Five Thousand Years of Gastronomy in Tucson: A Quick Visit to Some Award-Winning Eateries

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

A non-foodie gets a quick few tips on how to be a foodie in one of the finest culinary sites in America

Oh, this is hard damned work, a terrible imposition, difficult labor but by god SOMEONE had to eat fine food and write about it.

Honestly, the bowl of salad was almost more than I could handle. It was, by far, the best salad I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot. I eat salads all the time, every possible combination.

This was heaven in a salad bowl.

Look, you could give me a butter lettuce leaf with a pistachio nut and I’d be in heaven, so there’s that. I’ll come back to that salad in a moment here.

Let me explain.

As someone who lives alone and often travels on a strict budget, eating out in really fine restaurants isn’t often in the budget. It’s also a false assumption that you have to be loaded to load up on excellent flavors and gustatory delights, especially in Tucson.

There are plenty of places you can eat in Tucson, a 2015 Gastronomy UNESCO World Heritage Site ranging from top-end to super-inexpensive food trucks where dining is just as good but without the fancy surroundings. In fact, some trucks were so successful that they moved into brick and mortar buildings where they could host their fans.

More on that in a moment.

In fact, for close to five thousand years, indigenous peoples’ foods have been interwoven with the recipes and ingredients brought by others, whether by colonizing countries or through trade and plenty of other influences. That is just part of how Tucson’s culinary scene has evolved into so many rich flavors and styles of food.

Much of that fare involves heat, as in all manners of chili peppers.

To be fair to Dear Reader, this writer has the heat tolerance of a marshmallow. My yard squirrels can handle heat better than I can. The slightest whiff of pepper will send me screaming to the ladies’ to wash out my mouth.

Those of you who know better will rightfully point out that I need bread but I can’t eat bread, so there’s that.

That limits me somewhat in a world where the locals and visitors pride themselves on the heat index of the peppers used in their food, and how the heat warms up the backs of their throats. My throat becomes the Highway to Hell just breathing the fumes.

Such intense sensitivity has led to a fair number of funny-for-other-people moments in places like Tucson where chiles are added to baby’s milk.

I made that up. Okay, maybe I didn’t.

In the Southwest, dentists put chilis in the spray water when working on your mouth to keep you distracted from your root canal.

Okay, I made that up too.

Okay, maybe I didn’t.

Speaking of dentists, let’s get back to food.

On a recent trip to this land of saguaro cactus, intensely gorgeous sunsets and sliding scales of heat indexes, I got a chance to visit a few very special spots, courtesy of Visit Tucson.

A high-end beginning

On our first night we dined at Charro Steak, which is part of the long local tradition.

The original El Charro Cafe was founded in 1922 in Tucson, making it the oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation. The steakhouse where we had dinner is the newest in the family, so to speak, and specializes in fine meats and sustainable fish.

Being a Floridian by birth and now living in Oregon, I love salmon, and that’s what I had. Rather, that slab of perfectly-cooked salmon, placed over a bowl of lettuce at my request, had me, and was one of the finest pieces of fish I’ve ever had.

Steak houses can lose their reputations and clientele permanently if they can’t pull off a perfect medium rare. That skill translates swimmingly to fish, where it’s a fine line between ruination and perfection.

This was the latter.

The salmon was delicious, and the restaurant was full of the kinds of fascinating decorative details you hope to see in a Mexican restaurant in Tucson. Here’s one eye-catching approach to hanging bottles over the bar:

From trucks to tables

I also joined my group for lunch at one of the three award-winning Seis Kitchen locations in Tucson, one of the many success stories of food trucks which were so well-loved they morphed into brick-and-mortar restaurants. That said, they still experience lines, but this time clients aren’t standing in the sun waiting for their food.

Even better, if they arrive early enough, they can sit in the dappled sunshine to eat.

Beginning as a food truck in 2012, Seis expanded in 2014 and continues to offer more locations inspired by the six culinary regions of Mexico.

Here’s what our lunch looked like- and this is how I learned to be a foodie.

Before the food gets to the table, or at least certainly to anyone’s mouth, people leap up and take shots. Of course, your hot food may well have cooled off before you get to enjoy it, but it’s all part of the fun.

That last statement only refers to temperature. Hot food in Tucson is HOT no matter what temperature it’s served- which is heaven for anyone but this writer. That said I had no trouble finding terrific food that didn’t leave me breathing dragon fire.

