Best Bloody Mary Bar: Z ‘Teja’s

Z Teja's Best Bloody Mary. Photo courtesy of Z Tejas.

There’s no better cure for a Saturday night out than a Sunday-Funday Bloody Mary. A spicy Bloody is the perfect way to restore your vitamins and get back on the horse that bucked you – all while reminiscing on the night before with friends. Z’Tejas has just what the doctor ordered with their Bloody Mary Bar every Saturday and Sunday morning. Three dollars buys “last night’s cocktail queen” any type of vodka – including Grey Goose and Belvedere. The server brings the shots, and the guests become the bartenders — a fully stocked bar with three kinds of tomato juices ranging in spiciness; dozens of Tabasco-like spices; olives; pickles; celery; and anything else they would ever want in a Bloody Mary is up for grabs.

Best Chicago-Style Pizza: Spinato’s Pizzeria

BYOB. That’s right, a restaurant where you can bring a cooler full of your own alcoholic beverages, while eating the best pizza around. Spinato’s Pizzeria has four valley locations, including one less than two miles from ASU’s Tempe Campus.  Their pizza and pasta are to die for, but the best part about Spinato’s – their customer service. Spinato’s vows to make everyone who walks through their doors feel like family, and they do just that. The fact that you get to bring your own beer to their restaurant just brings home that fact, it’s like you’re going over to a dinner party, except their pizza is unlike anything your great-aunt ever cooked up – that is unless you’re part of the Gambino Family.

Spintano's got the best Pizza. Photo Courtesy of Spintano's.

Best Mexican Restaurant You Never Knew was There: Casa Reynoso

Have a hankering for Mexican food but don’t want to risk deportation by going near the border? Tucked away on the Northwest corner of Southern Drive and Mill Ave, Casa Reynoso’s hidden location may not be easy to remember, but their food is impossible to forget. Family owned, Casa Reynoso’s menu sticks to tradition, but with over 30 years of experience, the Reynoso’s have Mexican food down to a science. For something simple, no one in the Valley makes a better bean and cheese burrito. If you’re in the mood for something with a few more ingredients, their taco salad and all their enchiladas are delicious.

Best Peanut Butter Cookie: Romancing the Bean

A cookie bigger than your face with a perfectly baked outside and an even more perfectly ooey-gooey center exists. Romancing the Bean’s dessert case is filled with everyone’s favorite cookie flavors, all baked to perfection and big enough to share – or not. But this adorable, quaint coffee shop has more to offer than cookies. Romancing the Bean, located on the first floor of the Smith Barney Building on the northeast corner of Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway, has a breakfast and lunch menu, as well as coffee and tea. One thing to keep in mind: Romancing the Bean is closed on the weekends, so get your sweet-fix Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Best Twitter Discounts on Food: MOJO Frozen Yogurt

Twitter got Mojo. Photo courtesy of Mojo.

Calling all social media junkies, here’s a chance to finally cash in on the addiction. Each Tuesday, MOJO Yogurt on Mill Avenue and Third Street has “secret word Tuesday” for all customers who follow them on Twitter. MOJO tweets a special word of the week, for example; enjoy. When you whisper the word to the sales clerk, you receive a 50% discount. Anther unique thing about MOJO is the yogurt smoothie. Tip: MOJO is usually not the cheapest place to get your fro-yo fix, so we recommend only going on Tuesday. Any other day of the week Yogurtland on Rural Road and State Route 202 charges less per ounce than MOJO.

Best Macarons: Essence Bakery

Bonjour, culinary sophisticates. If you’ve never tried an authentic French macaron, you haven’t lived. Lucky for you, Essence Bakery, on University and Hardy Drives, has macarons that compete with the one’s you’ll find strolling down Avenue des Champs-Élysées. But Essence has even more to offer than their savory macarons. The best part, Essence does their part to buy locally and recycle, for so you sit back and enjoy your breakfast or lunch guilt free. Bon Chance!

Best Comfort Food in a Chic Setting: Culinary Drop-Out

According to their website, Culinary Dropout, is Fox Restaurant Concept’s, “little gastropub ‘rebel child.” They say it “breaks all the rules with its $20 or less menu, uniform-free staff and relaxed, soulful ambiance.”  With everything from salads to fried chicken, there is something on the menu for picky eaters and food snobs alike. (Their soft pretzel and provolone fondue appetizer is a must.) Culinary drop out also has a great beer and cocktail selection. Casual and chic, it’s the perfect place for a first date!

