Category: Albuquerque

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Street Food Sensations – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Restaurant Insider, which touts itself as “your source for restaurant news, trends, information, tools and conversation” has observed that one of the catalysts most instrumental in driving a changing culinary landscape are Generation Z (anyone born between 1997 and 2010) diners.  With a spending power of over $29 Billion, Gen Z diners make up a quarter of all the people going out to eat, accounting for 14.6 billion restaurant visits in 2018.  Gen Z is increasingly influencing restaurant industry trends, prompting savvy restaurateurs to take a real hard look at their current menus. And just what do Gen Z diners want?  According to Technomic’s  2019 College & University Consumer Trend Report, “42 percent of Gen Z-ers want street food on the menu.”  Not just the street food more geriatrically-advanced citizens among us might think of, but food fashioned by the fusion of culinary cultures and ingredients.  Because Gen Z constitutes the most ethnically diverse of all generational cohorts, the traditional definition of “American” food is rapidly evolving, with ethnic tastes and foods becoming even more mainstream.  Gen Z wants—and expects—more mash-ups combining multiple ethnic influences, a blurring of lines between ethnic menus. As we perused the menu at Street Food…

AlbuquerqueMexicanRating: Good

Taco Cabana – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:34 AM

In 1972, English author Diana Kennedy, the doyenne of Mexican cuisine, penned The Cuisines of Mexico, a Mexican cookbook in which she described Texas’s Mexican food as “inauthentic,” coining the term “Tex-Mex.”  Kennedy essentially drew a line of demarcation between the foods of her beloved Mexico, what she viewed as “the real thing” and the foods prepared North of the Border. Her assertion was that most Mexican food in America is technically of Tex-Mex derivation (yes, that includes New Mexican cuisine). Meghan McCarron’s feature on Tex-Mex cuisine for Eater seems to indicate Kennedy’s low regard for Tex-Mex cuisine is rather widespread: “The standard narrative about Tex-Mex is that it’s an inauthentic, unartful, cheese-covered fusion, the kind of eating meant to be paired with unhealthy amounts of alcohol or to cure the effects thereof. There’s a lot of easy-melt cheese, the margaritas are made with a mix, and the salsas come from a bottle.”  Just what is Tex-Mex and why does it inspire such rancor?  According to Serious Eats, Tex-Mex cuisine “ is rooted in the state’s Tejano culture (Texans of Spanish or Mexican heritage who lived in Texas before it became a republic) and also Mexican immigrants who hailed largely…

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Duke City Taco – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:22 PM

Observer: You’ve said that you can do anything with a taco, except put ketchup on it? Danny Trejo: That’s it! [Laughs]. Observer: Do people try to do that? Danny Trejo: Yeah, some people think that ketchup is good on a taco. Maybe if you’re 10-years-old, you might want to put ketchup on a taco. Observer: But that’s sacrilegious! Danny Trejo: I know, right? Over the years, putting ketchup on a hot dog has been cussed and discussed ad-nauseam, the consensus being that adults and sane people should never put ketchup on hot dogs.  Actor cum restaurateur Danny Trejo contends it’s just as wrong to put ketchup on a taco.  When “Machete” speaks, you’d do well to listen and not only because he can kick your butt(ered tortilla).  Trejo, a prolific actor who’s been in about three-hundred movies and famously served a prison sentence, owns and operates several restaurants in the Los Angeles area, including the eponymous Trejos Tacos. As an independent observer of the taco condition, I’ve often marveled at the versatility of the taco.  There appears to be no limit to what you can put between corn tortillas, flour tortillas and even lettuce leaves and still call them tacos. …

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Sharky’s Fish and Shrimp – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:56 AM

