First Friday artwalk

I've been living in Phoenix for nearly 12 years now and have never been to a First Friday artwalk. Yesterday, we decided to go for the first time!

We went with a friend (D) who had never taken the light rail before, so we decided to park and ride to the Central/Roosevelt station. Here are some pics (notice the "crowds of people" riding and the wrapped rail cars...for next week's 2009 NBA All-Star Game, which is being hosted in Phoenix):

There are two "main" areas of the artwalk (on Roosevelt and Grand). We headed to the Roosevelt area, which was a few blocks east of the light-rail station. The "epicenter" of the artwalk is at the intersection of 5th St. and Garfield St. There are vendors along 5th St (between Roosevelt and McKinley) and Garfield St (between 4th St. and 6th St.). Since you rarely see people walking out on the sidewalks of Phoenix, I was surprised at how many people were there. It was almost like being in Chicago or New York. There were a few food vendors, but I definitely think there should be more.

After doing a complete circuit, we were all hungry and headed back to the car to go eat. On the way back, at the light-rail station, we starting chatting w/ a complete stranger and ended up eating dinner with him (one of the benefits of mass transit - you have the opportunity to meet new friends!). More about dinner in the next posting...

Happy Chinese New Year!

This year is the year of the ox. You can find out your "fortune" for the year here (click on your animal sign). I've got a particularly interesting fortune this year...let's see how it turns out!

CHANGE has arrived!

Finally, we have some brains in the White House.

IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age (from Yahoo! Sports)

The latest...
IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age (from Yahoo! Sports)

Yay! I guess the IOC finally gave in to pressure!!!

I'm sure Bela Karolyi must be happy. =) (he was constantly commenting about the ages of the Chinese gymnasts)

If He ends up losing her medal, it will be another embarrassment for the Chinese government.

From the article (highlights are mine):

• "Officials wanted the Olympics to be a coming out party for a new China. But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive."

• "All the good work China did to put on these Olympics could be forgotten because of an unnecessary, arrogant move by the government."

Faking Their Way to a Perfect Olympics (from abcnews.com)

Article about the CG fireworks and lip-synching (using another girl's voice) during the opening ceremonies...
Faking Their Way to a Perfect Olympics (from abcnews.com)

From the article:
"She was lip synching for another little girl who was deemed -- for the good of the country -- not cute enough for China's national image."

Related articles:
Beijing enhanced Olympics show with faked 'fireworks' (from cnn.com)

Olympic opening uses girl's voice, not face (from Yahoo! News/AP)

Oympics Opening Ceremony pics and videos

In case you missed it...

pictures (from the Boston Globe/boston.com)
more pictures (from baidu.com)
amazing images...

Little girl sings at opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics (from xinhuanet.com) - cute girl! (update on 8/12: too bad it wasn't her singing!!!)

Yao Ming and boy from quake zone lead Team China into opening ceremony (from xinhuanet.com) - brave 9 year-old!

5 min highlight video (from nbcolympics.com)

52 min highlight video (from nbcolympics.com)

WOW

If you missed the Olympics opening ceremonies, you missed an absolutely incredible show!

Kudos to director Zhang Yimou...

Top Chef: The Tour and ThunderCares Day

This morning I went to Phoenix Downtown Public Market to try to make the Top Chef Tour demonstration scheduled for 8:30am. Patty and I have watched the last few seasons of the show. The chefs scheduled for the Phoenix tour were Season 4 runner-up Richard Blaise and Season 2 contestant Betty Fraser. Richard was one of our favorites so I was excited to watch him cook.

I arrived at 7:45am and there was already a line of about 25 people (at 8:30am, there were probably over 100 people). I put my name on a waiting list and waited...in the sun. There was an announcement that the seating capacity was 34 people and that they would call people from the waiting list. Around 8:40am, they called a few names from the list (maybe 6 total). I was not one of them. Oh well. I probably could have made the 10:00am session (as they were rolling over the remaining wait-listed names), but I already had another commitment scheduled.

Betty and Richard were outside the trailer for a few minutes taking pictures and signing autographs. Here are a few pics:

I've seen three of the Top Chef contestants now. Patty and I spotted Season 2 runner-up Marcel Vigneron last year during a trip to Vegas.

My 10:00am commitment was a Thunderbird volunteer event called ThunderCares Day. Prior to the event, we were given a choice of volunteer opportunities. I ended up getting my first choice, which was volunteering for the Children’s Angel Foundation Thrift & Boutique.

