Chances are you have about twenty different food carts, holes in the wall, and other hidden gems that you are just dying to let the world know about. Well, nerdy TV food enthusiast Alton Brown wants to hear what you’ve got.

According to Brown’s blog, he’s hitting the road to try tasty places across the country in nearly 40 different cities and Tucson is one of them. He’s asking Tucsonians to take to Twitter and Facebook to namedrop as many local food hot spots as possible using the hashtag #ABRoadEatsTucson.

The post says Brown is specifically looking for late night snacks, coffee shops, sandwiches, and restaurants in general. The crowd-sourced food tour is part of Brown’s Edible Inevitable Tour, which will bring him through Tucson on Saturday, March 22. For more information on his Tucson appearance and to buy tickets, check out the tour’s website.

Otherwise, get to Twitter and start telling Alton Brown what’s up.

I'm crossing my fingers that Insane Clown Posse do something interesting in the next three days so I can really pay tribute to my Range-muses, but in the meantime, it only seems right that someone posted a Muppets vs. 90's-hip-hop video mashup on YouTube yesterday, so I could have something to post. Thanks, internet!

Arizona is making Culture War news once again, earning us negative press from, among others, the New York Times and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show. This time the news comes from the Gilbert School District school board, where a 3-2 majority wants to black out or cut out a few pages from a high school biology book. The reason: The pages give information about contraception and morning after pills. According to the board majority, that's illegal.

A law passed two years ago in Arizona requires schools to teach “preference, encouragement and support to childbirth and adoption” over abortion, and the school board decided that those pages were in violation of this law — even though the Arizona Education Department, which examined the book for compliance, found that they were not.

The situation is in flux. In the November elections, Gilbert voters replaced one of the board members who voted in favor of the cutting or blacking out of the pages with a new member who will most likely vote the other way. If the district can just hold off until after January when the new board convenes, the pages will probably stay.

If you’re looking for a liquor-forward drink for late fall nights, Agustin Kitchen’s Gaelic Gravity is a clever blend of scotch, apples, cinnamon, and smoky flavors that is both drinkable and well-balanced, while still maintaining its edge.



Bartender Ciaran Wiese starts the process of making his Gaelic Gravity cocktail about a month in advance. Wiese infuses Teacher’s blended scotch with Granny Smith apples and lets the flavors blend until the whiskey is sufficiently, well, appley. At the same time, the cocktail’s tobacco tincture is made in house by infusing pipe tobacco and Everclear.



From there, the two infusions are mixed with cinnamon simple syrup, Angostura bitters, and Connemara, a peated Irish whisky. Rather than masking the spirit with cinnamon, the cocktail builds on the spirit’s flavors first, resulting in a well-rounded cider-like drink with a nice mix of sweet and smoky flavors.



While I can only wonder what it might be like if the apples were infused into and Islay scotch to begin with, the subtle earthy, peatiness of the Connemara is a nice introduction for non-Islay drinkers who aren’t ready to go full Laphroaig Project— a (kind of intense) cocktail which blends Islay scotch, bitters, and Chartruese.



You can try the smooth Gaelic Gravity for $11 at Agustin Kitchen, located at 100 South Avenida del Convento in the Mercado San Agustín.