Best Artisan Mexican Sweets 2012 | Muñeca Mexicana | La Vida | Phoenix
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Best Artisan Mexican Sweets

Muñeca Mexicana

Debby Wolvos

Minerva Orduño's day (more night, in this case) job is nothing to scoff at — she's a line cook at FnB, one of our favorite restaurants. Perhaps the best part of the job: Her bosses let her use the restaurant's kitchen to pursue her dream. Muñeca Mexicana is a little business that's making our own dreams of authentic, artisan-crafted Mexican sweets come true. Orduño whips up piloncillo-stuffed pastries known as coyotas, killer caramel sauce made of goat's milk (cayeta del celaya) and these delectable little almond cookies she calls polvorones and we call the best reason we've ever tasted to indulge in a treat made with lard. You can buy her goods at FnB's little sister, the Bodega market in Scottsdale, and learn more about Orduño and her future plans for more items on her Facebook page. Not long ago, we spotted chorizo on the shelf at Bodega; bring on the savory, Minerva!

Best Mexican Candy Store

Pico Rico Dulceria

If Willy Wonka had a Mexican cousin, Pico Rico Dulceria is where Guillermo Wonka would peddle his candied confections. The store stocks something for every sweet tooth, so whether you're after a fruity, spicy, or just plain sugary treat, you'll be satisfied by the selection. Aisles are stacked with bags upon bags of candies. There's cajeta, candied guava, dulce duro de coco, and countless varieties of tamarind and chile sweets, ranging from lollipops and hard candies to fruit leather and the liquid crack that is Lucas Muecas. And you can't leave without getting a few kisses — Ricos Besos chocolate flavored toffees, that is. They and all of the other small candies are the perfect stuffing for a piñata, and you'll find plenty of them to fill hanging from the ceilings.

Best Panaderia

La Purisima Bakery

Jamie Peachey

Like a beacon of baked goodness, this giant blue building in Glendale is sure to catch your attention, if the aromas coming from its fragrant pastries and breads don't get to you first. There's usually a line, but the friendly gals behind the counter make sure it goes quickly. Plus, you'll want to spend some time peeking into the glass cases filled with treats first. Will it be one of several varieties of pan dulce, a savory bread — how about an apple dipped in chocolate chamoy sauce or a molasses-flavored puerquito, the giant animal cookie shaped like a pig? There's also a custom cake-making station, masa for tamales, and a machine you can watch pop out fresh-made flour tortillas, one of the bakery's more popular items.

Best Carniceria

Carniceria Sonora

We must recognize this carnicería in downtown Peoria for its super-fresh cuts of carne ranchera and carne preparada (soaking in a marinade).Unlike other carnicerías — where you might find the meat with tinges of brown or with edges of thick fat — this one always has a bright red freshness, is sliced thin, but thick enough not to fall apart when you toss it on the grill over blue propane flames or good old-fashioned charcoal. To get the most flavor out of your meat, ask for it preparada, and they'll pour marinade into the bag they package it in. Even when you toss it on the grill without letting it soak for hours in their orange and onion marinade, the meat still has a sweet hint of the flavorful juice. Fire up the grill!

Best Mexican Market

La Tolteca

Jackie Mercandetti

There are a lot of great Mexican markets in this town, and there's no doubt everyone has a neighborhood favorite. Among them all, La Tolteca is a real standout, not only for its restaurant, panadería, and carnicería, but also for its central location and ability to bring together a wide variety of people. Stop by on a busy weekend afternoon for some succulent mahi mahi tacos with queso fresco or red chile chilaquiles smothered with avocado, cotija, and crema. You'll spot families taking advantage of the affordable prices alongside 20-somethings waiting for a bowl of menudo to cure their wicked hangovers. La Tolteca also is the place to go to stock up on groceries for family taco night, a traditional tamale dinner, or a breakfast spread of empanadas, pan dulce, and churros. And if you're in need of a tortilla press or piñata, they've got that, too.

