Here is the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix Arizona. If you are a fan of the extra thin doughs and are around Phoenix this might be of interest to you.
Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in north Glendale offers all of their pizzas (around 16 varieties Milano Style……….. that means EXTRA thin…much thinner than their normal thin Neapolitan pizzas. Thin pizzas never weigh you down. You can enjoy more pizza when you go for the extra thin. Up above is the vegetariana pizza made of D.O.P. tomato sauce, flor di latte, red bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
Next is a spinach calzone from Pane Bianco in Phoenix.
It looks like a normal doughy calzone.
But look!
This dough is paper thin…This is super thin calzone dough….gives you more belly room for that rich creamy cheesus filling. BTW- The cheeses are incredible here. For my taste it is a little light on the spinach but it does taste great.
Pomo Pizzeria offers quite a few extra thins. One is the Pizza Rimini in 4 varieties.
It gets baked for a very short time at around 900 degrees in a certified Italian wood oven.
Pomo also offers the Focaccia di Recco in three varieties. (below is the formaggio)
This focaccia gets rolled even thinner than the Rimini pizza because it gets stuffed with stracchino cheese and you can add on local honey to enjoy it even more.
Focaccia di Recco from Pomo Pizzeria
Here is the focaccia di recco in the pesto variety from Pomo.
focaccia di recco pesto
LOOK how paper thin it really is.
I loved the Focaccia di Recco so much from Pomo Pizzeria that I had to try it when I saw it on the menu at Mora Italian in Phoenix.
The Mora Italian Focaccia di Recco was very different from the Pomo Pizzeria. Mora’s wasn’t as crisp and the cheese didn’t come out all melty.
I was told by the manager that Mora Italian uses a different oven so the results do differ.
The thinnest non-extra thin pizza that we have received was the mushroom with mozzarella and salamette picante from PA’LA Downtown.
It was a very chewy very thin pizza.
This was the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix AZ.
I had two cucumbers, extra herbs, and tuna packets and this is what I came up with. It’s very easy to prepare and happened to come out delicious. There is one ingredient that most people will not have. Amora Mustard from France. Your tuna salad will come out different if you don’t use Amora…….It happens that Amora is the smoothest mustard that I have ever tried. Other dijon mustards are very harsh after trying Amora…….I’m guessing the easiest substitute would be any dijon mustard mixed with 1/2 mayonnaise…It’s pretty easy to find Amora Mustard on-line.
Ingredients for around 2 servings
2 radishes – thinly sliced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable stock
2 cucumbers – remove skin, seeds, rough chopped
2 Tablespoons prepared horseradish (or to taste)
2 Tablespoons basil leaves
2 Tablespoons scallions
2Tablespoons dried chives
1 teaspoon sour cream
5-6 oz tuna fish drained ( I used two small packs. Each pack is something like 2.6 oz.)
1/2 apple – remove core, remove skin, small dice
1 Tablespoon celery leaves – chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh dill – chopped
1 Tablespoon scallions – chopped
2 Tablespoons Amora Dijon Mustard
Directions
Pickle the radishes. Bring the water, vinegar, and sugar to a boil. (you can do this on the stove or the microwave….It truly doesn’t matter) Add the radish slices and let them pickle on the counter for at least 30 minutes.
Made the cold cucumber horseradish soup. Blend together the vegetable stock, cucumbers, horseradish, basil, scallions, chives, and sour cream. Keep in the refrigerator to chill.
Make the tuna salad. Mix together the tuna, apple, celery leaves, dill, scallions, and Amora mustard.
Serve the tuna salad with the cucumber horseradish soup and garnish with the pickled radishes.
