Category: Asian

AlbuquerqueAsianDog FriendlyFusionNew MexicoVietnamese

Spring Rollin’ – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Reclusive American poet Emily Dickinson insisted a light exists in spring that’s not present at any other time of year. If you’ve ever spent a winter in the Northern Hemisphere at a latitude of 42° or more, you know what it’s like to long for that light. You can relate to the irritability and restlessness of having fewer than eight hours of sunlight during winter months. You know what it’s like to head to work in the dark and return home in the dark. You know the confinement of cabin fever when persistent rain or snow keep you indoors for prolonged periods of time. If you’ve experienced long, dark winters, you celebrate the return of spring. In northern climates, the…

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Viet Cốm – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

The name on the signage is Viet Cốm, not Viet dot com.  The difference is more than semantic.  In Vietnamese the term “Cốm” (with an accent denoting a high rising pitch when vocalized) translates from Vietnamese to a green sticky rice or green rice flakes. Cốm is a delicacy made only in autumn and cherished by all Vietnamese.  You learn a lot when you visit a Vietnamese restaurant and are interested enough to ask a lot of questions.  If Misty Do is your server, ask her about the family restaurant and you’ll learn quite a bit. We learned, for example, that the family owned and operated eatery opened in June, 2020, just a couple of months after the Cabrona Virus…

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Saigon 2 Restaurant – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

In Chinese and Vietnamese cultures, numerology is very important. If you’ve traveled extensively, you may have wondered why the term “Pho” followed by a number is so commonplace. Often these numbers are considered lucky–and not necessarily across an entire culture. A number may be lucky on a personal level, perhaps marking a date that’s special to the restaurant owner. Espy a restaurant named Pho 66and the number 66 may well represent the year the owner fled Vietnam during the war. Restaurants named Pho 75 may well be honoring 1975, the year Saigon fell. Numerical repetition is also considered fortuitous. The City of Vision certainly counts the number eleven as a lucky number. November 11th, 2011 at precisely 11 o’clock AM…

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El Charlatan – Socorro, Texas

Gil Garduno

Everyone should have a friend like Steve Coleman, the erudite owner of Steve’s Food Page. Not only is he a great guy and a lot of fun to spend time with, he’s a superb host and tour guide.  During a two-day sojourn to “El Chuco,” Steve not only showed us the sights, he gave me a much-needed lesson about history New Mexico and Texas share.  He explained that during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, members of the Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico were displaced to El Paso along with Oñate and the Spaniards.  Today, descendants of those Native Americans reside in a Native American Pueblo in the Ysleta section of El Paso just about three miles from El Charlatan, our…

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Cyclo Vietnamese Cuisine

Gil Garduno

Justina Duong’s effusive personality, easy elegance and chic fashion sense could fill a room–and they often did.  From the moment Justina launched Cycle on Chandler Avenue, the captivating chef and hostess extraordinaire didn’t just have guests.  She had an audience, a throng of admirers (mostly men).  She had peeps. Charming, gracious and attractive, the belle femme made guests feel at home, becoming as much a draw as the wonderful cuisine on her menu.  I had expected to once again enjoy banter with Justina when visiting Cyclo for the first time in a few years only to learn Justina sold the restaurant four years ago.   With Justina no longer there to capture the rapt attention of her guests, I noticed…

AlbuquerqueAsianNew MexicoVietnamese

Pho Nho – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Foodies are a passionate–some would say even snobbish–lot. The most passionate among them are sticklers for authenticity and provenance of ingredients and preparation methods.  The plebeian among us who don’t know quite as much had better not represent inaccuracies as truths (much as politicians do) or even use culinary terms incorrectly lest we be excoriated.  Tieghan Gerard, a well-intentioned blogger, learned just how passionate savvy foodies can be. Tieghan, the creator of the popular food blog Half Baked Harvest found herself in hot water when she had the audacity to misrepresent a quick noodle soup recipe.   More specifically, she dubbed her recipe “chicken pho,” a faux pas on may levels and for many reasons.  Readers were quick to point…

AlbuquerqueAsianNew MexicoVietnamese

Pho 79 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

When the temperature dips and the Land of Enchantment’s ubiquitous winds howl with a vengeance, savvy diners revel in the knowledge that they can luxuriate in the familiar warmth of a steaming, swimming pool-sized bowl of aromatically alluring pho. Few things in life are as comfortable as snuggling up with a simple and no frills bowl showcasing a rich, spicy, nuanced broth with tangles of rice noodles, fresh herbs and vegetables and a veritable meat fest (rare steak, tendon, brisket, meatball). It’s the single best way to warm up from the inside-out on a bitterly cold day. With nearly forty Vietnamese restaurants gracing the Duke City, diners have no shortage of purveyors to frequent for this preternaturally pleasurable elixir. The…

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Fuego 505 Rotisserie & Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“I have become obsessed with cooking meat over fire. I get prepared for it. I make sure I’m hungry before I cook it. The smell of the smoke and the aroma of the crackling meat ignites some ancient genetic memories. It makes cooking and eating significantly better.” ~Joe Rogan, Podcast Host Those of us with a carnivorous bent can relate to Joe Rogan’s ode to cooking meat over fire.  There’s absolutely nothing as mouth-watering as the heady aroma and melodious sound of meat searing on the grill or sizzling in a pan.  An argument can easily be made that nothing evokes a wanton lust more than smoke perfumed by meat as it wafts toward our anxiously awaiting nostrils.  The sounds…

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Fun Noodle Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

By definition, many, if not most noodles are fun.  No, not fun as in luxuriating in a tub filled with ramen (albeit non-edible, synthetic noodles) with real tonkatsu (pork bone) broth.  Yeah, that really is a thing in Japan.  Nor does my contention that noodles are fun have anything to do with the Simpsons episode in which Bart was threatened with “forty whacks with a wet noodle.”  It doesn’t even have anything to do with the Beach Boys classic “Fun, Fun, Fun” song.  It especially has nothing to do with those buoyant polyethylene foam “noodle” tubes people bring to swimming pools. In a classic example of Gil style “swerve,”  Fun refers to Chinese noodles made from rice flour or some…

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Thai Street – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

By chronological standards, Thai cuisine–especially as we know it today–is relatively new to the world culinary stage.  Culinary historians believe Thai cuisine may be as young as 1,400 years, coinciding with a mass migration of people from regions of China.  These settlers dined mostly on seafood, herbs and plants prepared mostly by stewing, baking and grilling (over time, stir-frying and deep-frying also became popular).  Large domestic animals such as water buffalo and oxen were too valuable to slaughter for food.  As such, meat was used very sparingly though considering the settlers’ propensity for seasoning, a small amount of meat went a long way.   While Chinese–particularly Szechuan–dietary practices were the most significant early influences, the introduction of other ingredients and…

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TIKKA HUT PIZZERIA AND KABOB HOUSE – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

“I’ll give you three guesses to tell me what tabula rasa means,” I challenged my friend and Wordle phenom Carlos.  “That’s easy,” my erudite amigo proclaimed, “Tabula Rasa was a silent screen actress in the 1920s.”  “Close,” I replied, “but you’re thinking about Tallulah Bankhead.”  “I was just kidding,” he demurred, “Everyone knows tabula rasa is a Mediterranean salad.”  “You’re getting closer,” I joked, “but the Mediterranean salad you’re thinking about is tabouli.”  On his third attempt, Carlos gave me the right answer: “I’m drawing a blank.” Tabula rasa, in fact, translates from Latin to “blank slate.” In psychology as well as in epistemology (theory of knowledge), tabula rasa refers to the idea that we are solely the product of…