Day 6: THE FINAL POST!!

It's with a heavy heart (and probably a harder working one) that I sit down to write this post. This past week has been an utter BLAST and we truly loved sharing it with everyone who wanted to tag along.

But enough of that sappy stuff for now, we have one hell of a day to talk about!

Waking up in El Paso this morning, we certainly weren't leaving this somewhat strange city without taking advantage of what we knew it had to do well: MEXICAN FOOD.

Now we've both been to Mexico before and El Paso looked more like Mexico than Mexico did. And for good reason! My geography buffs get your maps out again and you'll see quickly that El Paso is a stone's throw away from Mexico. And by that, I mean you could literally throw a stone and it would easily be in Mexico. El Paso is big. Like, really big. But not even HALF of it is in the USA. El Paso and it's adjacent Mexican neighbor called Ciudad Juarez makes up a metro area of almost 2.2 million people. WHO KNEW??

Back to my point: Mexican culture here is its culture. And that means some of the most authentic food you could probably find in the States. Well, after our research, we find out while the area does any Mexican food well, its signature dish is the Beef Machaca.

"What are you guys putting into your bodies now?"

Well Machaca is a traditional way of cooking beef or pork that originated in northern Mexico where the meat is aged in hot chili's before it is cooked and served. And when it is served in El Paso, its on a plate mixed in with eggs, cheese and other chili's. Basically, no way in HELL were passing that up. So we find the place that supposedly does it best: Kiki's Restaurant and Bar in El Paso's historic Manhattan Heights neighborhood.

This city is just crazy. Driving to the restaurant we kept saying to each other we felt like we were in an international city. Such a strange feeling. But we finally arrived at the acclaimed Kiki's!!

As expected, no frills here! So we head inside and found a cozy little Mexican restaurant, which at 11:00am was quickly starting to fill up. The wait staff was SO friendly and immediately started asking who we were and where we came from (we stuck out at a place like this). Well, we told them we came for the Machaca and they said we came to the right place! Our waiter told us to also get the chicken enchiladas with green sauce. Umm, FINE BY US!

Few minutes later, this appears in front of us: 

The dish at the top is the Machaca. 

Sean is an LA native and I've resided there for over 3 years now, so we know our fair share of great Mexican food. But Kiki's put just about all of those to shame. In fact, absolutely all of them. The enchiladas were incredible (and we've ALL had enchiladas before) so this was a tough sell. But it exceeded all expectations. And as for the Machaca (with brisket) was over the top. You could tell immediately the difference in cooking technique and thats a good thing. The combination with the eggs and other chili's was perfect, and made for what has to be the memorable Mexican dish I've EVER had. And thats the last thing I thought I would say walking out of this place. Once again, we are left dumbfounded by this trip. 

And with that, its back on the road. Time to leave this grand state of Texas. You've been a great host. 

It doesn't take more than 15 minutes and we've left Texas in the dust and entered New Mexico: The Land of Enchantment. But this is southern New Mexico, and all enchantment was replaced by what has to be the closest thing to the surface of Mars that exists on Earth. There was something stunning about it all, but I'll leave it at that. A few weird series of billboards advertising such things as "THE THING!!" and "11,000 years of civilization" did keep our interest for awhile. Also, apparently we crossed over the continental divide. In Colorado? Thats awesome. New Mexico, yeah, not so much. 

For those curious, it looked something like this:

But before long we we through New Mexico and into Arizona, headed towards our second pit stop for the day. TUCSON!! 

Our culinary adventures take us here for a Tucson staple: The Sonoran Style Hot Dog. 

But before we do that, we swing by a strange thing that this desert city has and I call it the "airplane graveyard". Basically, its a massive MASSIVE field of all different kinds of now defunct airplanes dating back to the 1940's. It was cool as it was bizarrely ominous. Sean summed it up nicely by stating, "I'm surprised Michael Bay hasn't tried to blow it up in one of his movies yet". 

