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American Brewery-Pub Diners Drive-Ins and Dives Food Network Eats New Mexico New Mexico Rating: Excellent Santa Fe

Rowley Farmhouse Ales – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil GardunoNovember 28, 2022April 5, 202612:53 PM

Only in John Denver’s hit song “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” is life on the farm “kinda laid back.” In actuality, farm life can be downright arduous, requiring back-breaking work in climatic extremes for low wages. It was much worse in colonial days when life on a farm generally meant very few luxuries outside of a warm fire and a tankard (or ten) of house-brewed ale. Beer was brewed not only to refresh, sustain and comfort hard-working farmers, but because during sanitation-deprived colonial times, it was safer than water. Farm-brewed beer was created with what was on hand, whether it be wheat, hops, barley or rye supplemented with such ingredients as evergreen boughs, juniper berries, honey and fruit. Because…

Burgers New Mexico New Mexico Culinary Treasures Trail New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009 New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011 Rating: Excellent San Antonio

Buckhorn Tavern – San Antonio, New Mexico

Gil GardunoSeptember 15, 2022March 31, 20265:25 PM

Dusk is falling on the western town at the very edge of the parched plains. Fewer than a dozen buildings line the dusty main street. Howling winds impel tumbleweeds forward with no regard for obstacles in their path. Even though neither of the protagonists has uttered the old western cliché “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us,” the scene is always ripe for a confrontation between the two long-time rivals. You can cut the tension with a knife and fork and it would be utterly delicious. This confrontation isn’t between the black-hearted, black hat wearing villain of western lore and his rival, the clean-cut, white chapeaued cowboy. It’s a rivalry between the Owl Cafe and the Buckhorn…

Albuquerque Chocolate Food Network Eats New Mexico Ice Cream Rating: Excellent

ChocGlitz & Cream – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoAugust 28, 2022March 31, 202611:58 PM

To whom should you turn when you want a recommendation you can trust for great ice cream? Your natural inclination is probably to ask a kid. Kids, particularly those in the age group two through twelve, consume more ice cream than any other American demographic. Alas, kids in the aforementioned age group are like Mikey in the old Life cereal commercials. They like everything (except maybe coffee flavored ice cream) and aren’t quite as discerning as ice cream paramours in other age groups. So, why not trust an adult for a recommendation? Research has shown that contrary to children, adults tend to prefer the same few flavors for which they’ve developed a preference over the course of their lives (talk…

Albuquerque Breakfast Brunch Dog Friendly Greek New Mexico Rating: Excellent

Meraki Coffee + Market – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoAugust 19, 2022March 31, 202612:01 AM

“I saw Sisyphus in violent torment, seeking to raise a monstrous stone with both his hands. Verily he would brace himself with hands and feet, and thrust the stone toward the crest of a hill, but as often as he was about to heave it over the top, the weight would turn it back, and then down again to the plain would come rolling the ruthless stone. But he would strain again and thrust it back, and the sweat flowed down from his limbs, and dust rose up from his head.” ~Homer, The Odyssey Even those among us most satisfied with our jobs sometimes feel work is our personal Sisyphean ordeal. That’s especially true on days in which work seems…

Breakfast Continental Diners Drive-Ins and Dives Dog Friendly Food Network Eats New Mexico New Mexico Rating: Excellent Taos County

Gutiz – El Prado, New Mexico

Gil GardunoAugust 14, 2022March 31, 20262:49 PM

I once joked with Lesley King that she is the true New Mexico Gastronome. Lesley, the wonderful author who once enthralled readers with her monthly “King of the Road” columns for New Mexico Magazine, likes to say–jokingly–that she “eats and sleeps around,” because her writing assignments require that she sample so many restaurants and accommodations. She has literally traveled every friendly highway and byway in the Land of Enchantment, dining in as many–or perhaps even more–restaurants than I have while somehow managing to remain svelte, beautiful and elegant. I had the great privilege of collaborating with Lesley and Chef Rocky Durham in celebrating the Land of Enchantment’s cuisine in a feature for New Mexico Magazine. The June, 2010 edition of America’s…

Albuquerque Chicken Food Truck New Mexico Rating: Excellent

Wing It Up – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMay 28, 2022April 3, 202612:01 AM

Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern has nothing on my friend Ralph Guariglio. Zimmern who claims to love such “exotic cuisine” as fermented walrus anus probably wouldn’t touch some of the…er, interesting foods Ralph enjoyed during his travels for Intel. That’s especially true when Ralph traveled to Vietnam and The Philippines, all the while chronicling his adventures in “Captain Ralphie’s Travelogue.” Though most of us envied his peregrinations, few of us would have had the gastronomical fortitude to try such “delicacies” as beating cobra heart and live lobster (yes, still alive…and thrashing). Much as Ralph loves adventurous dining, his passion and favorite food group is chicken wings. Ralph can eat chicken wings for breakfast, lunch and dinner with chicken wing snacks…

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 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…

New Mexico Pizza Rating: Excellent Rio Rancho

Davido’s Pizza – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil GardunoMarch 26, 2022April 5, 20263:42 AM

Some might call the American Realty and Petroleum Company (AMREP for short) a pioneering visionary for its early 1960s purchase of over 50,000 acres on the dusty Sandoval County plains that are now Rio Rancho. Others use different–and not necessarily as complimentary–adjectives to describe the land speculator whose clever marketing attracted hundreds of New Yorkers (among others) to the then untamed western fringes overlooking the Rio Grande. They came because Rio Rancho was a “lucrative investment” with half acre lots going for under $800 in the 1960s. They came because Rio Rancho offered “fishing, camping, swimming and golfing in a place where the sun shone 360 days a year.” They came to live in an area which sloped “among the…

Buffet Indian Rating: Excellent Rio Rancho

Namaste Restaurant – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil GardunoFebruary 12, 2022April 5, 20264:37 AM

Several years ago while leading my organization’s e-business marketing and communication effort at Intel, I had the great fortune of hiring a phenomenal Web developer recently arrived from India. In the process of filling out one of our complicated employment forms he transposed his name, writing his last name then his middle initial and first name instead of the way hinted at on the complicated form. As a result, during the entire time he worked for us we all called him Kolli, his last name. He was too polite to tell us his first name is actually Srini. Over time Srini became more acculturated, maybe even a bit “Americanized” (he’s now a huge Dallas Cowboys fan), but he’s never lost…

Albuquerque New Mexico Rating: Excellent Thai

Thai Boran – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil GardunoFebruary 11, 2022April 4, 202611:34 AM

Many of us with a puerile sense of humor can probably recall giggling like silly school kids the first time we visited a Thai restaurant and perused a menu. We went straight into the gutter the first time we came across such foods as phat prik and fuktong curry. Even after learning that “phat prik” is actually a stir-fried chili dish and “fuktong curry” is a pumpkin curry, the sophomoric among us couldn’t order these dishes with a straight face. It gets even worse when we actually learned how to pronounce the names of Thai dishes. Not even Bob Newhart could order “cow pod guy” (chicken fried rice) or “cow pod moo” (pork fried rice) with his usual deadpan delivery.…