Tucson Food Dude

It's been fun, but....

2009-12-09T21:49:00.006-07:00

Well, the time has come to move on. That's it. Adios. Buh-bye.

I've packed up and moved all of the stuff here over to www.tucsonfooddude.com

Please head over that way for my latest ramblings, musings, etc. If you are one of the people kind enough to follow my blog here, you can subscribe to my posts over there.

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment here or there and I'll get back to you!

My thanks to everyone who's been stopping by.

Kevin

Coming Soon!

2009-12-08T18:00:00.001-07:00

When I decided that I was going to start compiling information for various things (New Year's Eve, Happy Hours, etc.), I didn't think it through as much as I should have. It turns out that those particular things would work a whole lot better with multiple pages. Can you do multiple pages in Blogger? Why no, you can't!

So I'm packing up and moving over to WordPress. I've been messing with the CSS trying to get the look to be pretty similar to what I've got going here, but that's still going to be something of a work in progress.

If you'd like, you can preview the new site at www.tucsonfooddude.com. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it. If you have any feedback that comes with the necessary CSS code to make it work I'd love to hear that even more!

Kevin
-TFD

Marketplace at Acacia

2009-12-08T15:32:00.003-07:00

I recently received an email from Marketplace at Acacia with 2 for $20 dinner specials that include dessert. These looked pretty dang good to me, especially considering they're coming from the good folks at Acacia. If it's coming from Chef Albert Hall (no relation, btw), you can be pretty sure it's going to be good.

Besides the dinners, they do breakfast featuring freshly-baked danishes & other pastries Arbuckle coffee. They also do catering and are willing to help out with your holiday needs.

They're located in St. Phillip's Plaza, on the southeast corner of River & Campbell. The Marketplace is open 7am-6pm M-Sat, and 7am-3pm on Sundays. If you have questions, you can call them at 520-323-0124.

Monday

American Garden Salad, Iceberg, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots, Bell Peppers, Ranch or Herb Vinaigrette
Country Style Meat Loaf
Horseradish Mashed New Potatoes, Steamed Baby Broccoli
Pie of the Day

Tuesday

Field Greens with Arizona Tomatoes and Hand Pulled Mozzarella,
Grilled Vegetable Lasagna
Garlic Bread, Tiramisu

Wednesday

Spinach and Napa Cabbage Salad,
Warm Pancetta Dressing
Wood Roasted Pork Chops
with Apricot Chipotle Glaze
Au Gratin Potatoes
and Fresh Green Beans
Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
an Garden Salad, Iceberg, To

Thursday

Caesar Salad
Herb Roasted Chicken, Chestnut-Sage Dressing
and Natural Pan Jus
Chef's Fresh Vegetable Medley
Dessert of the Day

Friday is Pieday

Garden Salad Pie, Herb Vinaigrette
The Chef's Pot pie of the Day
Daily Pie

Saturday

Pineapple Cole Slaw
Barbeque Baby Back Ribs
Baked Beans and Corn on The Cobb
Double Fudge Brownies

Lococo's Pizza

2009-12-07T18:00:00.001-07:00

I like Lococo's Pizzeria, and I've got some pretty good reasons for it:

They've got great super-thin crust pizza. I mean, it's really thin. Like tortilla thin. But it's crispy and stands up to their hearty sauce. The cheese actually has flavor and texture, unlike many of the chain places. It's cheap, too. A 16" cheese pie is $12.95. If you want a double crust, add a dollar.
They've got the cheapest beer imaginable. A 48oz pitcher of Bud/Bud Light will set you back $4.00. Bud too swanky for you? A bottle or can of PBR will set you back $1.25. Still too rich for your blood? A can of Old Style can be had for a buck.
They're just nice folks. It's a family-run place, and they seem to genuinely want their customers to leave happy.

When you add on free delivery (not to my house, but still), live music on Friday & Saturday (9pm until whenever on Friday and 7-9pm Saturday), and a pretty broad menu, I think you've got yourself a winner.

Lococo's is in the Bashas' Plaza at Thornydale & Cortaro. They're open 11am-9pm Sun-Thurs, Friday 11am until they're not open anymore, and Saturday 11am - 10pm. Got questions? Visit lococos.net or give them a call at 520-744-7136.

Kevin
-TFD

Super-duper holiday pies for you!

2009-12-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Do you have needs? Do those needs involve pie? I know many of mine do.

My friend Lucinda is a fabulous baker (not to mention an all-around fantastic person). She has her diploma in Baking and Pastries from the Art Institute of Phoenix, and worked as a baker at JW Marriott Starr pass.

This year, she’s offering her amazing homemade holiday pies for sale. All the info you need is below. As soon as I get pie pics from her, I'll post them.

If you’re thinking pies for the holiday, consider one (or two or three!) of Lucinda’s pies. You’ll be glad you did!

Merry Cherry Pie

Traditional Pumpkin Pie

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Pecan Pie

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

Caramel Apple Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Prices:

$15 for One

$25 for Two

$12 each if you order Three or more

All orders are available for pick-up or delivery. A charge of $5 will be added to your order, if you would like to have them delivered.

Pies will be made fresh and can be frozen up to 8 weeks.

Orders will be filled on a first come-first served basis,

so be sure to get your order in early.

Orders will be accepted through

Wednesday, December 23 at 9pm

To place your order, please email Lucinda Perry at lucindamperry@aol.com

Slight Awkwardness + Great Food

2009-12-06T18:01:00.008-07:00

This evening I present to you the third part of the Azul saga. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Go ahead and read them. I'll wait.

Caught up? Good. Before I go on to describe the events of the evening, I'll point out that the entire meal was courtesy of the house. Rest assured that if there were things that weren't good I would say that even if we didn't pay for the meal.

One more piece of housekeeping: Kristine & I were a little self-conscious about the whole setup. We were having a hard time balancing wanting to try multiple things on the menu and being worried about the running up a huge tab since we weren't paying for it. Sigh. Maybe next time it won't be so awkward, but this time it was a little.

We arrived for our reservation and were seated right away close to a corner by the windows overlooking the pool area. Our server, Alex, came over fairly quickly for our drink orders. I ordered a glass of the French Maid cabernet and Kristine ordered.... the Spanish Guitar cab/tempranillo? It may not have been called Spanish Guitar, but it was a cab/temp blend. When Alex brought out the wine, he also brought out rustic bread with garlic infused olive oil and a sundried tomato tapenade. Normally, I'm not a big fan of olives, but the tapenade was mild and I really found myself enjoying it.

For our next first course, we ordered the charcuterie for two (pictured up top - $15). This appetizer consisted of ample portions of breseola, speck alto, an herbed goat cheese, piave, olives, pickled vegetables and a couple of breadsticks. Everything was good (I particularly enjoyed the breseola), but the presentation was a little bit lacking. We both agreed that next time we'd probably skip the charcuterie and go with hot appetizers.

We ordered two entrees that sounded good to both of us with the intention of sharing both. We selected the scallop di stagione ($23), which was described as 'seared scallops over sundried tomato and caramelized fennel risotto with toasted pignoli dandelion greens pesto'. When the dish arrived, I was a little disappointed by the way it looked on the plate. It seemed as though it was plated in a hurry without much thought to the final appearance.

As far as taste went, though, it was a success. The scallops were nicely cooked and very lightly seasoned. The risotto was very good, with the rich flavor of the roasted fennel very much at the forefront. All of the components of the dish were nicely executed, but Kristine and I both felt like they could have been tied together a little better.

For me, the real hit of the evening was the special. Jumbo prawns with pearl onions in a lobster cardinal sauce, served with a paella risotto cake (~$27). The head-on prawns were beautifully cooked (and yes, I sucked the heads), the sauce was creamy with a little bit of spice and chunks of lobster, and the paella risotto cake reminded me of a crabcake, but with more delicate flavors. The only thing I could possibly fault would again be the presentation. The whole dish was basically orange/red, but I frankly didn't care because it was so good. Oh, and the wine pairing we did with this one was great. We had a Geode Chardonnay from Santa Barbara, which had great honey & tropical fruit notes that were a nice counterpoint to the rich spicing of the lobster cardinal.

Ok, finally about dessert. In the menu available online, they had listed a chili spiced chocolate torte with chocolate mint sauce and hazelnut gelato. It looks like they reworked that into a chocolate lava cake with hazelnut sauce and hazelnut gelato (~$10). Although I was looking forward to the chocolate/chile combination, the dessert we had was great (especially the hazelnut gelato).

The service from Alex was very attentive without being obtrusive or hover-y (not a word, I know). And when we had the one awkward moment of the evening (when he brought us the check!), he very graciously went off to investigate, coming back to let us know things were sorted out a few minutes later.

So the summary:
Very good food (though presentation slightly off), and very good service make Azul a place that we'll definitely go back to.

Tucson Happy Hours

2009-12-04T12:55:00.003-07:00

You know what we need? We need a good listing of Tucson Happy Hours in one place. Something that includes the hours and drink & food specials.

What do you think? Will you help me out?

Leave me a comment with your favorite place's HH deals and I'll start compiling them in one place. If you've know of a place that's supposed to be good, let me know and I'll check with them to get the scoop.

If we all work on this together we'll have a pretty good selection in no time!

