FOOD & DRINK

On Tap: Arizona Beer & Art

November 29, 2013 |

YuYu Shiratori’s leather clutch, hand crafted in a “self-made sweatshop,”
will be featured at Art on Tap.

Craft beers are works of art.

Brewers are artists in their own right as they experiment with different ingredients and techniques to produce a unique taste. And just as with any art form, sometimes the most interesting and fascinating works of art – or beer in this case – are created by local hands.

Art on Tap, a unique art and beer showcase, is a marriage of local art and Arizonan craft beers. Happening at the Tucson Museum of Art (TMA) on Dec. 7, this beer festival features brews from Arizona – and Arizona alone. But it’s not just a chance for beer enthusiasts to sip on some ales, lagers or stouts. The event also brings in local artists who’ve submitted their work for display during this special night.

“You’re going to go to a beer festival. You’re going to see nearly 20 local breweries. You’re going to be able to enjoy all of those things they slaved over and created. And hopefully you’ll have something else to appreciate rather then twiddle your thumbs and wait in the next line,” said Shanna Rosing, member of Craft Tucson. “Local art was the answer. We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback and lot of great submissions.”

Craft Tucson, the in-town organization dedicated to helping businesses through the art of craft beers, is the host of the event.

“It’s a group set to promote local businesses through craft beer, only Arizona beers. That was our goal – to make sure that when you go out, and somebody’s going to sell you a $15 grass-fed hamburger, they’re not selling you a $15 grass-fed hamburger next to a Budweiser,” said Austin Santos, orchestrator of Art on Tap and owner of 1702 Pizza & Beer. “Cause it’s counterproductive to say that, ‘We took the effort to find really expensive beef, but we went to Budweiser to get your beer.’

“The event manifested itself from there being a lack of doing beer festivals that actually showcased Arizona beers of the Arizona breweries,” Santos said. “And to do these festivals as not a way to just walk around and get intoxicated, but to give them something to do. Tucson’s got a very affluent art community.”

Volunteers and museum employees have been helping Craft Tucson contact artists, musicians and breweries to make the event a night to remember.

“There are going to be a lot of different facets from all over. It’s kind of a beautiful thing,” said Graham Thompson, a volunteer and employee of 1702 who is helping to curate the show. “It’s great to have the experience and I’m kind of honored to be doing something like this. This is a big grassroots effort.”

Art on Tap marks Craft Tucson’s first attempt at an art-themed beer festival in Tucson. The proceeds from the event will help benefit the Tucson Museum of Art to keep its arts education present and available to Tucson citizens. The event follows Craft Tucson’s Brew at the Zoo event, which took place this past July and helped raise funds for Reid Park Zoo’s new brown bear exhibit.

“I’d love to see it become something that becomes annual,” Santos said. “I’m really looking forward to it grow in any way that it can. Definitely super curious to see who comes out for it.”

The event also features: live music by Carlos Arzate and the Kind Souls, Saint Maybe; demonstrations by Joe Moore, Sonoran Glass Academy, Marianna Pegno, and The Drawing Studio; selections from the UA exhibit Art of Planetary Science; painting with Ben’s Bells; food trucks and vendors alongside the beer and art.

“These days, beer is becoming, very, you know, at the same level as wine. I think that we really want to get a new audience. We want to reach more of Tucson,” said Morgan Wells, curator of education at TMA. “We’re wanting to be more accessible to the artists and the public. They’ve (the artists) been really excited for this opportunity to display their art.”

The event takes place on Saturday, Dec. 7 from 6 to 10 p.m. There will also be an early access segment of the evening from 5 to 6 p.m. And don’t worry, you designated drivers don’t have to pay full price, just $20, and will still have the opportunity to enjoy local art.

“I think that Tucson’s definitely been waiting for a beer festival that has this kind of draw and extra added to it,” Rosing said. “For me, beer and art can’t be separated.”

Art on Tap is Saturday, Dec. 7 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. For more information and ticket prices, which range from $20-$65, visit TucsonMuseumofArt.org or call (520) 624-2333.

The Speakeasy Sisters: Escape to Sonoita’s Renegade Winery

November 24, 2013 |

Arizona Hops and Vines proprietors Shannon Austin Zouzoulas, left, and Megan Austin Haller, right. photo: Emily Gindlesparger

Sonoita is nothing if not idyllic. With waving Chiricahua grassland and purple mountain majesty on every horizon, it’s the poster child for picturesque silence. But the raucous sisters of Arizona Hops and Vines are changing that, at least a few nights a year.

Case in point: Arizona Hops and Vines houses not just a vineyard, but a little petting zoo with their goat, donkey, pig, goose, chickens, turtle, dog and cat. And for the kids and designated drivers, there’s the Sober Shack vending homemade sodas. True to their name, the winemakers spiked their white wine with hops grown on the property last spring to create a powerful hybrid called the Drag Queen, which Tucson drag queens came out to celebrate. That was when they could only make wine. Now that a new Arizona law will allow sisters Shannon Austin Haller and Megan Zouzoulas to brew beer and serve it in their tasting room, the party is full on.

“I think a lot of people checked their beer at the door, thinking this was a wine region and they’ll make wine,” says Zouzoulas of the struggle to change the law that restricted stacking a brewery license on top of a winery one. But with collaboration from lobbyist Mark Barnes and Senator Don Shooter, the sisters made it happen. Now, Zouzoulas says, “if that’s their passion, this opens it up for them to go do it.”

