Mama's Hawaiian Barbecue is open at 850 E. Speedway Blvd. How do I know this to be true? Because Mama herself e-mailed me last night:

Hey, Mama's is open and the beef teryaki is beaut!

Please stop by, MAMA

A second e-mail detailed her son's culinary experience, but didn't mention his name. She did send a phone number, however, and manager Brad Goss said this morning that he's serving beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, Kahlua pork, short ribs, tofu, Hawaiian desserts and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 3 a.m., daily.

Hawaiian barbecue consists of a plate with a serving of meat and equal portions of rice and cold macaroni salad. It's also known for its delicious tropical sauces.

Call 792-2350 for more information.

Irony, unlike revenge, is apparently a dish best served hot ... and with a side of sour cream: Several local groups will be selling traditional Jewish potato pancakes this weekend to raise funds for efforts by the Middle East Children’s Alliance to help Palestinian children. More information here.

Jasmine Market, the awesome little Mediterranean grocery store at 2516 N. Campbell Ave., has closed. I saw them packing up this weekend and called, hoping they were just relocating, but the phone had been disconnected.

The new Beyond Bread location at 421 W. Ina Road is open.

Biscuits Country Café at 7002 E. Broadway Blvd. has moved down the street to 7026 E. Broadway Blvd. “Same menu, more seating,” said the owner. We’ve also gotten word that a new place called Hummingbird Café could be going in at the old Biscuits spot.

You'd think running three restaurants would really wear a guy out, but Janos Wilder always makes time to give back to the community. Wilder teams up with Pueblo High School's special-education class for a holiday luncheon with seatings at 10:56 a.m., 11:58 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., Friday, Dec. 10. $5, and reservations are strongly recommended. Proceeds benefit the special-education program. E-mail [email protected] for reservations or more information.

Wilder speaks about Tucson’s culinary heritage at the Museum of Contemporary Art at 4 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 4. Reservations are highly recommended; 624-5019.

Wilder has also announced the next run of his popular cooking classes, which go for $50 each. The first class takes place in mid-January and features recipes from his new restaurant DOWNTOWN Kitchen + Cocktails. Call 615-6100 for reservations or more information.

And finally (I told you he was busy!), bean dishes created by Wilder and several other local chefs will be featured at the Great Bean Tasting at 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 11, at the Natiive Seeds/SEARCH store at 3061 N. Campbell Ave. Admission is free. Call 622-0830 for more information.

The Danish Club of Tucson will be serving complete Danish meals and homemade cookies at the Nordic fair at Streams in the Desert Church (5360 E. Pima St.) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 4. Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian food will also be available. More information here.

In wine news, there are only two seats left for Tohono Chul Park’s trip through Arizona’s wine country. The tour from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 10, features stops at Sonoita Vineyards, Callaghan Vineyards and Kief-Joshua Vineyards, tastings and lunch, and costs $99 for park members; and $120 for nonmembers. Call 742-6455 for more information.

It looks like the new incarnation of elle Wine Country Restaurant, which will be known as elle wine bistro, is coming along nicely. Check in at the bistro’s Facebook page for more information.

Half-price bottles of wine today for Delectables weekly Wacky Wednesday event. The restaurant has also announced a beer, bratwurst and Wheel of Fortune event scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 16. More here.

Hotel Congress has announced its third annual Whiskey Weekend. You'll want to head over here for information about that.

If you didn't see it on this blog earlier this week, there's new coffee to be sipped in South Tucson. We peeked in the window this morning and are calling the atmosphere "industrial-Bohemian," or "Oh my God, it looks like every apartment I've ever lived in!" The place wasn't open at 7 a.m. (like the owner said it would be) but he's just getting the place off the ground and doesn't even have employees yet, so he's off the hook for the time being.

Fans of desert foods can learn how to make holiday treats with mesquite flour at an event next Saturday. Check that out here.