Best Mexican Swap Meet

The Glendale Public Market

It seems the traditional outdoor swap meet is giving way to indoor swap marts — and, sure, hunting indoors for bargains makes sense, especially during our brutal Valley summers. But if you're old-school, one of the remaining outdoor venues for weekend hawking of new and used wares is the Glendale Public Market, which doubles at night as a double-feature drive-in for newly released flicks.

It isn't billed as a Mexican swap meet per se, but from 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., pay your 75 cents at the gate on Saturday — or $1.25 on Sunday — enter a giant parking lot, and peruse the goods of hundreds of Latino vendors as Mexican tunes blast in the air. On a recent Saturday morning, we went in search of a bargain on a foot-long pan large enough to fry a whole fish, plates to match, a set of small audio speakers, turtle food, and a hard plastic kennel for a three-pound Yorkie. It was an amazingly successful trip. Among the construction materials (including nearly every tool imaginable, baseboards, and paint) there were beautiful booths, with shorty-shorts and tight Ts, skimpy bras, and MAC blushes and mascara, as well as other name-brand makeup items. And produce vendors, selling watermelons and other seasonal fruits and vegetables, were there, too, their booths looking like mini-yard sales with used household items. This place is a gold mine, where old-fashioned haggling still has a place.

Best Day of the Dead Celebration

Desert Botanical Garden

Dia de los Muertos has been celebrated in Phoenix for more than 30 years; just ask veteran Chicano artists Zarco Guerrero and Marco Albarran.The holiday's festivities — including the creation and decoration of altars that honor family members and friends who have died as well as processions, prayers, celebrations and gatherings — take place annually in November in family homes and in public gathering spaces. Our must-see: the celebration at the Desert Botanical Garden, where local artists show their ofrendas (or offerings), created to honor and remember friends and family members, to the tune of live music, the annual Procesión, stories and presentations from the artists, and plenty of celebrating. Best of all: There are crafts and authentic food and drink for sale.

Best Tequila

3 Amigos Tequila

Santiago Gonzalez's tequila will make you rethink your margarita. The local entrepreneur and his brothers started G Farms on the west side of Phoenix in the '80s, where, among other produce, they grow top-grade blue agaves that never see an ounce of pesticide. It's at the farm and nearby — at the family distillery in the Mexican state of Jalisco — that these agaves thrive, are harvested, and are then pressed, transformed, and bottled into handcrafted 3 Amigos Tequila. Gonzalez is a true advocate of hard work, honesty, and great tequila. And though it's tempting to pop open a bottle and pour it straight into the blender, we swear it's worth the challenge (and fewer ice cubes) to sip it straight from the glass without the other flavors. You'll thank him later.

Best Tequila Selection

Canteen Modern Tequila Bar

If you can make it past the throngs of ASU students on Mill Avenue feeling the effects of 21st-birthday shots and chanting what sounds like a mix between the school fight song and a fraternity anthem, head straight through the doors of Canteen Modern Tequila Bar. The server will know exactly what you need to drown out the noise and won't assume you want whatever's cheap alongside a heap of salt and a slice of lime. At Canteen, tequila is sacred and comes in more than 100 types, and it's all 100 percent pure agave. Sip it, mix it, or, yeah, even shoot it — all the tequilas here go down pretty well with a few tacos and a great view of the streetside shenanigans.

Best Margarita

Margarita Classico at Gallo Blanco

Robrt Pela

A rough day, a hot afternoon, a leisurely brunch — we'd be hard-pressed not to come up with an excuse to suck down a margarita. But in any and all of the above cases, it'd better be good.

Gallo Blanco bartenders shake up a variety of margaritas with grapefruit juice, jalapeño, prickly pear, and Grand Marnier, but we prefer to stick to what's old-school and proven to last. At Gallo, that's the Margarita Classico. The classico has two ingredients: fresh-squeezed citrus and Sauza tequila. (Okay, and the truly mandatory salt on the rim.) But those two ingredients are hard to get right — and because Gallo Blanco does, we'll forever be coming up with excuses to go back.

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