Track Crime in Your Neighborhood

Been crazy busy at work so I have not really found time to blog, but saw this on the news yesterday and thought it was interesting.

Pima County Sheriff's department has purchased service to a website called CrimeReports.com for $12K a year (paid for by money seized from drug dealers and other criminals). You can now see on a map what criminal events occured in your neighborhood and it's free.

I went to the site and looked up my home address and there was nothing nearby (thank goodness!). I searched my zip code and just about 7-10 miles away, there were neighborhoods full of crime such as assault (no injury), theft (larceny), theft (vehicle), robbery, assault (domestic violence), etc. TONS! The site is really slow to load and move around the map so that was annoying.

Overall though, pretty crazy stuff going on in Tucson. Information is updated every 24 hours, so the information citizens obtain is timely and accurate

Fat Burros

It's been reported that there is an epidemic of obese burros in the old gold mining town on Oatman in western AZ. The wild burros in the small town's one street are extremely overweight, "with rolls of fat on their necks and big, full bellies."

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management manages the burros and say that half a million tourist visit the small town each year and feed the burros carrots, hay, or anything else and the burros eat it up. They have started a campaign to help the burros get back into shape, as most of them are 100-150 pounds overweight.

How silly.

[image via wikimedia.org]

Mexican Hot Dogs (Sonoran Dog)

On Tuesday's dining and wine section of The New York Times, there was a fun article about the Mexican hot dog. It highlighted the popularity of the hot dogs served in Tucson and some of its vendors, known as hotdoguero.

I remember a friend from high school went to Sonora and Hermosillo and talked about how good their hot dogs were compared to the US dog. But I didn't really know what a Mexican hot dog was until I moved to Tucson 5 years ago. In college, my sorority sisters would rave about how delicious and fattening they were and being the young vain college student I was, the fattening description never turned me on so I never wanted to try one.

However, they opened an El Guero Canelo (a very unpretentious, extremely cheap, and popular authentic Mexican food restaurant), famous for their hot dogs, about 7 minutes from my house so we frequent the place often. Although I have been to the place dozens of times, I have yet to order a hot dog. I've had a bite of one here and there, but something about a hot dog wrapped in bacon, covered in beans, tomatoes, onions, mustard, salsa, mayonnaise stuffed in a soft slightly sweet bun still does not do it for me. Although I do admit the few bites I have had have been good, it's just too much.

At any rate, read the article if you are a fan or are just curious. But most importantly, if you haven't already, you need to try a Sonoran hot dog for yourself. It's really is uniquely different and delicious.

[image via The New York Times]

Can I Do This At My House?

KVOA.com reported that The University of Arizona has a pretty cool way to cool down their buildings during the day and save money on their electricity bill. And as an added bonus, this makes the campus a more "green" campus.

Traditionally, buildings are cooled by passing air over chilled pipes which is very costly. Now, the campus has 156 tanks of antifreeze running through the pipes in the tank that freezes the water at night. During peak electricity hours (middle of the day), those giant blocks of ice in the pipes melt and cools the 140 buildings on campus.

"The University isn't the only institution using this technique, it is spreading throughout the country. In some places it allows them to offset electricity production to cleaner renewable sources. At night, when demand is lower, renewable sources such as wind and water energy can fulfill a greater portion of the need, offsetting coal usage."

I thought that this was pretty cool for the environment and budget. Based on the data collected, they think it saves them more than $20K a month. I did notice that my office is cooler than it use to be, but my thermostat could just be set lower in the 7 months that I have not been here.

[image via arizona.edu]

Still here

Hi! I know I have totally been slacking on the blogging front. I was sick all last week and have been a bit busier at work. And now I'm recovering from the weekend of partying and from being sick.

Quick update on food we ate this weekend though. I took N to Roka Akor (a Japanese restaurant/robata grill/shochu lounge) in Scottsdale for her birthday dinner. T and I have eaten there a few times now and its always been decent food. T, N, and I got the omakase, and there was a massive amount of food. Everything for the most part was tasty, but I was disappointed in the lack of fish we actually got. I honestly quit eating halfway through because I was so stuffed. We had so much stuff boxed up but we left in a hurry and thus, lost our midnight snack. I hope I can remember everything...
[image via Rokaakor.com]
For starters we had butterfish tataki with white asparagus (I get this everytime I've gone so far), beef tataki with a chili ponzu sauce, fried tofu with a avocado and wasabi sauce, ginger, and ponzu sauce, burnt tomato salad, and fried oysters with ponzu and shisho. T said he was ponzu-ed out by this point.

Next up, we had sushi: toro tuna roll (two kinds-one had a huge hunk of pickled radish inside), spanish mackarel sashimi (two kinds-both delicious), tuna and yellowtail sashimi, sea bream sashimi, and I think one more thing. I wish we had more sashimi though. Their fish is really good.

Following the fish, butternut squash tempura with a Japanese pepper broth, Yuzo marinated black cod, grilled wild madagascan tiger prawns (HUGE-size of my forearm basically, it was insane), grilled pork belly with marinated beets, cold soba noodles in broth with quail egg and green onions, baby pork ribs with sweet corn in butter and soy, grilled Shishito peppers with ponzu and bonito flakes. I feel like I am forgetting something, but even this list is quite large.

