Here Come The Judge!

I gotta tell ya: It all started with this funky lil blog.

When I decided to go rogue and start the Tucson Homeskillet my goal was to have at least one post a week, minimum. This wasn't that big of an effort seeing as Tucson has so many fun places to go to and feature. Days off I would hunt down hidden gems and questionable eateries then take a bunch of pictures and upload it. Sometimes I'd get a fairly decent amount of hits, while other times I would barely get some in the low double digits. But I always got a nice comment from my mom.

Thanks mom.

Without a budget and being just an off the cuff endeavor, the Tucson Homeskillet has been my culinary diary friend for almost three years now.

Let's just say it's how I got my start in the food writing game.

And because of this blog it landed me the honor of being the Chow writer for the Tucson Weekly. Which is amazing. But because of that, and having a wife, cat and full time job, the Homeskillet has kind of taken a backseat. Which sort of sucks.

Thing is, being the food writer for the Weekly has opened up a whole new culinary world for me. Instead of never getting responses from restaurants and chefs, now that's all I do. I am literally so swamped with assignments that my days off are not days off anymore. I don't like that the Homeskillet has suffered as it has since I have been with the Weekly but the exposure and experience I am now getting is irreplaceable.

Plus I get to do cool things like judge culinary challenges.

My first one was back in July and here is what happened...

Big turnout for the free event

Like I said, this blog has taken an unfortunate backseat to my obligations to the Weekly, so that's why its taken so long to get this blog post up and running. On the other hand, I am so loving being the food writer for the Weekly that I hope this ride never ends. Unless I get picked up by Food & Wine or get my own Eat TV show. That'd be awesome.

But when the opportunity arose to be one of the judges at the Main Gate Square Culinary Challenge all I could do was prepare my already bulbous belly and say a resounding "Yes!"

It was to be a free event, open to the public, and featuring all of the restaurants in the Main Gate Square / University Avenue area, like close to 20 or so, with samples for everyone that steps foot in the main hall at the University Hotel.

But out of all of the vendors slated to be there only seven stepped up to the challenge of winning the title of  'Best Of' that night. That's where I came in. Along with Adam Lehrman from Tucson Foodie and Matt Russell of On The Menu Live!, we were the three to seal the fate of who would take home the culinary crown that evening.

I totally forgot who this was from, but...it was good

The main hall was packed. What did you expect for a free event that is dishing out free food and drinks? I found Matt Russell and he escorted me through the throng of folk downing tiny plates of mac n cheese, cookies, pizza and mini cups of coffee to a long table up front. Luckily that day, taking cues from competitive eaters, I ate like a bird all day. Just micro snacks here and there to get my belly ready and teased for the amount of food that I was about to take in.

I sat next to Adam Lehrman, who has done culinary judging many many more times than I have. I told him that this was my first so he leaned in and had these wise words to say:

"Just be sure to pace yourself."

Thing is I was starving so when the first dish was placed in front of me I dove in.

We had these score cards with each plate and we had to rate each dish according to taste, presentation and originality. It was such a blur of introductions, people, rules and so forth that I totally forgot who was up to bat first. Maybe Red's Smokehouse? Gentle Ben's? It was tasty; a kind of deconstructed shrimp gumbo of sorts and I gave them an 11 (out of a possible 15) and I downed about half. That would prove to be a big mistake. In hindsight I should have had maybe a bite or two then moved on. I was so hungry and excited that I got carried away.

Plus the free cocktail I had before the judging didn't help either.

I mean...it helped, but when I have booze in my system all bets are off.

I am an eating machine.

Steak and potatoes from Fuku Sushi

Next was a surprising entry from Fuku Sushi: A steak and potatoes dish.

The potatoes were hearty and buttery which were topped with thick cut asparagus that were grilled to a near perfection. Thing is, the steak was, for me anyway, cooked a bit too much. It was grey in the middle, not pink, but I blame that on the rest time it took to get it from the grill to my plate. I told the chef about it but did not lay blame on him. The young kid looked a little deflated but, hey man....this is the slam bang, laugh in the face of death realm of cutthroat culinary competition on a random Saturday in Tucson.

You'll do fine kid. No worries.

I think this got a 10 or 9 from me. Not sure.

