Search Results for: canvas artistry

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Canvas Artistry – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“Edible art” isn’t just some trite phrase pedantic food critics use when food has aesthetic values that delight our senses. Mankind has been been intrigued by the concept of food as art since the dawning of rational thinking. Prehistoric cave paintings such as those in Les Trois Frères in Ariège, in southern France, depict families gathering around the fire to share the foods they had prepared, an event made possible by the discovery of fire. Fire, it goes without saying, was also the catalyst behind men first wearing aprons emblazoned with “kiss the cook.” Moving past prehistoric taggers scrawling graffiti on cave walls, edible art became more urban when Egyptians painted food on the walls of the great pyramids (ostensibly…

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Mesa Provisions – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

When I started Gil’s Thrilling…way back in 1996, my goals were to celebrate New Mexico’s restaurant scene and to provide an escape from the mean-spirited dialogue so prevalent among petulant politicians who have long forgotten they work for us.  I’ve tried not to lash out against politics through this medium I’m privileged to steward, but sometimes my frustration leaks out.  For those occasions I apologize.  I promise to try harder to focus on the joy I experience every time I dine with good friends.   When I’m upset with the latest shenanigans in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, those friends buoy my spirits with convivial discourse over a great meal. Such was the case when I met Linda Johansen (my…

AnnouncementsRed or Green - New Mexico Food Scene is on Fire

2015: A Thrilling (And Filling) Year in Food

Gil Garduno

Tis the season…for year-end retrospectives in which the good, the bad and the ugly; the triumphs and tragedies; the highs and lows and the ups and downs are revisited ad-infinitum by seemingly every print and cyberspace medium in existence. It’s the time of year in which the “in-your-face” media practically forces a reminiscence–either fondly or with disgust–about the year that was. It’s a time for introspection, resolutions and for looking forward with hope to the year to come. The New Mexico culinary landscape had more highs than it did lows in 2015. Here’s my thrilling (and filling) recap. 2015 was a year of transition for New Mexico’s culinary landscape. By my count, some 25 restaurants shuttered their doors for the…

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Gil’s “Best of the Best” For 2015

Gil Garduno

It’s the season for making lists and checking them twice, finding out which restaurants were naughty or nice. The advent of 2016 is nigh. It’s with great fondness and more than a little (blush) salivation that I bid adieu and auld lang syne to my most memorable dishes of 2015. These are the baker’s dozen plus dishes which are most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. It would be oh so easy to compile a “best of the best” list from among entrees we enjoyed prior to 2015 and from restaurants honored among my best of the best in previous years,…

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Restoration Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

My dad taught me very early on that all people have inherent worth and dignity and are deserving of respect and kindness. A lifelong educator, he had a knack for reaching students deemed incorrigible or unteachable–students the “system” would just as soon discard. During his funeral nearly forty-five years ago, these were the students who cried hardest. They had just lost their biggest advocate, a teacher who believed in them, at times more than they believed in themselves. What set my dad apart from other teachers is that he demanded–and consequently received– no less than the best effort a student could put forth. He tried to instill that attitude in all students–demand the best of yourself, strive to achieve as…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew MexicoTacos

Dia De Los Takos – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

NOTE: Although Dia De Los Takos has closed, founder-owner-chef Dominic “Dom” Valuenzuela has launched a new restaurant called Tako Ten.  Look for a review soon. Felix, a character in Adi Alsaid’s young adult fiction book North of Happy was asked what makes a taco perfect. “It’s a taco that tastes as good as the idea of a taco itself. A taco that’ll hold steadfast through memory’s attempt to erase it, a taco that’ll be worthy of the nostalgia that it will cause. A taco that won’t satisfy or fill but will satiate your hunger. Not just for tonight but for tacos in general, for food, for life-itself, brother. You will feel full to your soul. “But!” he added, a callused…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRated 23SandwichVietnamese

IKrave Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Please say it isn’t so! According to Nations Restaurant News, a highly respected trade publication “a new crop of restaurant chain entrepreneurs” believes “American diners will soon embrace the Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich as the next burrito or taco.” The notion of corporate chain megaliths setting their sights on the humble banh mi should send shudders down the spine of everyone who frequents the mom-and-pop nature of the banh mi restaurants we’ve come to know and love. Imagine a phalanx of Subway-like sandwich shops creating and selling banh mi. The notion isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. One of the first chains vying to expand the presence of banh mi in the mainstream is Chipotle whose Asian-themed offshoot “ShopHouse…

AnnouncementsGil's Best of the Best

Gil’s “Best of the Best” for 2016

Gil Garduno

It’s the season for making lists and checking them twice, finding out which restaurants were naughty or nice. The advent of 2017 is nigh. It’s with great fondness and more than a little (blush) salivation that I bid adieu and auld lang syne to my most memorable dishes of 2016. These are the baker’s dozen plus dishes which are most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this list was heretofore unknown to my palate before 2016. Every dish was a delicious discovery. In the spirit of lagniappe, my “best of the best” list…