The Tucson Homeskillet Reviews: Crispy's Fish n' Chips (but it's the tacos that are the star here)

When I first moved to Tucson in 2006 from San Francisco, I was quite pleased to find that a decent sandwich shop was right down the street. Called The Daggwood Cafe, it served up all kinds of fresh ideas served between bread and I was a regular customer for a while.

 Then, one day, I called to place an order and the phone just rang and rang. Thinking that perhaps they were so busy that day that their line was just too jacked up from incoming calls, or...something of that nature, I decided to just go down there, place my order and wait it out just like any other lunchtime having shmoe.

But when I arrived, at like 1pm on a Wednesday, the doors were closed. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the doors were not only closed, they were locked. Big chains and a mighty padlock bound the entrance from anyone coming in. Then I saw it; a sign reporting that the establishment is now under city rule for various infringements and would be dark until further notice.

Crap. I was really looking forward to that Jamaican jerk turkey sandwich. Oh well.

Gone, but not...well, kind of forgotten.

Several months later, just a random driving home, I was pleased to see that the Daggwood was open again. Yay. Oh sandwich bliss. So the next day I ordered that jerk sandwich (that sounds mean seeing as it was a really tasty treat) and was happy to have the olde neighborhood lunch spot back open again.

But, uh, this gastro-happiness didn't last long. Just a week or so later the doors were closed again. C'mon guys, get your stuff in order here. And they remained closed for a long time. Just a hollow shell of a sandwich joint next to a laundromat and dive bar reminding us all of tasty vittles from the recent past. 

About a year later, there was activity in the old Daggwood's. A ladder was spotted by the front door, a large grill was sitting on the patio, the inside was turned around and a makeshift sign was up: 

Taco Loco, it said. 

Now, in the neighborhood of Ft. Lowell and 1st Ave, opening up a taco place is really risky. There were decent taco stands in various nearby locations, Food City and La Botana was just across the street and a BK (not Burger King for those outside of the 520 area code, BK is one of the premiere Mexican food depots in the city and boasts the best Sonoran hot dog competing with El Guero Canelo for the top spot in that category and the feud rages on!) but a few blocks away. Another taco stand just seemed like white noise. 

But Taco Loco had an edge. They promised to deliver tacos to your face. Okay then. We might have a winner. It took them a while (like a really long while, Taco Loco stood unopened for what seemed an eternity) but when they finally opened their doors, we were the first to call and have Mexican food delivered. 

The result? Not bad. Pretty good actually. The first time we ordered it seemed as if they weren't ready for the amount of business they would get. The girl on the phone sounded confused, the order took longer than promised and the food itself tasted rushed. A couple days later I order again and things seemed to fall into place. Delivery was on time and the tacos and burritos were made with care and the flavors had stepped it up a few notches. 

Then, disaster struck.  There was a shooting in their parking lot and they were forced to close their doors, again!, for a bit. But once the smoke cleared, the doors stayed closed. I didn't understand. Reading the story online, it sounded like the shooting just happened to take place in that parking area for them, the laundromat and the bar and the businesses weren't involved at all. So why aren't they opening up again? Why is this location cursed with places that can't keep it together?

The Taco Loco sign came down one day and a new one took its stead. 

Crispy's Fish n Chips it said!

My favorite kind of menu: simple, awesome and cheap...

Fish and chips? In this neighborhood? Again, they would be competing with the adjacent Boondocks Lounge because on Fridays they have a fish fry that would rival any chip shop here in the states or in the UK. So freakin' good. But you never know. 

I actually had a chance to chat with the owner, Mario, who was in business with his son, Amer, who told me the shooting was only a sad coincidence because they were contemplating, almost from the beginning of Taco Loco, to re-open as a fish and chips spot. In a city wrought with tacos but naught with pub style fish n' chips, it just seemed wise to utilize all of their fryers and make do with a new concept, especially in midtown Tucson. 

So, as always, like all of the other eateries in this location, we were one of the first in line to try Crispy's Fish-n-Chips and were delighted upon first bite. 

Huge chicken tenders with a spicy BBQ sauce...

Just like with Taco Loco, our first visit wasn't the greatest. The food was, well...fine, but not great. The service was...okay, again not ready for the rush of business they were getting almost immediately. We then decided to give it another week or so and we'd try again.

A basket of deep fried amazing? Yes please...

Just like in the past, it took them a spell to get the creaks out and the map memorized. They were hitting a good stride. The seasoning was less heavy handed and the timing on the fryers were near perfect. 