All of the proceeds from this store benefit the infants, children, and young adults who are served through Hacienda HealthCare. Hacienda HealthCare, through its affiliates, Hacienda, and Los Niños Hospital, is the leading provider of specialized services for medically fragile and chronically ill infants, children and young adults in Arizona.

Our group was given a choice a duties, and I ended up volunteering to vacuum the store. I actually enjoy vacuuming (I vacuum our house at least once a week), so this fit perfectly! Others in the group helped out with sorting and cleaning the merchandise.

After lunch, most of us headed to Cherry Blossom Noodle Cafe for lunch. I enjoyed a bowl of udon soup, panko spanish mackerel, and green tea milk.


Places mentioned:

Children's Angel Foundation Thrift & Boutique
4648 N 16th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85016

Cherry Blossom Noodle Cafe
914 E. Camelback Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85014

Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes and Cibo

A few weeks ago we went to see Disney On Ice: Princess Wishes at the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix. The show was definitely Patty's idea...after multiple "hints" from her, I finally bought tickets a few weeks before the show.

I was one of the few males there. We were surrounded by moms (a few dads) and their daughters. Most of the girls were dressed as princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, etc.). Here's one of them (I love this picture):

There was tons of Disney stuff for sale...seemed like every 50 feet or so there was a stand selling stuff. Here's a shot of one of them:

Here are some shots during the show:

The show was actually much better than I expected. It was an entertaining show and well worth the price paid (~$24pp).

After the show, we decided to grab a late night snack. BTW, the show ended at 9:30pm...we are never out this late!

I've been wanting to try Cibo for a long time so we went there.

We ordered the following:

• Margherita (tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil - $9)
• Thomas Kemper Root Beer ($2)
• Fresca (a warm crepe filled with vanilla ice cream and fresh fruit, topped with more fresh fruit and whipped cream - $8)
• Lavender Earl Grey ($2)
  

No pics as it was too dark...

The pizza came out about five minutes after we ordered it. It was great. I had originally planned to eat only a slice or two (and save room for dessert) but we ended up finishing the whole thing.

For dessert we tried the Fresca. It was massive - loaded w/ fruit, ice cream and whipped cream...very tasty. I thought it was very good. The only negative was that the crepe was a bit on the thin side so it kind of got lost among the other items.

The tea was also good. The lavender and Earl Grey was a really nice combination.

I thought the food was great and the prices were very reasonable. We'll be back!


Places mentioned:

Cibo
603 N. 5th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Happy Chinese New Year!

(Image from travelachina.com)

This year is the year of the rat. You can find out your "fortune" for the year here (click on your animal sign).

Super winners and losers (from Yahoo! Sports)

Dan Wetzel (Yahoo! Sports) names winners and losers of the Super Bowl in this article:
Super winners and losers (from Yahoo! Sports)

Here is one of them:

LOSER: Phoenix as a host city

It's far too spread out and the downtown lacks life, which means you wouldn't even know the Super Bowl was really happening. The stadium is nice, but it is one of the strangest architectural works you'll see, plopped down in the middle of a suburb that still is a lot of desert. The NFL's decision to stage its fan "NFL Experience" out in a parking lot there didn't help. Oh, and it's not even warm there this time of year.

Um...Glendale was actually the host city so I guess it is the "real loser"?

I remember during the broadcast they were showing overhead shots of downtown Phoenix and saying it was the "host city". It's sad...but there would have been nothing interesting to shoot in Glendale itself. Oh well. Jordin Sparks did a incredible job singing the national anthem. Here's the video if you missed it:

Giants - 17, Patriots - 14

What an exciting game...down to the final second!

Foodbar, Scottsdale, and celebrities?!?

We went to try THE FOODBAR yesterday afternoon. FOODBAR opened last year in the new Scottsdale Waterfront development (which is adjacent to Scottsdale Fashion Square). When we arrived at the Waterfront area, it was packed -- tons of out of town visitors for the FBR Open and Super Bowl. I've never seen so many people walking around the streets in Phoenix/Scottsdale. It was nice to see...

Here's an interesting pic (Little Shop of Horrors?):

There were Patriots fans everywhere! Just a guess, but it seemed like they outnumbered Giants fans about 10 to 1. Here's one of them:

Back to FOODBAR...

