Hi Food Folks!

On Saturday, my sweetie, one of her girlfriends & I headed out for wine tasting in Sonoita & Elgin. The unfortunate thing is that I ended up being the driver, so I didn't really get to taste a lot of wine. Even so, the trip was a whole lot of fun, and I found out that there are some high-quality wines being produced right here in our own backyard. All of the tasting rooms had a charge of some sort ($4-$7), but if you bring your own glass most places knock $2-$3 off of that.

The trip down there probably took an hour or so. The first winery we hit was Callaghan. They were tasting eight wines (dang!), and the tasting was $7.00 (which included a 21oz souvenir glass). It was the most expensive of all the tasting rooms we hit, but the wines were worth it. I did taste all of these wines, which was when we knew that we were defnintely going to need a designated driver. The Buena Suerte was a standout - a Cab/Petit Verdot/Merlot blend, it was a little earthy, not overpowering, but with a long finish. Oh, if aesthetics in a tasting room are your thing, you won't get any here. It's big, with stacks and stacks and stacks of white boxes. That's pretty much it.

From there, we headed about 1/4 mile down the road to Canelo Hills. The winemakers were out of town, but their pinch-hitters were very friendly and knowledgeable. Since I didn't really get to taste anything here, I'll have to rely on second-hand reviews. The Sangiovese was well received, as was the Nebbiolo Rose. The second one surprised me, because my honey isn't much of a rose fan. It had a little bit of oak to it, which was probably the clincher.

Next was Kief-Joshua. This was by far the swankiest of the tasting rooms we encountered, but there was a little too much other stuff going on there for my taste (jewelry, powdered dips, books, and other stuff for sale there). The wines were good, and we met up with a foursome that ended up being our traveling companions for the rest of the trip.

From here, it was off to the Village of Elgin winery. This place was a bit of a mess - they had about 40 wines to sample, and not a lot of guidance besides a single sided sheet with one-line descriptions of all of them to go by. All of the wines my companions tried were cloyingly sweet, even the ones they described as dry. There was also an odor of cigarette smoke in there, which seemed to be strongest by the A/C unit. I don't know if there was someone outside of it smoking or if they really needed to change the filter, but it was pretty offputting. The good news is that with our own glasses it was only $1.00 for four tastes.

By this time, my steadfast compatriots were pretty blitzed. I really began to realize that when they began singing "Let's Hear it for the Boy" at the top of their lungs in the car. I appreciated their enthusiasm for my willingness to drive, but that was more than I expected!

Then it was down the road a mile or two to Sonoita Vineyards. They also leaned pretty heavily on sweet wines, although their MeCaSah blend was pretty good.

Finally, we headed back the way we came and went to Wilhelm Family Vineyards for our last stop. Winemaker Karyl was extremely friendly and willing to share her knowledge and thoughts on winemakining. Having a very friendly weimareiner wandering around was a big hit as well. Our favorite wine there was the Kevin's Choice. This mostly tempranillo blend was lush with black fruit and a little pepperiness.

That was the end of our wine tasting tour, but we went to The Steak Out at the 82/83 junction before going home. That'll be another posting, though, 'cause this one has gone on way too long!

Happy wining!

I made the decision recently to avoid chain restaurants altogether. There are just too many great locally owned & operated restaurants in this town to go to places that you can go to anywhere. Yeah, I've slipped a couple of times (even blogging about one of those), but I'm trying to be more thoughtful about who's benefiting from my meals out (besides me, of course).

That's one reason I love the Tucson Originals (tucsonoriginals.com). I know that those folks are dedicated to this town and thinking about me when they're coming up with their menus. Ok, they're not thinking about me specifically, but you get my meaning. Not only that, but they have super gift certificates available if you get to them soon enough!

This line of reasoning got me started thinking about the local farmers markets. Shouldn't I also want to support local farmers & producers? That's going to be so much better for the environment if the food I feed to my family doesn't have to be shipped from halfway around the world. And I'll get fresher and better tasting stuff.