We ordered their namesake, a four piece cod with fries and coleslaw. Let me tell you, the flavor and texture took me back to a place in San Francisco called the Edinburgh Castle, which was/is a large European style pub that served up Scottish influenced fish and chips nestled in newspaper and cooked by staff from that region. So crazy delicious that on any night you could find locally famous, and even nationally famous, chefs and critics sipping a pint and grubbing down on their incredible fare.

This was as close to that as possible.

Tucson, you have a competitor for the best fish tacos in town...

Then the real trouble started. One night we decided to order a round of fish and shrimp tacos, just to try them. We had been tipping a few back at our friend's pub down the way and didn't feel like cooking.

When we finally got home and dove in, all we could do was low mumble satisfied "Mmmm"'s. They were mad tasty. Cooked to perfection, served with a tangy crema, cabbage and topped with fresh made pico de gallo. Unreal.

Shrimp tacos all day long kid!

Crispy's, we thought at the time, shouldn't just be known for their fish n' chips, because their fish tacos were some of the best we've had, not just in Tucson, but anywhere. I mean Mr. Baja Fish 
and the seminal food truck Taco Fish bring the girth and the heat (did this blog just get filthy?) but Crispy's has a more delicate approach and you should seriously stop reading and go get some. 

No really. This silly website will still be here when you're done. Go!

Fried bits of perfection....

Okay. We are pretty much sold on this place. The fish and shrimp tacos took us to a happy food pasture. So then another night we get their hot wings. Once again, not disappointed. Wonderfully seasoned, a good spice temperature for the sauce and, like all of the other fare, fried perfectly. 

At this point we weren't missing Daggwood's at all and we were all "Taco Loco who?", but  we got nervous because we could see us getting a slight Crispy's addiction. As if a legal drug dealer is always waiting for you just a few blocks away with a "product" that rarely warrants any complaints and is readily available between 10:30am and 8:30pm everyday.

Get in my mouth you!

The chicken strips are about the size of a small child and could put a major fast food corporation out on their ear if they got word about their sheer power. They're not just chicken strips mind you....more like chicken runways or chicken malls. Combined with that spicy BBQ sauce they make on site, you got yourself a chicken strip riot on your hands.

Fill a kiddie pool with this stuff and call it a day...

Let's chat about the sides shall we? The coleslaw is fantastic. When they first opened it was a bit runny and kind of flavorless, but I'm sure a few bad Yelp laments and suggestions from patrons set them right because this stuff is picnic perfect. Crunchy greens and carrots in a zesty dressing make the fried miracles all the more savory. 

The potato salad is good too but not on the same level as the slaw here. Seems like the potato option is a backburner idea for a side while everything else is on point. 

Just sayin'...

Slaw me up man...

Crispy's also serves up fried mac n cheese which is always a pleasure to do business with. Their version is little nibs of the creamy carbs, perfect for the tykes and grandma since she thinks regular old mac n cheese is just "too suspicious!"

I haven't had hush puppies since my travels through the South but these tasty treats brought me back to food shacks in Louisiana and this truck stop in Texas. Soft bite size balls of bready goodness not really accustomed here to the surly southwest but these might make you think otherwise.

For some reason I am never really a fan of fried zucchini, unless its tempura style, because most places get it wrong. The outside is usually alright but then when you bite into it the veggie filling is all soggy and gross. Not here. Oh no, not by a long shot. I actually like the fried zucchini at Crispy's so cheers on making me a believer in the dish because no one else has. 

Then, of course, is my ultimate undoing (next to tater tots) and that would be the dreaded onion ring. This fried orbital of allium stuffed crisis makes me tingle like a stoned monkey arriving on Banana Island for the first time. To be blunt, I love onion rings. Next to Frankie's Cheesesteaks on Campbell, Crispy's has the best rings in town. Dear god they are good, dear god take them away from me. As if chubbo here isn't wide enough. 

Thank you Crispy's for your combo platter of deep fried enchantment. For when I die, please bury me in flour dredge and egg coating because on the other side, when they throw my celestial form onto the pyre in Valhalla, my Metal brethren will eat well and I can go in peace knowing that just down the street from where I used to live a small stand inspired me and kept me from going to the gym on a regular basis. 

Amen.

Yon landscape of 'oh hells yeah'...

Then, of course, came the final test of Crispy's virtue. I brought our cat, Lil Poundcake, a hush puppy from the steamy fried yum pile. 

Her response?

"Get that crap away from me! You think I wanna eat anything with 'puppy' in it's name? Man....you crazy!"

AKA: she loved it. 


Cheers!
 

