Miss us? After a two week hiatus, we’re back to feed your food blog appetites. Here’s a redux of this week’s happenings on our favorite food blogs.

Although DLT readers had already read the rumors, EATERAZ announced the opening of Andrew Nam and Greg Donnally’s new restaurant revelation, Jimmy Woo’s, in Old Town Scottsdale. Thank goodness it wasn’t just us craving nowhere-to-be-found delicious Chinese food! “The menu’s got over 75 items with every combination of beef, chicken, seafood, and veggies you can imagine. Kung Pao, Mongolian, Szechuan, Sweet N Sour, Mu Shu, Salt & Pepper … it’s all there. It’s all priced about $8-$14 and tastes exactly as it should. No combination of items is meant to surprise you, yet nothing we tried on a recent lunch came out lacking flavor. It was all exactly as you’d expect a neighborhood Chinese restaurant to be… Their chef actually comes from P.F. Chang’s, so it is no surprise that the flavors are familiar without being a direct knock-off of dishes. In fact, the food kinda falls between a great dive Chinese restaurant and P.F. Chang’s — not too greasy, not too fake.” Sounds flippin’ delicious, office lunch trip to Jimmy Woo’s anyone?

Most recently, EATERAZ announced their upcoming expedition to the Old Pueblo on October 29 for the Starr Pass BBQ and Tucson Culinary Festival, their obsession [as well as the rest of the Valley's (including ours)] with the new and mind-blowingly improved Fry’s Marketplace in Paradise Valley and uncovered the scandalous truth about free range chicken. See, when people picture “free range,” they picture acres upon acres of idyllic land, where chickens get spa treatments and play games before trotting off to a happy neck breaking. But what really happens with a lot of “free range” chickens is cannibalism, dirty scavenging, and gang fights. Yipes! Truth is, as David and Rick so kindly informed us, you most likely get cage free (yes,there’s a difference) chicken from Red Bird if you’re shopping at AJ’s, Safeway and even Albertson’s. Don’t freak out, these chickens are the most tender in town, live happy lives and enjoy a speedy demise as they so eloquently put it.

While skimming Chow Bella, we couldn’t help but notice our sweet tooth swelling up as we quickly became distracted by Christopher Gross’ (of Christopher’s & Crush Lounge) recipe for his Parnassienne au Chocolate Chocolate Tower, the rundown of the drama on episode 6 of Top Chef Just Desserts, something about a pumpkin showdown and pumpkin mousse and the world’s cutest pancakes. That is all.

Pen & Fork is all about pies and is showcasing a review of the new Southern Pies cookbook by Nancie McDermott. We love pies. French Silk pies, Chocolate Mousse pies, Pecan pies, Lemon Meringue pies, Pumpk… well, you get the point. In this specific review, Linda Avery focuses on the author, Nancie McDermott’s, Dr. George Washington Carver’s Sliced Sweet Potato Pie. Lucky for us the recipe is given and, being McDermott’s favorite type of pie, we can only assume that it is to die for.

Well Skillet Doux has sure been busy, Dominic Armato unveiled his Quarterly Report (Q3 2010) and it’s taking some real effort to stop drooling over the pictures in it. So who’s made the cut? Well, Jerry’s Restaurant, a real retro diner, is first (in random order) on the list because the griddled sandwiches are super crisp, the food’s greasy without going over the top, and the salads are made with a wedge of industrial tomato, a slice of cucumber and an iceberg lettuce mix for which I’m sure many in the restaurant industry could name the exact Sysco catalog number. Other contenders include The Grind with its mouthwatering Sweet and Spicy Burger, Carolina’s (personal fave) with The Oaxaca Special which is filled with chorizo, beans, potato and cheese, and that pretty much tells you all you need to know about it, Rincon Peruano even though it goes without a recommendation, Chestnut Lane for its light and delicious menu items like the Lobster Cobb and finally Chompie’s which gets rightfully ripped to shreds. As Armato puts it, “when you make corned beef sandwiches for a living, you don’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day and suddenly get EVERYTHING wrong.” We agree.

Finally, Oysters. Intimidating if you’ve never had one (or maybe even if you have). The first time takes some mustering up of courage or a simple dare. Orangette walks us through her first, second and third time with these slippery shellfish and how she got past her fears to almost develop a fondness for the mushy mollusks. One word: perseverance.

Image via Chow Bella and Skillet Doux

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