Best BBQ: Honey Bears BBQ

Honey Bears Unbeatable BBQ. Photo courtesy of Honey Bears.

Owner and chef Mark Smith has been cooking up some of the best BBQ in Arizona for over 25 years. With a fun, casual, family atmosphere, and BBQ that is to die for, Honey Bear’s BBQ is a place any true Arizonan must check out. Affordable and flavorful, Honey Bears has every authentic BBQ item on their menu. From pulled pork, to potato salad, to cowboy beans, you can’t go wrong. Fun Fact: President Obama dined on Honey Bears BBQ while on the Air Force One after a recent trip to Phoenix.

Best Breakfast: Culinary Café

Located conspicuously next to a dry cleaner on the northwest corner of Rural and Guadalupe Roads, most people wouldn’t give a second glance to this modest looking restaurant. But after taking a bite out of one of Chef Mark Vojtek’s creations, many are left in shock. The best thing on the menu is the Egg’s Benedict, which is topped with Hollandaise sauce. Culinary Café also has dozens of delicious salads and sandwiches to try, none that will disappoint. While dinner is not on the menu, Culinary Café hosts a special dinner every Friday night. Like Spinato’s, the café has a BYOB license, so feel free to bring your own wine or beer.

Best Place to Take a Tourist: Rustler’s Rooste

Attention all readers paying out-of-state tuition: It’s time to strap on your cowboy boots and get a real taste of the Southwest. Rustler’s Rooste, located atop a butte in the foothills of South Mountain, has great food and drinks with a view. Outside, you’ll see a bull that might be next week’s dinner. When you enter the restaurant, you have the option of either walking down a flight of stairs, but why do all that work when you can just taking the slide! To get the full experience, order rattlesnake – That right, real rattlesnake. Rustler’s Rooste is a great place to take out-of-town guests, love music nightly, priceless photo opportunities and a unique and fun menu. Tip: Go to the gift shop and ask for “rattle snake eggs.” It’s sure to give you a scare – and perhaps a good laugh.

Contact the reporter at mkthornt@asu.edu

Whiteboard illustration by Claire Lawton.

It’s that time of year, dear Reader. Finals are just around the corner and a good summer vacation is in high order.

It’s been a year of shenanigans adventures, and we hope our stories were as much fun to read as they were to write.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here or throughout the magazine and don’t hesitate to join our team!

Our very own Jessica Testa will be taking the reins next year, and she’s looking for a few assistant editors, photographers, videographers and writers to continue our tradition of bringing the best of ASU to print, er, the Web.

Open interviews will be held this Friday, May 7 in the basement of the Matthews Center on the Tempe Campus. Stop by between 1 and 4pm to get an idea of what we’ll be up to next year! 

Back to business: Throughout the year, we’ve been taking notes on people, places and things in and around the ASU campuses and have chosen our favorites for our Best Of issue.

So without further adieu, allow us to showcase the best of the best.

Goodbye from us, and hello to a new year of SPM. Love you, Reader!

— The Editors (Claire, Allie and Jessica)

Well hey there, food fans! Welcome back to Dish of the Week. Every seven days the SPM staff scours the city looking for the best examples of a given dish, which our intrepid tasters will then taste, rate and report back. We’ll let you know which burrito you should eat-o, which pizza pie catches our eye, which hamburger makes us say “DAMN!…burger.” We go through the process of finding the town’s best food so you won’t have to. What can we say? We’re givers.

This week’s dish tastes like chicken. Possibly because it is chicken. A Southern classic that’s golden, crispy and served in a bucket: fried chicken!

In the 18th and 19th centuries, American farmers began crossbreeding European and Asian pigs, developing swine that grew faster and larger. These pigs acted as garbage disposals on farms, eating crop waste and unusable foods and getting fatter while they did it. Because hogs were cheap and farmer workers needed a high-calorie diet for energy when milking cows and plowing fields for 16 hours a day, fat and rendered lard from pigs became a staple in many foods. In the 19th century, cast iron became widely available for use in cooking, and the combination of flour, lard and a chicken in a heavy pan became the beginning of today’s fried chicken.

Fried chicken really hit its stride when it was introduced to the American South. Africans brought to work on southern plantations incorporate seasonings and spices absent from traditional American cuisine. Most slaves weren’t allowed to raise expensive meats, so they kept chickens, and celebrating special occasions with fried chicken spread throughout southern African American communities.

