Some were household names with tons of locations around the Valley of the Sun, like Grimaldi’s and Zoe’s, but others seemed a bit more special and I sought them out (along with some booze, of course).

The Italiano – Aioli Burger

I’d been hearing murmurings of how great this place was for a while now, and its victory at Burger Battle 2018 further cemented my desire to get there. This burger wasn’t perfect, nor would I expect it to be in such a situation, but the combination of mozzarella, bacon, basil garlic aioli, balsamic reduction and a discarded tomato made me more eager to seek out the real deal.

Mac Daddy – Tom’s BBQ

Is it proper to describe mac and cheese as wet in a bad way? Because that’s how I felt about the Mac Daddy, which is mac and cheese topped with pulled pork and BBQ sauce. Perhaps the measurements went awry in the kitchen, because a dish like this is very hard to mess up. Yet, it was underwhelming, leaving me thinking I should have hit up another spot in the BBQ region.

Carne Asada Fries – SuperFarm SuperTruck

This is a truck that knows how to make fries. The fries themselves were perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, as well as seasoned to perfection. The beef was more ground than steak, but seasoned well, and the cilantro, cheese and sauce all acted in harmony with one another. The lime juice didn’t hurt either. These were easily my booze-free highlight of the festival.

Jollybeez Wings – Good Fortune Kitchen

What can I say? I’m a sucker for Filipino food. And while I can’t say I’ve ever had wings at an actual Jollibee, I have had balut and that should pretty much prepare me for anything. That said, the wing here was pretty good, and while there may have been a little too much focus on the corn and slaw? surrounding the wing, I was definitely a fan of the crispiness, meatiness, moistness and peanut sauce.

Unfortunately, one man can only eat so much. I left the Scottsdale Culinary Festival with not just a full stomach, but also a heart full of hope for the food scene in Phoenix. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like thing are bad in any way, but the variety I saw in places like Good Fortune Kitchen tells me that better foods are yet to come.

You know what’s great about being Jewish? No Lent. No Ramadan. Sure, there’s been thousands of years of persecution and an annual fast or two, but nothing that compares to the longevity of the institutionalized pain of those two holidays. Worse still, sometimes Ramadan falls in the summer and you can’t even drink water. With all of these thoughts in mind, I found myself in Malaysia in the summer in the middle of Ramadan. And in Sandakan in Borneo, this meant the nightly Ramadan Market. The most impressive part about it is that observant Muslims somehow manage to walk up and down the market and order food without eating a bite of it until the sun goes down. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait.

Some of the goodies are unique to the region, like the banana leaf-wrapped Nasi Kuning Ayam, which is essentially yellow rice with fried chicken. It’s both simple and complex at the same time.

Portable grills like this can also be found all over the market, giving the whole place a delicious smoky haze. They’re mostly used for grilling up chicken.

You can also find roti canai all around the market, which is essentially a fried flatbread. Here, it’s used more like a wrap so the vendors fill it with things like cabbage, eggs and even beef or chicken.

Amazingly, I could only find one tent that came close to resembling Middle Eastern food. They had a bunch of prepared “burgers” and a spool of chicken. However, while the cooking style was Middle Eastern, the flavors and spices of finished chicken pita I had tasted more Japanese than anything else – aside from the pita itself.

A bunch of vendors were pushing noodles in mass quantities that kind of blew my mind. There were generally a couple options to choose from and I had myself some traditional Hokkien-style, which were brown and fried. For spice, they kind of depended on whatever I added to the mix and they also had an option to add an egg, which is almost never a mistake.

But it wasn’t just about the food, stalls were showing off some pretty beautiful drinks packed with strong flavors like bubble gum, chocolate, taro and more. The bagged versions of these drinks were called ABCs and the big cupped versions were called Halo Halos, which is originally a Filipino word, but The Philippines are literally a short boat ride from Sandakan so this kind of made sense.

More than anything, there was an amazing spirit at the Ramadan Market. Smiles abounded, patience was never a concern and cleanliness really never felt like a concern. So maybe there is something to a month-long fast. It gives people an excuse to get together every night, to build up community events and to take down some tasty food and drinks.

