Over Easy, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Good breakfast places can seem to be a dime a dozen, but in reality, they’re really not that easy to find. That’s because while lunch, dinner and dessert can go off in almost infinite directions and work out perfectly, breakfast has more of a narrow scope. The concept of eating breakfast for lunch or dinner is a common one, but the reverse is almost never true, and most places won’t even serve lunch items before a certain time of day. As a result, no matter where you go for breakfast, odds are the menu is going to be built around the same core items in one way or another.

That means that in order to be a great breakfast place, you’ve got to be really good at what you do and you’ve got to be at least a little creative, because even the best bacon, eggs and pancakes can get lost in a sea of like meals if there’s no reason for them to stand out. Whether it’s by using fresh high-brow ingredients such as Brie or stuffing flavors into hash browns to make an already good dish better, the great breakfast places all find a way to separate themselves from the standard fare and make themselves a morning destination.

In the Valley of the Sun, the destination is definitely Over Easy, which has possibly the most perfect name for a breakfast place that I’ve ever seen. Since it opened in 2008, Over Easy has become the place to start your day in the East Valley, which includes the affluent Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale as well as Mesa, Gilbert and college town Tempe, and that’s mainly because when it opened, it had credibility before it had served a single customer.

That’s because in Phoenix, and especially in the East Valley, the name of chef Aaron May is about as good as it gets on the culinary scene. May has been the brains behind several top restaurants in Scottsdale and Phoenix, and with Over Easy, he simply wanted to try his hand at putting his creativity into the most important meal of the day and see what he could come up with to serve the Valley. Of course, given a background that includes a tapas bar and a burger that was named Arizona’s best before the restaurant’s landlord forced May out to convert the building into housing, expectations of what May could come up with were pretty high, to say the least.

As it turns out, the expectations were well-warranted, because it didn’t take long for May to prove the pundits right. Despite only being open for seven years, Over Easy has already earned national acclaim for some of May’s creations, including landing Food Network’s spot as the best breakfast in the state of Arizona. With those kind of credentials to its name, it didn’t take Amy and I long to decide that a stop here was a necessity when we headed out to the Grand Canyon State.

Figuring out what to get here, however, can be quite the challenge, because May has come up with a menu that features the perfect mix of creativity and quality. First, there’s the sweet stuff. How waffles, pancakes and french toast made it into the breakfast family is a mystery nobody will likely ever solve, but as long as they’re part of the menu, it’s important that they’re done well. In addition to the classics, Over Easy includes a strawberries and cream waffle (seems that it could be called a Wimbledon Waffle), blueberry pancakes with both powdered sugar and maple syrup and pancakes with candy mixed into the batter. The lineup also includes banana french toast with brioche as the bread, something Amy decided she had to try.

Truthfully, this is a pretty awesome combination. For starters, using brioche as the bread ensures that you’re already working with a sweet foundation even before you get to any of the toppings. When it comes to the toppings, Over Easy doesn’t skimp at all, going heavy on the syrup, bananas, nuts and sugar, creating an incredible taste that’s full of sweet flavor. The large amount of syrup and the egg-based brioche makes sure that every bite is soft and has the gooey and slick texture that a good French toast should have. What’s more, the bananas are caramelized and the pecans appear coated in powdered sugar, which only adds to the flavor. That’s how you take an ordinary dish and make it something special.

As good as the French toast is, however, you can find good French toast in a lot of places. Over Easy certainly succeeds in putting their own touch on a classic dish and making it memorable, but for something really different that you can’t find anywhere, the only direction to go in is that of the waffle dog.

What is a waffle dog? Basically, Over Easy has taken the corn dog and turned it into a breakfast food. Given that a corn dog is basically a hot dog wrapped in sweet cornbread batter, this isn’t as big of a stretch as you would think, but it certainly is unique and delicious. Instead of a hot dog, Over Easy uses a link of breakfast sausage, then dips it in waffle batter and fries it, finally topping it with powdered sugar and providing you with syrup to use as you see fit.

The taste is simply amazing. The idea of sweet and savory at the same time isn’t a new one, but when most people think of savory and sweet, sausage is not the first thing that comes to mind. However, given that other pork products have worked well with sweet elements (maple bacon bar, Monte Cristo), it stands to reason that sausage does too, and that’s exactly what happens. The tastes work with and play off each other, creating a perfect bite from start to finish that might seem weird, but is absolutely wonderful. What’s more, Over Easy allows you to order the waffle dogs as your meal or as a complement to your main meal by ordering just one waffle dog instead of the three that come with a full order.

As tempting as it might be to order three waffle dogs, going with one on the side is definitely the way to go, because that allows you the chance to experience one of Over Easy’s great entrees. After all, this place is called Over Easy for a reason, and that means that coming here and not ordering some kind of egg dish would be a major mistake. The best one just might be the restaurant’s namesake, the Over Easy. When a dish is named after a restaurant, that means one of two things: it’s either really bland, or it’s really awesome.

The Over Easy definitely falls in the latter category, mainly because of how fresh everything is in this dish. They start with the brioche that’s used in the French toast as a base, then add plenty of sauteed spinach and its natural juices to it. Once that’s done, the dish continues with plenty of bacon and scallions, providing texture, flavor and that little bite that a good dish usually has. The entire thing is topped by two fried eggs, of course coming over easy.

Man, was this amazing. The spinach is really the star of this dish, as it’s sauteed to perfection and works so fantastically with the flowing yolk and the toasted brioche. You’ve got all the bacon you could possibly want and plenty of scallions, so the ideal flavor of this dish is going to be present from first bite to last. This is how breakfast can be done when it’s done right, and there’s a reason this was the dish named Arizona’s best breakfast. If you like spinach and breakfast, you will love the Over Easy.

And if you love potatoes, as Amy does, then you’ll want to go for the Wolfpack, which takes breakfast as we know it and brings it to the next level. Much like the French toast, the Wolfpack isn’t the kind of dish that wows you with the fact that you haven’t seen it before. Instead, it wows you by being better than the familiar dishes you’ve had before. The Wolfpack has all of its components join together to create a great taste, and it does that in between two layers of hash browns. In between the hash browns, you’ve got bacon, you’ve got cheese and you’ve got eggs the way you want them. At least, you do somewhere under that pile of hash browns, which are awesome in their own right. It’s all cooked perfectly, and the flavors work together so beautifully.

Given their ability to make flavors work well with the special dishes, it’s not a surprise that they can also make the mundane ones outstanding. Amy’s mother and grandmother each chose to go for a less adventurous but still excellent choice in the two-egg breakfast, which features much of the same things as the Wolfpack, just in a more traditional form. It’s still an excellent flavor, and it’s still totally worth trying.

Really, there isn’t anything bad on this menu, and that’s something that really makes for a great experience to start the day. When it comes down to it, being a great breakfast place comes down to two things, quality and creativity. If you’ve got both, you can take something everyone is familiar with and create one heck of an experience. That’s what makes Over Easy such a gem in the Valley and a required stop in the Grand Canyon State.