Fried chicken gained further popularity in the ’50s and ’60s when segregation closed off most restaurants to the black population. Refrigeration wasn’t yet commonplace, and the dish traveled well in hot weather, allowing for shipping and eating outdoors. The food remains a staple in the South and is popular across the world.

Bonus factoid: It’s often said unusual meats such as rabbit, snake, goose and alligator taste like chicken because fat in chicken contributes more flavor than muscle and chicken contains lower levels of glutamates than most meats, both of which contribute to a less savory and more generic taste that is easily compared to other foods.

This week’s tasting is a head-to-head battle of fast food versus soul food. Two chickens enter; one chicken leaves!

The Contenders

Someone is about to get double downed ...

Lolo’s Fried Chicken and Waffles – Toy Toy: Lolo’s is a Phoenix staple with Classic southern flavors. The Toy-Toy meal comes with two southern fried chicken wings and one delicious waffle and tastes especially good when washed down with a jar of red drank (what Lolo’s calls red Kool-aid).

Kentucky Fried Chicken - Original Recipe Chicken: KFC is a chain with classic fast food flavors. The colonel’s chicken is breaded in a secret formula of 11 herbs and spices and fried to perfection.

The Tasting

We placed the chicken in unmarked boxes and allowed our judges a taste of each. Offerings were judged based on presentation, meat flavor, breading flavor and a special bonus category: heart attack factor! Each category was given a score of 1-10, 10 being the highest. Here’s how we scored it:

Lolo’s: “If looks said everything, I wouldn’t have tried this.” “Chicken +waffle=glorious!”
Presentation: 5.6
Meat: 7.0
Breading: 7.4
Heart Attack Factor: 8.4

KFC: “Moist, greasy, delicious.” “I should get checked.”
Presentation: 5.8
Meat: 6.2
Breading: 6.2
Heart Attack Factor: 9.2

The Results

First Place: Lolo’s
Second Place: KFC

The Final Verdict

Unsurprisingly, Lolo’s came out on top of KFC. Surprisingly, the venerable chain gave the old girl a run for her money. The greatest consequence of the tasting, however, was the discovery that fried chicken is excellent dipped in maple syrup. Trust us.

Contact the reporter at Zach.Fowle@asu.edu

Hey there, food fans! Welcome back to Dish of the Week. Every seven days the SPM staff scours the city looking for the best examples of a given dish, which our intrepid tasters will then taste, rate and report back. We’ll let you know which burrito you should eat-o, which pizza pie catches our eye, which hamburger makes us say “DAMN!…burger.” We go through the process of finding the town’s best food so you won’t have to. What can we say? We’re givers.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: a time for face-painting, fight songs, buzzer beaters and Cinderella stories. Yessir, it’s March Madness!

With basketball fans filling out their NCAA tournament brackets, we here at SPM’s tasting room have to admit we got a little jealous. So, we crafted a tournament of our own, pitting some of the Valley’s best burgers against one another in our very own meeting of meat. Gear up, food fans, because it’s BURGER MADNESS!

Welcome to the 2010 SPM Burger Tourney!

The Contenders

Jack in the Box – Jumbo Jack with cheese (Jumbo beef patty topped with two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, chopped onions, mayo-onion sauce and ketchup on a sesame seed bun.)

Burger King – Whopper (¼-pound beef patty, tomato, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, pickles and onions on a toasted sesame seed bun.)

Smashburger – Classic Smashburger (American cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, onion, pickle and smash sauce on an egg bun.)

Rally’s – Rally Burger (All-beef patty served on a toasted bun with mayo, ketchup, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and mustard.)

Mac’s Broiler and Tap – Bleu Cheese Peppercorn Burger (½-pound beef and steak patty mixed with bleu cheese crumbles and sprinkled with cracked pepper on a corn-dusted kaiser roll)

Delux – Delux Burger (Premium beef topped with Maytag and Gruyère cheese, organic arugula and a caramelized onion and applewood bacon mixture atop a toasted demi-baguette.)

Fatburger – Fatburger (100 percent pure lean beef, lettuce, cheese, relish, mustard, mayo, tomato and onions on a toasted bun.)

In-n-Out – Cheeseburger (100 percent pure beef patty, lettuce, tomato, spread, one slice of American cheese, with onions, on a freshly toasted bun.)

Five Guys – Cheeseburger (Two beef patties, mayo, relish, grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, tomato, grilled mushrooms, ketchup.)