Some poke inspiration from Jimmy's Pita and Poke

So poke is great and all but at this stage of my food writing I need a break from it. That and sushi-ritos. So when a poke dish arrived from Jimmy's Pita and Poke I kind of rolled my eyes.

Mind you, it was pretty tasty, if not a bit warm for my taste in poke, but the flavor was there.

Luckily I made my judging quick here and within a few bites I was able to move on.

Octopus from Pasco and a warm sippin' seafood jus

Pasco Kitchen & Lounge offered up a bit of grilled octopus over a large croquette and covered in fresh greens.

The croquette was nice, as were the greens, but the octopus was really tough; kind of like biting down on an old eraser. There was flavor, and the help of a tangy seafood au jus helped wash it down but, yeah...I wasn't a big fan of this dish. You need to soak and render the tentacles down like over night, if not longer, to make it nice and tender. This seemed like a last minute decision.

Sorry Pasco. I still love you though.

Delicious squid ink tagliatelle pasta from The Dutch

Now here is where things got interesting.

Chef Marcus from The Dutch made a lovely vegetable medley in a lemongrass broth paired with this incredible handmade squid ink tagliatelle pasta. Oh my gosh...this was easily my favorite dish.

Pretty sure I gave this one an almost perfect score. Thing is, everything was so good that I kept eating. And eating. Having almost nearly killed everything in the bowl I knew that I was in trouble.

I was now officially full.

But the event was far from over.

People kept packing into the already at capacity hall and another dish arrived that was so big all I could do was laugh.

A monster meat plate via Sinbad's

Sinbad's had this sword-like meat and potato skewer dangling over two lamb shanks, samosas, rice, hummus and a mint chutney. This thing was so gargantuan that the three of us let out a painful groan.

We ate some. It was good, but my stomach couldn't handle anymore incoming food. I was starting to hallucinate a bit. People were clamoring around the table asking me what I thought. I was growing hazy. The food began to not have much flavor anymore. It was sort of a curse at this point.

Kids started to crowd the table and all I could do was let them all have bites. They were thrilled. I was thrilled. As vendors began to shut down folks moved towards the judges table where there was still plenty of food on display. Not too sure what Adam and Matt did but I let them eat cake.

Was there cake?

Probably.

The evenings winner and the worst photo ever uploaded on the Homeskillet

At the end of the night, a scrummy sausage slider courtesy of Mutts Hot Dogs won. To my surprise The Dutch didn't even place. I guess Matt and Adam really liked the slider and house cut chips, and I liked it too, but I was a little shocked to see that it took the prize.

The photo is really blurry because at the point when it was taken, towards the middle of the tasting and judging, things were moving really fast. All photos were taken with my phone (I was not going to risk my real camera to get squashed or stolen in this kind of fray) so I apologize for the lackluster images.

When the judging was mercifully over, I went on stage to congratulate Mutts and to thank everyone for attending. It was nice to stand up and move. My already prominent belly was distended and poked out from under my Ben Davis pullover.

I went home that night, took a mighty dump, had a digestive drink and apologized to my wife for all of the weird noises my body was making. I slept soundly, if not a bit uncomfortably, with Adam's suggestion "Pace yourself" echoing through my dreamspace, slightly mocking.

The next day I did not eat till noon and when I did it was a piece of fruit.

Thing is, it was totally worth it and I look forward to being a judge again for a cookoff in the near future.

Thank you Main Gate Square for letting me be a part of the recent culinary challenge. Now that I popped my so-called food judge cherry, I now know how to approach the next one.

By pacing myself.

Cheers!

Adam and Matt post judging. Me? I was too full to move...

Camera, Typing and Eating
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Monsoon Season, 2017

Metal Influence:

SEPULTURA

"Arise"

Five Stars In The Food Court

When you're checking reviews online and you come across a place you had no idea even existed and there is nothing but 4-5 star ratings down the line, it kind of peaks your interest right?

I know it does with us.

In fact, we are the ones that are totally enthralled with a restaurant that boasts loads of 5 stars, a few 4s, couple of 3s here and there then a bunch of 1s. You're like, 'wait, is this place...good, or is it a bucket of urinal cakes soaked in farts?' It is then up to us to go there, get a bunch of food, eat it and judge for ourselves. In fact, that's the whole idea behind online review sites; everybody has an opinion, everybody has a different experience and everyone takes something away from that place in their own way. That's why I'm not big on reviews in newspapers and magazines. One dude/dudette with the power of a publication behind him/her can walk into a place, not have a good time then write about it which reaches thousands, if not more, people and then sullies the name of a joint that is a favorite to a whole other lot. Maybe the cook was having a bad day, perhaps they accidentally dropped sugar in when it was meant to be salt. It happens.

