Sunday, November 16, 2008

Recently, on borderbeat.net, the fall 2008 restaurant guide was made live. I went through past borderbeat.net stories, to see what has been already been covered; I found reviews by the local Tucson papers (The Arizona Daily Star, The Tucson Citizen and The Tucson Weekly) and made created a list of the reviews with their contact information.

With living in Tucson for 23 years, I have eaten at the majority of all of the restaurants in town: the good, the bad and the awesome. I’m picky when it comes to my food, but even picker when it comes to Mexican food. Below are a few of my favorite Mexican restaurants:

  • Last spring, when I was an intern at the Arizona Legislature, I came home for a weekend and wanted some really good Mexican food; we went to Mi Nidito (at 813 S 4th Ave, Tucson) and waited for almost 2 hours for our table. The food and service were amazing. I’m a huge fan of cheese enchiladas and they were to die for. They are home to the world famous Chile Relleno.Former President Bill Clinton (he even has a item on the menu named after him), Enrique Iglesias, Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and Willie Nelson are just a few who have eaten at this Tucson restaurant.
  • To celebrate a friends birthday last year, we ventured off to La Fuente (1749 N. Oracle Road.) for dinner. I wasn’t really impressed with the food, but guacamole that was prepared at our table was pretty good, and I’m not a fan of guacamole. The entertainment at La Fuente was great! Throughout the week, they have live mariachi music for the guests to enjoy. Since it was my friend’s birthday, they played ¡Feliz cumpleaños!Just for her and for the rest of the night, she even wore a pink sombrero.
  • While working on The Chimichanga: A Delicious American Mystery project with Chris Reed, I remembered how amazing the food and service was at El Charro Café. While working on this project, I learned that at the downtown location (which was Monica’s home) was where the burrito was “accidently” dropped into the pot of boiling water and the rest is pretty much history. There are five locations in Tucson and each offers the same, traditional food with the same great, family service.
Check out this video of the mariachi music at La Fuente!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Something different: St. Andrew's Clinic

On the first Thursday of every month volunteers from all over the country gather at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Nogales, Ariz. and once there the church is transformed into St. Andrew’s Clinic. It is not the typical medical clinic that you would see in the states, but this clinic is filled with love and true compassion.


Retired doctors, nurses, interpreters, spouses, and friends/co-workers of (former) volunteers take time out of their schedules to make the lives of children better. According to the clinic website, in 2007:While waiting for the child’s name to be called snacks (coffee, fresh fruit, nachos) are made available to the patients and their parents. In the back of the main waiting room, an arts and crafts table has been set up for the children. Children have the option of playing homemade play dough, to water colors, to working with puzzles, board games and building blocks. Linda Pantoja, 68, a volunteer from Green Valley, Ariz. told me that the children enjoy playing play dough and especially with the water colors.

According to the website St. Andrew's Children's Clinic is a 501(c)(3) nondenominational, nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide free medical treatment for disabled children of impoverished parents from Mexico, using medical and lay volunteers from both sides of the border”.

The clinic relies on donations to continue their work. Throughout the years, they have made connections with various hospitals (Shrine & Shriners Hospitals and Spokane Hospital) to provide surgeries for the patients.

Watch the following video's to get an idea of what St. Andrew's Clinic has to offer:

1.

2.

3.

The trip down to St. Andrew's Children's Clinic was amazing. Words can not describe how powerful this trip was.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

In 2004 my grandfather passed away after a long battle with cancer. Every year on All Souls Day (November 2), my mom and I go and visit a little shrine in downtown Tucson, called El Tiradito to light candles for loved ones who have passed away.

I am a frequent visitor to the shrine, especially on his birthday.

To honor our loved ones at El Tiradito, we purchased 8, 15 oz. white generic prayer candles or 7 day candles (which burn for 7 days, hence the name), which we bought at Wal-Mart for $1

In an earlier blog, a classmate of mine, Emma Keilbey, explained the history of El Tiradito.

While at El Tiradito, I noticed that there were little notes (possibly prayers) that have been placed in the cracks of the altar. There have been names craved into the altar and photos have been placed on the altar.


















Here are some fun facts about All Souls Day:

  • Marigolds are the official flower for All Souls Day
  • Versions of All Souls Day are celebrated all across the world (Brazil, Spain and the Philippines)
  • On November 1 and 2 families of the deceased will go to the cemetery and clean and decorate the graves with either toys, tequila, food and possibly
  • The Arizona Daily Star has produced an interactive site that shares information about the holiday, local traditions, the altar, and why personal items are shared on the altar. The
  • The Arizona Daily Star also has a video that the Ramirez family and why they celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Very informative and interesting
A very interesting and informative article about Dia de los Muertos written by Carmen Duarte. This article goes along with the video.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

With living in Tucson, finding Mexican groceries is relativity easy. Most grocery stores have an isle dedicated international food – whether that may be spices from the orient, tortillas, and salsa!

