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!
Yelp is a review site that many people use to find out about or write about local businesses. I’ve been invited to many Yelp events. I usually don’t go because they usually are at a time that isn’t convenient for me or sometimes that are on the other side of town. This one wasn’t too far and was at a time that I could do. This one benefited Miracle Flights. They asked for an optional $20. donation and around 40 local businesses offered treats, drinks, entertainment, and photo opps.
This particular Yelp Event has a Space Cowboy Theme.
There was all kinds of foods to try and acrobats were swinging from the ceilings.
Here are just a few of the food tables.
What it’s really all about is supporting and reviewing local businesses.
Seafood City is a Filipino Supermarket Chain with locations in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, and Washington.They also have Canadian locations in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba.
The North Las Vegas Location has a bakery inside called Red Ribbon Bakeshop.
They also have a Filipino BBQ called Grill City.
We decided to try Grill City.
There is a lot to see. Some of the pans are marked but with no explanation so some people have to use cell phone for google. Saw Balut here…….(undeveloped bird eggs).
They don’t sell skewers by the each and you have to buy five. My husband got a mix of pork and chicken skewers. He also got a longanisa sausage skewer.
He said that the meat on the skewers was tender but wasn’t a fan of the sweet sauce on them. He did like the sausage!
I saw 4 different fish dishes and picked the fish that I thought looked best and an ear of corn. We also shared a side order of rice.
This fish turned out to be grilled bangus. It’s also known as vinegar marinated milkfish served with spicy vinegar on the side.
This one is stuffed with onions, tomatoes, and peppers…..At first I didn’t like it but for some reason it did taste better when I added the spicy vinegar. The meat is a little dry but not hard and chewy like from the last Filipino restaurant I went to.
The corn is on the dried out side too.
We are done with lunch and are looking around some. There are lots of dry goods, baked goods, produce, and fish here. I saw prepared foods, live plants, and liquor too!
LOTS of fish here.
Surprisingly it doesn’t smell like fish here.
I’m going to buy halibut collars next time.
There is lots of milkfish here and lots of frozen milkfish here.
milkfish in citrus pepper
smoked milkfish
milkfish belly
Not all but some of the potato chips are very expensive.
$20.89 for an 8 oz bag of potato chips…My husband said he read duck eggs were an ingredient.
They also sell pig heads here.
We bought salmon here that seemed very fresh and my husband smoked it on aider wood and it came out really great! We also bought bok choy that was very good.
Bravo’s Top Chef contestant Chef Gene Villatora has a well known popular Hawaiian Street Food Restaurant in California called Ai Pono. Late this year (2023) a Nevada opening is expected at the Durango Casino and Resort that is soon to open. I heard about the pop up and wanted to give this a try. There might be over a thousand people here.
It really is a big deal. Channel 3 was filming.
Saw Chef Villatora was actually working the line.
By the time we made it to order they ran out of the platter that I was the most excited to try.
So we tried a bunch of other things and even the secret menu item. We only tried Da Side Chick and the guava chili pepper fried chicken for lunch.
Da Side Chick—-Tasty and delicious and priced not much higher than fast food from a Bravo Top Chef ($10.)
Guava chili pepper fried chicken – large portion tasty and the rice and slaw is especially notable. Also priced like regular Hawaiian plate lunches but much better than most.
Later for dinner we got to try some more.
Ahi Katsu with miso hot mustard breading and sweet soy reduction……Not bad but not my favorite…maybe it’s just better when you get this one fresh and right away?
This is the crackhead chicken that was marinated for 24 hours with a secret batter and a garlic-coconut-miso glaze…….The chicken is very tender and developed with flavor. The glaze does sound amazing but maybe didn’t travel well?
This one only my husband tried……..it was the surprise meal. We were told it was something fish.
We think it’s more guava chili chicken and it’s over some sort of meat chili with beans. The chicken is good. My husband said that the chili flavoring is very unusual.
The strong favorite was the da side chick sandwich.
You can visit Ai Pono in California or wait for the Durango Opening.
That was my trip to the Ai Pono Pop Up at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas NV.
Food Stock is a Food Truck Gathering Event. This year 2023 over 50 food trucks were expected. Some are participating to offer $3.00 samples. This event took place 4-10pm Saturday April 15th at the Peoria Sports Complex in P83 in Peoria Arizona. Besides food trucks they also offer a full bar, bounce houses, a splash pad, play ground, and face painting. Admission for adults was $5.00 and children 12 and under was free. They also are suppose to have live music and FREE parking too!
According to www.AllEvents.in these are the food trucks that are expected to show up.
I planned to make Red Ginger my #1 destination but the Red Ginger Food Truck was no where to be found…..Bah that was my real reason for attending. …….Anyways…….. I’m familiar with a bunch of the food trucks and I had really great experiences at some of them.
It’s nice and sunny today. I think it’s close to 90 degrees F. There are a few areas for shaded seating. They also have a few bars set up.
Bottles of purified water cost $6.00 today.
The tacos from Good Eats Only Mexican Kitchen were downright amazing the first time we had them so we gave them a try here.
Today we tried a chicken taco and a carne asada taco.
