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Back in 2006, I wrote a post criticizing the Ahwatukee Foothills News for their Best of Ahwatukee list. The winners in almost all categories were well known chain restaurants, leading me to wonder whether it was the paper pandering to their advertisers, or the case that people in Ahwatukee just had no taste.

You'll understand then why I became completely infuriated when I came across the Arizona Republic's 2008 Reader's and Critic's Choice Awards for Best Dining & Food. While I can say that the critic's awards were all within the realm of possibility (although I find some of the categories odd), the Reader's Choice awards were completely appalling. By an amazing happenstance, Oreganos's Pizza Bistro (no link, their site requires an annoying ActiveX control, which is a possible security hazard) won 11 out of 31 categories. That's right. Not only did they win best pizza, but also best Italian, best sandwich, best dessert, best family owned, best for a first-date, best local treasure, best takeout, best patio dining, best worth the wait and best quick (non-fast) food. How the heck do you win both best quick and best worth the wait? I don't even know where to start with this. If Oregano's had simply won best pizza, I could have lived with that, although I would have personally disagreed. However, winning 11 out of 31 categories, some of them totally ridiculous completely smacks of ballot-stuffing. Come on AZ Republic, wake up! Learn how to run a poll. I've never lived in or visited another major city with such a crappy (and consistently crappy) reader's choice awards.

Just so you can see the full list for yourself, here it is, along with some snarky commentary from me:

• Best Dessert: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - I know people like the pizza cookie, but come on. There are some seriously talented pastry chefs in the valley, and this is the best that people could come up with?
• Best Breakfast: Crackers & Co. - never been there, so I can't argue with this one.
• Best Indian Restaurant: Indian Maharaja Palace - Indian food in the valley is mediocre at best.
• Best Pizza: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - If this is the will of the people, fine. However, there is much better to be found as you can see from the runner-up list.
• Best Neighborhood Mexican: Carolina's Mexican Food - This makes sense.
• Best Bakery: Wicked Witch Bakery - Works for me, although I find the bakery selection in the valley to be seriously lacking.
• Best Family-owned Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - it is a family owned restaurant.
• Best Late-Night Eats: Fez - Couldn't agree more. Excellent food all the way through closing.
• Best Place for a First Date: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - if someone took me here for a first date, it would also be the last date.
• Best Salsa: Macayo's - WTF?!!?
• Best Sushi: Ra See best salsa!
• Best Restaurant 'Worth the Wait': Oregano's Pizza Bistro - with long waits both at lunch and on weekends, Oregano's is definitely popular. However, I can't say it's really worth the wait.
• Best Wine Selection: D'Vine Bistro & Wine Bar - Been there and wasn't that impressed. If wine selection is really the criteria, then how could a place like Cowboy Ciao (even though I hate how their wine list is organized), or Kazimierz not win?
• Best Barbecue: Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que - very hot topic. My pick would be Joe's Real BBQ, but that's just me.
• Best Local Treasure: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - Seriously now. Local treasure? Can you say huh?
• Best Chinese: P. F. Chang's China Bistro - Good Chinese isn't great in the valley, but we do have better than P. F. Chang's, and I don't mean Pei Wei.
• Best Place for Takeout: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - NO!
• Best Non-Chain Hamburger: Zipps Sports Grill - Oh boy. It's a typical bar burger. It isn't bad, but it's by far not the best. Both Delux and Chuckbox should easily have been at the top of the list.
• Best Ice Cream/Frozen Novelty: Maui Wowi - Wowi Maui. Good job.
• Best Middle Eastern Restaurant: Haji-Baba - Very popular and supplies most of the rest of the middle eastern/Mediterranean restaurants in the area.
• Best Italian Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - It's a pizza place with a handful of other Italian dishes! There are many, many more Italian restaurants in the valley that are far superior.
• Best Sandwich: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This is such a broad category. In many other cities they would break this one out. Mention this wind to a dozen of your friends and see how many of them react with "are you kidding me?"
• Best Restaurant to Splurge: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar - it's definitely $$$, but for the money, I'd rather go to Kai.
• Best Quick (Non-Fast) Food: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This one defies logic. Considering the long waits that are a staple of Oregano's, I don't see how you can read this one with a straight face. Even when you do finally get a table, it's often a long wait for the food!
• Best Steakhouse: Donovan's Steak & Chop House - I think you'll find a lot of people divided on this one.
• Best Romantic Restaurant: The Melting Pot - Fondue can definitely be romantic, however, for overall atmosphere, there are better choices.
• Best Pub with Grub: Zipps Sports Grill - For the love of all things! Four Peaks, Sonoran, and about ten other places come to mind before I would have ever thought to myself "hey Zipp's!"
• Best Patio Dining: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - The AZ republic actually got this right in their commentary on the win when they wrote "Located all over the Valley, with patios overlooking parking lots, streets and walls, it's hard to say what, exactly, it was about the outdoor dining spaces at the various Oregano's that azcentral.com voters found so alluring."
• Best Health Food Store: Trader Joe's - I love Trader Joe's, and so does everyone else.
• Best Sunday Brunch: T. Cook's - There is talent there, although the execution can be spotty.
• Best Thai Restaurant: Pink Pepper Thai Cuisine - NO WAY IN HELL. Swaddee, Maylee's, Yuppha, and many more should be at the top of this list.