Now all I need is some advice. I haven't done a lot of farmers market shopping, so I'd like to know which one is your favorite and why. Any input would be appreciated!

Oh, and if you have a favorite local restaurant, let me know what that is as well!

Hi All!

If you drop by, leave me a comment! I love comments!

Good Morning!

I saw an article in this morning's Arizona Daily Star about some groovy food websites. I briefly looked at a few of them, and was pretty impressed. The sites they focused on were:

Chow.com
Cookiesfromitaly.com
Vegweb.com
Ethnicgrocer.com
Foodreference.com
Practicallyedible.com
Recipesource.com
Spicysteve.com
Veg-world.com
Foodbuzz.com

Have any of you checked these out? What are your favorite food sites?

The whole article is here: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/292553.php

I have lunch at 1702 on a pretty regular basis. One of the guys I work with and I have a theory about the place though: there’s an inverse relationship between the quality of the lunch slice and ‘normalcy’. When the place is pretty low-key and there are no glitches with the service, you get a fairly mediocre slice. When there’s crazy stuff going on all around, you can be pretty sure the pizza’s going to be awesome.

Take today, for example. I actually went with someone else, but the theory held up anyway. The place was swamped when we got there (and it was 1:15 – it shouldn’t have been that busy!), none of the empty tables had been bussed, there was only one waitress on when we got there, and it took forever to get our drinks. All of that’s forgivable because they were really hopping.

I always order my slices ‘crispy’, because they tend to pull them out of the oven too early and they’re room temp in the middle. The waitress didn’t know if that would be possible, but I convinced her that it would be. We pulled our utensils out of the empty six-pack holder, and both my fork and pizza cutter had been used and put back. That pretty much grossed me out, but I sent them back to the kitchen and got a clean set. After a really long time, the waitress came out to tell us the slices were in process. About 10 minutes after that, she came back and said that my slice had burned to black and they had to re-do it. When all was said and done, the pizza was really good. Too bad it took well over an hour for us to get out of there.

On the plus side, 1702 has one of the best beer selections in town. They’ve probably got 40 on tap, and Miller Lite isn’t one of them.

So go there for happy hour, and have a great beer. And if it’s weird in there, order a slice.

1702 is at 1702 E. Speedway. Their website is 1702az.com, but it appears to be down right now.

Overall, the Mother's Day lunch was a success. The pork roast was absolutely amazing, even with an ingredient substitution. The recipe called for ginger preserves, which I couldn't find anywhere (anyone know where to find some in Tucson??). I subbed a mango chutney that I added a lot of fresh grated ginger to. Even with that last-minute switch, it was super tender, juicy, and the glaze was fantastic. I'll be doing that again, that's for sure. The link to the recipe for that is in my previous post.

The other standout was the melon salad with prosciutto. I was prepared for it to be ok, but it turned out to be kind of a knockout. The bitterness of the arugula with the sweetness of the melon and the tang of the vinaigrette with the salt of the prosciutto really worked.

The strawberry cake turned out to be a little denser than I'd imagined, but I may have overmixed it. I didn't think so at the time, but that's sort of how it came out.

So overall, the food was good, the company was great (everyone enjoyed some Wii bowling), and the cleanup wasn't as bad as it could have been because we did a good amount of prep on Saturday. Hurray for a successful celebration!

My mom is in Arkansas, but my sweetie's mom is here in town. I'll be doing lunch for 8 at my house on Sunday, with the recipes all coming from Cooking Light. Here's what we're having:

Proscuitto & Melon Salad w/Cantaloupe Vinaigrette
Ginger & Thyme Brined Pork Loin
Potato & Leek Cakes with Bleu Cheese sauce
Sauteed green beans with shallot & almonds
Strawberry Layer Cake.

Most of those recipes are actually part of their Easter menu, but I didn't get to try them then. The strawberry cake is in the current issue.

I'll report back with how they work out!

