Blogs

DIY Vietnamese noodle soup? Sign me up.

The other day, I got a lovely email from Ken Brown, who read my recent review of Dragonfly Vietnamese Kitchen and decided to drop a line.

"I'm the Will Rogers of VN (or SE Asian or Korean) restaurants," he writes. "I'm so glad to to get it, that I've never met a dish I didn't like. I recall when Phoenix was a culinary desert in the 70's."

Recognizing a likeminded noodle enthusiast, Ken sent me his recipe for "phast pho," which he submitted for KAET's Eight Cooks: P is for Pasta book, the latest in a series of recipe books offered to people who make monetary pledges to the station.

"I have tested it and tweaked it many times," he says of the simplified traditional dish, "so it's a good starting point for those who want to jump into the Pho and experiment!"

Thanks, Ken, for sharing it with me and Chow Bella readers.

Quick Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup - Phở bò

This ethnic dish will certainly become both a family favorite and a great way to “wow” guests! The many Phở variations ensure recipe longevity though your improvisation!

P.S. Once you fall in love with the beef/buffalo (bò) version, experiment with pork broth and Chinese roast pork, red BBQ pork, sausages, chitterlings, etc. or chicken broth and fowl meats, such as chicken, turkey, duck, etc. or seafood broth and shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, scallops, mussels, clams, crab, lobster, fishballs, etc. Just don’t forget nước mắm! It’ll be great!

Finger lickin' good: Ethiopian food by the handful at Blue Nile

Yes, I've been a blog slacker the past few days. I've been an email slacker, too, and a flat-out voicemail ignorer (is that a word?).

Next week, you'll see why.

Anyway, yeah, I've been a little sidetracked, but not from eating. It's usually when I'm most stressed out that food takes on an almost religious importance. Sounds ridiculous, but you haven't seen me when I'm ravenous. I will bite someone's head-off -- at least figuratively -- when the blood sugar starts to plummet.

Today I planned ahead, and stopped by Blue Nile Cafe in Tempe for an awesome little Ethiopian lunch. I never think of eating Ethiopian food during daylight hours, for some reason, but today I just got a random craving. Wow -- I am super impressed with their lunch specials! I think it was around eight bucks for a combo plate that included a meat dish, a veggie dish, a veggie side, injera (that moist, tangy teff bread), and a drink. Any place where you can stuff your face on good food for under ten dollars is a keeper.

Even less expensive was lunch the other day at Asadero Norte de Sonora. It's this totally bare bones little joint on 16th Street, between Washington and Van Buren, where all their meats are mesquite-grilled. You can get a half or a whole chicken, a parrillada (i.e. a big-ass platter with various grilled goodies), tacos, burros, etc., for probably even less than at the food court at Phoenix Ranch Market up the street. (They're cheap too, but I haven't been in recently enough to compare prices.) At Asadero, I got a really delicious chicken burro (so big I could only eat half), chips and salsa, veggie salad, charro beans, and a medium jamaica for all of $6.31. That's pretty ridiculous.

Comparatively pricey was the Delux burger I got the other night, but it was worth it. I need to get my fix every so often, and then all is well with the world. (Must be the protein.) Sat on the patio, drank a cold Hoegaarden White Ale, and watched some sweet cars cruise by, on their way to Safeway.

Thinking of Hoegaarden -- a fruity, slightly spicy, wheat Belgian beer that's got a lot in common with Hefeweizen, if you're into that -- reminds me of an insanely good drink: The Dirty Ho. It's half Hoegaarden and half Framboise. To the uninitiated, Framboise is a Belgian lambic beer heavily flavored with raspberries. Lindeman's sells it in a heavy, dark green wine-bottle with a Art Nouveau-style label. Neat to look at, but much better to open up and drink. It's really fruity and unique, so even people who don't like beer tend to reconsider it when they taste it.

(I'm thinking of my mom, an all-time teetotaler whom I corrupted when I took her to Postino and got her some of that. One glass was enough to give her quite a buzz -- how cute! Back in PA, though, a lot of the state stores don't carry it, and I don't think she'd resort to drinking piss beer. At least I hope she wouldn't...)

Well, I thought I successfully avoided a food coma today, but that Ethiopian feast is finally making me feel a little drowsy. Off to the Coke machine...

You never know what you'll learn when you're inconspicuously munching on fried ama-ebi heads and yellowtail sashimi.

