachio. I think a forking quarter of a cup of almonds were in his tiny cup. Maybe it was an off batch.

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Worth a try if your at Arrowhead Mall in AZ. Although this gelato might not win any prizes for being the best it also not the worst out there either. The Forking Truth is that I’ve paid much more than the $3.75  for worst.

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth – Hot Dogs-Vegetarian are NOT and Some Have Human DNA

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The Forking Truth is that the Clear Foods Company released a report that analyzed ingredients at a molecular level in hot dogs and sausages. Clear Foods analyzed 345 hot dog and sausage products from 75 brands and found HUMAN DNA in 2% of the samples and forking found human DNA in 2/3rds of vegetarian samples or to be exact 67% due to hygienic issues with humans.

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And that AIN’T ALL They Found……

God this forking sucks!

God this forking sucks!

It’s forking Disturbing

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It’s Shocking

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They Forking found that 10% of Vegetarian Products they tested FORKING CONTAINED MEAT!

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Clear Foods found chicken in vegetarian breakfast sausage and pork in a vegetarian hot dog.

More bad news…….

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

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The Examiner.com wrote in their article that if you want to avoid pork you should avoid chicken and turkey products because pork was found in 3% of the samples. Not listed on the label but used as a forking substitute.

The good news is that Clear Foods also reported no problems with a few brands of Hot Dogs. They said these hot dogs were made with integrity and were high quality.

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Butterball, Eckrich, McCormick, Gardein and Hebrew National

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

Resources

examiner.com

CBS news.com

WTSP.com

AOL.Com

People Don’t know WTFork a Good Baked Item Should Taste Like

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After tasting some of the desserts I’ve tried fairly recently around where I live I truly believe that people don’t know WTFork a Good Baked Item should taste like.

No……. I’m not talking forking fancy smancy high end Las Vegas Desserts like the ones below.

Jean Philippe Aria Las Vegas

Jean Philippe Aria Las Vegas NV.

I talking good baked goods and desserts that just about everyone loves like  pies, cookies, bagels, cream puffs, cakes and breads. Desserts that are free of non-dairy whipped cream and artificial flavorings. Desserts that aren’t made with fillings from a can or package. Honest to goodness real desserts that are made with butter, fresh eggs and cream. I’m also talking real breads. Crusty, flavorful breads. Real breads that you look forward to eat.

When I was growing up it seemed every neighborhood had at least one bakery. No matter what kind of bakery I went in to Italian, Jewish or German……… where I grew up…… during that time you could always count on something fresh baked and scrumptious. The bakeries had this great aroma that I still remember. The aroma of fresh baked goods was so good your belly would forking hurt if you didn’t eat something.

Real bakeries were also very noisy places.

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You hear lots of machinery. Heavy duty mixers, the cash register, the conversations of customers.  You’d always hear the mechanic loud thundering roar of maybe several different bread slicing machines going-

Bread Slicers looked something like this

Bread Slicers looked something like this

slicing fresh loves of crusty breads for customers that were waiting in the long line. In those days even the forking malls all had bakeries. They weren’t the same as the free standing bakeries but looking back a whole heck of a lot better than some of what I see today sometimes. In those old days you’d make the weekly trip to the bakery to purchase bread and a few treats. Once in a while you might order a cake for a special occasion. Children were always given a few complimentary cookies and if a child was lucky their parent let them pick out a special yummy treat. In those days people cared about quality. You could partake in enjoying natural ingredients like real butter, eggs and real cream in your fresh baked goods no matter what bakery you walked into. The whole bakery smelled like sugar and spice. If you worked in a bakery you left smelling like a donut. (I know because I did)

Time has marched on and things are different now. Life styles have changed. People are busier than ever and are always on the go working more hours. Doing more things.

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Many people are also more health conscience too, they are working out and are not eating desserts or breads like they used too.

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So weekly trips to the bakery are made by less people these days. They are not a priority these days. Fewer more limited new bakeries do pop up every once in a while and also many of the old bakeries have shuttered since the neighborhood  bakery for most people is a relic of the past.

People these days often settle for convenience and pick up something processed and cheaper from their local supermarket.

Typical baked item from any local supermarket

Typical baked item from any local supermarket

Something created with man made chemicals that sort of looks like dessert. Something that can sit on a shelf for a long time. Something that anybody can whip up possibly even made by the guy pictured below

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by only adding a few ingredients, mixing it (with something clean one hopes) and baking it in a timed oven….DING!. Just add some pudding from a can or a mix and some non-dairy cream and Woop there it is. Many people actually think this sort of dessert taste good and this is what dessert actually is because that is what they are used too.

It just forking KILLS ME that a few local bakeries in my area put out baked goods that are on par with the level of supermarket bakeries.

