{"id":10218,"date":"2024-03-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10218"},"modified":"2024-03-21T23:18:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T03:18:40","slug":"arizona-eats-march-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/22\/arizona-eats-march-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona eats, March 2024."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So the most interesting meal I had on the trip wasn\u2019t because of the food, but because two days after I ate at Cocina Madrigal<\/a>, a kitchen fire broke out and closed the restaurant indefinitely. There were no injuries, and the structure was intact, so I\u2019m hoping they won\u2019t be closed for long. It\u2019s a taqueria and tequileria that just does what it does exceptionally well \u2013 scratch tacos, enchiladas, and a few other items with very high-quality inputs. The tropical fish tacos came with a roasted salsa, a slaw of coconut, cabbage, and mango; and a mild chipotle aioli, and the fish was grilled, not fried, so I stumbled into the most healthful meal I had all week. I think the fish was mahi-mahi, but they didn\u2019t identify it on the menu; it was very fresh, whatever it was, as were all of the vegetables, and the corn tortillas were some of the best I\u2019ve had. Nana in Durham has long held that particular crown for fresh corn tortillas, but they have some competition here \u2013 these were still soft and tender even with some browning from the grill. I\u2019m not even sure I\u2019d even try anything else on the menu. Good luck to Chef Leo Madrigal in reopening soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cocina Chiwas<\/a> is the new full-service restaurant from Nadia Holguin and Armando Hernandez, the owners of the wildly successful Tacos Chiwas mini-chain in the Valley, and this rivals Bacanora and Barrio Caf\u00e9 as the best high-end Mexican restaurant in the Valley. I went there with a pair of friends, so I tried quite a few dishes, with zero misses in the group. The elote is straightforward, but also a perfect exemplar of the popular grilled-corn dish. The asado de puerco<\/em> (pork spare ribs) come with a rich, earthy chile colorado sauce along with beans, rice, and tortillas, but honestly I would put that sauce on anything. The oysters come with a jamaica and habanero mignonette, less spicy than you\u2019d expect, more like a strong red wine vinaigrette because the astringency of the hibiscus. The \u201cchile con queso\u201d was not what I expected \u2013 it was roasted peppers, tomatoes, and onions with a topping of two mild white Mexican cheeses, and even as someone who\u2019s not a huge fan of cow\u2019s-milk cheese, I was all over this because the vegetables were so good and the cheese was an accent rather than the dominant flavor. And the carrot-cake tres leches with candied pecans and a berry compote was superb \u2013 by that point, I\u2019d had enough to eat and drink that I needed a dessert with some punch to get through, and this offered it with plenty of sweetness plus some tang from the berries and bitterness from the cajeta (caramel) sauce. If I have a nit to pick, I didn\u2019t love either cocktail I tried \u2013 their takes on a Manhattan and an Old-fashioned, both of which were fine but didn\u2019t improve on the originals. Both drinks had a smoky flavor that overtook the rest of the ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Espiritu Mesa<\/a> is the new East Valley outpost from the folks behind Bacanora, which might be the best restaurant in the Valley based on locals\u2019 opinions plus my one time eating there. The drinks here were well ahead of the food, for better or worse. Their ceviche changes often, so what I got may not be what you get if you go this week, but I will vouch for the freshness of the fish and a tangy soy-lime base; it came with sliced radish and a lot of cilantro. The aguacate was just a big ol\u2019 thing of guacamole, served with enormous chicharrones that were really hard to break or chew. I\u2019d either skip that or ask for tortilla chips. You could have made a coat out of all of the pig\u2019s skin on that plate. You\u2019re really here for the drinks \u2013 you get a little book of their various signature cocktails, with lists of ingredients, descriptions of the flavors, and ratings by bitterness, booziness, sourness, and sweetness. I had two cocktails, the Maduro and the Desu Notu. The Maduro has charanda (a white rum from Mexico), reposado tequila, cr\u00e8me de banana, cocchi Americano (a bitter aperitif), and blackstrap and chocolate bitters. The Desu Noto (Death note) also has charanda and cr\u00e8me de banana, along with bacanora, an agave-based spirit similar to mezcal, along with palm sugar and chocolate bitters. I preferred the Desu Noto, which wasn\u2019t as sweet and let the flavors of the two liquors come through more, although I\u2019d gladly have either again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vecina<\/a> calls its cuisine \u201cModern American, Latin-inspired,\u201d