Albuquerque Archives - Page 23 of 82 - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog

Albuquerque Dog Friendly Italian New Mexico Rating: N/R (Not Rated)

Taste of Love – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 21, 2022April 6, 202612:01 AM

NOTE: Taste of Love is no longer at the 505 Central Food Hall. Follow them on their Facebook page. Ask virtually every chef and home cook what the secret ingredient to good cooking is and invariably their answer will be “love.” Or in the case of Jersey Shore actor Michael Sorrentino, “The secret ingredient to every meal is love. And also garlic.” Be forewarned, however, divulging “love” as the secret ingredient to good cooking might just get you in hot water with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2017 the FDA reprimanded a bakery in Concord, Massachusetts for including the term “love” in its ingredient list for granola. The over-reaching, humorless federal agency’s warning letter admonished: “Your Nashoba Granola…

Albuquerque Closed in 2024 Dog Friendly Gone But Not Forgotten Native American New Mexican New Mexico

El Roi Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 21, 2022January 28, 202512:01 AM

You know you’ve been involved in project management for too long when the only thing that comes to mind when told about a restaurant named “El Roi” is “why would a restaurant be named for a Return on Investment (ROI).” For those of us who have worked in Information Technology, ROI is a financial ratio used to calculate the benefit an investor will receive in relation to their investment cost. Restaurants often have a poor return of investment–not just in financial capital, but in human capital. Restaurants require a significant investment in time by owners as well as kitchen and “front of the house” staffs and the financial return isn’t exactly lucrative. My Kim theorized that Roi is probably a…

Albuquerque Closed in 2025 Gone But Not Forgotten Mariscos Mexican New Mexico Tacos

Tarasco (Formerly The Whole Enchilada) – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 15, 2022April 13, 202612:46 PM

Perhaps because I was away from the Land of Enchantment for much of my Air Force career, one of my favorite bloggers has long been Lisa Fain, the James Beard award-winning “Homesick Texan.” Like me, Lisa longed for home during the two decades she lived in New York City. Like me, Lisa returned to her home state, the call of family, friends, bluebonnets, and Tex-Mex luring her back. Also like me, Lisa is fiercely proud of the cuisine of the state she calls home. Much of the enjoyment I derive in reading about her favorite foods is in noting the (sometimes vast) differences in foods just across the border. Take for example cheese enchiladas which she calls “the essence…

Albuquerque Barbecue Food Truck New Mexico Rating: Excellent

Rev’s BBQ – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 14, 2022April 5, 202612:01 AM

You might think that the food truck industry is an ultra-competitive dog-eat-dog business in which purveyors aren’t very gracious when discussing fellow food truck operators. Considering how they often jockey for a limited number of spaces in heavily trafficked events and vie for consumer attention and dollars, you would think they’d denigrate their brethren. In an October 4th interview on the fabulous What’s Up Abq Podcast, Michael “Mighty Mike” Mondragon dispelled that notion. Mike couldn’t have been more benignant about Albuquerque’s food truck scene, calling it a “community.” He expressed tremendous admiration for both the owners and the food of Tikka Spice and Wing It Up (review pending), among others. When asked “if you’re not eating your own barbecue, where…

Albuquerque American Closed in 2023 Dog Friendly Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico

The Feel Good – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 13, 2022March 23, 20245:42 PM

“Whoa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now I feel good, I knew that I would So good, so good, ’cause I got you So good, so good, ’cause I got you So good, so good, ’cause I got you.” ~James Brown The lyrics to the “Godfather of Soul’s” signature song aren’t etched on the windows or door of The Feel Good, but several other thematic aphorism are. There’s Virginia Wolf’s quote, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” M.F.K. Fisher’s “Sharing food with another human being is an ultimate act that should not be indulged in lightly” is etched on the door while Alan D. Wolfelt’s sage “Food is symbolic…

Albuquerque Breakfast New Mexican Rating: Good

Garcia’s Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoApril 15, 2022April 3, 20265:21 PM

One of the central themes of William Faulkner’s magnus opus Absalom, Absalom! is that no two people experience the same thing. Of the four characters who narrate the story, none of them is completely reliable because each has a personal bias, a unique frame of reference based on personal experiences to call upon. Readers are left to determine those biases and how they affect the telling of the story. With the passage of time, one of the characters experiences the memory of the events differently than she experienced the events when they happened. Similarly, no two diners experience the same meal. Sure, they may partake of the very same entrees, but how they perceive their dining experience may be tainted…

