Road Trip: Travel Through the Arizona Desert With Rachael and Guy
This week, contestants of The Great Food Truck Race found themselves in the dry heat of Flagstaff, Ariz. They were challenged to work with an ingredient native to the Arizona deserts: cactus. Some teams really embraced the ingredient, incorporating it into their dishes successfully — especially team Pop-A-Waffle, who won themselves immunity with their fresh cactus salsa. But Arizona has so much more to offer, including restaurants and bakeries hand-picked by Guy Fieri and Rachael Ray.
For the next couple of weeks, we're following the Food Trucks city by city with our guide of the best eats, compiled by the On the Road app and website. Today we're exploring Flagstaff and Sedona, but come back next week for our picks in Texas.
Brandy’s started serving breakfast and lunch in 1993 and they’ve won a Best of Flagstaff award every year since. When a chef friend moved back to town after living in Costa Rica, they expanded the menu to include a Southwestern-meets-Central American dinner, too.
If you want authentic Mexican food, head to Salsa Brava. Food is always made to order using the freshest ingredients — they hand-cut 600 pounds of tomatoes every week — and their tableside guacamole keeps locals coming back.
The Cowboy Club is a casual spot where outstanding “High Desert Cuisine" is combined with more than 50 years of Old West tradition. It’s located half an hour outside of Flagstaff in Sedona, and is well worth the drive for house specialties like Angus steak, “cactus fries” and rattlesnake.
Another standout in Sedona is the L’Auberge resort and spa, which has a beautiful outdoor restaurant overlooking a creek. Head there for a relaxing breakfast, just like Rachael Ray did on $40 a Day.