We have heeded the call of the online opinions and have come away equally stoked and disgusted. But a place in the Tucson Mall has garnered almost nothing but 5 stars and for that reason alone we set aside our contempt for all things shopping arenas and had to check it out.

A lot of food for not a lot of money

Here's the thing: When we got to the food court almost every other stand had a line...except Kebab King, the reason for our visit. Checking again on the online reviews, we just had to be sure that this was the spot.

Yep. It was.

When I talked to the smiling gentleman at the front counter he informed me that the owners of Kebab King are also the ones that run Babylon Market on Speedway.

Oh. I see. It's all starting to coming together now.

With that in mind we decidedly ordered up a good amount of stuff to sample so here is what we thought.

Small shawerma, big flavor

We liked the fact that you can choose a size shawerma that you want; small, regular or jumbo. Seeing as we got a decent allotment of what they offer, and that we hadn't had their food yet, we went for a small shawerma.

Even for it being 'small' it was pretty hefty. It was about street cart burrito sized and it made us wounder what the 'jumbo' option looks like. Next time.

The flavor and textures were there. It was a pretty classic shawerma, nice and mellow with spice while nestled with fresh tomatoes and lettuce. I was totally happy with this.

The tzatziki was good too; cool and creamy with a distinct cucumber and lemony bite. So far we could see how this colorful stand in a busy food court could hold down a 4-5 star rating.

But why weren't there more patrons? It was high lunchtime and folks were queued up for sloppy fast food and greasy "Asian" fare.

Huh.

Get those olives offa my salad!

Our salads were really good as well. All of the components, lettuce, red onion, crispy pita bits, cucumber, feta cheese, was bright and flavorful. The only thing that threw us off was the dressing.

It was really olive-y.

And that is something we can't get behind: Olives. Blecch.

I personally can't stand them and if you have been keeping up with this blog you know this. Unfortunately on almost everything we ordered there were olives. Just be warned: For those that despise the lil briny dingleberries of Satan just say "No!" when you come to visit Kebab King. We didn't know.

Now we know.

The dressing was just a little too overpowering for us and that is the only complaint you will hear.

Otherwise, yep...good stuff.

The hummus was amazing...except for that olive!

Outside of the salad being a bit disappointing, the hummus made up for any shortcomings because of our disdain for olives. Yes, there was an olive perched proud right in the middle but it was easily removed and flung towards Forever 21.

Maybe a little heavy-handed with the olive oil (we like olive oil just not olives...go figure) but otherwise it was perfect. Silky, great use on simple spices, tahini and a good amount of garlic. This made me want to drive over to Babylon and purchase a bin of this stuff. A bin!

The pita was a great accomplice. Warm, fluffy on the inside with a tight grill on the exterior. We couldn't get enough.

As mopey shoppers shuffled by pushing strollers under florescent mall lights, we danced and delighted with our lunchtime win. Our smiles probably threw some of them off but we didn't care.

We were digging into the food at Kebab King and were really digging what they were doing.

Finally we dove into some signature plate dishes. We opted for a chicken shish tikka and a gyro platter. Once again, we got the 'regular' size and were stunned how generous they were.

The basmati saffron rice was awesome, very flavorful and toothsome. It went really well with the hearty cuts of meat that were just brimming with flavor. Luckily our plates came with more hummus. Yay! With a side of fresh vegetables that had just a slight dribble of herby oil and vinegar we were stoked to get acquainted with the Kebab King.

It's a good amount of food for not a lot of bread. We left full and elated and maybe spent around $30 for all of it. We will definitely be back and for me I go to the mall every now and then to get some new Vans so when I do I'm gonna sample more wares from the King.

All hail!

Now we can see why this place has such good ratings. But they need more customers.

It's up to you Tucson.

See you there...

Everything was so good but the olive? Yeah...no.

