When you look at the vegan restaurant Tumerico's website, you won't see much about Sonoran native (specifically Hermosillo) owner and head chef Wendy Garcia. However, a simple Google search reveals much about the celebrated chef, a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef Southwest, and an often Yelp "Top" recognition (including her other eatery, La Chaiteria on Congress Street) and recently #10 in the publication VegNews' "25 Best Vegan Mexican Food Spots Across the U.S."
Of course, it is great to have a local food establishment recognized for its greatness, but what I most love about Chef Wendy's story is the road she took to get to this level.
She moved to Tucson at age 17 and started working in restaurants as a dishwasher, prep cook, line cook, and head cook. These jobs included Home Town Buffet, Taco Bell, Chipotle, and Feast.
After ten years, she had learned a lot (probably lots of what not to do) but was also burnt out. So she quit.
With no money and no job, she struggled with what to do. Knowing she loved cooking and feeding people, she started making tamales and selling them at farmer's markets. Thus, the beginning of the Tumerico we know and love today.
One of Tumerico's fun uniquenesses is that the menu changes daily. Chef Wendy has said they are constantly experimenting, playing with different locally sourced seasonings and plants.
So, finally, I took the opportunity to go last Friday night. Luckily, we beat the U of A basketball game rush that created a line extending out the door (I'm sure a typical situation here). I ordered the Birria Ramen, and my friend ordered the chorizo plate. I don't know if the birria was jackfruit or not, but whatever it was, I certainly did not miss the meat. Dang, it was good. The flavors in the soup, with the birria and the noodles, intermixed with a healthy proportion of veggies, including onions, potatoes, and cilantro, with the sides of lemon and soy sauce-- oh my god, was that tasty.
And, of course, I had to try some of my friend's chorizo, which was soy. And I may have even liked that better than my incredible birria.
I love chorizo, but it doesn't always like me if you know what I mean. But I could eat this stuff all day and not suffer due to the greasiness of the sausage.
Just GREAT food that happens to be vegan.
If you are reading this, first of all, thank you! And secondly, you more than likely have already been to Tumerico. But if you haven't been there, or it's been a while, do yourself a favor and get there soon.
These are the places that have led me to fall in love with this city: the real people, the real food, the real stories. We need to frequent the Tumericos and La Chaiterias to help keep our food scene authentically Sonoran, authentically Tucson.
So go! Go now! And I'll see you there!