FRYBREAD FROM HEAVEN
Manna from Heaven is open and slinging up frybread, burritos, dorado tacos and more in Barrio Hollywood.
The small stand is clean, modest and very welcoming, with about 10 seats inside and several more seats on the detached back patio. The menu lists frybread options including plain ($3), honey and powdered sugar topped ($4), green chile ($8.50), red chile ($8.50), beans ($4) and Navajo taco-style ($6) with beans, lettuce, tomato and cheese. There's also fried tacos filled with beef and green or red chile burritos, along with red and white menudo in a range of sizes, including the exciting and a little intimidating gallon size for $15.99. That's a lot of menudo.
As you wait in line to order at the small restaurant, you can peer into the kitchen via the pass-through window next to the register and see the frybread being made. The frybread itself is about eight inches in circumference and piled with your chosen toppings.
Manna from Heaven is now open Mondays through Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. at 1118 W. St. Mary's Road.
WASTE NOT
Unless you're an avid gardener and already have your own compost situation figured out, odds and ends from the kitchen probably just get thrown in the trash at your house. Shannon Sartin calls this "compost guilt"—but you don't have to feel it anymore. Along with her sister Moira, she started a food waste pick-up service called Scraps on Scraps.
Just one year in, Sartin's service boasts over 100 users all over Tucson with an estimated 35,000 pounds of food waste given to the Community Food Bank's farm, Las Milpitas, to turn into very usable compost, which in turn helps grow nutritious food for people who have limited access to it normally.
For users of Sartin's unique service, the process is fairly simple. Drop-off customers can go to either St. Philip's Plaza Farmers Market on Sunday or the farmers market at Mercado San Agustin on Thursday to exchange full buckets for empty ones at the Scraps on Scraps table for $7 per month. For $13 per month, users can opt for bi-weekly home pick ups. The goal was to make the service easy and flexible for everyone. Sartin's main goal is simple: "Waste less, use more, and compost what you don't."
FOOD TRUCK FAREWELL
It's time to say goodbye to the Chef's Kitchen food truck. Chef Chris Cryderman has been in the culinary game for over 40 years, though his solar-powered food truck has only been on the Tucson streets for two and a half years. Cryderman opened the truck as a fun supplemental project to his catering business with his son, who is also a chef, but is now ready to retire the truck.
"I'm too old to be working that hard," Cryderman says. "People think you just open up a food truck and make a ton of money and that isn't the case. It's hard work."
Cryderman says he still will do catering events for Chef's Kitchen, but eliminating the truck means he'll have more time to relax and take trips with his wife.
TEACHING TREE
Get a professional look at the world of heirloom fruit trees when Jesús García chats about his work with the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project all while sharing tips on the propagation and maintenance of these unique trees. On Thursday, Feb, 26 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., García will kick off the class at the Sonoran Desert Museum, 2021 North Kinney Road, where he will discuss the historical significance of these trees. After some hands-on care instruction, he will end the class at the base of A Mountain with a guided tour of the Mission Garden. Registration for the Heirloom Fruit Trees workshop is $54 for members and $59 for non-members and is available online, along with more information, on the Sonoran Desert Museum website.
For more food and beverage news around the Old Pueblo, visit our food blog at www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/chow/.