Eating, Typing and Camera
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
I'm in a mall!, Early Summer 2017

Metal Influence:

CARNIVORE

"Retaliation"

If This Place Was Just Called "Dave" It'd be Weird

First let me preface that all of the photos I took were done by my phone. Not even my new fancy phone, my old one that had a crack in the lens. In a place like Dave and Busters I really didn't feel safe bringing my camera camera so apologies for the slightly fuzzy and kinda crappy shots.

Plus lugging a high-end digital camera around while trying to balance a beer and steer on some Fast and Furious machine would totally suck. So there's that as well.

Anyway, Tucson finally got itself one of these mega-clusters of food, booze and games and its about time we say. Located in the Tucson Marketplace area just off of South Park Avenue and East Benson Highway, nestled between a movie theater and a god awful Asian buffet (that surprisingly serve decent quesadillas, go figure) Dave and Busters is the kind of family Petri dish of overly excited kids, bored teens, half drunk dads and cell-phone staring moms that you always dreamed about.

I think we've been to one, maybe, back in either California or Texas and, if blurry memory serves, it was kind of fun. So on a searingly hot day with convection oven winds, the Homeskillet crew rallied up and set out to eat, drink and get high score.

This is what went down.

Full on Vegas mode with this place

The way Dave and Busters works is this: If you wanna play games, which you totally do, you purchase a Power Card, which is a card that you 'power up' with cash and can 'recharge' once your credits get low. Like $30 gets you 200 credits, or something like that. Each game requires a certain amount of credits. For example, Skee-Ball is perhaps 2 credits but some surround sound IMAX 3-D type game will be, say, 12. You get the idea right? Most places like this have the exact same method to take your money. But...whatever.

We went on a Wednesday, which we highly recommend, because on Wednesdays all games are discounted. That 12 credit IMAX 3-D game is now 6 credits. Get it? Good. So we loaded up our Power Cards then went to the bar to get slightly loaded.

So sweet, so unnecessary 

Note to all readers: Avoid any and all glow in the dark / snocone / anything that has gummy worms hanging from them drinks. They are pricey, they suck and most of all they are sugary frosted glops with a hint of booze. Just stick to your usual cocktail or beer. Trust here. In fact, the pours we got from the young bartender were actually kind of impressive. So stick with what you know.

As we were sipping away, we couldn't help but notice that the whole stretch of the room, equipped with a restaurant, sports bar, separate eating area and huge game space, looked and sounded a lot like a Las Vegas casino. With the exception of cigarette smoke (you can't even vape in D&B's, thank jeebus) we could have been at some bar in the Venetian, except the one armed bandits were replaced with Big Buck Hunters and Pac Man games with screens 10 feet high.

While we were surveying our afternoon territory, we were beginning to get a bit grumbly in yon tummy so a glance at their menu was in order.

Um...okay!

The fare at Dave and Busters is kind of what you would expect. Pages of hot wings, "shareable" appetizers loaded with sliders and cheesy bacon covered fries, nachos, burgers, meat stuffed sandwiches and deep fried cheese.

Eh.

What was kind of surprising was their selection of salads such as an apple pecan option, a baby kale Caesar and Thai chicken chopped. These actually didn't sound too horrible.

There's also a wide selection of pasta dishes, steaks, ribs, seafood and even a tomato feta soup. Not bad D&B, not bad.

Here's the thing: They put calorie counts on each dish so you know what you are getting into before ordering. No sodium count because if they did, no one would order any of this stuff. Or carbs, Or sugar or saturated fat. I'm thinking the food at D&B is loaded with unnecessary amounts of salt and sugar, enough to put any diet right into the dustbin.

It is absolutely rare here to find a dish under 1000 calories. There's a grilled salmon for about 800, most side salads and soups hover around 200...and that's about it. I mean, you're not coming to Dave and Busters for its farm-to-fork chef driven dishes, you're here to grub on some sloppy and slightly not bad food and play arcade games till your eyes bleed and your thumbs go numb. Right?

Taking a walk around the dining area, the food actually didn't look all that bad either. But between the 5 of us we opted to go for something called, yep, Fives All Around. This long plate came loaded with 5 pieces of chicken quesadilla, 5 pretzel dogs, 5 crispy shrimps, a bunch of dipping sauces and house cut crinkle chips. This monster app was over 3000 calories but, hey, between the 5 of us, for each, that's like, uh...let's see. Carry the 3 into...umm...

Oh forget it.

Anyway, the food wasn't horrible. So...there's that.

Wait, did you wash that cube before...oh nevermind

Then it was time to get down and play some games. This is what Dave and Busters is all about anyway.

We wont get into too much about this because, you know, this is a food blog, but we will say the games were new, clean, loud and fun. Most of the racing games came equipped with wind machines to give you that extra feeling of speed and vigorously shook as well. I spent a lot of time playing the Star Wars Battle Pod. Literally you are in an enclosed game egg and you get to fly X-Wings, Snow Speeders and Speeder Bikes. So many credits went bye-bye with this game. A must do for serious Star Wars nerds.

That and Mario Kart in which you can compete with three of your friends. A good hour was spent doing this one. So freakin' fun.

Not even between the 5 of us, nope

So there you have it: The Tucson Homeskillet does Dave and Busters. We had a great time, it was really hot out so we stayed cool and we were kind of impressed with the bar style family fare they served. I mean, we really didn't eat any because, well...why would you? I mean, the food here has to be better than the neighboring buffet (will not give its name but....you'll see when you get here, just don't...) but when we come back, which we so will because we still have a bunch of credits on our Power Cards, we might go nibble a bit here and there.

But we are going to share! Just don't trust the nutritional scree of caloric blood pressure infusers they serve up.

But they do have tot-chos. And if you know us, we love us some tot-chos.

Next time Dave and Busters.

Next time...

And you know what...it wasn't horrible

Camera, Typing, Eating and Drinking
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
It's Too Hot Out, 2017

Metal Influence:

THE SWORD

"Warp Riders"

Gettin' Down With The Throwdown

Tucson Originals had this one planned for last year but unfortunately it got cancelled. Bummer.

Whatever.

This year, 2017, they brought back the Pizza Throwdown and, man, did we have a blast eating all of the foods, drinking the beers and sampling delicious desserts.

The turnout was really great, packed into Fresco Pizza up on Speedway, so it was tight maneuvering around with a camera in one hand and either food/beer in the other. It was cool to see so many people show up for the throwdown and everyone seemed to be having a really fun time.

Even though we were jammed in like anchovies.

But lets get down to the yummy business at hand here!

Here is the Tucson Homeskillet's take on what went down at this years Pizza Throwdown...

An ice cold IPA infused with tangerine went down a little too nicely

First of all it was really hot outside so thankfully the event was held inside. I felt kinda bad for Scott Volpe of Fiamme Pizza who was set up in the parking lot making his incredible Neapolitan pizzas next to a 800 degree oven. Yowtch.

Once inside, it was time to grab a much needed beer from Crooked Tooth Brewery.

They were serving up two different styles of IPA. One was called Hippie in the Headlight, which was refreshing, a good hop kiss with passion fruit and even banana notes. The other was called Quaker with Oranges, had a dryer hop taste but absolutely loved the tangerine essence that stuck with you way after you sip it.

Now that we had the required beers in our belly it was time to chow down on some pizza!

Rocco's Little Chicago Pizza

Not exactly deep dish but deep in flavor

We love Rocco's for so many reasons beyond pizza. First off, the man himself is a Tucson treasure and his wings are some of the best we have had ever. Like ever!

For the throwdown the Rocco's team brought in some thick and saucy slices for us to sample. Not exactly the full on deep dish that they are known for but...pretty close. Really rich and really tasty.

These hit the belly like 'boom!' so we were officially off and running with the pizza eat-a-thon.

Bring it on!

PY Steakhouse

Oh chef Clark, you never disappoint

It was funny to see a steakhouse, like a renown and upscale steakhouse, compete in a pizza throwdown. But then when you consider the executive chef at PY Steakhouse, Ryan Clark, the guy loves him some competition.

These slices were much more delicate and refined (duh!) and was a nice contrast to the heavyweights we ate previously.

Loved the goat cheese mixed with mozzarella and the sausage was really flavorful and juicy. Topped with some fresh microgreens, PY's entry was sure to be in the top 3 by the end of the day.

We were sure of it.

Fresco Pizza

Meaty, cheesy and oh so crusty

Okay then...back to some serious slices.

Fresco packed on three different types of protein, sausage, pepperoni and bacon, to make a meat-tastic triangle of drippy awesome.