Still good……but a little dry today. The hand made tortillas are very good.
We enjoyed the most amazing sandwich from Bro Bro’s BBQ so today we gave them a try.
My husband tried a $3. sausage sample.
And we shared a brisket plate with jalapeño Cole slaw and potato salad.
Still good but not incredible like last time…..From my experiences none of the BBQ places are ever perfectly consistent. The slaw is very crisp and fresh but a little on the bland side and lacks jalapeño. On the other hand the potato salad taste like the type Costco sells but is topped with lots of seasoning and heat.
I thought I remembered hearing positive things about the next food truck. Our last food truck to try was Lili’s Tacos.
We tried a chicken and a beef taco.
These tacos were topped with lots of fresh herbs and came with lemon and HOT pickled carrots. Both taco meats have a texture that is between chopped and ground. I think the chicken meat is a little flat. Green salsa is on the flat side. Really don’t like the red sauce at all…..It’s very HOT and taste like you’re licking the spice out of a spice jar. (taste like cayenne & paprika…LOTS of paprika)
Phoenix Magazine’s 2023 Dish Fest was held at The Clayton House in Scottsdale Arizona Sunday March 5th from 12-4pm. VIP ticket holders got in one hour earlier. This is an all you can eat type of festival of best dishes in the valley that Phoenix Magazine featured. Dish Fest also includes a beer garden, wine, spirit tasting and food trucks. Chef Jennifer Caraway also is expected to do a food demonstration. Also a portion of the proceeds benefit The Joy Bus Charity.
Buck and Rider – Oysters
Tia Carmen – ember roasted purple yam, queso sauce, aged tepary bean mole (this was one of the top dishes)
Texas Grill – chicken fried steak
Carcara – shrimp and grits
Sugar Jam – cobblers and pies
Sugar Jam – sweet potato pie
Sugar Jam – Creole shrimp and grits shooters (one of the better shrimp dishes)
Sugar Jam – BBQ maple chicken and waffles
Sugar Jam
Weft and Warp – blackberry haze
Weft and Warp – shrimp
Casa Corazon – chile nogada, Oaxaca mole, shrimp culichi
inside
Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine
Feringhee – puchka snack with passionfruit (This was one of the best bites****tidal-wave of. flavors)
Feringhee – puchka snacks
Aimee’s Swine House
Aimee’s Swine House – soft egg and ham toast (didn’t try but was told very good)
Tapa Papa Frita – sausage, potato, bread
Citizen Public House
North – meatballs with polenta
North – burrata di stagione
inside
Pitch – smoked cheddar mac & cheese with fennel sausage or chorizo to add on if desired
Bro’s Seafood Food Truck
Bro’s Seafood – breaded shrimp taco with elote (I didn’t try but heard was very good)
AZ Lemonade
Momo’s – vegetarian momo dumpling (they also served chicken and ham momos) I liked the vegetarian momo the best.
There always is a lot of different foods to find at Asiana Market. The Asiana Market is an Asian and International Market with two locations in Metro Phoenix Arizona. I go to the location that is in the Deer Valley part of Glendale. You never know what you will come across when shopping there. Up above is canned cod liver…who knew!
I found what looks like ground garlic but they are marked fried dumplings?
Frozen Sardines
Frozen Indian Mackerel
Frozen Octopus
Wagyu Beef
Veal Bologna
Anchovy Powder…..Now that one I’ve never seen before!
Shiitake Mushroom Powder – That is a very good ingredient. I buy local mushroom powder and it adds a lot of good flavor to certain things.
They always have junk food that is different……
BBQ Marshmallows….what a great idea for when you are too lazy to bbq them yourself!
Lay’s Potato Chips in American Style Cream & Onion Flavor….????
Lay’s Potato Chips in Wafer Style ???????? salt and pepper flavor……different
Lay’s Potato Chips in India Magic Masala flavor….Yum!……maybe??????????
Medjool dates stuffed with pistachios and covered with fine Belgian chocolate….That one gets a YUM!
Those were a few of the things I noticed at Asiana Market.
A long time ago in a land far away someone invented candy sticks to make noisy children shut the FORK up for when they are in church. It was also written that some German dude got the idea to put a little religion into the candy sticks by adding a Shepard’s hook.
Some time has passed and someone else got the idea to add hyssop flavor to the candy canes because hyssop was used in the Old Testament for purification and sacrifice. Maybe nobody wanted child sacrifice on their hands so they stopped adding hyssop to the candy canes. But maybe they changed to peppermint flavor because peppermint was cheaper?
Then they added the White Stripes.
Or was it the red stripes? Symbolizing the blood of Christ?
Maybe you noticed that candy canes often anything that’s NOT peppermint flavored?
Brisket flavored candy canes
Butter flavored candy canes
Sour cream and onion flavored candy canes
Kale flavored candy canes
Pickle flavor candy canes
Mac & cheese flavored candy canes
Sardine flavored candy canes
www.mcphee.com
Hotdog flavored candy canes
It doesn’t really matter WTFORK flavor that the candy cane is……If it’s in the mouth the kid with SHUT THE FORK UP!