Chuckbox – The Big One (⅓-pound special beef patty, topped with American cheese on a whole wheat bun.)

Play-In Games

With 10 burgers competing for the top spot, we had to finagle the brackets a bit to ensure some symmetry. Hence: two play-in games, with the winners advancing to face our higher-ranked contenders.

Burger King vs. Smashburger
Victor: Smashburger

Rally’s vs. Fatburger
Victor: Rally’s

The Edible Eight

Eight amazing contenders, each with their own outstanding qualities. There were some disagreements among the judges, but the Flavorful Four soon emerged.

Smashburger vs. Five Guys
Victor: Smashburger

Mac’s vs. Chuckbox
Victor: Chuckbox

Rally’s vs. Delux
Victor: Delux

Jack in the Box vs. In-N-Out
Victor: In-N-Out

The Flavorful Four

Would Cinderella story Smashburger take down the established powerhouse Chuckbox? Could classic In-N-Out defeat young upstart Delux? With such solid contenders, it got harder to pick a winner, but the better burgers earned their spots in the savory ’ship.

Smashburger vs. Chuckbox
Victor: Chuckbox

Delux vs. In-N-Out
Victor: Delux

The ‘Ship

A Tempe classic against a trendy Scottsdale joint. Old school versus new school. A battle for the ages!

Chuckbox vs. Delux
Victor: Delux!

Ten supremely satisfying burgers later, a champion emerges. Delux’s combination of trendy, organic ingredients and adherence to classic flavors brought it to ultimate victory.

As the judges slipped into meat-drunkenness, and, later, meat comas, we reflected on the savory, delicious, epic tournament. Who wins in the end? We all do. Burger Madness, indeed.

Until next time, food fans. Go Syracuse!

After a series of confusing Spanish class-related incidents (”No Ma’am, I’m sorry but I don’t know where the biblioteca is”) left me wondering about my abilities as a speaker, I decided it was time for some extra help.

Following one particularly puzzling incident where my teacher asked students to raise their hands one by one to sign up for something (that something could have been anything, but I’m pretty sure it somehow involved a baby) my friend intervened.

“Why not try this Changing Hands Bookstore Spanish-speaking event?” she suggested casually. So I snagged my fellow Spanish-speaking roommate and headed out.

First impressions weren’t exactly as I had pictured them. We were led into a back room by an employee where seven middle- to old-aged people were sitting in a circle discussing their days in Spanish. The leader of the group looked up at me and my roommate like we may have been in the wrong room, and for a second I suspected that we were. “Hi are you here for the Spanish conversation?” she asked us in Spanish.

“Si!” I responded with gusto.

Then came time for introductions.

We went around the circle and if you were new to the group, you told everyone a little about yourself. “Hello, my name is Colin,” I said. I wasn’t so sure where to go after that, but saying where I was from sounded like a good jumping-off point. If I could only get the past tense right.

“No no. I live in Tempe, but I live in Ahwatukee,” I explained to the woman sitting next to me. The leader politely corrected me, and I was thankful I wouldn’t be making the same mistake the next day in class.

As we went around the circle, everyone talked a little about how his or her week had been, but the highlight came when one women attempted to describe how to keep warm in an emergency using a candle and a can of tuna. At first I thought I misinterpreted her, but as she went on I realized I caught the words but not the process.

“Wait, I don’t understand,” my roommate said. “Why does it have to be tuna?”

Apparently, it doesn’t. She explained that by heating up an empty can with a candle, you can generate enough heat to keep warm in a life-or-death situation. The physics behind this still doesn’t really add up to me, but I made a note of it in case I’m ever caught in a Russian winter with a candle and a finished can of baked beans.

The two of us gained some confidence after this, and one of the women even had something in common with me. We had both been to a comedy-concert the previous night.

“It’s like, music for…” the women searched for the word, “geeks” she said in English.

“Nerdos” the teacher corrected.

All right, so maybe it wasn’t a word I could use in every circumstance, much less in class, but I was making some headway.

By the end I had added a few more practical words to my vocabulary. Bell, candle, comedy, empty, and some grammar I needed help with were all  within my grasp by the end. The teacher even tipped us off to some online programs we could join, and let us know about spanish movies playing in Tempe the following week.

All in all, I was a little out-of-place, but at least felt more confident in my abilities once the conversation was over. I might give it a shot again, even.