Bacon and Avocado Musubi – What Floats UR Boat

This place specializes in literally only 3 musubi options and they are all nothing like what you would expect from “sushi.” If you get all three they come in a boat, but I needed to conserve stomach space and stuck with one filled with chipotle caramelized bacon and avocado. The avocado was insanely creamy and the bacon was insanely perfect. The rice and seaweed added perfect balance to an already great mix of food.

Winner Winner – The Naughty Churro

I love me a good churro, and I love me some fried chicken and waffles. While this sandwich of churro “buns,” fried chicken and maple butter isn’t exactly how you would picture a churro, it is easily the must gluttonously delicious thing I could find at the 626 Night Market and worth every penny/calorie.

Pix*e Halo Halo – Mix*E

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of sweet red beans. Maybe it’s the gringo in me, but I love me some Halo Halo, a Filipino dessert filled with crushed ice, coconut, jellies, ube ice cream and pudding, plus those sweet beans. Fortunately, Mix*E offers a beanless version that is fantastic.

Balut – Kapamilya Filipino Restaurant

Once upon a time I visited the Philippines. Unfortunately at the time I hadn’t heard of Balut and when I came back and started meat blogging I knew I had to try it out. Sadly it took until now to try it. Basically, it’s a boiled, fertilized duck egg and tastes much better than it looks. There will certainly be a full Strange Eats post to read eventually, but until now enjoy this video:

Once, oh so many years ago, I had myself a solo adventure in The Philippines. Among my many memories, I have never forgotten pulling into the Jollibee drive-thru window in Quezon City and ordering corned beef with rice. Surely, this wasn’t the most exciting thing on the menu, but to a Jew that had spent nearly a year in China and longed for corned beef I was amazed. Of course, this corned beef was more a remnant of the colonial days of The Philippines than of my own ancestors, but it was still an experience.

A couple of years later, I realized Jollibee existed in LA and longed to pay the place another visit. Then, just as I was about to take a lunch trip to the Carson location, the place blew up on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. This only strengthened my resolve and moved Jollibee to the top of my to-eat list.

Although we were greeted by a giant anthropomorphic bee outside, on the inside were were greeted only by Filipino faces. I knew the time had come to potentially recreate some memories. This time, though, I ordered the Aloha Burger instead of corned beef. This burger came topped with a slice of pineapple, bacon, “creamy” cheese, Aloha dressing and lettuce. I got mine without the lettuce and deduced that the Aloha dressing was basically honey mustard, but light on the mustard. It ended up being exactly what it sounded like. Unquestionably fast food, but unquestionably unique. Plus, the cheese was less the creamy variety and more the Velveeta variety.

To join my Aloha Burger, I ordered a side of fries. Note that I made no distinction about the size of the fries, because at Jollibee the fries only come in one size. Of course, they make up for that lack of size variety with side dishes like corn, rice and sweet potato waffle fries. In any case, the fries were the perfect size and generally held their own against other fast food fries.

The icing on this whole fantastic cake of a fast food joint, though, was the Halo Halo. As a dessert, the Halo Halo is probably the greatest dessert that exists in any fast food restaurant in the past, present or future. Starting from the bottom, it begins with sweet beans, coconut shavings and big cubed jellies. On top of that layer is a sweetened purple jelly-like substance, following by evaporated milk and something like shaved ice. Finally, it is topped with a small scoop of ube (purple yam) and mango (I think) ice cream. But wait, that’s not all. Seated next to these scoops is a slice of flan. It is truly a sight to behold and to eat. Surely, a trip to Jollibee without a Halo Halo is wasted.

So, after trying out the American version of Jollibee, I can say that any lover of fast food will find themselves enjoying the main courses. But don’t show up as a snooty burger snob and expect it to make you like fast food. It’s unique as all hell, but it’s still fast food.

But, whatever your position on any food, check out the Halo Halo. It might not be some fancy chef dessert, but it is damn sexy and damn worth it.