The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously great, peachy keen, and DYNAMITE! The A.G. Burger from the Arrowhead Grill in Glendale Arizona is all that and more!
First of all it is on this nicely grilled fresh and slightly herbed high quality eggy bun that doesn’t fall apart. inside is a lot to describe. There is an eight ounce U.S.D.A. PRIME ground in house tenderloin hand formed beef patty that was perfectly caramelized and prepared perfect to my request. On top of that is six ounces of the greatest sliced prime rib ever and on top of that are tasty fried onions, a little bit of mayonnaise and usually Swiss cheese. Off to the side is a very good horseradish cream sauce. On the current bar menu this amazing burger is $22.95 (subject to change) but if you should happen to stop in at happy hour 3-6 the Happy hour price was only $12.99 (subject to change).
The A.G. Burger from The Arrowhead Grill s an official FANTABULOUS Dish!
Weft and Warp Art Bar and Kitchen is a modern American restaurant located in the twenty three acres of the Andaz Resort and bungalows in Scottsdale Arizona. Weft and Warp A.B.& K. is named after a fabric term. Weft is the name for the threads that run up and down and Warp is the name for the threads that run across resulting in a beautiful creation and a beautiful creation is what is that you are excepted to find here.
Inside is open and airy with lots of bright light during daylight hours.
They also offer patio dining with view of the pool area.
The offerings from Weft and Warp do differ some than from most restaurants out there. They offer breakfast, drinks, dinners, sunset menu (happy hour), and desserts like many other restaurants. They also offer a pool menu, a picnic menu, and maybe the greatest doggy menu anywhere….The doggy menu is offered for breakfast and dinner and some of the offerings are scrambled eggs, grass fed burgers, chicken burgers, flat iron steaks, and baked fish of the day. One dollar of every doggy platter goes to Lucky dog rescue. Wednesday’s also go to the dogs and are called, “Dinner with your dog,” and are %15 off.
By now you must be hungry to hear about Weft and Warp’s dinner for people menu after hearing the amazing doggy menu. Some of the interesting starters are –
Mediterranean bass with crispy. seasoned skin, a dab of buckwheat polenta,, raisins, and a tiny bit of Swiss chard, and zhoug (Moroccan spicy sauce). a hatch chile rubbed filet, also
Duck Confit Rigatoni
a flavorful duck confit rigatoni with mushrooms, chestnuts, tarragon, and. Granda padano.
They do offers desserts.
We tried the detailed dessert called, ‘not a Newton.’
not a Newton
frosted orange ricotta cake, toasted fig, black currant sorbet and balsamic chutney.
That was a Taste of Weft & Warp Art. Bar and Kitchen in Scottsdale AZ
Had an idea today and thought about making Mexican flavored meatballs. I did something similar before but today I thought that instead of adding breadcrumbs I’d add crushed tortilla chips instead for more of a taco taste. Then I needed sauce so I thought a guajillo chili laced tomato sauce would be good with them. This came out tasty and delicious. I note that I did use lots of ingredients for the meatballs that you might not have. I also might have made more sauce than you will use for the meatballs. Extra sauce can be used for tacos, enchiladas, and burritos or can be frozen for. a latter use. For most people the meatballs will be six servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
2 oz guajillo dried chilies – washed off, stems off, shake out the seeds (sauce)
4 cups hot water (sauce)
2 lbs tomatoes (skins removed and slow roasted) or use Italian canned (sauce)
6 garlic cloves – ground to paste (sauce)
1 onion – fine dice (Sauce)
2 Tablespoons (slightly heaping) reduced sodium vegetable bouillon paste (I use Better than Bouillon Brand…..(this is healthier and tastier than salt) (sauce)
4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (sauce)
2 Tablespoons fresh epazote – chopped (sauce)
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – chopped (Sauce)
1 lb ground meat (I used lean 93% ground turkey)
2 oz tortilla chips crushed to crumbs (preferably Calidad Brand White Corn Chips)
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon (slightly heaping) reduced sodium vegetable soup paste (preferably Better Than Bouillon. Brand reduced sodium vegetable soup paste…this is less sodium than salt and better tasting than salt)
1 hot chili (or to taste) (I used one fire roasted hatch chili) – chopped fine
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1. teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground annatto (also called achiote)
1 teaspoon ground chipotle
1/2 cup. scallions sliced thin ). a few. extra. for finishing
1/2 cup cilantro chopped (fine stems are ok to use) a few extra for finishing
1 Tablespoon fresh epazote
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/4 small onion – grated or mince fine
1 Tablespoon water
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
The guajillo chili pods go in a single layer on a sheet pan to toast. Put them in for two minutes on the middle rack and then turn them over and give them one more minute. The pods should have darkened and should smell aromatic. Many more seeds are in them and now you can shake the rest of the seeds out.