If you’re interested in giving a Spanish conversation class a shot, you can try the one I did at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, March 27.

Contact the reporter at clecher@asu.edu.

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There have been 104 regular episodes of Lost, each 43 mins long. If I start at from episode 1, it will take me 74 hrs to catch up. Doable?

I think so.

Every wondered what it would be like to spend a full 24-hours in the Hayden Library? Love to think you could live without Facebook or Twitter for a week? Are you a caffeine addict who wishes you could live without that morning cup of coffee (not to mention your afternoon, late afternoon, and evening cups…)?

You might think we’re crazy, but the truth is that the Guinea Pig Blog exists for you! Simply laugh about our adventures when we’re finished or decide if it’s worth it to try one out for yourself.

Got something you want us to try? Leave a comment and we just might do it!

Singles mingle at the "Meet Market" Valentine's Day event held at RA Sushi on Mill Avenue. Photo by Nicole Ethier.

When I picture speed dating, I picture lonely people in their late 30s to early 40s, who can’t get a date, bumbling in conversation and hoping someone out of this random group of strangers is “the one.” (Disclaimer: This shouldn’t be taken offensively if you for some reason identify with that category. Peace and Love, yo!)

That definitely wasn’t the scene at RA Sushi’s “Meet Market” speed-dating event on Mill Avenue. First, the crowd was young and hip.  There was a DJ spinning tunes and a crowded bar on the back patio as speed daters donning name tags attempted to get some liquid courage before the big date. Or should I say, “dates.“

Some were mingling, some were standing around awkwardly and unsure of what to do. (I’m not going to point fingers, but I may have been one of them.) After about a half hour, a RA employee began the event. There were about nine tables set up. Names were called and a woman from the crowd sat at each table. Then a group of men’s names were called, and each filled in an empty chair opposite a woman at each table. They were given three minutes to get to know each other while music played. Those who were not part of the first round continued to drink and mingle. A horn would go off and the men would rotate to the next table.

Unfortunately, participants weren’t able to meet everyone, just those who were selected in the same round. There was no need to worry about rejection or rejecting someone else because at the end of the three minutes they moved on and you could either talk to them more after the whole speed dating thing if you stuck around the bar or take off. No hard feelings.

I was part of the third round, and everyone I met was friendly and pleasant. They all were vastly different reflecting the overall mix of people in the crowd.  I must note, I gave a fake name and fake background just in case they were curious and wanted to look up anything I’ve written. I don’t know if this was necessary, but it was fun in the slightest to be a new person with every new “date” I met. However, next time (and I do think this is something I would do again) I would just be myself and go with a group of friends and make a night of it because it’s way easier than trying to keep up with some fake life story.

So to end, speed dating = not so weird. But check out the experience of my fellow SPMer, Jacqueline Valle. She says:

Now I know how incredibly ridiculous it may sound to go speed dating, but it is something that everyone should experience at least once.

I went in thinking there was either going to be a bunch of old people or a bunch of unattractive single bachelors. I was proven wrong the minute I walked into the setting and became intrigued.

Some people had gone in groups with their friends and were really amped about meeting new people.

I was in round three with about 10 guys that rotated as I sat in the same place talking about myself. I normally would think it’s awkward that I technically went on 10 dates in 30 minutes …

I should probably add that I used a pseudo name, Stella, with which every man decided I gave him something to talk about. One guy actually yelled out “steeeelllaaaaaaa” while others asked if I was a fan of the beer.

Ultimately, speed dating is better than being on an awkward first date with someone, because there’s only three minutes to talk.

I think if you’re going, try it to meet new people; you should definitely do it with a group and be open to the event. It may sound silly but the turn out could actually be better than you expect. I’m not saying you’re going meet your true love, but you never know who you can meet.

Contact the reporters at  nicole.ethier@asu.edu and jvalle1@asu.edu

Where can you get the most bang for you buck. Photo by Branden Eastwood.

Arby’s was the latest in fast food restaurants to add the oh-so-wonderful value menu (aka dollar menu) to it’s entourage agglomeration of fast-food goodness.

The dollar menu has been around in some form or another for quite some time. After all, fast food restaurants started with menu items costing no more than a dime or so.  In the early 2000s McDonald’s popularized the value menu by introducing an official dollar menu with, of course, some great marketing.