It's hard to get people to take Arizona seriously as a foodie destination when this is the best we can come up with.

Google recently released a new feature of their popular Google Maps application called My Maps. Essentially, it's a way to create customized Google Maps without any programming. In about 10 minutes, I was able to create a map of all Sushi restaurants in the Phoenix Metro area. Check it out:

Phoenix Metro Sushi Restaurants (Google Maps)

Driving down Elliot Road the other day, Pere and I noticed that Sonoma Chicken Roasters had gone out of business and been replaced by a Guamanian restaurant called Island Roots Guam Cuisine. I made a mental note, and decided to give the place a visit soon. Soon came sooner rather than later. Today, Moody and I headed there for lunch.

The interior hadn't changed much from when the place was the Sonoma Chicken Roasters. It had the same bright, clean interior with lots and lots of space, the only real change being the addition of island memorabilia adorning the walls and counter. We were promptly greeted at the door and seated at a table right in between two other tables of diners. This seemed a little odd given that the place is huge and was otherwise empty. Before we had even sat down, our waiter asked if he could bring us anything to drink. Not having had a chance to look the menu over, we both ordered waters.

I think it's hard to say that Guamanian cuisine has a distinct identity of it's own. Given it's location (lying in the Pacific between Japan/Korea, Hawaii, and the Philippines), it borrows heavily from those countries as well as Spain and Mexico. The menu at Island Roots reflects this with dishes like lumpia, pancit, and adobo (Filipino); kalbi and bulgogi (Korean); and Spam musubi from Hawaii. Before we had a chance to look the menu fully over, our waiter returned with our waters and asked if we were ready to order. A few minutes more, and we were.

We started things off with an oder of the lumpia. They came out piping hot and were well fried. The sauce was tangy sweet and offered a nice balance to the meat and veggie filling. For entrees, Moody went with the chicken adobo while I had the Portuguese sausage with fried eggs. Moody's adobo was authentic Filipino and contained several pieces of chicken thigh and leg still on the bone, with skin as well as two scoops of red rice. When Moody asked the waiter what red rice was, his reply was that it was just more flavorful. I think it would have helped if he had mentioned that it was colored with annatto. Moody said the adobo was very good, although there was a fairly high ratio of scraps to meat. The Portuguese sausage plate I had was really tasty. The sausage was nicely grilled, and went perfectly with my over-medium eggs. The annatto in the rice gave it a nice orange color (more so than red), and the rice had good flavor, although I wasn't able to determine where it came from (perhaps bacon?) as annatto is relatively flavorless. Next time, I'd like to try out the Spam musubi. I also hear they have Poke on the weekend, a Hawaiian favorite of mine that I'd like to try their rendition of.

Overall, the meal was decent, and I would definitely recommend Island Roots - especially to Filipinos who find the options for authentic Filipino dishes in the valley to be lacking. I would, however, like to see Island Roots work on their service. I know it's a family run business, but there's just no excuse for lax and uninformed service these days. Given the large size of the restaurant, and the relatively emptiness of the place during the lunch rush, I have to wonder how long they'll be able to stay in business. If Island Roots is going to survive, they are going to have to polish things up a bit.

Many readers of this blog know I abhor the lack of decent "neighborhood" restaurants back in the Ahwatukee area where I live. I love the area I live in, but the lack of decent places to eat drives me up the wall. One place I had been meaning to try forever, but just never seemed to make it to is Shinbay, a small Japanese Sushi-Kaiseki restaurant hidden in the back of an obscure strip mall. What got me motivated to actually check it out was a small blurb in my local community paper noting that they would be closing at the end of the year. My friend Tim made us reservations for four for Monday night. Pere was worried that since they were planning to close at the end of the month, we might not be getting the chef's best effort. I didn't think that would be the case given my experience with Japanese culture.

