Piri Piri Style Chicken
I put this forking photo up on twitter and it got retweeted to 44,370 people. It came out forking great! Piri Piri is basically a spicy red pepper sauce that you also use as a marinade and let sit overnight and then cook the chicken. I served mine with my new favorite grain freekah and roasted vegetables. I’ll post the forking recipe this week.
Forking Truth
Sabortooth Grill San Diego Zoo
I didn’t plan my day well and was on this end of the zoo at lunch time. We waited in the forking long line for quite a while for sandwiches that forking took me back to the days of disco, polyester and days of eating processed food. Yum yum what to get? Do I want leftover fried, now cold, chicken in a big wrap with forking mystery sauce or a boxed very uninteresting salad. For some odd reason the grilled chicken sandwich with some guacamole sounded good to me so that’s what I ordered. Sadly the chicken sandwich didn’t live up to my only average dreams. This chicken sandwich tasted like an On Cor frozen processed chicken patty but worst. It seemed like a large dump truck forking unloaded a pile of salt on it. I thought I was forking going to get sick. The onion rings were very crispy and reminded me of Burger King. The slime like guacamole reminded me of pond scum and actually might have been forking pond scum. I thought the house made pear ketchup sounded good but sadly it just tasted like watered down generic ketchup. Nothing on my plate was worth a fork.
My husband just had a mediocre cheese burger. He said it was cheap cheese on dry chewy burgers but it was what he expected.
Not Worth a Fork
In Old Town San Diego were all the tourist shops are many mostly Mexican Restaurants.
Grilled Salmon Tacos from Barra Barra Saloon San Diego
This one restaurant had a nicer menu than most of the others and looked more inviting so we stopped there. I read that they forking make all their own tortillas. That sounds good right! We had some service issues here and would up waiting for our order for an hour at lunch time making us feel like prisoners in jail. We recieved several forking apologies from our waiter. My tacos really weren’t forking terrible, they really were just ok. The waiter told me they usually use forking pre-cooked salmon and ran out and had to cook some for me so the tacos were ok. However the corn salad and beans were forking gross. The corn in my corn salad were soggy with the forking centers of the corn missing. I don’t know if that is from being overcooked or old? All I know is that they were forking not fit for prisoners. I don’t know how they flavored the vegetarian beans but they tasted like dirt maybe it was forking dirt?
My husband thought his plate of food wasn’t worth a fork either. He had some sort of combo plate. He said, the sausage was burnt, the chicken was dry and the pork was flavorless. He did say the beef was good. Well at least something was good.
Not Worth a Fork
I heard about the most anticipated new restaurant opening and it was a Seafood House so we forking went there. It was a beautiful restaurant that was new but looked very old fashioned. The help seemed very polished. We decided to share an appetizer of butternut squash tortellini.
Butternut Squash Tortellini Water Grill San Diego California
The waiter warns us about the forking hot plate. We each take a tortellini. We bite into them and we forking look at each other for a moment. We both have forking ice cold, I mean really cold tortellini in our mouths. WTFork! Did the cook just pull out cold tortellini from the refrigerator? Who the fork does that?
This is Forked Up!
Our dinner had some issues and I wanted to forget about this dinner that should have been our best in San Diego so we forking ordered dessert.
Water Grill San Diego CA
I didn’t think the dessert looked bad but it forking tasted burnt!
BURNT!
BURNT!
FORKING BURNT!
We only tasted BURNT!
Not Worth a Fork
These were the plates that weren’t worth a FORK in San Diego.
Forking Truth
These Tortellini look pretty nice! Don’t They?
But it seemed like someone just pulled them out of the forking refrigerator, dressed them up a little and threw them on a heated plate hoping we’d just forking eat them that way.
This is Forked Up!
It’s really very odd that someone did this…
We said something to our waiter and before we knew it the manager was over and apologized profusely. The manager took the tortellini off our check and asked us if we’d take a properly made plate of butternut squash tortellini.
A long time passes by and we are wondering what was happening. Eventually a plate of hot butternut squash tortellini’s have arrived. They are delicious but slightly spicy. They have a creamy butternut sauce that is cut with fresh crisp apples and some fried sage.
Soon our pink sea bream arrives.
Water Grill San Diego CA
The fish looks sort of nice with fresh herbs and a cooked lemon.
But it’s slightly overcooked and slightly dried out like it’s been sitting awhile. It’s sort of like fish off a buffet and not that moist perfect fish your hoping for from a fish house.
I said it was forking ok to the waiter because it was ok just not great.
OK so I was expecting an excellent fish dish since this is a fish place and was sort of disappointed and thought I needed dessert to cheer me up and forget about the disappointment.
We decided to share a Pear Tart Tatin.