I'll start:

Zona 78: 3-6pm, Monday - Saturday, domestic pints $2, craft pints $3, wines $5/glass, half off all appetizers

Rio Cafe: 4-6pm daily, half-priced apps, 10 wines for $5/glass, $4 wells, $1 off you-calls

Kingfisher: 4:30-6:30 M-F, $2 off wines-by-the-glass, draft beers, & wells, half-off deals on shrimp, clams & mussels, and seasonal oysters for $1/ea

Neo of Melaka: 4-7pm, $4.50 appetizers, sushi rolls under $5, $5 martinis, beer 'discounts'

NoRTH
•La Encantada: Monday-Friday, 3-6pm; 2995 E Skyline Dr; 520-299-1600 520-299-1600
•Select appetizers, wine by the glass, terzo or bottle 50% off; $4 well drinks; bottled & draft beers $2.50

Montana Avenue
•Monday-Friday, 3-6pm; 6390 E Grant Road; 520-298-2020 520-298-2020
•Select appetizers & wines by the glass, terzo & bottle 50% off; $2.50 Draft Beers & $4 Well Drinks.

Blanco
•La Encantada: 4-6pm, Daily; 2905 E Skyline Drive; 520-232-1007 520-232-1007
•All starters, Mexican beers, well drinks & house margaritas 50% off.

Zinburger
•Joesler Village: 4-6pm, Daily; 1865 E River Road; 520-299-7799 520-299-7799
•All sides, draft beer & wine 50% off; Plain & Simple Burger $6.

Wildflower
•Casas Adobes: 3-6pm, Daily; 7037 N Oracle Dr; 520-219-4230 520-219-4230
•Select appetizers, cocktails and wine 50% off; $2.50 Draft and Bottled Beers & $4 select Well Drinks.

Buddy's Grill (Grant & Swan):
3-6pm daily in the lounge only, 1/2 off apps, beer, wine, & liquor.

Ok, folks, what can you add?

-Kevin

New Year's Eve Fun & Excitement

2009-12-03T15:37:00.004-07:00

Is it too early to be thinking about what you're going to be celebrating New Year's Eve in Tucson? No - start now! Whether you want to kick up your heels at the Cactus Moon's buffet, or get fondue at The Melting Pot, or have a swanky jazz night at JW Marriott Starr Pass, or any of many other options, you might want to start thinking about it soon.

This post is going to be a work in progress. I'll be trying to collect as much info as I can about fun food festivities about town. If you know of any (highbrow, lowbrow, midbrow - that's not really a word) shoot me an email at tucsonfooddude@gmail.com! Here's what I've got so far. I'll add more details as they become available, so check back!

Miguel's
$45 p/p for yummy-looking 3-course dinner (email me if you want the menu), DJ, and party favors. The photo above is Miguel's tequila selection. I hear it's one of the best in town...

Blanco
$35 for two all night (one appetizer, two entrees, two drinks, one dessert) Open New Year’s day 12 to 9pm

North
$55 regular price $35 early bird (4pm to 5:30pm) Open New Year’s day 12 to 12pm

Zinburger
$35 for two all night (one appetizer, two entrees, two drinks, one dessert) Open New Year’s day 12 to 9pm

Montana Ave
$45 regular price $35 early bird (4pm to 5:30pm) Open New Year’s day 12 to 9pm

Wildflower
$55 regular price $35 early bird (4pm to 5:30pm) Open New Year’s day 12 to 9pm

JW Marriott Starr Pass
$189 p/p 4-course dinner, champagne toast, multiple live jazz performers

Azul at Westin La Paloma
$65 p/p 4-course dinner including choice of garlic rosemary studded beef tenderloin, duck breast braciole, or pan seared cod loin in piquillo beurre blanc. Mmmm... The picture is from the Azul salumi bar and was taken by Robin Stancliff

I have a face made for it...

2009-12-03T12:33:00.004-07:00

What have I gotten myself into this time?

Matt Russell (@PRceo on Twitter) of AM1330 The Jolt's "On the Menu....Live!" invited me to be on his show this afternoon. I've never done radio. Why would I want to go live on the air and potentially humiliate myself?

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose. I'll be on 5:10 - 5:16. Check it out - it has the potential to be slightly disastrous!

And by the way, that lovely piece of clipart is supposed to be a microphone. It's not a large cold tablet being kicked for a field goal.

-Kevin

Update on Azul

2009-11-21T12:41:00.002-07:00

I got a call from Many Hats Advertising yesterday saying that they had read my blog about Azul (see my previous post) and talked to Bill at Westin La Paloma about it. They said that overall it was nice (and they may have even used words like 'funny' and 'witty' to describe it), but wanted to make sure that Kristine & I got the full experience of what they're trying to do with Azul. As a result, Bill was kind enough to invite us back as their guests at some point soon.

I feel a little bad about it, but really appreciate their concern with customer satisfaction; I think it speaks highly of them. So expect another post about Azul in the next couple of weeks!

Kevin Hall
-TFD

Westin La Paloma's Azul

2009-11-19T21:12:00.009-07:00

So tonight was the big grand opening of the new Azul Restaurant Lounge in the lobby of the Westin La Paloma.

I was looking forward to checking them out, so Kristine & I set out to see what they had going on. The invitation said that we could expect, "...a contemporary, upscale cocktail and dining experience surrounded by dramatic blue lighting, deep lounge music, and the truly instinctive, personal service you have come to expect."

Cool, yo. It sounded hip and swanky - kinda like me (ok, not so much). I like the Westin La Paloma, and so I was thinking it was going to be good time.

Now here's the disclaimer. I was a little cranky with a few things when we were getting ready to leave, but it all worked out and there was a happy ending. Just bear with me.

Kristine started off with her favorite microbrew (ok, it was really a Bud Light, but she's too sweet to hold that against her), and I ordered the China Blue Martini, thinking that I would keep to the blue theme. The martini was Beefeater gin, St. Germain ginger liqueur (who knew they make a ginger liqueur??), blue curacao, and candied ginger in place of the olive. It was served in an individual cocktail shaker, and overall was tasty - a little on the sweet side, but I was expecting that.

We ordered two of the 50% off appetizers (check their website for some good specials http://www.azullapaloma.com): the pan-seared zucchini galette (homemade zucchini cakes, pine nuts, feta, tomato, and cherry pepper salad, with tzatziki and lemon) and the calamari fritto (tomatoes, roasted garlic, parsley finished with white balsamic honey reduction with spicy cherry pepper sauce). Kris enjoyed the zucchini, and I thought it was fine (don't tell anyone, but I'm not a huge fan of feta, so I knew it wasn't going to be my favorite thing ever). Calamari is something like our litmus test, though. We have it pretty much anywhere new that we go, so we opted for that here. I thought the flavor of the sauce was good, although not quite what I was expecting from the description. The texture of the breading was a little gooey, which I could see with it being in a reduced sauce, but the squid itself was rubbery. Kristine didn't think it was as overdone as I did, but I stand by it being too chewy.

About me being cranky - all the servers appeared to be women, and they were all wearing black cocktail dresses. There were quite a few who were circulating around the tables with drink samples and what looked like raffle tickets. They skipped over us every single time they came around. It was like we weren't even there. My pet peeve as far as service goes is being ignored, and we were totally being ignored - which was hard, considering that we were sitting in the exact middle of the lounge. Grrr.

As we were getting ready to head out, Bill, the general manager, came over to us and asked what we thought. I'm pretty sure our friends from Many Hats sent him our way, since he referred to me as 'that food guy'.*

I told him that I had mixed feelings about things and explained why. It turns out that the young women who were ignoring us actually work for one of the alcohol companies and not Azul or Westin. It's too bad that they were wearing basically the same thing as the waitstaff, because it tainted our feelings towards the actual Azul servers (who were doing a fine job). They needed a logo or something to set them apart...

Final thoughts: when we got there, we didn't get the whole blue lighting thing. As it got a little darker, though, the effect was a lot better. The 'deep lounge music' was cool - sort of thumping bass and the occasional horn. And stuff. Look, I'm not a music guy - I'm a food guy.

I'm really happy that Bill came over to chat with us. If he hadn't we would have left unhappy instead of walking away with a generally positive experience as far as Azul goes. I think we may have just had an unfortunate batch of the squid, and I'm pretty sure we'll give them another shot. Or two.

If we're hip and trendy enough, that is.

-TFD
* I'll admit it. I kinda liked being pointed out as 'that food guy'.

Do you have a story to tell?

2009-11-12T06:17:00.002-07:00

I was recently surprised by an email from Penelope Starr from Odyssey Storytelling. She is putting on a storytelling evening revolving around food, kitchens, restaurants, etc. called "Kitchen Confidential" at Club Congress on 12/3.

Penelope asked me to participate with a 10-minute story, but Dec 3rd just doesn't work for me. Does it work for any of you Tucson restaurant types or food enthusiasts? I'll bet Penelope would be interested in hearing from you if it does.

The initial email that I received is below. If you think you might like to participate or have questions, or have a suggestion for someone Penelope might want to contact, please shoot her an email or Tweet her @OdysseyWoman.

Thanks!
-TFD

Hi Kevin,

I follow you on Twitter and see that you have a lot to talk about when it comes to food. I am the producer of Odyssey Storytelling, a monthly event at the Club Congress where six people tell ten-minute stories on a theme. On December 3 the theme is Kitchen Confidential: stories about food and kitchens. You can see more at www.odysseystorytelling.com.

I'm wondering if you'd like to tell a story. I'm looking for something about Tucson restaurants and you seem to be someone with that kind of story.

Please be in touch,

~Penelope
www.odysseystorytelling.com
www.tucsoncitizen.com/stories
penelope@odysseystorytelling.com

Inside scoop on a local favorite!

