Travel Spot: Pita Jungle

My first day out in Arizona was a shopping and lunch day with my pal Amy and her cutie-patootie 6-month old Benjamin while her oldest was at school. She asked me what I was in the mood for and my criteria was simple: I wanted something I could not get in Virginia Beach. So she selected Pita Jungle.

Pretty unassuming form the outside and located in a strip mall, it is a very simple and open space with lots of tables. Walking in you also can't miss the wood fire oven:

My stomach was still adjusting to a time change so I selected a burger...specifically I selected one of their house special burgers, The Kafta Burger: Angus beef mixed with parsley, jalapenos, onions, and pomegranate molasses, on Ciabatta bread with chipotle hummus, and a chopped salad of lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and sumac, served with garlic new potatoes. Should be no questions as to why this was my selection right? And it arrived looking like this:

Excuse me why I salivate remembering...Amy ordered one of the lunch specials, the black bean burger, also a gorgeous plate of lunch food:

I will go on record as that it was one of the best gourmet burgers I have had (more on another burger adventure in a future post) and the freshness of the ingredients was readily apparent. In fact, it never would have occurred to me to put hummus on a burger. Combine that flavor with the chopped salad and deliciousness was in the house.

I briefly considered taking half back to Amy's house...that thought was short-lived. It was just too good! I wish VB had more places like this that make things like lavash and hummus and their own pita chips. I think I may try to recreate that burger..maybe this Memorial Day party will be a burger bar instead of a hot dog bar!

Steal of the Week: Chicken Parmesan Burgers

Once again Cooking Light comes through for me with an awesome recipe my husband and I loved!

This month's Reader Recipe was Chicken Parmesan Burgers. I asked hubby if he'd be interested and he agreed to give it a try...he ate two!

The recipe is also here and I cook crooked it as usual. First you will notice that it calls for 3 different fresh herbs: thyme, rosemary and basil. This was difficult to accomplish on two fronts. 1) because I have yet to start my own herb garden due to fear and the longest winter ever and 2) grocery stores are apparently having difficulty stocking fresh herbs (possible due to my same reasons). I always have dried thyme on hand, so that left me with rosemary and basil. The grocery store DID have rosemary but no basil....but they did have this:

This may in fact be the best invention I have ever discovered! Fresh basil in a squeeze tube? Are you kidding me? I was so excited I think the hub unit questioned my sanity. It's not cheap ($3.99 for tube) but it will now be a staple in my house.

I also was unsuccessful getting ciabatta rolls but the bakery did have some very nice, fresh baked kaiser rolls.

I had already decided to double the recipe knowing using just a half pound of ground chicken was pretty crazy. The final ingredient to reconcile was the marinara sauce. If you are a regular reader, you know my husband always asks for more spice. So, instead of straight marinara, I used Arrabiata sauce.

A few tips I can pass along. The mixture will be very wet and very sticky. You have to work fast with the making of the patties and the skillet has to be HOT. Here's mine after they were flipped and before they went in the oven:

Be very careful flipping them as more than once I thought I could feel them wanting to come apart. 

The rubbing of the cut garlic on the toasted bread may seem like a silly step but it does make a difference. And because I didn't have fresh basil and instead used a small amount of the basil blend from the tube to spread on both sides of the bread, the garlic added a lovely flavor.

The finished product had wonderful flavor, still very light and very satisfying. Hubby suggested (and got with his second sandwich) a little sauce on the side to dip in!