How many people can you cram into the Phoenix Art Museum’s sculpture garden before Devoured becomes overcrowded?
The answer, apparently, is fewer than 2,500 – the attendance cap that organizers had put on the annual all-you-can-eat-and-drink festival and was reached Sunday.
Although mostly well-organized and well-run, the fest simply was overwhelmed on its second day. Long lines formed at many booths. At Kai’s booth, nearly 100 people waited in a slow-moving mass.
Fortunately, I was ready when doors opened at 11 a.m. and was able to hit all 20 new booths that hadn’t been there Saturday.
Day 2′s top 5 best dishes
Among the restaurants that only participated Sunday (see Saturday’s Top 5 here):
4th runner-up: Head cheese from Petite Maison. Chef James Porter always seems to make a memorable impression at Devoured, and this year he had the most ballsy offering of the two-day fest: A cold cut-like concoction made of pigs’ head, heart and feet parts and served with a Seacat Garden jardinière, crusty bread and mustard.
3rd runner-up: Mongolian BBQ shrimp from House of Tricks. It was nice to see this Tempe favorite show up for Devoured. It only brought one dish, but it was a winner: Mongolian BBQ shrimp on a bed of pink peppercorn grits with housemade kimchi. Tricks was one of several restaurants that made the Korean-style cabbage.
2nd runner-up: Dry-aged sirloin from J&G Steakhouse. It wasn’t any surprise that this high-end steakhouse from the Phoenician resort would do, well, steak. It also served a very nice black pepper shrimp with pineapple, but it was the slices of dry-aged sirloin with cilantro pesto that really delighted my palate.
1st runner-up: Chilled duck breast from Cork. After skipping last year’s festival, this south Chandler fine-dining restaurant returned with several worthy dishes, including roasted strip loin and seared tuna. But it was the bite-size slices of duck with macro arugula, mango and preserved tangerine that were most delicious.
Best of the day: Suckling pig from Kai. As has become its custom, the Wild Horse Pass Resort restaurant near Chandler put out an impressive spread. The centerpiece dish was suckling pig (shown above on the spit) on a black garlic Indian fry bread pillow with an Arizona date-fig-apricot jam and a coconut-curry tzatziki sauce.
Honorable mention
Although Hana Japanese Eatery didn’t have an item in my Top 5, I’d be remiss not to mention it would have had multiple dishes in my Top 10, including ribeye steak marinated with red miso sauce, traditional chicken kushiyaki (also a salted version of the kushiyaki with fresh wasabi), and uni shooters.
Dessert highlights
Topping my Day 2 of sweets was Cork’s coconut-macadamia nut bread pudding with palm sugar caramel and toasted coconut.
Kai brought its usuals: Spiced cotton candy (nicely presented hanging from branches) and desert-flavored snow cones.
I also enjoyed the “crack cake” – a rich, flourless chocolate cake – that Tammie Coe served with small shots of roasted banana tea (pictured).
My day by the numbers
• Time spent: 3 hours
• Booths I visited: 20 (every restaurant that wasn’t there Saturday)
• Food items I tasted: 33
• Beers drank: 2
• Shots of banana tea: 1 (see above)
• Bottles of water: 3
• Calories consumed: 3,000 (estimated)
• Chefs who told me about plans for new restaurants: 5
• Free Firestone Walker baseball caps I turned down: 1
• People I saw accidentally walk into tent poles: 3
• Percentage of likelihood I’ll be back next year: 100
Related posts:
• Wrap-up: ‘Pigging out’ at Devoured culinary festival – Day 1
• Devoured – Arizona’s premier culinary festival – is this weekend