The crust had a really good crunch and the slice itself was a feat to take down. But...we did it.

We did it with pride, honor and a stomach that was going "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing to me here?"

Shut up stomach. We know what we are doing.

We're professionals...

Upper Crust Pizza

You just cant go wrong with the basics

We were relieved to find that Upper Crust forgo their usual 'holy crap how am I going to eat that?' size slices that you can find on their lunch menu. These were manageable and were nicely basic offering a cheese option or pepperoni.

Upper Crust has always been one of our favorite pizzarias along the Campbell stretch of so many pizzarias. These slices delivered the goods and it was nice to see one of our neighborhood go-to pizza places come out and compete.

Good luck!

Fiamme Pizza Napoletana

Simply outstanding, always on point

Things are about to get serious here.

Fiamme is probably the best pizza in Tucson. At least top 3. When it went from a food truck to brick and mortar we were a bit hesitant but after eating there our skepticism went out the door because the food there is so good.

Here, they had a spicy three cheese option and the signature Margharita, which is a dance of house made mozzarella, fresh basil, homemade red sauce and finished with olive oil. Wow. Absolutely delicious.

We thought we were kind of done here but...no.

There was one more to take down.

Mama Louisa's

Yes, that is Joe's Special on a pizza...yes

And this one was a beast.

Chef Michael over at Mama Louisas decided to bring the hurt but putting the house specialty, Joe's Special, on a pizza. C'mon now. That is a lot of cheese, sauce, red pepper and pasta on its own but...on a pizza?

Yes.

As the finale of our pizza take down this one sent us off into the neither realms of carbs and cheese. It was spicy, it was fun but best of all Joe's Special totally worked as a pizza.

So cheers to you chef Mikey!

We also had to sample two different desserts. One was from Mama's Hawaiian BBQ, which was a delicious and amiable lemon tart. Really sharp without the overt sense of sweetness. The other came via Dante's Fire which was a melange of fresh summer berries, vanilla semifreddo, citrus foam and caramel wafer. Wow. All of it totally worked.

In the end Fiamme Pizza took the crown followed by Fresco and Mama Louisas. Dante's Fire took the dessert challenge which was not a shocker at all even though we really liked the delicate lemon wedge from Mama's.


Thank you Tucson Originals for putting on this Pizza Throwdown and cheers to Fresco Pizza for hosting the event. Hopefully next year there will be more competitors and, hopefully, it can be held in a larger venue. Still, we had a great time and congrats to all the winners.

 Cheers!

Good crowd, good food, good times

Camera, Typing and Eating
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
The 2nd Sunday in June, 2017

Metal Influence:

CANNIBAL CORPSE

"Gutted"

Believe (Some Of) The Hype

"But Stray Dogs is going to be on this show called Ginormous Food. You're a food writer. Why haven't you been there?"

To be honest with you...we don't know.

See, we were big fans of the previous occupant, Zona 78, especially their Danish Blue pizza that featured a ton of stinky blue cheese, oh man...so good, and when Stray Dogs moved in we always said that we would go there and investigate but, well, it just never happened.

Until recently that is.

The original plan was to try out this new deli on 1st Avenue but when we got there we discovered that it had yet to open. Maybe we should have called first? So plan B was to finally go to Stray Dogs, order a bunch of stuff and see what happens.

This is what happened...

Pickles or just squishy cucumbers?

It was a pretty hot day, an hour or so after the lunch rush, like 2pm-ish, and we were ready to get down. Some lunchtime stragglers were hanging out on the small patio in the front and the place was relatively empty except for a table of old ladies that gave us the murder eye when we walked in. Why the murder stink eye? We don't know.

I mean, we looked okay, there was just three of us, but I guess a small crew of "yungins" moving in on their lunchtime turf was ill advised.

And we're not even that young.

Anyway we found a table next to a window, opened the menu and made some decisions.

As serious pickle fans we had to get their pickle jar appetizer. Then we settled on some chicken taquitos, the burger of the day and a pizza called the Hair Of The Dog that features bell peppers, bacon, eggs, French fries and then finished with a sriracha drizzle. Even though we are kind of done with sriracha this option just sounded too dumb to pass up.