Street food aficionados have high expectations for quick, fresh, lively and tasty food. What impresses me is how that commitment translates smoothly into the kitchens, which is why these restaurants continue to win awards.

Grab the cookies and run

A highly educational visit to the desert, which I will share elsewhere, resulted in an interest in the use of mesquite flour for cooking. That led to a discussion about cookies, which of course got everyone’s attention. The flour, which is ground-up mesquite beans inside their pods, tends to be sweet with a distinctive flavor.

Our group headed to the recently-relocated Flora’s Market Run, which had moved into the old Rincon in historic Sam Hughes. The big, sprawling space is famous for its wood-fired pizzas and charcuterie.

This time my focus was on cookies. When I walked into the next-door bakery and market, they only had three boxes of mesquite cookies left. Our hosts had spoken of them in such hushed terms that I snapped up all three and handed them out at our table, just in case another diner got the same idea.

In that case I might have tripped them. By mistake, of course.

The general consensus was that these cookies are worthy of the rep. The mesquite flour lends the treats a molasses-y flavor, blending beautifully with the brown sugar and pecans and rich butter.

Great coffee and a hearty breakfast steeped in history

Sometimes a place is so distinctive that the trappings themselves lend flavor to your meal. This was the case for the Cup Cafe in the historic Congress Hotel. I’m always delighted when someone is thoughtful enough to retain much of what makes a place unique.

As you walk through the lobby towards the Cup Cafe, you are plunged back in time. Here, this historic hotel (built in 1919), once housed dangerous villains including John Dillinger. More than a few shifty card players lost there lives here, and you almost want to duck out of the way of a stray bullet from a six-shooter if you hear a loud bang.

The owners have kept the rich, dark wood and the iconic photos which tell the story of the place. Even if the food wasn’t terrific it would be worth the trip for the purpose of the history, but the breakfasts here are as legendary as the legends who passed through or got captured here.

This is an example of one of the egg dishes, and the crisp-skinned potatoes which accompanied it:

I have a special place in my heart for developers who value historic places. We are far too swift to raze our history in favor of brand-shiny-new. The Congress is a wonderful example of how to offer a unique dining experience in a time capsule from the American West, and live to happily tell the tale many times over.

Dillinger didn’t, but you and I can.

And finally, that salad

Even though I was with a bunch of dedicated foodies, and even though I had by then learned to take photos of my food before inhaling it, this time I let my tongue get away from me.

So no photo of the salad, just a fond memory.

As an athlete, my priorities around food are usually as fuel, so this entire trip, centered as it was so often around the taste buds, was a bit overwhelming. I’d tried hard to discipline myself (good luck, right?) and hadn’t done a very good job.

So on one of our last meals together, I made one last dedicated effort to eat well.

Okay, I’d eaten WELL, just a great deal of well, if you get my drift.

Our final lunch stop was at Zio Peppe, or Uncle Joe in Italian. That’s another way of saying your “fun uncle’s” pizza place. A lively combination of Italian and Southwest flavors are prepped by a chef with the most perfect Santa beard ever, Devon Sanner, and his partner chef, Mat Cable.

In fact, Cable’s uncle, Joe Sottosanti, opened Tucson’s first Sicilian pizza place, Tesseo’s Pizzeria, nearly 50 years ago, so the restaurant continues the tradition.

Zio Peppe is the perfect example of how the culinary traditions of this area have evolved. All that landed in what I had: roasted broccoli (garlic, lemon and parmigiano cheese) and the mesclun salad (mixed greens, pecorino, seasonal fruit, Green Valley pecans, honey lemon citronette).

Our table had ordered a selection of the sides, but I was able to score most of the broccoli on my end.

Inhale is a better word.

Then, the salad. Let me just say that with the first bite I was hooked, and the salad followed the broccoli so swiftly that it was hard to really enjoy probably the most lovely salad dressing ever.

So one more lesson for this budding foodie:

Slow down.

These lovely places and many more like them will be around for a long time. In the time-honored tradition that is Tucson food, there will be more melding and shaping of tastes and styles over time. Meanwhile, even if you’re not a dedicated foodie, you are likely to be tempted to become one.

And one more thing: take the time to notice the art that is everywhere, not just on your plate:

Thanks for spending a few lighthearted moments with me. I hope you got a bang out of the journey through a few delicious eateries in Tucson. If so please consider hanging out with me some more:

If you know someone who can use a little inspiration to get out and about please also consider

Either way, thanks for your time! I hope you circle back around my way.