The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
With the first full week of business under our belt here in Arizona, “The Point Being” podcast played host this week to This is Tucson and Daily Star food and beverage reporter Andi Berlin.
After starting off in more of a critic’s role, Berlin has had to adapt her reporting with the changing industry and times. We discussed her recent series of locally submitted “Quarantine Cookbook” recipes, the life of a food critic/writer and how Tucson will forever be changed by the pandemic of 2020.
You can listen to this and other episodes in their entirety on our website, or with Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Question: What was the impetus behind your “Quarantine Cookbook” series of locally submitted recipes, and who ended up submitting?
Andi Berlin: I’ve had home cooks. I’ve got professional chefs from noteworthy kitchens and restaurants. I’ve got food bloggers, you know, basically anyone. So it’s just kind of a mishmash, I guess. There’s not even really a theme. I just kind of let people go with it, you know, whatever they wanted to submit to me, whatever they cared about, I said, “I’ll publish it.”
And the way it started was because I do a weekly Instagram series on Instagram Stories for This is Tucson and it’s called “Andi Eats,” where I go and eat at a local restaurant.
I usually do it on Thursday, Friday, maybe Saturday, sometimes. It doesn’t really have a regular day, but I usually do it around then.
But basically, I’ve been doing the “Andi Eats” for a couple years where I go out to eat at restaurants. And since this quarantine started, I thought I should do a different thing where I’m cooking. So it’s “Andi Cooks” and the concept is I try to recreate food from a restaurant that I like, in my kitchen.
The first one I did was I recreated the Baked Eggs from The Cup (inside of Hotel Congress). They’re fantastic. It’s like a cast iron skillet filled with eggs and cream and Gruyere cheese and leeks, and it’s like a creamy medley of eggs flavor. I tried to recreate that and it didn’t go so well, to be honest, because it’s actually pretty hard to cook.
But that’s kind of how the idea for the recipe collection was started. I had to seek out what the recipe was for the baked eggs, and then I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if I just got a bunch of recipes from people and published them online?” because there was a lot of interest.
Q: What have been some of your favorite submitted recipes?
Berlin: I printed the recipe for the Brussels sprouts from Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink. Those are fantastic. I attempted to make those Brussels sprouts at home and that was a little hard, because they fry their Brussels sprouts.
That’s hard to recreate in a home kitchen size, you know, deep fried. It’s messy. So I think mine turned out well, but when I put that chili hot sauce that they do on top, they got a little soggy.
The flavor was there. It was just the texture wasn’t as good as they do at Reilly. And if you’ve never had those Brussels sprouts, like people go out and get them cause they’re delicious.
Another recipe that’s really stood out is the Spam buns at Obon Sushi. Those are amazing. I love those, too. You know, like a weird thing was when I was a kid, like in junior high, my nickname was Spam.
And I bought all these Spam shirts and memorabilia and books about Spam, but, to that point in my life, I had never actually eaten Spam because I grew up like a suburban New York Jew, basically.
Like I honestly didn’t need Spam until I started realizing Spam is really big in Asian culture cuisine, which is kind of interesting.
Q: What is it like being a food writer in a time when most restaurants and bars are either closed or have limited options?
Berlin: It’s like a cooking renaissance for me. It’s actually been really cool and interesting. Because eating, being a food critic, like I am, I really wasn’t cooking very much for the last few years. I’m always eating out at restaurants. That’s kind of one of the misconceptions about food critics, that we’re all great cooks. I think I’m a pretty good cook, but to be honest, most food critics, like, they’re really good.
