Valley of the Sun

Hola! I am not dead! Sorry for the gap in writing, dear readers. It's been a whirlwind lately. In this post, I'll detail the highlights of my last trip to Phoenix (in late August and early September), and I've got a few other posts up my sleeve.

So: Phoenix. This trip centered largely on shoving food in my face, which suits me. We hit Tortas el Rey. We meant to go to Los Reyes de la Torta because it was featured on Man vs. Food, but our sub-par Spanish tripped us up. Anyway, it doesn't matter because we got essentially the same thing: a big-ass sandwich. The king version contains: breaded beef, pork, ham, chorizo, cheese, avocado, beans, tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, and an omelet--all on a telera (a Mexican type of bread) bun. We each ate half and probably consumed more calories than we normally eat in about three days.

We also had burgers at 25 Degrees. This joint's hilarious tagline is "bordello meets burger bar," so I guess their decor is supposed to remind you of your favorite brothel. I had the number 2, which was topped with prosciutto, roasted tomato, burrata (a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream...had to look that one up), and pesto. Matt chose the number 3 with mezzo secco jack, green chili, chipotle, and avocado. Here's the menu if you ever happen to find yourself in the Valley of the Sun with a hankering for a delicious slab of beef.

After eating gigantor tortas, we ventured over to the swanky Phoenician for a farewell party of one of Matt's friends. I hung out in one of the pools for a bit, but then I took refuge from the sun in the shaded outdoor bar.

And we returned to Postino for their unusual bruschetta and wine. This time, we chose the warm artichoke spread, the albacore tuna with gaeta olives,smoked salmon with capers and pesto, and prosciutto with figs and marscapone. Amazing!

For the Labor Day holiday, we had a few people over to grill out and hang by the pool. All in all, it was a brief visit, but a good one.