It’s another beautiful Phoenix weekend! Better get outside and enjoy it while you can. This weekend, I’ll be trading in the super nice Phoenix weather for the smog and traffic of Los Angeles. I plan on hunting down the infamous mac & cheese with BBQ pork grilled cheese sandwich from…
The Market: The Roadrunner Park Farmers Market is a weekly slice of American suburbia right here in north Phoenix. As early as the sun rises, youth baseball teams are rounding the bases and girls’ soccer teams are busy at practice. Later on families sit down to picnic tables for lunch,…
Years ago, I went on a spring break cruise with a group of my hard-drinking friends and, broke college kids that we were, we dedicated the days leading up to the vacation to finding every possible method of smuggling booze aboard. Clear plastic water jugs, giant blue containers of Listerine,…
To eat at Fu-Fu Cuisine on Phoenix’s west side, is a journey far from the sprawling Arizona desert. The new restaurant owned by Esther Mbaikambey, who was born in Nigeria and spent her high school years in Jamaica, offers a culinary journey to Africa and Caribbean…
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…
Surely you’ve seen the rainbow cake. It’s pretty darn popular. As my fellow Chow Bella-ite Amy Silvemran puts it, the rainbow cake is nothing less than “the holy grail of Pinterest.” Pin Up Girl would be a farce if we didn’t conquer this thing. So this week we spent three…
I’m not impressed by sleek for sleek’s sake. But this is a James Bond kind of toaster. It’s sleek and functional – like a Beretta.
Oh, my, this is exciting. For those who thought Bomberos Winebar, the hip little neighborhood hangout in Sunnyslope that shuttered last March after failed lease renewal discussions with the landlord (the space is now occupied by Timo), was ancient history, it’s time to write a new chapter. Just over a…
Since opening at the end of last year, Distrito and Old Town Whiskey, the two restaurants in Scottsdale’s The Saguaro, have been causing quite a buzz in the Valley. Much of that is due to Chef Jose Garces, the man behind the menus, who is best known for winning the…
Imagine mashed potatoes. Then imagine a pile of mashed potatoes — smooth and sticky — shaped into a starchy dome. You pull a piece and mold it into an indented marble-size ball, a flat disc, or perhaps a thumb-pressed oval to scoop up a richly flavored soup or stew. The…
Warsan, a new African restaurant and coffee shop first-time owner Loyan Hassan Abdi tells me means good news in the Somali language, has opened in the strip mall at 2935 East McDowell Road (McDowell and 29th Street.) The casual, bare-bones restaurant, opened for about a week, is still sparse on…
This week in Chef Chat we’ve been talking with Chef Mensur Duzic of Phoenix Children’s Hospital. A tenured veteran of fine dining spots from across the Valley to across the pond, Duzic has enjoyed his position at the hospital for nearly ten years. But does he miss his more high-class…
Good news for fans of New York-style pizza from Myrah and Joe Aiello, owners of Aiello’s, the East Coast Italian restaurant in Phoenix. The couple has announced their new pizza shop, Isa’s Pizza, will open this Thursday next to their second restaurant, Aiello’s Salumeria, a “mini Aiello’s,” at 777 East…
Last August, a large wooden crate arrived at the sandwich shop Pane Bianco. In the crate — bearing an Austrian return address — was a 1600 pound stone mill and sifter: the sole piece of machinery that would revive Tempe’s century and a half-old Hayden Flour Mills brand for which…
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. Miss a question? Go here. Inspiration, information, mouth-watering photography — our favorite cookbooks are like…
Huevos Rancheros, the traditional Mexican breakfast dish, is a menu staple at almost every drive-thru taco shop and Mexican eatery in the Valley. It’s the perfect cure for a hangover and includes all five important elements of a hearty breakfast — eggs, tortillas, beans, rice, and cheese. Instead of pitting…
There’s a new business-to-business food program here in town using the good old fashioned bartering system to feed small business owners and provide valuable services to food producers. It’s called The Edible Exchange and it’s an offshoot of the The Barter Group, a longtime local company that facilitates bartering. In…
How can you add pizza to a gelato spot and still call it The Gelato Spot? That question was surely on the minds of the owners of this Old Town Scottsdale creamery (with three other locations in the Valley) when they installed a wood-fired pizza oven on the premises last…
Yesterday we started the conversation with Chef Mensur Duzic of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Today, we continue. Duzic, a classically trained chef who worked for more than a decade in fine dining, is putting the “hospital” in hospitality by bringing his cuisine to an unexpected arena: a hospital cafeteria…
Since it opened a year and a half ago, the Downtown location of Cartel Coffee, the popular local roaster with four locations in Arizona, has not only been supplying the java to the likes of suits and students, but breakfast and lunch bites as well. “We’ve had a good run…
Chef Nobuo Fukuda, the James Beard winning proprietor of Nobuo at Teeter House, is poised to serve what will probably be the classiest bento boxes the Valley has ever seen. An email sent last week promises a $50 Sunday brunch, starting April 15, featuring “Omakase-style bento boxes” and a complimentary…
Gee, sounds like somebody needs a cheeseburger. From time to time here at Chow Bella, we write something we know might make people angry. But once in a while, a post we thought was totally innocuous sets someone off. This is one of those times. When we announced that Tediberto’s…