This was a little bit of what happened to the Christmas Candy Cane.
The 2022 Wine & Food Experience was presented by Talking Stick Resort at Salt River Fields in Salt River Pima – Maricopa Indian Community near to Scottsdale Arizona. The event was held November Saturday November 5th 2022 1-4pm with VIPS starting at 12:00.
There were culinary demonstrations, sommelier and mixology seminars, SAMPLES of FOOD, WINE, and CRAFT BEERS…
We skipped the alcohol and went to try the light bites that awaited us. First stop was Tia Carmen with chef Angelo Sosa himself serving and greeting people.
He actually made small talk with us. He told me that he is changing up his menu. He also thanked up for our visits and told me that he liked my necklace. I told him that we really enjoyed our visits to his restaurant. He served his FORKING FANTABULOUS tuna crudo today.
tuna crudo from Tia Carmen
Next was…..
mozzarella and tomato salad from Chic Chef
Chic Chef made mini tasting mozzarella and tomato salads.
Pearl’s Mini Doughnuts
Pearl’s mini doughnuts were fresh made to order and came in powdered and cinnamon.
vegetable taco from Pool Boys
Pool Boys offered tasting sized vegetable tacos that were very tasty.
Next was Lasgidi Cafe that offered a taste of jolif rice.
Sushi Roku offered SUSHI!
tuna crudu
hamachi crudu
Nomad By Food made very complex tiny taste of beef shanks on what might be laffah bread.
So far 2022 has been a better year than most for Metro Phoenix Foods…..Not too many HORRIBLE FRIGHTFUL dishes….But there were a few. I very recently wrote about the next two dishes so if you read my blog then you know where these dishes came from. It’s not my intention to make trouble for any business………(even if they deserve it)…. I tell The Forking Truth….so I mention how my meal was once with the name of the business and once is enough……But these stories and most of the photos are Horrible and Frightful. Halloween time is just that perfect time to share these memories.
Overcooked macaroni and dried up cheese that never was good.
Burnt dried out fish with almost brunt oil filled eggplant.
After this are oldies but NOT goodies.
This was from a fine restaurant in the Biltmore area that is still in business. I do note that the chef that they had at the time left several years ago….By the looks of the polenta on the plate it seems like he might have been pissed off about something.
A certain restaurant on the west side served me a dessert with a hard glob of silicon in it that I had to spit out.
This next one might be the worst thing I ever got from a food truck. It made me scream and I had to spit it out.
It was suppose to be a corned beef egg roll from a food truck that specialized in corned beef. It was dry and awful inside but I still remember that the worst part was the egg roll because it tasted rancid.
Someone in metro Phoenix served me this sandwich.
They are still in business….
Sometimes you go to a restaurant that was very good for several visits………. Then when you eat the food you find out that the chef is no longer with them.
This restaurant closed shorty after I got this horrid dish. It was fishy salmon topped with raw tomato paste flanked by a splat of pureed corn and another splat of corn grits.
I went to a BBQ Restaurant in Phoenix that is still in Business. They served me grits that weren’t cooked.
They also served us meat that was under and still had hard fat on it.
I remember we said something about this but nobody said or did a thing.
A restaurant that is still in business in Peoria served my husband this sandwich.
At the time that restaurant recently changed ownership….It was not great but ok before this……………
It looks like a cinnamon bun but it’s not……….My husband was served a burnt roll somewhere.
This is the worst bulgogi I ever tried……It’s like they threw it in a blender and added cream cheese. It’s like throw up on a skillet.
This Thai Restaurant in Peoria thinks that it’s ok to call a dish fish and serve it without the meat.
I never went back.
This was from a Taco Restaurant that went out of business.
Dry flavorless chicken that might have been microwaved to hard and chewy with some pickled onions and a tortilla that fell apart before it arrived.
This place is still in business in Sun City.
The fish is fishy. The vegetables are obviously from frozen and boiled……I don’t know what happened to the mashed potato. I asked the server why it was green….She didn’t know and asked the chef. She said that he said, “Black pepper turns the potatoes green.”
Maybe my worst Metro Phoenix Restaurant foods came from an Asian Restaurant that I enjoyed on my first visit. I enjoyed the live seafood that was reasonably priced…..So I came back for a second visit….(unfortunately).
We started with some shiitake mushrooms with Asian Greens. They look good BUT….
Shiitake with Asian Greens
The sauce is HORRIFYING……Maybe it is suppose to be that way but I can’t stomach a sauce with the consistency of snot……I couldn’t eat this…..Sadly our main dish was worst.
On this visit I didn’t notice the live fish tanks???????? But ordered the rockfish anyway..This was like a fake fish that was impossible to eat….Like solid rubber and tough. I was going to say something to the owner….But my husband said that all was ok so the owner left.
The server didn’t even question on why we didn’t eat the fish and didn’t even ask if we wanted to bring it or the vegetables home……
Then the scary part is that we got a bill for over a hundred dollars for those two plates (We found out they charged $89. for that fish).
These were only a few of the HORRIBLE FRIGHTFUL Foods that was served to me in Metro Phoenix AZ.
