Interview by Jason Schreurs
Deacon Batchelor, the drummer of folk-punks Andrew Jackson Jihad, takes us on a quick tour of the food scene in Phoenix, Arizona. A chef himself with lots of experience working in the food industry, Batchelor has gotten to know Phoenix’s hometown food scene over the past 10 years of living in the desert city.
According to Batchelor, Mexican food is in large abundance in Phoenix and there’s really no reason to search out anything else (unless it’s a few of Batchelor’s favourite restaurants, or a Chicago deep-dish pizza).
Batchelor: Phoenix is the Mexican food capital of the United States, I would say. There’s a lot of homie Mexican cuisine.
What does that mean?
I would say it plays on the more Sonoran side of Mexican food, which uses a lot of chipotle chilies, green chilies; so that would be the main difference versus Tex Mex or Californian Mex. A lot of braised pork dishes, a lot of carne asada, mostly tacos and burritos would be the fare that you would find.
That kind of food seems to be spreading across North America. Every big city in Canada has these fancy little taco shops now. Are you surprised that it’s taken off?
I’ve been down here in Phoenix for about 10 years, but grew up in Colorado and Michigan, so I had a lot of that kind of cuisine growing up. I’ve paid a lot of attention to worldwide and global cooking, especially with cooking shows like Master Chef Canada, it’s given me a window into how far north Mexican cuisine has moved. Since shipping has gotten a lot better, Canada can now get a lot of the chilies from down here, which is what makes Mexican food Mexican food; those specific chilies.
What other kinds of foods are big in Phoenix?
Right now there’s the big southern comfort food thing happening here. The restaurant I work at, in particular, The Local, we specialize in modern comfort cuisine. We’ll do a riff on chicken and waffles, but we’ll use quail, so you’ll have quail on a rosemary-infused waffle. Or we’ll do a southern-style beef brisket with an Argentine-style chimichurri sauce in roasted vegetables, but done in a very artistic, modern way. So we take things that people could eat at home, but bring them to a fine dining level.
Is there anything in Phoenix that would be considered a signature dish to the city?
Honestly, if you were to come to Phoenix, I would say carne asada or pollo fundido; those would be signature Mexican dishes that you would have at hole-in-the-wall restaurants or fine dining restaurants. So, pollo fundido is a braised chicken dish, normally braised in green and red chilies and served with cotija cheese in tortillas, with rice and beans. Sometimes people will wrap them and deep fry them to make taquitos, and you can find them all over. Most of the fast-food restaurants out here are burrito chains, so late night you’re most likely to have these little tacos or a carne asada burrito.
What’s your favourite restaurant in Phoenix?
My favourite is The Local, where I work. I work there because the food is awesome. And then there’s also a restaurant called Bekketts Table; it’s just a nice, down southern home-cooking restaurant that does really, really good modern takes on southern food. And then there’s this restaurant called Sochu House, and it’s one of favourite places. They do Chinese food.
So standard Chinese, or with a twist?
Um, a little more modern Chinese food. The owner, Johnny Chu, he owns pretty much all of the best Asian restaurants in town, and it’s always a little Thai, a little Chinese, a little Szechuan, but it’s always good and they serve food really late at night, which is something that’s actually hard to find in Phoenix. So, yeah, I go to Sochu House quite often.
Is there any street food or food carts in Phoenix?
Not really. The food truck scene is just starting to take off here. You’ll find them mainly during festivals, but it’s not one of those cities where you can just walk to one area of town and there are food carts and food trucks. We’re still a little bit behind on that. But it’s something that’s growing and, myself, I have aspirations of starting my own food truck and doing specialty tamales, to get into the food truck scene. I worked on a pizza food truck out here for a little while to figure out what was happening, and I found out there’s not much happening right now.
If you could describe the Phoenix food scene to someone who hasn’t been there before, how would you describe it?
I would say it’s very vast and full of really good Mexican food. I really don’t see a need to go and dive into any other type of restaurants out here. Just find the hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with some really old Mexican cook back there, and just start ordering stuff off the menu until you’re full. That’s the only advice I’d give to anyone coming to Phoenix; just find a weird looking Mexican restaurant and go chow down.
Andrew Jackson Jihad‘s Christmas Island is out now on SideOneDummy Records.
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