Never mind your tired, your poor or even your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Carlos Zazveta, the effusive proprietor of Sharky’s Fish & Seafood told us to bring our dogs, our cows and our goats next time we visit. That was after we explained we didn’t bring our children because they’re of the four-legged variety that barks. He was just kidding, of course. Carlos does that a lot. When he espied me taking pictures of the Sharky’s complex, he flashed a toothy grin and flexed his pecs from within the confines of the oyster bar he was manning at the time. In New Mexico, Sharky’s just may be the closest you’ll get to being in a Mexican coastal resort—not because of proximity, but by virtue of look and feel. The overhanging corrugated metal roof and lower half of the building’s walls have the tincture of deep azure, harkening to mind the clear Pacific waters of Puerto Penasco in the Mexican state of Sonora. Sonora is where Carlos calls home and where he cultivated his deep love of Mexican cuisine, especially the type of mariscos he’s sharing with his adopted hometown of Albuquerque. There are other elements to Sharky’s that…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBetter Call SaulBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyRating: Excellent

Cafe Lush – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:14 PM

Urban Dictionary, that oft hilarious, veritable cornucopia of slang, jargon and streetwise lingo, defines “lush” as “someone who drinks a lot.” (Actually, there are several pages of similar definitions for “lush” in the “peoples’ dictionary,” but this one was the best fit for this PG-rated blog.) When I asked Sandy Gregory, a self-admitted “food industry lifer” and co-owner of Albuquerque’s Cafe Lush why the name Lush, she laughingly kidded “because we like to drink a lot.” Seeing that her response left my mouth agape, she winked and corrected herself, “because our food is luscious.” You’ve got to love a restaurant owner with whom you can engage in witty repartee. At Cafe Lush, you’ve got two of them. Sandy’s husband and business partner Tom Docherty explained why they launched their restaurant venture: “We’re too poor to retire and too old to work for someone else.” With nearly a combined eight decades in the restaurant business, Tom and Sandy want to make Cafe Lush a cafe in which “food for the senses” is more than just a clever but empty slogan. It’s a formula for success and one which garnered “best chef” accolades from Alibi readers for Chef Docherty in the magazine’s…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueFood TruckIndianJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Tikka Spice – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:51 PM

“Fly once more like you did before, Sing a new song chicken tikka!” ~Chiquitita Misheard Lyrics You might think by virtue of my name and then gangling gait, school mates at St. Anthony’s in Penasco would have tagged me with the nickname “Gilligan.”  Instead, because I was considered a bit of a brainiac prone to sesquipedalian lexicon, my nickname was “The Professor.”  It was a sobriquet worn like a badge of honor.  Professor Roy Hinkley was my hero, a brilliant scientist marooned on an uncharted desert isle with six other stranded castaways.  The Professor built such cool gadgets as a Geiger counter, lie detector, battery charger and much more…usually with coconut shells, wire and papaya seeds.   The Professor, in fact, built almost everything the castaways needed to ensure their comfort and safety (including phones, lights and rudimentary pedal-powered motor cars).  The only thing he couldn’t figure out was a way to patch the U.S.S. Minnow to effect an escape from the tropical island nest.  Considering my frustrations at not being able to prepare Indian food, I wonder if The Professor would have been able to master that confoundingly complex art.  Scratch that!  Anyone who’s able to make nitroglycerine from…

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URBAN COCINA – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:28 PM

if you believe the idea for delivery food started with Domino’s Pizza and its promise of 30-minute delivery or free, you’d be sadly mistaken.  Nor did take-out originate with Chinese restaurants in California and their wire-handled white paper buckets. Both delivery and take-out food predate the fruited plain by several centuries. Take-out had its genesis back in ancient Rome with the creation of the thermopolium, essentially a street kitchen.  The thermopolium provided the only opportunity to purchase ready-to-eat food for citizens who couldn’t afford a kitchen of their own.  Hot food was stored in big clay pots inserted in a counter and likely served in a manner similar to modern fast foods. On the other side of the globe and closer to the Land of Enchantment, another ancient civilization, the Aztecs of Mexico, had gigantic open air markets. Within these markets vendors sold “to go” food, mostly tamales.  These markets were the progenitors of the street food markets still so plentiful throughout the Land of Montezuma.  Neighborhood and citywide markets–both covered and open-air–offer wide-ranging and delicious regional food, selling everything from tacos to chapulines (grasshoppers) to huitlacoche (corn smut) and so much more. Though not quite as ancient a practice…

AlbuquerqueFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Changos – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:13 PM

