Noshtopia Phoenix

Another Kind of Urban Cowboy: Lunchin' At Cowboy Ciao

Pal @jenmyronuk introduced me to one of her friends @tery who was in town because her sister just had a baby, first grandchild of the family. It's very exciting and rather poignant too because almost at the same time this baby came into this world, my grandma Rose left. She was 97, so it was time, but indeed what an interesting tale of life and death over lunch.

@tery suggested Cowboy Ciao because it was near where both of us were, and I'm all for trying new places. It was pouring rain that day and so I was famously late but still a bit early, 11:45am, for the lunch crowd. Here's a picture of the bar. It is empty as it should be because if you're cocktailing at 11:45am there is something majorly wrong. The place did fill up more later.

 

I was greeted with a warm hello and as I walked to the table, I admired the decor. My first thought was urban cowboy 2000. Now, that could be good or not to folks depending on your taste. Personally, I liked it, but more importantly, I saw the staff smiling and being very present serving their customers. Good sign so now I'm eager to try the food.

The Herb Box Is A Place Martha Would Approve

 

When friend Huong was out here visiting from California, we stopped by The Herb Box in DC Ranch for lunch before I dropped her off at the airport. Before I get to what we ate, let me just say right away that this place would definitely get the Martha Stewart nod of marthaness.

If I were to turn Noshtopia into a restaurant, it would have many of the elements of The Herb Box minus some of the frill. I do like Martha stuff but some of her decor and art taste is a bit too frou-frou for me. But Martha food is fantastic so absolutely no complaints there.

I heard about The Herb Box on @chrislee's food blog phxnom as a place he'd like to try out. Chris knows food here in Phoenix so I thought it was worth trying out. The restaurant is close to my place and on the way to PHX airport off 101 so, even better.

 

I pay a great deal of attention to the decor and energy of a place, and it's a really good sign when I first walk in and feel warm, comfortable, and excited about the forthcoming feast. I got those warm & fuzzies when I walked into The Herb Box. I especially loved seeing the big bouquets of red tulips, my favorite flower, and the brick walls. I'm a huge fan of brick since you don't see much of that in California, my former home state, because of the earthquakes.

And now for the food...

Deal of the Day: 99Cent Organic Avocados

 

I was at Trader Joe's on Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale today and they've got organic avocados on sale for 99 cents, cheaper then their regular avocados. And they are big avocados too, not little dinky ones you usually see on sale.

Check your neighborhood TJs and see if they have the sale going on too. Not sure how long the sale will last, so get the avocados while you can!

Snackage Idea: Sweet Potato Corn Tortilla Chips With Black Bean Salsa

 

Here's something I've been noshing on this week, Sweet Potato Corn Tortilla Chips made by Vegetas based in Tempe, dipped in fresh housemade black bean salsa from Oakville Grocery in Scottsdale.

What's great about black bean salsa versus regular salsa is that you get some protein from the beans. I'm all for getting more for less, in this case more nutritional benefits in less foods. I'm also a huge lover of sweet potatoes so to see a tortilla chip made with the tasty potato, well, I was all over it. The Vegetas chips also have no cholesterol or trans fats.

 

I recommend buying the Vegetas chips at Whole Foods over Oakville because it's cheaper. Amazing how the same bag of chips can vary by almost $2 between stores. I love Oakville but some things in there are even over priced than Whole Foods and that's saying something.

If you're not into black bean salsa, the Vegetas chips also go really well with the Whole Foods 365 brand Peach Mango Salsa.

Happy noshing!