Since opening their winery in the spring of 2012, Zouzoulas and Haller have thrown bashes including beer with a special permit. “And it’s really cool because when you do that you’re required to work with a nonprofit,” explains Haller, “so we’re building our karma. Every single event that we have here that has beer, legally it’s 25% that goes to the nonprofit, but we give 100% of our beer profits to the organization because we feel like it keeps our karma good and we’re believers in karma.” Their Bad Decisions night over the summer paired bacon, chocolate and booze under the meteor shower to benefit the 100 Club of Arizona, supporting police officers and firefighters.

The winter holds equally tantalizing events. Dec. 7 marks their Deck the Halls holiday market with Santa Clause for the nice and mulled wine for the naughty. Attendees can bottle their own wine and add extra spice, and Hops and Vines vintages will be paired with Christmas cookies. The sisters will be collecting toys for charity and inviting local artisans to peddle their gift-worthy wares.

It’s the Speakeasy on Jan. 18 that will pull out all the stops. They’ll be releasing the Lobbyist, a “very persuasive” Zinfandel that’s a nod to Mark Barnes who helped them change the liquor law. Fingers crossed, they also hope to have their Shooter IPA ready by then, in honor of the senator. The Prohibition-style shindig will be complete with guests in costume, food and a live band, and it’ll have one thing apart from its historic roots: this one will be legal.

Making Your Escape
From Tucson, take I-10 east to scenic Highway 83. Turn left onto Highway 82 at the stop sign in Sonoita, and Hops and Vines is just 2.1 miles later on the north side of the road.

Deck the Halls Christmas Market is Dec. 7, noon-5 p.m. $20, $15 with a toy donation, includes wine glasses and tastings. Speakeasy happens Jan. 18, 6 p.m.-midnight, featuring the release of the Lobbyist Zin. $25 includes food, wine tastings, and a live music. Arizona Hops and Vines is located at 3450 Highway 82, online at AZHopsandVines.com and via phone at 1-888-569-1642.

photo: Emily Gindlesparger

 

Butternut-Chard Autumn Soup

November 13, 2013 |

photo by C.J. Shane

Swiss chard is a wonderful green for our bio-region because it tolerates both heat and cold. It is not too late to sow chard seeds now, or transplant small plants. Chard’s leafy green leaves with colorful ribs of white, red, and golden yellow, often called “rainbow” chard, are attractive in stir-fry vegetable dishes and soups.  Chard is nutritious and delicious, too. As our Sonoran Desert nights become colder, we start thinking about hot soup. Here is a soup recipe with chard, butternut squash, and garbanzo beans.

Butternut-Chard Autumn Soup

1 medium butternut squash
3 cups raw, chopped chard
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary
6 -8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 (14-15 ounce) cans of garbanzo (chickpea) beans

1. Prepare the butternut squash in advance. The easiest way is microwave a whole butternut squash, 4 minutes on one side, then 4 minutes on the other. Prick the squash’s skin before microwaving to allow steam to escape. Allow to cool. Peel the squash skin, cut in half and remove seeds and pulp. Then cut the remaining squash into bite size pieces.

2. Heat the olive oil in a soup pan. Add the chopped onion, oregano, and rosemary. Sauté on low for a few minutes until the onions become clear. Add garlic and cook for one additional minute.

3. Add the broth, chopped squash, and chickpeas. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add the chopped chard and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste. Serve with homemade bread or cornbread.


Entrepreneurs in a Cultural Urban Kitchen

November 11, 2013 |

A common denominator fuels body, spirit and economy.

Marie Bampamluolwa demonstrates FuFu flour tin at Tucson Meet Yourself.
photo by Samantha Angiulo

There’s a lot to talk about around Tucson’s culinary table, with so many finding their passion in locally-nourished baked goods, suds, cheeses, spirits and condiments. Food is the universal facilitator these days. But when cooks, as Michael Pollan says, stand “squarely between nature and culture,” food sovereignty is ignited, adding the spice of tradition to Tucson’s kitchen, in surprising ways.

Dishes & Stories, a refugee and immigrant women’s culinary enterprise, has entered the conversation as a new social purpose organization focused on food culture and women’s self sufficiency. This is a joint venture between the Iskashitaa Refugee Network and Crossings Kitchen, the sole proprietorship of Priscilla Mendenhall, a Washington D.C. transplant, foodie and career non-profit professional who has transitioned to social enterprise.

In its start-up phase, Dishes & Stories is a catering service with a globally-inspired, locally-sourced menu prepared by the refugee and immigrant women who are co-creating the enterprise. “Featuring a menu of our mother’s recipes,” Mendenhall adds.

Culinary Connector
There’s synergy between Mendenhall’s Crossings Kitchen and Iskashitaa, established by Dr. Barbara Alice Eiswerth in 2003 as a sustainable foods harvesting and redistribution program and a language and employment skills support network for refugees transitioning to life in Tucson.

“With food as the common denominator, we’re helping refugees and immigrant women in a strange land use their skills and cultural practices to build community and livelihoods,” says Eiswerth, who founded her large-impact organization after visiting and working in Malawi and returning to see food waste in Tucson.

After organizing youth mapping programs to identify locations of produce going to waste in Tucson, Dr. Eiswerth received a grant from the United Way to begin regularly harvesting with refugees, then redistributing to refugee families and other Tucson organizations to assist families in need. Thus, Iskashitaa (the Somali Bantu word for “working cooperatively together”) was born.