Camera and Typing
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
End of August 2015

Metal Influence
Mastodon, "Leviathan"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sulY3bixDxI 

 

The Tucson Homeskillet pays tribue to Mukhi Singh

Photo courtesy of Tucson.com

(First off, just to note, all of the images in this tribute are from various sources and did not come from my camera. My interview and feature on Mukhi and his new restaurant was cut short upon his sudden death. So cheers to the Tucson Weekly, Arizona Daily Star and Google Images for providing me with some pictures. I don't make any money off of the Tucson Homeskillet, so if you come after me, all I can pay you with is a hearty shrug and a "Sorry". Thanks...)


 The first time I met Mukhi Singh was the first time I ate from the Twisted Tandoor truck. It was a Wednesday, early evening, late spring, in a dusty lot off of Ft. Lowell and Campbell Ave. There were other food trucks around but this particular one served up my favorite cuisine, regional Indian. Years ago, while still living in San Francisco, I had fallen in love with Indian food on a chilly day when I had very little pocket money and a voracious appetite. There was this place up the street from my apartment that had a all you can eat Indian buffet for only $5. Not really familiar with authentic Indian food at the time (like I said this was a long time ago) but heeding the call of my rumbling stomach, I walked in, loaded up a plate of steaming colorful food and took a bite. 

Immediately I was hooked. The complex flavors, the textures, the....everything! was so magical to me that I became a regular at that little Indian restaurant (what was it called...?) along with several others across the city. Moving to Tucson in 2006, I was lucky to find a few good Indian restaurants, but when I discovered the Twisted Tandoor, I knew I was in trouble. 

Mukhi greeted me with a big smile as he leaned out of the sliding glass window of his truck. I asked what I should order, he gave me a knowing nod and wink and said "I'll fix you something and you'll like it." It was a spicy beef curry dish with potatoes and lentils and it was incredible. Seeing as it wasn't busy that night, we struck up a conversation as I ate his savory food. 

He told me he and his wife moved to Tucson over a decade ago, started the truck in late 2012 and have been busy ever since. Having lived in India most of his life, Mukhi said he learned to cook by watching his mother in the kitchen and just walking around the busy streets of his hometown, Secunderabad, and studying the street food vendors there. Well, all that observation and practice sure paid off because my first dish from him was amazing. 

That started an almost obsession with the Twisted Tandoor, as I hunted him and his truck down across the arid plains of this funky hamlet of ours seeking out new flavors and dishes that Mukhi had created in such a small and sweaty space. Like I said, I was hooked.

Courtesy of Tucson Weekly

One particular evening, after ordering way too much food, I informed Mukhi that I had been a chef in the past for several years. Studying the long line of tickets he had clipped up over his roiling cooking area, he leaned out the window and asked "Do you want a job?" Seeing as I had recently made the switch from kitchen to library (long story, I'll explain later...) and was actually kind of missing cooking professionally, I lightly bobbed my head and said "Sure". We exchanged numbers and social media information but the job of cooking alongside Mukhi never actually came to fruition. 

But I was seriously considering helping him out on a few nights. Had it all planned out in my head: I'd work from 9-6 at the library, jam out to wherever the Twisted Tandoor was parked, help prep, cook and breakdown and then head home in time to watch bad TV with the wife. The wife, though, wasn't too thrilled with this idea and was relieved that the part time job did not come through. Not that she didn't like Mukhi or his food, far from it, but the idea of me coming home sweaty and stinking of curry was not her idea of a fun Friday or Saturday night. 

Oh well.

Courtesy of Tucson.com

Then one day I got a text. It was She-Ra, the wife in question, informing me that the Twisted Tandoor was mashing it up with my favorite pizza place, Vero Amore, for one night and serving up Indian inspired pizzas. This, my friends, caused a ruckus in not only my stomach, but my brain as well. How can two of my all time favorite eateries come together and create a fantastic collaboration of culinary profiles like this? I was floored. In fact, I didn't care about the "how", I was just thrilled about the "why". Why they decided to pair up for a night of Italian/Indian wizardry was like an early birthday/Xmas gift for me. 

At the time I didn't know this would be a regular event, so on that first night I ordered one each of the Indian pizzas. When I came to pick them up I was greeted by a wide grinning Mukhi, holding onto a frosty glass filled with beer, who shook my hand and asked what I had ordered. 

"Umm," I began. "One....each?"

"Of my pizzas?" he quizzed with a giggle. There were like six or seven of them.

"Uh. Yeah."

Mukhi just laughed and patted me on the shoulder. He was busy and had to get back to work. When my pizzas arrived ( to go mind you!) the bill came to $80, the most I had ever spent on pizzas. She-Ra just rolled her eyes. But I didn't care. The Indian inspired pizzas were glorious and I had leftovers for a week. 

Best $80 I had ever spent.

