A recent survey, conducted extensively among people on my speed-dial list, has uncovered a startling finding. The entire state of New Mexico is nothing without its chiles.A half-dozen people answering the phone can’t be wrong. When asked what the cuisine of New Mexico is comprised of, all my study subjects…
Sometimes, you just know that things aren’t going to work out. Maybe it’s the body language that clues you in, when your intended won’t look you in the eye or respond to your requests. Perhaps it’s the tone of voice that’s telling of demise — when it’s short, exasperated and…
Professional chefs are born different from the rest of us. While the home chef may cook to relax, the professional cooks out of a compulsion to create. We may rummage through our shelves as we go, making do with what’s available, yet the professional won’t start until he has every…
Alligators don’t make good pets. Amazing, I know, but true. As a child growing up in Tokyo, I happened upon a pet store that was selling, along with fuzzy kittens and velvet-furred puppies, baby alligators. In a truly weak moment, my mother bought me one, packaged in a little plastic…
We’re picking things out of our tom yum soup at Jax Thai Bar, a Tempe restaurant that’s the newest addition to Mill Avenue’s increasingly cosmopolitan culinary scene. Barklike nubs of galangal, a southeast Asian vegetable that’s a member of the ginger family. Whole kaffir lime leaves, dark green and similar…
The phone is ringing again, rattling in its perch on the reservations podium next to the bar at Acqua e Sale. We’ve been listening to it all through dinner, not because it’s an irritation to our meal, but because we’ve been eavesdropping on the host. He’s telling yet another caller…
There’s a new book out called Zeguts. It should not be confused with the international restaurant guide of the similar name, Zagat. Because while both track dining establishments and rate them on similar terms of concept, food quality and ambiance, Zeguts is strictly a parody of made-up establishments.At least I…
To hear many native New Yorkers talk about it, you’d think they invented neighborhood-style Italian food. From antipasto to baked pasta, lasagna to ravioli and, of course, pizza, nobody does it better than the folks in the Big Apple. What gives? It’s not as if the requirements for back-East-style Italian…
The dining scene for much of Sun City, Del Webb’s masterplanned commune for silver-haired citizens, is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Looking for exciting, cutting-edge cuisine? You won’t find it here. Area retirees tend to be armed with aging taste buds and delicate constitutions — they’re not looking for high-speed chases of…
Rula Bula managing partner Steven Goumas hasn’t had the easiest go of it in getting his Irish pub and restaurant ready for business. Opened in late July inside Tempe’s historic Andre building, the Gaelic eatery debuted more than a year late, thanks to a fire that gutted its structure last…
Homebuilders everywhere have their boxers in a bunch over Proposition 202, a pending initiative that will severely limit urban sprawl across Arizona. They say turning off their bulldozers will destroy the economy. Supporters of 202, on the other hand, see the initiative as a way to limit subdivisions that are…
Tomaso’s — the elegant Italian restaurant that’s charmed Valley diners for almost two decades in its original 32nd Street and Camelback location — has set up a sister shop in the East Valley. That brings to three the number of Tomaso’s in the metro-Phoenix area, all sporting the exact same…
Imagine what the horrible result would be if Denny’s switched its all-American concept to contemporary Mexican cuisine. Just try to visualize the culinary disaster assured if Furr’s doctored its menu to include $15 plates of prickly pear barbecue cactus shrimp. And what, God forbid, would diners be in for if…
The complaint I hear is all too frequent: There are no good, family-owned American restaurants in the West Valley. Mexican food, maybe, and national chains of all types, for sure. But where can a hungry diner find a delicious meat-and-potatoes meal, cooked with real love, after crossing into the Avenues?The…
Eating healthful food lets us live longer. That’s something everybody agrees on. But what exactly is healthful? Scientists can’t agree on which kind of fat will kill us. We hear that alcohol is bad for us, and then nutritionists tell us to drink one or two glasses of wine each…
Bistro 24 executive chef John Johnstone has been one busy fellow lately. Over the past several months, he’s packed up his pots and pans, relocated from New York’s Tavern on the Green, dismantled and rebuilt the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton’s kitchen, brought in a new staff and introduced new lunch and dinner…
Lately it seems like there’s a Chinese restaurant on every street corner in the Valley. Even a recent National Restaurant Association study concludes that Chinese cuisine is so prevalent “it’s no longer considered ethnic.”Every neighborhood seems to have its own favorite Chinese gathering spot, pleasing its regulars with sweet-and-sour this…
I’m glad I brought my press materials on Ice Restaurant and Bar to dinner tonight. Otherwise, I might wonder why in the world I had decided this would be a nice place for a sophisticated meal. What made me think that Ice — a loud, obnoxious nightclub serving food one…
Ever since visiting Aloha Kitchen, the Valley’s only Hawaiian-theme restaurant, something has been puzzling me. Who in the world invented Kalua pig? And how much free time did he have? Consider this: A recipe from the Maui tourism board gives me no fewer than 36 steps to prepare this popular…
For most businesses, as the adage goes, location is everything. If a shop isn’t easy to find, customers won’t bother to track it down. Unless the business is a restaurant, with really wonderful food. In that case, having a location that’s off the beaten path can actually be a plus…
ZakeE’s chef-owner Sal Alqardahji is pleased that I’m making a complete pig of myself at lunch. I suppose there aren’t that many customers who order two appetizers, three or four entrees, salads and dessert for a noon repast, but my dining companion and I are really hungry, I tell him,…
Imagine you and a few of your friends — say, 3,000 of them — are looking for a good place to grab dinner out. Where would you go? If you live in Anthem, the decision is simple: Persimmon Bar & Grille at Anthem Golf and Country Club. There’s practically no…
