“Rice pudding should be incredibly easy to make,” I said, unpacking the boil-in-bag rice. “You just boil it in the water for a few minutes and dump in the ingredients, right? Eye roll. Ok, so my experiment with rice pudding wasn’t quite that bad. But it’s true that until this week, I’d never…
Don’t get us wrong, we love Ignite — if we can manage to get in the door without trading regrettable sexual favors for the “free” tickets. But there’s something about the newer PechaKucha events we can really get behind. The event includes plenty of beer, wine, and snacks to go around,…
What happens when an executive chef loses the top-of-the-line stainless steel commercial appliances, professional tools and cache of underlings that he’s used to? Either he rises like cream to prove he’s got culinary game without the fancy extras, or he sinks like poached eggs to the bottom of the pot…
R.I.P. Paulina Miller Gallery. The upscale art space inside the historic Charles E. Palen House at Roosevelt and First streets in downtown Phoenix quietly stopped hosting monthly exhibits in mid-2010, after more than 10 years of showcasing local and national art. No one seemed to notice, in part because the…
Sauce. Cheese. Dough. Pizza-making might seem like a simple endeavor, but there are dozens of factors that go into determining what makes a quality pie. Most are personal preference: wood fired versus oven baked; thin crust or deep dish. Hand tossing, sauce consistency and type of cheese also affect the…
The Arizona Renaissance Festival may be more famous for jousting knights and busty babes in barmaid costumes, but there’s a wealth of cheap eats to be found here. We traveled back in time — and way out to Apache Junction — in search of a decent meal for under a…
I love pasta. When I was a kid, my mom’s best friend was a loudmouthed Italian woman who hosted the Christmas Eve party we attended every year. The evening’s “entertainment” consisted of yelling and angry gestures. But the food was spectacular. Everyone would bring an Italian dish: spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, antipasto, manicotti…
Cluttered with old license plates, ball caps and business cards tacked to the ceiling, TEXAZ Grill is the town’s finest redneck watering hole. But underneath the award-winning chicken fried steak and ham buns this restaurant is hiding a secret. See, there’s a dessert so simple and so frighteningly “country”…
No, this is not some kind of wacky 12 Days of Christmas parody, though we can’t help but think of that pesky partridge in a pear tree. This weekend, Greg “The Urban Farm Guy” Peterson is hosting two classes geared towards the permaculture newbie. Learn how to plant and care…
We’ll keep repeating over and over again how great it would be if someone opened a dedicated food truck court in one of the myriad of useless land plots around CenPho (Hint, hint, developers!). In the meantime, tracking food trucks around town is a bit of a detective game. One…
For the past few weeks, we’ve pummeled you with Valentine’s Day dinner info: steak and lobster, 5-course menus, chef’s specials, chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. If you’re still not stoked for the lover’s holiday, we’ve got one last ditch effort to turn you on (to a romantic dinner out, that…
We get Venezia’s and Vincent’s, yo, but a Brooklyn-style pizza parlor called Upper Crust? Perhaps Brooklyn’s gone highbrow since we visited last. Either way, we’re still stoked for a new ‘za joint on the upper east side. Upper Crust Pizza & Patio Wine Bar recently opened in the old Brickyard/Native…
Located a baseball’s throw from Chase Field, Coach & Willie’s is one of the only joints around with its own parking lot — which makes it a prime destination for locals who don’t have time to fiddle with parking meters on their dwindling lunch hours. There’s not much directly around. A…
I like to think I’m a girl who’s willing to try anything once. So when our boss suggested a little friendly Valentine’s Day competition between Ask the Chef’s Carol Blonder, Thrifty Cook Cyndi Coon (their recipes will appear tomorrow and Thursday) and yours truly, I accepted the challenge — and…
“Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh, soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie?” Up until two years ago when Georganne Bryant opened her colorful retro candy boutique, Smeeks, no one in Phoenix could. Seems Bryant started a trend. Up popped Sweets and Beats (now…
I walked in the door of Chompie’s in Tempe the week I first arrived in Phoenix. I’d driven cross-country from New York in a giant moving van, and frankly after a week of eating greasy truck stop food and seeing nothing but dead grass and desert, I was homesick. Then I met Chompie’s. It…
The Super Bowl is next Sunday and fans are already loading up their carts with charcoal, BBQ sauce and various ground, sliced, chopped and pre-formed meats at my local market. Good thing my wedding anniversary is this weekend — and my husband doesn’t give a damn about team sports. Still, I figured it was only fair for the…
Hawaiians call it manapua. The Chinese call them char siu bao. We’re not talking about mythical creatures or ancient gods here. These exotic sounding terms boil down to something the modern American palate is familiar with: BBQ pork buns. . …
Teharu isn’t just a sushi bar — it’s an experience. There are few other places in the Valley where you can score five plates of food for under a ten-spot, but that’s exactly what we did at Teharu. On our visit the place was packed, and the vibe was decidedly young…
Give a ten-year-old a plate of Brussels sprouts and you’ll get the kiddie equivalent of the bitter beer face. Hell, give most adults a plate of the healthful green veggie and you’ll get the same reaction: Icky. Those look gross. Do I have to eat it? Whine, whine, whine. Having successfully stumbled…
Yesterday, we spoke with Chef Brian Peterson of Cork and the upcoming BLD restaurant in Chandler. Today, he shares a delectable recipe for Arctic Char with Roasted Cauliflower, Fingerling Potatoes, Baby Carrots and Butternut Squash Puree. It’s a mouthful in more ways than one! Arctic char is naturally found in the…
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The way to a woman’s heart is just as simple. In fact, it can be summed up in one little word: chocolate. Doctors even compare the endorphins secreted during chocolate consumption to the ones produced during sex. Oh, my!…