Soon after I had gotten word that the Twisted Tandoor was going brick and mortar. A location was set, somewhere out on Limberlost, and I was so excited that I could barely contain myself. 

Just a few months earlier I had re-started  my food blog, this one!, and turned it into a full blown dot com after a lengthy hiatus. Knowing that I had to do a feature on Mukhi and his new stand alone restaurant, I messaged him asking for an interview and photo shoot. He immediately said yes and that he would get back to me as soon as he could seeing as he and his family were very busy with not only the truck but the restaurant. 

I told him to take his time and we will keep in contact. 

On August 18th, 2015, I sent him a text asking about the restaurant. He, once again, was very gracious, but said the interview would have to wait because of time constraints. Then, sometime in the late afternoon of Friday the 21st, over the course of social media, I got the news that he had passed away. Wait...what? Apparently, just two hours before the opening of the Twisted Tandoor restaurant, he collapsed suddenly suffering from a massive heart attack. Mukhi was only 52. 

Shocked and saddened, I sent out a small tribute to him on Facebook. But that just didn't seem like enough. Sure, the Tucson Homeskillet is a fun food site, with snarky articles on rotten burritos and the like, but it is also a place for all things culinary here in Tucson, and Mukhi Singh was a huge part of that. 

He was always gracious to me, he always filled my to go containers with extra portions and a tasty surprise on the side, he freakin' offered me a job at one point and was a kind man. I wasn't close to Mukhi by any means, we never hung out beyond his truck or Vero Amore, but that didn't matter. From what I did know of him, and the food and smiles he provided, he seemed like an amazing spirit. 

For that, we at the Tucson Homeskillet want to thank you for all the good times, the fantastic cooking and the generosity you provided us over the years. 

Cheers Mukhi. The other side is eating really well right now...

Courtesy of Tucson.com

"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Late August, 2015


Metal Tribute
OM, "Thebes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM22W_stXG4 

Consuming More Garbage Food For Your Pleasure: Wacky Potato Chips and a Sandwich Stuffed with Uninspired Hatred

That's right. The Tucson Homeskillet crew is back in action and this time we ate a crap load of crap. Again. It's what we do. For your entertainment. And to feed our ridiculous cravings for even more ridiculous flavors that the corporate juggernaut keeps sending our way, we went full throttle this time. Four crazy potato chip flavors that only a drugged out Tourettes victim might imply as "tasty" and a sandwich that I know one did create.  I mean...who thinks up stuff like this? The question is, why do they keep doing stuff like this? 

Remember the 90s? Yeah. Well ,back then, due to the incline and demise of the fated "grunge" era, things were all about being extreme. Cartoons were more nutty and extreme, music, of course, was becoming splintered and extreme, but what I noticed most was the flavors, ideas and presentation of food was becoming the buzzword of the moment...extreme! Dips, tacos, hoagies, flan, coffee drinks and all things fast and junk food suddenly went 'extreme'. What did this mean? Not too sure. I was too busy trying to navigate random "dot com" jobs and discovering, well, extreme doom metal. But the label was everywhere. Thing is, when you purchased a bag of extreme Doritos, you were wont to find that it just had more of that infernal yet highly addictive nacho dust sprinkled on every triangle. Big deal? Does adding a tad more mulch on already crap munchables make it extreme? Screw you crazy corporate food wizard, locked in your tower of decadence filled with heavy pharmaceuticals and pots roiling with your infused power of giggling hate and crotch salt! You don't scare us. Not now....not ever. 

That it...until right now now. 

Lately the powers that be have thrust upon the shivering masses a line of potato chips so vile and bizarre that only we of the Tucson Homeskillet stomach pumpage can endure and appreciate...well, that and thousands of others out there that have Tweeted, Instagramed, Snapchatted and all around asked people "Dude, have you tried this?" about such edible nonsense. So we had a taste test recently and here are the results. 

Here's the thing. Because this one went a little long and beyond the stretch of our normal "just one item, like a foul burrito or horrifying pizza", I had to call upon the power of uncle James Hetfield (he's not really my uncle, he's just been around so long and that title has just stuck throughout the years....you understand) and the power of his infamous "YEAHs!" to aid in letting you know how we felt about the products. You get the picture, yeah? 

Okay. Here we go.

For those about to snack, we salute you.

We lined up the bags for all to try and discern with these four new and utterly fantastic/why God why? flavors: Biscuits and Gravy, Reuben Sandwich, Truffle Fries and Gyro. 