2009-11-11T19:51:00.005-07:00

Wow - it's been a super long time since I've blogged! And to think that the last thing I posted wasn't even mine. I should be ashamed, but I'm hopeful that I'll recover.

So I had lunch yesterday with a friend of mine; let's call her 'Maura'. Maura and I really like El Guero Canelo, but not too many of our compadres do.

I have no idea what's wrong with them either.

So I head over there from work and pull into the parking lot - almost running over a cameraman in the process. They were filming owner and founder Daniel Contreras on front of the original Guero Canelo taco stand. I like seeing local media covering local businesses (especially ones that I enjoy and frequent), so I waved apologetically at the camera guy and pull into a parking spot. Little did I know how wrong I was about the 'local media' part of that...

Maura arrived a few minutes later and we order our meal: carne asada caramelo & Diet Coke for Maura, very mucho burro with chicken and a Manzanita Sol - or was it a Manzana Lift? - for me. We got our salsas, cucumbers, radishes, limes, and roasted jalapenos to enjoy before the food was ready and chatted. I was really bummed they were out of the roasted green onions - they're my faves. Maura ended up biting off a little more than she expected (sorry for the pun) with one of the chiles. It was a little higher on the Scoville scale than she expected, and it about put her out of commission for a little bit. It may have been the first time I've see her sweat, now that I think about it.

But I digress.

I need to talk about the chicken at this place. I'm not really sure what it is. I mean, it's chicken-y (new word o' the day) in flavor, but it's very uniform. And kinda spongy. And cubed - very evenly. It almost unnerves me, but yet I almost always order something with the chicken. I wish I knew what it was. Wait, I take that back - that's probably best not to ask about since I like it.

Maura enjoyed her caramelo, but then again she always does. I like their carne asada a lot, and combined with melty cheese and flour tortilla and it's elevated even higher.

I'm getting hungry.

Ok, so about that scoop. After we'd finished eating Daniel Contreras (El Guero Canelo himself) came over to bus our table. Maura asked him about the camera and the interviewing, and he said there were filming a spot for CBS Sunday Morning that's going to air on 11/22. Way to go Guero Canelo!

Granted, EGC and Sonoran-style hot dogs have been getting a lot of attention lately (Bon Appetit's Top 10 Places for hot dogs, New York Times: In Praise of the All American Mexican Hot Dog), but this is going to be a great story. Check it out next Sunday!

And in the meantime, go to El Guero Canelo and have a Sammy Dog, or a caramelo, or a very mucho anything in support of this great local success story.

Arizona Restaurant Week

2009-09-10T08:31:00.004-07:00

I realize that this may be considered cheating by some blogging purists, but I'm sick. Below you'll find the press release that I just received about Arizona Restaurant Week coming up here very soon. It's a great time to get out and try some of the places you might not otherwise. I'm really looking forward to it!

So enjoy the press release, and contact the folks listed if you have any questions!

-Kevin (TFD)

Arizona Restaurant Week to Showcase Tucson Restaurants

Tucson, Ariz. (September 10, 2009) – The many celebrated chefs and restaurateurs in Tucson are anticipating the Old Pueblo’s debut in the second annual Arizona Restaurant Week.

The eight-day culinary event, which runs from September 19 through September 26, 2009, is designed to spotlight the diverse culinary scene throughout the state of Arizona. Each restaurant will offer a three-course dinner menu of signature dishes for $29 per person, excluding beverages, tax and gratuity. In addition, a few restaurants will be offering three courses for two diners for $29. Dining enthusiasts can try a new restaurant they otherwise might not be able to afford or visit their favorites.

Over 30 restaurants are participating in the Tucson market serving a plethora of signature dishes, like Pastiche Modern Eatery’s Baked Mac and Cheese or NoRTH’s Flank Steak with Warm Tuscan Kale dishes, with the aim of attracting both new guests and frequent diners.

However, several restaurants are taking a more adventurous approach to the prix-fixe menu. At the midtown gem, Feast, Chef and Owner Doug Levy will offer his entire menu of international flair during the acclaimed Restaurant Week. Guests can favorably choose any appetizer, entrée and dessert combination to create their own three-course dinner.

Or at Jax Kitchen two diners can each enjoy a three-course dinner for $29. The menu of classic comfort foods features a variety of seasonally-fresh salads and sandwiches with Jax’s signature baked cookies and bourbon-spiked milk for dessert.

Sullivan’s Steakhouse changes up their traditional chop shop menu of family-style side dishes for Arizona Restaurant Week. The modern steakhouse will offer both asparagus and mashed potatoes – normally at an additional cost – with its entrées of either steak, chicken, salmon, or crab-stuffed shrimp, as the second course of the prix-fixe menu.

The entire list of participating restaurants, prix-fixe menus and links to book online reservations can be found at www.ArizonaRestaurantWeek.com. Restaurant Week updates can also be found on Twitter @azrestaurantwk.

Advanced reservations are encouraged during Arizona Restaurant Week, as dining availabilities will fill up quickly through the eight-day event.

For more information contact Sara Anderson, marketing and events manager of the Arizona Restaurant Association, at 602.307.9134.

Arizona Restaurant Week is an exciting event developed to showcase the outstanding culinary scene throughout the state of Arizona. Playing off huge success in 2008, Arizona Restaurant Week will include both the Phoenix Metro and Tucson markets in 2009. The Arizona Restaurant Association, in partnership with Absolut Vodka, US Foods, Crescent Crown Distributing, Coca-Cola, Brown-Forman Wines, The Scottsdale Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, azcentral.com, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, 99.9 KEZ, Phoenix Magazine, OpenTable, Fox Restaurant Concepts, Olson Communications, Many Hats Advertising, Tucson Newspapers, Tucson Lifestyle, KVOA TV, The Mountain, KNST Radio, have come together to create this event, which will showcase Arizona as a premier dining destination for food lovers.

Arizona Restaurant Association is dedicated to educating Arizona’s restaurant industry as the leading resource for information regarding the industry’s latest trends, management techniques and regulations. The Arizona Restaurant Association serves as the legislative liaison for Arizona’s restaurants representing the interests of more than 11,000 food service establishments at the state legislature, county governments and municipalities.

Contact:
Cyndy Neighbors
Many Hats Advertising
520.325.0940
cneighbors@manyhatsads.com

Sara Anderson
Arizona Restaurant Association
602.307.9134
sara@azrestaurant.org

Peppercorn Party

2009-09-02T22:00:00.006-07:00

I didn't see this coming at all. I stayed home from work today with stomach issues (sorry if that counts as TMI), and haven't really eaten much all day. As I was getting ready for bed, I was overwhelmed with the desire to eat pepper (as in salt and ___). I went into the cupboard and pulled out my tellicherry peppercorns from the nice folks at Flavorbank. But I also had a peppercorn mixture (also from Flavorbank) in there as well. What to do?

Well, I'm not one to ignore my body - figuring it knows what it needs a whole lot better than my conscious mind. But do I grind the pepper into my hand? Do I mix some with water and drink it? Do I whip up a hot buttered piece of peppertoast?*

After 15 seconds of deliberations, I take a Madagascar pink peppercorn and pop the whole thing in my mouth. I let it roll around for a bit, kind of smacking my lips on it a little before I bite into is and let it sit on my tongue. It's got a papery skin that comes off pretty easily, with a light crunchy interior. The flavor is mild- not too much like typical ground black pepper. It's almost floral, with a hint of sweetness before a very soft pepper bite hits the back of the throat. And then I swallow it on down.

I was sold. I pulled out one of each kind of peppercorn and did the same thing with each of them. I was surprised by how different they all were. I mean, they were all similar in that they tasted like pepper, but the differences in their flavors and textures was a lot more than I expected. Here's a quick rundown of the different peppercorns in the order that I tried them.

Madagascar pink - see above

Muntok white - flavor stronger than the pink, with almost a licorice flavor to it. The pepper flavor was a little more concentrated than I expected.

Brazilian green - another one with a papery outer skin and lighter inside. It was a little brighter than your typical black pepper - not a huge amount of spice but some zip to it nonetheless.

Lampong black - this is probably what I think of when I think of black pepper. Nice spiciness and aroma before I broke it open.

Tellicherry black - highly textured, dense, and tough with a very concentrated pepper flavor and a lot of heat. Almost a smokiness to it. It started to make my tongue numb before I bit into it.

There's nothing groundbreaking here, but I was surprised by just how different all of these were, while they were also all immediately identifiable as being "pepper". Revisiting something that I thought of as so ordinary turned out to be far from it. Now whether or not they help my stomach remains to be seen.

Oh, you should totally click on the picture up at the top of this post. I'm amazed at what my camera can do sometimes.

-Kevin (TFD)
*There's no such thing as peppertoast.
Or is there...

School Lunches - Part II

2009-08-30T17:53:00.005-07:00

For the background info, you can check out the story here: http://bit.ly/9fY2F.

The first week of the new school lunch routine was pretty dang successful. The girls liked the salads I made for them, they dug the cut-up fruit, and they were really good about packing their own stuff and actually bringing back the plastic containers and ice packs they went to school with. Woo-hoo!

The week after that (aka last week) was slightly less structured. They still had good healthy food, but I didn't go through all of the prep that I did the previous Sunday. Things were slightly more chaotic in the mornings because we had to pull together some things, but all in all it wasn't bad.