Easy FORKING Delicious Cold Cucumber Horseradish Soup with Tuna Salad
I recently went to one restaurant in Phoenix Arizona and had a most unpleasant experience. I doubt whoever just opened this restaurant knows anything about the hospitality business. My gut told me that I should leave as soon as I got here….It was my bad for staying…….Note to self listen to your gut. This is the only restaurant (so far) that I am not mentioning by name. This restaurant has so many problems I doubt they will be around for long anyway unless they bring someone in to help. The only reason I wanted to eat here is because I was BAMBOOZLED on Yelp. I read mostly all 5 star reviews and looked at mouth watering photos of food……I can only figure that the reviews must have been done by friends and family…..I have no idea where they got the photos from……….I sure didn’t get anything that resembled the food I looked at…….This is the only way that I can write about this restaurant.
We walked in early just twenty minutes after they opened. Every table in the restaurant was left dirty from the night before with crumbs and smudges.
crumbs and smudges on every table “actual table”
I thought our waitress was dressed like a slut.
not actual waitress but similar
Since every table was filthy I thought our server would wipe the table off that she sat us at…. but she didn’t…. so we wiped off the table ourselves………………….. They obviously don’t even concern themselves about sanitation.
Then she introduces another slut…I mean waitress that she is training who is even sluttier.
Not actual waitress …ours had even more cut outs
We order and soon complimentary chips and salsa come out.
actual complimentary chips and salsa
Oh my they don’t know how to make chips and salsa. These chips taste like the ones that Costco sells (that aren’t good). They tried to heat the chips up but didn’t do that right because they taste burnt….. The sauce taste just like crushed canned tomatoes with too much added dry oregano and doctored up slightly with a little hot sauce. Wow it’s like a child made the salsa.
We needed silverware for our meals that arrived. We were the only table on the restaurant and our server was unaware that we needed silverware…….So we asked for silverware……Then we got some and I unrolled my silverware and they were covered in soap residue. I used my glass of water to soak off the soap from the silverware.
All the food that we received was mediocre….meats were like dry stringy pot roast. Flavors weren’t so good. I ordered a grilled fish taco and the cook made me a breaded fish taco that seemed like it was already reheated a few times. It was similar to bad buffet food.
Finally we asked for the bill. They have some sort of new electronic paying system where you don’t see the bill until you see it in your email on the computer.
They added on without telling us an extra 3% called processing tech charge.
Dirty Tables, Bad Chips and Bad Salsa, Soupy Silverware, Dry stingy meats, Undisclosed 3% processing tech fees, and some peoples daughters dressed like sluts from some restaurant in Metro Phoenix Arizona.
Everything is subject to change….This restaurant will probably close and re-open soon as another restaurant.
I only went here because of the glowing reviews and amazing looking pictures of food from a certain review site. It turns out that I was bamboozled by a review site.
This recipe is a variation of Cauliflower Piccata by Hetty McKinnon’s by The New York Times. I changed a few things as I was going along.. I roasted the garbanzos with the cauliflower instead of just adding them from the can. I cut the amount of butter in half because I thought I had enough. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of flour to give the sauce some body. Those were the changes I made. Serving size is hard to judge. For me this made 6 side servings. But if you want bigger servings than me it will only make 4 servings. It also depends on the size of your cauliflower too.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 cauliflower – cut into florets
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is approximate and is for the cauliflower/chick peas and the frying of the shallots)
sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 (15 ounce) can chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed three times
1 shallot – minced
3 garlic cloves ground to paste
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon flour
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (feel free to add 2 more Tablespoons if desired)
2 Tablespoons capers – drained
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon (thinly slice the other half of the lemon)
1/4 cup parsley leaves – chopped for finishing
Directions
Turn the oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the cauliflower florets on a sheet pan mixed with the drained chick peas. Spray them well with the olive oil and season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Roast till golden and brown. Timing will differ….25-45 minutes. Remove when done.
Mix the flour with the vegetable stock and set to the side.
In a medium fry pan add a tablespoon of olive oil on medium high heat. When hot add the shallots and stir as needed. After about a minute add the garlic and stir. As soon as you smell the garlic (less than a minute) add the vegetable stock (mixed with 1/2 teaspoon flour) and let it reduce by half. Turn down to low and add the butter, capers, lemon juice and lemon zest. Season to taste.
Serve and finish with lemon slices and parsley.
Cauliflower Piccata
ENJOY!
