Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
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When I found out about the Chinese chorizo, an obscured historic food that originated from a forgotten legacy of 100+ Chinese grocery stores that once existed in my hometown of Tucson, I was having a mid-life crisis in the middle of the pandemic. I returned to the city to live at my parents’ house until I figured out where to go next.
20 years prior, I was living in New York City — plateauing a long, successful, and sometimes glamorous fashion career. When the pandemic hit, I took a big leap to become executive chef at a restaurant in downtown Manhattan. I quickly left The Bear-like situation to indecisively proceed with whatever crossed my path.
With nearly nothing to lose, Tucson became my Walden. The less traveled path I chose came in the form of applying for the Nightbloom Grant offered by the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, which I stumbled upon during a late-night doom scroll. Somehow, I was awarded this prestigious grant. I proposed to build a cheeky 11-foot tall, large-scale, mosaic public sculpture of two linked Chinese chorizo and had a loose plan for the Tucson Chinese Chorizo Festival.
The story surrounding the Chinese chorizo would soon find new life in mine.
tucsonfoodie.com
I have never, not once (until now,) heard of Chinese chorizo. This is kind of interesting. I always found it odd that there is so much Chinese history in AZ due to the railroads but you don't hear about it. Places like Tombstone had a Chinese population but you would not know it if you hadn't read any history about it. I doubt Tombstone has changed since I went there but there are a couple of tombstones and that's it. I don't know if it's because there are multiple other cultures in AZ that drown it out or if it's having to contend with some pretty bad history like opium dens and a weird Chinese slave trade thing going on.
20 years prior, I was living in New York City — plateauing a long, successful, and sometimes glamorous fashion career. When the pandemic hit, I took a big leap to become executive chef at a restaurant in downtown Manhattan. I quickly left The Bear-like situation to indecisively proceed with whatever crossed my path.
With nearly nothing to lose, Tucson became my Walden. The less traveled path I chose came in the form of applying for the Nightbloom Grant offered by the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, which I stumbled upon during a late-night doom scroll. Somehow, I was awarded this prestigious grant. I proposed to build a cheeky 11-foot tall, large-scale, mosaic public sculpture of two linked Chinese chorizo and had a loose plan for the Tucson Chinese Chorizo Festival.
The story surrounding the Chinese chorizo would soon find new life in mine.
Chinese Chorizo: Rediscovering a lost piece of Tucson food history
Chinese chorizo is an obscured historic food that originated from a forgotten legacy of 100+ Chinese grocery stores that once existed in Tucson.
tucsonfoodie.com
I have never, not once (until now,) heard of Chinese chorizo. This is kind of interesting. I always found it odd that there is so much Chinese history in AZ due to the railroads but you don't hear about it. Places like Tombstone had a Chinese population but you would not know it if you hadn't read any history about it. I doubt Tombstone has changed since I went there but there are a couple of tombstones and that's it. I don't know if it's because there are multiple other cultures in AZ that drown it out or if it's having to contend with some pretty bad history like opium dens and a weird Chinese slave trade thing going on.