Upon entering the restaurant, my first impression was "wow, this place is pretty sparse". There were a few pub style tables jammed in a corner, with the rest of the seating along a long "L" shaped bar. Behind the bar was a small open kitchen. I don't mind sitting at the sushi bar when I'm alone or dining with one other person, but for a party of four, it doesn't make for the best conversation. Luckily for us, we were the only people in the entire restaurant, so we were able to sit two people on each side of the corner of the bar and still sort of face each other. From what I've read on the Shinbay website, they don't seat more than six people per seating, with a total of 2-4 seatings a night. It's kind of funny that the bar is setup to seat about 14 or so people, considering.

The place is run entirely by husband and wife team Shinji and Kumiko Kurita, with him doing all of the cooking, solo, and her handling the service and reception duties. On the night we were there, there was also a guy I assumed was an apprentice, as all he did the entire night was stand there with his arms folded watching the chef do his thing.

After we took our seats, we were promptly brought hot towels. This is traditional in Japanese restaurants, but something that's sorely lacking in most Valley establishments. After wiping our hands, we ordered drinks. Tim and I both ordered 6oz carafes of Ginban Daiginjo sake. Tim had had it before and recommended it. It turned out to be fantastic. Completely smooth and moderate in dryness without any overly floral tones. Unfortunately, it was also the only sake that was by the glass only and not available by the bottle. That got a bit expensive at $12 a glass when I ordered three glasses over the course of our meal.

After drinks, we were served small bowls of salted edamame. This was a nice starter for the meal ahead and did a good job of keeping us from gnawing our arms off while the chef prepared our first course.

Pere, Tim and I all had the Omakase (translates as "trust", or "entrusting" and is the Japanese version of a chef's tasting), so we didn't know for sure what we would be getting. Camille opted to go à la carte for here meal, and started off with a sampling of sushi. The first course of our tasting consisted of three items. The first was monkfish pate with daikon. It looked just like a standard mammal liver pate, but had a less organy (if that's a word) taste. It was very good. The second item was lightly cooked salmon with crispy skin. I love crispy salmon skin, and this rendition did it justice. The final item was thinly sliced fluke with ponzu. The ponzu was bursting with citrus flavor, leading me to believe it might be homemade. By the time I finished the last bite of the first course, I couldn't wait for the next.

Our second course was a sashimi course consisting of uni (sea urchin), giant clam, fluke, and three slices of the most perfect looking blue fin tuna I'd ever seen. I'd had uni twice in the past, and both times I found it completely foul tasting. I was a bit hesitant to try it again, but this was Omakase, so I figured I would trust the chef and see what he could do with uni that my two previous sushi chefs could not. I was hooked on the first bite. The uni was amazing. It was smooth, buttery, and totally sublime. I now understand what people who say they love uni are talking about. I'd never had giant clam before. It was one of those things I'd always seen on sushi menus, but just didn't feel like ordering. This turned out to be another pleasant surprise. It was similar to (good) octopus in texture. Firm, but not overly chewy and had a pleasant, lightly brined taste. The tuna tasted as good as it looked. It was melt in your mouth soft and velvety. I only wish every piece of tuna I've had tasted that way.

The third course was white fish in hot oil. The specific fish was okoze, and it was served super thin sliced with scallions and drizzled with ginger-sesame hot oil. I know I've used the word amazing in this review several times, but here's another instance where it just fits. The dish was just bursting with flavor. So much so, that this has to be one of my all-time favorite fish dishes. We were still licking our lips when the fourth course arrived. This course was a mushroom course consisting of two kinds of mushrooms over a piece of steamed Chilean sea bass. The mushrooms had a nice concentrated flavor and complimented the sea bass very well.

The fifth course turned out to be clams served in broth. There were about six small clams in a cup of broth. The clams reminded me of steamers, and were very good. The broth, though, was even better. Very flavorful, indeed. It was at this point that I started to slow down and went from hoping there were still several more courses to wondering if the procession of goodness would ever stop.

Luckily for me, the next course turned out to be the last (sans dessert). For that final main course, we had sushi. There wasn't anything particularly inspirational about the sushi I had at Shinbay, but it was extremely fresh. If I had to pick a course that left me wanting a bit, this was it. There were four pieces on the dish - toro (fatty tuna), scallop, uni, and fluke. They were all good, but nothing really stood out and made me say "wow!" like the sashimi did.

