Tucson, Arizona is about sixty miles from the Mexican border. When people think about traffic across the border the first things that come to mind are often negative. Illegal immigration. Drugs and the violence that accompanies them. But the vast majority of the north and south flow is cultural. Mexican, American and Native American culture influence each other spawning new ideas that none would have conceived on their own.
I write, of course, about the Sonoran hot dog. The Sonoran Desert straddles southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Sonora is also the name of the Mexican state immediately south of Arizona. Born from these two states and the desert they share, the Sonoran hot dog is Tucson's version of a Chicago style hot dog.
The bun is a soft Mexican bolillo roll. The hot dog is wrapped in bacon and grilled. That's right, a hot dog wrapped in bacon! The dog is topped with pinto beans, chopped onions, diced tomatoes, jalapeno sauce, shredded cheese, ketchup and mustard, with a drizzle of mayonnaise on top. Mine were garnished with a roasted green chili pepper on the side. The result is amazing! If you find yourself in southern Arizona or northern Mexico don't leave until you've had a couple of Sonoran hot dogs. If you find yourself in the hot dog selling business, consider adding this cross-cultural delicacy to your menu.
Before my lunch I worked in a little sight-seeing. The Tucson area boasts plenty to do, even when the Diamondbacks and Rockies are playing their Cactus League games up in Phoenix. At Old Tucson Studios you can tour the sets where several western movies were filmed. Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood all stared in movies filmed here. The Titan Missile Museum is located in the silo of a decommissioned strategic nuclear missile. During the tour a few years ago, I sat in the command seat and flipped the switches to arm the missile. The tour guide counted down, and we turned the keys to launch. Fortunately for the rest of you, when we came to the end of the tour the Titan II missile was still in the silo. Stepping several years back, the Fort Lowell Museum is on the site of the key US Cavalry base during the wars with the Apache. The town of Tombstone, featuring the real life OK Corral, is a short drive away. Going back even further than that, as I mentioned yesterday, the San Xavier del Bac Mission on the Tohono O'odham reservation south of Tucson is an active Catholic Church, but is open to public for tours.
The star attraction of the area is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. A natural history museum, zoo, botanical garden, and art museum rolled into one beautiful facility in the desert west of the city. Walking among hundreds of cacti and desert plants, you can see all kinds of animals, including birds, butterflies, snakes, pumas, coyotes, and my favorite, the javalinas.
Today I checked out one of the few attractions I haven't made it to before, the Pima County Air & Space Museum. As Homer Simpson said when he was told "There's no air in space", "There's an Air 'n Space Museum!" The tour begins with the Wright Brothers' flyer. Now, I'm not saying that its not the real Wright Flyer, but I've seen the same airplane at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC, and at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton. Once you get past that, its a pretty good aviation museum. With both indoor and outdoor exhibits, the highlights of the collection are an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and the Air Force One jet used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in the 1960s. The most fun for me was seeing three huge B-52 bombers sitting wing-to-wing.
The Pima Air Museum also runs tours of the Air Force's "boneyard." The boneyard is rows and rows of the Air Force's decommissioned aircraft. I was hoping to make it there, but when I got to the museum the next tour wasn't until 1:30, and I had Sonoran hot dogs on my mind.
Tucson also has plenty of great golf courses too. Though my advice to the spring training traveler is when in Florida see a few games and play a lot of golf. In Arizona see a lot of baseball and play a little golf. In Florida the baseball is spread out all over the state, and a result tickets are harder to get and prices are higher. In Florida golf courses occur naturally and are around every corner. In Arizona, especially in Phoenix, the Cactus League stadiums are close together and there are plenty of choices for games every day. Tickets are easy to get (unless you want to see the Cubs), and the prices are generally lower. In Arizona a golf course is an affront to nature. You'll have trouble paying less than $60 for 18 holes, and can easily pay well over $100.
In the afternoon I watched a baseball game between the Diamondbacks and Rockies minor leaguers. Without a scoreboard or announcer its hard to keep track of what's going on in the game. Coach Haley told me his team lost on one bad inning. But, who needs to know what's going on when you can spend an afternoon sitting in the sun watching a ballgame? The parking is free, the game is free, and in the last row of the bleachers, I was four rows back.
Christian Beltre and Yonata Ortega recognized me from South Bend and came over to say hello. I think for the ballplayers, especially the Latin guys, during the tedium of spring training its nice to see a familiar face. Especially one who's not telling you what to do or constantly evaluating your performance. Its nice for the official scorer too, to be recognized and have the ballplayers go out of their way to say hello. If you're at spring training and the major league team is on the road, taking in a minor league game is a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.
The place with the giant bull outside is Casa Molina. And it is amazing. I ordered a combination dinner and they just kept brining me food. It started with a bowl of chicken and rice soup. Then came chili con carne, which is not a bowl of chili. Its big chunks of steak in a spicy brown sauce. Then a beef tamale with a side of beans. By the time the sopapillas and honey came, I told the waiter to put them right in a takeout box. The food was amazing, the service was quick and attentive, and the margaritas were perfect. I might be back there once more time before I go home.
On the way to Casa Molina last night I passed a restaurant that features the cuisine of Mexico City. I'm interested to see how it differs from the northern Mexican food that I've been eating. I wonder how they make hot dogs down there.
Christian Beltre watching the Minor League game.
Sonoran Hot Dog.
Pete ought to get another part-time job working for the Travel Channel or Conde Nast, or maybe the Food Network. Were you an English major, Pete. You write very well.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you're enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteI was actually a political science major, which requires plenty of writing too.
I think I'm going to have to give up travel writing at the end of the week. Its a lot of work eating all this Mexican food and drinking all these margaritas. But I do it for the readers!
If I stayed another week, I think all the reports would be about salads and tap water.