I was looking for some unusual chips to try and I found these Thai Taste Lay’s Green Curry flavored Potato Chips from Thailand. It’s a medium size bag that weighs less than 3 oz.
Here’s the back.
Here’s the ingredients.
One of the ingredients is packing gas? ….OMG did someone fart into the bag?
Another ingredient is natural identical flavor…LOL WTFork is that?
Anyway I open up the bag and take a whiff.
It smells delicious like green curry.
I pour some chips out.
They are very small ridged chips that feel powdery.
Gosh they actually taste better than green curry from some restaurants.
These chips are full of lots of flavors and some heat.
I taste coconut milk and lemongrass the most.
Next I taste chillies, garlic, shallots, lime and fish sauce a little bit of sweet and something sort of gingery and salt.
Not sure what else is in here but these chips have a very good flavor.
If you are a fan of Thai Green Curry then you should be a fan of Lay’s Thai Taste Green Curry Potato Chips.
I throw together this chicken and got the idea to marinate it similar to the way I did ramen eggs. It was pretty easy to stir fry and came out FORKING AMAZING! After I stir fried the chicken I stir fried quick cooking vegetables with a little garlic, oil, soy sauce and mirin. WOW! It taste as FORKING AMAZING as it smells! My husband gave me the greatest compliments on it too and he usually isn’t a fan of Asian Food. The chicken also came out super moist delicious and perfect. I wasn’t planning on publishing this so I didn’t measure exact but this is really easy to wing.
Ingredients for around 2 dinners
1 – 1/2 breast of chicken (around a pound raw) without skin and bone – butterfly and remove tender – half the butterfly – cut across into strips about as wide as your finger.
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
around 4 cups vegetables mostly soft (I used a carrot sliced like spaghetti, 1/2 onion slice thin, handful snow peas, handful snap peas, cup cabbage (chopped) and maybe 2 cups zucchini that was spiral cut.
1 hot pepper sliced paper thin or fine chop (I used a Serrano)
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane
2 tablespoons canola oil
splash soy sauce
splash mirin
4 pinches toasted sesame seeds (to finish)
fresh cilantro (around two Tablespoons to finish)
few shakes togarashi if you have it.
crushed sea salt to taste (not much)
fresh ground pepper to taste
optional non stick spray (I started the chicken in a regular fry pan that isn’t non stick)
optional ramen eggs to finish with.
Directions
Depending on the pan you are using you need to add a little oil or non stick spray and put your pan on high heat. The chicken only needs only a short time and you start pushing the pieces around so it browns all over. Maybe a total of two minutes to cook the chicken. Put the chicken to the side in a big bowl.
Add oil to the pan. Start frying up the harder vegetables till they are almost done. Remove them and add them to your bowl of chicken. Add the sauces and garlic and softer vegetables. Add them to bowl. Salt and pepper slightly or to taste. Serve it up and top with cilantro, sesame seeds, optional togarashi. Finish with ramen eggs if you already made them.
Ramen eggs are easy to prepare and are very delicious. Slow boil eggs for 7 minutes and then they go into ice bath. They need to marinate over night in equal parts of soy sauce mirin and water.
Stir Fried Chicken and Vegetables
Then when I threw this into a bowl to eat it looked like this.
During the pandemic we are suppose to distance ourselves from other people as much as possible. Grocery stores are the places we go to with the most people these days so I elected to do grocery pick up. I had a good experience from Costco with grocery delivery two weeks back. Last week I didn’t need any groceries so I did without. This week I decided to try Safeway because I can’t get everything I want from Costco like scallions, herbs and many assorted other little things.
It was pretty easy to order and pay on line. I was surprised that I couldn’t buy radishes…or dry milk. I also couldn’t buy the 65cent watermelons that were on sale unless I paid $5.00 each for them….But I admit maybe I just messed that one up.
AnyWHO…….
When it came time to pick up we got into a parking space, called a number that someone answered.. Soon someone comes out with a cart of groceries to our car and loads the trunk.
When I got home I checked out my groceries.