Oh, the pork loin recipe is here: http://tinyurl.com/qtj3xj

A group of my colleagues went to lunch at Beyond Bread yesterday to celebrate three birthdays. I had the Pauly's Pesto, which their menu describes as Chicken, provolone, basil pesto, artichoke hearts, tomato, Italian dressing on a Garlic Italian Roll. Wow. I'm not much of a sandwich guy, but this one I dream about. You can check out their whole menu at beyondbread.com.

Oh yeah, and their pastries are just as good!

Did you know you can follow me on Twitter? Find me at http://twitter.com/TucsonFoodDude! I'll put the little things and links to my latest blog posts. Cool!

My mom was, well, not extremely skilled in the kitchen. As a result, I started doing the bulk of the cooking for my parents and sister when I was about 12. My daughters are now 12 and 14, and they don't know their way around a kitchen too well. We had some fun working to change that tonight, though.

The problem is two-fold: I get a lot of joy cooking for them (and they generally enjoy what I cook), and the kitchen is MINE. I have a hard time relinquishing control of that space, but if they're going to learn I'm going to have to! I have no problem with them hanging out at the breakfast bar while I'm cooking (we get a lot of good conversation time that way), but having other people in my space when I'm working is hard for me sometimes (but I'm getting better!).

This morning, I tasked them with thinking about what they wanted to make for dinner tonight. They asked if they could make the ever-popular 'cheesy pasta bake', which goes a little something like this:

• Cook pasta
• Warm jar sauce (for this time - homemade red sauce is later!)
• Grate parm & mozz
• Layer all
• Bake

Not rocket science by any means, but it's surprising how much you take for granted when you cook all the time (leave the lid on the pot when boiling water, be careful putting pasta in the boiling water, how to open a jar when the lid is being stubborn, etc.). I should have started helping them in the kitchen a long time ago, but I'm glad we're working on it now!

At any rate, we had fun in the kitchen, they learned something about cooking, I learned more about my daughters, and we had a good meal. Now if someone would just come over and clean the kitchen...

Important decisions shouldn't be left to children. Ok, my two girls are incredibly bright and are willing to try just about anything at least once (and usually more), but when it comes down to it they're still kids and like kid-oriented food.

Tonight, I left the choice of dinner up to them. They chose Cici's Pizza Buffet, after seeing commericials for it and having visited one in Omaha once upon a time.

I set my expectations pretty low, and I'm glad I did. It wasn't horrible, but it was a very cheap buffet. The salads were fine (mostly iceberg), the pizza was edible but I've had frozen pizza that was better. The desserts were ok, although the 'cinnamon rolls' were pretty much just refrigerator biscuit dough with butter, sugar & cinnamon (nonetheless the girls loved them).

The good news is that it was cheap. The four of us ate our fill for $26.00, and none of us got sick.
Woo-hoo!

If you want to fill up a Little League team, this would be an awesome choice. Anything beyond that you'd probably do a lot better just ordering a pizza from the closest locally-owned pizza joint.

Thanks for reading!

Some of my peeps (yes, I'm hip enough to use the word 'peeps') and I went to Candela on Oracle near Rudasill this past week. It's a family-owned place that feels very warm and welcoming when you get there. The decor is a little spare, but the friendliness of the people there more than make up for that. They provide Peruvian food, which is nothing al all like anything else you would find in Tucson (or at least that I have found).

So I got there late (which is another story altogether), and my entree had already been ordered for me. I didn't actually know what I was getting until it got there, which was both good and bad - I didn't make everyone wait for me, but I didn't get a chance to look through the menu at all. The other downside to being late was that my 'friends' ate all of the banana chips and spicy salsa that were brought to the table. They didn't even leave me one! To make it worse, they didn't even mention that anything preceded my arrival. I only found out when I saw them bringing the little baskets to other tables. I asked our server about them, and she brought me a few after we were done with our meal so that I could give them a try. I really appreciated them doing that, so even though I was pretty stuffed already I ate them all up. They were perfect: crispy, with a piquant bright green salsa to go with them.