A special THANKS to Hetty McKinnon and The New York Times for a great Recipe so I can do what I did!
There are several different kinds of restaurants out there. Most go under the categories of neighborhood restaurants….and neighborhood restaurants also are very good restaurants. We LOVE neighborhood restaurants……….but…… Some restaurants out there are destination restaurants. Destination restaurants serve the FANTABULOUS dishes. These are the restaurants that you drive across town for. We lost some of our destination lunch restaurants like Tarbell’s Tavern, Christopher’s and Vincent Market Bistro possibly due to the pandemic. Some restaurants have cut back lunch service to limited days. It is important that we still have some destination lunch restaurants. These restaurants are great for a special lunch out. Some only offer lunch on the weekends. Maybe you want to impress a friend or a relative. Maybe you want a special lunch for an anniversary or a birthday. Or maybe it’s for just because…….
Here they are in no particular order.
The Craftsman (lunch Fri, Sat. Sun.) in North Scottsdale offers some expectational cuisine. When you taste just even a salad you know that it isn’t ordinary. It’s the highest freshest quality.
crunchy quinoa salad with chickenCraftsman muffuletta with friesshipwright ahi saladtomato and melon burrata
www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com
We have Elements at Sanctuary (lunch Mon., Tue., Wed., Thurs., Fri.) in Paradise Valley with celebrity chef Beau Macmillan. The menu is ever changing and seasonal. But you are sure to find a variety of appetizers a special of the day, bento boxes, a very good exceptional chicken dish, and pastry chef quality desserts.
bento box house made cavatelli with duck confitseasonal chicken thigh dishfive spice beef tenderloinchef crafted dessert
www.SantuuaryCamelback.com/dining/Elements
Ocotillo (lunch Sat., Sun. subject to change) is a restaurant and more. It is technically also a coffee bar, cocktail lounge, wine bar, event space and park. They offer a mostly American menu laced with global cuisine. The menu offered is a large brunch menu of mostly sharing plates of salads, vegetable plates, sweets (breakfast), light plates, savory plates. I counted over 20 different plates to choose from. The menus are seasonal and do change. Also the hours change. Before the pandemic Ocotillo offered a great lunch everyday. Currently brunch is offered on the weekends of mostly lunch sharing plates.
house smoked salmon platecrispy chicken meatballstandoori chicken salad pita with tomato watermelon saladvanilia roasted pear with goat cheese and bitter chocolate with mintsmoked brisket on parmesan polenta, fried egg, crispy onions, brisket jusJapanese fish and chips
It’s easy to see why Ocotillo is a destination restaurant.
www.OcotilloPHX.com
Superstition Downtown Meadery (lunch 7 days a week) in Phoenix offers chef crafted food and award winning meadery (ancient honey wine). They offer sharing boards, small sharing plates and large sharing plates and food and mead pairings.
12 mead sampler $24.piri piri chicken & warm cannelli bean saladgorgonzola. & herb butter skirt steak blondies with cocoa nibs and Marion berry mead sauce whipped cream
www.SuperstitionMeadery.com
Another one of the top destinations for a special lunch would be the small restaurant in Carefree called Confluence (lunch Wed. Thurs., Fri., Sat.) They serve ever changing seasonal menus of elevated modern cuisine….You can order appetizers, lunch, and don’t miss dessert….because the desserts are equally amazing as the food.
Some of the amazing detailed and delicious lunches from Confluence that we tried were- –
kampachi crudo appetizermiso braised beef cheek (don’t miss out on any beef cheek you ever come across from Confluence) (this was only on the lunch menu maybe one week)Wagyu pastrami sandwich cubano sandwichBBQ chicken sandwich, celery root, spicy pickle, beet greens, smoked onion mayo, on a house made fontina roll (This might have been the most delicious sandwich that I have ever eaten anywhere)buttermilk fried chicken with broccolini, grits and chili tepin honey mustardmixed fruit granitespiced plum with black pepper oat crumble, sake poached cherry, candied manderanquat, mint, matcha creme anglaisechocolate mousse smoked toffee risotto, spiced pear, cocoa nibs, hazelnut, mint
www.RestaurantConfluence.com
These are some of the destination restaurants of metro Phoenix for lunch.