But I preferred the first week. It was so great to just have all that stuff ready to go and just be able to tell them to go pack up what they want. Yeah, I wanted to recreate that for this week.

That's all well and good, but I bit off a little more this week and I kinda wish I wouldn't have. This week I wanted to have sort of an Asian-themed set of food for lunches. I had one salad I knew I wanted to prepare, and wanted to have some things that would work well with that. So I picked out another salad, and decided that it would be a great idea to make some dumplings to go with those. Bad call, bucko.

It's not that they were all that difficult to make, but with the other two salads and fruit prep it just took too much time.

So here's what's on the menu for this week. There's some good stuff in these!

Sesame Brown Rice Salad w/Shredded Chicken & Peanuts:
I have to thank @mikeonline for pointing me to this recipe (thanks, Mike!). It comes from Cooking Light and it was really easy to make. I actually cooked the rice like I did in this recipe, because I really like how that works for a salad (and it's a whole lot easier). I didn't actually measure out the lime juice, and I think I went a little overboard on it. It's way limey, but the girls will probable love it for just that reason. For the chicken, I substituted Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chik'n Strips and it seem to be pretty good in it. I generally like the MS Farms products, but this one you sort of have to chop up or the texture can be a bit off.

Dang Cold Asian Noodle Salad:
This is a Guy Fiere recipe, and it's pictured up at the top of this post. I think I'm going to like it a lot once the flavors come together. The dressing is super-good (although slightly heavy on the rice wine vinegar - which I'm hoping mellows slightly), and I just used the veggies that I had on-hand (subbing fresh spinach for the napa cabbage and cucumber for the bean sprouts). I'm looking forward to tasting this tomorrow.

Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings:
This one's Alton Brown's. I'm actually confused by what happened here. The recipe has a yield of 35-40 dumplings, and I went 50% larger on it. You'd think that would give me 50-60 dumplings, wouldn't you? Well, I ended up with 28. I don't think I was overstuffing them (I mean a won ton wrapper will only hold so much!), so I'm not sure where the difference was. Ah, well, at least they're good. They may be a little salty for me (but I don't like a lot of salt), but it should be ok since I won't be sending any dipping sauce for them.

The fruit:
Well, I didn't have it in me to make a huge fruit salad by the time I got through with everything else. I did cut of a whole seedless watermelon, so that should get us through pretty well. My honey even suggested using some of it to make a granita, and I'm thinking that's a pretty awesome idea...

The kitchen is all cleaned up, I've blogged about the experience, and now I'm worn out. So what will I make myself for dinner after all that? I'm thinking that the frozen pizza that I've had for a couple of months is looking pretty good right now...

Help me choose my new Twitter pic!

2009-08-29T09:15:00.012-07:00

Hello, Friends!

I've decided to go public on Twitter. No more picture of food on plates - this is going to be all me.

I was trying out a few pics when my tweeps @drpoling, @juliegraphics, and @TucsonMeetYrslf suggested I have my tweeple vote! Always up for a good competition, I decided that was an awesome idea .

So here are the pictures. Just leave me a comment on which one you like best. In order, the pictures are BeerFace, WineNose, and ProfileGulp. Voting will go on for 12 hours, after which time I'll tally things up and post the winner. Thank you for your vote!

UPDATE: It's been 12 hours and the results are in! Here's the breakdown of results left as comments here or tweeted:

WineNose: 7
BeerFace: 4
ProfileGulp: 1
None: 2
My Blogger Profile Pic: 2

It looks like WineNose it is! Thanks to everyone who voted - this was fun!

-TFD

Celebratory Dinner: Shoeless and Sitting on the Floor

2009-08-26T21:01:00.004-07:00

Ah, children.

Without them, we'd live such normal lives, wouldn't we?

Enter the previously-posted-about vegetarian teenage daughter. Tomorrow is her 15th birthday, which is strange because I just don't feel all that old... But I digress.

So we had the annual birthday dinner at the restaurant of her choice. When first presented with the option, she said she wanted to go to Red Robin. Yep, the chain burger place at the mall. I have nothing against the bird, in fact their zucchini sticks are pretty dang good, but I sort of had to call her out on that. I mean, she always subs a Boca patty for the meat, but she's in a club to push local and organic ingredients at her school. C'mon!

We did a little research and decided upon Govinda's at the Hare Krishna temple. It's a 100% vegetarian buffet, and I wasn't entirely sure how thrilled I was about the choice. I've been there a couple of times, but those visits were probably 10 years ago (or more...). Plus, I was a vegetarian myself at the time (for a total of 8 or 9 years, I think), and really dug it. Now, though, I like me some bacon.

Before I go any further, I'm going to say straight up that the food was really pretty good (with a couple of exceptions). My expectations were a little low, but I walked away full and having tried a few things I wouldn't have expected.

It was the ambience that was really sort of surreal. The grounds are nice - there are two aviaries, one with parrots, one with peacocks and.... chickens? I'm not an ornithologist, so I couldn't say for sure. There's also a koi pond with some of the biggest examples of those fishies that I've ever seen.

To get into the restaurant, you walk through the two-room gift shop and up to the host. You pay for your buffets (8.95 for adults and 4.00 for my 12yo), drinks ($1.50ish), and any add-ons (whole wheat spinach tofu samosas $1.50). Then you get your paper plates and dixie cups (I'm not kidding) and load yourself up. And whatever you do, don't forget to grab a tray. I wasn't sure if the host was trying to be nice by insisting that I take one, or if I was being reprimanded for not having one.

As for the food, the salad bar veggies were really good, not too many choices, but what was there was very fresh and tasty. There were several kinds of dressings including cashew (slightly sweet with a not-surprising nuttiness) and one that was miso-based. The entrees were a chickpea ball in a sesame sauce and some very mushy ratatouille. Side dished included steamed veggies, two kinds of rice, and a curried rotini pasta dish with tofu. Oddly enough, I thought that was the best thing on the whole buffet.

Then there was the seating. They have two rooms: one with tables and chairs where you keep your shoes on, and one where you take your shoes off and sit on the floor. Can you guess which one Emily chose? If you read the title of this post, you probably can.

I have never been a floor-sitter. Even when I was in my teens I found sitting on the floor to be uncomfortable at best. But, being an awesome papa and a darned good sport, I went with it. I think the net result was that I took one less trip to the buffet because I didn't want to have to go through the process to getting up and down again. Did I say earlier that I don't feel that old? I rescind that statement.

I suppose that the take-home message is this: the food was pretty good - even some of the things I was a little leery of, but the ambience was a little bizarre for me. Maybe had we been sitting in the room with chairs or if I didn't have to go back throught the buffet line in my socks it wouldn't have felt that way.

The good thing was that Emily loved it, and it wasn't about the quality of the food, or the presents* or the unusual seating arrangements. It was about her feeling that she made a strong choice for herself and her ideals, and got to share it with her family. I'll sit on the floor anytime for that.

Well, it might have had the tiniest bit to do with the presents.

-TFD
* Speaking of the presents she absolutely loved the Twilight-themed bracelet that I got from @kismet1990 on Twitter. Her shop is here: bit.ly/19xbPl and she's a pleasure to work with.

Second note: regarding the picture with the post - it's not about Em (even though she's super cute!), but about the surroundings. You can get a feel for the room we were in, including the Christmas garlands and ornaments to the right of Emily's neck. Who knew that the Hare Krishna's celebrated Christmas? And in August, even!

One year anniversary at Nana's Kitchen

2009-08-26T06:45:00.005-07:00

My friend Travis called me last night to clue me in on an event happening this Saturday. Nana's Kitchen Mexican restaurant is having their one-year anniversary celebration! Congrats Teran family!

They'll be having mariachis, $1.50 longnecks, $2.00 margaritas, and some great food specials.

Mention that you heard about it on Twitter and... well, it probably won't get you anything extra, but it'll make them happy!

So here's the recap:

Nana's Kitchen, by I-10 & Cortaro
(520)395-2508
Saturday, August 29th
6:30pm until they're done
http://nanaskitchenaz.com/ (hasn't been updated in a while - they've been cooking instead!)

Go out and help them celebrate with some great food, cheap beverages, and live entertainment!

School lunches: a new paradigm for the modern family

2009-08-16T12:50:00.009-07:00

This is the year! Change has come, and change is good - this is our manifesto!

No more shall school lunches consist of a PB&J, carrot sticks, fruit, and a granola bar of some sort! We eschew those things! This is the year of exciting lunches - power-packed with nutrients and low in the stuff that's bad for you (even when it tastes so, so good). The girls have let it be known that change would be appreciated, and here change comes...

Lunches weren't always as described above. There were a few different things in the fairly regular rotation, but it was pretty routine stuff: quesadillas, sandwiches, and the very rare wrap. There was always a piece of fruit, some veggies, and the bar. Oh, how they tired of the various granola bars - which always surprised me...

As I've mentioned before, Emily's a vegetarian, so that further complicates things. I've been looking at options and bookmarking intriguing things for a month or so now. School starts back up tomorrow (yay!), and so I've spent the last couple of hours in the kitchen.

So here's how it's going to work:

I prepare some options
The girls pack up what they want the night before
Everybody's happy

For example, today I made a black bean & brown rice salad, a whole wheat pasta salad with edamame, a fruit salad with cantaloupe, fuji apple, peach, orange and jicama, and blueberry bran muffins. The girls can pick which salad they want, grab some of the fruit and a muffin and they're off. And so am I, for that matter - I made stuff in quantity, yo!

