Those of us who have ever been to a Sonoran hot dog stand know that Tucson does some pretty interesting stuff with its food. But is it downright, bizarre?
Well, famous TV personality Andrew Zimmern seems to think so. This week he dedicated an entire episode of his show "Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations" to the Old Pueblo. The episode originally aired on the Travel Channel Dec. 6, and will rerun throughout the week, eventually making its way onto the network's website.
Here's when you can catch it:
— Sunday, Dec. 11 at 2 p.m.
— Monday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.
— Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 1 a.m.
— Saturday, Dec. 31 at 11:30 p.m.
"Delicious Destinations" is actually a spinoff of Andrew's well-known show "Bizarre Foods," where he traipses around the globe putting strange things like horse meat and fermented Korean fish into his mouth. Delicious Destinations is modeled after that show, but features less Andrew and more cultural info about the specific city.
Crews were spotted around town earlier this year, filming food trucks and visiting local restaurants like the Tucson Tamale Company, which made up a green corn for the show. On the episode, you'll see everything from "legendary sun-dried beef and deep-fried chimichangas" at you know where, to "bacon-wrapped hot dogs" and of course, raspados.
[Andi's self-promoting sidenote: I actually got to work with the production crew at Tremendous! Entertainment to pick out many of these local restaurants, so look out for some of my favorites!]
This is actually the second time Andrew's show has been to town. The first time was in 2010 when he ate goat meat birria at Maico with pizza man Chris Bianco. (Tucson part starts at about 9 minutes.)
