Noshing Around: Tucson dining and beyond

2005-01-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

SWF Seeks Apple Pie for Memorable Encounter by Karyn Zoldan Practically all my life I have been searching for apple pie like my bubbie (grandmother) used to make. I don’t know what made that apple pie so memorable. Both my brother and I have spent our adult lives searching for this apple pie in more modern and glorious settings to no avail. In my grandmother’s capable and experienced

2005-01-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

10 Tucson Restaurants that I Frequently Patronize by Karyn Zoldan Here are some of my favorite everyday Tucson restaurants that I enjoy and hope to keep enjoying through 2005. Most restaurants don’t have very good coffee but the Cup Café at Hotel Congress serves Arbuckle Coffee and really good omelets and other egg dishes. If you’re not too hungry the slice of bread with an egg in

2004-12-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

Charity Begins at Home with Tucson Originals by Karyn Zoldan <> Having lived in Tucson for slightly over four years, I am still amazed at how altruistic the community is. Here’s an example of what the independent restaurant association contributed: What Primavera Cooked - 2004 The third annual summer Primavera Cooks grossed $75,084 and netted over $51,000. Funds were raised by

2004-11-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

Eat, Drink and Be Happy Hour A short guide to Tucson happy hours <>By Karyn Zoldan I love happy hour: After being slumped over a keyboard trying to surf for a living, I yearn to share fabulous food and drink at affordable prices with good friends. It’s that time of day when I want to relish in my accomplishments or file away failures. Happy hour bridges the joys of cocktails with

2004-02-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

Bread and Breakfast by Karyn Zoldan While other restaurants like Subway and Picurro’s Pizza scramble to use low carb wraps and low carb pizza dough, Beyond Bread continues to elevate the status of bread. Aside from their wonderful desserts and lunches, they recently instituted a breakfast menu. On a recent morning my friend Marianne and I went there and rejoiced in the carbs. We both ordered

2004-02-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

Ode to Urban Palates by Karyn Zoldan Boutique hotel in midtown offers a gracious setting and seasonal menu at the secluded Lodge on the Desert Poets Corner is one of Tucson’s best kept secrets. It’s not a lyrical coffee house but rather a delightful midtown neighborhood within walking distance of Reid Park where all the streets are named after poets. I should know since I live here. Though I

2003-12-26T15:49:00.000-08:00

Go North She Said by Karyn Zoldan North sits on the most prime piece of La Encantada property. With excellent signage and north and south views, you can see North from Campbell just south of Skyline. That Sam Fox of Fox Concepts sure knows what he’s doing. This is the restaurant to go if you want to people watch and don’t really have a meaningful conversation with anyone. The acoustics are

2003-12-25T11:58:00.000-08:00

Bah Hamburger by Karyn Zoldan Here it is Christmas day and I’m jonesing for a hamburger. You know the kind – thick, juicy, on a grilled bun with grilled onions, a slice of tomato that tastes like a tomato and some fries with the skins left on, sprinkled with some a little spicy salt. To be washed down with a margarita or two. The thing about this town (Tucson) is very few restaurants are open

2003-11-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Pause That Refreshes by Karyn Zoldan New to the Williams Centre area is Intermezzo owned by Daniel Scordato of Vivace fame. Quite frankly it’s a welcome respite in a sea of chains like Olive Garden, TGIFriday, and Baja Fresh; and the down-home Jerry Bob’s Southern-style cooking with freshly baked white bread and bad coffee. Intermezzo means pause or refresh in Italian. Every culture except

2003-11-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

La Encantada - Part 1 by Karyn Zoldan La Encantada or the enchanted has not always been so enchanting to its nearby foothills residences. Their greatest fear was that people from everywhere else will come knocking. But time heals wounds and today at least everyone and their mothers were out shopping at La Encantada. Ask a jaded Californian about LaE and it’s not that big of a deal but ask a

2003-10-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Caffe Diva by Karyn Zoldan These days you either love or hate the word “diva”. Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, and Diana Ross come to mind. If Diana Ross was Jane Doe, her alleged Tucson DUI would have already been history and Ms. Doe would have lost her license, been doing community service, or paying a hefty fine. But I digress. Back to Caffe Diva. I personally think this restaurant has an

2003-10-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

Salad Days by Karyn Zoldan The term -salad days- used to refer to when you could not afford to put the proverbial meat and potatoes on the table. When I grew up salad was a wedge of iceberg lettuce, a slice of tomato (from the garden when we were lucky) and from the store when we were not. And homemade Thousand Island dressing consisting of equal parts of mayonnaise or that white stuff in a jar

2003-10-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

From the fire into the frying pan For ten long months, my kitchen was in remodel hell. Don’t ask but I have a few words of cautious wisdom: Home Depot sucks and never hire the lowest bidder. Shit happened more often than not. During most of that time I had access to a borrowed microwave which sat in the middle of my dining room taking up more space than my television; a refrigerator that froze

2003-10-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

Best of Tucson (Weekly) by Karyn Zoldan Yep, I wrote these for the 2003 BoT Weekly issue that had a circus-ish theme so if you see references to beared ladies and flying trapeze you comprehend my point of reference. The area code is 520 for all venues in case you’re just tuning in. READERS CHOICE Best Upscale Bar Ambiance Sullivan’s Steak House – 1785 E. River Road – 299-4275 The crossroads

2003-08-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Long live the Pope’s Pillow Okay, admit it. When Da Vinci’s changed ownership a few months ago, you were worried that the Pope’s Pillow would disappear like your favorite products sometime do at Trader Joe’s. Not so. New owner, Alberto Gallo, and chef Carlo Bruno have every intention of keeping the beloved towering dessert on the menu. Both hail most recently from Michigan where Gallo was a

2003-08-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

Body Sushi No, that’s not a typo. Body sushi is the latest craze in the L.A. catering scene. Say you have a fetish for sushi and want to do something different. If you’re from Iowa, sushi is different enough but heck this is L.A. Chef Gary Arabia of Global Cuisine Catering offers a human mannequin as your serving “dish”. Picture this -- if you will -- a very lean, young Asian woman wearing

2003-08-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

LA Food Show Manhattan Village Mall Manhattan Beach, CA The LA Food Show is a spin-off of the hugely successful California Pizza Kitchen chain. What I like about CPK is its trademark yellow/black/white crispness and the tasty trademarked chopped salads and BBQ chicken pizzas. You do know that CPK invented the hugely successful BBQ chicken pizza, didn’t you? But can the LA Food Show be equally

2003-07-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Mole in the Hole by Karyn Zoldan Just ate breakfast at the Cup Café in the historic Hotel Congress in quaint but unfashionable downtown Tucson. For three consecutive years IHOP has been voted best breakfast according to the Arizona Daily Star. Sometimes there’s no accounting for taste in this town but fortunately this gem of a place has been discovered and inhabited by the hip and hungry.

2003-07-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Seoul Food By Karyn Zoldan Ah, the smell of grilling meats greeted me at the entrance. It had been a few years since Korean food has seared my multi-ethnic-loving palate and I was ready to taste its many splendored earthy flavors again. At Takamatsu, you can choose from the Korean BBQ room, the sushi bar area, and the teppan yaki room where a chef will slice and dice and cook your food a

2003-05-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

Where There’s Smoke There’s Barbecue By Karyn Zoldan A rib tickling round-up of the Old Pueblo’s lip-smacking BBQ In the beginning there was man, meat and fire – the fixings for early barbecue. Fast forward and not much has changed except each culture and region professes to have its own unique taste veiled in secret ingredients and techniques. Just like impenetrable discussions of religion