PFA (Phoenix foodies anonymous.)

Big announcement tomorrow at 1:30 for Counter Culture. Press conference with the Mayor of Tempe and City Council. 6th & Mill. Be there!!!

Many thanks to Jose Gonzalez and the rest of the staff at Phoenix New Times for the following, well composed piece on Counter Culture's efforts to reopen on Mill Avenue.

Phoenix New Times: Chow Bella: Counter Culture Cafe Returns with a Tempe Twist

...hopefully this helps us attract the start-up capital we need to push this out of the realm of "strong possibility" and into that of "definite reality."

email: andres.yuhnke@gmail.com for further information.

There is a very real possibility that Counter Culture will be reopening in the near future. This time on Mill Avenue in a 6100 square feet location with a full kitchen. We will also be a full venue with a real stage and sound system, a bar and a retail location specializing in locally produced art music and fashion. It's time for us freaks to take back Mill! Think positive thoughts, help us generate some buzz and spread the good word!

ps: We have an amazing opportunity here and are currently negotiating free rent for our first year, but we need help: partners, sponsors and investors. Even small amounts of capital will help, and while there is no such thing as a risk-free investment, free rent for a year, complete commercial kitchen, in between a large parking garage and the MADCAP Theaters, at the base of two (currently under construction) condo towers and walking distance from the nation's largest public research university (asu) makes this a no-brainer! please spread the word and contact andres.yuhnke@gmail.com with any interest. thanks!

Years ago here in Phoenix, there was a chain of Japanese fast food restaurants called Tokyo Express. They had expanded to seven locations valleywide, and I worked at one of them around 1994 for about two years I think. I really liked them, they had a fantastic teriyaki and was the only place I knew of that served eel bowls.

Thing was, the owner, a guy named Charlie, was never satisfied just to have a successful business. He always wanted to be the best of everything, so the menu was expanding to offer new things over time, and he eventually shut all but two locations down, and started up a new casual dining place, that he named Eastwind.

Eastwind is an upscale-looking establishment, but has it's roots with Tokyo Express. It used to be that you could come in and order whatever and take it back to your table or to go or whatever, and differences between them and TE was only a slightly more diverse menu and everything was served on nice plates instead of styrofoam. Now they have changed to a full service restaurant. They have kept the original teriyaki recipe, but the rest has evolved into asian fusion cooking. Now there are many sushi options, egg rolls, some Thai noodles and various side dishes. Variety is great, however what Charlie has done wrong, in order to appeal to the largest number of customers possible, is lamed down the quality of everything.

I'll give you an example. Today I ordered the Ebi Ten Udon, which is Japanese for "Big bowl of fail". For starters, it's not a very big bowl, and comes with just two shrimp for $8. You don't get a lot of noodles, and the broth is not made using traditional Udon tsuyu (soup seasoning), but their own recipe from bonito seasoning. The reason they don't use tsuyu is because it contains MSG, and they are against using MSG in the restaurant. That's a problem, because real Japanese people adore MSG, and the absence of it makes the flavor weak.

Anyways, if you're in town and want some good teriyaki, seek out the original Tokyo Express. Eastwind is really headed downhill. Hopefully Charlie will figure out what he did wrong and get back to basics. Until then I'm staying away.

Anyone have recommendations for non Chain americana (burgers, steaks, chops) grub in awatukee area?

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/article…

First Krispy Kreme makes their return, now this!!

I want to recommend a BBQ place we ate at yesterday. It's called Bobby-Q, just south of Dunlap @ I-17.  It's where Bobby McGees used to be if you've ever been there. They've completely remodeled the place, no more claustrophobic rooms, it's one big dining area now.

We got a sampler platter called Hog Heaven, and it was really fantastic. It's got St. Louis ribs, chicken, pulled pork and brisket on there. Easily enough for 3 hungry people, maybe 4.  On Sundays you get that for $25, which is like $10 off the regular price.

Price was not the good point, this is really fantastic food. Probably the best BBQ I've had anywhere. Also they have an appetizer called Q-rolls, that was very good too. It's like pulled pork in some kind of wrapper, sorta like an egg roll but not quite.

Ok, so my favorite chinese buffet, the China Harvest buffet at the corner of 27th ave and Cactus, has stopped serving crawfish. I pretty much went just to eat those, so they are off my top eats list. 

Does anybody know if the Fuji Buffet, I think that's the name of it, at Camelback and 16th Street still has them? It's a little out of the way but I might do them on a weekend or something. 

Anybody else know other places for crawdads? They used to have them at the Great Wall at 59th ave & Bell, but I haven't been there in ages. 

-EDIT- They have them again. Yaaaaaaay!

After hearing good things about it for quite a while, my wife and I went to Sapporo in North Scottsdale last night.

Bad. Just bad.

Having done my research, I knew it was going to be loud. It was, but I didn't mind since I knew in advance.

The food itself was, for the most part, quite good.

My wife had a variety of sushi and rolls, all of which were done quite nicely.

For appetizers we shared an order of lobster dumplings and a sampler of coconut shrimp, mongolian short ribs and tempura chicken. All were very nice.

My entree was the crab crusted mahi mahi. It was a bit overcooked and could have used more sauce, but was still on the whole acceptable.

What was not acceptable was everything else about the operation.

We had 7:00 reservations. What they don't tell you is that they don't actually take reservations. It's more like call-ahead seating from the old Red Lobster days. Despite being 10 minutes early for our reservation, we still ended up waiting more than 30 minutes for a table, including watching another set of guests who arrived after us get seated because they were specifically waiting for a 2-top to open for us.

There was some counter space next to the table that hadn't been bussed. There were two used napkins, an empty beer bottle and a dirty glass next to us through the whole meal.

We sat 10 minutes before our waiter showed up, and only saw him when he took our food and dessert orders.

My wife's dinner arrived a full 10 minutes before mine. Since her sushi choices needed two plates, those also arrived separately and several minutes apart.

After ordering dessert (the creme brulee cheesecake - very good) we had to wait another 5 minutes for utensils.

I understand that a popular restaurant is going to be busy on a Saturday night. However, the sheer volume of details unacceptably attended to makes Sapporo a place to avoid. It's a rare experience that the food is the only thing a restaurant does right, but that's the case here. It might be worth a try at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday, but it'll be quite a while before my disappointment fades enough to give it that try.

Looking to try new places as often as we can until our son is born (currently we have no kids except the one incubating). All types across the board, spicy and non. My weaknesses are sushi (cooked these days), Indian, Afghani, and Thai, and Vietnamese. My husband loves Thai but is kind of a snob as he lived in Thailand for 2 years, so recommends from people who've lived in Thailand are especially welcome.

Cross-posted to the phx az community.