Each year, approximately 1,000 new refugees of 20 nationalities make their way to Tucson, and Iskashitaa reaches hundreds to help them rebuild businesses, share stories, learn English and, importantly, harvest local fruits and vegetables from cooperating farms, backyards and neighborhoods, to be re-envisioned within healthy recipes that help refugees retain tradition and activate a sustainable place for themselves in the Tucson’s local food system. Iskashitaa produces a line of 30 specialty food products, including marmalades and salad dressings, featuring locally harvested produce.

What Dishes & Stories/Iskashitaa does is catalyze opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship, comments Mendenhall: “For us, ‘catalyze’ is the key word, Our roles as founders of Dishes & Stories are to leverage the financial, structural and logistical means of building a sustainable business which, within five years, will be a cooperatively managed and owned social enterprise.”

Activating the Enterprise
The start-up phase of the Dishes & Stories catering service already is serving up at local venues including the Tucson Museum of Art and during the annual Tucson Meet Yourself event. With its changing array of participants from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Congo, Sudan, Bhutan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mexico and El Salvador, Dishes & Stories is a moveable feast, according to Mendenhall.

Brittany Svoboda (of the UA Enactus Club, left), Manerva Bashta and Kelzi Bartholomaei (of Mother Hubbard’s Cafe, right) preparing a platter of an Egyptian dish called koshari at the Dishes & Stories Cooking Retreat.
photo by Melissa Gant

The organization, utilizing rented while actively seeking a permanent commercial kitchen space, is beginning a basic culinary art training program while working out of the large Rincon United Church of Christ kitchen on Craycroft and Broadway. The Dishes menu is inspired by the traditional recipes of the refugee and immigrant women participating, and items range from tortilla sambusas (Somali wraps) and falafel to pumpkin stew, sautéed amaranth and chicken-mushroom curry. Mendenhall says that cheese pairings, desserts and marinades also feature seasonal Iskashitaa specialty food items.

Critical to the program is the storytelling component that surrounds all dishes featured on menu. “The stories of these dishes are told by the cooks and staff as they host and serve,” Mendenhall explains, “and the stories will also be incorporated into cooking classes and cultural celebrations. For many refugee and immigrant women, the utensils and cookbooks they bring from home help encapsulate their stories into their dishes, in ways that words cannot possibly convey.”

Dishes & Stories has a business plan which progressively expands catering, adds a food truck and ultimately opens a 40-seat restaurant, which will also be sales venue for Iskashitaa specialty food items.

“Knowing the challenges of any food service, and the complexities of providing programs tailored to women living on the edge, we are moving incrementally,” says Mendenhall, who notes that culturally-inclusive training in pre-employment (in cooperation with YWCA Tucson), business management, success coaching and financial literacy will be implemented as business operations continue to demonstrate success. All of these programs will be designed to accommodate the daily logistical and financial challenges experienced by women who face multiple barriers to creating their own self-sufficiency, says Mendenhall, who adds, “We have a formal framework in place for cooperative management and financial independence within five years.”

Healthy Communities, Supporting Local Systems
Through food preservation workshops, formal cooking retreats and the catering events, refugee women are sharing their cooking experiences and knowledge of traditional foodways as they envision theirs and Dishes’ future.

Mendenhall recounts a recent September night, when one refugee cook from Upper Egypt, Manerva Bashta, watched with both tears and smiles as hungry attendees to a Tucson Museum of Art event relished her dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) and burek (savory puff pastries).

“This was the first time Manerva had prepared food professionally, the food of her family and homeland,” Mendenhall says. “She came to the U.S. seeking asylum as she fled the persecution of Christians in her town. Here, she studies English, applies for jobs, shops carefully at Babylon and Caravan markets, takes care of her grandchildren and spends hours waiting for buses, especially on weekends. In Egypt, she taught business. Dishes & Stories provides a venue within which Manerva can renew confidence in her business and culinary skills.”

Faeza Hililian (center) and Dishes & Stories founder Priscilla Mendenhall (right) at Tucson Meet Yourself Culture Kitchen.
photo by Samantha Angiulo

Mendenhall also explains that as part of her involvement, Manerva will assist in routinely helping to calculate ingredient costs, the preparation time and price points for each dish.

Dishes & Stories recently received a grant from the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona to initiate a culinary and vocational English as a Second Language (ESL) training curriculum and begin developing menu items. Both will integrate the rich food traditions of our refugee women co-creators, says Mendenhall.

Acting as a Dishes & Stories fiscal sponsor, Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY) helped incubate Dishes at last month’s festival, when Mendenhall led an exploration of ethnic food traditions and good eats in the TMY Cultural Kitchen. At the full demonstration kitchen in downtown’s main library plaza, panel presentations were interspersed with group demonstrations, which included five Dishes refugee women as featured demonstrators.

“Many of these women are in the United States for just a short time but they’re eager to bring the traditional dishes of their homelands to our community,” says Mendenhall. “From my perspective as coordinator of the TMY Cultural Kitchen, the festival and Dishes & Stories, as well as Iskashitaa, are part of the same Tucson movement to honor the diverse, family-rooted foodways of our community.”

While cooking at TMY, the women conveyed their stories, including how eating with the hands honors the cook, the food and the earth. As stews of greens simmered, audiences asked questions about odd uses of local fruits now in season, including processing dates into vinegar or syrup. The scent of curry and mixed spices lingered. Everyone was well fed; everything was delicious.

In the end, it was just the way a kitchen should be.

________

Heart of the Harvest
This tiny treasure of a cookbook was recently published by Iskashitaa and funded by the Pima Arts Council. It contains cross-cultural cooking and canning tips, as well as global recipes making using of local ingredients. To purchase this little gem for $13, go to Iskashitaa.org.