Since then fast-food goers have come to expect the value menu in some form or another. Most dollar menus include the restaurant’s particular brand of burger, chicken sandwich, fries and a drink. Some have gone a bit further in trying to differentiate themselves and their dollar menus. Many people have a particular attachment to one fast food franchise for one reason or another, so instead of comparing the dollar menu on taste, we thought it would be fun to break them down and rate what’s awesome (or not) about each one.

Note: All items listed are either 99 cents or $1 unless otherwise noted.

Arby’s

It’s awesome that Arby’s finally has a dollar menu, but it is somewhat disappointing that they tried sneak in some items that were priced at more than $1 and then market them on the dollar menu:

Double Cheezer
Jr. Roast Beef
Jr. Chicken Sandwich
Value fries
Value drink
Jr. Ham and Chedder

Six additional items on this menu were left off because they were priced at more than $1.

Burger King

The onion rings and chicken nuggets add a little variety to this value menu. Other than that it’s pretty mundane.

Double cheeseburger
Whopper Jr.
Four-piece crown shaped chicken tenders
Spicy chicken sandwich
Value fries (Did you know you could get them salted or unsalted? At least according to Burger King’s site.)
Onion rings
Side garden salad (looks like just iceberg lettuce)
Dutch Apple Pie

The price of a meal in change. Photo by Branden Eastwood.

Del Taco If you feel the need to mix it up and go for something other than a burger, Del Taco provides a pretty solid value menu, though nothing too unexpected here.

1/2 lb. bean and cheese burrito
Taco
Tostada
Chicken soft taco
Nachos
Cheeseburger
Bean and cheese cup

Filiberto’s Good ol’ Filly B’s decided to participate in the dollar menu extravaganza. They definitely win “most limited value menu” because the $1 items are restricted to particular days and locations. It was a nice try though.

Apache location:

Tuesday: Chicken or beef taco
Wednesday: Bean burrito (cheese is extra)
Thursday: Bean tostada
Friday: Jr. Fili quesadilla

Broadway location:

Every day: Ground beef taco
Tuesdays only:
Beef taco
Chicken taco
Ground beef taco
Three rolled tacos with cheese
Bean burrito

Jack in the Box

Is it just me or are there a ridiculous amount of Jack in the Boxes within a close proximity to campus? Jack in the Box definitely wins “Most convenient value menu” because of this and their late night hours.

Two tacos
Jumbo Jack (with or without cheese)
Big cheeseburger
Chicken sandwich
Hamburger deluxe (with or without cheese)
Jr. bacon cheeseburger
Grilled cheese
Side salad

McDonald’s

Mickey D’s gets kudos for its recent introduction of the dollar breakfast menu. Therefore they win “Best Breakfast Value Menu” by default. They also win “most variety” for this and the inclusion of their fruit and yogurt parfait, which is something you cannot find on any other dollar menu.

Breakfast:

Sausage burrito
Sausage McMuffin
Hash Browns
Small premium roast coffee
Sausage biscuit

Original:

McDouble
McChicken
Fruit and yogurt parfait
Side salad
Two apple pies
Small fries
Small drink

Sonic

Sonic wins “best variety.” No other menu includes something as healthy as a fresh banana and as unhealthy as something with both Fritos and chili in the name. They also win “best dessert options.”

Jr. Deluxe Burger
Chicken Strip Sandwich
Jr. Fritos Chili cheese wrap
Jr. breakfast burrito
Small tots
Small fries
Vanilla cone
Fresh banana
Jr. Candy Sundae
Small Famous Slush
Small soft drink

Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s value menu takes it a step further by featuring items under $1. They win “most cost effective.”

79 cents:

Cheese roll-up
Crispy potato soft taco
Cinnamon twists

89 cents:

Chicken soft taco
Crunchy taco
Triple layer nachos
Beefy five-layer burrito

99 cents:

Bean burrito
Soft taco
Chicken burrito
Caramel apple empanada

Wendy’s

Wendy’s was the only value menu to add a little more variety with their chicken wraps, so they get an honorable mention for “best variety.”

Chicken go wrap (choose from spicy, homestyle or grilled chicken)
Crispy chicken sandwich
5-piece chicken nuggets (choose from either crispy or spicy)
Double-stack
Jr. bacon cheeseburger
Value fries
Value drink

Is it sad that writing this made me really hungry for all this really bad food? At least it’s not going to cost me more than a few bucks at the sacrifice of my health. Oh, well. And now that I’ve got you thinking about delicious but cheap fast food, check out this map mashup to find the locations closest to ASU.