For my dinner, I was surprised with Bistek al Pobre: a cut of flank steak (I think) with an herb slurry on top (wait - 'slurry' doesn't sound appetizing, does it?). It reminded me a little of a chimichurri, but it was a little brighter than that. It was served with a few thick-cut fried potatoes, fried plantain, and white rice. The rice was topped with an over-medium fried egg, which caught me a little off guard, but the egg and the rice together turned out to be surprisingly good. The flavor of the steak was great, but the texture left a little to be desired. It was a little tough and stringy, which detracted from the dish overall. The sides were cooked perfectly, though.

The other dish I got to try was very tasty. It was something like Aji de pollo, but I'm suffering from not having seen the menu. It was shredded chicken breast in a sauce that was both creamy and spicy. It was either cream or sour cream based, with what I would guess to be ground almond, and chile of some sort (wow - I hope they don't read this blog posting and tell me that I have it all wrong!). It was tangy, and spicy, and creamy, and really tasty. I could have eaten every bite that was on that plate, and then ordered more.

Except that I couldn't really have ordered more, because the place is pricey. Our dinner for four (four entrees, two glasses of wine, and three beers), came out to $112.00 before the tip. Frankly, that seemed like more than it should have been.

Even though it was expensive, I'd go back for the distinctive flavors and warm hospitality.

Candela doesn't have a website (that I could find), but you can see some other reviews and a map at http://tinyurl.com/crj6k3

This is a meme that should be expected pretty early on, eh? I tried doing this in some sort of order, but that didn't work out so well. With that in mind, here are some of my fave spots and why they're on this list:

Feast - Feast is a little spot where the focus is really on the customer. The servers are always top-notch, the menu changes regularly, the wine selection is fantastic for a place its size, and I enjoy Chef Doug Levy's 'Dear Feastlings' emails with updates, events, and new menu info.

Marlene's Hungry Fox - No website here, they're too busy cracking eggs! I love a hearty American-style breakfast, and that's what you get at the Hungry Fox. The bake their own white bread daily, as well as their cinnamon rolls. They serve 'double yolk' eggs, which means that you get four eggs in their two-egg breakfast. This is not health food, but it's tasty, tasty, tasty.

Cafe Poca Cosa - This is not your Nana's Mexican food. It is completely sublime, though. The menu changes twice daily, and it always sounds so good that you want to try a bunch of things. You're in luck, though, because you can always get a chef's selection combination. They'll pick out three or so of the dishes, and bring out your surprise meal. You don't get to pick what comes out, but trust me, it'll be good.

El Guero Canelo - Here's some great taco stand style food. Pick your burrito size, what you want in it, and wait for your number to be called. I really love the caramelos, as well as the 'condiment bar' where you can get your pick of any number of salsas, roasted spring onions & jalapenos, cucumbers, radishes, limes, etc. It's a do-it-yourself side dish!

Mayflower - Yep, it's in a strip mall. It's small, sparsely decorated, and features an all-you-can-eat buffet. Normally, I'm not a buffet guy, but theirs is pretty good (and way cheap). To really experience them, though, order off the menu. Ask one of the young, friendly serves (most of whom are family) what's good that day and you won't go wrong.

So what are your five faves?

Hello, blogosphere!

I'm finally doing something I've wanted to do for a while. I'm gonna blog. About food.

I like food, but I'm not a professional food guy by any stretch. I do know what I like, and I like telling people about what I like (and sometimes what I don't). I'm out and about in Tucson, so I'll be writing about some of my recent restaurant experiences, taking input on places I should try, talking about some of my favorite recipes, and what I'm cooking that night. It's pretty straightforward, I think.

It's entirely possible that nobody will be interested in reading this, but that's ok. If you're reading this, thanks! Drop me a note and tell me what you like, or would like to hear about. I'm hoping that this will be fun for both of us!