A crowd of nearly 2,000 people was “pigging out” – literally – during the first day of Devoured.
Pork was the unofficial ingredient du jour from restaurants at Arizona’s premier culinary festival, an all-you-can-eat-and-drink affair held on a picture-perfect 70-degree day at the Phoenix Art Museum.
From pork shoulder to pork belly – braised, roasted or barbecued – pulled, sliced or diced – it seemed like pig was being showcased by the majority of restaurants.
Day 1’s top 5 best dishes
4th runner-up: Corned beef sandwich from Maize’s. I’m a big fan of this central Phoenix restaurant, a cross between Liberty Market and Flancer’s. It went off-menu for this tasty sandwich, roasting its own corned beef, making its own purple kraut and pickled mustard, and putting it all on fresh-baked marble rye.
3rd runner-up: Arizona vegetable salad from St. Francis. I can’t believe I’m putting a salad on the day’s best-of list, but the lettuce, blood orange, asparagus, baby beets, and other produce came from a Who’s Who’s of Valley farms, including McClendon’s, Maya’s, and Two Wash Ranch. Clean and refreshing on a warm afternoon.
2nd runner-up: Pulled pork sandwich from Lon’s. The Hermosa Inn resort restaurant forsook its upscale roots and kept things simple with this pork offering – nicely seasoned, slightly sweet, noticeably smoky. The meat is topped with apple slaw, with a single pickle chip on top. The toasted bun was a nice touch.
1st runner-up: Pork belly and kimchi from Roka Akor. This north Scottsdale restaurant always delivers at Devoured. It brought a smaller version (shown above) of the giant charcoal-fired robata grill in its dining room to grill perfectly sized two-bite pieces of pork belly topped with housemade kimchi (a sort of spicy Korean cabbage).
Best of the day: Pork belly taco from Gallo Blanco. I have a bit of love-hate relationship with this eatery at The Clarendon hotel in Phoenix. The wannabe-hipster clientele annoys me, but the food is damn good. Here, thickly sliced pork belly is complemented with jalapeno relish, a fiery achiote paste, and, surprisingly, an orangle marmalade (“borrowed,” I was told, from St. Francis chef Aaron Chamberlin). I almost wanted to stop eating afterward to keep the mix of flavors tingling in my mouth for the rest of the day.
Dessert highlights
I only tried about two-thirds of the many dessert offerings, but I think I hit all the major ones.
My favorite was the miniature roasted pineapple cupcakes (shown) from Province in downtown’s Westin Phoenix Hotel.
Other favorites:
• Red velvet Ding Dongs from Tempe-based Santa Barbara Catering
• Peanut butter ice cream with salted caramel sauce and sliced bananas from Churn
• Cotton candy from District American Kitchen in the Sheraton Phoenix.
My day by the numbers
• Time spent: 4 hours
• Booths I visited: 39 (out of 39)
• Food items I tasted: 63
• Beers drank: 5
• Glasses of wine: 3
• Glasses of punch: 1
• Bottles of water: 4
• Calories consumed (estimated): 5,000
• Professional dining critics encountered: 5
• Amateur dining critics encountered: 1,995
Related posts:
• Wrap-up: Holding the line at Devoured culinary festival – Day 2
• Devoured – Arizona’s premier culinary festival – is this weekend