And lastly, there is reason to believe that I may soon become the first writer at the Tucson Weekly to have a crepe named after them. Allow me to quote from the Planet of the Crepes Facebook page:

I'm naming a crepe after Adam Borowitz. How about "the best crepe ever"?

I'm not worthy!!

This series of videos seems likely to end with one of the cast members choking on some sort of cured-pork product, but seeing as everyone is still alive and able to ingest a large number of calories, Epic Meal Time are making a "Breakfast Fortress" this week, including a bacon plate and a Bailey's whipped cream with chocolate chips.

A new coffee roaster and café named Café Aqui has opened at 1317 S. Sixth Ave.

The café is owned and operated by Oliver Ray, who played guitar for Patti Smith’s band for a decade and currently plays with local band Greyhound Soul. He discovered a passion for coffee while living in Guatemala, where he currently owns a small coffee farm of his own.

Café Aqui sells bulk coffee from around the world and coffee by the cup. Ray just got the doors open and hasn’t even hired anyone yet, but says the java is most certainly flowing.

“The espresso is unique. It’s a blend I learned while working with a roaster in Vermont. It’s a citrusy, bright shot of espresso,” said Ray, adding that it might be a bit lighter than what many espresso drinkers are accustomed to.

Ray said he roasts certain coffees lighter to bring out the "natural flavors and nuances." He's holding a coffee-tasting at 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 16, that will highlight the differences between dark and light roasts.

The café currently opens at 7 a.m., daily, and stays open into the afternoon. But those hours could change, so it’s probably best to call 623-3767 first.

This place is opening at 266 E. Congress St. early next year. I just spoke with Kade Mislinski, who’s opening it with his girlfriend, Jenny Rice, and he didn’t need to go much further than mentioning the bourbon-cornflake ice cream to grab my attention.

Or perhaps you’re more of the strawberry-balsamic-vinegar ice cream type? He’ll have that, too, and like 50 other flavors. The organic milk will come from Straus Family Creamery, and new flavors will show up all the time, says Mislinski.

The meat: Slow-cooked pork tenderloin wrapped in pork belly, rotisserie chicken, pastrami brined in house ... the list goes on. You’ll be able to get it on a bun or as a meal with a side dish, like fingerling potatoes

The booze: Twenty-four beers on tap and dozens of wines by the glass. A happy hour from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., daily, will feature $5 glasses of wine.

Mislinski expects to open the restaurant—which he said will be family-friendly—around the end of January.

Check in at the restaurant’s Facebook page for more information.

Between massive damage from a fire earlier this year and the demolition work required to fix it, the owners of Takamatsu restaurant at 5532 E. Speedway Blvd. thought anything of value had been incinerated or disposed of.

But then the thieves started breaking in, and they realized they were very, very wrong.

“We’ve had issues with vandals — actually I should call them thieves — who’ve been breaking in and stripping the copper piping and electrical wiring,” said Peter Koga, who manages the Tucson location and others in the Phoenix area. “We (demolished) the building until we thought there was nothing left, but then these thieves came. They even took TEP’s meter.”

Despite the almost nightly raids on the restaurant, repairs continue. The early morning fire in June was contained to one part of the building, but heat and fire damage weren't. The entire inside of the building had to be gutted, deodorized and sandblasted, and most of the furniture and equipment had to be discarded.

Koga said he planned to have the restaurant open by now, but the thieves and other setbacks have made it far more difficult than expected. He’s shooting for a March reopening now, and said he’ll post updates on the restaurant’s Facebook page when he knows more.

“People are thinking it’s abandoned, but it’s not,” said Koga. “We’re definitely opening up, and we’re going to be better than before.”

If you're a vegetarian, don't press play. Seriously.

A group of degenerate Canadians called Epic Meal Time decided to combine far too much meat into one absurdly self-destructive meal. I don't approve of their choices, but I applaud their decision to share their stupidity on YouTube.

The Tucson Tamale Company is making Thanksgiving tamales again. Turkey, potatoes, stuffing and veggies wrapped in sage masa make for very tasty bundles of turkey-day joy. More information here.