Cookbook Excerpt:
Rwandan Grapefruit Marmalade
(recipe by Venantie Uwitonze, Rwandan refugee)
Yields 8 ½ pints

Ingredients:
4 lbs grapefruit
3 cups sugar
2 cups water
3 bananas
2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped.

Directions:
1. Peel grapefruit, removing pith, membranes and seeds
2. Place grapefruit in large pot, adding ingredients.
3. Bring to boil then lower heat to simmer for approx 45 minutes, or until thick.
4. Place in sterilized jars, following canning procedures (in cookbook).

 

Producing a Healthier You

November 11, 2013 |

Healthy You Network’s recently opened community center offers a variety of resources for people exploring, and already embracing, a plant-based, whole foods lifestyle.

As interest in the local food movement rises, more and more people are understanding the value and power of knowing where their victuals come from, how they are grown and the environmental impacts of choosing organic provisions.

It is also becoming abundantly clear that our shopping choices have the ability to build stronger communities via economically supporting local growers while sustaining our own personal health. Research supports the fact that we are what we eat and the fuel we put into our bodies determines the vibrancy and longevity of our lives.

But, short of hiring a nutritionist or health coach, it can be a challenging feat to understand where to begin and how to proceed. To fill that gap for the Tucson community is Healthy You Network (HYN), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that touts the benefits of a plant-based, whole foods diet; generally defined as emphasizing vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes; consuming unprocessed or minimally processed foods, and excluding all animal products while minimizing salt and sugar.

Comprised of working volunteers and a board of directors, HYN was established in 2011 with a handful of people who recognized the need for outreach and education; a need to share with folks the fact that most chronic diseases are often a result of dietary decisions.

Robert Cheeke, vegan bodybuilder, speaks at the Healthy You Network Nov. 17 VegFest. photo courtesy Healthy You Network

The group began hosting symposiums, bringing in the who’s who advocates (scientists, athletes and medical doctors) of the plant-based diet. While the public interest was there, as evidenced by attendance at the events, HYN realized “they needed to sustain and support people interested in this lifestyle and be an outreach center,” said Media Relations Coordinator Jamie Roach. “They needed to establish a place for both people who were already plant-based and for those considering it.”

At the end of October, that goal became a reality when HYN opened its resource center at 3913 E. Pima St. Roach said HYN will hold food demonstrations, first Saturday monthly pot lucks, along with offering lectures and a book and DVD library.

The center’s events will be affordable, Roach said, as “we want to reach the community at large and don’t want price to keep people away.”

In that spirit, HYN is now Tucson’s – and Arizona’s – vanguard as hosts for the free VegFest on Sunday, Nov. 17. Taking place at the Hilton Tucson East, 7600 E. Broadway Blvd., VegFest brings opportunities to learn about the fitness and environmental benefits of being a plant-based, whole foods consumer. Similar events happen nationally and internationally, but this is the first of its kind in the state.

VegFest runs from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with presentations by Caleb Torres, June E. Stevens, vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke, Milton Mills, M.D., Sunizona Family Farms and Tucson Organic Gardeners along with a Fed by Threads fashion show.

It will showcase a peek into “what the whole food lifestyle looks like and tastes like,” Roach said. “It is all about the food!”

More information on HYN, its community center and VegFest is available at HealthyYouNetwork.org or by dialing (520) 275-7999.

A Barrel of Unpretentious Fun

October 31, 2013 |

photo by James J. Jeffries

Wine is one of those things everyone knows something about, but for most people, that knowledge is usually confined to decision trees involving bottled or boxed, red or white.

Frank Lietzau is on a mission to change that, without all the buttoned-down stuffiness often associated with the world of distant vineyards and sommeliers. One needn’t look further than the Hofsbrau Münchhausen T-shirt he wore on a packed Friday afternoon last month at his new downtown wine bar, Unplugged at 118 E. Congress St., the entrance to which is flanked by two very large oak barrels.

Lietzau’s knowledge of wine ran deep. He dished out detailed anecdotes with each successive bottle he poured to a group of giddy bar patrons eager to learn more about the fantastic wines they were sampling. More importantly, he is refreshingly unpretentious about his very misunderstood trade.

“One has to be honest,” said Lietzau. “If you want to learn about the world of wine, you simply have to go out and taste things, and if you don’t like them, be honest!”

The menu at Unplugged is designed in a way to be extremely accessible to patrons making their first foray into wines. Order a flight for $12, which will consist of a specific array of wines – such as red, white, obscure, or Rieslings – and you’ll get three glasses of 1.5 ounces each to sample.

As you down your first glass, you’ll begin to feel the warm, relaxing, and convivial atmosphere of the bar take hold. The bar and table surfaces are thick wood, buffeted by grey metal fixtures and warm, soft lighting provided by votive candles and a few understated industrial lamps. The glowing light wall behind the bottles changes color according to what Lietzau deems appropriate given the day’s crowd and playlist.

In this sense, Lietzau’s venture is very much in line with the driving forces and overall vibe behind the explosive development in Downtown Tucson; he’s offering a terrific, difficult-to-find variety of small-winery products from across Europe that he is truly passionate about, but going about it in an incredibly welcoming manner that perfectly merges stylish and casual.

“This is my second time here,” said Terri Callarez, as she enjoyed a wine flight of obscures. “It’s a really mellow place to abandon your workday.” She also referred to a choice she made on her first outing, another unusual offering called the John Lee Hooker, which is comprised of one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer. (wink, wink).