We were suppose to get lamb cutlets too, but the three of us were majorly stuffed so we just called for dessert (pictured below). The desserts change everyday and is always an assortment of sorbets, fresh fruit-like lychee and mangosteen, and other neat things (we got green tea custard with banana foam, some passion fruit thing, and a peanut butter sorbet on top of some cake I can't remember). For N's birthday, they brought out the sample platter (I guess that's what it is called) for free. The Yuzu sorbet was hands down the favorite from the three of us.

After rethinking about everything we ate, I feel like a fatty. For $98/person, it was seriously the most food I've ever gotten. There were some things I did not like, but overall, the food was yummy, the service is always really good (they gave us free sake and free dessert!), so I will most likely go back.

I apologize for the lack of creativity in writing this post. It's noon and I'm ready for lunch so I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and blogging! :)

Going to See the President

I am going to leave work at 4pm today to head over to ASU to see my best friend, S, graduate with his master's degree in broadcast journalism. Not only am I really proud of him for getting his master's in only a semester more than it took me to get my bachelor's, I'm really happy I'll get to see President Barack Obama give his commencement speech.

I am not looking forward to the long wait to get through security (the news said it could take up to an hour and half) and then sitting in the Phoenix sun for a few hours before his speech at 7:45pm. It is one of those once in a lifetime things, so I am glad I got a ticket. But with the long lines, heat, and waiting through other boring graduation speeches, Mr. President better bring one damn good speech.

This will be the second Democratic President I've seen in real life. President Clinton being the first, which was awesome being that it was so up close and personal. And that I had to thank S for that also since he's the one who got me in. Back to Restaurant City!

[images via asu.edu]

Paula Deen Cancelled

M told me about this a few weeks ago and then sent me this photo this morning. Not like I was going to go, but I did think it was pretty strange Paula Deen was going to be at Costco (Tempe Marketplace location) signing her book. Why not Border's or something more book related? I'm sure her fans are going to be sad anyway.

Also, she looks so creepy in that photo. We know she's old(er), you don't have to airbrush all the wrinkles out! It looks so unnatural.

Los Reyes De La Torta

I'm not a big Mexican food fan, but I really like Los Reyes De La Torta. They really are no joke, the king of the torta in Phoenix. I go to the one on 7th street and Dunlap. The restaurant is decent size and portions are pretty large for a really low price. If I was not worried about getting fat, I would probably go there at least once a week, more if it was closer. And eat this:

Tostada de Ceviche. For just $2.99, its loaded with shrimp, tomatoes, cilantro, etc. It's a nice starter before you get to the main thing, which is this:

The Hawayana. I don't even like ham, but this sandwich is delicious. It has cheese and pineapples and a bunch of other stuff all piled high on yummy bread. I usually eat half of it and am stuffed. I have gotten the Mexicana a few times which is with carne asada and avocados, but the Hawayana is so much better. It also has a yummy chipolte mayo sauce that I think really makes all the difference.

I wonder what my friends are doing for dinner tonight....

Synsepalum Dulcificum, Miracle Fruit?

Synsepalum Dulcificum is a West African berry that has been called the "miracle fruit" because it has taste transforming abilities. It can make sour, spicy, and bitter foods taste sweet with a glycoprotein molecule that binds to your taste buds and affect your sweetness receptors for 30 minutes. It could have been the next big commercial sweetner in the 70s because the FDA shut it down.

Michael Laudig of the Phoenix Times Chow Bella wrote about this flavor tripping experience that local Phoenix chef and James Beard award winner, Christopher Gross, plans on sharing. Chef Gross claims "You can eat a lemon wedge, and it tastes just like a piece of candy!"

Chef Gross is going to be hosting a flavor tripping party at Crush Lounge (at the Biltmore) on Thursday, April 23 for $15 per person at 8pm. These parties were popular on the east coast a year ago, but no one has brought it to Arizona (at least not that I know of). It said there will be plenty of food to feast on. T and I have eaten there a few months ago and we both liked it. I was sold when I read "there will be wine." Now, I just need to find a foodie companion who's free on the 23rd.

[image via Wikipedia]

Scottsdale in NY Times

The Travel section of the NY Times did a pretty interesting article of the so called new Scottsdale. As a Phoenix native, I have seen Scottsdale and Phoenix flourish into this pretty big city. I remember back in the day when Scottsdale was nothing more than an empty fake cowboy town that we would only cross city lines if we wanted to go to Fashion Square mall.

Now, its a full bustling city with farmer markets, restaurants, high end shops, spas, live music, festivities and well, culture. I think the biggest change would be the night life. It is full of over priced drinks, scantily clad women, and over groomed men. Oh, and celebrity sightings can be had at any of the clubs or new hotels too.

I must say though, I am really happy with the new Scottsdale. There are plenty of bars and clubs to go to in Old Town, delicious and I hate to say it, trendy restaurants to dine at, and relatively good looking men and women to people watch. It does make me a bit self conscious being around all these beautiful people at such fancy bars. If T is in town, we usually venture to Old Town with our friends at least one night of the weekend. We may spend quite a few bucks, but it's always a party.

[image via 480area.com]