If you've kept up at all with what Lays potato chips have been up to, recently they have had 'contests' of who can come up with the craziest flavor profile and the winners will get their harrowing creations somehow made and produced.  Thing is how...HOW can the crazy corporate wizard recreate such flavors as a Reuben sandwich? Or Truffle fries? Truffle fries!? C'mon man. Sure, there are endless memes out there with folks making up their own un-doable flavors such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Tears of my Enemies (extra salty), Virginity and Everybody Forgot My Birthday, but these four bags are filled with straight up mystical science gone freaky pothead and we couldn't wait to actually see, and taste, what they were all about. 

First up, was this one:

Yeah. Let's do this. 

So on the first bite of this particular chip we got a strong sausage flavor and a weird creamy character right away. The follow up was a distinct buttery biscuit note that drove me back to long road trips traveling through the South and stopping in small diners to soak up the previous night's excesses. Strangely enough, I liked this chip. Because of the memory of early morning breakfasts in  small truck stops somewhere in Louisiana, the biscuits and gravy flavor made the top of the list. Some didn't like it...heck some even grimaced and spat when they put the crispy weirdness in their mouth. For me though, I kind of liked the combination of breakfast food meets late night snack while watching an endless parade of "Archer" episodes flavor combo. 

Still, how is this accomplished? How did the flavors of sausage and gravy get followed up by  a homemade biscuit? It freaked me out a little. No. A lot. Still. To this day.

Regardless, it was pretty tasty. 

With that, uncle James gives the biscuits and gravy potato chip a regaling:  

Next, came the Reuben:

As a certified deli fanatic and a worshiper of all things pastrami, I was really curious/horrified about trying this one out. The first bite was subtle; I didn't really get any "meat" taste until a few chews later. But then, ba-jango!, there it was. Not a huge cured deli meat sensation but there was a distinct hook of one. Whoa.

Then the real head scratching moment hit when I began to get hints of thousand island dressing. Holy Diver! How is this done?  Because of the Reuben flavored chip idea, I really wanted to be in the flavor lab to see what torturous combination of dusts, chemicals and fairy dung it took to make this happen. 

The Reuben chips, for me anyway, weren't as good as the Biscuits and Gravy (although most seemed to like this one better but...this is my food website so what I say goes!) but I did like it. 

Good thing I didn't get any twinges of sauerkraut because if you know me, you know how much I hate sauerkraut. Blecch. Like crappy cabbage gone bad from sitting in the toilet too long then you want to throw that junk on my sandwich? Aww, heeeeeeellz no. 

Anyway, with the help of ol' J. Hetfield, the Tucson Homeskillet gives the Reuben chips a hearty:

Third on the list was this business:

Now, I can dig on the notion of just straight truffles, but the addition of fries kinda threw me for a curve. Well, now that I think about it, I suppose the flavor of "truffle" on a potato chip is close enough to fries so... Wait, now I'm confused. Why not just call it truffle? But didn't I already ask that just a second ago? Am I saying this out loud? Jeeze. This has gone nowhere fast.

And what makes this "west coast"? Is this some kind of gang thing or is this chip supposed to induce images of beachfront frolic while afterwards your stuck on the I-10 for an hour when your exit is right there! It's right there! I can see it! Is that it? 

Don't know.

These chips were thicker and had the "wavy" thing going on, meaning they were, well...wavy. Anyway, I popped one in my mouth and crunched down. Immediately I was subjected to a distinct dirt flavor. Not like earthy and "truffle-y" sort of essence, but straight up dirt. Like I had dropped this chip in some soil, sort of brushed it off and then ate it. Right after the dirt came the fries. Sure, I was eating a fried potato product already so the idea of fries might almost come from just the suggestion that it might have fry extract but....no. I got fry flavor full frontal. It was traumatic. First dirt, then fry. Those wily alchemical sorcerers locked in their sick laboratory have somehow created a mess of dried mud followed by America's favorite side dish gone snack chip. At this point, I was sort of getting over it all and I wasn't a big fan of this combo of flavors. 

Because of the dirt notes and soggy fry twinge, uncle James is giving the Truffle Fries chips a shrugging:

And, finally, the last in line was this shuttering number:

(Note: I just noticed I have quoted RJ Dio twice in this piece but am using James Hatfield as my rating avatar. Hmm. It's late and these chemicals are staring to get to me...)

Okay. Gyro huh? So who is this James Wagner that suggested a meat slabbed Mediterranean sandwich for a grand idea of a potato chip? Maybe he is one of the federated necromancers chained to a stove and lab table lined with bubbling beakers who create such malformed snack intentions, high on PCP and watching endless loops of Teletubbies reruns. 

