If you deep fry a burro, it becomes a chimichanga -- a truly local dish from southern Arizona or northern Sonora. There are many legends concerning the origin of the chimichanga its apparently meaningless name some folks insist it's a chivichanga. I don't know which, if any, might be the truth I'd honestly rather eat the things than argue about their origin.
Finally, a crisp, flat flour tortilla with something on top of it becomes a tostada, just as a corn tortilla does. Often topped with melted cheese, they are called "cheese crisps" in English, and even, Heaven help us, "Mexican pizzas! That just about exhausts the possibilities of the tortilla, to whatever extent it is possible to categorize and circumscribe such a versatile folk food. It's time to move on to Father Kino's other great introduction to our region -- beef.
Sonora and southern Arizona are truly beef country, and the traditional Mexican diet to this day includes a lot of beef. You can cook your beef over a grill, and it becomes carne asada.
It is even said that a high Mexican government official in the s described Sonora as the place "where civilization ends and carne asada begins.
You can cook it with green chile too, but that isn't as popular here as it is in New Mexico. If you cut your beef into thin strips, dry it, shre d it, and cook it up with chiles, onions, garlic and some tomatoes, you have machaca, a wonderful dish also called carne seca or "dry meat.
Sonoran ranch families traditionally use every part of the beef critter except perhaps the moo. The head can be cooked and turned into wonderful taco filling, and the marrow guts or tripas de leche , are slowly grilled as a wonderful picnic treat. And the tripe and sometimes the feet are prepared in a kind of a stew along with hominy.
This is called menudo, and merits a paragraph all to itself. There are no halfway measures about menudo -- folks either like it or they don't. Menudo is typically served for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday, and many restaurants will only prepare it on those days. It is a wonderful, hearty dish, especially after you add cilantro, bits of chile, and perhaps some lemon juice to it, and accompany it with a toasted and buttered split Mexican roll.
Although menudo in Arizona and Sonora is traditionally a whiteish color, Texans prefer to cook it with some red chile, chang ing the color to a deep red. Many restaurants serve both kinds. Menudo has considerable reputation as a sovereign hangover cure, and is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "breakfast of champions. Mention of menudo leads us into the wonderful topic of Sonoran soups. These household staples have only recently started appearing in many restaurants, but they are well worth seeking out.
Called caldos or sopas in Spanish, there are several popular kinds, each capable of being given a slightly different turn of flavor by whatever cook is assembling it. Try them all -- they're wonderful. Now for a few important entries that don't fit so easily into the framework I've been using. Tamales are a truly ancient food in Mexico -- they were being made and eaten in great variety long before Columbus ever crossed the ocean blue and ran into places he didn't know existed.
Tamales, quite simply, are some sort of doughy mixture, usually based on corn, that have been wrapped in corn husks or leaves and steamed.
They vary from one end of Mexico to the other. In the southern state of Oaxaca, for example , they're wrapped in banana leaves; in coastal areas, they can be filled with seafood.
Here in Tucson, many tamales are filled with These are the tamales that are made in huge quantities in so many homes at Christmas time, and are often called "red tamales. But there's another kind of tamal that's made at a completely different time of year. This is the green corn read "fresh corn" tamal , consisting of ground fresh white corn, with some cheese mixed into the masa, and perhaps a bit of green chile laid down the center.
They are wrapped in the fresh shucks and steamed Don't forget that last part -- it's the most fun of all. Mexican bakeries and there are several in Tucson give us another bit of Mexico's history, served up and ready to eat. If tamales remind us of Mexico's Indian heritage, baked goods let us know that Europe is an important part of the equation as well. A legacy of Spain and perhaps of 19th-Century France as well , the bakeries produce a wonderful, traditional variety of breads and cookies.
Each dish at Little Mexico is made from a family recipe, including tamales, chile rellenos , chile con carne, chorizo, and even the salsa. And of course, the dishes are made fresh daily.
Not only is the family heavily involved in food creation, but most of the employees are also Palomarez and Estrada relatives. Little Mexico runs a sister business on Valencia — Little Mexico Steakhouse — which also offers Mexican dishes, in addition to mesquite grilled steaks. For more information, visit littlemexico-tucson. In , the family behind Mariscos Chihuahua opened a small mariscos — Spanish for seafood — stand in Nogales.
The stand eventually turned into a full-service restaurant in Among the many seafood dishes and cocktails offered, Mariscos Chihuahua offers octopus, shrimp, marlin, oysters, scallops, sea snails, and calamari. For more information, visit mariscoschihuahua. For more information, visit michascatering. Mi Nidito — Spanish for my little nest — has been serving Mexican food since The family-owned restaurant, opened by Sonoran couple Ernesto and Alicia Lopez, is now into its third generation.
If you know anything about Mi Nidito, you know former President Bill Clinton visited the restaurant in For more information, visit minidito. The restaurant is sandwiched in a tiny strip mall slightly across from El Merendero. The building may be easy to miss, but the food is definitely worth the search.
For more information, visit perfectosrestaurant. The large menu features breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including tacos, burros, fajitas, enchiladas, taco salads, and ten different styles of chimichangas.
Take a seat at the front counter of Apson and watch the cooks prepare your order, or better yet, smell the delicious costillas — Spanish for ribs — cooking on the open grill.
For more information, visit tacosapson. Taqueria Porfis — home of the potato taco. Porfis began in in Nogales, Mexico with a single taco stand. The taco stand soon turned into two restaurants — one in Tucson, and one in Nogales. Stuffed with potatoes, carne seca, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream, the tacos are inexpensive and delicious. Search results are sorted by a combination of factors to give you a set of choices in response to your search criteria. These factors are similar to those you might use to determine which business to select from a local Yellow Pages directory, including proximity to where you are searching, expertise in the specific services or products you need, and comprehensive business information to help evaluate a business's suitability for you.
YP advertisers receive higher placement in the default ordering of search results and may appear in sponsored listings on the top, side, or bottom of the search results page. From Business: Calle Tepa, is a fast-casual Mexican outpost with a street-style twist. From Business: Pollo Feliz functions as a leader in quick-serve restaurants across Mexico operating more than restaurants.
Its menu features a variety of chicken, specials,….
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