They were out of a couple things that I really needed like garlic… 🙁
A few things were substituted …………but I marked no substitutions….. 🙁
But the one thing that made me upset was the rotten moldy basil they stuck me with.
I guess the person packing my cart for me was very tired and didn’t even look at the basil….?
But I wonder why would something like this even be on the shelf?
They also neglected to give me my Monopoly Tickets…for prizes and discounts. 🙁
That was Grocery Shopping During the CoronaVirus Pandemic – Week 7 – Safeway in Metro Phoenix AZ.
Ramen eggs are very easy to prepare and are delicious! You can enjoy them many ways. You can enjoy them plain, to dress up a vegetable dish, any soup dish, a salad, a burger or sandwich or even a dinner. I didn’t create this recipe but found it on the web years ago and can’t find the same one again to give the author credit. I did find that many recipes are similar. You have some flexibility with the recipe and adjust it to your needs. You cook the eggs the way I did and you just need to remember to marinate the eggs over night in a solution that is 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 mirin and 1/3 water. I wrote the recipe in 1/3 cup measurements but I used a 1/3 cup dry measuring cup because that is easier to eyeball. It doesn’t have to be exact but the measurements are meant to be even.
Ingredients for 6 servings (I did 7 eggs and it was enough)
Water to cover eggs well in pot
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup water
Directions
1- Bring a pot of water to boil with enough water to cover eggs well.
2 – Add eggs slowly with a spoon and don’t drop them in or they will break
In our local Phoenix Newspaper (The Arizona Republic) our food critic Dominic Atmato highly recommended this mail away frozen ramen called Ramen Hero. After I read the article I wanted to try Ramen Hero. I went to the site and they were all sold out of all the flavors except for two Vegan Ramen varieties that come in a four pack so I ordered them. I got two called “Hippy Van” and the other two are called “Miso Impossible.” I got the four pack at around $73.00 that includes the shipping. They arrived about a week later and were packaged very well with dry ice.
They come in vacuum sealed bags with easy boil in bag directions. Each bag is filled with a frozen bag of soup, a bag with protein and vegetables, a bag with a sheet of seaweed (that you add at the end) and a bag of noodles.
Everything is heated up and I give it a try.
The soup is very good. It’s rich, developed with flavors and it’s good. Taste like I could have gotten it out from a restaurant.
The noodles are also very good and chewy. Not as good as the last ramen I had at a restaurant but nearly as good.
But WOW the protein is POLARIZING.
In the one bag with the protein I got strips of pepper, a squishy strip of zucchini, a chewy sun dried tomato slice. The protein has a nice texture that is similar to meat…..BUT WOW……. the protein taste like something that is IMPOSSIBLE to describe. (now I know why it’s called Miso Impossible) It’s FORKING INEDIBLE and is AWFUL to me……I can’t eat it. It doesn’t taste like food……and it’s painfully salty too like salt water. It’s like a combination of LOTS of salt, something burnt, something like coffee grounds and something funky. Even my husband can’t eat it. Thank God I made delicious ramen eggs so I’d have something good in this soup.
It’s not a total loss.
Well the soup and noodles really are very good….and the sheet of seaweed adds that just right flavor to it. Maybe the meat varieties of Ramen Hero are better?
I would NOT recommend the Vegan Miso Impossible many because I couldn’t stomach the protein it came with and wasn’t thrilled with the squishy and chewy vegetables. (now I’m afraid to try the other one…….I am hoping it’s better…..If it is I’ll write about it when I get the nerve to try it.
I think this soup would have been much better if it came with cubes of tofu instead of the vegan protein. Maybe a different vegetable like a mushroom would have worked out better here I’m thinking……
Those were my Forking Thoughts on Vegan Miso Impossible Ramen Hero and your Forking Thoughts may indeed differ.
www.RamenHero.com
Everything is subject to change and your experience may differ.
We are supporting restaurants as much as we can. These are the worst of times and all restaurants are hemorrhaging money. While nothing is for certain these days chances are that take out food is safer than food you purchased at a grocery store. Remember that you are suppose to avoid contact with as many people as possible and keep at least a six foot distance. I don’t know if the news is factual but on channel 3 news they reported that you are very unlikely to catch coronavirus from food anyway. They reported that even if the person preparing your food has coronavirus that you are unlikely to catch the virus that way. I hope that is true…….
Our first take out this week was from Taco Fusion in Glendale. I’ve been there a couple of times before this second take out. The Tacos really are the best that I’ve come across in this part of town.
Pastor and Shrimp tacosbarbacooa tacoMild habanero chicken, grilled chicken, fish and Tijuana asada
The handmade tortillas are different and also delicious. The flour tortillas are very thin but tasty and the corn tortillas are a little smaller but have a nice corn flavor to them. I still think all the tacos are excellent but the mild habanero chicken taco on corn tortilla is my favorite. It is extra delicious with any salsa on it but my favorite salsa the first time was the pineapple salsa. First take out they didn’t have pineapple salsa but this time the pineapple wasn’t mixed up or something and it was just juice but all the other salsas were flavorful and amazing.
We shared some with our furry companions.
Next take out was from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix. They are a casual Chinese/Mexican Restaurant mixed with a little Caribbean. You get a BIG PAN of food with a fresh baked snickerdoodle cookie there for around $10.00 a pan or less depending on what you get.
Pan on the left is a chile relleno quesadilla with red jade chicken, black beans and steamed white rice. Pan on the right is a pollo diablo quesadilla, carnitas, refried beans and steamed rice. In-between the pans are the fresh baked snickerdoodle cookies. For most people each pan is two or more meals each. Our furry friends love to taste the foods.
We also did take out from Rocket Burger in North Phoenix. This is a casual sandwich shop with a wall of 100’s of sodas. When they first opened the sodas were mostly root beers but after a few years they now offer all kinds of flavors.
On the left is a double Santa Fe Burger that is made with a giant fried green chili, veggies, cheese, bacon and it normally comes with (DELICIOUS) Rocket Sauce (but my husband won’t eat creamy sauces so it was ordered without). On the right is the Pescado de Cohete (Mexican Fish Sandwich). It’s a cornmeal crusted mild white fish topped with DELICIOUS, slightly spicy Mexi-Slaw and pico de Gallo. These sandwiches only cost less than $9. each.
Next take out was from Tratto the fine Italian restaurant from the James Beard Award Winning chef and the famous Mastro of pizzas Chris Bianco.
We got the family meal take out special that included a salad, hand made pasta, creamy chick peas, a loaf of Bianco bread and chicken sauce. Everything was prepared to perfection. Everything was amazing.
Last take out of the week was Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale. The food is always delicious from Grassroots Kitchen and Tap.
I got the house smoked salmon and orzo salad. My husband got the bbq brisket with cheese grits and beans. A MUST GET is the key lime pie because 40 yes FOURTY key limes get squeezed into every pie making it THE BEST Key Lime Pie in Metro Phoenix and maybe beyond.
“That’s all Folks!”
We tried to support as many restaurants as we could this week. This week we did take out from-
Taco Fusion in Glendale
Chino Bandido in North Phoenix
Rocket Burger in North Phoenix
Tratto in Phoenix
Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I had these plum tomatoes that had to be used so I made a tomato soup. I made it chunky but if you like smooth you can blend, strain and add a little cream if you like. After I made it I thought what can I do to make it more interesting? I thought I’d make grilled cheese ravioli so I did. The soup is far more interesting now. My idea of serving size will differ from your idea of serving size. To me this makes 4 bigger servings or 6 smaller servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
2 Tabllespoons olive oil
1 onion – chopped – like pea sized
1 carrot – remove skin, trim end, chop into small cubes like pea sized
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane
1 1/2 plum tomatoes (they must be super ripe like one day from throw away) – remove the stem button and dice small
14 oz Italian crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base (this adds flavor and also reduces the salt added)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 egg
2 egg yolks + one of the egg whites to seal ravioli
1 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
10 slices American cheese
2 oz butter to fry with
2 Tablespoons corn meal or semolina to rest ravioli on
few squirts of olive oil so ravioli don’t stick
optional a few fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour + extra flour for rolling *****amount of flour may differ slightly because different brands are ground different****It’s possible that you might need 2 Tablespoons less*****Start with 1/2 cup flour and slowly add till dough isn’t too sticky
Directions
In a big mixing bowl add the egg and yolks and mix well. Then add the oil and salt and mix well. Add 1/2 a cup of flour and mix well. You might need up to two tablespoons more flour. Slowly add flour until the dough is smooth and not too sticky. Knead it into a ball pat some flour all over it and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour.
Make soup.
In a sauce pot on medium high heat add the olive oil. When the olive oil is hot add the onions and carrot. Stir Occasionally and cover. This takes around five minutes. Add the garlic, plum tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, water, soup base, black pepper, thyme, salt, basil and white pepper. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Let it simmer about 20 minutes.
Roll out ravioli dough.
Cut out a circle and brush it with egg white.
Put about 1/2 a slice of cheese in the lower middle of ravioli. Fold and seal and place on semolina (or corn meal) lined tray.
If you have a dog it might appear by your feet now hoping that you will drop cheese.
Repeat till done. ( made 19 ravioli but I had to roll up scraps and re-rolll the dough..The second dough I couldn’t get as thin or as tender but it still was good)
Boil for one minute.
Fry in butter on both sides for about a minute or until lightly brown and serve with soup.
I guess you might have enough ravioli to give more than two ravioli a person but I thought two was the right size serving. You will have more ravioli than soup if you give two but don’t worry. They are so delicious that the ravioli will go fast. They taste like a grilled cheese sandwich but they are ravioli.
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Ravioli
Add some fresh basil if you have any.
My husband said that he could eat all the grilled cheese raviolis. I hate to brag but they really are FORKING GREAT!
You need a stand mixer bread flour, salt, water and active dry yeast to make these rolls. The dough will be sticky so you need to knead it with extra flour. They come out DELICIOUS! This recipe make 8 good sized rolls.
Ingredients for 8 rolls
3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra flour for kneading
1 (slightly heaping) Tablespoon sea salt
1 3/4 cups water
1 1/2 pack active dry yeast (around slightly heaping Tablespoon)
A small amount of semolina, corn meal or flour to rest dough balls on so they don’t stick to surface.
Directions
Everything goes in your stand mixer bowl. Mix everything up by hand so you don’t have flour going all over the place. Use your dough hook and set the mixer on medium high for around 5. minutes or until the dough is like elastic.
Get a large bowl and make a nice little bed of flour for your dough ball.
Make the dough into a dough ball. kneading it till it feels like a nice dough ball.
Cover with plastic wrap and leave it sit out 4 hours. Then punch the dough down and knead it into a dough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
After ten hours pull out of the refrigerator and punch the dough down and divide the dough into eight by quartering it and cutting each quarter in half.
You need to lay down a large baking sheet or two baking sheets to rest dough balls on. The sheets need either flour, corn meal or semolina on them so your dough balls don’t stick.
The eight pieces of dough need to be kneaded into balls. Place each dough ball on a baking sheet that has either flour, corn meal or semolina on it and let the dough balls double in size.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
I used my very oiled stone to bake the rolls on but I warn you that I took a chance.
Most bread stones can’t take 500 degree heat and might crack or burst. They make bread stones out of iron now that are more durable.
If I didn’t have a stone I would have used my pizza pan lightly sprayed with non stick spray.
Mine were perfect in 11 minutes…timimg might differ slightly.
During the pandemic we are giving our support to as many restaurants as we can. These are the worst of times and all restaurants are hemorrhaging money. We’ve also noticed that some restaurants have already closed permanently.
First place that we did take out from was our long time favorite for take out….Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in Phoenix. It’s a Pho-Free eatery but does offer most of your other Vietnamese favorites. We packed up the dogs to come for the ride and they started licking their mouths in sync when we got there.
I got the delicious curry chicken.
My husband got a shaking beef banh mi.
We always enjoy Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery.
Next take out was from Confluence Restaurant in Carefree. We also been to Confluence many times. The food is always astonishingly FANTASTIC!
OMG YUM! The food really is Forking Extraordinary!
I had the halibut tacos. WOW they are melt in your mouth amazing! Almost nobody prepares fish this great!
My husband had the pork belly Rueben on chocolate rye.
This was another YUM-DINGER! We both with with the side salads as our sides, shared some delicious Brussels sprouts and enjoyed macerated strawberries! This really was quite a treat!
Since we are dining at home we had to share the goodies.
We also did take out this week from Pita Kitchen in Glendale. It’s a little casual Greek Restaurant.
I got my usual chicken kabob Greek salad but I tried their jalapeño cilantro hummus for the first time.
The chicken is developed with flavors and has a nice char. The fresh baked pita breads are very good too. The hummus is creamy and taste like cilantro…..I’m not getting the jalapeño but sometimes jalapeños can be very mild sometimes.
My husband got his usual Gyro Greek Salad.
We happened to have help eating the large portions.
We thought it was time to treat ourselves and we did the 5 course take out from Binkley’s in Phoenix. ($$$$$fine dining restaurant) ((but take out was many times less than dining in there))
First course was green garlic and potato soup.
Next was marinated cucumbers with crab, kumquats, yogurt, dill and red onion.
Third course was spinach and sorrel salad with spiced hazelnuts, feta, cranberries and sherry vinaigrette.
Our main courses were house made corned beef with red wine braised cabbage, apple balsamic mustard, Irish soda bread and honey butter.
Dessert was mulberries with mint and maple quark…WOW what a treat!
Oh and we had some help with this.
My dogs don’t know that they are lucky dogs that eat better than most people.
Last take out this week was from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale.
I got the strawberry and goat cheese salad that comes with grilled chicken.
They always have really great strawberries and their house made dressings are very good.
My husband had a Stromboli today.
The dogs enjoyed sharing our meals.
That was week 5 of Take Out During the CoronaVirus Pandemic. The restaurants we did take out with this week were-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery
Confluence
Pita Kitchen
Binkley’s
Cucina Tagliani
If you care about any restaurant you should at least do some take out from them.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better!
I was watching chef Richard Blais on the Rachel Ray Show and all the food he made looked and sounded so delicious that I wanted to make it. This was during the coronavirus pandemic and I couldn’t make all his recipes yet but I was able to make his salsa verde and put it on a NY Strip Steak and a day or two latter but it on a salmon and IT WAS FORKING DELICIOUS! I didn’t have carrot tops to add to the recipe but even without the carrot tops it still was amazing. I also enjoy his restaurants. I loved my amazing meal I had at his restaurant in San Diego. I also liked his casual restaurant in Las Vegas called the Crack Shack. A special THANKS to chef Richard Blais for sharing this Forking Delicious Recipe.
ingredients for around 6 servings
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (I filled a teaspoon heaping with anchovies)
1 Tablespoon raisins (I used golden)
1 garlic clove (ground to paste or microplane)
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup fresh tarragon
1/4 cup carrot top greens (this I left out because I didn’t have)
1 Tablespoon fine chopped jalapeño
2 Tablespoons capers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon – (just the fresh squeezed juice)
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper too taste
Directions
Blend and add salt and pepper to taste.
How I made the steak. I salt and peppered it. added a small block of frozen olive oil and vacuum sealed it in a bag. Put it in a 130 degree sous vide machine for three hours. Dried it off with a paper towel (still had paper towels). Fried it in a pan with some canola oil at high heat about maybe a minute on all sides to sear and added salsa verde.
Both dogs were there but it was hard to get my bigger dog in the photo.
Richard Blais Salsa Verde on NY Strip Steak
We all Forking Enjoyed The Richard Blais Salsa Verde on the NY Strip and Latter on Salmon!
A special THANK YOU to chef Richard Blais for sharing his FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS DELICIOUS Salsa Verde recipe!