Darn that Google! Even though I used very specific Boolean operands to target my search for “Changos” in “Albuquerque,” Google returned results for Changos in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. It wasn’t until studying the photos for Changos that it dawned on me “this can’t possibly be South Broadway in Albuquerque.” The Changos in Puerto Peñasco has a thatched roof, a swimming pool bar you can swim up to and features a menu replete with fresh mariscos plucked out of the Sea of Cortez.  South Broadway is a heavily industrial area replete with as many salvage yards and junked cars as you might see in an episode of Breaking Bad. When we turned south off Rio Bravo and began wending our way southward toward Isleta Puebo, my Kim remarked “it had better be worth it.”  I had asked her to be on the look-out for “Changos Food Plaza”  (from its Messenger handle), picturing a small shopping center with a restaurant at its cynosure.  Instead, we passed one gated compound after another, most of them fenced and industrial in nature.  After overshooting the “Plaza” twice,  Kim espied another gated compound, this one with a food truck parked up front  We had arrived. Changos…

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Cocoa Flora – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:42 PM

In a 1995 episode of Seinfeld fittingly titled “The Switch” Jerry asked his devious friend George Costanza how he could switch from dating Sandy, a dour woman who didn’t laugh to dating her roommate Laura, a comely woman who laughed at all of Jerry’s jokes. George’s contrived a plan: Jerry would suggest a ménage à trois.  This would disgust Sandy so much she’d break up with Jerry.  Sandy would then tell Laura who will feel flattered, thus paving the way for Jerry to ask her out. However, when both Sandy and Laura agreed enthusiastically to the ménage à trois, Jerry promptly backed out of the suggestion. His response to George was hilarious: “Don’t you know what it means to become an orgy guy? It changes everything. I’d have to dress different. I’d have to act different. I’d have to grow a mustache and get all kinds of robes and lotions and I’d need a new bedspread and new curtains I’d have to get thick carpeting and weirdo lighting. I’d have to get new friends. I’d have to get orgy friends. … Naw, I’m not ready for it.”  Like Jerry, I once faced a conundrum, but it wasn’t whether or not…

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T & T Gas N Mart – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:50 PM

“Eat here and get gas.”  Even in more naive and innocent times, the connotation of that double-entendre wasn’t lost on adults or children, all of whom giggled when they espied the classic sign on the marquee of many a combination eatery and filling station.  In his brilliant website The Big Apple, the “restless genius of American etymology” Barry Popik points out the sign was noticed as early as 1930.  On roadways and byways–primarily across rural America–you might still espy that clever, funny and yes, inviting sign.  It undoubtedly still inspires guffaws and groans in equal measure. Consumer historian Jan Whitaker explains in her magnificent blog Restaurant-ing Through History that not long “after thousands of Americans acquired cars and took to the roads in the 1920s that all kinds of roadside businesses popped up to serve them.”  Among the most popular was the combination gas station-restaurant “often further combined with a gift shop or rooms for overnight guests.”   She described the logic as “same one-stop-shopping idea used by department stores: get customers to stop in for essentials and they may buy other things they didn’t even know they wanted.” Today, these “eat-and-get-gas highway oases” still exist across the fruited plain,…

AlbuquerqueHawaiianNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Kimo’s Hawaiian BBQ – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:05 PM

For over a quarter century, the most popular section in New Mexico Magazine (the nation’s oldest state magazine, by the way) has been a humorous column entitled “One of Our Fifty is Missing.” The column features anecdotes submitted by readers worldwide recounting their experiences with fellow American citizens and ill-informed bureaucrats who don’t realize that New Mexico is part of the United States. Some travelers from other states actually believe they’re leaving their nation’s borders when they cross into New Mexico. Others think they need a passport to visit (not that they’d visit considering they’re wary of drinking our water.) Merchants and banks throughout America have been known to reject as “foreign credit cards” American Express and Visa cards issued by New Mexico banking institutions. As the 47th state to join the Union, New Mexico has nothing on Hawaii, the 50th state.  Denizens of the mainland blithely cling to stereotypes about The Aloha State.  That is, if they even recognize that Hawaii is actually a state.  Among the most ludicrous of the fallacious stereotypes (and maybe this one is based on wishful thinking) is that women wear leis, grass skirts and coconut bras.  Men, of course, wear Hawaiian shirts and…