Tucson in Southern Arizona was named the first American City of Gastronomy by Unesco in 2014 in recognition of its unique and ancient food culture, as well as all the more recent trends that have driven the city to become a major food destination.
The area was first settled over 4000 years ago, and the current city was established by the Spanish in the 18th Century. The combination of the hot sun, fertile soil and the high desert environment leads to some unique plants and ingredients being grown and used here.
It's also very close to the Mexican border so the town has always had a significant population from Mexico, particularly the state of Sinaloa as well as Native American and European settlers.
Local specialities include the Sonoran Hot Dog - a hot dog rolled in crispy bacon, then served with beans, onion, tomato, mayo, green salsa, mustard and an array of other condiments from guacamole to pico de gallo and chipotle salsa.
There's also the cheese crisp - a HUGE flour tortilla topped with loads of cheese which can then be topped with green chilli, steak, chicken, chorizo etc and eaten like a Mexican pizza.
Breakfast Burro - it's a standard way to start the day with a scrambled egg and cheese burrito, filled with sausage, bacon, chorizo or carne asada. The local speciality is machaca - dried meat like jerky that's shredded and stirred into scrambled eggs for a fantastic breakfast burrito.
Tucson is also a college town and there's obviously a market for late-night food, which is perhaps where the bacon-wrapped burrito comes in! This epic creation of chopped steak, avocado, cheese, tomato, fried onion and roasted chilli wrapped in a flour tortilla then the whole thing rolled in bacon and fried until crispy is both monstrous and extraordinarily delicious. I could only manage half but what a flavour!