Recap

Time to go: Breakfast, obviously. Over Easy’s focus is only on breakfast, and as such, they close their doors at 1 p.m. most days, staying open until 2 p.m. at some locations.

Wait during my visit: None. Scottsdale is a bit out of the way from parts of the rest of the Valley, so the wait isn’t bad.

Location: There are four locations in the area, we visited the location at 9375 East Bell Road in Scottsdale, Ariz, next door to a hockey practice facility operated by the Arizona Coyotes. Phoenix, Gilbert and Mesa also have locations.

Cost: Reasonable. Entrees average about $9 here, so it’s not bad at all for the quality. High-quality, mid-range budget.

Parking: Quite a bit. Being next to the Coyotes’ facility will do that.

Seating arrangement: Mostly tables and chairs or bar seating.

Website: Over Easy

Specialty items: Waffle Dogs, the Over Easy

Deanie’s Seafood, New Orleans/Metairie, La.

For a foodie like me, New Orleans is a dream of a city. There are just so many great options in the Crescent City that even a week isn’t long enough to hit all of them, and you’re really only limited by your wallet and your schedule. When you have fried chicken, beignets, desserts, po boys and others available, almost all within walking distance, you’re really in a great spot for food.

But the real jewel of the Gulf of Mexico is the seafood, and for good reason. When you’re located right on the ocean, that means you’ve got access to fresh seafood whenever you want it, without it losing any of its flavor in a lengthy journey to the market. As we’ve established many times, the closer something comes from, the better it’s going to be. Harvesting fish and seafood is such a big deal in the Gulf Coast that I once argued with another journalist after the BP oil spill that BP’s use of “seafood being impacted” to describe the disaster was much worse than “fish being killed”, and they should fire their PR guy as a result. The guy tried to claim that “fish being killed” was stronger language and more specific than “seafood being impacted”, but I’m not buying it. Hey, fish die all the time. That’s nature. That doesn’t bother me. Seafood being impacted says it’s neither delicious nor safe to eat, and that’s a real tragedy.

Fortunately, those days in New Orleans are gone, and that means the city can get back to doing yet another one of the things it does best: providing great seafood. The days of cheap seafood haven’t returned, but the days of quality seafood have, and one of the best places to get it is Deanie’s Seafood, located in both the historic French Quarter and the small fishing village of Bucktown. Deanie’s has been a New Orleans seafood institution for the past five decades, and when you last for that many years in a foodie haven like the Crescent City, that means you have to be doing something right.

With Deanie’s, the presentation is a large part of what they’ve done well, and it starts from the very beginning when the server sets out a hot basket of…potatoes. Yes, instead of the traditional starter of bread, Deanie’s opts to provide its guests with several baked redskin potatoes as a welcome appetizer. It’s something I’ve never seen anywhere else, and it’s a very welcome change, especially because their potatoes are served piping hot and are absolutely perfect inside. Even better, redskin potatoes just seem to have a sharper taste to me than russets do, which is why they work so well in restaurants, in my opinion.

Plus, they’ve got ample amounts of butter to make sure everything’s the way you like it. Forget bread, give me a hot potato any day. I’m used to paying for quality potatoes, so when I can get a free one, that’s a pretty awesome thing. Amy, who loves potatoes even more than I do and will be in heaven food-wise whenever we visit Idaho, was also quite happy with Deanie’s way of starting off a meal.

Once the starch is out of the way, it’s time to get started on what you really came here for, which is the seafood. This being New Orleans, there are few better ways to start than with oysters. Oysters aren’t the thing that Deanie’s is most famous for, but they know how to do them right here, grilling and breading them perfectly. These aren’t going to be quite the variety of oyster flavors that exist elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

Variety and simplicity each have their place, and in this case, breaded and grilled is perfect. The texture works great, the oysters have the right flavor, and it’s clear that they know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to the sea. A little lemon juice is a nice addition here for some extra flavor. We absolutely loved these, proving yet again that the best way to ensure a great culinary experience is to spend as little time as possible actually getting the ingredients to their destination.

Oysters, however, are just the tip of the iceberg for the seafood glory here. If you want something truly unique, the best way to get it is to go with the barbecued shrimp, which is served with the head on and sauteed in Creole seasonings. From what I’ve seen of them, they look outstanding. They’re also a real mess, though, so if you’re out to a nice dinner, they’re not really recommended because you’re going to have a hard time keeping your shirt from getting a stain. Deanie’s has thought of that, though, as they offer a barbecued shrimp pasta, where they peel off the heads for you after the shrimp gets treated with the Creole seasonings.

As tempting as that idea was, however, I wanted to see what a place like Deanie’s could do with fish. There really isn’t much that’s come out of the ocean that I don’t enjoy (rockfish is the only fish I’ve ever had that I didn’t love, it was just a disaster the one time I tried it), and as far as seafood goes, a well-prepared stuffed flounder is among my favorites. I love flounder, and when I’m in the mood for fish, it’s pretty rare for me to choose anything else over it. With the eastern part of the country being the most likely place to find flounder and New Orleans seated right on the Gulf of Mexico, I knew I couldn’t leave the Crescent City without enjoying some flounder.

As I expected, Deanie’s knows what it’s doing with one of my favorite fish. The crabmeat stuffing is pretty incredible, flavorful from first bite to last and tasting incredibly fresh. The hot plate makes sure that the flounder comes out sizzling, and the fish is cooked perfectly and flavored exactly the way it should be. As any seafood lover knows, fish is very tricky to get right and disastrous to get wrong, and luckily, Deanie’s is experienced enough to know how to walk that line perfectly. The buttery flavor with the crab meat is just amazing, and I really wished I had more.

Deanie’s also throws on a salad with the flounder, and as far as house salads go, it’s a pretty good one. It’s not quite the Drover’s salad bar, but it’s a pretty solid accompaniment. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the vegetables, which were the only real flaw here. The vegetables just seemed bland and not quite cooked correctly, seeming to be more of an afterthought to the stars of the meal. I opted for the vegetables over potato after starting with the redskin spuds, and I really wish I hadn’t made that decision. I prefer not eating the same thing twice in the same day, let alone at the same meal, but I do make exceptions when necessary. Next time, I plan on making this an exception and going potato again.

Amy wanted to taste as much of the Gulf of Mexico as possible, opting for the Combo Dinner, which provides battered and fried shrimp, catfish and oysters, along with French fries. The catfish is perfect, exactly what you would expect to find in the Deep South. The breading is excellent and works with the seafood. As I said after experiencing Willie Mae’s amazing breading, a good breading has to provide flavor while not overwhelming the meat or vegetable, and this breading comes through. Fried catfish and shrimp with the proper breading are as good as it gets, and this certainly comes through.

With as many restaurants as New Orleans has, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of restaurants and cuisines available, but no trip to the Big Easy would be complete without a taste of seafood. Whatever you love about the ocean, there’s a good chance you’ll find it done and done right at Deanie’s. After all, you don’t stay open for five decades in foodie heaven without knowing exactly what you’re doing with the region’s signature food.