Dessert consisted of a small bowl of fresh fruit. Nothing special or fancy here, but it seemed like a perfectly light ending to an immensely memorable meal. As we finished our fruit, the proprietors were busy cleaning up and shutting down the restaurant. It turned out we were the only seating of the night. We struck up a conversation with Shinji and let him know it was a shame he was closing down. He mentioned that they were looking into reopening somewhere in Scottsdale at a later date, which would probably benefit them as far as exposure goes. Scottsdale's a much more visible location than the strip mall in Ahwatukee, but the rent's also a lot more, so I wonder how the 6 person per seating rule would hold up. Regardless of the logistics, I hope things work out for Shinji and his wife. He's a very talented chef, and it would be a shame to see his talent squandered.

Pere and I spent last weekend up in the Sonoma region of California. Instead of our usual MO of flying into San Francisco and driving up, we decided to try Oakland airport instead and save a few minutes on the drive. Since we arrived in Oakland at 7:30, we figured we should probably find something to eat sooner rather than latter since we had no idea how long it would take us to get to Healdsburg.

Moody had mentioned a sushi place called Kirala that he really liked in Berkeley, so we decided to see if we could find it on the way. I texted Moody for the address and phone number of the place. One quick phone call and we were on our way. We actually found Kirala without too much trouble, even though it was after dark, we had no map, and I had never been to Berkeley before.

When we arrived, it was just after 8:30, and the place was packed. Rather than wait for a table, we opted for the last 2 seats at the sushi bar. As busy as the place was, our waitress came over immediately with menus and took our drink order. Since I was driving, I opted for green tea while Pere went with a Kirin. We had decided beforehand that we were just going to have sushi, so we started ordering from the sushi chef right away. We started with a caterpillar roll, shrimp tempura roll, and one of the day's special rolls, crab with asparagus. We also ordered tobiko (flying fish roe), unagi (fresh water eel), and inari (fried bean curd). All of the sushi was very fresh and well put together, especially given how busy they were. When we finished our initial order, I wanted a little more, so we asked for an order of Kani (crab meat). That did it. After polishing that off, we were completely stuffed.

I really enjoy watching sushi chefs work, and the skill exhibited by our chef at Kirala was no exception. One thing I found interesting, though, was his choice of knives. Our chef did all of his work not with a traditional set of Japanese knives but rather a single European style chef's knife. He used a Wusthof Classic 8" chef's knife to be exact.

Kirala proved to be a good start to our trip. If you happen to be in the Berkeley area and find yourself craving sushi, I'd recommend you give it a shot.

I'm woefully behind on my posts lately. I'm traveling back East these next few weeks, so hopefully, I'll get some time to catch up...

Last Monday, Adam, Nathan, Moody and I went out to my favorite Sushi place for lunch, Shimogamo in Tempe. Shimogamo is run by a Japanese man who opened the place because he was unable to find decent Japanese food in the valley when he came here for business.

Like everything else in Phoenix, Shimogamo is located in a strip mall. However, the interior is nicely designed, with a sushi bar, main dining room, semi-private back room, and I think a private back room as well.

I usually come to Shimogamo for dinner, and eat nothing but sushi (it's that good), but lately we've been coming to take advantage of the lunch specials.

On this visit, I ordered the chicken katsu tray. It came with a panko-breaded fried chicken cutlet (the Japanese use panko as opposed to traditional bread crumbs for the breading), miso soup, salad, rice, and pickle. This is a decent amount of food for $7.95. Not being able to help myself, I also ordered a Shimogamo roll, one of my favorite rolls there. It's a shrimp tempura roll that has very thin slices of lemon as well. The first time I had it, I was a bit skeptical, but it really works well.

My katsu was very good, as always. They serve it with a type of barbeque sauce and wasabi, which work equally well.

Adam had the same thing I did, but Moody decided to go with the chicken teriyaki. He's pretty particular about his teriyakis, generally despising the stuff that's been simmering in syrupy and sickeningly sweet goop all day. Luckily, the teriyaki at Shimogamo was nothing like that. The chicken was very tender, with just the right amount of teriyaki. I may have to give it a try on the next visit.

I'll have to come back for the full sushi treatment soon, as I'm dying to write about it. Shimogamo is definitely the best sushi (that I've had) anywhere in the valley so far.