Welcome to Chow Bella’s Bites & Dishes, where each week Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question or topic New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you’d like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Last week, the Internet food community nearly popped a gastronomical gasket…
Driven by an obsession with “great bacon” and a farm boy’s love and respect for heritage pigs, native Iowan Erik Duffy began to cure and smoke pork belly at home in his garage. The Scottsdale Culinary Institute graduate brought his bacon to his “local chef buddies” including his former Cowboy…
Hungry for your early morning serving of food news, with no preservatives or additives? Day of the Dead The traditional Dia de los Muertos celebration isn’t until the the first of November but the Desert Botanical Garden just couldn’t wait ’till then. Join the Garden tomorrow night for the kick…
The Spot: Windsor, 5223 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, 602-279-1111.www.windsoraz.comThe Hours: 11 am- 5 pm, daily.The Details: Though this happy hour is limited to booze, $5 goes a very long way at Windsor. Enjoy pitchers of beer, wine on tap, AND their kick ass signature cocktails for just $5, before 5…
We stopped by Urban Cookies a few weeks ago for a treat and were excited to learn that they offer more things than just stellar cookies and creative cupcakes. Three treats, after the jump…
Let’s face it: Chipotles are as plentiful in the Phoenix metropolitan area these days as churches in Oklahoma or Starbucks coffee shops in DC: There’s one on every corner. But Chipotle isn’t the only place to get fast, tasty Mexican on your lunch break; for a change that may just…
The survey results are in from TASTE. Chandler’s Culinary Festival and the winner is no surprise: The overall Best of TASTE. award went to Yoli’s Cafe. In our coverage of the festival last week, we picked this relative newcomer as our hands-down favorite – and TASTE. testers agreed. Yoli’s Cafe…
At an event where speakers “share their life’s work, passions, and concepts,” selecting Justin Beckett, owner and chef of Beckett’s Table, one of the first restaurants to bring seasonal American cooking to the Valley, to participate at this year’s TEDxPhoenix event seems like a no-brainer. TEDxPhoenix, an offshoot of the…
Spirits expert, ex-wine director at Oakville Grocery Co., and Sumosommelier David Johnson is at it again. After recently competing in the first Tommy Bahama “Rumologist” comeptition and attending celebu-chef Stephanie Izard’s Goat Tour dinner, Johnson has joined forces with chef Johnny Chu of The Mint, Scottsdale’s swanky ultra-lounge and restaurant,…
Black Cat Coffee House, the new coffee shop two doors down from Over Easy in the Arcadia Towne Center at 4730 East Indian School Road (Indian School and 44th Street) and first mentioned by yours truly in July, is open for business. The cozy little java joint will serve up…
Jennifer Woods IQF chopped green bell peppers Lately, in this In Season series, we’re taking a look at what I take home from Crooked Sky Farms each week and see what I’ve done with my CSA share, or part share. This week I’m doing a home IQF project using green…
Hungry for your early morning serving of food news, with no preservatives or additives? Munchies? If you happen to stumble upon ASU’s Tempe campus today sometime around, oh let’s say the official stoner time of 4:20 p.m., you might be able to score yourself a free dog from Short Leash Hot…
Our Chow Bella correspondents were out in full-force for the first-ever Food Truck Festival, held on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix this Saturday. Both Ando Muneno and Dominique Chatterjee (who took the early and late shifts, respectively) were impressed with the event (which sold out about two hours in, we’re…
Beer: Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin AleBrewery: Boston Beer Company Style: Pumpkin beerABV: 5.7 percent Well, Pumpkin Month is at an end. It’s been four weeks filled with pumpkin pie spiciness and every shade of orange here at Craft Beer of the Week, and the mob of pumpkin brews that crowded…
Today is Food Day 2011 and restaurants around the Valley including Cibo and Windsor and at least one food truck (Short Leash Hot Dogs) are primed to participate by serving locally procured vegetables, harvested yesterday by a group of volunteers at the Roosevelt Growhouse in downtown Phoenix. We’ve talked about the Growhouse often,…
You probably know by now all about the Chow Bella Book Club and our partnership with Changing Hands Bookstore. If you need to get caught up, I wrote all about it a few weeks ago. While you’re reading October’s selection, Kitchen Counter Cooking School, I thought you might enjoy getting…
10th Annual Kokopelli Krush, a wine festival put on by Kokopelli Winery & Bistro in Chandler. The event featured live music, the ceremonial opening of the 1,000,000th bottle of Kokopelli wine, and, of course, the competitive grape-crushing for which the festival gets its name. Next door to the Kokopelli Winery…
Robot FOOD is now open in the Valley to change the stigma against vegan baking. They’re not just going vegan for their love of animals. Instead, they’re about all natural, nutritious food that also happens to be indulgently delicious.
Red with meat, white with fish — where’s the love when it comes to pairing wine with foods that aren’t critters? Vino 100, the unassuming little wine shop and bar in Cave Creek, has an event to answer that question. From 6:30 to 8 p.m., Friday, October 28, Vino 100…
Look, I’m no food allergy expert, but as a former child, I feel I have a fairly good handle on the kinds of happenings that make Halloween fun for kids. And unfortunately, the first annual Arizona Food Allergy Alliance (AFAA) Trunk-Or-Treat Event in Phoenix, Tucson, and Pinetop-Lakeside isn’t one them…
For fans of offal (pronounced awful), those delicious odds and ends of animals, or for those curious enough to want to take a taste or two, Petite Maison, the charming little French eatery in Scottsdale, is serving up something special this Halloween weekend — and if it’s as popular as…
In an effort to make mom proud, Chow Bella’s taking a good, hard look at the most important meal of the day in the form of Scrambled, a weekly review of local breakfast spots.At first glance, 32 Shea looks more like a gigantic birthday present than a restaurant. The square box, perched…