Perhaps. Because after the first bite of this one all I could taste was sour meat. It was pretty gross. Then, just like the first three, there was a subtle second flavor. This one wasn't as bad as fetid spit beef because it had hints of dill and cucumber; a twisted take on tzatziki of sorts. By this stage my mouth was contorting from the artificial roller coaster ride of  flavor devilry and the gyro taste just made me grouchy. Just to be sure, I took a second chip to keep fact that the suckage on this particular idea was clear and present. 

Yup. Balls. It tasted like noxious dead caveman balls. 

So, to salute the craptastic aura of repulsive gyro potato chips, my man James only has this to say:

Are we done here? Are we done with the potato chip taste off? Okay...good.

Wavy does not always equal "good"...

Here's the rub though. Yeah we were done with the four horsemen (Okay...I got a Metallica quote in here, now it sort of makes sense with Hetfield right? Yeah...didn't think so) of the potato chip apocalypse but we still had one more disastrous "food" idea to deal with. 

This time it didn't come in chip form, this one was served between bread and came courtesy of Eegees. 

We here in the 520 know all about Eegees. Its a local chain famous for their delicious icy treats that are a welcome breeze when it gets well into the 100s here. They also serve sandwiches, hot dogs, pretzels and, my personal favorite, loaded crinkle fries. Believe me, much much better than the truffle fries variety noted above. The loaded fries are greasy, drippy, stupid, bad for you but so so good late at night after a bender of 40 oz liquor swiggin' to fuel you up for further punishment and hopefully a nap. 

Not only does Eegees offer up a monthly flavor for their shaved ice refreshments but also a "limited time only" for some of their food items. This time around, they concocted something so ridiculous sounding that the Homeskillet taste testers just had to get a hold of it and see what all the commotion was about.

We give you...the flamin' hot Cheetos chicken sandwich:

Yup. You can just see the middle finger in that sub roll...

Umm...yeah. Why not? A chicken sandwich topped with flamin' hot Cheetos. There has to be something to this right? There has to be an angle. You can't just fill a sandwich full of spicy cheese droppings and call it a "special"? Can you?

What Eegees promises with their "Flamin' Hot Chicken Sub" is this: Chicken breast served between a sub roll, paired with bacon, jalapeno cream cheese, buffalo ranch, your choice of cheese and stuffed with the flamin' hot variety of Cheetos. It sounded so nauseating that we just had to do it. 

Here is what we got:

Note: actual size of terror

Eegees delivered on their promise of chicken, tangy ranch, jalapeno cream cheese, (we picked) provolone and the Cheetos but...the question is why? WHY are flamin' hot Cheetos on this sandwich? The spicy ranch and peppery cream cheese alone was fine, I guess, but to add red hot Cheetos as well? I didn't get it. 

The first bite was like all of the others that followed: it was a chicken sandwich topped with flamin' hot Cheetos. They added nothing, nothing!, to the sandwich other than the fact that the poor thing was rammed tight with frikkin' spicy Cheetos. What, did the Eegees CEO (probably one of those culinary drug slob prestidigitarians I keep mentioning) just approach Jeff, a stoned and zitty cashier, one day and go "Hey man, we need a new idea for a sandwich. Any ideas?" 

At this point, Jeff, who was daydreaming about being the third member of the Insane Clown Posse, just started word vomiting some of his favorite things to "cold munch on" when he is higher than Jesus on planet Helium.

"Uh. Um," he probably drooled. "Chicken. Ranch. Cheese. And, uh...those flamin' hot Cheetos. Yeah. Can I take my break now?"

This sandwich made no sense because it made perfect sense. Not too sure what we were expecting, but when Chester Cheetah takes a big dump on a chicken sandwich after a night of consuming habanero poppers stuffed with demon squirt this is exactly what it tastes like. Mournful, salty, strangely addictive and downright spite loaded, the flamin' hot Cheetos chicken sandwich is lucky to be just a limited time offer. Because if this thing were to be a permanent menu item, Tucson would suddenly explode into a grizzly sea of hate mongering sandwich zombies and begin to shove hot coals up our rectums just so we could "feel something" due to the emotional soul suck that this death hoagie bestowed upon the masses. Just say no here kids!

Thank you Eegees. I'll send you the bill for our therapy and bathroom tissue stock pile that we're gonna need after eating that glob tube of harassment. 

You're welcome.

Like gazing into the depths of Hades if it were sponsored by Frito-Lay...

And so, on that note, which ended on a rather bad one, all we at the Tucson Homeskillet, along with grandpappy Jimmy here, have to say about the Flamin' Hot Chicken sandwich is a simple and expected old school salute:

Cheers!


Camera and Typing
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Mid August, 2015


Metal Influence
Metallica, "Jump In The Fire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ll1-yV8YSw

QQ Sushi: A Moveable Feast...Literally!