Recap

Time to go: Lunch or dinner. Keep in mind, though, Deanie’s Bucktown location is not open on Mondays. In the French Quarter, it’s seven days a week.

Wait during my visit: Substantial. The French Quarter is always packed, and this was no exception. We waited about 20 to 30 minutes for a table to come open.

Location: Deanie’s is at 841 Iberville Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and its Bucktown location is at 1713 Lake Avenue in Metairie, La.

Cost: Good seafood isn’t cheap anywhere anymore. Expect to pay about $20 to $25 per entree, which isn’t at all bad given the quality of the seafood you’re enjoying.

Parking: Why bother? The first rule about driving in the French Quarter: don’t. All you need to do is walk to Canal Street and take the streetcar (despite my issues with the streetcar system, you can count on the Canal Street car) north to Dauphine Street, go one block down Dauphine into the Quarter and you’re there. If you’re in Bucktown, you’ll have to drive, so parking likely isn’t an issue.

Seating arrangement: Tables, chairs and booths

Website: Deanie’s

Specialty items: Fresh seafood

Sucré, Metairie, La./New Orleans

There’s no doubt about it: New Orleans knows how to do sweets correctly. After all, the Crescent City boasts some amazing pralines, blending nuts in with the chocolate and brown sugar candy to create a sweet treat that’s perfect on the go. It’s home to beignets with cafe au lait, which is simply incredible. New Orleans has given us bananas foster, mixing bananas, ice cream and alcohol to create an outstanding dessert, and its bread pudding is second to none. Put simply, if you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll find a way to satisfy it in the Big Easy.

Ironically, though, before 2007, the only places to satisfy it were at full service restaurants or in small shops. Cafe du Monde was the only place that served nothing but a sweet treat, but a beignet is closer to a doughnut than a dessert if you want to get technical. Besides, the fact that it was open 24 hours a day and had coffee and cafe au lait available made it more of a cafe than a dessert shop. It seemed like every great restaurant serves bananas foster as an option after Brennan’s created the dish, but it’s always the finish to the meal, not the entire experience.

And then Sucré came along, becoming New Orleans’ first dessert-only restaurant in 2007 when it opened shop in the Magazine District. The name is absolutely perfect for the Pelican State’s largest city, because Sucré is literally French for “sugar”. Whether it’s macarons, cupcakes, artisanal chocolates or ice cream, Sucré is all about serving the sweet stuff and doing it in a way that looks as good as it tastes. Their philosophy from the beginning has been that they don’t do things halfway, which means that no matter what your pleasure is, they’re going to go over the top in providing it.

One of the most obvious examples is in their famous macarons. Keep in mind, these are not the same thing as the American macaroon cookie. The macaron is a French treat, best described as a sandwich cookie that’s filled with a ganache inside the seemingly tougher exterior. It almost dissolves upon being bitten into, with the interior revealing itself to be spongy and the exterior only hard on the very edge of the outside. These are wonderful, and Sucré offers plenty of varieties. In fact, the store offers enough variety to offer a Macaron of the Month club, which will ship a box of 15 macarons to your door every month for a cool $525. If you can afford it, you’ll be treated to flavors like double dark chocolate, peaches and cream, lavender and white chocolate and candy cane, just to name a few possibilities.

Of course, Amy and I had to find out what makes the macaron so special for ourselves, so we opted for the strawberry and dipped chocolate versions. These things are so light and airy that it’s honestly a wonder how they even keep their shape. The taste is fantastic, and the brightly colored macarons are very aesthetically pleasing, stimulating multiple senses at once. In the case of the chocolate dipped macaron, there’s little that can be done on a dark brown surface…so Sucré opted to class it up by adding a touch of edible gold. Of course, edible gold doesn’t add anything in the taste department, it’s just there to make things look a little higher class. Every time it’s there, it does its job. This might be the one ingredient where taste is truly irrelevant. The chocolate, though, is incredible, exactly what you would expect to find in a high-class sweet shop.

But the area where Sucré really shines are with its incredible gelato sundaes. Usually, gelato is meant to star on its own, but you don’t land yourself a reputation by doing things the traditional way in a foodie haven like New Orleans. Granted, Sucré’s gelato flavors are probably good enough to get away with doing it the traditional way, as they boast flavors like banana cream pie, chocolate cherry, peanut butter crunch, lemon curd, Tahitian vanilla and the New Orleans favorite, cafe au lait. All of them are made with locally based milk and sweetened with pure Louisiana cane sugar, so even though it’s by no means healthy, at least it has the local connection going for it, which is always a good thing.

As good as those flavors would be on their own (and Sucré does allow samples), Sucré decides to go for the ultimate wow factor with its ice cream creations by attempting to pack as many flavors as possible into one dish with its main ice cream options. The most obvious is the gelato po boy, which includes chocolate, vanilla and strawberry gelato between two pastries, looking very much like the sandwich New Orleans made famous. In more traditional form, Sucré boasts six different sundaes, and even runs a program aimed at those Crescent City locals who can’t decide what they want. Basically, if you order all six, you get a free one on your seventh visit, which I guess is a way for you to declare which of the six you liked best. It’s certainly a cool way to reward your customers.

Seeing as how Amy and I unfortunately don’t live in the Southeast, trying all six wasn’t going to be an option for us. The options we left on the table included the Caribe (mango and coconut basil sorbet, cocoa bits, mixed berry sauce, toasted coconut and a strawberry macaron), the Americana (vanilla and strawberry gelato with sponge cake and mixed berry sauce), Gimme Smore (vanilla gelato with chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallow, basically my father’s nightmare because of his marshmallow allergy), and the Citron Nut (pistachio and lemon curd gelato with sponge cake, blueberries and a macaron). All of those options sound like they could be pretty amazing, which gives you an idea of how appetizing our two choices were.

Amy, who loves all things chocolate, opted for the Sucré Sundae. Usually, the item named after the restaurant itself isn’t the must-try item, because it’s designed to offend no one and ends up pleasing no one. But that’s not always the case, and Sucré proves itself another exception to the rule by packing all things chocolate into its namesake sundae. This features triple dark chocolate gelato, chocolate sauce, cocoa bits, chocolate croutons, which are essentially brownie bits, plus whipped cream and caramel sauce just to prevent chocolate overload. Of course, because there just wouldn’t be enough chocolate without it, it’s topped with a chocolate macaron.

It’s simply outstanding. This is an incredibly rich sundae, with the dark chocolate gelato providing the perfect mix of sweet sugar and bitter cocoa for an amazing meld on a surface that almost looks like light would have trouble escaping. This sundae is all chocolate, all the time, and it’s really, really high quality chocolate. This is the kind of chocolate taste you’d expect to find in a specialty store, smooth, rich and delicious.

While Amy went for all things chocolate, I opted for All Things NOLA. Sucré’s final sundae took top billing for Louisiana in Food Network’s 50 States, 50 Ice Creams list, and it’s easy to see why this is the Pelican State’s best, because it melds the two desserts New Orleans has made famous: bread pudding and bananas foster (as we’ve established before, as sweet as they are, beignets don’t count as a dessert, although throwing a beignet into this sundae would be pretty awesome). Bananas foster comes in the form of the sauce, while pieces of bread pudding are blended into brown butter pecan gelato. Whipped cream and caramel are added to finish it off, plus a small square of chocolate.