Water Grill San Diego CA
The ice-cream was suppose to be caraway flavored but neither of us could taste caraway. Everything under the ice-cream just tasted burnt. I don’t really know if it was just a burnt sauce or a burnt cake and sauce. Neither of us could saw threw the cake with our forks because the tart tatin was hard like a rock. This dessert was awful and I told the waiter that it was hard to eat. He said well you can order something else next time.
I don’t know who they have working there in the kitchen? Was it these guys?
Or it was these guys?
Not Worth a Fork
Forking Truth
I note this may not be typical of this restaurant but if you happen to give them a try I’d recommend the raw shellfish.
No one would ever guess that a FORKING airport restaurant could ever be on a better food list. The Pasifica Breeze Cafe at the San Diego Airport (Pre-Security Floor 1 Terminal 1) Prepares non-typical airport cuisine. Nothing we had was dry, old or flat. Everything we tried was fresh made and forking tasty!
I had a sugar spiced salmon salad with fresh mixed greens napa cabbage and other vegetables with a house made sesame peanut vinaigrette. It actually was surprisingly delicious and tasty. This was an above average preparation of salmon and everything about the salad was fresh and tasty.
My husband’s burger with yam chips was also great!
We enjoyed many plates from Juniper & Ivy. The Chef at J&I is the celebrity Chef Richard Blais. He is Bravo’s Winner of Top Chef All Stars and is known for his innovative classic American Cuisine.
We started out with fun deviled eggs with whipped crispy whites.
Trout that tasted like a pastrami on rye,
But the most delicious plate was the forking carrots.
These carrots were almond wood grilled,topped with pickled apricot puree, jalapeño chimicurri and grilled peanut oil and I think almonds? These were really amazing and far forking better than I make them sound.
Banker’s Hill made a really awesome Happy Hour Beet Salad.
The spiced herb creamy dressing went really well with the greens and beets but the sweet citrus really made the salad pop and it did’t hurt to add a yummy toasted buttery cheesey bread treat to the plate.
Nearby in La Jolla at Nine-Ten I had house cured and smoked salad that was topped with a very detailed salad.
At Cucina Urbano I enjoyed a whole roasted pink bream over studded couscous.
We also had this really great dessert that I will have to try to create someday.
This was really delicious and worth the calories. Dense in a forking good way (rich and moist) cake filled with something like cannoli filling that sits on a thin buttery thin cookie base and is topped with a very thin pine-nut brittle thats savory with salt and pepper. Fresh blackberries, blackberry sauce and blackberry sorbet complete the dish.
I had other dishes that were good but these were the highlights of the forking better food I had in San Diego.
Forking Truth
These carrots come out crispy, sweet and salty and are great to top a salad, an entree or just to snack on.
This recipe is what I remembered reading from “Tasting Table.com” and is called Root Vegetable Chips. The Chef that came up with this recipe saves the pealed skins from all root vegetables that are pealed in her restaurant and turns them into the “chips” to garnish plates.
I only tried this recipe with carrots so far.
The recipe is very easy to do but I think it will vary depending on the vegetable you use and your peeler. I liked the way the carrots came out, extremely crisp.
Set your oven to 225 to bake.
Put 6 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar on medium high heat.
Using a vegetable peeler peel as many carrots as you like. (I peeled 6 large carrots)
When the pot boils add the carrot peels and let boil 1-2 minutes.
Remove the peels from the boiling liquid and dry them on a towel.
Spread the peels out on a silicone mat lined pan and sprinkle with salt. (I used a parchment lined pan and that worked well for carrots) I don’t think salt will stick to the carrots if you forking wait to salt them at the end because of how crisp they get. The salt might just fall off.
Bake around 2 hours at 225 degrees (my batch was perfect in 2 1/2 hours)
Serving Suggestion
Forking Good!
I was forking watching Rachel Ray and Chef Sara Molton was preparing home fries inspired by an American’s Test Kitchen Recipe. I found MANY variations of this recipe on the web.
I do have to say these home fries came out really delicious with a deeper potato flavor because boiling with baking soda breaks down the surface of the potato and condenses the potato flavor. The surface is suppose to crisp up extra too. Mine came out fluffy and a little crispy but with delicious flavors. These home fries FORKING have the most delicious potato flavor.
I cleaned up some potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs.) and chopped some onions. (less than 1/2 of a BIG sweet onion)
Drained the potatoes and added them to a pot of boiling water that had about a Tablespoon of kosher salt in it and a teaspoon of baking soda.
I let it boil ONLY ONE MINUTE.
Drained the potatoes and added a couple tablespoons of butter, the chopped onions, about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the drained potatoes back to the pot and let them absorb for about a minute.
My oven was set at 500 degrees and I had a pan in there getting hot.
I then added the contents of the pot to the heated baking sheet. (don’t forking make fun of me for using this forking pan) For the best results a heavy pan that holds heat will work best. The potato mixture was sprinkled with canola oil.
For me these took about a half hour turning the potatoes a few times.
Then I wound up with this after I sprinkled them with scallions.
