Category: Announcements

While the marquee may have welcomed guests to the sixth annual Taste of Rio Rancho, the mouth-watering event could easily have been called “A Taste of America in Rio Rancho.” In the six years which have elapsed since the inaugural Taste of Rio Rancho, the city’s culinary diversity has expanded significantly thanks to an influx of new restaurants cutting a wide swath across culinary cultures from throughout the country (and planet). Not only are Visionaries (my term for residents of the City of Vision) spending more of their disposable income on hometown restaurants, diners from across the metropolitan area are increasingly making their way to Rio Rancho restaurants where it’s not just about serving outstanding food; it’s about providing a great dining experience. Those diverse dining opportunities were showcased during the Taste of Rio Rancho event where guests got to sample some of the unique culinary creations for which the city’s restaurants are renowned. Moreover, guests had the opportunity to interact with their favorite restaurateurs and staff. It speaks volumes about the familial climate in the city that many warm embraces and hearty handshakes were exchanged during those interactions. The ambiance was convivial, fun and filling, an escape from the…

You’ve probably espied a bumper sticker encouraging everyone to “Visualize Whirled Peas,” an obvious homophone for “Visualize World Peace.” Some have posited that whirled peas might indeed be the way to world peace. Seriously! I’m speaking, of course, about hummus, a ubiquitous Middle Eastern food typically made of mashed (whirled) chickpeas. There’s a tiny café in Israel employing a unique way to promote reconciliation. The restaurant offers a 50-percent discount to any table in which Arabs and Jews elect to sit together. That’s promoting peace through hummus. Negotiating world peace over dinner isn’t exactly a novel concept. A New York group named World Peace, One Falafel at a Time aims to bring Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths together over food. The group’s mission statement is clear: Through a shared plate of food we create a common ground that fosters trust and understanding. When people share a simple meal together, boundaries disappear, discussion becomes possible, and healing can begin. We come together not as a meeting of a thousand, but as one hundred meetings of ten. An article published in the Society page of the New York Times Sunday edition on May 5, 1918 posited that “soap-boxers emitting hatred…

OK FOGEYS. It’s voting time. By Jim Millington We have prepared a list of widely disparate restaurants as worthy candidates for FOG IX in July. In an exercise of Democracy not controlled by special interest groups, you have the opportunity to vote for the restaurant in which you’d like to dine with the Friends of Gil. This being New Mexico, we ask that farm animals and dead relatives not vote. 1. Piatanzi on Juan Tabo has a back room for groups. The food is unique in Albuquerque and wonderful if you like it and not wonderful if you don’t. A disadvantage is that it can get expensive if you aren’t paying attention. 2. Nexus is a Brewpub which is probably better noted for its New Mexicanized (my own made up word) Cajun food than beer (nothing wrong with the beer). 3. El Patron is a very popular New Mexican restaurant with plenty of room and barrel-sized margaritas. 4. Vick’s Vittles is something of a Country Texas/New Mexican cafe with such goodies as healthy high nutrition Chicken Fried Steak, Broasted Chicken and Burritos. You can exercise your voting rights by responding to this post by midnight, June 30.

Next week the Pueblo Harvest Cafe within the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center will host a number of events during the world-renowned Gathering of Nations, but on Friday, April 22nd at 6:30, the venue belonged to the Friends of Gil (FOG) who convened for dinner at the spectacular cafe. This Gathering of Gastronomes included ten first-timers who joined us for an evening of fun, food and friendship. A good time was had by all. Though we were invited to enjoy music and dancing on the patio after our dinner, several of us lingered in the dining room where we continued to enjoy great conversation and even better people. This wasn’t the first FOG Dinner in which we closed the restaurant. So what do Friends of Gil talk about? Being a well-traveled group of gastronomes, several of us swapped tales of travel to Australia. John and Kay Lucas lived there for eight years while Mary and Mack Kroner just returned from a two-week excursion. Mary, who did a tremendous job organizing the event, brought back a number of delicious Australian cheeses which she and Mack graciously shared with Kim and me. First-timers Jim and Sylvia Westmoreland also spent time in the Land…