In no particular order-
The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen – (Fri-Sun.) North Scottsdale
Tap & Bowl is a unique small restaurant and bar located by the arts district and on the end of the waterfront near to Old Town Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant offers appetizers like dips, wings, and fried pickle chips. They also offer a variety of seasonal and some globally inspired bowls. They offer craft beers, cider, cocktails, hand crafted sodas and water filtered by an Italian soda machine.
You can sit inside at the bar, at a high top, on a sofa or booth. Outside on the shaded patio are traditional tables with bench seating.
On my last visit I tried a watermelon cucumber soda.
It was light refreshing and delicious.
This time I went with iced tea.
Both times here I had the Atlantic salmon & cali rice bowl. It is mostly riced cauliflower that is really pretty good and you almost forget that you are eating cauliflower…It’s almost like eating quinoa and it’s studded with edamame, carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms and maybe some seasonal veggies. It’s all laced with Asian tasting sauces.
Last visit Atlantic salmon & cali bowl
The recent Atlantic salmon and cali bowl did differ slightly but was still delicious.
The biggest difference between the two bowls was the salmon. Last time it was served medium-rare and this time it was served well done.
The meal my husband enjoyed last time (the chicken macaroni and cheese bowl has been discontinued so this time he ordered the puerco con masa (masa caked topped with pulled pork with pico, honey and hot sauce.
He said that it was very tasty. He also said that he thought the hot sauce was particularly good.
Tap & Bowl is a nice little stop that maybe you haven’t thought about. On both visits all the food was tasty and not too heavy.
That was just a Little Taste of Tap & Bowl in Scottsdale AZ.
I wanted to do something with parsnips today. I looked up recipes and found maybe ten different recipes that paired parsnips with sage and bacon…..So I thought of bonito flakes….Bonito flakes are shaved dried fermented and smoked tuna. They are almost like a mix of anchovy and bacon but more delicate. That makes bonito flakes more vegetable friendly than bacon. Bonito flakes are easy to find at your local Asian Market or you can buy them on-line. I didn’t measure this recipe exactly. The hardest part is peeling the Brussels sprouts. I had a one pound bag of Brussels sprouts and maybe peeled half of each sprout and cooked the centers latter for a separate dish.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 large parsnips – Peel and cut around the cores into small wedges something like French fry shaped.
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs sage leaves – pick off leaves
1/4 cup green olives – pits removed – rough chopped
2 cups brussels sprouts leaves
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
4 good pinches of bonito flakes
Directions
Set your oven to 400 degrees F.
Put the parsnips on a baking sheet and spay or sprinkle the parsnips well with olive oil. Most them for 15 minutes. (they aren’t done yet). Add sage and olives and roast them 5-10 minutes more or until the parsnips are cooked. Toss in the sprout leaves. This goes back in the oven for only 2 minutes to wilt the leaves. Sprinkle with lemon juice add salt and pepper to taste. Finish with bonito flakes.
I found this bag of Deep River Snacks Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips at Marshall’s. I thought this flavor seemed different and fun so I gave them a try. The bag is different.
The top of the bag reads, “Because we give a chip.” What it means is that they donate from their sales to a charity to feed children.
Then I look at the ingredients.
Seems safe to eat.
I open the bag and it smells like mustard.
Spill some chips out.
These are very small chips. They look fingerling sized??? They are extra crisp, very thin and slightly powdered.
I eat a few.
They really taste like Chinese mustard with that slight horseradish flavor.
Now I go to eat one real slow…………can’t………..the flavors are too strong that way….These you just have to eat.
I have to say these Select Edition Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks are Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
If you are a fan of Chinese Mustard and Crispy Potato chips you might want to give this bag of potato chips a try.
