So I'm doing a restaurant review here.
For my birthday, my family and I went to The Breadfruit in downtown phoenix.
For my birthday, my family and I went to The Breadfruit in downtown phoenix.
The place is a pretty modern upscale tiny restaurant. There were about 5 tables when we walked in and they had to push two of them together to fit out party of five. One thing they promote is that they get all their ingredients from a local farm down on 24th st and Baseline. The prices weren't absurd. Most entrees were 10 dollars and some were 13 to 14. We didn't try any of the desserts because they each ran close to full entree prices. The portion sizes for a few of the dishes were a little small but others weren't. I want to go back to check out a few of the dishes we didn't get, namely the Curried Chicken and Dumplings.
I got the Escovitch Fish and Festival which is pictured above. Before going in I knew this is what I wanted to get to compare it to Jeremy's Island party fish escovitch. The fish was talapia and the festival in the name referred to the sweet bread stick sitting on the cabbage and carrots. Right above that in the picture you can see a small bowl that contained the escovitch sauce. This was quite a few degrees hotter than Jeremy's sauce. It didn't have bell peppers, only onions, habenero and whole all spice berries. I actually preferred Jeremy's escovitch over this one, which isn't to say this one was bad. The talapia was just a lot thinner so you didn't get that good full bite feeling from it, and the fish itself wasn't as full bodied as the red snapper. In Jeremy's, he had enough veggies to eat with the fish, while this, the onions on top only added a slight seasoning to each bite of fish. But enough about the comparisons. Now we talk about the other good stuff here.
My dad and I both got a mango mint lemonade that was really tasty. There were quite a few chunks of mint and mango pulp but the flavor was awesome.
My mom got the Jerk Chicken off the Grill. It was maybe my favorite thing I tasted. The chicken had a mango chutney stuffed into the crevices of the breast and on top that was killer. My dad got the Jerk Shrimp off the Grill that I didn't get to try because he ate it fairly quickly. I did try his corn on the cob that came with it. It tasted like are really nice fresh grilled corn but had another layer that tasted like it had been marinating in coconut milk before being cooked up.
My sister and Tarrin both got the Brown Stew Chicken which was pretty good. The serving size on this dish was much larger. It was filled out with basmati rice and red beans which I finished off both of their plates when they couldn't eat any more. It was seriously good, especially when it mixed into the Brown chicken sauce. The chicken was really soft and fell apart, and the stew sauce was dark and tasted like a beef stew that had been cooked down to a much richer gravy. Super good.
So yeah we didn't get any desserts but on the way home we stopped at the Churro Station and got like 6 churros filled with a variety of sweet stuff and since they were closing for the night, they tossed in like 4 extra regular churros for free. So I guess this is also a Churro Station review.
Alright, so I had a bit of a stomach bug yesterday, and felt well and truly awful. I couldn't eat anything. To fix it, I thought I'd take the age old home remedy of a platter of heavy deep fried food, what you see here: Chicken nuggets, popcorn shrimp, onion rings, and french fries, all made from scratch. And what a colorful presentation it made!
-4 chicken breasts, cut into nuggety chunks.
-1 pound of shrimp, precooked, deveined, and deshelled.
-1 yellow onion, cut into rings.
-5 russet potatoes, cut into fries.
-1 can bread crumbs.
-7 eggs.
-flour, garlic powder, salt, black pepper.
-peanut oil.
Combined the bread crumbs with the other dry ingredients, saved the flour, which was in a bowl by itself. Stirred the eggs to make an eggwash. Then, more or less, you roll what you want fried in the flour, then the eggwash, then the breadcrumb mix, and into the fryer with the peanut oil. I had it at 375 degrees Farenheit. After each item was done, I'd hit it with a bit of salt, and the shrimp I squeezed lemon juice onto. We ate all this with three sauces: honey mustard, cocktail sauce, and buffalo ranch. Shaun made the buffalo ranch, Mike made the other two. Over all it was pretty good.
Can't tell you how well the cure is going to work on my delicate guts, but you know, all those old wives tales are pretty hit and miss. Ring the porcelain bell!
