Food & Drink

Who doesn’t love getting chocolate rabbits for Easter? It’s naughty yet socially acceptable fun to cannibalize your bunny — first nibbling on the ears, then biting off the fluffy chocolate tail. Chocolate is one thing; actual bunnies is another. I blanched a little when Chef Payton Curry first advertised his Easter dining specials at Caffe Boa…

I didn’t expect to publicly share the fact that today is my birthday, but one of my darling friends just sent me the coolest, coolest surprise. “Sushi” cupcakes! These are like the eye candy you see in glossy cookbooks about fancy, creative pastries, and here they are on my desk,…

The mission: try to have lunch – for two – on ten bucks.  I meet up with my thrifty lunch companion and say, “I don’t know if you’re up for an adventure, but I heard of this place that’s supposed to do a really cheap lunch, wanna try it?” “Sure”…

About a month ago we reviewed a new locally-made hangover remedy called RESQWATER. The verdict was, shall we say, less than favorable because whether or not the stuff works it tasted so “vitaminy” that it was a real task to actually swallow (and this was after a night that included…

Sushi restaurants are clearly not evenly distributed in the Valley. I can think of at least half a dozen, off the top of my head, that are in or around Old Town Scottsdale, but downtown Phoenix only has one, Moira Sushi. Later this summer, though, a new spot called Silk…

Call it channel surfing. LGO Hospitality’s Bob Lynn and Craig DeMarco didn’t want to stick to an Italian menu anymore, so they rechristened Radio Milano as Radio Cafe. The restaurant reopens tonight after a three-week hiatus for renovations. Sushi’s on the menu now, thanks to chef Takeshi Hosoda. Among Hosoda’s…

Farewell to a longstanding neighborhood Italian spot. Just got wind of the recent closure of That’s Italiano, the mom-and-pop restaurant on Indian School (3737 E. Indian School) that was popular with the nearby Arcadia crowd for its homey pastas, live music, and old-school ambiance. Isn’t that something every neighborhood could use?…

  Our own Jonathan McNamara put together a delicious slideshow of images from Friday night’s caramel-coated festivities at Smeeks. Check it out. (And winners are posted here.) …

It’s officially less than a week until Easter — a time when hard-boiled eggs will be taking up space on refrigerator shelves. So, we’ve decided to have a deviled egg tasting, trying out two of Martha Stewart’s many recipes. In one corner, Deviled Eggs with Cucumber, Dill, and Capers and…

[jump]   My friend’s salmon dish was spicy but light, with citrus and tomatoes tossed into a bed of greens. With a breakfast menu, dinner entrees, and late-night eats as well, RnR has a lot more going on than lunch, but this was a promising introduction.  …

In the end, we get what’s coming to us. Let’s hope it’s sweet. Ah, spring mornings. Who doesn’t love to wake to the sounds of birds singing, see the sun peeping through the bedroom window (Hello, Mr. Sun!), skip breakfast to take a leisurely walk under bright, blue skies. What?…

​As far as we’re concerned, everyone was a winner Friday night — sampling a tasty, creative assortment of caramels under the stars in central Phoenix, as Chow Bella and Smeeks celebrated our first-ever Caramelpalooza. Wynter Holden will parse the competition later this week in Battle of the Dishes, but we won’t…

There are so many energy drinks on the market these days, and so few that truly stand out — even visually. A walk down the energy drink aisle at the store becomes a monotonous montage of black and silver aluminum, decorated with various logos in bright orange and florescent green…

Big, chewy thanks to the chefs who came out last night to make our first Chow Bella event — Caramelpalooza,co-sponsored by Smeeks — a sweet success. (And showers of caramels on the fine folks from Smeeks, who worked so hard to help us make it all happen.)We’ll announce the winners Monday…