Contact the reporter at nicole.ethier@asu.edu

Konnichiwa, food fans! Welcome back to Dish of the Week. Every seven days the SPM staff scours the city looking for the best examples of a given dish, which our intrepid tasters will then taste, rate and report back. We’ll let you know which burrito you should eat-o, which pizza pie catches our eye, which hamburger makes us say “DAMN!…burger.” We go through the process of finding the town’s best food so you won’t have to. What can we say? We’re givers.

This week’s dish is a bane to those with no chopstick skills. Often misunderstood but generally beloved: sushi!

We hear you, naysaying readers: “Sushi? Isn’t that raw fish? Ewww!”

One: No. Raw fish is called sashimi and is an entirely different dish. Sushi is raw fish … plus rice!

Two: Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. Sushi has been one of the most popular dishes in the world since the fourth century B.C., and these things just don’t happen by accident. There even exists an array of sushi forms that have developed throughout the centuries to suit whatever eclectic tastes a picky eater might have. We’ll explain:

Nare-Zushi: Fish have always been an important source of protein. To preserve their catches, ancient peoples in Southeast Asia stored their cleaned and gutted fish in rice because the natural fermentation of the rice helped to preserve the fish. After a couple months, the ancient asians would eat the fish and throw away the rice. Such a waste.

Seisei-Zushi: Around the eighth century, this style of preserving and eating fish was introduced to Japan. The Japanese of the Muromachi period preferred to eat rice together with their fish, so they consumed the dish earlier in the fermentation process, when the fish was still raw and the rice still had some flavor.

Haya-Zushi: This stage marks the evolution of sushi as a meal unique to Japanese culture. For this form of sushi, rice was no longer used for fermentation but was instead mixed with vinegar and combined with various veggies and other preserved foods, as well as fish.

Nigiri Sushi: aka “finger sushi,” this is the modern form of sushi — formed by placing a piece of fresh fish atop an oblong slab of rice — of which western culture has become so fond. A 19th century man named Hanay Yohei is credited with the creation of this form of the dish. During Yohei’s time, sushi was served from stands on the street and meant to be a quick bite to eat on the go — one of the world’s first fast foods! After World War Two, however, most sushi stands were shut down and moved indoors to more sanitary conditions. Sushi changed from a quick indulgence to a true dining experience and became the favorite meal of fancypants diners the world over.

Most modern sushi restaurants serve a version of the Vegas Roll, a popular choice among modern diners. For our tasting, we chose three of Tempe’s most popular sushi sellers and asked them to each give us a serving of their best.

The Contenders

Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant – Viva Las Vegas Roll: Kani Kama crab and cream cheese rolled in rice and seaweed; lightly tempura battered and topped with spicy tuna, kani kama crab mix; finished with a sweet eel sauce and spinach tempura bits and topped with a sliced lotus root (an addition that confused many of our tasters — we thought it was a fried tomato).

Crazy Fish 202 Sushi – Vegas Roll: So top secret it’s not even on the menu! Crab mix, eel and veggies, all wrapped up in seaweed and rice and tempura fried.

Sake Bomber Sushi and Grill – Las Vegas Roll: Smoked salmon, avocado and cream cheese inside tempura fried rice, topped with a spicy eel sauce and a slice of jalapeno.

The Tasting

We placed the sushi rolls in unmarked boxes and allowed our judges a taste of each. Offerings were judged based on presentation, ingredients, size and overall taste and given a score of 1-10, 10 being the highest. Here’s how we scored it:

Ra: “The fried tomato on top is classy.” “First, reminiscent of pizza crust. Then, delicious.”

Presentation: 8.5
Ingredients: 8.5
Size: 8.0
Flavor: 7.6

Crazy Fish: “Bland. Boring.” “The crab was sad. It tasted like depression.”

Presentation: 7.58
Ingredients: 7.08
Size: 7.67
Flavor: 7.25

Sake Bomber: “More like tempura than sushi.” “The jalapeno adds a nice kick at the end.”

Presentation: 7.58
Ingredients: 7.75
Size: 8.5
Flavor: 8.25

The Results

First Place: Ra
Second Place: Sake Bomber
Third Place: Crazy Fish

The Final Verdict

It was an epically close battle for first place, but Ra’s inventive presentation and creative use of ingredients gave it the edge over Sake Bomber’s more flavorful offering. See, tasters? Those fried tomatoes were good for something!

