Best of the Barrio-Tucson Culinary Tour

So today was the long anticipated Best of the Barrio Culinary tour in Tucson. Penny and Beth accompanied me. Here we are waiting for our ride. Beth said she had her eating pants on (elastic waistband).

There was a total of 5 of us and a driver in a 14 passenger van. Lots of room. The driver really froze Penny and Beth though. The air conditioner was going full blast. They were a little cranky at first.

Then we got to the bakery. Somehow that fixed everything! It didn't look like much on the outside, but the smell of baking was great.

This is the bag of goodies they gave us. They were delicious!

This is what the bakery cases looked like. See the rows of tortillas on top? They were all still hot out of the oven.

Beth said now that she had a little bakery goodie in her stomach, she felt great and everything was fine.

Then we came to this restaurant. We had a really good shredded beef taco and a piece of a chicken quesadilla.

I forgot to take a picture of the food before I messed up my plate. I made Beth stop eating so I could get a picture of hers. There is only one bite missing from her quesadilla.

Then we went to this seafood place. They were decorated in a nautical style and also sold fish that they caught in the sea of Cortez or gulf of California.

This is the couple that was on the tour with us. They were celebrating their 50Th wedding anniversary! Yeah for them. They were fun. They were from Myrtle Beach, North Carolina and were on a 5 week road trip.

Of course we had chips and salsa.

This was a ceviche tostada with shrimp and an open face fried fish taco. The appearance of the ceviche was a little off putting, but it actually tasted really good. Penny couldn't get past the appearance.

Penny loved the parrot. She wanted it for her porch.

We learned that Penny had accordion lessons when she was a kid! Who knew? We hadn't brought an accordion along and so couldn't get her to play. Therefore I decided we should have a little Mexican mood music and put a dollar in the juke box. I just randomly chose the songs. Penny thought it was somewhat painful. But hey, she wouldn't play the accordion for us.

The tour guide took this group photo for us. It's a little blurry. Some of them had margaritas. That's probably why.

Then we went to this place that was famous for it's Sonoran style hot dogs. It was a busy and happening place. I have to say I really liked the hot dogs. They are wrapped in bacon and then have a bunch of other stuff piled on. What's not to like? We were all getting pretty pained at this point and not sure we could stuff much more in. Beth's "eating pants" weren't doing her much good. She was pretty much full at the bakery!

Here is Beth and Penny waiting for our hot dogs and carne asada burro.
They look like they are enjoying each other's company don't they?

This guy was playing and singing for us. I don't know why he has shoe strings tied to the end of his guitar. So he can tell his guitar from every one Else's?

Sonoran Style hot dog and grilled chili. MMM.

The condiment table had grilled green onions and lots of fresh vegetables.

Carne Asada burro.

Our transportation

For dessert, they took us for raspados. A mexican shaved Ice, with a scoop of ice cream and then fresh fruit poured all over the top. Somehow we found the room.

Beth with her coconut raspado.

Penny and her strawberry one.

My peach raspado.

It was a fun day. I think I would like to invent my own culinary tour for my friends and I to do in Phoenix. Maybe several different versions........