Sonoran hot dog: There are a lot of foods worth traveling for in Tucson – the food capital of Arizona is America’s first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
Read MoreYou better like carne asada.
Read MoreThis week, Tucson played host to representatives from Europe, Asia, and Mexico whose home cities each value and prioritize local food and gastronomy. Known as the Delice Network, the group works together to share their different strategies and methods of promoting food culture at the local level.
Tucson recently joined the ranks as the 27th member, with Chicago as the only other U.S. city.
Read MoreAfter securing much-needed water rights, the co-op farm on the Tohono O’odham reservation is honoring thousands of years of the tribe's farming history.
Read MoreTucson is well known for its Sonoran-style Mexican food. But since the turn of the century, ethnic restaurants and fine dining choices have proliferated. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) designated Tucson a “world city of gastronomy” under the Creative Cities Network programme, becoming thus the first city of gastronomy in the United States. The Sonoran hot dog is very popular in Tucson. This is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and grilled, served on a bolillo-style hot dog bun, and topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments.
Read MoreBy the time Tucson itself became the first City of Food Cultures in the U.S. to be designated by UNESCO in 2015, hadn’t the National Heritage designation for the Santa Cruz died on the vine, or become like a river suddenly drying up in the sand?
Not really. Like most desert rivers, its energy just went “underground” for a while.
Read MoreThe James Beard Foundation just put out its annual list of semifinalists for the most prestigious award in the food world — and Tucson made the cut.
Don Guerra of Barrio Bread is one of 20 semifinalists in the Outstanding Baker category. And El Charro Café is up for an Outstanding Restaurant award, which honors restaurants with 10 or more consecutive years in business.
Read MoreRestored historic theaters bookend Congress Street, and the downtown has become an epicenter for Tucson’s food scene. Mabry said there are more than 60 restaurants downtown, two-thirds of which are locally owned. In 2015 it was designated as the first U.S. “Creative City of Gastronomy” by UNESCO.