June 2, 2011

Arizona Eats

36 comments

Good morning from the Phoenix, Arizona airport! The past couple days have been so much fun — and so busy! I was in Arizona for a Thermador blogger event — they unveiled their awesome new cooking range, which I will now be pining away after forever. More details on that later!

It was my first time in Arizona and I wish I’d had some free time to explore and go hiking, but at least I was able to see this guy up close and personal:

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Yikes! Wouldn’t want to get into a fight with him. I had a really strong urge to touch it, but I resisted 😉

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I also loved all the palm trees — for some reason it didn’t occur to me that Arizona would have palm trees!

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Pretty 🙂

I have so much to share with you guys, but I’ll start with the FOOD! I have pictures from two delicious dinners that Thermador treated us to on Tuesday night and Wednesday night. The food was too good to not take pictures!

First up — Tuesday night! Thermador took us to a place called BLT Steak and the food was absolutely phenomenal. Everything was served to the table family style so we were able to have little tastes of everything — my favorite!

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They started us off with these HUGE cheese popovers!

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I was fascinated by how puffy these got. Apparently it’s all the eggs that make them fluff up like that? The inside was totally hollow! So good.

Next, we had a Blue Fin Tuna Tartare with avocado and a soy lime dressing.

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I LOVE tartar and this one did not disappoint!

Next was a roasted beets, endive, apple, and crows dairy chevre cheese salad:

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Then came the main courses! We had a grilled New York strip steak with green peppercorn sauce which I neglected to photograph apparently — probably because I was too busy eating it. SO delicious. I loved the peppery crust. Also on the menu was a roasted organic farm raised chicken with lemon rosemary stuffing:

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I never order chicken at restaurants because I feel like it’s boring, but this was far from boring. It was probably my favorite thing they served us — so flavorful and juicy.

For sides, there was a potato gratin, green beans, and mushrooms (SO good):

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My least favorite dish of the night was the green beans — they were basically drowning in butter. Boo!

Dessert was equally divine — a blueberry lemon meringue:

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A honey crisp apple cake with vanilla ice cream:

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And a peanut butter chocolate mousse with banana ice cream (AMAAAZING):

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Yum! I left feeling full, but not stuffed. I love family style because you get to have a little taste of everything without overdoing it 🙂

Last night we had another dinner out courtesy of Thermador  — I loved the dinners because it was fun to get time to chat with the other bloggers and the Thermador staff. We went to WildFish in downtown Scottsdale.

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I had a great spot for food photography — right by the window! 🙂 We started with some shared appetizers — a crispy cashew kung pao calamari, which was just okay — kind of heavy:

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And these jumbo lump crab cakes with a chive remoulade sauce — SO good:

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Next up was a simple mixed green salad — tasty and fresh. 

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Followed by our main course! I ordered the roasted chicken with roasted mushrooms because I still had it on the brain from the night before.

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SO beautiful, right?! It was tasty, but not as delicious as the night before 😉 What a difference natural lighting makes for food photos, though!

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Our shared sides were asparagus and a twice baked potato:

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And for dessert I had unpictured mixed berries with a little ice cream. The real dessert event was this flaming cake that the restaurant served Brooke, who was sitting at my table — it was her birthday yesterday! 🙂

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Any dessert that can go up in flames gets my vote. Yum! Hope you guys enjoyed the food porn 😉

Time to hop on my flight — I’m connecting in Chicago and going on to Raleigh from there. I’ll be back later with more about what we did yesterday at Thermador — including pictures of their new range! It was pretty sweet, not gonna lie.

p.s. Did you guys see the unveiling of the new food pyramid which is actually now a plate? What did you think? I like it — I think it’s simpler and clearer. But we’ll see if it actually makes any difference in the health of our nation!