But it's not going to be all about the salads this year. We've got cool wraps, soups, chili, and other yummy stuff coming up.

And soon, I won't be the only one doing all this prep (but don't tell them yet!). I'll be having them pick out a recipe to fix and that's going to be one of the options for the week. I think this is going to be fun - a lot of work on a Sunday afternoon, but it'll sure make things easier later on in the week...

So what's your favorite lunch option for taking to work? Do you have any great recipes that might work for a plastic container snuggled up to an icepack? Let me know - I'd love to get some fresh new ideas!

Oh, and before I forget, I know I'm not the best photographer out there - I'm just a guy with a digital camera and cruddy lighting. But I'll keep working on it and hopefully my picture quality will get better over time!

-TFD

My little accident

2009-08-08T08:15:00.004-07:00

I think I'm finally healed enough to blog about this. There are some mildly graphic references to the red stuff that flows through one's veins below, so if you find that sort of thing bothersome you might want to read about something else...

Before I start with the story, I want to make a disclaimer. We had been to the gym that afternoon, so I wasn't exactly looking my best in the picture right there. Normally I look better for my mild medical mishaps.

10 days ago, Kristine and I were preparing a dinner to take to friends of ours who just had a new addition to their family (um, a baby, in case that wasn't clear). The menu was dry rubbed roast pork tenderloin, garlic mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli amandine, and chocolate chip cookies (because who doesn't love CC cookies?). This was a Weds, and we were making our delivery on Thursday, so we were just prepping.

We got the loin rubbed down and in the fridge and I was cutting up the sweet potatoes. You know how hard and fibrous those things can be, right? Well, although I was being very focused on the task at hand, the just-sharpened knife slipped.

I was suddenly bleeding - more than I thought was justifiable. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to stick my finger in a glass of cool water that I had recently been drinking (sometimes under stress, we do odd things). It looked like fruit punch gatorade in less than two seconds.

I couldn't get the bleeding to stop to see how bad things actually were, but I was under the impression that I had cut myself. You know, like a long narrow trench of suffering. At some point, though, we realized that I had actually cut off a piece of the pad of my finger. This was confirmed when we found the piece of my fingertip. Gross? Yes, very. It was a roundish piece about 3/8" in diameter - still stuck to the knife. This was the point where Kristine took control.

Kristine in control is usually a good thing, but she was a little freaked. I was kinda laughing, which didn't help things all that much.

The bleeding just wouldn't stop. I eventually gave in at about 9:00pm (about 30 mins after the unfortunate incident). We headed to the Urgent Care at UMC, which turned out to be a bad choice since they no longer have an urgent care. I really didn't want to pay the ER rates, so we headed off in search of an urgent care.

We were totally thwarted. We even had friends Brandon & Stacey looking online for evening urgent care centers while we drove half-heartedly towards St. Mary's hospital. Even with all of S&B's efforts, we ended up in the ER there. Who knew that there were no evening urgent care centers in a town of this size??

Our experience at St. Mary's was great. The people were incredibly friendly and we were taken care of quickly. We were put on their FastTrack, which meant that we'd see a PA instead of an MD. I was fine with that. I was still bleeding through everything they gave me, but didn't really think I was going to bleed out or that my very existence was in danger.

I think the kicker of the whole thing was when the PA came in, looked at it for maybe 5 seconds, and says, "I could *pause* put a band-aid on there if you want.". A band-aid. I had those at home. Nonetheless, I requested said band-aid.

The nurse came in a few minutes later with something called gel-foam that she used to actually make the bleeding stop (wonders never cease!), then wrapped it up in gauze (you can see her handiwork above). She then gave me the requisite tetanus shot (it had been 11 years, in my estimation). We were out the door after a total of 90 minutes there.

The big remaining question: how much did that band-aid cost? I haven't received the bill yet, but I'll update when it comes in.

So what are the lessons learned?

If you're going to cut off a small piece of your body, do it during normal business hours.
Band-aids can work wonders.
St. Mary's can efficiently process patients.
Sweet potatoes are evil.

And I'll leave you with that.

Oh, wait, one more funny thing: we took the small piece of my finger with us (wrapped and on-ice) in case they wanted to sew it back on. The PA: "It'll just grow back.". Silly us.

-TFD

Odell Brewing and Julie & Julia

2009-08-06T21:52:00.009-07:00

Feast or famine. That really seems all-too-appropriate for a food blog, doesn't it? I have times when I'm not really sure what I'm going to write about, and times where I've just got so much stuff running around my brain. Right now, I'm in the latter situation.

Because of that, I'm going to cram two fun and exciting recent happenings into one post. The danger here is that this is going to be way too long and full of extraneous details. *Sigh* I'll understand if you don't make it all the way to the end.

Odell Brewing
Last night, they were in town to launch their Tucson presence. They (Kirk & J.R.) spent some quality time at Plaza Liquors, then a couple of hours hanging out at 1702 (where we were stationed), and then whisked themselves off to Old Chicago. To protect identities, I'm going to refer to the members of my party as K, S, & B.

Things officially kicked off at 6:00, but S & I got there a little after 5:00. They're right across the street from work, for cryin' out loud! K arrived shortly thereafter. Then the good folks from Odell, bearing gifts. I think we all ended up with bottleopener keyrings, t-shirts, & coasters (those might not have been giveaways - I may have actually stolen them). B came a little later still, having gone to work out first (go B!).

I was fortunate to have been Tweeting when they got there (although I think my tweets became slightly less coherent as the evening continued), and I may or may not have been tipped off to keep my eyes on Twitter at about 6:30. I did, and I ended up winning a 750ml bottle of Woodcut #2, which retails for about $25.00. I'll looking forward to popping that open sometime in the near future.

So we sampled their three beers (IPA, Easy Street Wheat, and 90 Shilling Scottish ale), and I still think that their IPA may be my favorite beer ever. I mentioned it in my Postino post, and it's just that good. The others were good as well, but what can I say? I'm an IPA kind of guy. K enjoyed the wheat, S was in agreement on the IPA (and we usually see eye-to-eye on beer), and B.... well, I don't seem to remember which she liked! I remember her really liking their yellow t-shirts (although she didn't end up with one), but I'm fuzzy on her beer preference.

To wrap up, it was a good time with good friends, good pizza, and good beer. What more does one need?

Julie & Julia
Before I start talking about the movie itself, I want to thank Arizona Public Media for the guest passes to the sneak preview. We enjoyed the movie and appreciated you sponsoring the event itself.

Kristine, Gale & I went to Old Pueblo Grill beforehand for a glass of wine and some appetizers. Steve was going to meet us at the theater because he was out buying a Volvo or something silly like that. He had chips & guacamole and the tostada sampler. The machaca tostada was a hit all around. We didn't discuss the guac too much, but it seemed a little flat to me. It could used more zip, delivered through lime juice, or even some salt...

Ok, so the movie is everywhere. You've heard all about it. You've read all about it. You know what to expect. I did too.

Some of the things I'd heard weren't entirely accurate, though. Amy Adams was roundly panned. I think it was Gourmet magazine who advised bringing reading material and a penlight for those sequences (harsh!)... She was not nearly as good as Meryl Streep, but c'mon! That's Meryl Streep she's up against! And Meryl Streep was brilliant as Julia. There were many times I forgot that it wasn't Julia Child on the screen. Some of those scenes took me back to when I was a youngster watching Julia on TV and thinking, "I could do that". Which I then did.

I found it to be a lovely tribute to her memory, with a slightly weaker story of self-empowerment thrown in with it. Of course, I'm not a film critic, and neither are Kristine & Gale, who both gave it thumbs up. I'd like to be able to say that Steve liked it too, but the whole Volvo-buying process took longer than anticipated.

Ok, that's it. I'll stop now. I think I've probably done longer posts, so I'm happy that this one is as short (and yes as lively!) as it is.

Thanks for reading.

-TFD

My own personal Omnivore's Dilemma*

2009-08-04T13:34:00.004-07:00

I’m happy to eat just about anything. I have a daughter who only eats things that weren’t once happily walking/flying/swimming around their natural (or cage-related) environment. Yep, I eat meat, and have a vegetarian daughter.

We were all vegetarians once-upon-a-time (and for 7 years), but I fell victim to a bacon incident about 3 years ago and haven’t looked back. So having spent quite a bit of time as a veggie myself, I can understand where she’s coming from and don’t feel like it’s ‘just a phase’ on her part. Holy cow, she’s been vegetarian for the last 11 of her 15 (well, she turns 15 in about three weeks) years!

She’s tried eating meat (and fish, and fowl) on a couple of times at my urging, but it’s just not working for her. My younger (12y.o.) daughter will eat meat for the most part.

If we were the type of family that just ate out all the time, it really wouldn’t be an issue. But I really like to cook. I don’t like to cook so much though, that I want to make two separate meals (or even entrees) every night. I also don’t always want to leave the meat out of dishes and mix at the table – curries and such just aren’t the same! I like tofu and meat substitutes just fine, but don’t want them all the time.

So I’m trying to figure out how to respect her decision (one that I had a strong hand in her making in the first place) yet still have meals that will make everyone happy. Do I have her make her own meatless entrée every night (making sure that it’s not a PB&J)? Do I just give up and go back to being vegetarian when she’s home? Do I force her to eat meat? Do I make her pick it out of what I make?

I’m curious if there are any other folks out there going through the same thing. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

*Apologies to Michael Pollan for co-opting the title of his awesome book, and apologies to you, dear readers, for the unashamed use of clipart in this post.