So I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you a story. I'll try to be brief even though it's quite a lengthy tale.

She-Ra, my wife, and I met when I was still living in San Francisco. My day job was bartending near Fisherman's Wharf and I was her, and her friend's visiting from Arizona for a few days, bartender. According to her, I was the worst bartender ever and in two days we were engaged. 

Unfortunately, she had to go back to Tucson but she did come and visit for a week before I made the decision to drop everything and move to where she was, which was here in Tucson. During that week visit, on a walking tour of the city, we stopped into a sushi place, a style that she had never seen before and I had been to a handful of times. It was a "rotating" sushi restaurant, or a "sushi boat", which meant that rolls, appetizers and nigiri sat on different colored plates that floated on a steady stream of water, like a food armada, and the color of the plate indicated how much you would be paying. For example, if you grabbed a roll on a red plate, that meant you paid $3 for it, or a blue plate was $5, stuff like that. It was at this place that we realized that not only were we meant for each other but we both harbored a deep love for good sushi.  Well, food in general.

Now lets cut to ten years later and a sushi boat restaurant opens up near the university. Called QQ Sushi, it has the promise of being the first, if not the only, revolving or rotating sushi joints in town. Feeling nostalgic and, like always, hungry, we saddled up on a warm weekday afternoon and decided to check it out. 

The first thing we were hit with once we entered, was the scale of the place. It was pretty big; slightly cavernous and very very clean. The stainless steel that snaked around the tables and booths were wiped to a military regime shine. On these polished metal counters slithered a conveyor belt train that moved seamless throughout the wide open space. 

Ah HA!, I thought. This is the reason we came here. Cool man. Sure it was bigger than most of the sushi boat restaurants I had been to, a lot bigger, but the idea of having little plates of sushi float up to you table made me...

Wait. I didn't see any mini trays of rolled fish skimming on water. In fact, I didn't see any water. Come to think of it...there wasn't even any sushi at all! 


What we did see was this:

That's right. Laminated cards with images and descriptions of the food, moving around the seats in a weird jangly motorized dance. Immediately we were a bit disappointed, unable to recreate the first time we had sushi together in a cramped sushi boat joint near Chinatown...because there were no boats. 

Then what's the point of having a "revolving" or "rotating" sushi restaurant where there isn't any sushi that's revolving or rotating around you? 

Laminated placards on stands? This is odd. I mean...what's the deal here?

Okay...but where's the actual Tiger Roll?

Looks good. Just no real Ninja Roll.

I'll take, uh...well, nevermind.

Okay. Maybe we were getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Sure, this is Tucson, in the summer!, so maybe having lil tug boats of fresh fish and seaweed navigating on tepid water isn't the best idea. Especially in a room as big as this one. So, why the flowing belt design then? Is this like a "gimmick"? We were kind of confused but we took a seat regardless. 

Here's the thing: we were the only ones here at the time. Like I said, it was mid week, mid afternoon and mid summertime near the U of A. Not a lot of traffic on the streets this day. So maybe when its slow they convert to advertisements on stands rather than real fish. According to our very nice and very attentive server (which made us perk up a bit because getting great service on non peak hours is rare) this was not the case. Just rotating signs. 

Here's how it works: You find the food item you want to eat (which can be tricky because they move at a fairly rapid clip), place it on the end of the table, a server will grab it then bring you the dish. Right. Sounds easy enough. But why... Oh forget it. I still didn't really see the pint of it but, whatever...we were really hungry and started grabbing laminates that seemed reasonable to quell our rumbling tummies.

Wait! Slow down! I'll have... C'mon!

We needed apps and snacks stat. The edamame advert whizzed by and we grabbed it. Since we were the only ones here (well, one couple walked in a little later but, they don't count) our server grabbed the sign and within seconds, fresh, salty and steamy beans were on our table.

Umm...okay.

The edamame came in a bowl that was topped with a plastic dome, sort of like a sushi grade Tupperware. The server popped it open and we were met with grassy vaporous beauty. It smelled really good. Digging in we were very pleased to find that they were lovely and fresh; soft and flavorful with a good crunch. 

So, do they have some kind of sushi sorcerer back there making this stuff hot n' ready in no time flat, or does this place know how to prep for efficiency and massive flavor? I voted for the latter, even though I always go for the wizard chef ideal.  The edamame was really good and was in front of us in a few seconds. Amazing.

Then it occurred to me: what if QQ is out to be a sort of Jimmy John's of the sushi circuit? I could see that. In fact, while I grabbed placards for some miso soup and gyoza, I suddenly had this image of the place jamming it out on a packed Friday night. I saw servers running and swirling around each other, picking up orders off of tables and then grabbing the pre-made food before dashing back to the table, opening up the top and watching the hungry patrons dive in. 

