Blue Adobe Grille (144 N. Country Club Drive, Mesa, [480] 962-1000). The carne adovada plate is the highlight of the New Mexican dishes found at this award-winning establishment. There’s an excellent selection of Southwest infused seafood as well, including lobster tamales with mango salsa and raspberry chipotle. $$

Tequila’s scent is unmistakable. The aroma is floral-sweet, sometimes edged with a subtle hint of vanilla. Occasionally a whisper of wet pine needles or even bittersweet chocolate. Maybe a little lime peel.

December 3, 2004

December 3, 2004

Citrus smells great and tastes refreshing, but this year’s crop is so abundant even one tree often produces too much fruit for a single family. To use that citrus, Valley chef and culinary teacher Barbara Pool Fenzl suggests her light, somewhat unusual and very Southwestern Jicama, Orange and Nopalitos Salad.

Gilbert is the world this weekend. The third annual Gilbert Global Village Festival will bring together the cultures of about 30 countries, including Australia, Pakistan, Haiti, Ireland and Russia.

Sloppy plates of hot wings and nachos are easy to spot on happy hour menus, but finding carefully prepared plates of gourmet grub on the cheap takes some hunting. Here are the five best places for bite-size fine foods at a hefty discount:

A Whole Foods Markets is coming to the East Valley.

Some recipes are winners. Passed from grandmother to granddaughter on crumbly, yellowed slips of paper and begged for across checkered tablecloths at summertime potluck barbecues, they’re savored every time they’re whipped into existence.

Chery Martinez, a return customer at Entrées Made Easy in Mesa, quickly sums up the attraction. “I love it because I’m actually cooking dinner again,” says the Mesa woman, who shows up at the one-year-old business on a recent Friday night with daughters Destiny, 10, and Gabby, 9.

Sweet, spicy flavors combine for an enticing festival of gourmet chocolates, southwestern salsas, music and dance at Desert Botanical Garden.

A night without dishes is always welcome in our book, and so are kids-eat-free deals. The latest on our radar is at TQLA, the recently opened tequila bar and Southwestern kitchen at Dana Park in Mesa. The deal is good, on Mondays, for one free child’s entrée when an adult purchases an adult entrée.

A Mesa restaurant is hoping to offer connoisseurs of Mexican food and drink a not so party-hardy way to ring in Cinco de Mayo.

BENSON • You don’t go to the Singing Wind Bookshop just to browse. You go there for the experience.

DALLAS - As toddlers begin eating "grown-up" food, they may also develop grown-up eating habits - like too much junk food and too few vegetables, warn doctors who want parents to change their ways.

Lucha libre wrestling, surf music, cooking demos, a mariachi contest and thousands of $2 tacos characterize this event, taking place at Salt River Fields, where more than 50 teams compete for National Taco Association prizes.

For 33 years, Desert Botanical Garden has provided a serene Southwestern alternative to packing into the minivan and trolling for neighborhood Christmas lights: Las Noches de Luminarias. More than 8,000 handlit paper bags line the garden’s pathways, while soft lights twinkle in the trees and handbell choirs, Dickens carolers and other musicians play holiday music around nearly every bend. Hot cider, cocoa and a dinner menu are available.

Appetites for art, music and food can be satisfied at the same time this weekend with three events in downtown Scottsdale.