Tucson Trendy Trends #1:

Gluten-Free Awareness
   One in 133 Americans have celiac disease, aka gluten intolerance. It causes damage to the lining of the small intestine. Having a damaged small intestine can cause people to not absorb important nutrients and makes the person become malnourished. Some of the symptoms of celiac disease are abdominal cramping, fatigue, and migraines. There is no known cause of gluten-intolerance, but it is hereditary.
    Tucson restaurants are showing support to this under-served segment of the population with gluten-free options on their menus. Sir Veza's Taco Garage, Bianchi's Italian, Delactables and even chains like P.F Changs, and are providing customers gluten-free grub. Tucson also has restaurants that are all or mostly gluten free like Gourmet Girls Gluten Free Bakery and The Tasteful Kitchen.
   Chefs are almost becoming more like nutritionists then chefs. This is because nowadays, more people actually care about what they put in their bodies, rather then just how something tastes or costs. Gluten-free cooking can be challenging. For example, if you use a knife to cut a loaf of bread and use that same knife to cut a head of lettuce it may not be safe for gluten-free patrons.  Chefs should not view this as a fad but rather a way of life of for their customers.
   Gluten free cooking can be great for a restaurant and chef by boosting creativity to do more to maintain or increase flavor and texture in the food. Even just changing flour to almond flour or rice flour adds a new element to the taste to whatever dish.
   In conclusion, I recommend people who are not gluten intolerant try out a gluten-free creme puff or something else that is wheatless. Then you will see how much flavor there really is in gluten-free food.

Mother Knows Best

   Mother Hubbard's Cafe is a breakfast joint in the Old Pueblo. Former patron turned owner and Detroit native, Kelzi Bartholomaei is the fourth owner of Mother Hubbard's since August 2010. She has been cooking food from her Native-American/Mexican heritage and adding her own spin to the classic items on the longtime Tucson diner's menu.
   Walking into the place, you can hear the sounds of fathers talking to their children, waitresses talking orders and senior citizens talking about there younger years among the clinking and clanking of the pots-n-pans from the kitchen. This, along with the extensive collection of cookie jars displayed makes you feel as though you have walked into Kelzi's own kitchen at home.
   Mom's entree was  the Barrio Pepper Cheese Steak ($8.00). The meat was savory and grilled to perfection with the peppers and onions adding a nice texture all placed in a fresh yet sturdy roll for easy eating.
   My entree was the Silver City($9.25). It was composed of cheese, green onions, red chili sauce, with your choice of eggs, all on a blue corn tortilla with a side of beans. I chose my eggs to be scrambled. The tortilla was yummy. It soaked up a bit of the sauce. The sauce was tomatoey and a little peppery. Also the eggs were fluffy. The beans were tasty and obviously made from scratch.
  Check out this great Tucson classic diner, if you want good food.

Mother Hubbard's Cafe:         Hours:
14 W. Grant Rd.                       Mon-Sat  6am-2pm
(520) 623-7976                      Sun 7am-2pm

 

 

www.motherhubbardscafe.com

Iron Chef Tucson 2012 Recap!!!

The Iron Chef of Tucson Competition has been pitting chefs of different backgrounds and genres against each other since 2007. Chefs like Albert Hall of Acacia and Steven Shultz of  Red Sky and Luna Bella have competed in the Tucson version of the classic Kitchen Stadium at Lowes Ventana Canyon. This year, returning champ Chef  Ryan Clark, of Lodge of the Desert, competed against the challenger Allen Yap of OM Modern Asian Kitchen for a chance to win the Trophy provided by Stella Artois and to claim the title of Iron Chef of Tucson!!!

  

The Competion was hosted by Marty Bishop of 94.9 MIX FM and Johnathan Landeen of Johnathan's Cork. He also particapted in the competion's debute back in 2007. The competers were able to bring one kitchen device and some desired ingredients. They asked Whole Foods, the vendor, to supply additional oils, spices, and stocks. The kitchen device Chef  Yap brought was a pressure cooker, which allows food to cook  at a high tempertare in a wet enviorment without air or liquids escaping. A good way for him to cook his rice. Chef Clark brought a sous-vide, a machine that sucks the air out of bags filled with foods to presverve flavor and placed in water baths to speed up cooking time. A good way for Clark to shorten the cooking time on meats.

 

Each competitor had to make four dishes made with the secret ingredient.  At least one dish had to include beer from the sponsor Stella Artois. The time frame given was just one hour. The Chefs dishes were judged on presentation, taste, creativity, and use of the secret ingredient. This years secret ingedinent was the highly prized Chelian Sea Bass, worth approximently $32 per pound.

  

Right when the competition started, the Chefs and their Sous chefs were scrambling around the kitchen slicing and dicing veggies and the sea bass. In order to make an excellent four course meal for the panel of judges. The judges this year were Excutive Chef for Lowes Ventana Canyon, Ken Harvey, Certified Executive Chef, Alan Zeman, and Executive Director of the Tucson Children's Museum and writer of ''Meals and Entertainment" for Inside Tucson Business, Michael Luria.

Both competitors had to use as much of the bass as possible. Asian flavors were featured by both Chefs. Chef  Allen Yap used varied techniques such as frying in tempera batter and searing. Featured in one of his dishes, Chef Yap won the heart of Judge Alan Zeman with fried skin (cheecharones) from the Bass itself. Chef Clark decided to go more on the lighter side and prepared more varied  flavors using other  ingeredints such as mango and prickly pear.

It came down to the wire in the end, to the closest scoring in Iron Chef of Tucson history. Then Chef Ryan Clark came out on top, winning the Iron Chef of Tucson title for the sceond year in a row.

                                                          

Gyro the Best

   Honar Mahmoud is a passionate chef that loves his food and his customers.  As a child he worked in a candy store in Iran with his father and brother. Later he opened up his own gyro place in the middle east before coming to Tucson in the early 2000's to open Gyro Cafe with his brother.
   When My Mom and I walked through the doors of the place it was really cool and small. We walked up to order and there were giant pitures of  food. There was also a wall filled with gyro cafe accomplishments from the local newspaper and the internet.
  For our appetizer we ordered the Tabouli ($4.99). The Tabouli was composed of cracked, wheat, parsley, cucumber, green onion, tomato, red onion, lemon juice, and olive oil. It also came with pita bread. It was very light and delicate. You could taste the flavor of the fresh veggies and a little bit of the bitterness from the lemon. It was great.
   For my Mom's entree, she ordered the Greek Salad with Gyro Meat ($8.99). The salad had lettuce, tomato, red onion, greek dressing, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and lamb. The lettuce and tomatoes were crisp. The lamb was tender and juicy. Mom enjoyed the dressing.
   My entree was the Chicken Gyro ($7.99). It was like a regular lamb gyro but with chicken. The chicken was tender and nice.
  The Kurdish Pizza we both shared was absoultly "savorlicious". The pizza was composed of homemade dough baked to perfection with a perfect mix of spices.  It was topped with feta and mozzarella cheeses as well as greeen bell peppers. 

   For desert we had one of the 10 diffrent types of baklava Gyro Cafe had. My Mom had the Apricot Bakalva ($2.50) and I had the Chocolate Bakalva ($2.50). The Apricot Bakalava was flavorful and fruity. My Chocolate Baklava  was flaky and chocolatey.
  Check out Gyro Cafe if you want great Mediterranean food.

Gyro Cafe:                                             Hours:
11143 N. La Canada, Suite 101        Mon-Sat 7am-8pm
(520) 742-2923                                   Sun 8am-2pm
www.tucsongyros.com