Put the chili pods in very hot. or boiling water 4 cups of water. Leave them soften up. for around 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put this water and chili pods and soup paste on medium high heat. Add the onions and when this boil use a stick blender to blend it. up. Let it cook about ten minutes. Now add the tomatoes and blend again. Add the garlic, vinegar, epazote, and cilantro. Blend again. Taste and adjust seasoning iif necessary.
Make the meatballs. Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Use non stiick spray and spray sheet pans for around 20 meatballs.
In a large bowl mix together ground meat, tortilla chips, eggs, soup paste, hot chili, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, annatto, chipotle, scallions, cilantro, garlic, epazote, onion. Mix well. The mixture will be kind of soft. But might need to be slightly softer. I added just one tablespoon of water. Too much water will make mushy meatballs. Not enough water and the meatballs can be dry. I do warn you that this mixture will be sticky and is hard to work with but does make great meatballs. I make my meatballs about 1.3 ounce each and space them out a little so they can cook. Use the middle rack for most of the meatballs and the lower rack for the rest. Cook till cooked threw. In my oven this takes 15 minutes.
Serve with the guajillo sauce. Finish with a small amount of fresh cilantro and epazote.
Mexican Flavored Meatballs with Guajillo Tomato Sauce
This goes well with chipotle lime butter green beans.
Mexican flavored meatballs with guajillo tomato sauce and chipotle lime butter green beans
I had a good idea so I thought I’d share it. I bought a Korean Radish from Asiana Market and I thought I’d use it o make low carb radish tortillas that taste really great with Mexican flavors. All you do is clean the radish and slice thin with a knife. Stuff it with your choice of protein. Then add a very good salsa. Add cheese if you want cheese (In Jalisco they say only gringos use cheese). Add pickled onions and it’s pretty darn good.
I had cucumbers and tomatoes to use up so II thought I’d make a basic gazpacho. I was considering adding my extra mandarins to blend in but ten the idea of yuzu kosno just popped into my head……and I went with it….You might be wondering what is yuzu kosho? Yuzi Kosho (also spelled koshu) is a Japanese condiment of yuzu zest (a citrus) garlic, hot pepper that is fermented…It doesn’t taste as savory or as funky as you might think……To me it taste sort of like a delicious tangerine zest that finishes with a little heat….You can mail away for yuzu kosho or fake it with the zest of one grapefruit, lemon, lime, 2 tangerines, one garlic clove, and one small hot pepper. Usually I only think of yuzu kosho to enhance a fish dish but it is delicious to flavor gazpacho. I think I really came up with something! Serving size is impossible to say for sure because the vegetables differ in size and some people want tiny servings and other people want big servings. This makes around 4-6 servings or around 7 cups.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
4 heirloom tomatoes – stem removed, rough chop (mine good medium sized)
1/4 onion – rough chopped
1 red bell pepper – stem, membrane, seeds removed, rough chopped
1 1/2 English cucumber rough chopped ( I was going to use two but one of mine was 1/2 not good)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon yuzu salt (you can substitute sea salt)
2 oz yuzu kosho (you can substitute citrus zest ((grapefruit, lemon, lime, tangerine)) with ground garlic and a ground small hot pepper)
Twist Hot Chicken is a small casual chicken sandwich restaurant located in a strip mall in Peoria Arizona not too far from Westgate.
It’s very casual and busy…The little place was packed with a line out the door just ten minutes after they opened.
Again it’s casual. You order and pay at the counter. (complimentary cucumber water is by the counter)
On the menu thy offer five different flavors of chicken sandwiches that can be ordered in different levels of heat. The choices of heat are mild, medium, hot, and can’t touch this. They also offer vegan options, chicken tenders, loaded fries, macaroni and cheese, interesting stubborn sodas, beignets, limited adult beverages like Cider Corps Pog, and MORE!
Here’s the menu.
I missed the sodas on my way in but next time I’ll try one.
Today it took us around ten minutes to wait in line and order. I sat at one of the two tables that they have outside and it took around thirty minutes for our order to arrive.
We shared fries and macaroni and cheese. Most of the food comes wrapped with paper in rectangular white boxes.
