Ramen is fantastic, right? I mean, we can all agree on that. But we can also agree that summer in Phoenix is not the time for ramen. So, although I knew Obon in Scottsdale had great ramen from carrying out a couple times, I made a different choice when I decided to stick around long enough to eat in the restaurant.

I began with something not Japanese at all. It was called Fuku Wings, which were coated in a spicy gochujang sauce. Gochujang, for those who may not know, is actually a Korean sauce and I have yet to eat a take on it that I haven’t liked. These were no different and they were nothing short of fantastic. It was a little sweeter than a typical gochujang sauce, but packed a spicy punch. There was a little crispiness to the outside and plenty of juiciness on the inside. With such a strong connection between Japan and Korea (albeit an often contentious one), I let the gochujang wings slide on account of being so delicious.

For my main dish I went with Street Noodles, which are spicy yakisoba noodles with peanuts, minced chicken and bean sprouts. I am an unabashed lover of yakisoba and calling them street noodles is pretty accurate because they are generally cheap comfort food. Obon dressed theirs up and I must say I had no complaints. They were mighty spicy and flavorful, with plenty of chicken mixed in there to keep a healthy balance with the noodles. They’re not your everyday yakisoba, but unless you’re living in Japan no yakisoba is and these certainly got the job done.

Between the noodles and the wings, Obon handed me some upscale Asian food in just the right way. Perhaps more important than anything else, Obon is ready and willing to show the people of Scottsdale that Japanese food is much more than sushi and teriyaki chicken. And when the weather drops to whatever passes for a low temperature a few months from now I know the ramen will be a welcome warmer in my belly.

In my ceaseless quest to find the best breakfast in breakfast heaven (Arizona), I found myself at the creatively named Breakfast Kitchen Bar in Scottsdale. Yay for sarcasm. But while the name wasn’t creative, the menu had a few things I had never seen before, one of them being the Breakfast Pizza.

I mean, sure, I’ve seen breakfast pizza before, but usually that just means a regular pizza with some level of eggs thrown on top. Here, this was described as a hash brown crust, topped with fontina cheese, bacon and two eggs any way I liked. I ordered mine sunny side up and they looked beautiful when they arrived, with a touch of paprika on them for looks.

But what was strange was that it wasn’t round or even really pizza-like, unless the definition of pizza is “something with cheese melted over it,” in which case basically everything I eat is pizza. And I should add that I’m cool with square pizza too, but this wasn’t that. Instead, it was kind of like two hash brown patties topped with amazingness. When I say that it was amazingness, I really mean that. It was like the perfect combination of savory flavors. The hash browns were crispy, but forgiving, the eggs were perfectly runny and the bacon was cooked to a crisp. But probably the biggest kicker was the use of fontina cheese instead of your more typical cheeses. This took the “breakfast pizza” to another level that left me begging for more when I was finished.

So far, this may take the cake of breakfasts in the Phoenix area. There’s plenty more out there, but it’s twists like these that the world needs more of, even if it all was borne out of a misnomer.

Hot on the heels of visiting perhaps the most overpriced (but still tasty) Mexican place I have ever been to, La Hacienda, I took a trip to Scottsdale Quarter to eat at Sol. Sol’s prices may not rival La Hacienda’s, but it is certainly in the upscale Mexican food family. Of course, it is not lost on me that while “sol” means “sun” in Spanish, it is also the name of the money in Peru.

But things started off really strongly, as I found that Sol may just have the greatest bean salsa in the world, which comes out with their chips and salsa along with a more typical salsa. The chips were more like the base of a tostada instead of tortilla chips, so there was cracking needed, but it all worked out well and delicious.

When it came to ordering, things were a little more murky. I wanted tacos, but they were sold a la carte and some were literally pushing above the $12 range. Yes, for one taco. And I ordered one that came in at $11, as well as one for $8.75. The former was the Short Rib Taco, which was a big old short rib plopped on a blue corn tortilla with red chile salsa, cotija cheese and pico de gallo. I ordered without the pico, but for some reason when the taco arrived it was also loaded up with shredded lettuce. Without the lettuce, it was delicious. I mean, the short rib was short rib and that is always good, but the blue corn tortilla was unlike anything I had ever had before and it was transcendent.

As for the other taco, it was called the Vampiro. It basically had a quesadilla as a base because it was a double tortilla with melted cheese inside. Then it was topped with serrano chiles, scallions, carne asada, guac, pico, cotija, chipotle aioli and cilantro. Once again I ordered without the pico and this time things turned out right. Despite the astounding number of ingredients and lack of explanation for why it was call a Vampiro (I would have expected garlic somewhere in there), these toppings just worked. Certainly, it’s hard to screw up when you start out with a quesadilla base, and this taco went beyond simply not screwing up.

While I probably won’t ever get over the fact that I dropped $11 on a single taco, I can take solace in the fact that the food really was delicious and creative. On the other hand, it was kind of messed up to sneak shredded lettuce into my taco. And on the other other hand, despite only having two tacos as a main course, I left stuffed to the brim because of that amazing bean sauce. With that said, I’d hit up Sol again, but my quest for a good old neighborhood Mexican place in my new ‘hood continues.