For the first time in my life, I’m wishing that I adored baseball. Specifically, baseball as played by two teams: the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. Because then I could be as excited as the rest of the world seems to be over the new, improved northwest Valley,…
Q. I’m looking for teppanyaki in Chandler, preferably near the new mall. A. The new Hon macHi Grill (yes, that’s its name) is just north of Chandler Fashion Center at 3450 West Chandler Boulevard. The chefs fire up the teppanyaki tables for dinner, with choices like calamari, chicken, shrimp and…
The morons who built my backyard fire pit had everything figured out to the last detail, except for one thing. They forgot that fire – a critical component of any fire pit, I would think – is hot. The first time I used the contraption, it collapsed. The weak concrete…
Imagine chef Vincent Guerithault as cafeteria server, ladle in hand. Or Christopher Gross behind the counter at a 400-seat hotel coffee shop, cranking out breakfast, lunch and dinner in a never-ending blur. Or picture Eddie Matney’s uniquely eccentric cooking style repackaged for vending machines across the nation. It just doesn’t…
Q. Where’s a good place for Middle Eastern food and entertainment? A. Shake your stuff with the belly dancers at Sinbad Restaurant on the northwest corner of Price and Baseline in Tempe. Professional troupes perform for diners seated under a Bedouin tent. Get stuffed with tasty favorites like hummus, tabbouleh,…
Too many people I’ve met wrinkle their noses at the prospect of joining me for a Vietnamese meal. I can’t get them to seek out delicacies like pho bo vien, a magical masterpiece of soup that’s rich and complex with slender rice noodles, beef meatballs, bean sprouts and a flurry…
I remember with remarkable clarity the first time I realized that fish wasn’t just something you ate breaded, deep-fried and dipped in tartar sauce. Oh, I’d seen real seafood, and I was suspicious. That stuff that grown-ups ate was weird, flat and slimy, and it smelled like old sweat. The…
Sometimes I think I’ll go nuts if I’m faced with another plate of ho-hum restaurant chicken-and-vegetables, steak-and-potatoes, or fish-and-pasta. So the opportunity to try something new – and not just a new restaurant, but a new style of cooking altogether – has me champing at the bit. I can’t wait…
Restaurant expansion. It’s a little like sending a child out into the world. You know your infant needs to grow. You want your tot to succeed. But there’s that tug at the heart as you find yourself wishing that somehow, the kid could stay a tiny baby forever. That’s sort…
Silvana Salcido Esparza must know what it’s like to be loved. Since opening her Barrio Café last summer, she’s been positively drowning in adulation. The fickle dining public has embraced the chef in such passion, lines of would-be diners snake down the bistro’s sidewalk, thanks to a “no reservations” policy…
If I’d blinked, I wouldn’t have noticed it. But there, tucked in a nameless Fry’s shopping center in a particularly anonymous-looking part of bland, sprawling Mesa, lay a hidden jewel: a Peruvian restaurant. My new game had paid off. I was trying a new experiment in driving. I decided that,…
As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, it’s business as usual at Privé, a new player in the Valley’s hip-hop nightclub scene. The music is thumping, rattling the wall it shares with Seamus McCaffrey’s with such force that liquor behind the bar threatens to topple. Privé’s staff has…
Oh, wow. That’s all I can say about the Golden Swan at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. I stopped in for dinner the other night, and couldn’t believe what treasures I found. There’s a new chef in the swanky resort restaurant. There’s a new style of cuisine being prepared. And there’s a…
Q. I enjoy trying really interesting wines with dinner, but am not confident of my knowledge. Where’s a place with great food and staff with topnotch wine recommendations? A. It’s hard to go wrong at Wright’s in the Arizona Biltmore resort. The restaurant has a new sommelier, Barbara Werley, and…
Call 2002 “The Year of the Resort.” While national economists wrung their hands over a plunging stock market, and the number of Arizona residents with a net worth of one million-plus plummeted by an amazing 31 percent (poor things — $999,999 doesn’t go as far as it used to), our…
It’s a few minutes past the noon hour, and my hot dog lies limp and ruined, a wizened gray tube of half-eaten meat on a soggy heap of celery-salt-dusted bun. Around it sprawls a litter of neon green relish, bits of slippery pickle, sliced tomato and sports peppers. To the…
Forget the ho, ho, ho. The holidays at my house find me belting out choruses of pho, pho, pho. That’s pho, as in the traditional noodle soup of Vietnam. The stuff is beloved to me, and it’s become my winter tradition. What better way to greet the shivery season than…
Most days, it seems, there’s not much in life I’m sure of. But there’s no doubt in my mind now that this is the best tortilla soup I’ve ever had. Of the countless versions I’ve sampled over the ages, there have been chicken-stock broths that almost brought me to my…
Q.I’d like to do something different for New Year’s (no hotel buffet) but don’t have a ton of money to spend. What’s something cool and cheap? A.Go early bird to the party at Sapporo, the hot-spot sushi club at Scottsdale Road and Thunderbird in Scottsdale. A 5 p.m. seating is…
The aroma of fresh-baked muffins curls through the air — a heady fog of carrot-ginger, corn-cheddar, and banana. The baker has just pulled the tray of miniature-sized treats from the oven and will let them cool for a few minutes before she doles them out to her waiting crowd of…
I’ve got an idea for a fail-proof, get-rich-quick scheme. First, eat out. Do it a lot, and be sure to finish everything on your plate. Next, go home and park it on the couch, exercising only your fingers for the remote control. Soon, you’ll turn into a blubbery tub, get…
Q. I’m looking for really good, something-special bread for my Christmas party. Any suggestions? A. I’ll be filling my pantry with specialty loaves from Arizona Bread Company (70th Street and Shea in Scottsdale; and Scottsdale and Pinnacle Peak roads in Scottsdale). Delicious holiday blends include French with Normandy apples, sugar…
