Much like losing the Tucson Weekly as their food writer when Covid hit in 2020, I had a good backlog of articles ready to go but never saw the light of published day when I and other writers were all let go by a popular Tucson food based website in late 2023.
Okay, by “good backlog” I meant two.
Its always heartbreaking when I have to send that text/email/whatever to whomever I had in the can and report “Hey, yeah, I was just let go so they’re not going to run my story on you.”
After spending a decent amount of time with each subject, usually a few hours before or after a busy service, chatting and taking photos, we create a bit of an immediate bond. Normally, when an article gets published and I see whoever I featured out in the wild again, there’s always that happy memory glint of how we came to know one another in the first place. That article I wrote.
But then there’s the other, the one where we see each other again and I have to give a shrug and apology before putting my order in. Its only happened like a handful of times. No literally. Like five times.
Here are the two that didn’t make it into that popular Tucson Food sItE.
Here’s the thing, each one had an extensive interview on my old phone with a transcription of our conversation. Those interviews are long gone. So basically what I am going for here are just uploading photos from each one with a little blurb explaining who they are, what they serve, how they do it, etc, without any real actual context from our time together.
Lets get into it.
When I hung out with chef and owner Alberta Chu, along with her husband Kyle manning the fryer, they were doing a pop up on the back patio of Hello Bicycle. It was a beautiful warm day and there was a good turn out for their Taiwanese inspired fried chicken.
All I can say is that Alberta and Kyle set me up! They had me try their popcorn chicken, which got them started in the first place, serving folks in bars and certain events, fried chicken served over rice, a huge chicken cut let served in a paper bag, and this super dope chicken sandwich.
Everything was delicious. Flavorful, spicy, cooked to perfection and above all crispy on the outside and tender on the in.
Here’s a great article about them from This Is Tucson.
Enjoy!
As the former food truck guy for the aforementioned food site, my gig was to hunt down new mobile eateries or celebrate some classics. When I got word about a Korean food truck called Yum Yum Pocha that was serving ramyeon (Korean ramen) and rice bowls I had to get on that.
I caught up with Yum Yum’s chef and owner Miyou Wallace in the parking lot of the Foothills Mall as she and her husband John were set up on the cusp of an artisan market.
They had me try their three meat ramyeon, vegetable ramen, and something called mandoo, which is a fried or steamed dumpling filled with either kimchi, meat or veggies. Ramyeon is normally a bit spicier than the ramen you are usually used to. Which is what I prefer. So good. Miyou’s ramen was delicious as well; lots of soft noodles bathed in a deeply flavored broth with tons of fresh greens swimming on top.
The mandoos were crazy tasty. Potstickers and eggrolls are one thing, and one of my favorite things, but after trying Yum Yum’s mandoos all I can say is ‘Yahoo!”
Anyway, This Is Tucson did a piece on them so you can read that here.
Cheers!
Words and Pictures
Mark Whittaker
yeahwritemark@gmail.com
Yeah Write Mark 