Life’s a fish, and then you die. At least if you’re a fish destined for the sushi eating contest being held at Sushiko, 92nd Street and Shea in Scottsdale. There’s no savoring the salmon or yellowtail on August 18, when iron stomachs are challenged to consume as much of the…
My good friend Roy had made it his personal mission to teach me about wine. I’d met him, appropriately enough, at a wine tasting. But at a careless 24, I was less interested in frou-frou terminology and varietal descriptions than I was in following culinary author M.F.K. Fisher’s adage: “It…
While I’m bored with the pretension that so often accompanies wines, a little knowledge is never a bad thing. For starters, I appreciate it when my server can tell the difference between the red and white varieties. Also, I like a server who doesn’t yell at me when she brings…
Q.I like to watch TV while I eat. It drives my wife crazy, but I think I can get away with it if I can find a nice, upper-scale place that doesn’t focus on bar food. She gets her fancy dinner, and I get my sports, is my thought. A.You’re…
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,…
Someone stop me before I have a cow. I don’t want to churn out my own milk. I’m certainly not in it for the slaughter. I’ve just decided I want a pet cow: all deep, velvet brown eyes framed with thick ebony lashes, gentle rubbery lips that feather against my…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
The new message recorded on the information line at Duncan Family Farms is straightforward, but veiled. “Due to operational issues outside of our control, we are temporarily suspending activities in our farm yard. Our farming operation is continuing as usual; this suspension is only for the farm yard activities.” Given…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
