Those lazy Mexicans. Surely you’ve seen them, for they are everywhere. Always sitting down taking a siesta instead of working. My siblings and I spent most of our youth as the only non-white family in a small rural school in California, where I would hear things such as, “You lazy…
Silvana Salcido Esparza must know what it’s like to be loved. Since opening her Barrio Café last summer, she’s been positively drowning in adulation. The fickle dining public has embraced the chef in such passion, lines of would-be diners snake down the bistro’s sidewalk, thanks to a “no reservations” policy…
Restaurant expansion. It’s a little like sending a child out into the world. You know your infant needs to grow. You want your tot to succeed. But there’s that tug at the heart as you find yourself wishing that somehow, the kid could stay a tiny baby forever. That’s sort…
I had a disaster on my hands. In just hours, guests would begin arriving at my holiday party, and here I was, driving around in circles in a dilapidated south Phoenix neighborhood looking for a small woman holding a big bundle of food. My food, that is. The food I’d…
Oh, wow. That’s all I can say about the Golden Swan at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. I stopped in for dinner the other night, and couldn’t believe what treasures I found. There’s a new chef in the swanky resort restaurant. There’s a new style of cuisine being prepared. And there’s a…
If I’d blinked, I wouldn’t have noticed it. But there, tucked in a nameless Fry’s shopping center in a particularly anonymous-looking part of bland, sprawling Mesa, lay a hidden jewel: a Peruvian restaurant. My new game had paid off. I was trying a new experiment in driving. I decided that,…
It’s a few minutes past the noon hour, and my hot dog lies limp and ruined, a wizened gray tube of half-eaten meat on a soggy heap of celery-salt-dusted bun. Around it sprawls a litter of neon green relish, bits of slippery pickle, sliced tomato and sports peppers. To the…
It might sound stereotypical, but Mexicans love their Chevys. Not Chevrolet. Just Chevy. Even the carmaker knows how much the shortened brand name is loved south of the border. For the past few years, GM has been selling a car and a small pickup in Mexico under the “Chevy” logo…
Call 2002 “The Year of the Resort.” While national economists wrung their hands over a plunging stock market, and the number of Arizona residents with a net worth of one million-plus plummeted by an amazing 31 percent (poor things — $999,999 doesn’t go as far as it used to), our…
Q. I enjoy trying really interesting wines with dinner, but am not confident of my knowledge. Where’s a place with great food and staff with topnotch wine recommendations? A. It’s hard to go wrong at Wright’s in the Arizona Biltmore resort. The restaurant has a new sommelier, Barbara Werley, and…
Most days, it seems, there’s not much in life I’m sure of. But there’s no doubt in my mind now that this is the best tortilla soup I’ve ever had. Of the countless versions I’ve sampled over the ages, there have been chicken-stock broths that almost brought me to my…
Growing up, I couldn’t help forming a deep connection between delicious Mexican food and the movies. That’s because every Sunday, the Salcido Esparza family enjoyed a really good home-cooked meal followed by a trip to the only Spanish-language cinema in Livingston, a rural farm town in central California. I’d stuff…
Forget the ho, ho, ho. The holidays at my house find me belting out choruses of pho, pho, pho. That’s pho, as in the traditional noodle soup of Vietnam. The stuff is beloved to me, and it’s become my winter tradition. What better way to greet the shivery season than…
I’ve got an idea for a fail-proof, get-rich-quick scheme. First, eat out. Do it a lot, and be sure to finish everything on your plate. Next, go home and park it on the couch, exercising only your fingers for the remote control. Soon, you’ll turn into a blubbery tub, get…
In my younger, more militant days, I remember being scandalized by a vintage Warner Bros. cartoon, “The Timid Toreador,” which featured Porky Pig in a Mexican sombrero and carrying a large pot. The porker was selling tamales on the street and singing, “Hot tamales, hot tamales, got ’em boiling in…
The aroma of fresh-baked muffins curls through the air — a heady fog of carrot-ginger, corn-cheddar, and banana. The baker has just pulled the tray of miniature-sized treats from the oven and will let them cool for a few minutes before she doles them out to her waiting crowd of…
Q.I’d like to do something different for New Year’s (no hotel buffet) but don’t have a ton of money to spend. What’s something cool and cheap? A.Go early bird to the party at Sapporo, the hot-spot sushi club at Scottsdale Road and Thunderbird in Scottsdale. A 5 p.m. seating is…
While I was traveling through Mexico on a bus, I spent countless hours looking out the window as we drove through villages, townships and cities. But what sticks in my mind are the ranchos we passed and their rows and rows of corn and overgrown nopal cactus. When I think…
Call it a Spanish invasion. At the same time Bistro Madrid (see review in this issue) opened in Ahwatukee this spring, Ibiza Café threw open its doors within rock-tossing distance of the canal at Scottsdale and Camelback. Named after an island off Spain’s coast, the restaurant isn’t all authentic Spanish…
After days of eating sleep-inducing Thanksgiving turkey, I’m ready for a jolt to my taste buds. And Bradley and I are absolutely starving. After spending the day fastening a new, remarkably heavy metal roof to my barn, struggling in the chill and gusting winds of a wintry Sunday, we’ve worked…
Q. I’m looking for really good, something-special bread for my Christmas party. Any suggestions? A. I’ll be filling my pantry with specialty loaves from Arizona Bread Company (70th Street and Shea in Scottsdale; and Scottsdale and Pinnacle Peak roads in Scottsdale). Delicious holiday blends include French with Normandy apples, sugar…
Mom is making macaroni and cheese. The noodles are boiled and drained. The saucepot sits on the stove, heat rising to slow burps of milk, cream and chunked Velveeta. She takes the pan, pours the thick cheese liquid over the pasta, and frowns. “I forgot to put the mustard in,”…
