Is the Devoured culinary festival maybe getting too popular for its own good? I think it’s a fair question after Sunday’s conclusion to the two-day event at Phoenix Art Museum. The crowd was even larger than Saturday’s, which by itself is a good thing. But it did create some problems.
Once again, the museum’s large parking lot (pictured) was completely full by the time the event opened at 11 a.m., forcing people to drive around looking for parking. There were public garages nearby – but no one from the event was out front directing traffic so people had no way of knowing.
As on Saturday, temperatures climbed near 90 degrees. Water stations again were being refilled with bottles of lukewarm water, and the only shady spot  – along the wall in the dessert lounge, which was lined with people Saturday (shown) – was inexplicably barricaded off Sunday.
Given the weather and expected crowd, I decided to arrive right when the doors opened and hit as many spots as possible early in the day. That meant I made a beeline for Kai, which rolled out a typically awesome spread that included a tortilla gazpacho (upper left), pork machaca on Indian frybeard (lower left) and aloe vera-prickly pear-cucumber push-ups (right).
The most anticipated dish of the entire weekend – for foodies, at least – was the “Kai French Toast” with a fried quail egg. It was good, but not great. Then again, perhaps no such dish could have lived up to my expectations given Kai’s well-deserved reputation as one of the state’s top restaurants.
Next stop: Guerilla Gourmet, aka Payton Curry (left), who recently left Caffe Boa and Boa Bistro. He’s currently doing private dinner parties – “It’s catering, but it’s totally different than catering,” he says – while he looks for a space to open his own restaurant.
Curry’s wife, Shantal, was handing out two types of paté – one made with Berkshire pork, the other with Mangalitsa lardo, as well as a vichyssoise of rutabaga and potato. Later in the day, they also did little Vietnamese bánh mi sandwiches.
FnB didn’t participate in the weekend festival, but co-owner/GM Pavle Milic showed up Sunday to share a sandwich with someone special.
If Saturday was the Day of the Slider, then Sunday was the Day of the Taco. Bliss/ReBar did a braised beef taco with a white bean puree, pico de gallo and salsa (left), while Switch countered with a tasty hoisin-braised Asian street taco with soy-ginger slaw and Thai chile aoili (right).
Carte Blanche Gourmet Tacos, one of the booths I forgot to mention Saturday, was back Sunday with its trio of street-cart tacos – braised chicken with corn-and-bean relish (left), steak with Southwestern slaw (center) and portobello mushroom (right).
Ditto with recently opened Narcisse Champagne & Tea Lounge, which was back for another day with its bruschetta trio – apple and brie (left), black fig and goat cheese (center) and ricotta, arugula and Peppadew peppers (right).
As long as I was checking out trios, the next stop was food truck Short Leash Hotdogs, where the options were a regular weiner with cole slaw and blue cheese (left), a spicy beer hot dog with mango chutney and jalapeños (center) and their fried pickles (right).
The soon-to-be-renovated Lexington Hotel in downtown Phoenix unveiled a new dining concept called Cycle. The hotel will host a series of “pop-up” dinners featuring various Valley chefs starting April 1 and ending when renovation work starts in July.
Two kinds of tostadas – a Reposado-marinated duck breast with serrano gastrique and a pastor-style pork tenderloin with grilled pineapple and tomatillo sauce (left) – were featured by Vitamin T. Across the way, Cibo was pairing ricotta cream-stuffed cannolis (right) with shots of limoncello.
The Tuck Shop delivered perhaps the most unusual dish of the festival: a Kentucky “burgoo,” a kind of rural stew. Often made with squirrel, this version substituted pork, chicken, duck and beef and paired with jalapeño cornbread.
Chef Bernie Kantak’s version of pastrami on rye – made with pork belly pastrami, Brussels sprout sauerkraut and a rye cracker – was featured at the Citizen Public House tent.
My favorite dish of the day was Prado‘s caccucio, a seafood stew made with squid ink pasta, clams, mussels, octopus, halibut and vegetables (left). Other offerings included Anisette-flavored ice cream by Crave with almond biscotti (upper right) and Prado’s signature sangria (lower right).
Beckett’s Table kept things simple but tasty with green chile pork stew fries. Somehow the fries remained incredibly crispy.
Caffe Boa served milked-poached pork tenderloin with a celery root rémoulade (left) and head cheese with whole-grain mustard and sauerkraut on ciabatta (right).
Kudos to Petite Maison, which was the only restaurant to turn its table sideways, converting its tent into a shaded lounge for diners. Here, chef-owner James Porter even fills a festival-goer’s drink.
Petite Maison’s cod and salmon brandade with dill créme fraiche (left) was one of Sunday’s highlights. Two tents away, The Breadfruit‘s mouth-scorching Appleton rum, jerk-rubbed scallops (right) were another.
Honey Moon Sweets tempted with a platter of rice pudding with strawberry coulis, orange blossom honey cheesecake with graham cracker crust and Town Lake mud pies.
Valley musician Roger Clyne took a break from his Mexican Moonshine tequila booth to play a set with Peacemakers drummer P.H. Naffah.
How good was Cowboy Ciao‘s pork belly with jicama slaw (left)? So good that Ciao was among the first restaurants to run out of food Sunday. That included its delicious ice cream cookie sandwiches.
Udder Delights owner Casey Stechnij provided three offerings in the Dessert Lounge this year: Lavosh pizza, spicy chocolate empanadas and, best of all, sweet potato ice cream.
Ravioli stuffed with lobster and pancetta and topped with morel mushrooms were a big hit for resort restaurant Different Pointe of View.
Like most confectioners this weekend, Tammie Coe had to constantly push her desserts – in her case, a caramel pecan tart with leches cream and caramelized banana – before they melted. Her pulled chicken sandwich with Green Goddess dressing, however, was bit of a dud.
Another lackluster dish was the Hawaiian pork slaw with Asian slaw (left) from Hula’s Modern Tiki. Meanwhile, Posh chef Josh Hebert was walking around with his arm in sling, the result of what he laughingly called “a molecular gastronomy accident.”
Before ending my day, I had to swing by the El Chorro Lodge tent for one of their signature sticky buns. Earlier I had enjoyed their trout almondine.
By 2 p.m., Postino (pictured) was still drawing a hungry crowd for its bruschetta, but some other booths already were running out of food. Temperatures were peaking and it was getting a bit too crowded to walk around, so I decided it was time to bail. Until next year …
The heat is on: 2011 Devoured culinary festival – Day 1 wrap-up [MXSW]
Roundup of other Devoured roundups [MXSW]