Wow, was this amazing. I absolutely LOVE butter pecan flavor, and this flavor with the bread pudding and bananas foster sauce was intense beyond belief. It’s incredibly rich and super sweet, so much so that water is pretty much a requirement to prevent sweetness overload. The butter pecan flavor works so beautifully with the bananas foster flavored sauce, and the bits of bread pudding are moist and delicious. It really does feel like the culmination of what makes New Orleans such an experience.

That doesn’t even include the artisan chocolates, which look absolutely divine, much like those of famed chocolatier Christopher Elbow in Kansas City. If they taste anything like his, and there’s no reason to assume otherwise, they’d also be a worthwhile experience. Basically, if you have any kind of taste for sugar, you’re going to find something to enjoy here. On the food scene in New Orleans, you’ve got to be special to stand out, and Sucré has definitely managed to achieve that rarefied air.

Recap

Time to go: Early or late, as Sucré opens at 8 a.m. and closes at midnight in both locations. You can also order the macarons online, as Amy has done.

Wait during my visit: None. We were at the Metairie location, and that’s not going to get packed as easily as the city will.

Location: Sucré has two locations, one at 3025 Magazine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans and one at 3301 Veterans Boulevard in the suburb of Metairie, La.

Cost: Sundaes do not come cheap, clocking in at $7, but given what you get, it’s not bad.

Parking: Depends on which location you’re going to. If you’re in Metairie, parking is plentiful. Sucré is by a mall, so you’ll have almost an infinite amount of spaces. In the city, good luck. You’ll either have to mess with the St. Charles Streetcar (and if you don’t know by now, the New Orleans Streetcar system is AWFUL if you’re trying to go anywhere besides Canal Street) and walk three blocks south to Magazine Street, or you’ll have to drive down Magazine and hope to get lucky with street parking.

Seating arrangement: Tables and chairs, with outside options.

Website: Sucré

Specialty items: Macarons, sundaes, chocolate

Mother’s Restaurant, New Orleans

Ask 10 people what the signature food of New Orleans is, and you might very well get 10 different answers. It’s a testament to just how much of a food paradise the Crescent City is that it can do so many different things so well that they can legitimately be considered a signature item. But while things like oysters, crawfish, seafood and fried chicken can be found across the country, the po’ boy always has been and always will be pure Louisiana.

What is a po’ boy? Well, the definition has actually changed quite a bit from when the sandwich was invented in 1928. Back then, the po’ boy consisted of gravy and roast beef on French bread, and it picked up its name because it was served at the back doors of restaurants to “poor boys”, who were mostly striking workers. As time went on, po’ boys eventually diversified, adding other meats and seafood to the options and coming “fully dressed”, which includes lettuce or cabbage, pickles and condiments, depending on where you’re getting it from. Usually, those condiments include things like mayonnaise, Creole mustard and regular mustard, while tomatoes might also get thrown in at different places.

The one constant since 1928 no matter where the po’ boy has come from is the bread. Only French bread is used for a true po’ boy, and you’re not going to see white bread, wheat bread or Italian available as options. French bread, along with being a nod to the city’s roots, provide a crisp exterior and a soft middle, making for a perfect vehicle for the meat, vegetables and condiments.

One of the most famous po’ boy places in the Big Easy is also one of the oldest: Mother’s Restaurant, located in the Central Business District, a neighborhood away from the French Quarter. Mother’s has been serving po’ boys since its doors opened in 1938, and since that time, it’s made two significant contributions to New Orleans’ famous sandwich. The first is its baked ham, which it proudly calls the world’s best. Maybe that’s a New Orleans thing to boast about your product, but again, it’s not bragging if you can back it up. The Landry family’s recipe results in a caramelized glaze on its ham, giving the meat a sweet and tender taste. Glazed ham is always a good thing, and Mother’s produces a crisp glaze that almost looks like the ham is burnt. That’s always a good sign.

The second contribution came later, when a customer named Ferdi entered the store one day and decided he didn’t want to have just one meat on his po’ boy. Not even Mother’s is sure whether Ferdi asked for ham to be added to a roast beef po’ boy or for roast beef to be added to a ham po’ boy, but either way, Ferdi got ham and roast beef on his po’ boy, dressed and complete with debris, which is a fancy name for the roast beef that falls into the gravy during baking, resulting in a roast beef and gravy mix. He loved his sandwich, and word quickly got out to other customers, who requested the combination for themselves.

The Ferdi Special was born, and years later, it’s Mother’s most famous sandwich. Later, Ferdi’s nephew Ralph continued his family legacy by asking for his uncle’s sandwich with cheese, creating the Ralph. Given my love of cheese, the Ralph would seem to be right up my alley, but there’s no way that I could make my first visit to Mother’s without trying the original Ferdi, the way it was meant to be tried. That meant a fully dressed Ferdi, and at Mother’s, that means cabbage, pickle, mayonnaise and both kinds of mustard, along with the meat and debris.

This sandwich is heaven on bread. First, there’s the ham, which comes out baked to perfection. The meat is juicy and is simply wonderful on its own. I can see what they’re talking about by calling it the world’s best. because this ham is as good as you’d expect to find at a Christmas feast. The roast beef is also wonderful, but where this sandwich really shines is the debris. Really, the debris is reminiscent of Chicago’s signature sandwich, the Italian beef sandwich. Just like in the Windy City, the debris-covered po’ boy soaks up the juice from the roast beef, which magnifies the flavor in every bite.

The result is a dripping mess that is simply fantastic. The liquid gravy makes the roast beef even more juicy, and the fact that French bread is used allows the sandwich to actually hold together despite the large amount of liquid. The vegetables and condiments are a perfect addition, and I can see why so many New Orleans residents requested this combination so many years ago. Sandwiches simply don’t get much better than this.

Of course, Amy isn’t a beef eater, so she decided to go a different direction, choosing one of the Pelican State’s many seafood delicacies, the catfish. Neither one of us has ever really met a seafood meal we didn’t enjoy, and the chance to get fresh catfish in a place like this was irresistible to her. The seafood po’ boys come with much of the same condiments as the meat po’ boys, with the differences being no debris and no mustards.

Neither of those mattered at all to Amy, who enjoyed every bit of her po’ boy. The fish is crispy on the outside and cooked to perfection on the inside, and cabbage and mayo, plus the possibility of tartar sauce, are natural additions to seafood. Just like with the Ferdi, the dressed po’ boy is the only way to go with this one. I had a small taste of it and found it to be incredible, hot, fresh and falling apart in your mouth the way a quality piece of fish should. If not for my own sandwich, I would really recommend this sandwich as the one to get. Throw in a mountain of fries, and you have a fantastic experience that’s unique to New Orleans. She loved every bit of it and was thrilled that we had found such an amazing establishment.