This recipe was inspired by America’s Test Kitchen and was shown on the Rachel Ray TV Show prepared by Chef Sara Molton. I prepared just from memory from watching the show. On TV the potatoes came out with a little more crust.(maybe mine would have too if I just used a forking better pan)
The proportions, ingredients and instructions may have differed some. But these sure did come out forking good!
Forking Good!
Buffalo Blue Cheese Slaw
This is another forking easy recipe to prepare that’s also very tasty. This salad is a little spicy around 3-3.5 on the Thai Heat Scale of 10. So if you can’t forking tolerate some heat I would skip this one. I wanted to create a blue cheese kind of slaw that wasn’t all full of mayonnaise and thought a hot sauce vinaigrette would be perfect so that’s what this forking came out to be.
This makes only a small batch of slaw and I think it’s about enough for four servings (but that’s all I forking wanted today)
Ingredients
!/2 head of cabbage sliced very thin.
1 red bell pepper (seeds and steam removed) sliced very thin
1/4 very large sweet onion sliced very thin
1 carrot shredded
1 garlic clove minced
1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt (the salt will make the cabbage soft and drippy)
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup cayenne pepper sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
a FORKING small pinch of celery seeds (be careful with this because celery seeds are very strong in flavor you only need a SMALL pinch. They give off a strong celery taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 oz. crumbled blue cheese
a small handful of scallions
Directions
Combine cabbage, red bell pepper, sweet onion, carrot, garlic and kosher salt and let sit while you make the rest in another bowl.
Combine dijon, cayenne sauce, apple cider vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, black pepper, cayenne pepper.
Add dressing to vegetables and mixed well. (P.S. you might even want to use this dressing for salads)
Add blue cheese and top with some scallions.
Forking easy Buffalo Blue Cheese Slaw
Forking Good!
This is forking simple and very tasty.
Just roast up some cauliflower and broil up your asparagus. Roast, peel and clean up one red roasted bell pepper.
Prepare your chicken however the fork you like!
Clean up some kumquats. You need about 2 oz per every person.
Cut the kumquats into quarters and remove any seeds you see. Add some chopped onions and sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar to every 8 oz of kumquats you used. Sprinkle the whole pan with extra virgin olive oil. Roast in 350 degree oven till slightly browned. (about 40 min.)
Remove from oven sprinkle with toasted watermelon seeds, Aleppo Pepper, fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and pour over chicken. Fresh basil will complete the dish. To make the dish more filling add some rice, noodles or a chunk of delicious bread.
This came out more delicious than it looks. It very refreshing and a little sweet, tangy and savory .
Sometimes you don’t need a recipe and just need a Forking Idea!
Forking Good!
This recipe is a crowd pleaser. My husband forking devoured about a forking third of this casserole as soon as he could after I gave him a big slice. He kept saying I have to eat it because it’s really REALLY good!
Slightly crispy potato ends and many layers of thin potato held together with silky goodness seasoned just right. What’s not to love.
This recipe I whipped up today is very easy to make but you do need a mandolin to slice the onions and potatoes real thin. Thick slices might not come out right.
Ingredients (set oven to 350 degrees and coat your baking dish with nonstick spray)
1 LARGE sweet onion sliced very thin (about 4 cups)
About 3 lbs. of Potatoes washed, pealed and sliced very thin that you mix with onions as you slice so they don’t brown. (I used Idaho Potatoes)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
6 beaten eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Tablespoon (heaping) kosher salt
teaspoon (scant) ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions
You already have your onions and potatoes mixed together in a big bowl.
In another medium size bowl combine all the other ingredients and mix well.
Mix that batter into the potatoes and onions. After combined transfer to your baking dish. (I used a half steam pan) Cover with foil and let it go around an hour till set.
When set remove the foil and it will need around 25 more minutes to brown and crisp up.
Save this recipe because you will need to forking make it.
Forking Good!
I was checking out at the grocery store near my house in Phoenix Arizona and the cashier noticed the frozen confection I picked up called frozen custard.
The cashier was an older woman in her 60s and told me she never forking heard of frozen custard and asked me what it was. I told her it’s like frozen soft serve but much richer and smoother because it’s made with eggs. I was surprised she lived all her forking 60 something life and never heard of frozen custard but then I thought about it a little forking more and realize that frozen custard really isn’t an Arizona Thing.
I don’t forking know why?
Maybe you need to live near a forking boardwalk to enjoy frozen custard?
We do have some frozen custard right here in Phoenix. I’ve seen it at Freddie’s, Culver’s and Rita’s but they aren’t the same.
Frozen custard was invented in Coney Island New York in 1919 by ice-cream vendors Archie and Elton Kohr. The brothers found out that just adding egg yolks to their ice-cream helped the treat stay cold longer and also gave it a richer silkier texture.
Some people from Phoenix never heard of frozen custard!
Forking Truth
