Nouveau Noodles – Cedar Crest, New Mexico
In the west, it’s generally accepted that the human tongue can discern only four different tastes and that all tastes in the dining experience are combinations of those four: sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. By contrast, the Chinese have long believed that the human tongue possesses a fifth taste sensation–one that can detect pungent foods. Chinese postulate that each of the five taste sensations corresponds to one of nature’s five elements: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. Dine at Nouveau Noodles and you’ll be convinced that there are at least five taste sensations and that they’re all present in each and every savory morsel of the innovative Asian fusion dishes masterfully crafted by chef Robert Griego. Griego’s restaurant, a 2003 entrant into the Duke City area dining scene, features cuisine with an inventive big city sophistication and cachet served within the confines of a small town edifice reminiscent of a train car. Fabulous would be a good word for describing the mango chutney chicken egg rolls with pickled ginger and an orange-chile dipping sauce. These egg rolls would stand out on their own, but that sauce elevates them to a stratospheric level where they would find great company in the…