But really, unless you aren’t a fan of eating beef or pork, there can only be one choice, and that’s the Ferdi. There’s just something about both the ham and the debris that make it a thing of perfection here. Just like the beignets and the fried chicken, no trip to New Orleans is complete without experiencing the greatness that is a po’ boy, and it doesn’t get much better than this. I don’t know what inspired Ferdi to combine two meats into one sandwich all those years ago, but there’s no doubt that the Crescent City is a better place and a more delicious place because of his foresight.

Recap

Time to go: Early in the evening is best to avoid the wait. Mother’s line can get quite long at the traditional dinner times, and if you’re planning to come then, your introduction to Mother’s will be waiting in line with a menu outside the establishment. It’s open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Wait during my visit: Substantial. We were outside for a while, because the restaurant only lets in a few customers at a time. As an older building, it just doesn’t have the space to accommodate large amounts of traffic inside. The line will congregate outside the steps by Mother’s, and the restaurant has one in and one out. Do not try to go out the same way you came in, you will only screw up the system.

Location: Mother’s is located at 401 Poydras Street in the Central Business District of New Orleans, where Poydras meets Tchoupitoulas. It’s within walking distance of most of the French Quarter.

Cost: Not too bad, as most po’ boys will be about $12 for a large sandwich. One thing to keep in mind here is that Mother’s employees are not allowed to accept tips. You won’t have an option to tip anything at the register, and don’t bother leaving anything on the table, because they will not be taken. Even though you will get a server to bring water and condiments once you select your table, they can’t take your tip no matter how you give it.

Parking: There is a lot next door where Mother’s validates parking, but really, I wouldn’t try it. New Orleans is not a car-friendly city, and Poydras Street is one of the busiest streets in the Big Easy. When you can get from the Quarter to somewhere on foot in 10 minutes and you’re in a good area, that’s the best plan unless you have a good reason not to walk. You can also ride the streetcar to Poydras and walk north, but take it from me: you do not ever want to rely on the inconsistent New Orleans Riverfront Streetcar.

Seating arrangement: Tables and chairs are standard, but the restaurant itself is small, and in the interest of moving customers through the establishment faster, they will ask strangers to share a table if they deem it necessary. Be warned.

Website: Mother’s

Specialty items: Po’ boys, Ferdi Special

Willie Mae’s Scotch House, New Orleans

I know what some of you are thinking. How can the noted non-alcoholic possibly be writing about a place with “scotch house” as its title? Well, Willie Mae’s might have started as a bar many years ago in New Orleans, but those days are long gone for this place. Actually, it was originally a bar, a beauty salon and a barber shop, which would seem to have been a perfect combination for New Orleans couples who needed a haircut and wanted to relax while doing it in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

But in 1972, Willie Mae Seaton got out of the hair business and into the restaurant business, opting to focus specifically on fried chicken while keeping the name, which had become her brand in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans by this point. In doing so, she was betting on herself and her chicken being special in a location where good is the minimum level of expectation for fried chicken and sides. After all, the Pelican State is the headquarters of both Popeyes, which does some pretty good things with on-the-bone chicken, and Raising Cane’s, which has made its name on chicken fingers and nothing else. Point is, they do chicken right in Louisiana, even at the fast food level, so to focus on fried chicken down there is to declare your chicken some of the best around.

Turns out, boasting about itself has never been a problem for Willie Mae’s, which puts its pride in its fried chicken right on its menu. When someone orders a fried chicken meal here, they’re placing an order for “America’s Best Fried Chicken”, according to the restaurant’s own menu. Considering some of the places that Amy and I have visited, as well as just how large of a country this is, that’s a pretty hefty statement right there. On the other hand, Willie Mae’s is so beloved in New Orleans that residents and non-residents alike banded together to raise $200,000 and rebuild the restaurant over a two-year period, rather than letting it close after Hurricane Katrina destroyed it in 2005.

That’s another hefty statement, and the standards of this place back up the reputation. The now 100-year-old Willie Mae Seaton retired following Hurricane Katrina, but her creation hasn’t missed a beat in terms of awards under her great-grandaughter Kerry. The restaurant has continued to win award after award for soul food in New Orleans, and that takes some doing in a place that really knows how to do food. So basically, this was definitely a place that Amy and I had to try for ourselves on our trip to Louisiana.

Oh. My. God. I’m not exaggerating here when I say that this chicken is the best that I’ve ever eaten. It starts with the breading, which I am very picky about. A good breading, especially when the dish is fried, has to walk a fine line of adding to the meal without overwhelming it. Too much breading and you end up overwhelming your dish, and if the breading adds no flavor, then there’s no point to it and it’s just empty calories.

But this breading is fantastic, and you can hear the difference right away. Yes, that’s right, you can actually hear the breading here because of the loud crunch that comes when you take your first bite. This breading is fried to golden brown perfection and is crisp the entire way through. Not only that, but it’s seasoned well throughout. The spice in this chicken will never come close to that of Prince’s or Hattie B’s (after all, this is New Orleans, not Nashville), but it does provide a nice bit of kick to it that keeps your taste buds entertained throughout. Even better, the skin isn’t greasy, and the meat is juicy and flavorful. You really can’t ask for much more.

That includes the sides, as I found the one side dish that is good enough to make me pass up my standard macaroni and cheese in a fried chicken place: butter beans with rice. Butter beans are a New Orleans specialty, basically lima beans with rice in gravy. At Willie Mae’s, they are heavenly. The beans literally melt in your mouth, the gravy is flavorful without being too thin or too thick and the rice works well with both. Really, though, the beans are the biggest star here. As soon as she saw my side, Amy knew she had to try some, and she was immediately amazed at just how good these things were. Throw in a corn muffin to finish it off, and you have one incredible fried chicken meal, New Orleans style.

One thing to note, however: the fried chicken meal is designed for fans of dark meat, not white meat. Willie Mae’s standard includes a thigh, a wing and a leg, meaning two pieces of dark meat and one of white. For a small upcharge, you can get an all-white meat meal, which will consist of a breast and two wings. Of course, as a noted dark meat lover, that plays perfectly into my wheelhouse, but if you’re like Amy and prefer white meat, you’ll want to follow her lead and get Willie Mae’s outstanding chicken nuggets.

Basically, the nuggets are Willie Mae’s fried chicken in boneless form. Same great taste of the breading with all of its seasoning, same great properly cooked chicken, no bone to get in the way of your eating enjoyment. These were pretty outstanding and just as filling as a fried chicken meal. Ten of them were plenty to satisfy Amy’s appetite, although these were so good that she wished she had more room to continue enjoying them. They’re served with dipping sauces, and both their ranch and barbecue sauces are excellent with this chicken. Amy added fries as her side, and they’re pretty darn good. Of course, I preferred the butter beans, but those are in a class by themselves.

When a community bands together to keep a place open, that’s a sign that it’s doing something right. When not even one of the biggest tragedies in recent years is enough to put a place out of business, well, the results clearly speak for themselves. Simply put, this is some of the best fried chicken you will ever have anywhere, and as far as the claim of America’s Best Fried Chicken, it’s not bragging if you can back it up. New Orleans just wouldn’t be New Orleans without fried chicken, and it certainly wouldn’t be itself without Willie Mae’s fried chicken. Clearly, the Seaton family knows what it’s doing when it comes to fried chicken and soul food. May the Big Easy be fortunate enough to experience this greatness for decades to come.

Recap

Time to go: Early. Willie Mae’s opens at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and the lines can get very long as it gets later in the day. This place is very well known and very popular, and when lunch starts, that means you might be waiting a while. It closes at 5 p.m. each day, and it’s not open on Sundays.

Wait during my visit: None, because we came early. The early person gets the bird here.

Location: Willie Mae’s is located at 2401 St. Ann Street in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans.

Cost: Not bad at all, as a meal will only cost you $10. One awesome thing to note about Willie Mae’s is that sides are differently priced a la carte, but if you order a meal, there is no upcharge at all for the side, regardless of which one you get. Given that the butter beans come in at $6 a la carte and the fries are four dollars cheaper, this was a really nice surprise, especially given what we found with price issues at the Hook Up. One thing to remember, though, although Willie Mae’s is no longer cash only, separate checks aren’t allowed here. Willie Mae’s has a strict policy of one card per table, so if you do want to divide the check, you’ll need some dead presidents.

Parking: Good luck. There isn’t much to speak of here, and this being a neighborhood restaurant, there isn’t a lot at all. Your only options are street parking, a taxi or walking. I do not recommend the third option, as Treme is not one of New Orleans’ better neighborhoods and you’ll have to cross under Interstate 10 if you’re coming from either the French Quarter or the Central Business District. If you’re coming early, you can drive and find one of the three or four parking spots by the building. If not, your best bet is to take a taxi and not have to worry about parking or neighborhood issues. We actually did find parking, but again, we came 15 minutes after it opened for the day.

Seating arrangement: Tables and chairs. The restaurant has some small tables and some big ones, and you might have to share one of the bigger ones if crowds get large.

Website: None. The restaurant does have a Facebook page, but no website at this time.

Specialty items: Fried chicken, butter beans

Cafe Du Monde, New Orleans

Long before I started this journey, long before Adam Richman began his original quest on the Travel Channel, long before I met Amy and long before I began my since-ended journalism career, I received a memorable piece of advice from then-Missouri women’s tennis coach Blake Starkey: multitasking is simply doing a lot of things badly.

Starkey was discussing his tendency to focus on one goal at a time and prioritize the most important tasks, but I’ve noticed that his point has shown up on quite a few occasions in the restaurant business in a different format. In the restaurant business, multitasking takes the form of a restaurant diversifying its menu to include a lot of different choices meant to appeal to many different palates. Of course, in their effort to please everybody, the result is that these restaurants, which are usually large chains, end up pleasing nobody.

They don’t upset anybody, but they don’t make anyone go out of their way for them either. They just exist, which is fine in terms of making money, but doesn’t do a thing for reputation. In this day and age, newer chains such as Chipotle (burritos/tacos), Five Guys (burgers) and Raising Cane’s (chicken fingers) have learned from the mistakes of the older chains and opted to focus on doing one thing well, which has earned them a much better reputation than their predecessors.

But down in Louisiana, Cafe du Monde has never needed to learn that lesson, because a narrow and focused menu has been the only way that it’s done business since 1862. Yes, that’s right, Cafe du Monde has been around since before the end of the Civil War, which means that because of Reconstruction, it’s actually been operating for longer than Louisiana has continuously been part of the United States (the Pelican State rejoined the United States in 1868). When any business has been around for that long, it has to be doing something right, and in the case of Cafe du Monde, it’s doing two things right: beignets and cafe au lait.

It’s had to do those two things right to be in business, because for the first 126 years that Cafe du Monde was in business, that was almost literally its entire menu. From 1862 until 1988, Cafe du Monde’s entire menu consisted of beignets, cafe au lait, black coffee with chicory, orange juice, chocolate milk and white milk. In 1988, they made three changes, adding iced coffee, frozen coffee and sodas to the menu. If one counts water, that means the Cafe du Monde menu is now up to 10 items after 152 years in business, and nine of those items are beverages. In fact, the menu is so small that it fits on the side of its napkin dispensers. If you want something to eat here, beignets are literally your one and only option.

That’s a good thing, because beignets are nothing short of incredible. In France, where beignets first began, they can be served with a filling inside the pastry and can be either sweet or savory, but in New Orleans, beignets are basically square doughnuts without the hole that are covered in powdered sugar. They came over from across the pond when the French settled in Louisiana, and in 1986, they became the official state doughnut of Louisiana. I’m not sure why it took them so long to get around to that, but better late than never, I suppose.

At Cafe du Monde, an order of beignets always means three of them. I’m not sure if it’s so they can justify the large amounts of powdered sugar on the beignets, if it’s because one beignet is never enough or if it’s some other reason, but beignets are always served in threes. Again, that’s a good thing, because these things are so good that you won’t want to stop at eating just one. Beignets are fried when you order and served hot to ensure that the pastry is at its peak, and the taste is fantastic. The pastry is light, chewy and airy, working beautifully with the heaping amount of powdered sugar. Truthfully, it’s so good that it tastes outstanding even if you get a bite without the powdered sugar. As soon as Amy and I tasted these, we knew that as much as we love each other, we weren’t sharing these. Some things in life are too good to keep secret, these are too good to share.

But having just the beignets on their own would be leaving out the other part of what has made Cafe du Monde a New Orleans institution. I speak, of course, of cafe au lait, a New Orleans specialty that’s unlike coffee anywhere else. That’s because New Orleans coffee is different from other coffees and has been since the Civil War, when coffee beans became scarce. However, the French-born residents of New Orleans still loved their coffee and couldn’t fathom going without it by exhausting their supply of coffee beans. What to do? Simple: add something.

That something proved to be chicory, a root of endive lettuce. With chicory involved, the amount of coffee beans needed to make coffee dwindled, achieving the intended purpose. But the chicory did something else: it actually made the drink better in the eyes of New Orleans residents. Much like New Coke did with Coca-Cola, chicory reduced the bitterness in coffee while enhancing the flavor that the Crescent City already enjoyed. Unlike New Coke, however, coffee with chicory gained immediate acceptance and became even more popular than coffee ever was. That formed the basis for cafe au lait, which is a 50-50 mix of coffee and hot milk, along with a slight chocolate taste courtesy of the chicory. 50-50 mixes of two good things have worked before, and this is no different. Basically, there’s no need to add cream or milk to your coffee here, and in fact, it’s not even an option. Sugar, however, is provided.