Lemon Bar from Baker Wee Glendale AZ

Lemon Bar from Baker Wee Glendale AZ

Recently I thought I’d try a baked treat from a bakery I was passing by on the way home from some place. The bakery offered me a rugula while I was deciding on what I’d try. I thought the rugula was pretty good and thought whatever I tried would be ok because after all it was from a bakery. I love lemon bars because of the lemony filling, the tasty crumbs and they usually have a buttery tender crust. I love the play between tangy, sweet and savory, so I picked a lemon bar thinking it would be just right. I dug into the lemony curd first. It had this unnatural flavor like low quality lemonade. It also lacked the creamy, silky mouthfeel of natural lemon curd that’s rich and carefully made. Instead this lemon filling was sort of Jell-o like. I don’t think a human created it. Perhaps something demonic?  I think the yellow goo was made in a laboratory and stored in a can till it got sold to this bakery.

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The top crumbs were edible but not delicious and buttery. The bottom crust was as thick as a life raft

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and hard like cement.

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God this lemon bar was terrible I thought I was going to cough up a forking brick from the few bites I ate. It was so bad I can never step in this bakery again.

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Another bakery not too far from out of my way is an Italian Bakery.

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I thought they’d make an OK Italian Rum Cake that I wanted to give someone for a gift. I thought the cake looked ok and this bakery just like the last one I spoke about gets very high reviews on a certain review website. This cake purchase goes a half year back so I don’t remember every detail about the cake but I do remember the filling most because it was very unnatural tasting so much so it was memorable. I remember the filling was what made eating the cake next to impossible. The filling tasted like they dumped in a whole bottle of forking rum extract into the filling. Rum extract not forking real rum……..rum extract.  I don’t recall the rest of the cake being very tasty but I can tell you the filling made it a lost cause.  I felt terrible when I tasted this cake, sorry and embarrassed that I gave it to someone.

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I also purchased what they called Italian bread from this bakery and I kid you not. The bread tasted like squishy unnatural white bread from the forking supermarket. I can never go back to that bakery either. Eating baked goods from those bakeries was just like purchasing a baked good from the supermarket or from the dollar store. They were just very unappetizing. It forking saddens me and confuses me. I have no understanding on why you’d open a bakery if you aren’t baking scrumptious decadent treats?

 

It appears that these bakeries have enough business. Both have been in business for years and both have great reviews on a certain review website. Maybe it’s all because people don’t know what the fork Good Baked goods should taste like.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

The Chile Relleno I will never Forking order Again

Popo's Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

A chile Relleno is usually but not always a stuffed Poblano Pepper. It is usually stuffed with cheese but can also be stuffed with meat and might come with a sauce. Somethings it’s fried and sometimes it isn’t.

Below is a picture of a typical Chile Relleno.

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Often a Chile Relleno might look like this inside.

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Below is a Central Mexican Style Chile Relleno.

Los Sombreros Scottsdale AZ

Los Sombreros Scottsdale AZ

Here’s what the Chile Relleno I recently had looked like inside.

Popo's Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

It was a green chile stuffed with white mild cheese that was topped with egg whites that were covered in green chile sauce and LOTS of cheddar cheese. It truly might not be the worst one out there but it tasted terrible to me. That heavy cheese and not so tasty sauce really KILLED the delicate fluffy egg whites. It was like putting a shag rug over your down blanket. Inside was a mild green chile that was kind of hard in texture and also had no color at all from being cooked. My forking stomach just locked up and I couldn’t eat anymore of it.

This is the First Chile Relleno I didn’t forking like.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

The Forking Truth might be that Not All Aluminum Foil Is Vegetarian

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I noticed something strange on my aluminum pan. It was a kosher mark.

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I thought why the FORK would aluminum need to be marked kosher so I did a little forking digging. I did find out some kind of oil is used in the manufacturing process of aluminum foil. I found that my pans are made with mineral oil. I called Reynolds and the person I spoke to had no forking idea of what kind of oil they use but their foil is also marked kosher.

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This one I have my doubts and find it hard to believe that aluminum foil might not be vegetarian. But then again why the fork would the foil need to be marked kosher? Do some foil manufacturers use lard? Whale grease? Forking Beaver grease?

But according to many sites on the web such as….

www.eye.worldpress.com

www.jainworld.com

www.creativesulekha.com

www.gleez.com

The above sites all post that bull’s intestines are used in the aluminum manufacturing process.

Indian Airlines at some point discovered the sweets they sold were wrapped in foil that was manufactured with bull’s intestines and immediacy stopped selling foil wrapped desserts on planes. (This is according to the above sites)

I never would have forking dreamed that any foil manufacturer would use an animal product in the production of aluminum foil. But since some foils are marked U maybe there is more to learn.

It’s FORKING POSSIBLE that your foil might not be Vegetarian.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

Costco the Free Food Samples might come at a Price

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Costco the American membership only warehouse is the third largest retailer in the United States in 2015.

Costco offers big forking savings on car tires, dry goods, certain groceries, big forking bottles of booze, various services and more.

Costco also offers free food demos where some people graze and other forking people call lunch.

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Recently this Californian Man Derrick Gharabighi (true picture that’s the forking guy!)

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allegedly punched a 78 year old man in the face because the man asked Mr. Gharabighi not to take so many Nutella topped waffles.

The miscreant has a long list of arrest on his record already and might face 11 years in prison. At Costco the Free Samples might come with a price.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

Atlas Bistro in Scottsdale AZ is Certainly Worth a Fork

Amuse Bouche of Hawaiian House Smoked Fish with Caper and Lemon

Amuse Bouche of Hawaiian Opah House Smoked Fish

Atlas Bistro is a small but upscale restaurant located in an older strip mall in Scottsdale AZ. This little ten table restaurant is also a B.Y.O.B. and is adjacent to a fine wine store next door. Different chefs have worked here over the years and all of them have gone on to open some of the greatest restaurants in the metro phoenix area. All the meals I had here were all exquisite, very detailed, masterfully prepared and exciting.

This happened to be Arizona Restaurant Week and we were getting a lovely three course meal for $44.00 each. They started us off with an amuse bouche of house smoked Hawaiian Fish with a caper and lemon aioli. It was just delicious and would be forking awesome on a bagel with cream cheese. I wished I could purchase some to go!

My first course was easy on the eyes and very easy to put away in my stomach.

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Cucumber, sweet crisp watermelon, Israeli Feta, jicama, pickled honeydew, pistachios, and a watermelon/lime vinaigrette. This was delicious and was one of the plates my husband kept trying because it was so DARN likable. All the flavors and textures were exciting and so refreshing. The cucumber was so crisp and sweet, the pickled honeydew added light acid and the creamy very mild Israeli Feta just melted everything together. Anyone would love this dish as it was forking delicious. I never came across Israeli Feta before it wasn’t too salty or tangy like some feta cheeses are, and was much more creamy than the average feta.

My second course was also well orchestrated.

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Golden beets that were so moist, soft and naturally sweet and obviously just picked, with creamy pungent blue cheese, fennel for brightness, onion brûlée, Swiss chard, crisp rye berries, a couple dabs of lightly smoked buttermilk and red beet vinaigrette. Another light and tasty earthy dish that’s full of lots of detail.

Then came dinner.

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Exotic Wild Hawaiian Hebi Spearfish, beet cous cous, za’atar shitakes, asparagus, braised leeks, harissa, charred radicchio and saffron corn puree. This was all delicious and painstakingly detailed. But I had to fight my husband’s fork from taking too much of the amazing cous cous. The cous cous had the most exciting flavor of everything on the plate and outshined the perfectly prepared and seasoned fish. I never imagined cous cous could be so exciting. They were cooked with beets and that delicious mildly spicy, red peppery and the taste of caraway. It was just  so delicious. The shiitakes were also very tasty the way they were seasoned. I would have traded some of the bitter radicchio for another mushroom.

Unfortunately I was too full to even forking think about dessert.

One of the benefits of a B.Y.O.B. is also a low down because your wine won’t pair with all the entrees but if you drink your wine between dishes it doesn’t matter. At the time of this review 9-21-15 the corkage fee is $15.00 at Atlas Bistro.

Worth a Fork! You'd Drive Across Town to Dine Here.

Worth a Fork! You’d Drive Across Town to Dine Here.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

Bistro Laurent in Paso Robles CA is Worth a Fork!

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Bistro Laurent is a little cafe in down town Paso Robles CA that serves up Classic French Cuisine.

You have a choice of ordering a la carte or doing a multi course tasting where the server picks for you after you discuss with him allergies or dislikes. Most of the dishes that were served to us neither of us would have forking picked but I still had an amazing dinner.

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The meal started with an amuse bouche. This was sweet breads with apple. Honestly I didn’t eat this so my husband ate two of them. I know it’s phycological and not logical since I do eat meat but I can’t stomach the thought of eating brains. SORRY!

Then the vichyssoise (cold potato leek) soup came.

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Bistro Laurent’s version of this soup stared the leek more than the potato.

My next plate I wouldn’t have pick but was amazing.

Tomato Cheese Basil Tart from Bistro Laurent Paso Robles CA

Tomato Cheese Basil Tart from Bistro Laurent Paso Robles CA

It was this Tart with Tomato Basil and Cheese. It was divine! So light and tender just bursting with delicious flavors. I could happily eat one of these every day.

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Next course were these tiny raviolis. They were prepared perfect and were very good but I needed my stomach room for the next three courses so my husband happily ate most of these along with his own plate of raviolis.

My main course was this well prepared filet.

Bistro Laurant Paso Robles CA

Bistro Laurant Paso Robles CA

The steak was tender with a nice flavorful crust and was prepared to a perfect medium rare. The potatoes were smooth and buttery topped with just the right amount of crisp onions for the just right accent.

Then came the cheese plate that was to die for….

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It was simply the best selection of cheeses I ever tasted. I had to ask for a list of the cheeses we received. I never tasted cheeses that were that delicious before.

Tete De Moine

Etorki

Camembert

Comte

Reblochon

Ste Maure

Then came a dessert that really surprised me.

Floating Island from Bistro Laurent Paso Robles CA

Floating Island from Bistro Laurent Paso Robles CA

We received something called a Floating Island. It was meringue that sat in a thin but rich custard sauce with fruit and the meringue had a super crispy thin sugar crust. Never had anything like that it was forking interesting.

Much of what I received I wouldn’t have ordered but I enjoyed my meal very much and this dinner from Bistro Laurent was certainly Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth