Category: Rating: N/R (Not Rated)

MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Barbacoa El Primo – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:43 PM

“I went down Nagolitos looking for some barbacoa and Big Red. I went down to Nagolitos for some barbacoa and Big Red. Well, I could’ve had menudo but I got some cabeza instead. Give me two pounds of regular, cause I like a little fat. You may like la puro carne, but for me fat is where it’s at.” ~Randy Garibay, Barbacoa Blues As chief of nonresident training for my career field, one of my favorite duties was working with other subject matter experts to develop “psychometrics” (specialty knowledge tests to measure promotion fitness) for the United States Air Force.  It meant an annual trip to San Antonio, Texas, one of my very favorite cities under the spacious skies.  In…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood TruckNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Rollin’ On In Food Truck – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:44 PM

While their brick-and-mortar counterparts can afford to have multi-page menus to please a wide variety of palates, mobile food kitchens (that’s food trucks to you, Bob) are somewhat at a disadvantage. By sheer necessity, food trucks must be limited, well-defined, maybe even singularly focused.  The advantage the successful ones have is that they can concentrate on creating memorable dishes around their concept using a few common ingredients.  Rollin’ On In, for example, lists only four entrees on its menu: three tacos, a quesadilla, three enchiladas and a burrito. With those four entrees, however, there are an infinite number of “build-your-own” possibilities.  Your construction options include four fillings (shredded chicken, shredded pork, ground beef and potato and veggie mix), eleven fresh…

AlbuquerqueBrewery-PubDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Steel Bender Brewyard – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:58 AM

“Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name And they’re always glad you came You want to be where you can see The troubles are all the same You want to be where everybody knows your name.” ~Theme Song From Cheers Just another banal, meaningless television show jingle?  Think again.  Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg might even argue that the Cheers theme song exemplifies his concept of “third place.”    In 1989, Oldenburg published That Good Place in which he introduced the concept of third place into the lexicon.  Third place refers to places where people spend time between home (‘first’ place) and work (‘second’ place).  Third places are, according to Oldenburg, locations where we, as social beings, exchange…

AlbuquerqueAmericanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Copper Canyon Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:22 PM

“The Copper Canyon of northern Mexico–a place so huge and desolate that even today there are still some native people who have never seen an automobile.” ~Victor Villasenor Beyond Rain of Gold If you’ve ever watched the classic Humphrey Bogart movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre or read Victor Villasenor’s spell-binding tome, “Rain of Gold,” you’ve got at least a passing acquaintance with Mexico’s awe-inspiring Copper Canyon. Hidden in the Northern part of Mexico lies an astonishing system of gorges comprised of six vast canyons wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon. Although copper is mined in parts of the canyon, this geological wonder is named for the bronze-like patina of the canyon walls. The magnificent Copper Canyon landscape stretches…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood TruckNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Street Food Institute – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:43 PM

“The more street food we have, the more it’s embraced by every income strata, the better world we have.” ~Anthony Bourdain Jonathan Gold, the first restaurant critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, called food trucks “the new incubators of culinary innovation.” Indeed, chefs and entrepreneurs who ply their talents in food trucks and express themselves through  distinctively creative cuisine aren’t just fostering culinary trends.  They’re doing so at a rate at which their brick-and-mortar counterparts couldn’t conceive, much less execute. Food trucks are exposing consumers to unorthodox flavor combinations and ingredient fusions, creating a growing demand for more novelty and culinary diversity. Add fast and inexpensive to the mix and you’ve got a trifecta of reasons food trucks…

Dog FriendlyFine DiningNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Terra – Tesuque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:46 AM

Several years ago, I asked my grandmother if she might consider aromatherapy as a treatment for the nagging aches and pains she suffered daily.  Aromatherapy, I explained was being hailed by New Age devotees in Santa Fe and Taos as a holistic healing treatment used to promote health and well-being. “Mi hijito,” she said gently, “In Northern New Mexico we are always surrounded by aromatherapy. We experience it when we bake bread in our hornos and roast chile in our comals. Aromatherapy is the petrichor of wet earth after the first rain. It’s the piñon-scented air we breathe every day.” As usual my grandmother was right. In her own way, she was telling me to let others seek a trendy…

BreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Tortilla Flats – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:29 PM

“Beans are a warm cloak against economic cold.” ~John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat In his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck introduced the literary world to the downtrodden denizens of Tortilla Flat, an impoverished barrio on the shabby hillside just outside the respectable city of Monterey, California. The quirky inhabitants of the ramshackle community were a dichotomous lot–hedonistic drunks, adulterers and thieves on one hand; on the other, paisanos with surprisingly kind-hearts who asked nothing more from life than loyal friends and a little wine. Unlike their stodgy, orthodox counterparts in Monterey, the men of Tortilla Flat defied social mores, conventions and expectations. They rebuffed the notion of holding down steady employment or paying rent. They had no qualms about cadging…

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Rising Star Chinese Eatery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:22 PM

Let’s get one thing straight. General Tso’s chicken is not some weird cold war Chinese one-upmanship response to Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken. In other words, China did not deliberately seek to outdo the United States by creating a chicken dish and naming it for a General, a rank superior to the rank of Colonel. Not even close! Back in the early 50s, Colonel Harlan Sanders actually did create a revolutionary way of preparing poultry (pressure fried, eleven herbs and spices, yada, yada, yada). General Zuo Zongtang (romanized as Tso Tsung-t’ang), on the other hand, did not create the dish named for him. Nor did he ever eat it. In fact, he never even heard of it. It wasn’t even…

AmericanDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Yellow Brix Restaurant – Carlsbad, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:28 PM

Gastronomes (people with sensitive and discriminating culinary tastes), cerevisaphiles (aficionados of beers and ales) and oenophiles (connoisseurs of wines) have a vernacular of their own. Most of us need a universal translator to understand what they’re saying when they’re waxing eruditely about their passions. The commonality among the three is their pursuit of sensual pleasures, an indulgence of the senses. Being singularly passionate about one of these epicurean pursuits doesn’t necessarily mean you’re conversant in the vernacular of another. Case in point, as we were enjoying our al fresco dining experience at the Yellow Brix patio in Carlsbad, I contemplated what theme to wrap my review around. Yellow brick road? Nah, too cheesy. Bricks as a foundation for success? Too…

BarbecueNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Red Chimney BBQ – Carlsbad, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:54 PM

Depending on your lifestyle choices and temperament, some of the slogans emblazoned on bumper stickers or tee-shirts seen over the years at Rio Rancho’s annual Pork & Brew will either make you laugh or rankle your ire. “Meat is murder – tasty, tasty murder.” “Animal rights – Animals have the right to be tasty.” “Gardening: Cultivating a piece of land in order to barbecue.” “If you can’t stand the heat, go get me a beer!” Obviously no similarly themed bumper stickers or tee-shirt slogans will ever be seen at vegan or vegetarian festivals. They are, however, part and parcel of my former colleague Matt Mauler’s casual (and for that matter, formal) attire. You might remember Matt from my review of…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)

PK’s Restaurant & Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:41 PM

When the Air Force notified me I was being reassigned to Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford, friends who had been stationed in England warned me, “you can forget all about your favorite sports for three years. Instead of football, basketball and baseball, the only “sports” televised in England are snooker, darts and soccer.” “Snooker?,” I asked. “Isn’t that a mushy term of endearment similar to darling?” “No,” one responded, “that’s snookums. Snooker is a type of billiards game, but not nearly as exciting.” “Darts?” “Yep, there are competitive darts leagues all over England and their matches are televised.” “Well, at least soccer has been called the beautiful game, so I’ll probably become a soccer fan,” I retorted. To paraphrase Rodney…