Around the PHX Noshosphere: Beardies, Country French, & Coffee Talk

• High-5: Arizona food scene cores eight nods for James Beard Awards, the Oscars of the culinary world, including Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Restaurant, New Restaurant, Outstanding Restaurateur, Best Chef - Southwest, and Outstanding Wine Service. [AZ Central Things To Do]

• A write up in the New York Times is a dream come true. "Lessons in Simplicity at an Arizona Bistro" is about country-French bistro Amuse Bouche in Surprise owned by Snir and Kierstin Mor. Speaking of her decision to leave a computer technology career to go into food, Kierstin Mor said. “I was going to dump my $100,000 education and work in restaurants.” My kind of gal! [NY Times Dining & Wine]

• Noshtopia Phoenix is honored to be listed in the Local Links section of the New Times Chow Bella blog amongst some mighty fine foodies. Very grateful Michele! [Phoenix New Times Chow Bella]

• Chris via Todd asks a very good question, "At what point does a coffee shop become something other than a coffee shop? Chime in. [Arizona Coffee]

Quickie To Go: Pad Thai Chicken Lunch from Thai Basil

 

I was hanging out with @haveawonderful and @jawaani over at Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe for a few hours to work and chat. Courtney and I got hungry so we walked next door to Thai Basil to grab a quick lunch to-go.

I got the Pad Thai with chicken and it was yummy! Lunch was $7.55 with tax and it was plenty to eat some for lunch and dinner later on. I call this a real bargain.

I really like the sauce they use in their Pad Thai as it was on the sweet side, and I dug the dipping sauce for the egg roll which I also poured on my noodles.

Cool: Liberty Market Recipe Graffiti

 

My two cents, Liberty Market has taken bathroom reading to a creative level. Inside their unisex bathrooms, there is recipe graffiti on the walls. I thought that was pretty cool.

The toasted pecans sounded tasty.

Jeepney Bistro Does Filipino Food Just Like My Mom & Dad's Cooking

One of the biggest things I miss most about California is my mom and dad's home cooked Filipino food.

Now, I'm a pretty good cook myself, but still to this day I cannot make any of my Filipino dishes taste like mom and dad's. I just can't. The folks have some kind of special mom & dad dust they sprinkle on their dishes because we can use the exact same ingredients, cooking utensils, and sun in alignment with the planets and still, their food will come out tasting better. All my Filipino friends say the same thing about trying to cook like their parents.

 

So far, I've made one Filipino friend in Phoenix @janiceplado and she took me to Jeepney Bistro in Chandler because I've been pining on Twitter about finding any good Filipino food in Phoenix...and good to me is close to mom and dad level of cooking. I know that's a high bar and asking for a lot but hey, mom and dad are awesome cooks. Red Ribbon is okay but it is more like the Panda Express of Filipino food.

 

Not only is Jeepney Bistro like my mom and dad's cooking, their pork adobo is better than my dad's....and that really is a feat because my dad's adobo is a party favorite. I even told him that and of course, dad has to fly down here now to check it out. The pork is so tender you can cut it with your fork.

Before I go on, for some reason, I hit the sepia button on my iPhone camera so all the pics came will be in sepia tone except the adobo which is kind of funny because that was my superstar dish of the visit.

Filipino food is served family style, and at Jeepney they have all their foods on display so you can see what stuff looks like before ordering it. Janice and I ordered a cup of white rice each, the pork adobo and the Munggo Beans which is mung beans sauteed in pork bits and spinach. The dish was on par to mom's Munggo beans, in fact, I almost felt like she made it.

 

Then we also got the Pancit Bihon which is rice stick noodles, sauteed in garlic, mixed vegetables, pork, and shrimp. Pancit is basically the Filipino version of chow mein. My other favorite is Pancit Canton which is made with yellow fried noodles. I'll be getting that next time.

The Pancit Bihon was okay. I wouldn't call it stellar but I wouldn't say it was bad. I would say don't gauge pancit based on Jeepney's version, and try other versions at other places or if you're lucky at someone's parent's house.

 

One of the most endearing parts of Jeepney Bistro was the sound of Filipino TV shows in the background. Oh yeah! You know you're in a for realz place when you got the tagalog TV shows on full display. It warmed my heart.

 

The other Filipino restaurant in Phoenix that is supposed to be good is Gingerroot also in Chandler, so that's where Janice and I will be going next.

For now, I highly recommend Jeepney Bistro is you want to know how my mom and dad's cooking taste like. It's a quaint place, and the prices are really inexpensive. I consider Jeepney Bistro a hidden gem.