Here are two pics of the showcase and cashier area:

I ordered a Croque Madame (Smoked ham, fried egg, Swiss, chives, fire roasted Anaheim chilies - $8) and Patty had the Chicken Panini (w/ pesto mayo on foccacia -$8.50).

Both sandwiches were very good, although I preferred my Croque and Patty preferred her panini. I really liked the crusty French baguette (all breads are from local supplier, Simply Bread).

Here's a picture of the Croque Madame:

and here's the Chicken panini:

A cool James Beard poster in the bathroom:

The seating area is interesting. One side is lined w/ normal two tops. The other side has "sideway" seating, in which you sit sideways, and the table area is to your right or left. This lets two people share a table space. Here's a pic:

They also have counter seating at the other end of the restaurant. Here' a pic of that area:

While we were looking at the food items, I spotted a cobbler that I wanted to try. We would be back soon to try it!

After lunch, we went to Fashion Square for a bit of shopping.

Marcel Shipp (running back for the Arizona Cardinals) was signing autographs at Dillard's. Here's a pic:

While we were at Dillard's, I overhead someone saying that comedian/actor Chris Rock was just spotted in the store. I'm pretty sure we past by a few celebrities/musicians/athletes while in the mall. There were tons of people gathering around this group of guys in the food court (didn't recognize them but they are the "big guys" near the railing):

They stayed in the area for about ten minutes taking pictures.

After shopping, we headed back to FOODBAR for an afternoon/pre-dinner snack. I had to try the cobbler!

On our way there, ESPN was broadcasting from the Waterfront (as well as at UOP Stadium).

Here are a few pics:

I recognized Tom Jackson, but not the other guy... (Merrill Hoge or Kirk Herbstreit???)

A somewhat closer shot of Tom Jackson:
A cool new statue commemorating the Hashknife Pony Express (read more here):

...and finally, FOODBAR. Here's the cobbler (apple and cranberry w/ scoop of vanilla Haagen-Dazs - $4):

The cobbler was pretty tasty. I thought the fruit filling was a bit tart by itself, but with the ice cream it was just right.

We both liked FOODBAR. We'll be back to try their dinner offerings.


Places mentioned:

THE FOODBAR
7114 E. Stetson Dr, Suite 105
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(@ The Scottsdale Waterfront)

Ready for the Super Bowl

One more week until the Super Bowl!

Here are some recent pictures of University of Phoenix Stadium and the surrounding area:

Preparing for the Super Bowl

We drove by University of Phoenix Stadium yesterday and it looks like they are busy setting up (what I'm guessing are) corporate/media/activity tents for the Super Bowl. Here are some pics:

Mexican (Mariscos Playa Hermosa), Vietnamese (Pho Avina), and Italian (Andrea Bocelli)

Back to some food!

Two Friday ago, I had a bit of a cultural world tour.

For lunch, I met up w/ Jay at Mariscos Playa Hermosa. I ordered a breaded fish platter and Jay got camarones culichi (shrimp in a green tomatillo sauce).

Before our dishes arrived, our server brought us each a complimentary appetizer (in addition to a basket of tortilla chips). The appetizer was a salmon ceviche on top of a large tortilla chip. It was very tasty - here's a pic:

My fish platter was awesome. (I think I've ordered this on my two previous visits to MPH.) It consisted of a large breaded fillet of fish, rice, beans, and warm tortillas. Here's a somewhat dark picture:

I also tried a bit of Jay dish. It was also very good...

For dinner, Patty and I went to one of our favorites, Pho Avina. We had bun rieu (crabmeat stew) and rice vermicelli w/ salad (w/ grilled pork and eggroll). As usual, everything was excellent. Here are the pics:



After dinner, we went to the Andrea Bocelli concert at the Jobing.com arena. Even though I had ordered tickets the first day they went sale, our seats were in the second row...from the top! (in the cheapest price level available - $75) BTW, I hate Ticketmaster! Here's a breakdown of the ticket fees:

Face value of tickets: $75 x 2 = $150.00
Facility charge: 10.30
Convenience charge: 22.00
Order processing: 4.05
-----------------------------------------
Total: $186.35

24% of the ticket prices in additional fees!!!