Then for later we had to get the always blogged about Munchies milkshake. This thing comes with a chocolate frosting rim decorated with M&Ms, potato chips and pretzels, a Rice Crispies treat and cinnamon sugar donut holes. C'mon now...how could we not order that thing?

That's the milkshake that's going to be on that show right?

Probably.

The salsa was the star here

The service was fine but the beer selection is pretty boring. It's okay but we sort of expected something a little more adventurous from a place that boasts wild food. We settled on a Barrio Mocha Java Stout (which was quite lovely), a Dragoon IPA (which always delights) and a Sierra Nevada rotating beer called the Sidecar, which was an orange pale ale. Meh.

First to come out was the pickles and chicken taquitos.

Hate to say it but...those weren't pickles. They tasted as if someone cut a cucumber into spears and threw it into some salty water overnight. Not good and not crispy. Very disappointing. Two of us at the table make our own pickles and its not that hard to get an even somewhat decent pickle. It just takes a little effort and a little more time. Unless they fix their recipe, Stray Dogs needs to change it from "pickle jar" to "jar of slightly salted cucumbers".

Sorry.

The chicken taquitos were thankfully tasty. Not a whole lot of seasoning but the chicken was cooked well, the cheese wasn't overly cheesy and there was a good crunch on the tortilla. What totally saved this dish though was the salsa. Get that stuff in jars quick and sell it. A nice heat, good roasted flavor and the peppers tasted really fresh.

Whew!

Yep...that was a burger

Next up was the burger and pizza.

The burger patty had a fine flavor, it was cooked alright and the large side of fries were definitely the star: hand cut and seasoned perfectly. The veggies that came with it were nice and fresh but the bun was really greasy which was kind of off putting.

You can even see it in the picture above, it's shiny from the amount of grease coming off of it. Okay, its standard practice to toast the bun on the grill, flat side down, to give it an added texture but I think the kids working in the kitchen that day thought it would be fun to put the bun top side down in a pool of fryer muck. If they would have left the bun alone all together we would have been totally okay with the burger. But...

Note to Stray Dogs: Do not add grease to your hamburger buns! 

That is all.

The Hair of the Dog pizza was actually kind of fun. The various toppings somehow worked and we didn't mind the sriracha element, in fact we rather enjoyed it. The sauce on the pizza was tasty as well, not too heavy handed, and the crust was cooked evenly. Thing is, this pizza is really hearty. We were only able to take down half because of all of the other items we sampled and we still had to make room for that milkshake Godzilla.

Speaking of which, when all was said and done The Munchies milkshake made it to the table.

Yep, this thing is kind of glorious. It was tall with a lot of color and a lot going on.

The chocolate sauce bark cascading down was a sweet, salty and crunchy delight. The ice cream was delicious, really firm but creamy, with lil' bit of donut floating at the bottom which made for a sugary doughy surprise when you sucked it down on these really wide straws.

The Rice Crispies treat was the only thing that fell flat. It just didn't do anything. Didn't make sense with the shake, didn't have much flavor, was kind of dense and boring. That said, what made this whole trip and experience worth while were just two little things dangling from the straws.

The donuts.

Don't know how to properly say this but they were some of the best donuts we've ever had. Perfectly fried, perfectly seasoned, perfectly sweet and just plain perfect. Stray Dogs needs to take out the GS in their name and replace it was NUTS and just be a straight up donut shop. Luckily they sell them individually so next time we are in the neighborhood you better believe we're getting a dozen and locking ourselves in a dark room, eating them as we cry as a donut glaze of shame overcomes us.

Whatever.

They are that good.

All this was missing was actual dog hair

This was our first experience at Stray Dogs but we feel it wont be the last. Sorry it took so long for us to get there but with other food writing obligations we can be a bit slow on the take these days.

But now that we are hitting a grove with the new gig we promise to blog more often. There is a lot going on in Tucson, food and drinking wise, and we plan on covering it as much as humanly possible.

Thank you Stray Dogs for the hospitality. Sorry we had to come down on you for a couple of issues we feel are totally workout-able but overall we had a great time and will try to come back and try some actual dogs and other things.

But them donuts though!

Oh man.

Let's hope those things make it on that food show.

Cheers!

Not pictured: the best thing at Stray Dogs

Camera, Typing and Eating
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
A Perfect Spring Day, 2017

Metal Influence:

DESTRUCTION

"Eternal Devastation"