-TFD

Food Events Calendar

2009-08-02T07:44:00.005-07:00

Hi All!

In my continuing efforts to make my blog more useful (than what, I'm not entirely sure), I've decided to add a calendar of Tucson Food Happenings.

It's still a work in progress, and it may or may not work out in the long run (maintaining a calendar can be a big pain in the behind). In the meantime, though, if you hear of any food related events going on, please let me know about them. I'm happy to post things as they come up!

If this works out, I may try to expand it to include recurring events (happy hours, weekly specials, etc), but for now I'm looking more at one-time things.

So drop me a note if you know of things going on, if you have any comments/suggestions, or if you have a good source for foodish happenings!

PS: I moved the calendar down to the bottom of the blog because of formatting issues. Once I make it pretty I'll move it back up top!

-TFD

So much going on at Tucson Originals!

2009-07-30T11:33:00.002-07:00

Too much here to Tweet, so I'm just posting the entire email I got from my friends at Tucson Originals. You guys and gals are awesome!

WHAT’S HOT
GIFT CERTIFICATES REDUCED
The few Tucson Original Gift Certificates remaining from the June sale are now available at 50% off the face value. Purchase them on the website at http://www.tucsonoriginals.com. Certificates are valid for 6 months from date of sale. Certain restrictions may apply.

Tucson Original $20.09 Summer deals
As you make your way around town to enjoy our summer offerings you’ve still got time to try them all. Be sure and visit the website to see updates and new member offerings. Offers are good through Labor Day. www.tucsonoriginals.com

WHAT’S NEW
Members News

Fans of El Charro Café will be excited to learn about the new Fiesta de la Musica Live Music Series featuring live music every weekend (Friday through Sunday) at El Charro located at 7725 N. Oracle Road. The series will expand over the new few months to include all locations. Call 520-299-1022 for details. www.elcharrocafe.com

Congratulations to Ciaran Wiese, head Bartender and Beverage Director at Barrio Food & Drink who was selected as the winner of the “Trails of the Cocktail” Apprentice Program Scholarship at the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans on July 10th. This prestigious award is given to new emerging talent in the cocktail industry and includes a trip to the Cointreau Maison and Distillery in Angers, France where he will spend several days as an apprentice with Richard Lambert, the International Cointreau Brand Ambassador. Barrio is located at 135 S. Sixth Avenue. 520-629-0191.

Enjoy Dollar Shrimp Night at Jonathan’s Cork every Wednesday. You pay just $1 per each shrimp – prepared any way you like it – fried, grilled, blackened…in the bar or in the dining room 3pm to midnight (no take out!) www.jonathanscork.com 520-296-1631

Taco Bron is hosting a Bike Ride/Poker Game on Saturday August 1st. Participants meet at the restaurant at 6910 E. Tanque Verde Road and depart at 12:30pm for Mt Lemmon, returning to Taco Bron at 5:30 pm for “Bike Night/Poker Game”. For details call 520-722-4302. www.tacobron.com

You are invited to celebrate with downtown Tucson Original members – Cup Café, Maynards Market and Kitchen, El Charro, Barrio Grill, Enoteca and Café 54 the long awaited opening of the 4th Ave underpass on August 20th at 4pm. Join us for this exciting milestone as Mayor Walkup “cuts the ribbon” to downtown when he arrives in the first Tucson Trolley to make its way downtown!

Ghini’s French Caffé celebrates their 17th Anniversary this month! Chef/owner Coralie Satta wishes to thank Tucson “for all of your support & loyalty through these years”. Ghini’s is a little bit of Provence right here in Tucson and is located at 1803 E. Prince.
520-326-9095 www.ghiniscafe.com

WHAT’S COOKIN’
the Tucson Children’s Museum

Tucson Original chefs have had fun “Cooking From the Garden” with the kids at the Tucson Children’s Museum this month. Classes start at 10:30 am – admission is $5 for kids and $7 for adults and seniors; coming up next: July 31st – Chef Addam Buzzalini from Maynards Market and Kitchen .

The museum is located at 200 N. 6th Avenue. Make your reservations by calling 792-9985. www.tucsonchildrensmuseum.org

MASTER CLASSES
The second series of the Tucson Original Master Classes kicks of on Tuesday, October 6th, and will continue every other Tuesday through December 15th. They will take place in the wonderful state of the art demonstration kitchens at Tucson Wholesale Supply at 4229 E Speedway Boulevard.

Each class will last from 6 to 8pm, culminating in dinner with the chef. Cost for the series of 6 “hands-on” classes is $600 per person and includes a notebook, recipes, dinner and beverages. Space is limited to just 10 participants and with many from the first series are already signed up just a few slots are left. Contact Colette Landeen at 343-9985 or at tucsonoriginals@gmail.com

Class Schedule

October 6
Chef Addam Buzzalini ~ Maynards Market and Kitchen ~ Classsic Cassoulet and Cocktail Pairings

October 20
Chef Albert Hall ~ Acacia at St Philips ~ Fall Harvest Dinner

November 3rd
Chef Janos Wilder ~ Janos and J BAR ~ Southwestern Holiday Dinner

November 17th
Chefs Jim Murphy and Maryanne Baines ~ Kingfisher/Bluefin ~ Holiday Desserts

December 1
Chef Jeff Glomski ~ Barrio ~ Holiday Appetizers

December 15th
Vila Jarrell and Chef Ryan Jarrell ~ Vila Thai ~ Thai Tapas

Dutch Diners Club
The next Dutch Diner’s Club will take place on Saturday, August 22nd at Bluefin Seafood Bistro at 5:00pm. Chef Jim Murphy invites you to enjoy his fabulous $20.09 Lobster Special or select from a wide variety of Bluefin signature dishes. Bluefin is located in Casas Adobes Plaza at 7053 N Oracle Rd. To reserve your seat please email Rovella at rovellrucitti@yahoo.com.

Something New at the 2009 Tucson Culinary Festival ~ Oct 1-4, 2009
We are pleased to welcome Milagro Tequila® as the title sponsor of opening event of the four day festival. The 4th Annual Milagro Tequila® World Margarita Championship will take place on Thursday, October 1st from 5:30-8pm on the patio at Maynards Market and Kitchen at the historic Train Depot in Downtown Tucson located at 400 N. Toole Ave. Featuring a “spirited” competition among a select group of outstanding Tucson Originals “mixologists”, this year’s event also will feature demonstrations and tastings with Milagro Brand Ambassador/Mixologist Gaston Martinez.

Finalists and their original Margarita entries are:

Bartender Collin Liebing ~ Acacia at St. Phillips ~ “Lila’s Tucson Tropical Margarita”
Bartender Aaron DeFeo ~ Cup Café at Hotel Congress ~ “El Camino”
Bartender Brian Metzger ~ jaxKitchen ~ “jaxKitchen Summer Margarita”
Bartender Patrick O’Brien ~ Barrio ~ “Tres Flores”
Bartender Jeffrey Hughes ~ Jonathan’s Tucson Cork ~ “J.C.’s Miraculous Margarita”
Bartender Aaron DeFeo ~ Maynards Market & Kitchen, ~ “El Tiradito”
Bartender Steven Kincade ~ Pastiche Modern Eatery ~ “The Almendrado Margarita”
Chef Janos Wilder ~ Janos/J Bar ~ “J Bar Margarita”
Bartender Maria Jose Mazon ~ Papagayo Mexican Restaurant ~ “Tango Margarita”

Guests will have the opportunity to sample and vote for their favorite traditional margarita. A panel of esteemed judges will determine which margarita deserves the title of “Worlds Best Margarita.” The “people’s choice” vote will be added to those of the judges to select the final winner. Admission to the event is $35 per person.

The following day, Friday, October 2nd, Milagro’s Gaston Martinez and Maynards Market and Kitchen Executive Chef Addam Buzzalini will team up for a fabulous tequila luncheon. Guests will learn the secrets of one of the world’s finest tequilas, and about the barrel aging that sets Milagro apart from the rest. This new Tucson Culinary Festival event will include a cocktail reception with passed appetizers, a tasting of six marks of Milagro and a two course luncheon (entrée and dessert) specially created by Chef Buzzalini to pair with Milagro tequilas.

The luncheon will be held from noon to 2:30 pm in the Drawing Room (upstairs private dining room at Maynards). Seating is limited to 35 attendees. Reservations can be made by calling 520.545.0577. Cost is $50 per person. (does not include tax)
A portion of the proceeds from the 2009 Tucson Culinary Festival will benefit New Beginnings for Women and Children and the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. For complete details on the Tucson Culinary Festival activities, weekend package ticket pricing and purchases, visit the website at www.tucsonculinaryfestival.com or call 520.488.8601

Win 52 weeks of Tucson Original Dining!
Tucson Culinary Festival Raffle Tickets are now on sale at all Tucson Originals restaurants July 1st-Sept. 25th. They may also be purchased at all Tucson Culinary Festival events Oct 1-4.
Raffle Grand Prize – 52 Weeks of Dining at Tucson Originals restaurants are the hallmark of culinary excellence in southern Arizona. The winner of this raffle prize will discover all of our member restaurants with 52 weeks of fine and casual dining.
Raffle Special Prizes –
Trader Joes Gift Cards, a $500 Value; Good at all Trader Joes locations nationwide and never expires. Six Liter Bottle of Markham Vineyards Wine, A $500 Value

Primavera Cooks!
There is still time to experience one of the 2009 Primavera Cooks! Dinners. As the season moves on, some dinners are already sold out but there are still seats at several locations if you act fast (see the list below).
Purchase your tickets at http://primavera.org/events_cooks.php or contact: David Elliott at delliott@primavera.org or 623-5111 ext. 101

Sun., Aug 9 Cup Cafe, (BRUNCH!) * NEW DATE!
Wed., Aug 19 Acacia at St Philips * SOLD OUT!
Sat., Aug 29 JBAR Wed.,
Sept 2 Maynards Market and Kitchen
Sun., Sept 13 Kingfisher * SOLD OUT!
Thurs., Sept 17 Jonathans Cork

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Monterey - Post 1

2009-07-28T18:08:00.015-07:00

Do you ever see people taking pictures of their food in a restaurant and think to yourself, "Why is that person taking a picture of their food?"? I don't mean someone taking a picture of the person across the table, I mean camera pointed directly at plate.

