There’s a new restaurant inside Nur Market, the African specialty-foods store at 3565 E. Speedway Blvd. The menu isn’t finalized yet, but for now, you can get everything from spaghetti to goat curry, pita-bread sandwiches of every description, chicken malinase, sambusas, kebobs, etc ...

Also on the menu: $1 East African coffees with ginger and green cardamom, and a $2.99 ground-beef and chicken burger. Owners Mohamed and Ismail Osman say the restaurant is open from 9 a.m. to about 7 p.m., daily.

You can do all sorts of things with pecans. Rachel Ray makes martinis out of them, others make beer out of them. Some people even make pies out of them. Versatile nuts, those pecans.

This is all on my mind because the second annual Sahuarita Pecan Festival takes place next weekend, and we’ve just gotten word that the deadline for entries to the festival’s community bake-off has been extended until Wednesday, Nov. 17. It costs $20 to enter, and winners take home $50 and five pounds of pecans.

More information about how to enter the bake-off, a full schedule of events and a list of vendors scheduled to sell pecan-laced foods at the event can be found here.

A new breakfast and lunch place called Skrambles Café: The Eggsperts has opened in the old Cibaria Cucina Italiana spot at 12985 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley.

Hours are 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday; and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sunday. all 818-9344, or visit the restaurant's website for more information.

There have been a few rumors floating around lately about Joe Scordato’s restaurant Guiseppe’s Ristorante Italiano at 6060 N. Oracle Road. Those rumors — some of which were posted as a comment on this blog—implied that Joe Scordato had sold the restaurant, that the menus had been changed and that something strange and, well, sort of deceitful was afoot.

So we called Joe Scordato today. He was more than happy to talk with us about the restaurant, which he said he has not sold and which has not changed since he brought in long-time friend and employee Israel Velderrain to handle day-to-day operations.

Scordato said Guiseppe’s business plan never included him working 100 hours a week in the kitchen, which is what he’s been doing since opening in March. His original business partner walked away just months in, leaving Scordato with little choice but to work double-time to keep the place running.

“The restaurant wasn’t even my idea. I was approached by two guys, and I told them I was too tired and too old to be in the restaurant business,” said Scordato. “They said they wanted to run it, but wanted help with the recipes and concept.”

So now, with the restaurant a bona fide success, Scordato is handing more control over to the employees and letting the cooks do the cooking. He hopes to “phase himself” out as much as possible to redefine his role as more managerial and less marathon kitchen employee.

“This is my restaurant. It’s just that I’m a physically old man, and I can’t handle being there every minute of every day,” said Scordato, adding that his former hobbies of motorcycle racing and boxing resulted in more than a few broken bones over the years. “But Guiseppe's isn’t me. It’s my recipes, my idea, my concept, but it doesn’t mean that I have to execute every minute of it.”

Scordato also pointed out that while his brother, Daniel Scordato, is certainly behind the popular restaurant Vivace, he does none of the actual cooking. Yet the restaurant remains his because his concept, recipes and experience are undoubtedly what defines it.

For the time being, Scordato has been questioning regular customers to ensure his recipes are being executed properly and otherwise keeping things in line. He says he’s spent the better part of the last month training Velderrain, and that he’s still at the restaurant nearly every other day.

“I have to make sure it’s good, and I got to know because I gotta go in and kick some but if it isn’t,” Scordato said.

Here is where I get embarrassed for even having to mention something as trivial as this is about to be, but, alas, I must. Apparently this whole runaway rumor was sparked when someone noticed the braciole had been taken off the menu. A diner noticed this, asked a bartender about it and was told that the dish was taken off the menu when the restaurant changed hands.

None of this is true. The braciole was taken off the menu because it wasn’t selling and because it takes five hours to make.

“If I were to take you step for step making braciole, you would say I was insane to make it,” said Scordato while describing the arduous process he uses to make the dish. “It was the poorest-selling item on the menu, which I couldn’t understand. I got sick of making a ton of it and sending it home with the employees at the end of the night, so I took it off the menu.”

• Chef Jon Wirtis puts the finishing touches on his monster matzo ball.

Chef Jon Wirtis of Shlomo and Vito’s New York Delicatessen set the world record for the largest matzo ball this weekend, smashing the previous record by nearly 160 pounds.

Wirtis used 125 pounds of matzo meal, 25 pounds of schmaltz (chicken fat), more than 1,000 eggs and 20 pounds of potato starch to create the 426-pound behemoth at this weekend’s Jewish Food Festival. The previous record holder was a 267-pound matzo ball created last year by chef Anthony Sylvestri of Noah's Ark Deli in New York City.

Noam Sokolow, owner of Noah’s Ark Deli, said last week that breaking his record would not be easy. He made 18 practice attempts before coming up with his record-setter, and it took a crew of cooks to pull it off.

“I hope these guys know what they’re up for,” Sokolow said last week.

Wirtis said he made four preliminary attempts over the four months leading up to the festival. The largest of those produced a 200-pound matzo ball, which gave him confidence that a 500-pounder was possible.

Chefs at Desert Diamond Casino and the Hilton El Conquistador Resort helped make the hundreds of gallons of broth needed to cook the matzo ball. The president of CAID Industries managed the crafting of the 1,500-pound kettle, and volunteers from Davis Monthan’s 355th Operations Support Squadron helped fill it.

“Every step ended up being what I was hoping for,” Wirtis said this morning. “I started with a base recipe from my Grandma Goldie, but when I went to blow that up, it was too light. It peeled apart almost like an orange.”