I agreed. 

HOT DOG TIME!!

And this provided us with a first on our trip. A FOOD WAR!! See, Tucson has a few places that claim to do the Sonoran dog the best, but the two that claim top prizes are El Guero Canelo and BK Hot Dogs. And what are the chances! Both lie within blocks of each other in the same south Tucson neighborhood. Well, that means one thing: We're trying both!

First up: 

And out comes THIS:

So THATS a Sonoran Dog everyone. 

We house that fairly quickly and walk across the street to:

Quick couple brownie points awarded to BK right off the bat for having this guy:

So, we take down the BK version (which upon sight didn't look all that different than El Guero's) but after eating both, our winner is....

EL GUERO CANELO!! 

Both were awesome, but El Guero Canelo had a little more kick to its bite (which we LOVE). I'm from Chicago, so like to think I know good hotdogs (ok, I do). And the thing that I noticed about both that separated themselves from other hotdogs I've had was the BUN. Both places did them amazingly. Soft, tender, and wrapped around the dog almost like a pocket. It was delicious!! Most times its the bun that ruins a decent hotdog, but in the case of the Sonoran, its what made it. 

Not wasting a beat, we continue north, pass through downtown and stop by the VERY beautiful University of Arizona campus. Tucson is not without its rough edges, but the mountainous desert setting made it all incredibly peaceful. Oh, and STUNNING sunsets. 

Later Tucson. 

We book it up the 1-10 and in about an hour and a half arrived at our final destination before Los Angeles: Phoenix, Arizona. 

Having spent the last 6 days eating just about every regional food there is in this country and arriving in a fairly worldly city such as Phoenix, we decided the wipe our palate clean. INDIAN FOOD! And boy did we find an awesome one. Tucked away in an ethnic neighborhood of Tempe, Arizona we landed at a quaint little place called The Dhaba. 

Ordered our favorite go-to Indian dishes and BOOM, our table turns into heaven:

If you have yet to discover Indian food, I'll pray for you cause there is NOTHING like amazing Indian food (and nothing like shitty Indian food either). But luckily here, we're talking about the first. The tikki marsala was creamy goodness and the Lamb Palak was it's trusty standby self as always. And that garlic naan? Couldnt get enough of it. The owner of the place was this sweet little lady who came by the table often to make sure everything was to our liking. Though perhaps a strange choice, it was a perfectly ironic send-off to this culinary expedition across America. 

And with that, we say good bye!! We'll be back in Los Angeles early tomorrow morning and real life (and regular diets) unfortunately begin again. 

We cant really put into words how awesome these last 6 days have been for us. 10 states and over 3,000 miles, we carved our way through some of the greatest cities and restaurants this country has to offer. Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Jackson, New Orleans, Lafayette, Houston, Austin, El Paso, Tucson, and Phoenix. Wow. We wont forget you. And each one showed us why THEY do culinary right. But above all of the beautiful skylines and incredible dishes we saw and ate, it was the people we met and the hospitality we were given that made this trip truly remarkable. From the our waiter at Rendez-vous in downtown Memphis who has been working the same shift late-night for over 30 years, to the little old ladies still refilling the bins of fried chicken at Two Sisters in Jackson, or the bartender in New Orleans who saw his entire neighborhood wiped out 7 years ago but still comes back to the only place he knows, YOU are the real inspiration. 

Flying is quick and convenient and for all intents and purposes, what we all have to do. But for anyone who ever has a chance to get in the car and just GO, please don't ever turn it down. The places you see, the people you meet, and the memories you create, all out way those long travel days in the car. I love this country. And the truly amazing people we have in it. Only trips like these can remind us of that. It's not about politics, its not about religion. It's about human decency and accepting our differences. And believe me, we're not nearly as different as we all think. 

Oh and eating some goddamn AMAZING food along the way.  

Thats all for now everybody! Thanks for hanging along for the ride.

See you next time!