I've wondered that, but last week I took a few pictures of food. It was slightly embarrassing, but I did it. And since I did it, I'm going to share some of the highlights with you, dear reader.

These will be in chronological order.

Day One:
I'm going to skip the breakfast at McDonald's in LAX.
Lunch was at The Crow's Nest in Santa Cruz - view was great, food was fine, but not really anything to write home (or a blog) about. We were pretty hungry by then, and would have pretty much scarfed down anything.
Dinner was at Esteban - and we just sat at the bar and had tapas. One that I enjoyed the presentation of was the Thai snapper ceviche with pear and potato chip (the menu said taro, but they changed that). I should have known by the way our server winced that we might want to pick something else, but we didn't. The only two discernable flavors were vinegar and the slightly burnt chip:

I still liked the presentation, though. The winner there was the artichoke hearts and serrano ham with tomato relish. It was fresh, the textures of the silky artichoke and the dry ham were great counterpoints to each other. It was simple and rustic, but we enjoyed it quite a bit.

Day 2:
The food highlight of the day was dinner at The Sardine Factory. Now before you yell, "tourists!" in our general direction, I'd like to say that we ate small plates in the bar with some fairly colorful locals (including one woman who wanted to buy Kristine a glass of wine). We had a couple of great items, including the Baked Monterey Mushrooms (stuffed with crab and super-good), and the Bloody Mary Oyster shooters:

We also had some grilled shrimp on polenta in a red pepper coulis, which we had to send back because the bottom was badly burnt (you can even see it in the picture!). The second one to come out was great, though. The polenta had a perfect texture, and the shrimp were cooked perfectly.

Day Three:
Wow. There was some great food this day. I'm going to go up until dinner and then stop for the time being...

Ok, breakfast was the contintental buffet at the hotel. Look, it's not great, but it's cost effective.

Then we were off to Carmel-by-the-Sea for a fun day of sightseeing, beaching, shopping, and, of course, eating. There may or may not have been some wine involved as well. Ok, there was.

Lunch was at The Village Corner, and we had a spinach salad with grilled shrimp and mandarin oranges, and crab/ricotta ravioli in a tomato pesto sauce. The sauce on the ravioli was full of fresh tomato, basil and parmesan flavors, but it way overpowered the crab filling in the ravioli. That was too bad, because that's what drew me to the dish in the first place.

We then hit a couple of places for wine: The Galante Winery tasting room where we tried some great local wines (I was very partial to the Blackjack Cab) and an argument with the proprietor over whether or not he could ship wines to Arizona. I said he couldn't, but I was wrong. Turns out the laws have changed recently so that if we were to buy it in the store and have it shipped home it would be fine.

We stopped in a Vino Napoli, which just opened the week before. They had some kinks to work out but we got great service from Alana. They specialize in building flights of 2 oz. pours, and had probably 25 different wines to choose from.

Upon a local's recommendation, we also went to the bar at The Cypress Inn for a glass. We discovered that it's partially owned by none other than Doris Day - which explained the large collection of DD movie posters used as decoration. We knew we were in the presence of locals because everyone had a 10 lb. dog on their lap. Carmel is a VERY dog-friendly place.

Ok, this posting has gone on far too long! I'll pick up with Day 3 dinner (teaser: at Christopher's in Carmel) later on.

Thanks for making it this far!

-TFD

Coffee, thyme, & bourbon - oh my?

2009-07-14T20:34:00.004-07:00

So now that I've blown off a little steam with the post about my blogging, I thought I'd actually do one about food.

Sunday night I was feeling adventurous and decided to do something a little different. I picked up the new grilling cookbook that Mary loaned us (Weber's Real Grilling - btw, I don't get $ from Amazon for that link, it's just for reference) and decided to whip up the coffee rubbed pork loin chops with bourbon cream sauce. The rub was basically coffee, thyme, salt & pepper (1t each first three, 1/2t pepper). Oddly enough, the coffee and thyme worked well together; the coffee being more of an earthy flavor than the buzz-laced cup you have in the morning.

The real winner, though, was the bourbon cream sauce. It had a really mellow smoky flavor with only a tiny hint of the booze left. It was so good, in fact, that I wanted to share it with you:

1T butter
1/2 C finely chopped yellow onion (but I used shallot)
1t minced garlic
1/4 C bourbon
1 C low sodium beef stock
6 T heavy cream (I used half and half)
1t chopped fresh thyme
S&P

Melt butter over med-high, add onion & cook until tender. Add garlic and cook 1 min more. Remove pan from heat and add bourbon. Carefully (watch for flaming!) return pan to heat. Let alcohol burn off, reduce heat to med, add beef stock & cream. Reduce to about 1/3 C (15-20 mins), stirring occasionally. Add thyme. S&P to taste.

For sides, I grilled up some portobello caps, zucchini ribbons, and russet potato. The sauce was even better on the portobellos than it was on the chops.

The coffee-chops were good, but I think next time I might keep the sauce and go for a more 'traditional' pork rub. Or not. We'll just have to wait and see on that one!

Oh, and doesn't the pork chop in the picture look kind of like a little piggy?

Blogging about my blog

2009-07-14T20:22:00.003-07:00

Really now, how lame is this? This is officially a blog post about changing around my blog.

I've never considered myself to be a luddite, but I'm starting to realize that I am. I don't know any HTML, I'm no good at manipulating images, and if I try a template and it doesn't look right I just discard it and try another one.

I'm starting to like this new look, though. It's still got a ways to go before it's where I want it, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

And just think, as soon as it's perfect I'll be able to take over the world! Or at least talk about food in a slightly more user-friendly forum.

-TFD

PS: My heartfelt thanks to my sweetie for creating the header for me. At least one of us knows our way around Photoshop!

Lunch at Postino in Phoenix

2009-07-11T12:56:00.006-07:00

Yeah, I know. I'm Tucson Food Dude and I'm writing about a restaurant in Phoenix. I don't get hung up on labels. What I do get hung up on, though, is not taking an appropriate amount of pictures for things such as this. I'll do better next time and not just use a cropped picture of me really happy about getting beer.

So I'm not going to call this a review, because I'm not going back for a second meal. I would if I could, but it's a bit of a drive...

This lunch was immediately following the casting call for NFNS. BTW, I didn't get a callback from them, so I'm just going to assume that they misplaced my number (ah, the protected ego!).

Kristine's bro Jeff lives up there, so we called him up to see if he could recommend a place and meet us. He's the hippest CPA you could ever meet, so we knew he'd have a good spot in mind. His suggestion was Postino in the Arcadia area of Phoenix. I'm not entirely sure what Arcadia covers, but this place was close to 40th St & Camelback (full contact info below). It turned out to be a former post office (hence the name), with a light and airy feel. They call themselves a wine bar, but that doesn't mean that the food played second fiddle.

I was ready to blow off some steam when we got there, so I ordered one of the two beers on tap. I'm partial to an IPA, so I picked that without really knowing what it was. They were doing a special for lunch, offering a pitcher (which they characterized as 'small') for $5.00. I went with that. Turns out it wasn't that small, and I got about 2 1/2 pints out of it.... Jeff was jealous because he had to go back to work. The beer was from Odell, and it was fantastic. Amber coloring, creamy head, citrus and floral notes in the aroma, and hoppy without being ridiculous about it. My kind of beer.

They seem to specialize in panini, bruschetta, and salads for lunchtime (or maybe all the time). Kristine & I both went with the half panino/bowl of soup combo ($9.50). We both chose the proscuitto with brie sandwich and chicken artichoke florentine soup. She had her panino on foccacia, and I went with ciabatta.

The panini were described as: 'Prosciutto with triple cream brie, fig jam and arugula with balsamic vinegar and olive oil'. There wasn't a lot of arugula (in fact just a little pile in the middle, and I couldn't detect any balsamic at all. Nonetheless, the flavor combination in it was great. The sweet, earthy fig with the salty proscuitto and creamy brie was a major hit.

The soup wasn't quite as I expected. It was tasty, but none of the flavors really stood out. I expected a little more zip from the artichoke and maybe a bit more chicken (I only saw one or two pieces in my bowl). Next time, I'd definitely choose one of their salads instead of the soup.

Jeff let us know that they're really known for their bruschetta, which they have a very broad selection of. Next time I'm up that way, I'll check it out.

I should mention that the service we received was top-notch: friendly and attentive without hovering. I'll look forward to another meal there, and a chance to try out some of their extensive wine list.