- anne

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36 comments
  • I think it's much more consumer friendly, but the consumers who need the simpler message probably aren't out looking for it anyway!
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  • It's kind of torturous to look at all these food photos while you're sitting at work. I want to eat it all!
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  • When I woke up this morning I was so bummed that I wasn't going to be eating more ridiculously delicious food today via Thermador. But that's also probably good news for my body haha ;)
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  • Looks wonderful Anne, glad you had a great time and looking forward to more pics. Anne, as far as the "plate" is concerned, I have been through so many of these in my 61 years and I have to tell you at the risk of ticking off people, I am offended. I am offended that I have to be told what is good for me. I will eat damn well what I please until I get the knock on the door. This might be ok for schools and institutions, but I have to tell you, when I go to a fast food place (rarely) then I want honest to goodness fast food, grease and all. So there.
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    • P.S. I know what is good for me and what is not, that is why I follow your blog each and every day. Hey, DC, we have a brain out here in fly over country.
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    • I don't think it's so much trying to tell people what to do, just trying to get people understand what is right for them nutritionally. It's almost like a nation-wide version of my blog - just some guidance to try to help people more easily live a healthy lifestyle. And unfortunately, until our nation as a whole really can eat well and do what they need to do to not have health issues and be seriously overweight... it seems like we need all the help we can get!
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  • I think the plate model is easier to follow especially for school age kids, but I also thing that everyone needs a little different balance in their diet depending on what their nutritional needs are (think about training for a marathon). Overall I think we need better education about whole foods from a younger age!
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  • your food pictures make me hungry! Is that meringue on top of the blueberry lemon cake? It looks almost like little marshmallows. I like that the plate may be easier to follow/understand for children, but I ultimately worry that the only people paying attention to the food pyramid or the new plate are people who care about nutrition anyways. In school we always used to joke about "polling the mall," and I don't think the average person wandering around a mall even knows that there is a new model out, and I wonder if being introduced to the plate would affect the average person's eating habits. Are there really Americans out there who don't know that they should be eating more vegetables and fewer cheeseburgers? I think we need more efforts into nutrition education throughout the school curriculum right into the cafeteria. Teaching kids about filling their plate with half fruits and veggies and then sending them into the cafeteria to eat chicken nuggets and pizza is sending pretty mixed messages. I'm not sure the new model alone is able to bring enough education or awareness to the issue of nutrition and its impact on health, but I do like that its simpler than the old food pyramid. I also like that it addresses each meal, instead of trying to tally up 9-11 servings of grains per day.
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    • It is meringue! Yum. I completely agree with you about the people paying attention to the pyramid/plate not being the ones who need it. And like you said, of course everyone knows at this point they SHOULD be eating more fruits/veggies, less meat, etc. But I am with you that we need more effort on the actual level of real change - changing what's served in the cafeterias of schools, etc. Action will be much better than advice at this point.
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  • The food all looks amazing!! As for the popovers, we should get you some LEGIT popovers from their home in New England.. Great place in Woods Hole on the cape for that called Pie in the Sky :) Next time you're up...
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  • Mmmmmmm....... I heart BLT ;-) We always frequent it in DC and NYC.... it's consistently a-a-a-amazing! (btw Marcel is my favorite waiter at BLT in DC, he makes the experience even better, so Me & my twin are sure to always ask for him -plus we love his French accent) Glad your having an awesome "eating orgy" in Arizona ;-) Enjoy!
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  • Isn't AZ awesome!!! I just moved to Chandler (outside of Phoenix) about 2 months ago and I just love it! Now I need to try those restaurants ASAP!!!
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  • I like the idea of the new food guide plate. I think it will be easier for children and people with lower health literacy to understand. I know some people say that it makes them feel like they are being talked down to with the simplicity of this model but the considerations of all citizens needs to be taken into account. I think that what needs even more focus is actually changing the foods that are being served to children in schools because they are definitely getting mixed messages when being served processed foods and french fries that are counted as vegetables.
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    • I completely agree re: changing the foods in schools. That will make a much bigger impact than just giving guidelines (and then not following them publicly)!
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  • I am drooling! Those look so good... And the food plate idea seems to make sense; however, as you note, we'll see if it makes a difference. Safe travels!
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  • Ohmygawd! That food, seriously, made me want to eat my computer screen, I kid you not, my tongue was practically licking the screen! And the cactus, I would have been the one touching that sucker ... I have, over the years, touched many electric fences, just to see if they were actually electric (yes, they all were) and stinging nettles, again to see if they'd actually sting (yes, they did) and you'd think I'd learn, especially now that I'm in my 30s, but nope, I don't :D
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    • Hahah I think it's good to be curious :)
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  • i like the new food guide, too! sadly, i think it's going to take a lot more than that to change our nation's diet.
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  • Also a fan of the new guide. It seems clearer than the pyramid. No whether people actually follow it is another story!
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  • I kiiind of have a love affair with tuna and crab cakes....that tuna tartare looks so beautiful!!! I only wish I could make some of those on my own. Slash I also love the new food guide, it is way more practical and easy to follow than the old ones!
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  • I wish I would have known you were in Arizona!! I live in Phoenix and I'm such an avid reader!! :) Hope you enjoyed the weather!
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    • It was beautiful there! Wish I'd had more time to explore!
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  • Total food porn overload! Now anything I'm thinking of for dinner sounds so boring... :p Glad you had a good trip!
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  • Wow. Food coma!!! Do resist the urge to touch the prickly cactus. Why are we tempted to touch things we shouldn't (that's what she said?)? That reminds me of the time that I woke up too early to go to my college's library and on the elevator ride up, I kept staring at the emergency button and finally pushed it! YIKES! Someone came on through a speaker asking me to identify the emergency. Luckily the doors open and I bolted out of there!
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  • I am an Arizona native and there is no place like Arizona. our summers are HOT but man do we have some amazing trails. Hiking is HUGE here! Im in Mesa and have never tried those places you ate (my husband and i arent the kinda couple that eats out much) but they are definately going on the list of places to go when we do! Hope you get to come back soon and enjoy what this place has to offer!
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  • That food looks so amazing! We just moved to Phoenix, so I can't wait to try out those Scottsdale restaurants. The palm trees are definitely one of my favorite things about Arizona, along with the pretty mountains. Glad you had a fun visit!
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  • Hi, I found your foodblog via one of your Sparkpeople recipes. I live in Arizona, and it's too bad you didn't get to try any southwestern dishes. There's more to southwestern food than tacos & refried beans - lol. Palm trees aren't native to Arizona - more like California and Florida, but I have a Saguaro in my back yard. As far as the new graphic for the Food Pyramid, I think it's easier to understand than the older pyramid graphics. It's much easier to visualize foods as items on a plate, rather than stacked or side-by-side as a pyramid. I'm looking forward to reading more of your blog & finding some great recipes.
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