The seating in the arena is terrible. Both Patty and I are pretty small (I'm 5'7" and she's 5'5"), but we both had no forward legroom. Without stretching our legs at all, our toes touched the seats in the forward row. I'm guessing when they designed the place, they tried to maximize profits by squeezing in as many seats as possible. Looking around the arena, I noticed that the spacing is consistent throughout the arena. It was very uncomfortable!!!

On to the concert...roughly a third of the selections were operatic (the remaining quarter consisted of Bocelli's more "poppy/crossover" stuff that I prefer). It was still a great concert though. It would have been even better if our program hadn't "mysteriously" disappeared. During the intermission, I left our program in between our seats. When we returned, it was gone! I noticed that our neighbors now had two programs...hm...what a coincidence?!? I waited and waited to see if they would return our program...but no luck. I was very tempted to ask them if I could "borrow" one of their programs. Whoever you were sitting in Section 218, Row G, Seats 6 and 7...


Places mentioned:
Mariscos Playa Hermosa
1605 E. Garfield St.
Phoenix, AZ 85006

Pho Avina
4920 W. Thunderbird Rd, Suite 110
Glendale, AZ 85306

Abridged version of last weekend

Hm...no food in my previous three posts...I've got to get back on track!

I'm headed off to Taiwan in a few hours and wanted to get this posted before I leave...therefore the following will be a very short summary of last weekend.

Patty and I went to Line Thai (in Sun City) for dinner last Friday. Our first time there - I've heard good things about it before.

We ordered:

• Pad Thai
• Green curry w/ chicken
  
• Green Papaya Salad
• Thai ice coffee
  

The Thai ice coffee was terrible. It had a very strange medicinal aftertaste. We only drank about a quarter of it - neither of us wanted to finish it (this is usually never a problem).

The Green Papaya Salad was just okay for us. The fish sauce dressing was pretty flat tasting.

The Pad Thai was slighty below average. The chicken was extremely dry.

The Chicken Green Curry was probably the worst curry dish I've ever had. It was basically chicken, bamboo shoots, and green beans in coconut milk. There was almost no curry flavor in the dish. The chicken pieces also had very strange specks of brown/black on them (cooked blood?). Check out the picture - it's very "white":

The rice was also very bad...cheap quality stuff.

After reading many positive reviews of the place, it was a very disappointing visit.

On our way home I took Patty to Tortas Paquime for dessert. We ordered strawberries w/ cream and tres leches cake. Both were really good. I was too busy eating and forgot to take pics!

Saturday night we went to Verrado for their annual Founder's Day Celebration. Verrado is a very nice master planned community in Buckeye, AZ (about 25 miles west of Phoenix). The main reason for going was to see a free concert by Blues Traveler! The opening performers were Shiner and Ben Deignan. It was much bigger than I expected (I read afterwards that about 2000 people attended the festivities). We got pizza to-go from Grazie. The pizza was pretty decent though the meat (salami) was a bit too salty. It was very nice eating out under the stars while listening to a free concert. =)

Here's how it looked earlier in the evening:
Later on, almost every patch of grass was occupied and we had people surrounding us. Besides the pizza, we also got a funnel cake...it was not good (too thin and crispy).

Sunday afternoon we went to the Litchfield Park Arts & Crafts Festival. This event was also much bigger than I had expected (I read that about 90,000 people attended the two-day festival). The only bad thing was that it was quite hot outside - around 95 degrees (in November!!!).

For lunch, we headed to...Tortas Paquime!
We had a Shredded Pork torta, a Carne Asada torta, and a mango drink.

I though the Carne Asada Torta was better than the Shredded Pork Torta. The shredded pork made the sandwich a bit mushy overall. Also, I thought the bread was a bit better when I went the first time (on Thursday) - this time it was bit too soft (not toasted long enough). Here's a pic of the shredded pork torta:

Sunday night, we were in Scottsdale and tried Ice Tango - a new yogurt and crepe shop.

We ordered a Nutella and strawberry crepe and a pomegranate yogurt w/ mochi (rice cake). We also tried a sample of their "twangy" flavor yogurt which is comparable to Pinkberry's plain yogurt.

The crepe was pretty good...though a tiny bit too sweet.

The pomegranate yogurt was very good. It was light and very refreshing. The only bad thing was that the outside of the mochi were a bit hard. The "skin" of mochi gets hard when out for too long. I'm guessing not so many people in the area are familiar with mochi so the turnover is low.

I wish we lived closer to Ice Tango...

Yikes - this ended up much longer than expected! Time to go finish packing!!!