Dishes to try at azcentral Wine & Food fest
For some, the fun of a food festival is in the surprise of discovery, arriving at the event to see what restaurants are bringing to the table this year.
But for those who like to enjoy a few days of salivating anticipation, we’ve got the goods.
Chefs are putting the final touches on their creations for azcentral Wine & Food Experience this weekend at Monterra at WestWorld of Scottsdale. We polled several of them to get a sense of what you can expect.
In the mood for something meaty? Something spicy? Something sweet? Something comforting? With more than 50 restaurants joining the fourth annual event, there will be a little bit of everything.
These are the kinds of dishes to expect:
The meaty
Slabs of beef always draw a crowd at Wine & Food Experience, and this year promises to be no exception.
Chef Jacques Qualin of J&G Steakhouse has made a habit of bringing strong beef dishes to the Grant Tasting. He’ll be offering seared tenderloin with crunchy potatoes and smoky tomato compote.
The Omni Tucson National Resort is going big, bringing an A-5 Wagyu brochette paired with a foie gras and apple torchon. And Bourbon & Bones will top white Cheddar heirloom grits with braised short rib and a splash of braising jus.
Now, beef is great, but when it comes to meats, the festival doesn’t discriminate.
Frank & Albert’s will beef up its meatloaf with chorizo and serve it with poblano polenta. The Boulders Resort and
Spa will offer a braised lamb shank with butternut caponata and a pine nut gremolata.
Meanwhile, Tanzy Restaurant will smother cavatelli with a meaty lamb sugo. And both West Alley BBQ and Frasher’s Smokehouse will load in plenty of smoked pork sliders.
The vegetarian
Vegetarians can get in on the barbecue, too. Chef Paulo Im from Obon Sushi + Bar + Ramen is making a Taiwanese steamed bun filled with red misobraised jackfruit. Topped with purple cabbage and a cilantro-lime sauce, it’s intended to play like pulled pork.
Not that vegetables need to masquerade as meat. Cafe Lalibela will offer tikil gomen, a gently spiced Ethiopian cabbage dish. And chef Tandy Peterson of The Phoenician’s Mowry & Cotton will offer blistered shishito peppers, topped with malted milk caramel, pickled onions and feta cheese.
Quiessence at The Farm at South Mountain promises a refined Parmesan soup with tempura-fried chanterelle mushrooms, smoked tomatoes and herbed agnolotti.
Gadzooks Enchiladas and Soup will serve its popular 50/50 tacos, a wheat and corn blend tortilla filled with sweet and spicy cornbread, jalapeño ranch and honey vinaigrette slaw.
The Latin
A little Latin influence seems only appropriate at an
Arizona food festival.
Barrio Queen will get things going with its street-style charred corn, drizzled with chipotle aioli, cotija cheese and guajillo.
Chef Suny Santana of Taco Chelo also is slinging street corn laced with bone marrow, as well tacos filled with carnitas, beef barbacoa or chile colorado.
Toro Latin Restaurant is planning a pair of Latin-influenced dishes, including some beef anticuchos and a quesadilla stuffed with chicken tinga.
Tommy Bahama is making mojo chicken lollipops with charred sour orange, andouille sausage, saffron plantain peas and rice and a tangerine achiote vinaigrette.
The spicy
Naturally, chile heat needn’t be limited to Latin palettes (or palates).
Cafe Lalibela will bring its doro wat, a ruddy, flavorful chicken stew built on butter and berbere — a fiery spice blend loaded with dried chiles.
Mamma Toledo’s The Pie Hole will top fresh biscuits with a family recipe for green chile pork.
West Alley BBQ and Cartwright’s Modern Cuisine are both bringing chili to the party: the former made with smoked brisket; the latter built on indigenous ingredients like wild game, tepary beans, heirloom squash and Navajo steamed corn.
Obon Sushi’s kimchi stew, for those who know their Korean cuisine, will be a play on budae-jjigae — aka “Army Stew” — loaded with Western-style meats like andouille, kielbasa and spam.
The piscine
We know seafood is flourishing in the desert, but the range of offerings at the festival will drive that home.
Smoked fish is on the menu at multiple tables.
Cartwright’s will pair smoked sockeye salmon with desert herbs and wild sumac creamed corn. Wright’s at The Biltmore puts its smoked trout atop a tostada with lime crema and smashed avocado.
On the heartier side, Bella Gusto Urban Pizzeria is making seafood arancini, while Chula Seafood tops Frites Street fries with a New Mexico green chile chowder.
Shrimp sure seem to be a favored ingredient.
They’ll arrive hot from Barrio Queen, adobo rubbed and grilled atop a tostada with black refried beans, avocado cream and spicy pickled onions.
Mowry & Cotton is treating its grilled shrimp with basil, eggplant, a black garlic ponzu and “shattered citrus” — slices of citrus fruits roasted to a crisp on the hearth and broken into shards for a tart, slightly bitter punch.
They’ll also arrive cold from J&G Steakhouse in the form of ceviche with a kelp noodle salad and chile yuzu sauce. At Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen, chef Cory Mingo treats his with a lemon vinaigrette and his popular house-made remoulade.
The comforting
Of course, not everything at azcentral Wine & Food is fancy schmancy. There are more than a few cheffed-up comfort dishes meant to be new and familiar at the same time.
Lou Malnati’s will be slinging Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Chef Adam Allison of Handlebar Diner serves up a Mexican-influenced barbacoa mac and cheese, loaded with Mexican cheeses, spiced up with chile colorado and topped with roasted lamb.
TapHouse Kitchen will serve its popular chicken and dumplings, loaded with vegetables and pulled chicken in a mustard-laced sauce. And Proof Canteen’s “Turkey Dinner In Your Hand” will do exactly what it promises, wrapping smoked turkey, Brussels sprout sage slaw and cranberry tangerine-relish into a savory hand pie.
The sweet
If you’re hoping to sample pies of the sweet variety, however, there’s plenty of that — and other sweets — as well.
Mamma Toledo’s will offer a hand pie of a different stripe, this one stuffed with apples and raspberries. Sweet Republic will be scooping yuzu ice cream and cucumber mojito sorbet.
Between Tanzy’s banana gooey cake and Frasher’s take on St. Louis’ signature gooey butter cake, fans of gooey cakes should be all set.
Country Velador of Super Chunk Sweets and Treats will offer her “John & Yoko,” a tres leches-style honey and cinnamon cake layered with mascarpone and whipped cream and topped with honeycomb candy.
Talavera’s pastry chef, Lance Whipple, will be making chocoflan. It’s a Latin dessert of espresso-drenched chocolate cake married with cajeta-infused flan, topped with roasted salted cocoa nibs and goat’s milk cajeta.
With the festival just a few days away and the chefs doing their part to prepare, we should be doing ours, as well. Better start fasting now.