Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [202]
Mariscos Chihuahua
2902 E. 22nd St.
520–326–1529
Tucson, AZ
LD | $$
Mariscos Chihuahua is a big, bright place with sunlight streaming in picture windows all around, illuminating a tempestuous seascape mural that covers one wall. The staff is friendly and the tape player belts out Mexican tunes that make every meal feel like a celebration. Seafood stars on this menu: oysters raw or cooked, fish grilled or fried, stews and soups. And oh, such shrimp! The menu lists a dozen different styles including cool cocktails and “drowned raw,” meaning ceviche-style, i.e., cooked by immersion in a lime marinade, as well as breaded and fried.
We stuck to the basics and got an order of cooked shrimp in garlic sauce and an order of shrimp endiablados, which means extremely hot. The shrimp are presented in a most appetizing way, strewn across a field of crisp French fries on a broad fish-shaped plate that also holds a mound of rice, a green salad, and a warm tortilla wrapped in foil. They are served with the hard tail still on, providing a nice handle for nabbing one good mouthful. What’s great about the presentation is that whatever the shrimp are sauced with—be it garlic butter, soy sauce, oyster sauce, or that devilish endiablados—seeps down and flavors the French fries that are their bedding.
Beverages include excellent presweetened (and lemon-flavored) iced tea as well as horchata, the locally flavored sweetened rice milk. A large cooler in the center of the dining area holds bottles and cans of Dos Equis, Tecate, Corona, and Bud and Bud Light.
(There are two other Mariscos Chihuahua in Tucson. They are located at 1009 N. Grande Ave. and 3901 S. 6th Ave.)
Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Café
808 E. Jefferson St.
602–262–9256
Phoenix, AZ
L until 5:00 P.M. | | $
Looking for inexpensive home cooking in downtown Phoenix? This is the place. A destination lunch for citizens from all social strata, Mrs. White’s is a concrete bunker that usually gets mobbed shortly after opening at 11:00 A.M. But don’t worry if you have to wait. Meals are served quickly and customers don’t linger. The cuisine is southern-style soul food, including smothered pork chops, catfish, and crunch-crusted fried chicken, always accompanied by hunks of corn bread. On the side come such vegetables as creamed corn, escalloped cabbage, stewed tomatoes, and salubrious, pork-flavored greens. For dessert, spoon into a bowl of warm peach cobbler or fork up sweet potato pie.
We love the do-it-yourself décor of this ramshackle little eatery, where strangers instantly feel right at home. The menu is written on the wall and no checks are given at the end of a meal. Simply go to the register and tell the cashier what you’ve eaten. She rings it up and you pay (cash only).
Old Smoky’s Restaurant
624 W. Bill Williams Ave. (Old Route 66)
520–635–2091
Williams, AZ
BL | $
Before Interstate 40 replaced Route 66, Williams was known to travelers along great Mother Road as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon.” For vacationing families as well as hungry long-haul drivers, it was an oasis, an opportunity to buy souvenirs, spend the night, establish a base camp, and eat a good meal. There are two restaurants in town, both opened in 1946, that maintain the flavor of the old road. At Rod’s Steak House, you eat big meat-and-potatoes supper, and at Old Smoky’s, you fuel up for the day on stacks of three hotcakes starting at six o’clock every morning.
Old Smoky’s is a cozy, wood-paneled diner where tourists and truckers rub elbows at the counter and exchange news over the backs of well-worn upholstered booths. Open only through the lunch hour, it has a midday menu of chili cheeseburgers and bowls of homemade chili topped with biscuits, but it’s breakfast—served anytime—that pulls our car into the lot like a magnet.
Bread is featured on the front of the menu: white, wheat, rye, cheddar-wheat, and Swiss rye, all of which are available by the half-order, whole order, or 21/2-pound loaf. In addition to these savory selections, there is a long roster of sweet breads available: