The Crush pARTy returned to the Tucson Museum of Art on Sunday, Nov. 15 to offer up tastes of about 40 different local restaurants. The cuisine ranged from Greek to French to Indian to Japanese and more, with more samples than any one person could possibly eat. Like any food fest, my advice for those going to the next event or any like it is to bring a friend and divide and conquer—that way you get to try more of what's being served.

In terms of trends, duck seemed to be a popular ingredient for the day, with several stands offering duck confit, duck as a meatball and more. The most unique use of duck, and likely the day's most inventive dish, came from the museum's own Cafe a la C'art, which offered a grilled chile lime shrimp over duck fat polenta with Mexican chorizo, which was then topped with a prickly pear and lavender foam. 

Other standouts for the day included The Coronet's Dragoon sausage (not pictured), Tohono Chul's duck confit tostada (mostly because a deep fried wonton wrapper dusted with duck fat couldn't be bad) and Primo's porchetta slider.

Check out some scenes from yesterday's Crush pARTy, which benefitted both the museum and the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance: