You think you know Mexican food? Think again. As diverse as its land and people, Mexico’s food is an endless tapestry of variety. You could spend a lifetime in one state alone and never completely know its entire cuisine. Chimichangas and fajitas are cute names for dishes invented on this…
When I was a kid, summer camp in Prescott meant meals of bland cafeteria food. Candy — even gum — was strictly forbidden. It was some stupid thing about shaping our young bodies for health and discipline. All packages from home were inspected for contraband goodies. Good behavior was rewarded…
I was just trying to make some rice. It’s only about 10,000 degrees outside right now. So who wants to cook and heat up the house even more? Or even eat, really. I’m pretty sure I’m slowly melting, and it doesn’t do much for my appetite. Rice sounded great, cooked…
The challenge was on. Aged by wear and the daily illumination of the hot Oaxacan sun, the poor 2-by-6 board sat precariously over two upside-down five-gallon buckets. “My butt is getting too big for this,” I thought. I could almost hear the decrepit board cry in pain and feel the…
The San Carlos Hotel at Central and Monroe in downtown Phoenix was once a Valley hot spot. Developed in 1928, the 133-room property was a favorite of celebrities like Clark Gable and Mae West. But over the years, the San Carlos has fallen out of fashion. Beyond the outdated rooms…
The note tacked on the wall at the Peppersauce Cafe offers it up in a friendly drawl. “If you’re a handyman who will work for food . . . and don’t have a sign . . . we have work, and we have food.” The sign’s something straight out of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