However, it’s really not necessary. Cafe au lait is an acquired taste, and the way you acquire it is simple: dunk your beignets in it. This takes the flavor of the beignet to the next level by having the strong cafe au lait flavor counteract the sweetness of the beignet, making for an even better taste than what already existed. It also has the benefit of making the drink sweeter as you enjoy the beignets, because the mountain of powdered sugar is simply too much for the beignets to hold. Thus, the powdered sugar falls off into the cafe au lait with every dunk and makes the cafe au lait sweeter as time passes. By the time you’re down to your last beignet, the cafe au lait has the perfect amount of sweetness and has cooled off enough to be ready to drink. This is the perfect example of another great phrase: you can’t rush perfection.

Some things just go together, and beignets and cafe au lait are certainly on that list. When you’re as good at this simple combination as Cafe du Monde is, you really don’t need to focus on anything else. There’s a reason New Orleans has been coming to this spot in the French Market for more than 150 years with such a simple menu. It’s because this combination is really, really good. Along with the small waters provided to have something to drink while waiting for the cafe au lait to cool and sweeten, there’s really nothing else you could want here. The hype is most definitely justified here. New Orleans’ original coffee stand always has been and always will be a must-visit in the Big Easy.

Recap

Time to go: Anytime. Cafe du Monde’s stand in the French Quarter is open 24 hours a day, 362 days a year. It closes every year for Christmas at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and reopens at 6 a.m. on Dec. 26, so it’s closed for a total of 36 hours a year at its main location. It also operates seven satellite locations in the New Orleans metro area that have more normal business hours.

Wait during my visit: None, but this is not typical. Basically, the way things work at Cafe du Monde’s main location is that there are tables under the tent, and if one comes open, you grab it and get served. As soon as it’s cleared off by the staff, that’s your cue to swoop in and sit. If none comes open, you either wait or you go to the to-go window and get your order that way. The line can get long, and I’ve heard stories of a guy having to wait three hours for a spot once. At the satellite locations, you can stand in line for quite a while, as it’s pick up and find your seat.

Location: Cafe du Monde’s main location is at 800 Decatur Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Cost: This is about as reasonable as it gets, as an order of beignets is only $2.42, which averages out to roughly 80 cents per beignet. The cafe au lait is the same price, which means one person can get out of here for six dollars after tip. However, one thing to keep in mind here: Cafe du Monde is cash only. Don’t even bother taking out your plastic or metal, it’s useless here. The good news is that wait staff does carry change, and will give you exact change unless you stop them, so tipping is not the least bit difficult. For a party of two, $12 should be perfect.

Parking: Are you kidding? First rule of the French Quarter: don’t drive through it. As New Orleans’ oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter was designed before cars even existed, which means it is a VERY car-unfriendly place. As such, I don’t even think there is a parking lot by Cafe du Monde, and if there is one close, you’re going to pay quite a bit for the privilege, something like $20 or more. Basically, your best bet is to either walk (it’s no more than a 15-20 minute walk from most of downtown New Orleans) or take a streetcar if it’s running. This is a big if, because during most of our trip, the Riverfront Streetcar only ran every 40 minutes, if at all. It doesn’t run at all after 10:30 p.m., so if you want a late-night snack, your options are to walk or take a taxi.

Seating arrangement: Small tables and chairs. If you’re on the bigger side, you might have to fight to get some space, as the tables are in close quarters. At any size, you’ll have to watch out for divebombing pigeons. During one of our trips here, we had a bird guest try to make ours a table of three for a few seconds.

Website: Cafe du Monde. There’s no menu on here, mainly because there isn’t a need for one because everyone knows the menu. This site is to sell coffee mix and beignet mix, plus souvenirs, worldwide.

Specialty items: Beignets, cafe au lait

Lindy’s On Fourth, Tucson, Ariz.

This will be my second no-food picture one, as, like Ike’s Place, my visit to Lindy’s on Fourth predates when I took pictures of food. So I’ll just have to give everything a description as best as I can of the burgers that make Lindy’s a Tucson institution.

Basically, Lindy’s is to burgers what Ike’s is to sandwiches what Voodoo is to doughnuts. The restaurant loves to come up with creative names for its multiple burger creations, and its abundance of burgers puts it on a par with Vortex. Lindy’s boasts 23 burgers, and like Vortex, for a nominal fee, you can substitute a meatless patty or a chicken breast for those who simply aren’t fans of beef.

Once there, your first choice is how many patties you want. Most burgers come with one, two or three, with each patty weighing in at 1/3 pounds. For the people with ridiculously huge appetites, however, Lindy’s offers the AZ Hooligan, which features five patties. If that’s not enough, you can take on the challenge of the OMFG burger, which features nine patties, plus Swiss and cheddar cheeses and the traditional burger toppings. Finish in 30 minutes and you win and get a picture on the wall. Get it done in 20, and your burger is free. If not, you’re paying $25.

With the huge portions out of the way, it’s time to get down to the creativity that is Lindy’s menu. Options include the Ninja, which features pineapple, provolone, ginger and wasabi, the Spartacus, featuring feta cheese and Greek tzatziki sauce (although Spartacus was Roman, not sure what that’s about), the Picnic Basket, which tops your burger with a mound of potato salad and the Fat Bastard, which adds a fried egg and bacon to the burger on a glazed cinnamon roll.

In the face of all those options, I went with something else I’d never tried: the Mac and Cheese burger. It’s your standard burger, with one big change. The burger patty is covered with Kraft macaroni and cheese, combining two of America’s most loved comfort foods. The result is a tasty mess that is all but guaranteed to fall apart, but it’s so worth the hassle.

The noodles and cheese sauce work very well with the tastes of the perfectly grilled burger, and the macaroni has the unintentional effect of turning the fries (if you chose to order them) into an impromptu plate of cheese fries. Would that I could discover mistakes like this more often.

Besides the burgers, Lindy’s also serves cheesesteaks, with far fewer options to them than exist on their burgers. There are a few things you can play around with, but cheesesteaks are not one of them. Staying true to how it’s done in Philly, your only cheese options on these are provolone or Whiz. It is strange that no American is offered (for those unfamiliar, American is also considered perfectly reasonable on a true Philly, but Swiss is never allowed), but I guess they voted to focus the creativity on the burgers, and given the results. I can’t fault them for that.

Sure, Arizona might be known for Mexican and Sonoran cuisine, but there’s always room for a good burger, no matter what part of the country you’re in. When you’re as creative with your burgers as Lindy’s is, you’re going to find a following no matter where you are, and deservedly so.

Recap

Time to go: Depends on the day. Lindy’s is closed at 4 p.m. on Mondays and 5 p.m. on Sundays, but it stays open as late as 2 a.m. on Thursday through Saturday. If you’re going on a day that isn’t Sunday or Monday, a late visit works.

Wait during my visit: On the longer side, as the restaurant is in an old town section of Tucson somewhat close to the University of Arizona.

Location: Lindy’s is at 431 N. 4th Avenue. Be especially vigilant here, it is not easy to find from the road.

Cost: Not bad, a burger and fries should run you about $11.

Parking: Good luck. There’s only street parking here, and this street gets very busy. I don’t even remember where I managed to find a space, I just remember I was pretty sure I was parked illegally in one area. Just grab the first open spot you can find.

