If you were in a hurry,
driving through Española
on a hot summer day in the early 1980s might raise the
diastolic level (the lower number) of your blood pressure
to the level of the temperature gauge.
That's because on Sunday
afternoons, Española's
main thoroughfares were the domain of the lowriders, elaborately painted
late-model cars (many with intricate religious murals on the hood) whose
suspension is replaced with hydraulic cylinders to allow the car to be
drastically lowered when parked and raised back up for travel.
Española
etiquette dictated that no one, not even the law, interfered with the
low and slow pace these sparkling cars set as they hugged the pavement
on both lanes for the entire length and breadth of the city limits.
The lowered late-model cars with their custom paint jobs, tiny steering
wheels and chrome wheels were in no hurry; attracting attention was a
major aim of lowriding. As a result, it might take an hour or more
to drive through Española.
Because of its
tradition of highlighting the cars as part of local culture and the high
number of lowriders per capita, the city earned the sobriquet of the
"lowrider capital of the world."
Although the Sunday
parade of "bajitos" cruising Española's
streets isn't quite as prevalent as it once was, no one in the world
appreciates fine cars as much as the good folks in Espanola. Many
of those fine cars still drive
slowly as they congregate at essential city landmarks such as El
Parasol, a "taco stand" adjacent to the world-famous El
Paragua restaurant.
They drive slowly in
hopes that a parking spot will soon be vacated and they can take its
place under the towering alamos next to the restaurant. Once the
car is parked, it's but a short walk to El Parasol where patrons queue
up sometimes ten deep or more for excellent New Mexican cuisine.
El Parasol (the umbrella) doesn't just handle El Paragua's diner
overflow. It's become a dining destination in its own right.
El Parasol became so successful in Espanola that two other El Parasol
restaurants have since been launched. The one in which all the
pictures on this review were taken is in Pojoaque.
Similar to its elder brethren, the
Pojoaque restaurant has a menu posted on its exterior wall. It
also has a pick-up window, but there is no intercom in which to place a
take-out order. All actual ordering and pick-up is done inside the
restaurant.
With apologies to Sugar's
and El
Farolito, El Parasol just might serve up the best green chile
cheeseburger in Rio Arriba county and with the addition of the
Pojoaque restaurant, one of the very best in Santa Fe county.
The ingredients--lettuce, tomato,
pickle, mustard and green chile--may seem pretty standard, but when
crafted in either the tiny wooden hut in Espanola or the more
conventional stucco restaurant in Pojoaque, those burgers meld into an explosion of taste.
The green chile zings with piquant flavor, the meat is thick and juicy
(even better if you order a double-meat green chile cheeseburger)
and the entire creation is piled high--just the way New Mexicans love
it.
Burgerphiles even have the option of a
burger dressed with guacamole, bacon and green chile--three great tastes
that taste even better together. This is a two-fisted burger.
El Parasol is also
renown for its quesadillas, tacos, burritos, tamales and even arroz con
pollo (a rice and chicken soup) and menudo--Norteño
food.
The handheld
carne adovada
burrito exemplifies some of the delicious characteristics of its genre,
but is somewhat atypical, too, in that it's not full of large chunks of
pork. Instead the pork is much more finely shredded. For my
taste, this burrito has just a tad too much cumin.
Better is the chicharonnes burrito
which features bite-sized crackling pork that seems
tailor-made for the restaurant's savory green chile.
If tacos are more your style and you also
crave variety, the Ana Maria Combinacion plate comes with a crisp
shelled shredded-chicken taco, a crisp shelled shredded-beef taco and a
soft sirloin taco with guacamole.
While an umbrella may
shield you from the hot sun or a rare New Mexico downpour, El Parasol
will shield you from dreary food. It is an Española
treasure every bit as alluring as the lowrider culture.