Some Local Events: Chocolate, Wine, Vegan Triathlete, Pancakes

Here are some local events going on that Nosh readers may enjoy.

• Feb. 11, Thursday, from 5-7pm

Free Chocolate Fest at Whole Foods Paradise Valley

• Feb. 12, Friday, from 7-9pm

Wine & Chocolate Pairing at Enotria Land of Wine

$20 AIWF members, $25 non-members

• Feb. 16, Tuesday, from 7:30-10:30am

Fat (Shrove) Tuesday Pancake Breakfast #evfat at Liberty Market, Gilbert

Not sure if there's any cost. It's listed as a tweetup, so who knows.

• Feb. 18, Thursday, from 6:30-8:30pm

Q&A and book signing with Brendan Brazier, Vegan Triathlete, Author of Thrive Diet,and Founder of Vega Products by Sequel Naturals.

at Whole Foods Scottsdale

Social Media + Restaurants: Wildflower Bread Company Does Twitter Right

 

I don't do this often, but I have to give a huge gold star to Wildflower Bread Company because here has got to be one of the most perfect examples of how a restaurant or even any brand for that matter can do Twitter with utter awesomeness and develop a stronger customer bond...because after this experience, this customer definitely has developed more love for the Wildflower brand.

Just doing my usual online social thing

I go to the Wildflower Bread in Scottsdale because they have free WiFi so I can blog and tweet, and I can eat lunch or early dinner. Sometimes I like to eat my heavy meal of the day between 3-5pm, and not all places serve the dinner like meals all day. After 3pm, Wildflower does.

So, I do a check-in at Yelp on 2/1. I'm more open to doing the "here's where I'm at" thing on Yelp versus Gowalla or Foursquare because on Yelp it feels less stalkerish to me and I have a context to check-in as I'm a food blogger. All my Yelp check-ins are then automatically set up to post to my Facebook page and my Twitter account @noshtopia. I do @noshtopia versus @skinnyjeans because I'm still not comfortable announcing to 47K people where I'm at. @noshtopia has a smaller yet more more focused audience of foodies, so I'm good with announcing my food whereabouts to them.

A pleasantly shocking surprise

About an hour later, I'm still at Wildflower, and I check my @noshtopia replies and I see a tweet from @WildflowerCEO aka Louis Basile asking me how my visit was. I am literally in shock. Typically at these chain type restaurants, you're barely even asked how your visit is when you are physically in the restaurant. I'm getting asked on Twitter about the service, so obviously, Wildflower not only does active searches on their name, but they follow up...right then and there. The social media person in me feels my heart swell :)

I think the move is pretty bold and refreshing too because they take the chance of me replying in an open forum that I might say my visit sucked or I hated it...especially when I got the CEO's ear. Often, you'll hear companies shy away from doing this kind of customer communication in social media because they are driven more by the fear of negative feedback. To me, I think the companies who are serious about creating a better experience for their customers will be open to ALL feedback and listen.

 

I, of course, reply with some nice comment because I genuinely do have a good time every time I go to Wildflower. I mention one of my favorite foods there which is the big pretzel with the honey mustard, and @WildflowerCEO replies to my reply with again something about keeping in touch with them so they can continue to do better.

How social media and business work ideally in the real world

I am so impressed by this whole interaction, you have NO IDEA! Obviously, you do because I'm gushing about it on my blog and tweeting about the experience. I had to share this Twitter experience because it is literally how every marketing person would ideally like their client/company to behave in social media.

As a customer, who lives on the web, I feel like this company understands how I live (online), and has taken the time to engage me and to make sure that I am having a good experience with them. No doubt that I will be eating more pretzels and soup there. Bravo to Wildflower!

Oh, and one last tidbit. This is how much Wildflower understands web workers, bloggers, or mobile workers and wants these types to come to their place, at least in the Scottsdale restaurant. Besides the free WiFi, there are electrical plugs at every booth. Having a plethora of plugs is awesome. Seriously, paying attention to that detail is very impressive to me.