Jim Fiolek is a genial man with longish hair in a braid who does a very amusing pidgin English impression. He is the vice president of Zaca Mesa Winery in California, and he is also something of a guru. He is a guru not so much among wine snobs –…
In France, the only way to leave a restaurant with a doggy bag and the waiter’s respect is if the food you’re taking home is truly for your spoiled poodle. The protectors of French cuisine, and indeed waiters at snotty restaurants the world over, just do not appreciate leftovers. I…
The day was eerie. A slow drizzle of rain fell to earth like tears of those from above. The sky was a gray that made everything else look like a black-and-white photograph. Night was falling. I was anxious and leery about where I was heading.I could feel my heart racing…
Say your mother made casseroles. In particular, she made one with a funny name — “Mom’s Mish-Mash,” you called it — with condensed cream of mushroom soup. She was famous for it; she took it to church potlucks, she took it to PTA dinners, and all of the other mothers…
In Sunny’s world, his favorite customers wait for their barbecued ribs, beef and chicken the longest. Tonight, it’s his sister Clara’s birthday and she’s been patient for over an hour.”I’m a lonely rascal,” explains Walter “Sunny” Gaines. This is hard to believe. As proprietor of Sunny’s Sunshine Bar-B-Que each Friday…
There are two reasons to frequent Chez Bubba’s, the wonderful Caribbean and Creole restaurant on First Street downtown. One of them is Bubba. Myron “Bubba” Stephenson is such a remarkable personality that his presence alone could carry the restaurant, quite independently of the food — which, of course, is the…
Picture this: a honeymooning couple on a tour of Egypt. They are the youngest ones in the tour group by at least 20 years. But that’s not what’s bothering them on this trip of a lifetime, which has taken them to Cairo’s famed Egyptian Museum, King Tut’s tomb and the…
Blinded by the sweat pouring into my eyes, I caught myself wondering if it was really worth it.I struggled to keep a firm grip on the splintered handle of an archaic pick as I thought of the gorgeous turquoise beach just a few feet away. With hands blistered and slicked…
What was once a city morgue, a popular hamburger place, a bookie joint, a pool hall and a political hangout? If you’re stumped, I’ll give you another clue. It’s the name of a restaurant, located downtown, that continues to be frequented by politicos, legal eagles and wizards of finance. If…
Ceramic artist Ida May Bradbury loves to eat.”I’m a fat lady,” she warned me when I called to set up an interview. She’s not. She’s robust, however, with a gap between her front teeth like Geoffrey Chaucer’s legendary Easter pilgrim heading for Canterbury in 1385, the life-affirming Wife of Bath…
In 1921, the boys working on a promotion in the marketing department of General Mills put their heads together. Their mission: to create the perfect woman, an icon for housewives everywhere to trust and emulate.They labored intensively to make sure each detail was flawless. They stepped back to behold their…
John Dunbar, a sous chef, cooks in the restaurant kitchen of a storied hotel where he also teaches classes. In some ways, this is not unusual for him, because he has worked in many high-end restaurants here: Vincent Guerithault on Camelback, Lon’s at the Hermosa. But his new job is…
Sometimes finding great Mexican food turns out to be an adventure.One of the most amusing versions I’ve ever had was in Krakow, Poland, last year. In a spiffy new restaurant on the fashionable Rynek (Market Square), I ordered a beef taco: gloppy ground meat on a floppy corn tortilla smothered…
Drive the route to Cave Creek at dusk, when the sky fills with glowing stars and the coyotes howl in the distance, and you’ll find Cave Creek’s own French restaurant, Le Sans Souci, and its diminutive owner, Louis Germain.The place is so tucked away that it’s easy to miss. The…
A few years back, falafel had as much of a chance of making it in Phoenix as finding a lasting peace in the Middle East. The crispy fried vegetable balls are foreign, meatless and roll off a bun like marbles off a table. Not your usual cowboy fare.But while there’s…
On a brutally icy afternoon last February, my husband and I wandered the streets of Manhattan’s Tribeca, looking for warmth and something light to eat a couple of hours before a dinner date.”I know where we can get martinis and munchies,” I shouted over the roar of traffic. If you’ve…
You don’t have to be Jerry Seinfeld to be afraid of chefs who don’t wash their hands. Bad personal hygiene is dangerous — and all too prevalent in our restaurants. And that’s one way you get food poisoning.I was recently dining at the bar of one of my favorite Mexican…
Sure, the recipes inside are solidly good, even inspired. But the name, The Wicca Cookbook, is enough to choke on.Forget about “eye of newt” and “toil and trouble”: If it’s a Shakespearean cliché, a book reviewer has beat you to it. Of course, some didn’t make it past the cover…
I’m toying with the idea of planting corn in my backyard, then infecting it with the fungus Ustilago maydis. If all goes well, the kernels will be coated with a greenish-white covering, then turn silver-gray before rupturing to reveal huitlacoche, a black corn fungus that is a delicacy in Mexican…
Since the beginning of time, or at least harking back to the days when the earliest life forms washed ashore gasping for coffee, we have answered the call of caffeine.Since we are no longer content to merely brew the stuff ourselves at home, coffee houses have become the hangout of…
Christie’s Cabaret claims to have “the most amazing lunch in town,” and the fact is, it probably does. Topnotch sandwiches. Chicken wings that are nothing short of perfect. The best blue cheese dressing you’ll find anywhere.And lots of made-up, stripped-down girls who, for $10, will straddle your legs and let…
At first glance, you think that the mercado (marketplace) in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, is just like any other in Mexico, with rows of colorful fruits and vegetables, cheese purveyors and one food stall after another. Then you are captured by the array of brightly dressed women. One in particular catches my…
