I am Raw, hear me roar. My snarky review last week of Rawsome!, the new health food restaurant in Tempe, elicited some highly spirited response from its supporters. About 20 fiery e-mails, in fact. The outrage wasn’t surprising, considering the fact that being a raw foodie (just as it sounds,…
Rawsome! is open for dinner just three days a week, and then for only four hours at a time. And for that, I say, thank goodness. It’s not just that I don’t care for the food (okay, I hate it). It’s not only that I have trouble getting into the…
There I was, standing in the Grand Tasting park at the 20th Annual Food & Wine Magazine Classic food festival in Aspen last weekend. In one hand, I cradled a glass of Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad, a limited production methode champenoise celebrated for its perfumed bouquet and fruit intensity. In…
The craving for tacos was all-consuming. It was an unpleasant lust. No ordinary taco would suffice — no abomination of greasy ground beef and plastic cheese from Taco Bell, no deep-fried corn tortilla coffin serving as the final resting place of long-past parched steak from Macayo’s. These tacos had to…
Former Governor Fife Symington may claim to be penniless, but at least now he’s a got a job. He’s co-founder of the new Arizona Culinary Institute at 116 Street and Shea. The 18,000-square-foot school looks like it cost some bucks, with five professionally designed kitchens — including a front-line kitchen,…
Wherever we were, it seemed sure we weren’t where we wanted to be. The taxi driver had grinned and waved as he sped off, leaving us alone on an empty, pitch-black street somewhere in the middle of Havana. Si, this was where we would eat dinner, he had said, or…
The owners of The Velvet Room let me know they took issue with a cutline I wrote for a photo accompanying the review of their restaurant when it opened in the spring of 2000. The offensive comment? “At The Velvet Room, the music’s great; it’s the food that blows.” The…
I’m hoping that they’ve got my all-time favorite: garlic octopus. I can only pray they serve that other mouthwatering meal, whole fried snapper tumbled over rice, beans and French fries. Surely, shrimp endiablados will be on the menu — no self-respecting restaurant specializing in, and I quote, “seafood selections found…
Chef Razz Kamnitzer has closed his Razz’s restaurant for the summer, as he often does to escape on vacation. When will he reopen? How about “the fall of 2005?” The chef says he’s taking a couple of years off to spend more time with his children. Lucky kids, unlucky us…
I’m so full of Rosie McCaffrey’s beef stew, dunked in great quantities with thick, soft biscotti-like soda bread, that I’m suddenly having a hard time seeing straight. But the waitress assures me that I’m okay; it’s just the local phantom playing tricks again. It happened after that last bite of…
I once knew a gentleman who so adored bouillabaisse that he would center an entire day on securing a bowl of the fragrant celebration of fresh fish, shellfish, tomatoes, fennel, saffron and shallots. His health was very poor; plotting plans to track down the signature dish of Provence, France, took…
I’m thinking about homemade prime rib. Which I do surprisingly often. But I’m now thinking specifically about the prime rib that a friend of mine prepared for me not long ago. It’s a strange affinity we have — an almost unnatural passion for that particular cut of beef. I don’t…
It’s beginning to dawn on me: My friends and I have coughed up $500 a head to stare at each other, and we’re thrilled. This is last weekend, and we’ve come together at Mary Elaine’s, the breathtakingly beautiful restaurant at the Phoenician, for a landmark event. For the first time…
Now this is a bummer: I’ve just spent $1.25 for a squat plastic bottle of Glaceau Smart Water, and nothing is happening. My 500 milliliters of snazzy-sounding liquid are almost gone, and I still can’t understand a thing my friend is saying. We’re sitting at a cute little table at…
Maybe I should just recruit the guys at Pita Bistro to help me out. The cafe has a very lovely ladies’ room, but more important, the fellows working here are a whole lot nicer than my renovating rogue. At one point, after I place a large order, a guy I…
Chary’s Place, a Cuban cafe in downtown Phoenix, has become even more authentic. The place is abandoned, and, like many of the restaurants I’ve seen in Cuba, has no food to sell. But all is not lost — owner Chary Castro simply decided that when the time came to renew…
“You make tuna casserole? Someone with your job actually eats tuna casserole?” My friend is incredulous. If I’d told her I whip up a mean Crescenza-cheese-filled pasta pillow with rosemary, white asparagus, garlic and Parmigiano-truffle butter, she’d be nodding knowingly. Yet I’m sitting in front of her at the lunch…
Sushi 101 at Rural and University in Tempe has introduced an all-you-can-eat sushi special for $19.95, but diners had better read the fine print before diving in. It reads, “Restrictions: Leftovers will be charged (at) full price, including rice.” This means that diners who bite off more than they can…
Food decorates my refrigerator like international artwork. Tucked on the top shelf is the crock of Maui strawberry jam I discovered at a roadside stand in Hawaii. Next to it sits the hermetically sealed cup of Meiji yogurt that wandered from the breakfast buffet at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel into my…
Mary Lou Matta Garza has a bone to pick with a local restaurant reviewer, and she’s chosen an interesting way to publicize her gripes: The restaurateur shelled out some substantial money to run an ad in the offending newspaper. And no, it’s not us. Garza’s restaurant, the historic Matta’s in…
I’d have to be a moron not to go for the deal the Blockbuster guy is offering. I came in for one DVD, but the store is running this special, and the salesman’s got me doing the math. One movie for $4. Two movies for $8. For a limited time…
After several years of attending The Best of the Fest event, I can pretty much guarantee that by the end of the evening, I’ll be nodding off, stuffed to the gills with hors d’oeuvres, an ultra-rich five-course dinner, and lots and lots of wine. Not so in 2002. Dozing? No…
