3rd Annual Chinese Chorizo Festival

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Fri, Oct 4, 2024 - Sun, Nov 10, 2024  

Location

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Details

Experience Chinese Chorizo in one of a kind dishes, innovative cocktails, and dynamic cultural programming at the 3rd annual Chinese Chorizo Festival (CCF). Running for over a month from Friday, October 4th - Sunday, November 10th, at multiple locations in Tucson and Phoenix, participants will uplift the overlooked story of Mexican and Chinese immigrant solidarity through the revival of the Chinese Chorizo. Originating from some 100+ Chinese grocery stores that once existed in Tucson, AZ during the late 1880’s-1970s, this forgotten delicacy has become a symbol for community solidarity. Proclaimed Chinese Chorizo Month in Pima County, the Festival program organized by Chinese Chorizo Project (CCP) promotes intersectional solidarity, community collaboration, historic restoration, and cultural and artistic enrichment. More than 25 participating restaurants and food vendors across Tucson and Phoenix will build community bonds surrounding a dish incorporating Chinese Chorizo donated and produced by CCP’s chef & artist Feng-Feng Yeh. Vendors will keep all proceeds resulting from the Festival and will be promoted on various social public forums, which will be supported by CCP’s strategic media partner Tucson Foodie.
For the past two years, 1,300 pounds of Chinese Chorizo have been donated to 55+ restaurants, food vendors, and cultural organizations in Tucson and Phoenix. Up to 30 pounds of Chinese chorizo: 15 pounds of vegan mushroom-based and 15 pounds of pork-based will be distributed to each participant who will create a dish featuring the Chinese chorizo for an allotted weekend throughout October, Friday through Sunday, or until sold out.
A new offering of Chinese Chorizo Paste will be introduced this year to diversify the culinary offering opening the Chinese Chorizo flavors to different applications, including cocktails! The paste’s complex versatility led to the creation of the “Chinese Chorizo Sonoran Sour” a cocktail featuring a Chinese Chorizo washed bourbon. This innovation has inspired a cocktail happy hour in Phoenix at AZ Wilderness DTPHX on October 10th from 5-7 p.m. and a following competition in Tucson on October 29th from 7-10pm at Zerai’s called a Drink for Solidarity. Cocktails will feature use of the Chinese Chorizo paste, Ray Ray’s Sonoran Tea, and a sponsored spirit from IZO Spirits or Whiskey Del Bac with conceptual storytelling featuring the themes of the Chinese Chorizo.
A rich program of cultural events begin at Tucson Meet Yourself’s Culture Kitchen on Saturday, October 5, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The Chinese Chorizo Project, Anita Street Market, Los Descendientes de Tucson, and Trejo's Tucson will be in conversation named A Recipe for Solidarity to share how Tucson’s culinary legacy shapes our community’s past, present, and future. Chinese Chorizo will be explored as a historic food fusion that embodies the success of building resilience through community solidarity as represented in legacy businesses like Anita Street Market.
Chinese Chorizo Project recently teamed up with the University of Arizona School Garden Workshop contributing a piece about the history of Chinese grocery stores in the 2025 School Gardeners’ Almanac, an annual hyper-local gardening handbook of curated community knowledge. K-12 students then learned how to make Chinese Chorizo paste, exploring the flavors in combination with unexpected foods. On October 17th, students will showcase their creations at the 2025 School Garden Workshop Almanac Release Party at MOCA downtown, 5-9 p.m.
The Tucson Chinese Cultural Center will host a free special event from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm on Saturday, October 26th celebrating the history of Chinese Chorizo. Tucsonans whose families owned local Chinese grocery stores will talk about their experience making Chinese Chorizo. After learning about the history and traditions of Chinese Chorizo, guests will be invited to taste a dish that is unique to Tucson and a nod to our area’s blending of Chinese and Mexican cultures: Chinese Chorizo fried rice.
Inspired by the life and work of Louis Carlos Bernal, the Center for Creative Photography will host community programs in Fall 2024 that celebrate local creative talent and honor Bernal’s profound commitment to representing the Chicanx experience through photography. As part of these programs, on October 27th, Center for Creative Photography will collaborate with Chinese Chorizo Project (a double CCP!) and Mexican and Chinese playwright Virginia Grise to present a unique, interactive gathering that blends food, art, and meaningful conversation. Entitled "CCP Sobremesa” the experience fosters connection through shared stories and creativity, offering a space for intercommunity exchange. The Sobremesa will be held on October 27th, location and time TBA.

To celebrate the Tucson Museum of Art’s centennial year, a Chinese grocery store featuring products created to tell the stories of multiple Chinese grocery stores in Tucson by chef-artist Feng-Feng Yeh of Chinese Chorizo Project will be installed in the restored and reopened Casa Cordova November 10th from 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. for a campus-wide Block Party from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Featured food vendors Lumbre Pizza A La Leña and Carbs & Coffee Co will be offering a Chinese Chorizo dish as part of the Chinese Chorizo Festival from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
If that wasn’t enough, this third iteration of the Festival will introduce the launch of two ambitious large-scale public art sculptures that have been stimulated by recent grant awards. The first debuting in 2025 in Phoenix is ¡SOMBRA!, a nationwide project addressing heat resiliency in redlined districts of the city. The latter, a community made tile workshop, that will help to create a proposed 15 foot mosaic Chinese Chorizo sculpture in Tucson.