The fries are fluffy, crisp, and well seasoned. They also are a generous serving. The macaroni and cheese is not bad…..better than a lot of them out there…..
We also share the Shabazi (medium heat) chicken sandwich.
Shabazi
It’s a BIG Sloppy Delicious sandwich with a crisp exterior and moist delicious white meat chicken. This sandwich is made with spicy green zhoug (Yemenite hot sauce) sauce. red cabbage slaw, and tahini sauce. This is wonderfully flavorful and delicious!
We also share the Twist Hot Chicken (HOT) sandwich.
Twist Hot Chicken Sandwich
The Twist Hot Chicken (HOT) sandwich is another BIG SLOPPY FORKING DELICIOUS Sandwich! This sandwich in hot is not for tenderfoots. This is the perfect hot for hot sandwiches. It is almost too hot for me….I can’t imagine how nuclear the “I can’t touch this” must be…Just like the other sandwich this one has a shattering crisp exterior and a flavorful moist white meat chicken inside. Adorning the sandwich is a creamy twist sauce (similar to remoulade), pickles, and house slaw. All this is packed into a nicely toasted eggy roll that is just the right size and didn’t fall apart.
If you like Hot Chicken Sandwiches this is one that you have to try!
When an Award Wining Ramen chef runs a ramen restaurant chances are …..that the ramen is a winning bet. Umami Ramen is a build your own ramen and sushi restaurant and bar located in downtown Tempe Arizona. They offer six varieties of ramen broth and various toppings. They also offer vegan options, house bowls, sushi rolls, rice bowls, sushi tacos, drafts, sake, Japanese drinks and more!
The sign is on the side of the building.
They have an indoor-outdoor bar and patio.
outdoor bar and patio
Inside are booths, traditional tables, and a bar.
Today they are playing non-stop Grateful Dead Music.
inside
Both ramens below are shio broth. Shio means salt in Japanese so shio broth are salt based. This is the most difficult type of ramen to make well because the broth doesn’t get covered up with other things like miso or soy sauce to help it out and has to be good on it’s own. It’s also the type of ramen with the most Unami.
Here’s the vegan shio with added grilled chicken, regular noodles, togarashi corn, and spicy garlic paste.
WOW! I can’t believe how flavorful this is….and it is very spicy too! This is very developed with flavors. I think I’m also getting some additional flavor and heat off of the togarashi corn. This is a really good flavor to me. The noodles are nice and chewy like they are suppose to be. They were very generous with the chicken. For me I could have made two meals out of this. But some people do eat more and can finish this.
Here’s the shio (chicken pork broth) with added pork belly and hard egg.
This one is also a very good developed broth. The pork belly also is very good and stayed crispy to the end. Noodles are also good and chewy. They offer soft and hard eggs. My husband went with a hard egg. He said it was slightly marinated.
Umami Ramen at Shady Park in Tempe AZ is-
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
Umami Ramen
I have not found a working website for Umami Ramen.
26 E University Dr Tempe AZ
480-222-2244
Parking might be challenging to some because of location in downtown Tempe. Fortunately a parking garage is next door.
This is the recipe for the meatballs I made. I warn you that they are FORKING Scrumptious. The rice and cabbage that went around it was part of a different recipe that I think can be too troublesome. I spoke about it yesterday so if you want more details read yesterday’s post.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 lb ground meat (I used turkey 93% lean)
1/2 cup panko (I used Whole Wheat panko)
1 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup scallions – cut thin
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4 teaspoon Szechuan pepper – toasted and ground
1 Tablespoon (slightly heaping) reduced sodium Better Than Bouillon vegetable soup base (this is instead of salt….less sodium and more flavor)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons fresh basil (or other basil) chopped
3 ends of lemongrass – hard outer skins removed – fine chopped
non stick spray.
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a baking sheet (or two) with non stick spray..
Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Make small scoop sized meatballs…. (about 1.3 ounces each)
You should have around 21 meatballs.
They go in the oven until done. In my oven they took 15 minutes. I put most of the meatballs on the middle rack and the rest on the lower rack.
I served them two different ways. The way you see in the picture with a small amount of vegetable broth. For another meal I just mixed up some hoisin sauce with a small amount of ketchup and that was tasty with them.
Asian Style Turkey Meatballs with Lemongrass Stuffed Cabbage
I was watching the Rachel Ray variety and lifestyleTV Show. A featured guest was chef Nyesha Arrington. She is a well trained famous chef that owns at least one restaurant in California and has been featured on many food related TV shows including Top Chef. On the Rachel Ray show she made these adorable….what she called, “SHOW STOPPING” five-spiced chicken meatball stuffed cabbages. I decided that I needed to make them. First thing that I decided that I needed to cut the recipe in half…..Then I made different (my own) meatballs because I didn’t need to add tofu to my meatballs and I wanted to add more flavors….I can make meatballs in my sleep. Got the meatballs made…..