The secret ingredient ended up being potato starch, which bonded the other ingredients together. He covered the matzo ball in heavy cheese cloth to hold it together during the hours of boiling it took to cook it all the way through, and the rest is world-record-setting history.

Wirtis said he’d heard that Sokolow intended to take the record back from anyone who beat his record. For this reason, Wirtis set his aim on a 500-pounder rather than just beating the previous record by a couple of pounds.

“Your record?” said Wirtis, referring to the previous record holder. “Fugghedabout it. Come and get it. I dusted him, man.”

This event is always a blast. The truly saavy know to bring their own plate and fork. Cutting into the pancakes (only $1 a piece!) can be a hassle on the paper plates they provide.

Tastes of more than a dozen wines can be had at the Saturday Sipper event from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 6, at the RumRunner at 3131 E. First St. It’s free and the featured wines will be available at a 15 percent discount after the tasting.

Brundog’s Zy-De-Que closed months ago when a very serious medical condition nearly took out Tom Brunner, who owned the restaurant with his wife, Marty. But apparently it takes a lot more than a life-threatening illness to keep Brundog down, because he’s back with Brundog’s and La Cocina de Gabby. There’s a lot to say about this new restaurant, but here’s the short version: You’ll find Brunner’s barbecue and Gabby Rosa’s excellent Mexico City fare under the same roof, and sometimes on the same plate. “I’ve never run across many of these dishes, even in Mexico,” Brunner said. Habanero pork, tacos made from his pecan-smoked meats and other delicious-sounding items abound; 887-2333.

We talked with one of the owners of Amarsi Ristorante today. It’s the first we’ve heard of the Italian restaurant - which opened back in March - but apparently people travel from far and wide just for the veal. The restaurant offers lunch (around $10) and dinner ($13 to $25) at 12152 N. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., in Oro Valley; 297-9491.

A new farmers’ market is coming to Green Valley. Organizer Ed Dubis of Earth Made Farmers’ Markets says the Farmers’ Market at the Shoppes at La Posada will debut from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, at the La Posada retirement community at 350 E. Morningside Road. Dozens of vendors have already signed up, and Dubis said there will be Mediterranean, Mexican and Asian food, too.

Stan Chu of the O’Hungry’s restaurant in San Diego also called. He’s been working for the better part of the past year to get his Tucson location open in Main Gate Square (944 E. University Blvd.), and is apparently almost finished. We’ll keep you posted.

The Tucson Firefighters Chili Cook-Off is happening right now. You can read about that in this week’s Noshing Around column.

Here’s the perfect event to impress that foodie you’ve been meaning to ask out.

Or perhaps this might do the trick. Chef Janos Wilder and authors Gary Nabhan and Diana Kennedy are the guest speakers, and all the money raised goes to Native Seeds/SEARCH and Sabores Sin Fronteras.

Here's another food-related happening, this one a fundraiser for Homicide Survivors.

Lastly, and sadly, Joe Mama’s Grill at 4230 N. Oracle Road has closed.

Like many people, I was shocked when I woke up today and saw this on the Range. Guiseppe’s Ristorante Italiano has been hugely successful since opening earlier this year, and was even a staff pick for Best New Restaurant by an Old Favorite in this year’s Best of Tucson® awards.

So I called the restaurant this morning and it appears reports that the restaurant has been sold are incorrect. What has happened is that Joe Scordato, who was working insane hours in the kitchen, handed management of the day-to-day operations over to Israel Velderrain, who has known and worked with the Scordato family for more than 12 years.

“He (Joe Scordato) was working a lot and needed some time off, and I came in to help him,” Velderrain said this morning, adding that he also used to manage Trattoria Guiseppe for Scordato. “The menu is the same, all the food is the same, nothing has changed.”

Israel Velderrain and his brother, Joshua Velderrain, are now partners in the restaurant with Scordato. The recipes are all still Scordato's, and he's still playing a major role. So when the sign outside says “by Joe Scordato,” that is correct. He may not personally cook your food, but his decades of experience and deep knowledge of Italian cooking are still behind every plate.

Israel Velderrain - who was also the chef at Zona 78 for a spell - also said guests can expect the addition of new entrées, appetizers and desserts after he gets a few things ironed out at the eatery.

[UPDATE: Turns out we received incorrect information for this post. Adam Borowitz has a follow up post with a correction.]

A reader sent me an e-mail yesterday. Apparently, he took his girlfriend out for her birthday to Giuseppe's (by Joe Scordato) after reading my review. He wanted the braciole. (If you've never had this dish you might not understand the passion). He didn't see it on what he called a "small menu," so he asked the bartender—and was told Joe had sold the restaurant.

Oh my!

I called to verify, and sad to say, it's true. The place was sold about two weeks ago. No details beyond that.

This is a real bummer. The food coming out of this kitchen was fabulous and the prices were beyond reasonable.

If I find out any more info, I will pass it on. Until then, remember that even though the sign outside still says "by Joe Scordato," it's not.

Does this look like fun?

If so, I suppose you should drive up to Phoenix for the Hell's Kitchen open casting call next week. I watch a lot of really terrible reality television, but I checked out on this show a few years ago, so it was a little surprising to me that the winners have largely done somewhat well for themselves. Keep in mind, they would prefer that you have some cooking experience, which makes sense since it's a show where you're judged on your ability to cook.

The information from Fox's casting website:

PHOENIX, AZ 11/16-11/21
OPEN CALL - THURSDAY 11/18
10am- 2pm
Hard Rock Cafe
3 South 2nd St.
Suite 117
Phoenix, AZ
Contact: Jen DeMartino at 310.482.0564 or [email protected]