Food for Thought: I’ve been reading a new book, Becoming a Chef, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, which offers recipes and reflections from some of the country’s best chefs (Van Nostrand Reinhold, $29.95). I haven’t tested any of the recipes, but I am impressed by the wisdom that inspired…
Oriental Gourmet, 322 East Camelback, Phoenix, 285-0353. Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Six years ago, when I first came to town, I asked a friend who’d been living here since 1974 for some pointers. Where’s a good neighborhood…
In Luis Buuel’s Belle de Jour, Catherine Deneuve plays Severine, a young Parisian housewife. Her husband is a rich, great-looking doctor (Jean Sorel) who adores her, and toward whom she is frigid. She drifts into an afternoon job as an upscale prostitute in a swanky brothel, where she finds fulfillment,…
For Whom the Bell Tolls: The trip back from northern Arizona to the Valley along I-17 may satisfy your longings for scenery, but it doesn’t offer much hope for tamping down hunger pangs. There’s the wonderful Rock Springs Cafe, at exit 242 by Black Canyon City. But by that point,…
Chart House, 7255 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale, 951-1733. Hours: Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m. Remember this old Twilight Zone episode? The Earth has slipped out of its customary orbit, and is circling ever closer to the sun. We follow a family…
Biting the Big Apple: A trip back to New York always produces three effects: I’m civil to relatives I fled from 25 years ago, I hang out with old pals and relive my youth, and I spend an unconscionable amount of money eating out. I still don’t get along with…
La Guadalupana, 2243 North 16th Street, Phoenix, 254-5114. Hours: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought that mankind continually struggled with two conflicting impulses. On the one hand, he said, we yearn for adventure and risk, the rush of excitement…
Mexican Compromise: Sometimes people want Mexican food with a little less south-of-the-border authenticity than La Guadalupana’s, but with a lot more zip than B.F.I.T.’s (see this week’s Cafe review). In fact, that’s what I was looking for a couple of weeks ago. Some German friends and their kids were visiting,…
Greekfest, 1940 East Camelback, Phoenix, 265-2990. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. For individuals, biology is destiny. Gender, intelligence, height, musculature, temperament–each of us has to…
Bye-bye BYOB: Maybe the Arizona Legislature has a little too much time on its hands. Why else pass a bill, like the one that went into effect last month, forbidding customers from bringing their own wine or beer to restaurants? Our elected guardians are apparently more frightened by the prospect…
The Restaurant, the Ritz-Carlton, 2401 East Camelback, Phoenix, 468-0700. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Most of us nine-to-fivers look forward to the lunch break, but not because it’s the day’s culinary high point. Rather, it’s our only chance to get out of the office, an…
Dish Jockey: When you eat out as often as I do, a dish has got to be pretty good to make you sit up and notice. Here are some that have caught my attention over the past few months: Ahoi phannee at Malee’s on Main, 7131 East Main, Scottsdale–This addition…
Sea Fever: Today’s review of Il Pescatore got me thinking about ethnic seafood. If you’re looking to go beyond grilled salmon or sauted scallops for more provocatively prepared ocean fare, check out these places: * C-Fu Gourmet, 6438 South McClintock, Tempe, 831-8899. Perhaps the Queen of Valley ethnic seafood. Most…
Oyster Grill, 455 North Third Street (Arizona Center), Phoenix, 252-6767. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week. Most people in the Valley have moved here from someplace else. And sometimes they have a hard time letting go of the past. Why else would they…
Backstage Restaurant and Bar, 7373 Scottsdale Mall, Scottsdale, 949-1697. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. What’s the difference between a restaurant run by an individual proprietor and one operated by corporate headquarters? At first glance, none,…
China Chow: When I first came to Phoenix, Gourmet House of Hong Kong was the only place in town to get serious, Chinatown-quality Chinese food. Over the next few years, though, worthy competitors started to spring up, like C-Fu Gourmet in Tempe and Big Wong on West Indian School Road…
8700, 8700 East Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale, 994-8700. Hours: Dinner, 6 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. It’s not very easy to interest Phoenicians in a July auto trip, unless the car is headed to San Diego. But I just visited a couple of distant north Valley eating spots…
Class Act: Stung by a negative review, restaurant proprietors react the same way most people do when criticized: They get angry, defensive and hostile. Not Derick Macdonald, general manager at Red Lion’s swanky La Posada resort. After I bashed brunch there, Macdonald wrote me a letter responding to the review…
High and Mighty: That’s the impression I get from Top of the Rock, the fine-dining restaurant at the Buttes resort, at 2000 Westcourt Way in Tempe. This place continues to deliver one of the best food/setting/view combinations in town. It has a circular room, perched on top of a butte…
Marco Polo Supper Club, 8608 East Shea, Scottsdale, 483-1900. Hours: Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m. When it comes to watching summertime television reruns, you know just what you’re going to see: the exact same show you saw the first time…
George and Dragon, 4240 North Central, Phoenix, 241-0018. Lunch and Dinner, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week. If there’s any institution that indisputably proves that humans are social animals, it’s the pub. After all, if the only thing drinkers looked forward to was an alcohol buzz, they…
Well-Bread: In the old days, you’d walk into a sandwich shop at lunchtime and order a BLT on white toast or a ham and cheese on rye. Not anymore. These days, your sandwich bread is much more likely to come directly out of the oven than out of a Wonder…