“Tucson doesn’t have anything like this,” said Lietzau, referring to his ability to bring in wines that are very seldom seen in this part of the world. It’s this mixture of high quality and openness that exemplifies the spirit of the new movement energizing the city’s heart, as Lietzau honors the skilled beer and winemaking excellence of the Old World, bringing it right into our own community’s historical epicenter.

And if you simply want to relax in this atmosphere, but you’re not so into wine or want a buffer to all of those rich fermented grapes, Unplugged still has you covered with an array of craft beers, including Gaffel Kölsch.

Gaffel Kölsch, as Lietzau explains, “has been brewed near my hometown in Germany for more than 500 years.” It, along with other suds that come from right here in the Old Pueblo – such as Dragoon Brewing Company’s Monsooner – is sold at a very reasonable $5.50 per glass.

Unplugged also offers a rotating variety of delightful small eats, from bruschetta to bratwurst and the customary cheese and fruit plates to accompany your journey into something new and wickedly wonderful.

As is fast becoming the rule these days, this wine bar seems to be yet another compelling destination for Downtown adventurers craving bold new flavors firmly steeped in culinary tradition.

Unplugged resides at 118 E. Congress St., just west of the historic Chicago Store. For more details, visit their Facebook page at Facebook.com/unpluggedtucson. This article is courtesy of the Downtown Tucson Partnership. For more information on where to eat, shop, live and play downtown, visit DowntownTucson.org.

photo by James J. Jeffries

Nov. 1 Looks To Be a Little “Chili”

October 28, 2013 |

Music, food & fun rocks the Tucson Fire Fighters chili cook-off each fall.
photo by Bert Thomas

The forecast for Nov. 1 is HOT. And it isn’t about the weather – we’re talking chili, and lots of it.

For the past 18 years, various stations from Tucson Fire Department and other surrounding departments have convened at El Presidio Park, 160 W. Alameda St., for the annual Tucson Fire Fighters Association’s chili cook-off to benefit the Tucson Firefighter’s Adopt-A-Family program. Last year’s event brought in more than $62,000 to aid hundreds of Southern Arizonan families who were in need of holiday gifts, food and clothing.

“As firefighters, our job is to serve the citizens of the city, and this does not end when we are off duty,” wrote Captain Sloan Tamietti, Tucson Fire, in a letter to the cook-off’s sponsors and potential donors. “This event helps us maintain the ability to continue doing just that, but we cannot do it alone.”

According to the Tucson Fire Fighter’s Association website, last year’s cook-off attracted more than 10,000 visitors and served over 750 gallons of chili.

“It’s open to anybody and we just have it set up as a food festival,” Tamietti said in an interview. “We want to show our way of giving back to the community.”

The cook-off is free to attend. To buy chili, visitors will purchase tickets to exchange for chili samples. If you’re not a fan of the spicy stuff, don’t worry! There’s mild, bean-less, meatless and green varieties of chili stewing in the pots. And if you don’t like chili at all, a variety of other food is there to savor as well – quesadillas, Eegees, frozen yogurt – and all of the proceeds still go to the Adopt-A-Family program.

“When we first started doing the Adopt-A-Family programs, we started to exhaust materials,” said Anthony Gonzalez, TFD Captain at station 20. “We decided to come up with an event that would generate interest in the fire departments and bring families together for a good cause.”

Gonzalez and his comrades came up with the idea of the cook-off eighteen years ago.

“I remember going to my fire chief, and my fire chief told me, ‘Great idea, Tony, but it’s not likely to get enough support.’ I said, ‘Alright, we’ll see.’”

On Dec. 7 that same year, the first firefighter chili cook-off was born, and, as fate would have it, so was Gonzalez’s son. Gonzalez went on to organize the first 10 cook offs.

“We put 100 percent back into the community,” Gonzalez said. “And people look forward to this event all year long.”

Local fire stations compete for best chili & best booth.
photo by Bert Thomas

But it’s not just charity. It’s also a friendly competition between the departments and individual stations. The prize? Bragging rights for the team that cooked the best chili and for the team with the best dressed volunteers and best decorated booth.

“The firefighters really put their all into their creative booths and costumes. It’s always fun and exciting to see what they’ve come up with,” said Cassie Curran who has been to the cook-off the past four years. “The chili cook-off is an event I look forward to every year! And it goes without saying that the chili is delicious. It really kicks off the holiday season activities in Tucson for me.”

There will also be live music at the event, played by musicians who are volunteering their time as well.

“It’s for the community and we want to let them know that we try real hard to do our best for the community,” said Roger Soriano, TFD Captain who has participated in every one since the event’s inception. “We love doing it. We are a community, we enjoy it and we are who we are.”

Soriano’s booth will be giving our quesadillas along with other tasty treats.

“It’s a lot of fun, and a lot of work,” Soriano said. “Our particular group has young and old, and we drink beer, and we’re there and we have fun and we raise money.”

Soriano said that he believes the cook-offs are getting so big, that they will eventually have to find a new home.

“We’ve outgrown downtown, we’re going to have to move it,” he said. “I think that we can get a bigger, better crowd. The more we raise, the more we can give back.”

The money raised for the Adopt-A-Family program helps families during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and even helps provide a fun surprise to kids at the Diamond Children’s Cancer Center at the University of Arizona Medical Center.

“We have one of our ladder trucks go down to the cancer center for the kids and Santa Claus comes through the window to give out gifts,” Tamietti said.

The cook off is on Friday, Nov. 1 from 10 a.m.–10 p.m. at El Presidio Park, 160 W. Alameda St. It is free to attend. For more information, visit the cook off’s website or Facebook page.