The other night, I felt lousy, like I was coming down with something. I've been blaming my occasional cough on allergies, but this felt like a real cold. At times like that, I turn to sake and wasabi to keep me going, so I headed up to Tokyo Lobby for some raw fish and rocket fuel (I'm a cold sake gal, usually, but a carafe of hot stuff does the trick when I'm under the weather). I don't mind eating alone, but at sushi bars, I really enjoy it -- and I often end up talking to some cool people, like I did at Tokyo Lobby.

Anyway, I got the word straight from the guys behind the counter that the popular west side sushi joint is moving next week. They don't have far to go, though -- looking right out Tokyo Lobby's front window, you can see the new storefront right across the parking lot. So if you live in the hood, rest assured that they'll still rule the southeast corner of 59th Ave and Bell.

Tokyo Lobby will be closed for a few days during the transition, so give 'em a call before you head over there for a plateful of maki.

You already know what a sucker I am for packaging, so this new discovery shouldn't come as a surprise. Ciao Bella pinot grigio? Come on, that thing was screaming my name. Lately I've been thinking about buying a Vespa, too.

I spotted the vino at Cooks & Corks on Sunday, and even took pictures of it, but none of them turned out right. (I could really use a little tripod, but it would cramp my style...) By the time I saw the bottle, though, I was already fully committed to drinking big reds, and there was no turning back. If I actually track some down and get to taste it, I'll report back here...

So did you hit up any of the culinary fest events over the weekend?

I stopped by the Great Arizona Picnic and Cooks & Corks for awhile yesterday, and if my photos look half decent, I'll post a few later on. (Haven't seen them except on my digital camera's tiny screen, so it's hard to tell how they'll show up at 400 pixels.)

I'm bummed that I missed the wine seminar with Food + Wine's Anthony Giglio. I certainly attempted to go, but the parking situation was just awful. I drove around and around for almost an hour, and was seriously thinking about heading back home when I finally found a spot. That put me in a grumpy mood, but at least I got there in time to see some of the chef demonstrations.

Anyway, the best part of the day was chatting with the wine distributors. I love how you can pick out any interesting-looking bottle and they'll give you a whole story on it -- who makes it, why it's special, yadda yadda. And the abstract descriptions they use are just fascinating. It's fun to hear their take on a wine and then see if your impressions match up with theirs.

The weather was also perfect -- the breeze felt so nice that it almost made waiting in line for a piece of pizza seem enjoyable. (I said almost.) But alas, I was there by myself, and after awhile it started to get kind of boring. Food is always better shared with friends. I bailed out mid-afternoon to go shop for nibbles for my weekly Sopranos get-together.

Restaurant Mexico deserves a sweet trophy for marathon-worthy endurance.

It was one of a handful of popular downtown Tempe restaurants that got the boot when developers decided to demolish their old digs at University and Forest. And while it wasn't the first time the business has picked up and moved into a new location for that reason, hopefully it'll be the last.

Now Restaurant Mexico has a new home at 423 S. Mill Avenue, and it just opened for business (Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.).

Finally, I can get my mole fix!

An artist's rendering of SouthBridge, soon to be home to seven high-profile restaurants

If you've attempted (in vain) to find street parking in Scottsdale lately -- especially near Cowboy Ciao, Stingray, and the like -- you might already be familiar with SouthBridge, the still-under-construction condo, shopping and dining complex brought to us by Fred Unger, the man behind Lon's at the Hermosa Inn and T. Cook's at the Royal Palms.

The entire project isn't scheduled to be completed until this fall, but soon, at least some of the scaffolding and barricades will be cleared away for the mid-May debut of THE FOODBAR, the first of seven upscale restaurants planned for the area.

***Important note: I'm not screaming at you -- the restaurant's name really is written in caps.***

THE FOODBAR will be a salad and sandwich kind of place, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to go or to eat in. Allan Schanbacher, formerly the executive chef and food stylist for Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine, has just been appointed as executive chef. His background includes consulting for local restaurants such as Chelsea's Kitchen and Bloom, and working in New York City for Eli Zabar, Dean & Deluca, and others.

Brian Lewis: Soon heading to France to enhance his super-chef powers

This week’s splashiest foodie news is the somewhat sudden departure of chef de cuisine Brian Lewis from his post at Vu – the fine dining destination at the Hyatt Scottsdale Gainey Ranch, which I reviewed in my New Times column only a few weeks ago.

I totally loved Lewis’s ultra-creative, elegantly presented dishes, and felt more than a pang of sadness (not to mention insatiable hunger) at the thought of our scene losing a talent like him.