When Sheri LaVigne was a little girl, her family moved to a small farm in Corrales. Her mother Kay Lucas bought a Nubian goat they named Mocha which provisioned the family with everything from farmer’s cheese to goat’s milk ice cream. Sheri got up early every morning to help her mom milk Mocha, an experience which helped foster her lifelong love affair with cheese. That love was rekindled when she lived in New York City just around the corner from a cheese shop. A few years later she and her husband relocated to Seattle where, despite a thriving food scene, there wasn’t a cheese shop to be found. Deciding she would be the one to rectify the situation, in 2009 she launched Calf & Kid, an artisan cheese shop. You may have seen Sheri on television not that long ago when she was featured on The Layover with Anthony Bourdain, whom it turns out is quite the turophile (a connoisseur of cheese). He spent an hour tasting various cheeses with Sheri guiding him through a number of the “runny and smelly” cheeses he craved. Not surprisingly the Calf & Kid has become über popular in Seattle where Sheri has cultivated…

“Laughter is brightest where food is best.” – Irish Proverb Hearty laughter, stimulating conversation and great food were the order of the evening on Friday, November 6th at 7PM when the Friends of Gil (FOG) got together at Papa Felipe’s for an evening of mirth, merriment and munching on some of the city’s best and most creative New Mexican food. Four new FOGs (including one delightful ruffian)–Dale, Shirley, Lea and Stephanie–fit right in with what has become a rather tight-knit cast of characters. In addition to breaking sopaipillas and tortillas, some of Albuquerque’s most passionate and knowledgeable foodies were seen oohing and aahing” at photos being passed around the table of our four-legged children. Something else we have in common, it appears, is the love of dogs of all breeds and sizes. Overheard were conversations centering around such diverse topics as anthropological linguistics, travel, photography and of course, food. Jen observed that the far northeast heights isn’t often an area of the city you’d associate with great New Mexican food. Papa Felipe’s changed a few minds and awoke several of us to the infinite possibilities of New Mexican standards that are “just a bit different.” Papa Felipe’s unique interpretations answered…

Experience has shown that the Friends of Gil (FOG) are willing to go great distances for a diversity of excellent dining experiences. In four previous excursions, FOG members have traveled to Rio Rancho for superb Italian fare at Joe’s Pasta House, enjoyed a sumptuous six-course repast at Budai Gourmet Chinese, partaken of magnificent Mexican food at El Norteno and converged on M’Tucci’s Kitchina for an evening good friends, good food and good laughs. On Sunday, July 19, 2015, FOG convened at the fabulous Luna Mansion Landmark Steakhouse in beautiful downtown Los Lunas for a delicious brunch. The diverse group enjoyed such decadent deliciousness as lobster Benedict, eggs and hash browns, prime rib burrito, New York steak and Linguine with a Red Chile Cream Sauce. Several of us enjoyed the Maytag Wedge. Author Jane Austen’s idea of good company was “the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.” Snippets of conversation at our table centered around a variety of diverse topics ranging from politics to the Madonna song La Isla Bonita to the FOG’s favorite major league soccer player Omar Gonzalez (who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to FOGey Jim Millington). Event organizer Bob of the…

It’s easy to impress me. I don’t need a fancy party to be happy. Just good friends, good food, and good laughs. I’m happy. I’m satisfied. I’m content. ~Maria Sharapova So just what goes on at a Friends of Gil (FOG) dinner? If you’re thinking it’s a gathering of a bunch of pretentious food snobs and aesthetes getting together to try one-upping one another with our highfalutin knowledge of the culinary arts, nothing could be further from the truth. True, the Friends of Gil are all passionate and knowledgeable food enthusiasts who appreciate and understand great food, but we’re all ordinary people with a broad and diverse range of interests and backgrounds. We’re people who enjoy great conversation and great humor as much as we enjoy great food. On Friday, April 10th, 2015 at 7PM, the Friends of Gil (FOG) converged upon M’Tucci’s Kitchina for an evening good friends, good food and good laughs. It’s the fourth FOG event over the past two years and it may have been the very best. Several FOG members were making their inaugural visit to M’Tucci’s Kitchina. To say they were impressed is an understatement. By night’s end, several of them were placing M’Tucci’s…