We’re still not sure what fish, veggies, rice and spicy sauces have to do with Las Vegas … but we like it!

Contact the reporter at zfowle@asu.edu

SPM staff writer Janice Vegas has her tarot cards read. Photo by Peter Lazaravich.

Let’s be clear about one thing: I do not believe in the supernatural. Not ghosts or ghouls, witches or wizards. No magic, voodoo or creepy-crawly purchases from Spirit: The Halloween Store. I have no fear of zombie attacks or hauntings brought on by old VHS tapes, evil houses or spooky ghost kids. (My fears are real, tangible things, like tornadoes and speeding cameras.)

Believe it or not, I’m the only person I know who subscribes to this very rational worldview. In an informal survey of my friends and family, even the most reasonable minds claimed to have at least one supernatural belief. Some said they believed in angels, one said mediums and more than a few said they believed in some kind of pre-destined universal fate.

My secret reaction to their beliefs? Puh-lease.

This unrelenting skepticism, I thought, made me the perfect person to try out a supernatural experiment. I decided to get my tarot card reads. If a psychic couldn’t crack me, no scary mockumentary ever could.

Cut to last Saturday evening, in a room hidden in the back of a bookstore. No candles or music, much to my surprise — just a fold-up table and two chairs. I introduce myself, and the psychic explains her methods. She will communicate with my “people” (that is, my guardian angels) and they will tell her how to interpret my tarot cards. She begins with a prayer. Midway through, she begins to smile. “You’re psychic,” she says.

“Oh. Uh…” I respond.

“You’re very, very intuitive,” she says. “Do you ever have dreams or just know what’s going to happen?”

Nope, can’t say I have, lady.

I shuffle the cards and divide the deck. I place my hands over the deck and she tells me to feel which deck has more energy. If I can’t feel it, she says I should pretend to feel it. (But I thought I was psychic?)

The sky is the limit, she tells me, when it comes to my job. I’m going to gain a mentor soon. Also, I might be pregnant. Or overcoming a bad addiction. One of the two. I should anticipate getting in a big fight with someone I care about, she says. But as long as I keep quiet, that person will stick around. Someone, maybe a girl friend, is awful and two-faced, but I don’t know about it yet. “Trust your intuition,” she says. (Because I’m psychic.)

In other words, I lead the life of an average, college-aged girl.

Maybe I’m blinded by my skepticism. Maybe everything she said was true, and I’m going to look like a fool in nine months, when I’ve got a baby on my hip and a knife in my back. Maybe she just cajoled 20 bucks out of me.

That’s why I brought fellow SPM staffer and non-skeptic Janice Vega with me, to give our psychic a fighting chance. Here’s what she had to say:

Walking into my first tarot reading, I realized that my expectations may have been somewhat skewed. I had this picture in my head of a frizzy-haired gypsy woman covered in jewelry and a flowing skirt, sitting behind a crystal ball. Well, I got the frizzy hair part right.

I walked into what looked like a storage or break room and saw the tarot reader sans crystal ball. I then proceeded to make a mistake: I introduced myself and explained that I was with a magazine. I should have waited until the end to ask, because I felt I had given her a key piece of information that revealed a lot about who I was and what I liked to do.

Throughout the reading, she asked me questions like “Are you in a relationship?”, “Do you and your father get along?” and “Will you be taking a trip soon?” All of which I answered honestly, but felt like her responses were somewhat general and not quite on target. When she told me that she didn’t see my relationship lasting very long, I must have not hid the disappointment very well because she then told me that my boyfriend would always be in my life somehow. Then she went on to tell me that in the future I would be doing something that influences a lot of people in a positive way and told me she saw a book or a magazine, something to do with writing. At that point I just couldn’t be convinced. I felt I had definitely influenced that prediction!

Now, I am not one to doubt the mystical right off the bat, but I didn’t walk out of that room enlightened nor fearful. More so I felt like I could have used the $20 on something more useful. That’s not to say I wouldn’t do it again. It was definitely a fun experience, and I am intrigued and willing to give tarot reading another shot, albeit with another reader.

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Janice.

Have you ever wanted to try something radical (no, we’re not talking cliff diving or speed racing), but didn’t have the time or were worried about the outcome? The SPM staff is here to try it for you, and write about it along the way. Email us with suggestions at spmstories@gmail.com

Contact the reporters at Jessica.Testa@asu.edu and Janice.Vega@asu.edu