Sure. I could see that. But how does the hot food stay hot? Microwave? I guess. That doesn't seem very fair but...whatever. The miso soup was hot and full of rich flavor in a light broth and the gyoza was done to a piping crispiness and loaded with succulent vegetables and seasoned meat. Quite yummy.

Suddenly, I began to really like QQ. But I was still scratching my head.

Hot brothy miso soup was actually really tasty.

Gyoza was flavorful and meaty. So far, we were really impressed.

The appetizers had won us over so far. They arrived with lightning speed and precision and were really yummy. Not the best we'd ever had but definitely not the worst. Far from it. Hot, delicate and done to near perfection. 

Now it was time for the real mama jammas.

The sushi!

Salmon nigiri.

First up we ordered, well...'grabbed and put at on the edge of the table', a couple of nigiri. This is a true test for a landlocked sushi restaurant: can they deliver a fresh and delicious bite of raw fish with no ocean in sight for miles? So far here in Tucson we have been lucky to have had some incredible nigiri...and some not so much. But can a place such as QQ, with it's already prepared concept and near instantaneous dispatch of food, promise to have such tasty morsels? 

The answer...is yes.

Tuna nigiri. So good, so fast...who knew?

The fish was fresh and full of flavor with a smooth buttery texture. I personally thought the rice was a little tough, but She-Ra thought otherwise. Just a slight dip of the fish into the soy sauce brought me back to coastal days in California, except it was 100+ degrees out and I couldn't see an ocean. 

We've had better but for the price and the fact that I couldn't see a sushi chef anywhere impressed me that perhaps we are eating future food. Did they teleport the stuff from Sushi Island? Is that really a place? The fish was good, tasted like decent tuna and salmon and cut with precision. Great. How are they doing this with such a limited staff and in the middle of the Sonoran desert? 

We didn't care. It was time for some rolls.

Spicy shrimp crunch roll.

When we go to a new sushi restaurant we always order some standards. That way, if they screw up a California roll or the like, we know not to come back. Once a sushi joint has been established with us, then it is off to the neither races of oddities and house specialties when we come back to visit. So we kept it safe here with a spicy shrimp and crab rolls. 

Once again, with the efficiency of a ADD cheetah on meth, the rolls arrived within no time. 

The spicy shrimp was really good. Had a definitive tang from the chili oils and spices and was cooled off by fresh seaweed and little pops from the roe. A lovely roll indeed. 

The crab was offset by tempura vegetables and cream cheese and topped with an almost bar-be-que sauce and crunchy tobiko. Again, we were vastly impressed. All of these flavors came together in a very surprising  and symbiotic way. The sushi rolls were quite good and we will most likely be back to try some, say, more "challenging" options. 

If they got the basics down on lock like this, I'm sure QQ can deliver other tasty items and, I'm sure, in the fastest way possible.  

Again, how do they do it?

I didn't care. I was too busy eating and enjoying myself. 

Crab tempura roll...yes please!

Recently we got word that a QQ sister restaurant just opened on Swan and Grant, in an old Chinese buffet space next to Chipotle. Sure. I'm game! If it's anything like the original QQ Sushi here my bet is it will be a busy boon to that side of town. 

As far as this location is concerned, we liked it a lot. Good food, really attentive, friendly and efficient service and the quality of everything was quite surprisingly top notch. Plus after all the food we ate, we walked out of there with a bill that was less than $30, not including tip. Uh, yeah. We will most likely be back. 

But I'm still not sold on the 'signs on stands on a conveyor belt' concept rather than floaty boat trays carrying sushi bites. Maybe it's just the nostalgic nerd in me, but I really loved all of the sushi boat restaurants I visited in the past, especially that one in San Francisco where we talked all afternoon and knew we wanted to get married. Oh well. Maybe that concept is just not meant to be here in the desert. Sigh.

In summation, QQ Sushi is a hit. Not a grand slam, but a good double or triple play and I can only see them getting better. If you are in the neighborhood please drop in and see for yourself. Maybe the laminates make more sense to you. Who cares though? The food was awesome.  

Although if there is anybody reading this that wants to open up a real sushi boat joint, let me know. I'll be the first to say "Yes!" and be the first in line opening night. 

Cheers!

Wait. They have a full bar? Why didn't you tell me? Jeeze!

You can find QQ Sushi at 1011 N. Tyndall between Speedway and 1st Ave. 

Visit them at: www.qqsushibar.com 

Camera and Typing
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
On a Sunday in early August


Metal Influence
Boris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwK2s734DQ