Month: September 2010

AmericanClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenMadridNew Mexico

Mama Lisa’s Ghost Town Kitchen – Madrid, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:13 PM

Steeped in rich history dating from the early 1800s, Madrid has been transformed from a hard- and soft-coal mining town with shafts as deep as 2500 feet down into a distinctive artist’s community. In the 1970s, artists and craftspeople converted old company stores and houses into shops, galleries and services. In doing so, they transformed what might otherwise have become yet another storied New Mexico ghost town into a popular tourist destination. Situated on the storied Turquoise Trail, Madrid is today a beautiful Bohemian escape city dwellers like me really enjoy. Madrid’s unique charm and slow pace of life are infectious. It’s easy to imagine a carefree life away from the maddening crowds and hustle and bustle of modern metropolitan…

AmericanNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Socorro

El Camino Family Restaurant – Socorro, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:59 AM

America’s oldest and longest continuously used “highway,” El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, (Spanish for the Royal Road of the Interior Land) includes a 404 mile stretch that bisects much of the Land of Enchantment  from south to north.  A large portion of that stretch is barren and desolate, one especially treacherous and dry section even designated by the Spanish conquistadores as the Jornada del Muerto, Spanish for “route of the dead man.”  For nearly 400 years–from 1598  (more than two decades before the Mayflower’s storied landing) to 1882–El Camino Real served as both a trade route and as the route taken by settlers and conquerors alike. For four centuries, thousands of intrepid Spanish and Mexican colonists, conquering warriors and…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenSoul Food

A Taste of Soul – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:33 PM

“1 think it is important to point out that barbecued ribs, black-eyed peas, grits, and collards may, in fact, be a choice dish to many black Americans. But it also sounds pretty darn good to me, a white man. I grew up on soul food. We just called it country cooking. My grandmother cooked it. My mother cooked it. – Lewis Grizzard American writer and humorist Lewis Grizzard, a fiercely proud Southerner, delighted in assailing Yankees, liberal politics, feminists and political correctness.  It was the latter which rankled his ire and prompted a rather incisive diatribe from which the above quote is taken.  Grizzard, who even named his beloved Labrador “Catfish,” rose up in defense of barbecued ribs, black-eyed peas,…