Here is a delicious Indian Style nut butter tomato sauce that I made for a roasted cauliflower. It’s a delicious, creamy, fragrant, sauce that gets creamy from grinding some nuts into it so you need a spice grinder. It’s trendy to roast a whole cauliflower head but I’m sorry that I did it that way because it takes much longer to roast it that way. I would suggest roasting the cauliflower in wedges or even florets. I had some leftover turmeric pickled onions that I added that I thought would be good here. The onions were a big onion sliced, zest from one orange, with juice of the orange, 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. Mix and let sit a 1/2 hour and then refrigerate. For the cauliflower you can use whatever kind you get. I do note that purple cauliflower are the most delicate and roast for less time in a slightly lower oven. I used an Italian green fancy cauliflower today. The other cauliflower that comes out the best is the orange cauliflower…but really any cauliflower will be fine. Serving size will differ. Every cauliflower is a different size and you might want a big portion or maybe only a small side order. I used 2 small cauliflowers and got 8 small servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
1 large or 2 small cauliflower – cut in serving size wedges
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is what I guessed I used to spray down the two cauliflowers well.
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper- to taste
3 onions – sliced thin
4 Tablespoons canola oil
pinch sugar
pinch salt
28 oz can Italian crushed or chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
20 almonds – ground with a spice grinder
20 cashews – ground with a spice grinder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch cinnamon
garam masala – to taste for finishing
optional – 3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F
Get out a baking sheet.
Spray the cauliflower well with the olive oil. Salt and pepper the cauliflower to your taste. Put the sheet of cauliflower on a middle rack of your oven. Roast till the cauliflower has brown edges. (timing may differ but this takes around 45 minutes…it could be more or less)
Put a large fry pan on medium high heat. Add the canola oil when it’s hot add the onions and pinches of sugar and salt. Sauté till the onions are slightly brown. Add this to a sauce pot on medium high heat add the garlic and the tomatoes. Now add the ground nuts all the remaining spices (ginger, turmeric, chili powder, coriander, cumin, pinch cinnamon) Stir as needed. Take this to a slow boil and then lower to simmer and simmer for at least 20 minutes. It’s best to use a stick blender and blend to smooth. Keep on slow waiting for the cauliflower.
Plate it up! Finish with garam masala to taste.
Roasted Cauliflower with Indian Style Nut Tomato Sauce
Mesquit Fresh Street Mex is a small local chain of eight (subject to change) casual-quick Mexican Restaurants in Metro Phoenix. They offer tacos, burritos, protein bowls, quesadillas, burritos, sides, Mexican beverages and more! Mesquite Fresh Street Mex has earned awards from the Phoenix New Times for Best Street Taco and Best Tortilla.
It’s very casual.
There is a window that you walk by where they cook the steak, chicken, and vegetables. It was empty when I walked by so there is nothing to see or smell.
Then you order.
It is Chipotle Style and they add sauces or vegetables to what you ordered. You then get either a bottled soda or water or order from the beverage station.
Then you seat yourself.
I went with a chicken bowl with salad instead of rice and beans. I added cilantro, pickled onions, and red and green sauce.
JEEPERS….The red sauce is too hot for me and I usually like hot.
The green sauce is ok……the guacamole sauce is smooth like a smoothie. I like the pickled onions. The chicken is tender and some pieces are seasoned more with a salt seasoning than other pieces. My chicken lacks mesquite taste. It is also cold. I told the person working there that it was cold.Not just cool but actually like refrigerator cold. She said that she took the chicken from the bottom of the pan to try to get the warmer chicken……………. That is an odd thing to tell me. I now know that the food they served me was mishandled. The food should have been properly heated up first before being placed in a steam table. The steam tables function is not to heat up food but to keep food at a proper temperature. It’s going to take a long time for that steam table to get that big pan of chicken hot. I hope they don’t make people sick here. I mean I sure hope that they change their ways and do things the right way next time.
My husband had a chicken and steak quesadilla. He thought it was ok…..It’s wasn’t bad…..but didn’t have much flavor.
That was my trip to Mesquite Fresh Tex Mex – Newly Opened in North Phoenix