Brewing Arizona

October 19, 2013 |

A Century of Beer in the Grand Canyon State
by Ed Sipos
University of Arizona Press (2013), 360 pages

Ed Sipos knows his ales from stouts, lagers from pilsners, and Belgium whites from IPAs.

Sipos is also a member of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America – an organization dedicated to the support of the hobby of collecting brewing memorabilia. Think weird beer cans or bottles. Is the brand no longer sold? The labeling cool? Chances are that Ed Sipos knows something about the beer that went into the bottle or can.

And now Ed Sipos has done something no one else has done for Arizona – he’s written the brewing history of Arizona beers. In his forthcoming book, Sipos covers the states’ beguiling historic figures and their amazing ups and downs, their responses to the rising and falling economies – tied to politics – to tell the story of Arizona brewing all the way to the current state of brewing; from the pioneer beginnings, through Prohibition, the 40s, 50s and 60s, on through to the current state of brewing in Arizona, replete with microbreweries and craft beer successes and failures. Sipos’ meticulous and entertaining volume will convince you that beer and Arizona history are deeply intertwined.

Arizona likes beer. Tucson liked beer so much that Arizona’s first commercial brewery was established in Tucson in 1864. Alexander “Boss” Levin’s Pioneer Brewery persevered through water issues (from the Rillito River, now a usually dry wash smelling of bat guano), Indian attacks, and transportation issues (warm beer delivered to mine sites by mule train), until the arrival of the railroad – which brought in bottled beers that generally shut down the pioneer era local breweries.

Levin operated breweries and sold his beer at establishments in the heart of Tucson. His first brewery was located Downtown between Church and Stone Avenues on Camp Street (now Broadway Boulevard). Later, with his wife Zenobia, Levin opened retail establishment, Park Brewery, on the western end of Pennington Street that offered everything from ice to concerts. The building had a rock walled basement, which assisted in at least chilling the beer somewhat, as 1873 Tucson was decidedly pre-refrigeration. After the train’s arrival in 1880, business went downhill as lower priced transported beer became available, and the establishment closed in 1886.

The state’s most successful operation was the Arizona Brewing Company. The Phoenix-based operation churned suds during the 30s, 40s and 50s; its signature brand A-1was distributed throughout Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas, Nevada, southern Colorado and parts of California. Advertising by supporting a woman’s softball and men’s baseball team, they also promoted their product by getting in on the new communications medium, television, including “A-1 Sports Highlights,” on Phoenix station KPHO. Eventually purchased by the Carling Brewing Company, the brewery ended its run in 1985.

But as regional breweries were swallowed by big breweries over the decades, America was hankering for beers that had flavor! Interestingly, the bland nature of the big American brewery mainstream’s light lagers may be partially traced to World War II grain rationing, which meant that barley was hard to come by. The resulting use of corn and rice in brewing produced lighter lagers and, for many decades and even to this today, has influenced taste.

By the 70s, large breweries producing a fairly insipid product dominated the industry. The first sign of change was the home-brewing movement. Brewing ones’ own beer, left illegal after Prohibition was repealed, was made legal in October 1978 by President Jimmy Carter’s signature. Home-brewing in turn inspired micro-breweries and brew pubs in the 1980s to produce craft beers in-house.

Today, we may take Tucson’s abundantly available micro-brewed beers for granted. But the first operating Tucson microbrewery, Southwest Brewing Company, didn’t arrive until 1988 and was gone by 1990. Others have been as fleeting. Hats off to Gentle Ben’s – which has been brewing increasingly tasty products since 1991 on University Avenue, with a short stoppage to relocate the operation in the mid-nineties; and with its delightful expansion to Barrio Brewing on 16th Street in 2007. Nimbus Brewing Company has been continuously operating since 1997. Try their Dirty Guera, a delicious naughty blonde that can be found at select grocers and liquor stores.

Sipos dedicates over one hundred thirty five pages to the byzantine rise and fall of brewpubs and microbreweries all over the Arizona. What is most impressive is what motivates this creation, the continuously fermenting entrepreneurial desire to try and make a brew that tastes good and will sell.

Brewing Arizona – A Century of Beer in the Grand Canyon State releases on Oct. 17; the launch party and book signing is Nov. 2, 4 p.m.-6 p.m., at Barrio Brewing Company, 800 E. 16th St. Visit BrewingArizona.com for more details.


Creative Cocktail Competition

October 10, 2013 |

Margaritas that go well beyond blended or on the rocks.

There are several origin tales that lay claim to being the 1940s bar that first concocted the margarita, and its birthplace hops all over the border. Some say it was Acapulco or El Paso or Juarez or San Diego. But the oldest story, and my personal favorite, goes something like this: during Prohibition, Americans crossed into Mexico looking for booze and were greeted with tequila. A popular drink called the “Daisy” sported orange liqueur, lime, and brandy, with the with the agave hooch substituting the brandy. Thus, the margarita (Spanish for daisy) was born.

Today, Tucson lays claim to the World Margarita Championship, and on Oct. 25 the Tucson Museum of Art’s outside courtyard will be buzzing with people sampling unique margaritas from over 15 contenders and later casting their votes  for the best margarita. So while businesses have to be part of the Tucson Originals to compete, making the “World” Margarita Championship a bit of a misnomer, at least history and geography have set Tucson in prime real estate to claim the title.

