Food on my Arizona 2013 trip.

I stayed in Arizona from January 4th through 11th. The first three days I attended Taiyou Con in Mesa, but for the remainder, I just enjoyed the time with my aunt and uncle I was staying with.

In tradition with recent CVFTA articles on local restaurants, I photographed some of the more interesting meals we had.

The first restaurant we visited was their favorite pizza placed called Oregano's due to its classic Italian Chicago styled fare. We had a Italian salad as well as a thin crust pizza with pepperoni and sausage. I let them totally decide on the order so that I could experience what they like most about the food there.

A large pepperoni and sausage pizza.

The pizza turned out more unique that I expected it to be. The toppings were of a high quality and placed under the cheese, giving it a unique texture and flavor over your run of the mill pizza.

A salad large enough for 4 people.

The salad was also surprisingly unique. The dressing wasn't the standard high vinegar quotient Italian, but more of a mild hint of flavor to the salad. The main kick came from the feta cheese, figs, and walnuts graciously disbursed throughout. Salad really goes well with pizza and helps to remove a little bit of the high-calorie guilt that comes from eating pizza like that.

Later in the week we went on a trip east to the Superstition Mountains and Tortilla Flats. Superstition Saloon was located in a little town and the second restaurant worth mentioning.

Most of the restaurant is covered in $1 bills.

The restaurant is a popular attraction with the unique decor of customer's dollar bills covering the walls, bar seats made out of saddles, and an overall western theme.  Food ranged from burgers to Mexican styled cuisine.

Taco meal came with two large soft shell tacos and vegetables.

My uncle's meal at the Superstition Saloon.

The food here was pleasant and pretty basic.  I enjoyed the tacos and the atmosphere of the place.  It's worth checking out if you are doing a similar trip to that area.

After Tortilla Flats, we visited a ghost town for some ice cream at the Miner's Grill and Ice Cream Parlor. We had planned to have prickly pear ice cream, but they no longer had it. I went with the cotton candy flavor.

Cotton candy flavored ice cream.

I enjoyed the slight cotton candy flavor, but wasn't too fond of the small chocolate pieces disbursed throughout the ice cream. The chocolate added some bite to the ice cream that is probably appealing to some people, but not me personally. It was thicker than normal ice cream with more of a Italian Gelato consistency to it.

The last restaurant we visited was P.F. Chang's China Bistro. I had mentioned these food reviews and said that so far CVFTA had mostly visited Chinese or Japanese styled restaurants, so they seemed to go with that theme for this last outing.

The atmosphere of the place is on the somewhat upscale side with a lot of dark woods and shinny metals disbursed throughout. Food also fits the theme with smaller quantities at a higher than normal prices. My favorite food of our order was the crab wantons. They had a really nice filling and were not over or under cooked.  They were probably one of the best Crab Rangoon type preparations I've had so far.

My meal consisted of a honey glazed chicken and rice meal. It was decent, but nothing really struck me besides the strongly flavored vegetables on the side that didn't personally appeal to me. The chicken was good, but I just had wished there was more of it for the price.

Honey glazed chicken.

I had a nice time visiting my family in Arizona and experiencing a few new restaurants along the way.  You can see more photos here.