Good thing he immediately put me right at ease, then, when we had a chance to chat earlier today.

“I’m definitely gonna stay here. I love it here,” he assured me.

So what went down at the Hyatt?

“They’re gonna close Vu for a little more than four months because they’re renovating the other restaurants there,” he explained. The other restaurants’ daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner operations will temporarily be based out of Vu’s kitchen.

Lewis didn’t see himself sticking it out for the interim, so he submitted his resignation, which was just finalized this week. “We had a great year, and I would’ve liked to have a great second year. But at least the split was 100 percent amicable,” he added.

In about three weeks, Lewis will be heading to Europe to work in the south of France and Brittany for a month. After that, he plans to do a culinary tour of the States – you know, a cross-country eating and drinking orgy -- for research purposes, of course.

Then he’ll “come back hitting it hard,” he said, returning to the Valley to start a new venture.

“Thankfully, I’ve got something brewing,” Lewis said, holding off on further details at the moment. “There are two things I’m considering here that are just dynamic and really suit me.”

Aw, c’mon Brian, you can tell me…

“Well, I can say that it’s something I intend to be on a national level,” Lewis told me, promising that we’ll be hearing more from him – and soon.

Amen to that.

Courtesy of Scottsdale Culinary Festival

Hail to the chef: Kevin Binkley gets gets props from the Culinary Hall of Fame

Tomorrow marks the start of the 29th annual Scottsdale Culinary Festival, and it's looking like one hell of a foodie marathon.

What sounds like a six-day blowout is actually more than a dozen different events under the festival umbrella. The James Beard "Out of the House" dinner and reception starts things off tomorrow night at the Westin Kierland Resort, and while its $275 price of admission makes it a splurge, there's plenty in the way of affordable parties, too. A series of Mixologist happy hours -- at Axis/Radius on Tuesday, Kazimierz on Wednesday, and the Hotel Valley Ho on Thursday -- are $35 apiece, and admission to Saturday and Sunday's Great Arizona Picnic is only five bucks.

Congrats to the Culinary Hall of Fame Award-winners, who'll be feted on Thursday at the Fairmont, but who've already been announced: Culinary Ambassadors The Thunderbirds, Culinary Media Masters Kim Laurie and Don Sandler (hosts of Culinary Confessions on KXAM), and Culinary Rock Star, er, Chef Extraordinaire Kevin Binkley.

Just in time for First Friday comes Bar Smith, a new restaurant/hangout/watering hole that's taken over that spot on Washington that housed the short-lived Taste of N'Awlins, and before that, Oregano's. The place has been open a few weeks now, but last night was the grand opening.

I haven't had a chance to stop by yet -- and admittedly, I'm still wary of all the construction delays over there -- but I hope it turns out to be a nice place for a bite. Chef Patrick Boll's menu offerings look like the kind of all-American fare that would go nicely with a beer.

The "Pot 'O' Pork," with chile verde, Oaxaca cheese and tortillas sounds like something I could go for right now, but alas, I'm stuck in the office and can't bear the thought of eating another vending machine granola bar...

Rarely do I feel like attacking another local writer's work in public -- usually I just share my criticisms with friends and fellow journalists, in private.

But come on. How can a story that contains this sentence in the lede -- "Does anyone hear Phoenix and think yum?" -- make it on to the front page of the daily paper?

Well, it's not just the writing -- about some collective, bourgeois, J Crew-wearing "we," natch -- that bugs me. The sentiment behind it bothers me way more. I am just not buying the whole notion that Phoenix foodies are fickle, and that it's "discouraging" to local chefs. And I know I'm not the only person who laughed out loud when they read it.

Before I even poured myself a cup of coffee this morning, my sweetie handed me the Republic and told me I had to check out this ridiculous piece. We especially got a kick out of the list of former Phoenix chefs who've "moved on" -- an extremely outdated list of luminaries, I must say -- and those who are "up-and-comers."

Hello, James McDevitt from Hapa? That dude left ages ago, and Methode Bistro opened up in that spot last year. (This reminds me of an incident I had with the "new" owner of Hapa four years ago -- you have to read this piece: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-06-19/news/spiked/ And the latter half of this: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-07-03/news/spiked/)

And I'm sure Nobuo Fukuda of Sea Saw -- who's been a culinary rock star in this city for years -- would be insulted to be referred to as a newcomer. After all, he got his "Top 10 Best New Chefs in America" nod from Food + Wine mag a year before Mary Elaine's departing chef Bradford Thompson did, and Thompson was apparently the only news hook in the article.