Regardless of its origins, tequila shines in this drink like brandy never would. “All tequilas are a little different,” explains Ryan Clark, head chef at Lodge on the Desert. “Some may be more aged, more subtle, might even have some smoky notes to them. I think balancing the cocktail with that is really important.” The reigning champion has been hard at work on this year’s secret weapon for months. With his team at Lodge on the Desert, he won last year with a margarita spiked with house-made pomegranate jam and local pomegranate vinegar. This year, his star ingredient is a little darker.

“Salt cured black limes,” Clark explains. “We boiled limes with salt water and sun dried them in the beautiful Tucson sun. They have a bitter, salty citrus note to them, which is kind of our big thing at the Lodge, making a sweet, sour and bitter mix and balancing all those flavors.”

Other heavyweights in the competition include mixologists from the Marinaterra Resort in San Carlos, Mexico – though not a part of Tucson Originals, they were specifically invited by the organizers. Marinaterra Resort head bartender Julio Blanco’s mastery with tequila earned him the Peoples’ Choice Award the last two years running; last year’s winning potion was laced with tajin chile and mango.

In the midst of the libations, Tucson Originals restaurants serve well-matched nosh, and the live music by Reno del Mar gets better with every cocktail. The Margarita Championship’s popularity has grown, and now in its seventh year organizers expect a crowd tipping 1,000. Proceeds go to the Blair Charity Group. But no matter who wins: “It’s pulling hairs,” Clark adds. “After all, it’s tequila.”

The most exciting thing about the competition is the innovation and creativity on display. “I think Tucson is a big trend-setting town, and we have some great mixologists,” says Clark. “To see what they’re coming up with and what trends they’re setting for the nation is unbelievable.”

The championship happens on Friday, Oct. 25, 6 p.m.-9 p.m., at Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. Tickets are $50 advance, $60 at the door. Get more information, and tickets, at TucsonOriginals.com/culinary-festival or call (520) 343-9985.

 

Ephemera and Eccentricities

October 6, 2013 |

Tradition and a 40th Anniversary Spice Up Tucson Meet Yourself, October 11-13

Celebrations of Tucson’s ethnic cultures are the reason for Tucson Meet Yourself!
photo: Steven Meckler/courtesy Tucson Meet Yourself

Tuck in your sari; swallow that mouthful of paella and hang on to your delicate Ukrainian egg. Somewhere between the first spring roll and listening to the bagpipes – you’ll be swept away by an annual phenomenon that lies dormant in Tucson until the second weekend of October. But then, ethnic pride blooms into quite a feast, a meeting of yourself Downtown, a delicious celebration that mixes up shared cultures in the desert.

Authenticity is serious business at Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY), celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. So is the eating and learning about what is both exciting and everyday in a most remarkable cultural stew.

The giant of a man behind all this is hard to miss! Although now leaning on a walker or riding his scooter, Dr. Jim Griffith, practicing urban anthropologist, still looms large at the annual festival. Plucking his banjo, admiring a Mexican lady’s flowers, listening to and talking with Tohono O’odham and Turks and everyone else in between, this man of everyday people has made sharing the multi-cultures of the Arizona-Sonora region his life’s work, resulting in books, the past directorship of the Southwest Folklore Center at the University of Arizona, as well as the nation’s highest honor for folklorists from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Veterans of Big Jim will not be disappointed this year when his showcase of ourselves again covers every corner of the Presidio, Jácome Plaza and environs – a site selected 40 years ago as “neutral ground” for the city’s cultural collaboration. Like an old-fashioned, massive quilting circle, TMY activates Downtown as its own utopian community, a funky melting pot along the lines of what Big Jim and Loma Griffith, the founders of TMY, call “the fruitcake model” – full of textures and colors that stand on their own within a nutty cake.

Doing the 40th
Even if you’re not a fruitcake fan you’ll still enjoy this party of the people. The 2013 event has some new elements, including:

photo: Steven Meckler/courtesy TMY

The 40th Anniversary Cultural Kitchen foodway includes 25 food demonstrations from local cooking gurus, ranging from Ethiopian red lentil stew, to chiltepin chocolate ice cream and Swedish spritz cookies. Also expect prickly pear cheese cake, cholla bud/nopalito salad, Congolese lenga lenga (amaranth stew) and Russian beet vinaigrette salad. The kitchen runs until 7pm Saturday and all day Sunday, and of course the 50+ food booths are open until festival lights out.

The Lowrider Show and Shine returns to its original TMY location (Tucson Museum of Art), while nearby at La Cocina Old Town Artisans – there’ll be a satellite storytelling stage hosted by Pima County Library Foundation.

A new visual and educational exhibit on the Chinese in Tucson will be sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Center in a tent outside the main library at Jácome Plaza, while the Western History Association (conducting its annual meeting up in the Foothills) will host a panel discussion on one TMY stage, bringing scholars who study the history of the west Downtown to join the festival fusion.

Expect the 25th Annual AIDSWalk Tucson to traverse through the festival, kicking off Sunday’s program, beginning at 9am.

Tall Tales
While for many TMY is all about the food, others are interested in the peculiar folklore that has grown up around the festival over four decades. If you haven’t heard the storytelling, here are a few tales:

  • Setting for miracles: The worst tropical storm in Arizona’s history occurred in 1983, with this 100-year flood reporting the highest crests in the Rillito and the Santa Cruz. Campbell Avenue was a river and Grant Road a lake, and distraught festival planners worked out contingency plans with the city and Pima County, so that the cultural clubs who relied on TMY food sales wouldn’t be devastated by the downpours. As it turned out, that year the rains abruptly ceased the Friday of the festival, opening a circle of blue sky over TMY Friday through Sunday – whereupon the rains began again all over Tucson. Or so the folklore goes.