Website: Lindy’s On Fourth

Specialty items: Burgers

Chino Bandido, Phoenix

When you think of Arizona, you tend to think of quality Mexican food, as we saw at Mi Nidito in Tucson. When you think of Arizona, you do not tend to think of quality Chinese food, and if you do, you certainly don’t tend to think of quality Mexican and Chinese food together in one restaurant.

But that’s exactly what you get with Chino Bandido, which successfully manages to combine two great tastes into something wonderful that is a little bit of both. As far as I know, short of a buffet, this is the only place where you can order Chinese and Mexican in the same meal, or even put a Chinese creation on a Mexican tortilla. The creation came about when two native Arizonans went into the restaurant business, with the wife of the married couple possessing an Asian background to go with both’s knowledge of Mexican cuisine.

What makes it impressive is how well the tastes blend together, which is probably a result of the relatively small menu at Chino Bandido. Their menu includes 14 different ways the meat is prepared, with almost every entree involving either pork or chicken. Of the options on Chino Bandido’s menu, seven are chicken, three involve pork, one is beef and three are vegetarian options.

The difference comes in the preparation. Want some Caribbean-style heat? Go with the Jerk Chicken, marinated with spicy seasoning and some really hot peppers. Prefer a milder, Asian flavor? Try the Emerald Chicken, served in a green onion sauce with ginger. Carnitas offer a straight Mexican pork option, and egg foo yung is as Chinese as it gets. There’s something on the scale for every taste.

Once you’ve chosen your meat or meats (you can get either one or two in a combination), your next choice is how you want them served. You can get your entree served as it is, or put it into a burrito or a quesadilla. Yes, you can have an egg foo yung burrito if you wish, for example. Anything is an option, and that means 42 possible entrees.

For my trip, I went with a carnitas burrito and an Emerald Chicken quesadilla. Both were simply perfect. The price is unaffected in regards to your choice, which you mark on an order sheet. Each entree is given a number, and what you write is what you get. For instance, if you want the Emerald Chicken, you’d write 10. If you want it in a burrito, it’s 10B. In a quesadilla? 10Q.

But Chino Bandido doesn’t stop there with the choices. As with most Mexican places, they throw on beans and rice as sides. However, these aren’t the typical refried beans and Mexican rice that you come to expect. While you can get the refried beans, you’d be missing out on some quality mashed black beans, which are far less common and are very delicious. On the rice side, the Asian side shows through again as Chino Bandido allows you to choose white rice or fried rice, offering four different kinds of the Asian delicacy.

The meal finishes off with the one part that is neither Asian nor Mexican, but comes standard with every meal and is probably the most underrated part of a visit to Chino Bandido. This would be Chino Bandido’s homemade snickerdoodle, which is one of the best cookies I’ve ever tasted. It’s got the perfect amounts of cinnamon and sugar and the right amount of crunch and chewiness that you would expect a bakery-quality cookie to have.

It’s not something you expect from a Mexican restaurant, but then again, neither is Chinese food. Chino Bandido left what you would expect from a Mexican restaurant behind a long time ago, and it’s substantially better for it. It’s certainly one of the most unique food experiences you’ll have, all the way to the statue of a panda in a sombrero.

Recap

Time to go: Lunch/dinner. Chino Bandido opens at 11 a.m.

Wait during my visit: Not bad. The line can get long, but it moves quick. You shouldn’t have problems.

Location: Chino Bandido can be found at 15414 North 19th Avenue in Phoenix, with a second location operating in the suburb of Chandler.

Parking: They’ll have it. It’s in a small shopping center.

Cost: Most times, you’ll get out for $10 or less.

Website: Chino Bandido

Specialty items: Chinese, Mexican

Mi Nidito, Tucson, Ariz.

Located a mere 70 miles from the Mexico-United States border, Tucson, Arizona is brimming with immigrants who brought over authentic Sonoran recipes from their homeland down south, and Mi Nidito is as good as it gets. The restaurant is celebrating its 70th year in operation this year, and it’s as popular as ever because it’s been doing things the same way for all this time.

All of the staples you would expect at a Mexican restaurant are on the menu here, but what sets Mi Nidito (Spanish for “my little nest”) apart is the quality of everything and the amount of care they put into making it. For example, the refried beans that you see on the plate above are made from scratch every morning and served to you hot, fresh and topped with cheese. They are quite simply the best thing about eating at Mi Nidito…but they’re far from the only amazing thing.

The dish I ordered included, along with the beans, a chicken taco, a cheese enchilada and a beef tamale, plus a heap of lettuce and tomato. Everything on the plate was made to perfection. The flavors work together so well, mixing the cheese, meats and red sauce together to form a perfect combination that simply can’t be beat.

The most accurate thing I can say about this is that I’ve been around for 24 years, and I’ve not found a Mexican meal that has topped Mi Nidito. Taco Bus in Tampa is right up there with it, but the plethora of meals available put Mi Nidito ahead by the tiniest of margins.

Speaking of a plethora of food, what I got isn’t even the biggest thing on the menu at Mi Nidito. That would be the President’s Plate, so named because in 1999, Bill Clinton visited Mi Nidito and asked the restaurant to load up a plate for him with their best dishes, because the president had a pretty big appetite that day. 

So the restaurant put together a dish that included a chile relleno, a chicken enchilada, a beef tamale, a bean tostada and a shredded beef taco. Clinton devoured the whole thing, and from then on, the President’s Plate has been a Mi Nidito staple. They even have the President’s booth to commemorate where Clinton enjoyed his meal, which is open for customers.

The atmosphere is pretty awesome, you’re eating at a Mexican institution in a city known for its Mexican cuisine. I really can’t recommend this place highly enough. If you find yourself in Tucson and only have enough time for one meal, make it Mi Nidito.

Recap

Time to go: Lunch or dinner. Mi Nidito is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Wait during my visit: Oh boy. The wait is very lengthy. Once you get in, you’re going to wait, and wait, and wait for a table. However, if things go your way, this wait does have the potential to be an enjoyable one. If you’re fortunate enough to be there while owner/general manager Jimmy Lopez is working and he gets a minute, I highly recommend starting a conversation with Jimmy.

A word about Jimmy: Jimmy is one of the most attentive and personable men in the restaurant business, period. He’s the grandson of the founders of the restaurant, and he treats every customer like the most important person in the restaurant. As I explained, when I visited, Mi Nidito was packed. The wait time was 45 minutes, and the restaurant had the potential to be chaos.

Didn’t matter to Jimmy. Despite the fact that I had never been to Mi Nidito before, giving him my name for my reservation was all Jimmy needed to remember it for the rest of the night. Even after I had completed my meal, Jimmy still addressed me as if we’d been friends for years. I left one of my best tips ever that night, in large part because of Jimmy.

Cost: A meal here is roughly about $10 to $15.

Location: You can find Mi Nidito at 1813 S. 4th Avenue in Tucson, Ariz. Be careful because Tucson uses numerical designations for more than just avenues.

Parking: There’s not much, but you can find a place. If it’s busy, though, it’s going to be tricky.

Website: Mi Nidito 

Signature items: President’s Plate, refried beans