The best place to eat Mexican food outside Mexico

Tuscon’s lifeblood is still the surrounding Sonoran desert. More than 5000 years ago, the Tohono O’odham nation cultivated crops on the fertile floodplain and planted today’s rich culinary traditions.

Roll out the barrels – Los Milics winery near Tucson, Arizona.Credit: Tim Bond

Seed collectors, bakers, chefs, gardeners, and winemakers helped Tucson receive the UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation in 2015, highlighting its culinary distinctiveness.

The sprawling city boasts the “best 23 miles of Mexican food” in the country, so I begin at the source.

Mission Garden’s Kendall Kroesen proudly tells me the living museum’s volunteers preserve (and sometimes resurrect) the agricultural history of one of the world’s most diverse deserts.

“Many of the pomegranates, quince, fig and grapes growing here could be clones of the first fruits, vegetables and grains brought by the Spanish missionaries across the Atlantic in the 16th century,” he says. Also among the fruits of the Sonoran are mesquite and chiltepin chiles.

Next, he introduces me to the first people’s “Three Sisters” – corn, beans, and squash. We spot a roadrunner, but alas, no wily coyote in hot pursuit. But coyotes, raccoons and even bobcats have scaled the adobe walls at night, hungry for the resident chickens.

When Don Guerra first baked artisan loaves from his garage in 2009, he had his “aha moment”. With a grant to grow White Sonoran wheat and Chapalote corn, his business and artisan food got its foothold in Tucson. “Today, I can source 300,000 pounds of Arizona-grown grain annually.”

Humbly, the James Beard award-winner [these celebrate culinary leaders and have been dubbed “the Oscars of the culinary world] says, “It’s all about creating sustainable food systems in the community, supporting small-scale farmers and preserving what was here of the past to ensure the future. Sourcing mesquite flour from marginalised, indigenous farmers at San Xavier Co-op Farm is good for the entire community.”

Arms laden with still-warm loaves, we begin our “greatest hits tour” to taste the family-owned, nowhere-but-Tucson culinary classics, places where facades might be weather-beaten but that’s because they concentrate on the food, rather than the decor.

First stop is El Guero Canelo. More than 30 years ago, Daniel Contreras brought Sonoran hot dogs to Tucson. Bacon-wrapped dogs, top-loaded with pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, grilled onions, and jalapeno salsa, are striped with mayo and mustard in a bolillo bun.

The unique Sonoran hot dog from El Guero Canelo.Credit: Tim Bond

According to Rollies Mexican Patio owner/chef Mateo Otero, “Tucson doesn’t have a story without Mexican food”. Hungry Tusconans queue for his childhood favourite – rolled chicken, potato or beef tacos with queso sauce, Rojo broth, cotija cheese and green onion.

When summer days regularly reach 40 degrees, Tusconans reach for an icy raspado. Oasis Fruit Cones serves this shaved ice treat topped with fresh fruit and syrups with or without ice-cream. Hot tip: add condensed milk.

La Estrella Bakery has kept Tusconans sweet for more than four decades; their traditional Mexican pan dulce, pastries, cookies, and tortillas are legendary.

Best known for live music and great drinks across its multiple venues, the 105-year-old Hotel Congress is always a party. Bank robber John Dillinger was captured here in 1934, and the property still combines rakish old-school details with south-west colour. A tasty creole breakfast of eggs, local chorizo, breakfast potatoes and biscuits with gravy could happily feed three.

Arizona, to most people, means desert and saguaro cactus. But in an elevated pocket south of Tuscon, fearless winemakers are making sure Arizona wine is no longer a novelty.

At Los Milics’ tasting room entrance, seven-metre weathered-steel monoliths trigger a 2001: A Space Odyssey flashback. Architects Chen + Suchart Studio set the minimalist box mid-vineyard for maximum impact. Glass walls open to rows of graciano and tempranillo grapes, challenging the nearby Mustang Mountains for attention. Sipping vermentino and grenache while dining on delicious bites is officially my Arizona moment.

Todd Bostock at Dos Cabezas.

Todd and Kelly Bostock offer something altogether different at Dos Cabezas. Lovingly made pizza with local borderland ingredients was the answer to getting more people to their Sonoita wine room, post-pandemic. Todd pours and says, “it’s hard to get people to take the risk on a bottle of wine. Here, we’re adding something new to the conversation by the glass, like making canned sparkling pink with riesling, grenache and tempranillo. If you grow wine in Arizona, then you figure out what works. You can wash away all the rules.″⁣

THE DETAILS

STAY
The Leo Kent Hotel is Tuscan’s newest hotel, with rooms from $US245 ($375) a night. South Church Avenue, Tucson. See marriott.com/en-us

EAT
Tito and Pep is a contemporary, mesquite-fired bistro on East Speedway Boulevard. See titoandpep.com

Zio Peppe is a fun neighbourhood spot fusing traditional Italian and Mexican cuisines on East Tanque Verde Road. See ziopeppeaz.com

The writer was a guest of Visit Tucson (visittucson.org) and Visit Arizona (visitarizona.com).