How I arrive at La Mexicana in El Mirage is an imprecise process. “It’s behind the Circle K,” my tipster has told me. This is my only clue. I do not know the address. Fortunately, El Mirage is not a big place. Fortunately, I know where the town is, having…

The sun shines bright on Black Canyon City. I am waiting in line at a rather unusual barbecue. The young girl behind the outdoor counter waves metal tongs at me. I point to the four bins of fried food in front of her. “What is what here?” I ask. Her…

Cooking-school restaurants probably oughtn’t to be reviewed by critics. The servers and chefs are students–who find out quite literally if their performances are passable. They receive scorecards at the end of each meal, grades at the end of the term, certificates of completion at the end of the line. Even…

To bistro or not to bistro? That is the question for many French restaurants these days. Understandably, the current urge to create an unpretentious environment for the consumption of bonne cuisine francaise coincides with the downturn of the American economy. The bistro, like its brother the brasserie, connotes a less-expensive…

I grew up believing brunch was yet another clever innovation of the 1960s. I was mistaken. According to etymologists, “brunch” the word came into existence in 1896 to describe a meal combining breakfast and lunch, taken late in the morning. Well, I don’t know about you, but for me, brunch…

Ah, sushi! Our passionate romance cooled in 1979 following a raconteur’s tale of extended illness caused by the consumption of raw fish in a Japanese restaurant. Yet I harbor no resentments. I still recount with pleasure all those lunch hours I spent absorbed in your company at Hatsuhana on East…

Like most of you, I’ve never been to Cuba. I fell in love with black beans and Caribbean-style Spanish cuisine nearly twenty years ago during a monthlong stay in Puerto Rico. Family friends drove us all over the island–from Santurce through the mountains to Ponce–to taste the best it had…

It’s January 2. Your clothes feel tight. You’re afraid to step on the scale. You’re trying hard to obliterate all memory of your holiday excesses: the buttery Christmas cookies . . . the Chex party mix . . . the eggnog and rum . . . the box of See’s…

I get paid to eat, not drink. But the holiday season is full of such pressures. Deck the halls. Be jolly. Be naughty. Be nice. It’s enough to drive anyone to the nearest microbrewery to quaff a few. Wait a minute. Did I say “microbrewery”? Somebody, please, call William Safire…

Bistro, trattoria, grill. No matter what the nationality, the idea is the same: Convince customers that dining out needn’t be so theatrical, so expensive. “It’s an eating thing,” as George Bush might say. “Fork, knife, meat, potatoes. Food is fuel. Spending lots of money . . . wouldn’t be prudent…

I think I’ve spotted a new trend. Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of people waxing nostalgic about “good old Cantonese-style” Chinese food. After years of experimenting with exotica like duck’s feet and taro root, people seem to be developing a taste for less challenging Chinese fare. Is this a…

There are two times of the year I can’t get enough of alfresco eating: October-November and March-April. I’m not alone in this. I know there are others out there. Maybe you’re a year-round citizen like myself, just recovering from cabin fever. Or perhaps you’ve just returned from some lovely green…

I don’t just work on the Best of Phoenix section, I read it. When our annual special insert came out in September, I noticed that Sombrero Joe’s was voted Best New Mexican Restaurant by New Times readers. “Hmmmm,” I thought. “I ought to check this out. See what I’ve been…

Afternoon tea manages to sound civilized and superfluous at the same time. Let’s face it, sitting down to a pot of tea and some prissy little cucumber sandwiches sometime between lunch and dinner doesn’t quite jibe with the schedules of most Filofax-clutching Americans. “Tea” sounds like an archaic ritual preserved…

Before durum wheat noodles were called “pasta,” before we’d ever heard of “carbo loading,” there was an American family favorite called “spaghetti.” Spaghetti was spaghetti. There was only one thickness. You bought it at the supermarket in long boxes and dropped it into boiling water to cook. Then, you’d fish…

Here’s a mystery for you culinary detectives. Why is Thai food in Los Angeles so superior to what we have here in the Valley? Why, oh why? On a relative scale, we’re not that much farther from Bangkok than, say, Pasadena. So why the huge difference in quality and taste?…

The first day of fall has come and gone. As leaves pile up in other parts of the country, license plates in Arizona change color as well. Drawn like moths to a flame, visitors motor Southwest in droves. Depending on your point of view, their presence is a boon or…

October stands for a lot of things. Crisp apples. Peak foliage. Carved pumpkins. But most important to serious celebrants of food and drink, October signals Oktoberfest, that little-understood but much loved German holiday. In Munich, where Oktoberfest began as a royal wedding bash 180 years ago, the yearly festival runs…

Spa cuisine. Its origin is fairly obvious. It comes from spas, like La Costa or Canyon Ranch where rich and famous people go to shed unwanted pounds. Pounds acquired from living the good life one-day-at-a-time too many. You and I should have such problems. You and I should be so…

A couple of weeks ago, I was backtracking some of my old Judas Priest albums just for the hell of it, and, sure enough, I found a message. When I played “Pain and Pleasure” from Screaming for Vengeance in reverse, the lyrics, “The way you’re treating me, I feel I’ll…

For months, I’ve had Middle Eastern cuisine on my “to do” list. Ten weeks ago, I could have pulled off a simple restaurant review. Now, with Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait and thousands of American troops sweating it out in Saudi Arabia, I simply can’t. Everything has changed. It takes only…