I took a trip to Fry’s Food Stores in Oro Valley and wanted to see the different varieties of the Mexican foods – I found tortillas, salsa, spices, beans, and items to make tamales and anything else that could help you to create that prefect dish.

One thing that surprised me is that all of the Mexican foods were together on one isle. But I did find the supplies and ingredients for tamale's were in the produce department.

All of the prices at Fry’s are very reasonable – a pack of 10” Mission Burrito Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas were only $3.99 a pack of 36 Yellow Corn Tortillas are only $2.49.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that we always have salsa but I forgot to mention that we always have tortillas due to the popularity of quesadillas and enchiladas.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

something new....

This week, I wanted to try something new with my blog this week by adding audio.

Listen to my first "podcast"

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I am sad to report that I couldn't find a video of the "tuba" dance from an Arizona football game. But there is a facebook group on the tuba dance -The UA tuba dance is the best part of football season!

Here are some links to the halftime performers from the football game:

Sunday, October 12, 2008

holidays

With any country, holidays play an important part in shaping who the society is.

In America, we have the traditional, national holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Fourth of July) which equal a day off work and school for some and then we have those holidays that do not grant a day off of work or school but we celebrate those holidays just for fun (Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and April Fools Day).

In Mexico, holidays are broken up into three different categories: Statutory, Civic and Festivities.

Statutory holidays – are approved federal holidays from the government and the employees are entitled to a day off of work.
  • January 1st – celebration of the New Year
  • February 5th - Constitucion Day - On February 5th, 1917, the Mexican Constitution was approved.
  • March 21st – celebrates the birth of former Mexican president Benito Juarez
Civic holidays – are used to celebrate an important dates in Mexican history. An employee is guaranteed a day off from work.
  • February 24 – celebrates the creation of the Mexican flag
  • May 8 - celebrates the birth of Miguel Hildalgo y Costilla who was the founder of the Mexican war for independence
  • June 1 - celebrates the history of the Mexican Navy
Festivities holidays – are used to celebrate important religious holidays:
One really cool thing about Mexican holidays is they are always celebrated with fireworks!

Every year in Tucson, there is the annual All Souls Procession. Take a look at this clip on how the Mexican holiday has been brought to Tucson.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

burritos

This week, I was going to talk about traditional Mexican clothing, but I feel that I should talk about burritos instead! This upcoming Wednesday our first special project is due – I was going to cover a burrito tour: Tucson style.

Just about on every street corner there is some sort of fast food Mexican restaurant: Nico’s, Los Betos, Viva Burritos are some of the most popular fast food Mexican restaurants in Tucson.

I wanted to find out what made the burritos so unique, who are their main competitors: are they the other local fast food chains or are they the big national chains (On the Border, Macayos, Rubio’s, and Chipotle). But the some of the local (fast food) restaurants would not return my phone calls or if I went to the establishment looking for the manager/owner they were either busy to talk or would have disappeared and I would constantly hear “they will return later”.

I left countless messages and only after I changed my special project topic of my special project and only two phone calls were return
ed.

I was lucky enough to meet with Mike Hultquist, the owner of Lerua’s Fine Mexican Food. Lerua’s has been a Tucson favorite since 1922. They have been in the same location since 1941, at 2005 E. Broadway Blvd. Lerua’s is very well known for their green corn tamales.

Lerua’s does not sell burritos but they do sell burros. All burros are made with a 16” tortilla and once completed the burro weighs
close to ½ pound (8 ounces) depending on the filler.

There are 14 different burros on the menu. They range from the kid favorite Bean and Cheese burro to the Carne Asada burro. It can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to make a burro depending on the filler. For example, the chorizo that is used for the Chorizo and Egg burro is frozen until the order is placed. The Chorizo and Egg burro costs $5.75. Although, Lerua’s does not sell the college student favorite: breakfast burrito. But they do have a substitute for the breakfast burrito and that is the Chorizo and Egg burro.


Lerua’s is open approximately 300 days a year, but Hultquist does not know how many burros are sold in a year. But on October 2nd, Lerua’s sold 33 burros. The clientele at Lerua’s is varied from long time patrons to University of Arizona students. One thing that stands out about Lerua’s is the service. The employees at Lerua's are very welcoming, nice and will even take orders out to the car for some patrons.

Before I left Lerua’s, I made sure that I purchased one dozen green corn tamales and a bean burro. The burro was amazing and so were the tamales!

But watch this video on how to make a bean burro!