Another month, another look back at the best things I ate during September. From dishes like my new favorite carne asada taco to magnificent Mediterranean eats to a killer lasagna my dining companion likened to the work of the devil, here are 10 of the best things I ate this…
There are only two kinds of meat at Backyard Taco in Mesa — carne asada and pollo — and they’re both pretty amazing. Tender and cooked to perfection over mesquite charcoal with just the right amount of seasoning (so that you still taste the grill), they’re served with cabbage, onions,…
The Guilty Pleasure: Agua Vita Where to Get It: Paletas Betty, Tempe(and soon in Chandler) Price: $3 or $4 depending on size What it Really Costs: [reads the ingredients] Wait… this is good for you?! Not long ago, I found myself at the Chow Bella HQ underground lair, discussing recent…
Don those aprons, home cooks. MasterChef, Fox’s competitive cooking reality show judged by celebu-chef Gordon Ramsay, restaurateur and wine maker Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliot, the Michelin-starred chef from Chicago, is looking for contestants for its fifth season — and it’s headed our way…
Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Corrections this week asking Director Charles L. Ryan to take meat of the menu. The idea was spurred by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently made that move at…
What’s the best way for a husband-and-wife team to cook the food they love together every day? If you’re Brooke Francis and Nathan Carel, you start a food truck. Called The Roasted Shallot, Francis and Carel’s food truck will hit the Valley’s mobile kitchen scene in mid-October (if not sooner)…
Stepping into Jenny Kuller’s 1950s-inspired kitchen is like traveling straight back in time. The pink walls, patterned curtains, and stacks of colorful tablecloths make the small room a vintage sanctuary. Everything from the authentic food packages and containers (retro Jell-O, anyone?) to the shelves of salt-and-pepper shakers and figurines transforms…
Oh, horchata, the hottie of cold drinks. Its sixth-grade-joke-inspiring name is oh so fitting. It’s zesty and delicious, but those aren’t the only features this drink has to offer — it often si subtly diverse, made unique by the creators who serve up glasses loaded with your chilly, dreamy-creamy goodness…
The event season starts off hot this weekend with Roosevelt Row’s second annual Chile Pepper Festival, and if that doesn’t strike your fancy, know that Oktoberfest celebrations are in full swing. There’s still enough time for one last summer road trip though, and we’ve got a few good reasons to…
In June, when we last left Karl and Christine Boerner, the Swiss-trained father-daughter pastry chef team behind Karl’s Quality Bakery and the next-door Baker’s Daughter, they were making Kronuts (their version of the Cronut) and suing their landlord. The first effort worked out well; the second, not so much. The…
Renegade by MOD is the daring new restaurant from chef Michael O’Dowd, whose decade at Kai earned the restaurant AAA five-diamond and Forbes Travel Guide five-star acclaim. Breaking free of his corporate chains last fall, O’Dowd is now a first-time restaurateur as well as a celebrated chef. And at his…
It’s that time of year again. After months of planning, research, and collecting the gems of our city, the Best of Phoenix 2013 issue has hit the stands. This year, we take a journey into Phoenix’s past to unearth the vintage beauty of our city…
What does the Valley’s biggest risk-taker of a restaurant look like at the moment? Its cuisine takes a familiar dish and plugs it into a culinary electric socket, invigorating it with inspirations from countries like Japan, Italy, and China, and presenting it in ways that make necks crane at nearby…
Once a week, my son comes by to go to a movie or out to dinner with us, a time to touch base, to hear about his college classes, to hug him and kiss him and know that he’s OK. Picking a place to eat is always dicey; both he…
When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out — and let you know our initial impressions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that…
Welcome to Chow Bella’s Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you’d like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Requests from diners are nothing new. Perhaps they have to do with omitting a certain…
Here’s the thing. When it comes to gardening in Arizona, our climate differs so much from the rest of the country you can’t rely on advice from someone in Ohio. You might find that your favorite seed catalog just doesn’t offer what can be grown here in the fall during…
After not quite a year at Top Chef Brian Malarkey’s Searsucker in Scottsdale, Steven “Chops” Smith has left as its executive chef. Smith — whose résumé also includes gigs at Kelly’s at SouthBridge (consulting), Different Pointe of View, Noca, St. Francis, Olive & Ivy, and the defunct Furio and Luc’s…
Welcome to “Schaefer,” in which Eric Schaefer — a local guy with a big (but discerning) appetite and a sense of humor to match — takes on the Phoenix food scene. Cooler weather is upon us! October is the month during which I check the five different weather apps on…
Years ago, the signs of autumn’s arrival were geese flying south, leaves changing color, and a chill in the air. If you were a foodie, all you had to look forward to was the release of that year’s Beaujolais Nouveau a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. None of these came…
This is part two of our interview with chef Andrew Nienke of Café Monarch in Scottsdale. Yesterday he dished about his belief in “no bullshit” food and today we discuss what will change and what will stay the same at the restaurant this year. Cafe Monarch will re-open for the…
Ahem, “spoiler alert.” If you’re not caught up on Breaking Bad, you might want to get that way before reading further. There’s no way around it, Breaking Bad fans: It’s almost over. On Sunday, September 29, AMC will air the final episode of the acclaimed drama, drawing to a close…
