Tucson, AZChimichanga

The Arizona Daily Star calls the Court Avenue room the birthplace of the chimichanga and America's oldest continuously operating Mexican restaurant, and Tucson Foodie dates its hundredth birthday to 2022. Tucson Foodie also carries the origin story: founder Monica Flin dropped a burro into sizzling fat, started to swear in front of the children in the kitchen and changed the word to chimichanga. Order the carne seca chimi, filled with flank steak that is seasoned and then dried on the roof in special cages.

A downtown room started in 1936 by the Lebanese immigrant John Shaar and now run by the fourth generation of his family, one of seven Tucson restaurants the Arizona Daily Star counted past seventy five years. Tucson Foodie describes chimis that come out huge, built to order from red or green chile, carne seca, chicken, beans, shredded or ground beef, chorizo and egg. Order the red chile con carne chimi; the writer rates the carne seca version alongside it.

One of the South Fourth Avenue family kitchens the Arizona Daily Star describes as the social and economic engine of the square mile city of South Tucson, where the children and grandchildren of the founding families cook from the same recipes. Tucson Foodie goes to Micha's for size: to mark a new addition the owner's sons once built a sixteen foot chimichanga, carried it to the parking lot with ten people and fried it in a specially made metal trough. Order any chimi on the menu and share it.

Gilbert Molina Sr. opened the family's first restaurant in 1947 with seating for sixteen, and the Arizona Daily Star counts the business among the city's seventy five year restaurants. The chimis here look a little different from most: long, narrow and the very definition of crispy, modeled on fried burros Molina saw in a bar in Nogales, Mexico. Order the ground beef chimi at the North Campbell Avenue room, which is the one Tucson Foodie names and which the third generation now runs.

A west side counter the Salazar family has owned and run for more than forty five years, and the Arizona Daily Star's review turns on the tortillas: thin, tender, hand tossed and made fresh daily. Tucson Foodie says the kitchen claims to be one of the last in Tucson still stretching sobaqueros, the giant tortillas, by hand, which is what the chimi gets wrapped in. Order the chile relleno chimi, or the red chile for the plainer version. Closed Sundays.