  • The Name Game: The first “Tucson, Meet Yourself” (an intentional comma provided a grammatically correct invitation) was a two-day affair, kicked off by a Friday night “Fandango” (animated dance party) at a newly built La Placita Village. In 1975, the name changed to “TMY and Friends,” to allow all the ethnic you’d ever want from other parts of the country to join in the Tucson party. That year, TMY hosted national recording artist and first lady of Tejano Lydia Mendoza, among other national artists. The name returned to “Tucson Meet Yourself”(without the comma) in 1976, and that name stuck (except for a 1995-2000 hiatus, when the festival was called “THE Tucson Heritage Experience,” and not run by Jim and Loma).

  • Experimentation: Although the mission remained the same over 40 years, Jim often looked for ways to keep the festival fresh. Some ideas, like the Liar’s Contest, which had as its top prize a bronzed cow pie on a plaque, came in 1979 and stayed for a few years. Others, like the corrido contest, begun in 1982, remain an important part of the festival.

  • Supper breaks: In the early years, TMY employed a very-extended supper break on Saturdays to allow tradition bearers to eat and refresh before the evening program. Back in 1974, the festival needed a way to let folks know the festival was starting up again after the supper break. Someone suggested that the pipers process from their courtyard practice area to the city hall stage, bellowing away to herald the program restart. The tradition stuck (even after supper breaks ended in the mid-1990s).

  • Paseo: In the 1980s, when one group wanted to do a fashion show onstage, Jim and team responded by asking all groups to participate in a traditional Show and Tell called the Paseo. For many years, promenades of ethnic costumes were the de rigueur of the Saturday programs. Women and men wearing traditional and contemporary styles of dress proudly displayed their outfits while an emcee explained the intricacies as well as the meaning of the colors and the ornamentation.  The Paseo continued off and on but in a minimal way after the formal supper breaks ended.

  • Gang of Five: What started as a gathering put together by Jim and Loma’s close friends evolved even in the early years as a complex undertaking requiring hundreds of volunteers. The beginning core volunteer group was called the Gang of Five (a nod to the Mao Zedong era and his revolutionary political group known as the Gang of Four). The Tucson gang that planned and ran the festival from the late 1970s until 1995 actually never numbered five. Started after strong urgings from Loma, the group always numbered somewhere between four and 15. Mike and Frieda Stafford, who met doing garbage detail at the festival, and celebrated their honeymoon hauling a white garbage cart through the park with “Just Married” written on it, were part of the early Gang of Five. They’re still married and still attend TMY.

Inevitably, as you lick the last remnants of fry bread from your fingers, someone asks a question about the origins of the treat, or how to spell how to spell chivichanga. And that leads to an exchange at the heart of Jim and Loma’s festival vision: The more we appreciate, the more we’ll respect, increasing the chances of understanding and working together.

The generosity of simple people allowing strangers into their cultures for 40 years is something to remember as we eat or dance or touch that priceless traditional artwork. After the TMY blitz of culture overload that hits the sweet spot this month, ordinary life will seem that much more extraordinary to you.

The free festivities take place at the main library plaza, El Presidio Park, and surrounding streets from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Oct 11-12 and 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Oct 13. Schedule and parking information is available at TucsonMeetYourself.org.

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TMY Time Capsule
If you want a head start (or a follow up) to the festival, be sure to visit Special Collections, UA Main Library, where a rich repository of TMY folklore is on display, in an exhibit that crisscrosses culture with historical documents and enough visual ephemera to call up festival fun.

“Big Jim” Griffith with his banjo, likely sharing a story before playing a song.
photo courtesy TMY/date unknown

This time capsule of posters, t-shirts, music, leaflets, tickets, albums and all sorts of Big Jim memorabilia was assembled by UA associate librarian Bob Diaz (who also is Library coordinator of exhibits and events and curator of the Library’s Performing Arts collection).

The exhibit is organized by eras and themes, which unfold into unique TMY snapshots, past and present. Each display case, panel or kiosk feels like its own treasure chest, worthy of pleasurable browsing. Adding to the complexity and fun is a music kiosk, containing audio from the festival’s early years. Another large monitor gives great pictorial punch and, sometimes, emotion, to the exhibit via a photographic faces of the festival display.

The overall history itself comes alive through material that tells a different side of the well-known story: for example, there are Jim’s 1974 handwritten and typed notes that show ideas and budget for the 1974 event. In another case, the first corrido contest is brought to life by its printed ephemera. Dog eared old photos provide a connection with the past in ways that today’s digital images cannot – illuminating TMY history to new generations.

An hour before what turned out to be a packed opening-night reception in mid-September, Big Jim and Loma were seen surveying the cases with apparent delight. All told, the exhibition presents hundreds of items from a collection Jim donated to the archives several years ago. Fascinating and even a little weird (the bronzed Liar’s Contest cow pie plaque is on display), this Big Jim exhibition is worth a trip.

“40 Years of Tucson Meet Yourself” is on view at Special Collections, UA Main Library, 1510 E. University Blvd., through January 12, 2014. Hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry is free, as is use of the vast and interesting Special Collections archives, where anyone is allowed to research priceless documents and memorabilia on subjects as varied as mining, Gabrielle Giffords or Stewart Udall archives, and an oddly wonderful vaudeville collection. All that is required is to complete some paperwork. A professional band of archivists and librarians are always available to help you discover something interesting about the Southwest. Learn more at: SpecColl.Library.Arizona.edu.

 

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