Hello! My name is Patricia Isabel Escárcega [es-KAR-zega]. I am a writer and journalist based in California. Read my work here. Get in touch here. Thank you for visiting my website.
¡Hola! Mi nombre es Patricia Isabel Escárcega [es-KAR-zega]. Soy escritora y periodista radicada en California. Lee mi trabajo aquí. Comunícate conmigo aquí. Gracias por visitar mi sitio web.
Published work / Obra publicada
- The Playboy Symposium: The Not-So-Subtle Racism of American Food Culture
An essay on race, labor and power in American food, from the fields and packing plants to the restaurant kitchen and the newsroom.
- It’s Time We Give the Mexican Combo Platter the Credit It Deserves
A defense of the Mexican American combo plate, from a Number 11 at a Phoenix family restaurant to the history of Tex-Mex.
- Mother’s Milk
In search of pajarete, the Jalisco folk drink of raw milk, liquor and coffee.
- Tacos, Tortillas, and Family: Mexican Food Is the Uniting Force in Phoenix
An essay for the 2016 Best of Phoenix issue, published in English and Spanish.
- Ozzie Juarez Brings a ‘Bit of South Central to Santa Monica’
With a practice that highlights community and contestation, the artist and founder of Tlaloc Studios channels LA swap meets in his Frieze Projects commission.
- Skeletons and Madonnas Lead Mexico’s Graphic Arts Revolution
The central role of printmaking in five centuries of Mexican art on view at the Met shows the weight of many minds.
- De la Torre Brothers Are Making the Most of Maximalism
Working and living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, they shatter entrenched ideas about beauty and good taste.
- Ruben Ochoa Puts Hidden Labour Under The Spotlight
For his Frieze Projects installation, the artist gives Los Angeles’ historically undervalued street vendors the focus they deserve.
- ‘The Cheech,’ a Game Changer for Chicano Art, Opens in Riverside
As the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture debuts, its founder hopes to inspire a renaissance in a region of California lacking public arts funding.
- Exploring Hermosillo, northern Mexico’s great unsung food city
A food tour through the Sonoran capital.
- Amid anti-immigrant policies and DACA limbo, ‘dreamer’ chefs speak out
DACA recipients across the industry, from Michelin-starred chefs to taco truck owners, on working through an uncertain future.
- After Breakup of Avenue 26 Night Market, Vendors Rebuild Around the City
How street vendors regrouped after the city shut down the biggest open-air night market in Los Angeles.
- Meet Lauren Halsey, an artist and futurist architect feeding South L.A.
How the artist turned her South Central community center into a weekly organic produce operation.
- The undocumented restaurant workers who fed us are being forgotten. This is their struggle
Line cooks and kitchen workers left without jobs or relief when the pandemic hit.
- Las Taqueras: 3 women in the male-dominated world of tacos
Profiles of three women running taco operations in a field dominated by men.
- Sonoran Enchiladas and Machaca from South Phoenix’s Favorite Old-School Mexican Restaurant
A visit to Poncho’s, the family-run South Phoenix institution open since 1972.
- Mexican Sushi Is on a Roll in Metro Phoenix
How Sinaloa-style sushi took hold on Phoenix’s west side.
- Tasting Notes
A newsletter column on why restaurant criticism had to change during the pandemic.
- Review: Spago at middle age: Is Wolfgang Puck’s flagship restaurant still relevant?
Whether the Beverly Hills institution still matters to diners who missed its heyday.
- Review: In Long Beach, Amorcito spotlights Mexican American ‘pocho’ cuisine
A Long Beach restaurant that takes Mexican American cooking, taco salad included, seriously.
- The Elusive Cuisine of Mexico’s Distrito Federal Is Found at Machete Azteca in West Phoenix
Mexico City-style cooking on the west side, from huitlacoche machetes to weekend barbacoa.
- Abyssinia Fills a Void in Central Phoenix with World Class Ethiopian Cuisine
A small midtown strip-mall restaurant serving some of the Valley’s best Ethiopian food.
- Habbouz Tunisian Cuisine May Be Phoenix’s Only Tunisian Restaurant — and It’s Great
A bare-bones spot off the I-17 offering a crash course in Tunisian home cooking.
- Taco Chronicles: Cross the Border
Appearing in the Phoenix and San Diego episodes of the docuseries’ third season, which follows the taco across the United States.
- The First Restaurant Critic of Color at the L.A. Times
A profile by Jacquelyn Ardam.
- Broken Bread: “The Future of Restaurants”
With Roy Choi at the Avenue 26 Night Market, on rebuilding the restaurant industry after the pandemic.
- Good Food with Evan Kleiman
Regular guest discussing restaurant reviews, from Mexico City antojitos in Anaheim to Asian-influenced tacos in Lakewood.
Contact me / Contacto
For assignments, editing work and everything else, email me at / Para encargos, edición y todo lo demás, escríbeme a
patricia.escarcega@gmail.com