and I have no idea what that even means, but the food was good so they can call themselves Tralfamadorian for all I care. This was my last meal before departing, so I was trying to keep it light after eating and drinking too much all week. The ceviche was classic Peruvian-style, marinated in leche de tigre <\/em>(lime, garlic, onion, chile, fish stock) and tossed with some grilled pineapple and other veg, served with tortilla chips. I\u2019m an easy mark for ceviche as long as the fish is fresh, and this was. The charred broccoli with cashew crema, fermented honey, and Thai sauce (again, not sure what that means other than that there was definitely fish sauce involved) was a new way of serving what is probably my favorite vegetable to cook at home, something I\u2019ll try to adapt for the family. The broccolini were indeed lightly charred, but the combination of the other elements made for a sauce that was sweet, tangy, heavy on umami, and slightly fatty to cut any bitterness in the brassica itself. I had debated that versus the shaved Brussels sprouts, but that dish had dates and I have had two very odd allergic reactions to date syrup so I\u2019m a little wary of them. I made a good call here. One note – parking is scarce and you may end up in a nearby lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodori<\/a> is in a Mesa strip mall that\u2019s a sort of ASEAN of food \u2013 there\u2019s a Thai place, a Chinese place, two Japanese places, as well as this bare-bones Korean restaurant that serves various bulgogi and soft-tofu dishes. I went with some friends and we shared four dishes \u2013 a kimchi pancake, a seafood-scallion pancake, pork bulgogi, and seafood bibimbap. The seafood-scallion pancake won out for me, primarily because the kimchi pancake was so tangy and didn\u2019t have enough to balance out the spice and the sourness. The pork bulgogi was also pretty spicy but the sauce had enough sweetness and umami (there\u2019s usually soy sauce and some fermented product like gochujang<\/em> in bulgogi) that the heat didn\u2019t overtake the dish, and the pork was extremely tender. The total tab for all three of us, including some shoju and beer, was about $70 before tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m loyal to my breakfast spots \u2013 the Hillside Spot<\/a>, Crepe Bar<\/a>, and Matt\u2019s Big Breakfast<\/a>, all of which I hit while in Phoenix \u2013 but did try one new one in Ollie Vaughn\u2019s<\/a>, meeting my longtime friend (literally \u2013 I think we\u2019ve been friends for 15+ years now) Nick Piecoro there. Their sausage and biscuit sandwich, with egg, cheese, and jalape\u00f1o marmalade on a buttermilk biscuit is a tremendous amount of food, and the biscuit just fell apart by the time I was halfway through it, but I have zero regrets. They use Schreiner\u2019s sausage, the best sausage vendor in the Valley that I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lom Wong<\/a> was the one mildly disappointing meal of the trip, although it\u2019s more about my palate than the food at this acclaimed northern Thai restaurant, where many of the recipes come from the chef\u2019s extended family across Thailand. The green mango salad was pretty incredible, better than any similar dish (usually green papaya) I\u2019ve ever had, with fried shallots, toasted coconuts and peanuts, a dressing of coconut milk, lime, and fish sauce, and \u201chand-torn\u201d shrimp, which, well, I hope they were dead first? I ordered the arai kodai<\/em>, in which the server picks dishes for you based on what you indicate you do\/don\u2019t like and your spice tolerance, but even after saying mine was pretty low, I ended up with a chicken dish that had just been added to the menu, very similar to larb gai<\/em>, that tasted only of chile pepper and a little of cumin, which gave it the overall vibe of spicy dirt. I did enjoy the Three Kings cocktail, with dark rum, dry cura\u00e7ao, fernet (an Italian amaro that\u2019s very herbal), guava, palm sugar, and what I assume is a bitters from Som, founded by the chef-owner of Portland\u2019s legendary Thai restaurant Pok Pok. It\u2019s reminiscent of Caribbean rum cocktails, but far less sweet and cloying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the most interesting meal I had on the trip wasn\u2019t because of the food, but because two days after I ate at Cocina Madrigal, a kitchen fire broke out and closed the restaurant indefinitely. There were no injuries, and the structure was intact, so I\u2019m hoping they won\u2019t be closed for long. It\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[566,65,735,745,204,206,235,655,300],"class_list":["post-10218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arizona","tag-breakfast","tag-cocktails","tag-korean-cuisine","tag-mesa","tag-mexican-cuisine","tag-phoenix","tag-tempe","tag-thai-cuisine","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10219,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10218\/revisions\/10219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}