Starka

Location:

Phoenix, AZ

Best meal I ever ate:

First realization that a restaurant *cared* about its food and guests- at Genoa in Portland, OR back in '97. No menus, 5-courses, your server described each course but without fussiness or expected response... my most comfortable, intimate, loving experience with ever as a restaurant diner.

My current drink of choice:

Homemade lemonade, easy on the sugar.

I really wish I could:

Make molecular gastronomy, or at least the phrase, go away. Dang, it's *really* not that interesting.

My "Go-to" dinner party dish:

Roasted fingerlings with a garlicy aioli to dip. Just have to dodge any "what's aioli?" questions.

My favorite comfort food:

Bigos (Polish hunter's stew), runny soft boiled eggs scooped into a glass with a few salt grains

My most tattered cookbooks:

3-ring binders of cut-outs from NY Times, Food & Wine, scribbled notes from phone calls to family and restaurant friends, an old Mario Batali book, random Polish/Georgian/Russian books, new favorite: Lebanese!