By the way, considering how rarified Mary Elaine's is, can anybody really call Thompson our mascot? How many people have actually eaten there? Chris Bianco got his Beard award, too, but I'm sure he's served a much larger, more diverse cross-section of the dining public.

One of my friends -- she of "nerd alert" fame -- emailed me first thing this morning with the funniest rant I've read in ages:

"phx IS a food town..there are SHIT loads of killer, highly respected restaurants here that have been around for years and years : ranchopinot, for one. barrio cafe. pizzeria bianco is going on 10 years fer chrissake. tricks. richardsons. the list goes on....we have no 'food tradition'..wtf? as if sonoran fare doesn't count? someone should tell the people who've been here for thousands of years...the idiot that wrote that article should be pimp slapped..quoting the toolbox from fox restaurants? he can blow me..i hate fox concept joints, they blow!!"

Why didn't Jaimee Rose interview Peter Kasperski? Oh, probably because he'd blow her whole premise out of the water. I can't imagine what kind of cow he's having, if he's even read the thing. The Scottsdale-based indie restauranteur is one of the most ardent proponents of the Valley's way-underrated culinary scene, and I couldn't agree with him more. This Cowboy Ciao newsletter says it all.

And doesn't Jaimee read Chowhound? Actually, I know she must, because she posted about cupcakes before she went and wrote a big feature about them.

Anyway, take a look at Chowhound and tell me that Phoenix foodies aren't as obsessed and opinionated and as fiercely proud of our restaurant scene as any New Yorker would be about Big Apple joints.

I've bitched about Phoenix as much as anybody, but one thing I've never complained about is the restaurants here. Sure, downtown certainly needs more in the way of good restaurants -- or any restaurants, for that matter. (We need to lure somebody like Kasperski down here, or else clone Matt Pool.) Look around the whole Valley, though, and there are all kinds of interesting places to eat, and so many creative people cooking up a storm.

As for chefs leaving the Valley for bigger cities? Who cares -- turnover is inevitable, and it only means new talent's on its way in. Why not focus on that? Why not celebrate the fact that even Phoenix's most elite dining establishments are a hell of a lot more accessible and affordable than comparable eateries in Frisco or NYC? Those cities' best restaurants have chef departures and meltdowns all the time, but I doubt their local writers are calling it a crisis.

People are spoiled here, and they don't even realize it!

Time will tell whether this fancy new blog software makes my life better (oh god I hope it's spam-free!!), but so far, the only thing that's changed is my URL: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/ The old one still works, though.

Slow and low -- that is the tempo

Slow Food's Phoenix chapter hosted its "Slow Food is Local -- Farm Tour and Harvest Dinner" yesterday, and unfortunately I was out of town. But the next best thing to being there is having a dear friend who's not only obsessed with food but happy to recap the event in glorious detail. I'm a long way from being hungry, but her email made my mouth water. Thought I'd share it with you:

"yesterday at the farm was rocking good....the mcclendons are quite possibly the kindest family i have met in a long long time. bob is grandfatherly and paternal and you just want to give him a hug. i'm in awe of how hard he works. its inspiring to hear him talk about all of
the tomatoes he grows and how excited he is about microgreens. i think my best memory of the day is him holding some salad to the light and saying with a huge smile 'just LOOK at that arugula!!'...his wife is a hoot, a steady stream of laughs from her, she made beautiful flower arrangements from calendula and carrots, it was really cool...

and then back to sahuaro ranch for the hoe down....a whole roasted pig, roasted leg of navajo churro lamb, braised lamb, and then a giant table of sides made from fresh local produce...local beer, local root beer....belinda's pickles on each table...awesome coffee, fiji bottled water handed out, and then the most killer desserts... seriously i felt like i needed a wheelchair to get to my car afterwards...i loved every second...."

Truffle season is behind us, but foodies who like to plan ahead (waaay ahead) should get in on this: trees inoculated with French black truffles. There's a year lead-time, and it would take a few years to produce truffles, but it'd be worth it just to harvest your very own little aromatic morsels. (I'm already prepared -- my snorty pet English bulldog can be my truffle pig!) They've even inoculated hazelnut trees, so you can harvest nuts while you're at it.

It might be a pipe dream to think any of this would work here in the desert, but please let me hold on to the fantasy...