by
Becky Carman
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Mar 29, 2024 2:04 pm
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BECKY CARMAN PHOTO
Noche's totopos and salsa trio
Noche Woodfire Grill & Agave Bar 110 N Elgin Ave., Suite 140 Tulsa
Fun but focused, Noche Woodfire Grill & Agave Bar feels happening. Each side of the divided dining room is awash in red and blue jewel tones with cheeky neon signage. FLOURPOWER, reads one. ¡SALUD! reads another. The visual impact makes what the restaurant is trying to be immediately clear: vibrant, approachable but with a few signature twists. The menu, a medium-deep dive into the cuisine of Mexico, doubles down on that intent.
by
Jamil Ragland
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Mar 29, 2024 10:51 am
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(1)
The Korean fried chicken.
Bonchon West Hartford March 27, 2024
Sitting down and eating at a restaurant can be a relaxing experience. No food to cook, no dishes to wash, and someone dedicated to serving you and catering to your every whim. But sometimes, you want the ease of not cooking combined with the luxury of eating in bed.
According to a viral Bay Area weather meme, by mid-March, we were firmly in the midst of “Second Winter” — it was cold and dreary, with breaks of deceptively milder moments that epitomize the “Fools Spring” to follow. Maybe that’s why my inaugural Oakland Restaurant Week experience this year led me far away from the Town, at least in spirit. If I couldn’t fly away to more tropical destinations, I’d travel there gastronomically. Destination: The Filipino flavors at Senor Sisig, and tropical drinks and classic smashburgers at The Kon-Tiki, both in downtown Oakland.
ASÚKAR is a bit elusive. You have to know to look for it. A Palestinian Cuban Fusion pop-up running Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., it is inside a collectively run bar and restaurant called Tamarack on the corner of 15th and Harrison. (It also operates at 528 8th St. on Saturdays and Sundays.) There is no website, but the March schedule is posted on the Instagram account, so I knew when to go.
by
Jamil Ragland
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Mar 21, 2024 11:38 am
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Jamil Ragland Photo
The lychee martini.
Koma Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi West Hartford March 20, 2024
I found myself in West Hartford on a Wednesday afternoon, with a taste for something different than the usual. I decided to check out Koma Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi, located at Bishop’s Corner.
A closed sign flipped to open, and an large, airy, open, and empty restaurant was ours.
Saffron Kitchen, on a food-laden stretch of College Avenue in Rockridge, has bright plate-glass windows and a sunken entrance. The expansive interior is matched by a sweet patio out front, and turquoise painted trims and gold-leaf touched resin paintings line the walls above dozens of tables and a large horseshoe bar. The menu, a single page (a really big one) skews stewed. So, ready for succulent saucy goodness, my friend Jasmine and I ordered like the hungry fiends we were. Our eyes, filled with the soft light from the windows behind us, were far larger than our stomachs. We’d asked for a feast, and a feast we received.
Edith’s Pie now offers that option from a sweet storefront in downtown Oakland. You’ve perhaps already been past and missed it. Welcoming and bright, with happy plants and lots of art, it is at a strange intersection with a small pedestrian plaza, but tucked away, invisible until you look.
Started as a pop-up in late 2019, they’ve kept that DIY energy and quirkiness, frequenting farmer’s markets every couple of days for fresh produce for their weekly-changing menu items and offering local coffee and cooled beverages as well as in-house hot sauce near the register.
by
Jamil Ragland
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Mar 11, 2024 6:08 pm
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The main course looked great, but had a couple of issues.
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar West Hartford March 11, 2024
As you’ve read before, dear reader, I’m pretty content eating Cheesecake Factory. But there’s another level beyond casual dining, and that’s fine dining. I figured it was time to level myself up as a foodie and take the dive.
by
Becky Carman
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Mar 8, 2024 10:10 am
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BECKY CARMAN PHOTO
Dan Lyn Pham's installation at Belafonte.
“I Bear the Fruit of My Ancestors“ Belafonte Tulsa March 1, 2024
A dimly lit space permeated with the smell of burning incense greeted visitors, many of whom waited in line before the doors opened, to Tulsa artist Dan Lyn Pham’s “I Bear the Fruit of My Ancestors.” The three-part show was a journey between the symbolic and the literal, exploring Vietnamese ancestral worship, a cultural custom that has endured generations — beyond any specific religion, beyond colonization, and then across the world into the homes and gathering spaces of Vietnamese immigrants and refugees.
by
Jamil Ragland
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Mar 7, 2024 3:32 pm
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Hook and Reel Cajun Seafood and Bar Hartford March 6, 2024
Hook and Reel Cajun Seafood and Bar in Hartford has a great deal for the seafood enjoyer on a budget: all-you-can-eat seafood boils and fried fish baskets for $39.99. There are two catches though.
First, the options for constructing your boil are limited, so no, you’re not getting three whole lobsters for $40.
The second is that there’s an additional fee to take your food home, so you can’t order a second boil and then walk out with it. Not without paying, at least.
Ramen — the real dea, not the packaged bricks — was an adult discovery for me. Turned off by meaty or overly sweet and uncomplicated broths filled with soggy noodles, I thought it simply wasn’t a dish for me. But, being the soup and carb lover I am, I braved bad bowls so that I might taste the ultimate mixture of umami goodness.
Lucky for me, Marufuku Ramen, located in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, serves up fast, steaming ceramic vessels brimming with cloudy broth, fresh veggies, a perfect egg, and a lovely mass of light green spinach noodles.
by
Becky Carman
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Feb 25, 2024 1:01 pm
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PRISM CAFE PHOTO
Prism Cafe in the Heights.
Prism Cafe 217 W. Latimer St. Tulsa
There are few better places in Tulsa to feel the tug-of-war between preservation and progress than the Heights district, just north of downtown. The neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as Brady Heights, a National Parks Service designation that renders the area “worthy of preservation.” It is also a federal Opportunity Zone, a program designed to attract investors and developers to the area through tax incentives. Street construction currently runs the entire y‑axis length of the largely residential strip, part of the vast north Tulsa food desert, which has far lower immediate access to grocery stores and dining establishments than the city as a whole.
by
Brian Slattery
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Feb 19, 2024 12:55 pm
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Brian Slattery Photos
The pork platter at the Pig.
The Pig Chapel Hill, N.C. 2/17/24
Before me sat a plate of pork, hush puppies, coleslaw, and pickles. Behind that, because I’d insisted on trying more sides, a bowl of fried okra and another bowl of collard greens. Behind that, a huge glass of sweet tea.
I was at the Pig in Chapel Hill, N.C. to try, for the first time, Eastern North Carolina barbecue — a regional variant on the cooking style known the country over that almost every Eastern North Carolina expat I’d met in the past 25 years had told me was the best.
Was it just hometown pride and nostalgia talking? Or was it really the best, or enough to stand toe to toe was Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas to stake its part of the spotlight on the barbecue stage?
by
Jamil Ragland
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Feb 16, 2024 11:15 am
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Not much mozzarella in this mozzarella stick.
XL Center Sports Bar & Fanatics Sportsbook Hartford February 16, 2024
I love sports, and I love food, so checking out the newest sports bar in Hartford was a no-brainer. I went to the XL Center Sports Bar & Fanatics Sportsbook for a siesta after a busy work day.