Postino is located at 3939 E Campbell Ave. Their website is postinowinecafe.com, and they have full menus at the site. They have another location on Central as well.

My day at the Next Food Network Star casting call

2009-07-08T16:25:00.002-07:00

What a day.

First off, I slept.....poorly last night (I had another word in there, but thought better of it). Couldn't get to sleep and was pretty beat when I dragged myself out of bed. Once I got going, though, things got better.

So, up at 5:00am, picked up my main supporter (and future groupie) Kristine at 6:30, and we got on the road. The casting call was at an Embassy Suites in Paradise Valley (sort of North Phoenixish), so it took us a good two hours to get there. We arrived in the general vicinity at about 8:30, got breakfast at a nearby McDonalds (you know, like any good foodie would do), and then went to the hotel.

When we got there (around 9:00ish), the waiting area had a good number of folks already hanging out. I got signed in (#27) and we grabbed a table. They were supposed to start at 10:00, but called the first two people back at 9:15. I was kinda happy about that - the earlier they start, the earlier we could get back to Tucson. Something that struck me as a little weird: some people hadn't filled out their applications yet. They picked up blank ones and were filling them out right there. Now, these were pretty in-depth 11-page apps that took a lot of thought and reflection for me to get done....

There were two producers there who called people back one at a time. Of course, we didn't know at the time that they were the producers, or what happened to the people who just disappeared. Kristine had enough forethought to bring a cribbage board, so we got in a game while we waited. I won. I tweeted off and on. I sent text messages back and forth with my daughters, who were incredibly supportive.

Other hopefuls really started showing up in force around 10:00. Shortly thereafter, there were about 100 names on the list.

At about 10:45 or so, I got my call. Producer Amy (who was extremely nice, by the way) took me back and explained what was going to happen. Basically, she asked me a few questions and taped the whole thing. Everyone got the same set of questions, and had about the same amount with the producers. That amount of time was just a little over two minutes. I could tell you what they asked me, but I'm not going to do that. I don't want to give any unfair advantage to people who might be going to the calls in other cities! That, and it went by so fast that I don't really remember what happened...

From here, they are going to review everyone's tapes and look through the applications. They'll do callbacks for their top choices, and people who get those should hear within the next 24 hours.

I've got my fingers crossed. I felt like I did fairly well, but won't know until I either hear back from them or tomorrow evening comes and I haven't heard anything.

Even is nothing comes out of this, I'm happy that we went. It was way outside of my comfort zone, and I like to challenge myself with stuff like that from time to time. Oh, we took some pictures to put up with this posting, but Kristine still has my camera. I'll get some up when I get that back from her.

We were out the door at around 11:00, and went to meet Kristine's brother Jeff (who lives in Scottsdale) for lunch. That, however, is going to be its own post. This one has gone on long enough.

If you were at the Phoenix call, or if you're going to one of the others, drop me a note and let me know how it went for you. For everyone else, keep your fingers crossed for me!

The Next Big Adventure!

2009-07-07T08:46:00.003-07:00

I've decided that I'm actually going to go through with it.

Tomorrow is the open casting call for The Next Food Network Star in Phoenix.

I've filled out the 11 page application. I had the professional headshots taken. I'm so ready.

Ok, I'm not really ready, but I'm doing it anyway! My honey is going up there with me for moral support and final prep in the car (hurray for great support!). I'll be tweeting from there tomorrow and I'll do a blog post afterwards with the juicy, juicy details.

Stay tuned!

Help send me to LA to cover Julie & Julia!

2009-07-05T14:15:00.003-07:00

Hi all!

Thank you for taking a minute to read this posting. In a nutshell, Steamy Kitchen is trying to select someone to attend a series of events on their behalf on THURSDAY. It would be very helpful if you could head over to http://steamykitchen.com/4368-julie-julia-movie.html and leave a comment in support of Tucson Food Dude (aka Kevin). I would sure appreciate it!

-TFD

Stuff that's been going on

2009-06-25T12:39:00.003-07:00

How's that for a non-specific blog posting title? I don't really have anything startling to report, but wanted to do a quick update.

I just did my second post at Circle of Food on the difference between baking powder and baking soda. Did you know that baking powder is baking soda plus an acid and a filler? Well if you didn't, you do now. My first post was on a subject near and dear to my heart: beer. I guess that's actually a lot nearer and dearer to my liver, but who's going to call me out on that? It's funny, but I'm enjoying the blogging and the tweeting. If you would have asked me six months ago, I probably would have said I wasn't really interested in either.

My honey and I have had a couple of food/beverage outings of note. We went to Vistas at the Tucson Hilton East and it was just plain weird. The bar didn't have a wine list, the bartender didn't seem to have a good grasp on what she was doing, and the restaurant was deserted when we arrived. A couple of people showed up for dinner before we finished our wine, but it was still kind of odd. But we seem to thrive on those kinds of things, so it's all good.

We also went to Ric's Cafe for dinner. As a member of Tucson Originals, they have a $20.09 special that we wanted to try out. Their offering is all-you-can-eat baby back ribs served with mashed potatoes and a squash medley. It also came with a pint of Fat Tire, which was just fine with me. The ribs were a little tough, a little fatty (they were trimmed sort of oddly), and the sauce was put on after they were cooked. I know that some places do that, but I like them to cook at least a little bit with the sauce on. But they were ok, as was the veg. The mashed potatoes were really good, though. They had a nice garlic kick to them, which I enjoyed. As for the AYCE part of the dinner, I didn't manage to eat more than the full rack they brough out initially. I really wanted to order more (because I like to maximize those kinds of things), but didn't have the room.

Let's see, what else? The girls took me to Beyond Bread for Father's Day lunch and it was fabulous as usual. They made me a scrapbook of pictures of when they were very young - it was just too sweet.

That was followed up two hours later with Father's Day dinner with KW's family at Zona 78. You might guess that I wasn't hungry, and you'd be right. By the time we were paying the bill, I was starting to want a little something to nibble on. Figures.

So I think that kinda sums things up for the last week or two. There'll be more to come soon!

-TFD

Now Posting at Circle of Food!

2009-06-18T22:33:00.003-07:00

Hello, visitors!

I'm still going to be doing some posting here, but I'm also doing some guest blogging at Circle of Food (www.circleoffood.com). It'll mostly be about the science of cooking, with some more random things thrown in as well. If you'd like to check out my blog there, head on over to http://www.circleoffood.com/blog/food/tucson-food-dude/

Thanks!

Nostalgia Lunch at UA Student Union

2009-06-11T09:23:00.004-07:00

I spent a good portion of my day on the University of Arizona campus yesterday. I was a little hungry and trying to figure out what restaurant to head to for lunch when I decided to just go to the student union to see what's changed since I graduated oh so many years ago.

Turns out a lot's changed. It's a whole new building, in fact. Louie's Lower Level is gone, The Cellar is still there, but the main attraction is now Dance Dance Revolution. The selection in the food court is a little different with the exception that On Deck Deli is still there: Burger King has replaced McD's, and there's now Chik-fil-a, Panda Express, Papa John's, and a place called IQ Fresh that does wraps and smoothies. I didn't make it upstairs to check out the cafeteria, but I hear that it's a bit different as well.

IQ Fresh had the most appeal to me. The concept and restaurant itself are acutally an outgrowth of a student project in the Business College. Kinda cool. They had a wide selection of smoothies with the usual add-ins (protein, vitamins, etc), and with yogurt or sherbet. You do your ordering on a piece of paper and then take that up to the counter. Pick your wrapper (whole wheat, chipotle, spinach, white, etc), and type of wrap. I went with the Thai Chicken Lettuce in whole wheat: grilled chicken, lettuce, carrot, cuke, and bean sprouts with a peanut sauce. I would have ordered extra of the sauce, as it was a little dry inside. Overall, it was very tasty. The standout of the meal, though, were the sweet potato fries. Very crispy outside, light and creamy inside, and not greasy at all. They were really, really good, and worth the trip there.

So where's that nostalgia that I mentioned? It sounds like everything's changed, right? Well, yes and no. It was being around all of the students that really did it. Thankfully, there weren't as many as during the semester, but still enough to cause a buzz everywhere. There was also a mix of college students, admin types, and middle/high school students there for summer programs. It was a lot of fun just being around that energy and excitement, and I was glad I went by there.

If you find yourself near campus around lunchtime, stop in at the student union for a bite. Even if you're not an alum, it's a great atmosphere for a little recharge.

Sonoita / Elgin Wineries

2009-05-25T10:05:00.002-07:00

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!

Thinking locally

2009-05-17T18:56:00.002-07:00

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!

Yeah, I made a Wordle.

2009-05-16T16:46:00.002-07:00

Commentary

2009-05-13T08:33:00.001-07:00

Hi All!

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

Cool Food Websites

2009-05-13T07:44:00.003-07:00

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

Pizza at 1702

2009-05-12T15:18:00.002-07:00

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.

Quick recap of Mom's Day

2009-05-11T08:33:00.002-07:00

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!

Mother's Day Menu

2009-05-08T07:54:00.002-07:00

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

Pauly's Pesto

2009-05-08T07:48:00.002-07:00

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!

Twitter!

2009-05-06T08:38:00.001-07:00

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!

Teaching from the kitchen

2009-05-04T21:27:00.003-07:00

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...

Dinner at Cici's

2009-05-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

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!

Recent Dining Experience at Candela

2009-05-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

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

My five favorite Tucson restaurants

2009-05-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

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?

What's this all about?

2009-05-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

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!