I did have problems with the rice step…..Unless you have a rice cooker or a steamer…I would suggest just to make the rice the way you normally cook rice. The instructions might be misprinted. I did soak and drain my glutinous rice but my rice took far longer than the 12 minutes noted. Mine took at least 40 minutes. Still not such a big deal……Just note that your rice might take longer…Just cook till your rice is sticky.
My last issue was the Chinese Cabbage……..I keep forgetting that chefs get better produce than we get……They get the most stunning fresh local beautiful big produce and we get mostly average produce that is trucked in from far away…..I also didn’t know how many leaves are in large Chinese Cabbages or Savoy cabbage. The cabbage I bought I thought was enormous……THE BIGGEST ONE THAT I’VE EVER SEEN……..But still not big enough for even half of the HALF recipe………Little did I know that I could only use eleven leaves to wrap meatballs and I had 21 meatballs so some we ate unwrapped and I made a nice Asian type sauce for them…….On the TV Show the chef saiid to make the meatballs 1- 1.5 ounces each so I did exactly that….Mine were all 1.3-1.4oz each. I made 21 meatballs. ( do have to mention that chef Arrington also got 18-20 meatballs and hers looks way larger than the 1-1.5 ounces….I know she added a cup of tofu and had twice as much meat..I guess that is why they looked so large…..I think they were MUCH bigger)….I have no idea how she got such big cabbage leaves to wrap hers…..)…..I only got 11 of my meatballs wrapped because I only had 11 leaves big enough to wrap the meatballs………(and my cabbage was the biggest one that I have ever seen at a grocery store……..So you might need to buy two (or FOUR if you didn’t cut recipe in half like I did).
ANYWAY……
Making them was pretty easy. (you. do have to blanch the cabbage)
Add some rice and meatball….This sits on plastic wrap….
Here comes the clever secret to making them……..
You take the wrap and pull it up and kind of use your hand to distribute the rice around the meatball and twist at the end. I chilled mine over night.
If you follow chef Arrington’s directions she suggest to steam the cabbage wrapped meatballs hot in the plastic wrap…….I didn’t do that because I thought mine would take too long to steam. I also couldn’t imagine unwrapping boiling hot plastic wrapped meatballs…My husband would starve by the time I unwrapped them all…….So I warmed mine up in the oven with a little vegetable broth without the plastic wrap and they came out great that way.
5 Spice Turkey Meatball Stuffed Cabbage
Chef Arrington’s recipe is called Five-Spice Chicken Meatball – Stuffed Cabbage and can be found on Rachel Ray TV Show Recipe Site. A few others claim to have wrote this recipe but I don’t think they did because they used chef Arrington’s photo.
A Special. THANKS!!!! to chef Nyesha Arrington for sharing her unique recipe so I could make what you see here!
I have a large pantry and have more spices and ingredientsnthan most people. I was going to make a Sichuan type of eggplant dish and when it came time to do the recipe I realized that I didn’t even have half of the ingredients…….So I made my substitutions and some things I cut out and some things I added and I wound up with something delicious but not authentic. Serving size is difficult to judge…My guess is that you will get between 2-4 servings depending if you want a side serving or if you want to make this into a full meal.
Ingredients for around 3 servings
1 eggplant – cut in half long ways and scored one the top in diamond shapes
2 teaspoon red chili oil
2 oz gochujang
1 Tablespoon black bean paste
2 Tablespoons Shaoxing wine
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar
non stick spray
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds (for finishing)
1-2 scallions – cut thin diagonal (for finishing)
Directions
In a small mixing bowl mix together the oil, gochujang, black bean paste, Shaoxing wine, red wine vinegar, and sugar. Mix well. All this to a gallon Ziplock bag and place eggplant halves that have been scored cut side down win the bag. Leave this sit out on the counter for around 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray a baking sheet with non stock spray.
After 30 minutes place the eggplant halves cut side down on the baking sheet but reserve the liquid in the bag and put the bag to thee side.
The eggplants on the baking sheet go on a middle rack for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes the eggplant halves need to be turned to cut side up. Now pour reserved liquid over and into the eggplant halves. Put back in the oven till caramelized. (around 30 minutes)
