Where to celebrate January Food Holidays in Flagstaff

January is the month of celebrating everything from hot tea (the whole month is National Hot Tea month) to hot toddys (January 11th is Hot Toddy Day) and pastrami sandwiches (January 14th is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day) to chips (January 29th is National Corn Chip Day). Here’s a look at some other fun food days of January and where might be a good place to celebrate around town…

January 4: National Spaghetti Day
Head to Pasto (19 E. Aspen) for some of the finest spaghetti in town. Sure they have a menu full of inspired Italian dishes, but sometimes you just can’t beat a bowl of classic spaghetti and with their delish sauce, and why would you want to…

January 7: National Tempura Day
Enjoy the battered and fried yet still delicate Japanese goodness of tempura at Karma (6 E Route 66). Start your meal off with shrimp, sweet potato, broccoli or onion tempura served with a soy tempura sauce.

January 12: Curried Chicken Day
Head to the Himalayan Grill (801 S. Milton) for celebrating chicken curry. You’ll enjoy the boneless chicken, onion and house herbs and spices in their tomato-based sauce.

January 15: Strawberry Ice Cream Day
The new Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers (2675 S Beulah) makes a great strawberry shake or concrete using their vanilla frozen custard (basically a rich, creamy ice cream) and strawberries.

January 16: International Hot & Spicy Food Day
A day dedicated to hot and spicy – and Flagstaff has so many great choices to celebrate. From Thai spiciness at Dara Thai (14 South San Francisco) which makes some fantastic Pad Thai (go level three at least to feel some burn) amongst many other great dishes to Mexican hotness in the tasty salsas galore of Salsa Brava (2220 E. Rte. 66) and Las Gorditas (2900 N West St).

January 20: National Cheese Lover’s Day
Enjoy the art of cheese with Brix (413 N. San Francisco) Artisanal Cheese Plate. Pick three or five of their fine selections with poached natural apricots and house-made lavosh. Brix’s cheese menu ranges from French to Swiss to America selections of cow, goat and sheep’s milk cheeses.

January 27: Chocolate Cake Day
Criollo Latin Kitchen (16 N San Francisco) may not the first place that comes to mind when you think cake, but you’ve got to try their spiced Venezuelan chocolate cake. It’s spiced with three types of chilis combined with Venezuelan chocolate. Heavenly!

January 28: National Blueberry Pancake Day
La Bellavia (18 S. Beaver) is the place to go for this celebratory breakfast feasting day. Their blueberry pancakes have the right amount of morning sweetness to bring a smile to your mouth. Plus studies have found blueberries (though not the pancake part) may help you get rid of belly fat and have the highest antioxidant capacity of all fresh fruits. So blueberry up!

January 30: National Croissant Day
Celebrate this fine day with a breakfast croissant sandwich from the Dog Haus (1302 E Route 66). These big delicious sandwiches are made fresh to order with your choice of bacon or sausage plus egg and cheese if you want. Fine way to start the day.

This article was originally written (by me) for Flagstaff Live!