Speaking of holiday eats, Govinda’s is holding its meatless Thanksgiving feast from noon to 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 25. If you’ve never been, the food is pretty good, and it’s almost worth showing up just to see Curly Sue, the very alive turkey, strolling around. Call 792-0630, or click here for more information.

Also submitted for your approval: Thanksgiving dinner on a bun.

Aaron DeFeo, the beverage program manager at Hotel Congress and Maynards Market and Kitchen, has another cocktail class coming up. This one focuses on using aged spirits to make cocktails. More information here.

We should also mention that Dan Gibson, the Tucson Weekly's web producer, debuts his series of cocktail videos this week. The first one, featuring Jasper Food and Mixology, is expected to be up soon. Check for it here.

It looks like Lindy’s on Fourth might show up on another national food show. Meat and Potatoes was recently at the restaurant is planning to film an upcoming episode at the restaurant in January, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page. Co-owner Lindy Reilly wasn’t in when we called, but we’ll let you know more when we get in touch with him. Lindy’s made its televised debut last year on Man V. Food.

The producers from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives have also been sniffing around. They were just doing some preliminary checking around, however, and there's no word if a show featuring Tucson is in the works.

We had our first macaroni-and-cheese pizza from CiCi’s Pizza yesterday. We’re not sure if the noodles were technically macaroni, but it was a perfect slab of weird, alfredo-and-something goodness, and I ate the entire thing. I had to. Nobody else in my family would touch it.

A fundraiser featuring traditional Colombian foods takes place this Friday, and the money raised will be used to help feed refugee families in Colombia. There’s more information in this week’s Noshing Around column.

And lastly, Copper Kettle Popcorn at 3701 W. Ina Road has closed.

The Arizona Farm Bureau notes that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner is on the rise, but still cheaper than two years ago:

As Arizonans sit down at the Thanksgiving table to dig into the traditional feast this year, the turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost $44.17 for an Arizona family of 10, or around $4.42 per person. This is an increase of $3.70 or about 9 percent over the 2009 Arizona Thanksgiving meal ($40.47) and 70 cents over this year’s American Farm Bureau survey of $43.47.

Without factoring in store coupons or specials, the cost of a 16-pound turkey purchased in Arizona this year was $16.80, or $1.05 cents per pound, which reflects a 7 percent increase in the cost of a turkey over last year. This year’s meal is actually $8.64 cheaper than what shoppers paid two years ago, when the total was $52.81.

The 2010 Arizona Thanksgiving meal cost estimate is the result of the Arizona Farm Bureau’s annual informal Thanksgiving Dinner Price Survey of the prices of basic food items found on the Thanksgiving dinner table.

The Arizona Farm Bureau survey shopping list includes turkey, stuffing,

One of the worst things about having to go to a job everyday and sit at a desk is that you can't just make yourself a pie when the mood strikes.

One of the worst things about pie is that you can't just magically have a pie when you want one. Making a pie requires effort ... OR DOES IT?

Enter the Breville Pie Maker, sold by Williams Sonoma. Sure, you could spend $80 on a number of things that would bring you a spark of momentary joy, but would you be able to make up to four individual pies in around 10 minutes? No, I don't suspect you would.

Please note that the Breville Pie Maker features cool touch handles, so if it were on my desk, and I were making four individually sized cherry pies, I would not necessarily burn myself if I bumped my elbow into the device while it was working. This would be an improvement over the regrettable George Foreman Grill incident of 1999, about which I will answer no follow up questions.

Of course, nothingcan ever be perfect, and one of the reviews on the Williams-Sonoma site mentions that the pie-maker isn't great with savory fillings, but that might be due to user incompetence. Looking at the Breville Pie Maker, I can tell it has good dessert intentions.

I've cleared out a space on my desk for you, Pie Maker. I look forward to our glorious introductory meeting.

[HT: Wantist]