Albuquerque Rating: Excellent Vietnamese

Saigon Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoApril 10, 2022March 31, 20261:54 AM

According to some stereotypes, when you eat Chinese food, you’ll be hungry an hour later. That stereotype is known as the “Chinese food paradox.” One of the culprits behind that stereotype is rice, a very starchy food which metabolizes quickly. Others blame monosodium glutamate (MSG) when hunger creeps in shortly after finishing a meal. Italian food is also shrouded in stereotype. “The trouble with eating Italian food,” according to British writer George Miller, “is that five or six days later you’ll be hungry again.” With Italian food–at least Americanized Italian food served in some of the ubiquitous chains–portions are often enough to feed a village in a developing country. A plethora of pasta, tons of tomato sauce, mountains of…

Albuquerque Asian New Mexico Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Vietnamese

Bamboo by Kulantro – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoApril 9, 2022April 6, 202610:32 AM

Hawaiian pizza, black licorice, blue cheese, anchovies, candy corn, cilantro…these are among the pantheon of foods Readers Digest says everyone either loves or hates. And by “everyone,” Readers Digest includes such culinary glitterati as Julia Child who expressed her loathing for for cilantro in a 2002 interview with Larry King. The towering chef proclaimed she detested cilantro, saying it has a “dead taste” to her. Food Network personality Ina Gartner is even more blatant: “I just hate it,” she related in a Munchie’s podcast. “To me, it’s so strong and it actually tastes like soap to me, but it’s so strong it overpowers every other flavor.” Why then do some people have such a profound cattiness toward cilantro? According…

Albuquerque Chicken Mexican New Mexico Rating: Very Good

El Rey Del Pollo – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoApril 3, 2022April 3, 202610:29 AM

My environmentally-conscious, Prius-driving friend Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver has a much smaller carbon footprint than that carbon credit-trading hypocrite Al Gore. No environmental activist would ever condemn Sr. Plata for fouling the air and water with a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, he leaves large “al carbon fingerprints,” the finger-licking kind you get from frequenting restaurants which specialize in pollo al carbon, chicken prepared over charcoal. Pollo al carbon has spoiled Sr. Plata. He craves those juicy, spatchcocked, golden-skinned birds speckled with black char, chicken so meaty and delicious it makes store-bought rotisserie chickens look positively anorexic in comparison. Who can blame Sr. Plata? Made well, pollo al carbon is absolutely addictive. “Finger-licking good” might be a cliche,…

Albuquerque American Breakfast Closed in 2024 Dog Friendly Donuts Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico Sandwich

Kickstand Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMarch 27, 2022June 4, 202412:01 AM

In 2016, The Plough Hotel in North Canterbury, New Zealand banned Lycra-clad customers in an attempt to remove any “unsightly bumps and bulges.” The hotel owner declared Lycra “unsuitable,” explaining “We get a nice group of customers out here, some elderly folk. When you’re trying to concentrate on your breakfast you just want to see the sausages on your plate.” Then as if expecting a confrontation from the lumpy, bumpy bikers, he issued a challenge: “If there’s hordes of cyclists outside threatening to bash us with their bike pumps we can always barricade ourselves in, we’ve got a bit of food and drink here so we should be able to outlast them.” Lycra bike wear may not be de rigueur…

Albuquerque Closed in 2022 Gone But Not Forgotten Mediterranean Middle Eastern New Mexico

Al Alwan’s Cafe – Albuquerque New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMarch 10, 2022February 17, 202412:01 AM

“I hope I live long enough to see the children of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria wake up to the sounds of birds not bombs.” ~Gigi Hadid Historians believe the name Syria derives from the Ancient Greek word “Seirios,” meaning, “sun-bright, glowing, blazing, and shining.” In Latin the equivalent term “Sirius” was used not only to denote the brightest star in the night sky and most prominent star in the constellation Canis Major (the greater dog), but to indicate “people from Syria.” Officially today, Syria is known as the Syrian Arab Republic. Lying in the east coast of the Mediterranean in the Middle East region which boasts of the most ancient civilizations in the world, Syria has historically existed in…