Month: September 2017

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2021Gone But Not ForgottenLaoNew Mexico

Pho Lao – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

One definition of audacity is “the state of being bold or daring—particularly with disregard for danger, rudeness or pressure.” Audacity is nine-year-old fourth grader Akilan Sankaran (son of my friend Sridevi) unflinchingly spelling such words as “rejoneador” and “mnemonic” to win the New Mexico Spelling bee over eighth graders who’d participated in the annual event as many as six times. Audacity is a miniature dachshund protecting its family from the menacing mailman who dares trespass daily into the family’s territory. Audacity is Homer Simpson eating fugu, a blowfish which can be toxic if not properly sliced. It may not be as bold or daring as the aforementioned examples, but your humble blogger recently demonstrated great audacity. When my friend and…

AmericanBreakfastDog FriendlyRated 23Santa Fe

Counter Culture Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Counterculture. Growing up in rural Taos County four decades ago, I don’t know how many of us understood that the cultural and political upheaval of the big cities had moved into our isolated corner of the world. All we knew was that these unkempt and unwashed interlopers preaching free love and practicing it in communes had invaded our idyllic agrarian communities and shocked our quiet, small town sensibilities. They rode around in psychedelic school buses and wore multi-colored smocks. The men among them wore their hair as long as their women. More shocking was how these strangers walked around unabashedly nude in the confines of the communes they christened with such colorful names as the Hog Farm, New Buffalo and…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenLatin AmericanMexicanNew MexicoRated 24

Maya – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

My precocious niece doesn’t miss a beat. Ever attentive to adult conversation, she often stumps my brother and me with her surprisingly deep and thought-provoking questions. Case in point, when she overheard me telling my brother Mario about the Mesoamerican-inspired cuisine at Maya, she asked what I have against Americans. Perplexed by her assertion, I gently asked what she was talking about. “First you said Americans are ugly (obviously remembering a discussion Mario and I once had about the “ugly American syndrome”) and now you’re calling them messy, too.” From the mouth of babes… Her comment got me thinking about the last time we saw a great chef who wasn’t a bit on the “messy” side. No, not like the…

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Olympia Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

For culinary diversity, it’s hard to beat the University of New Mexico (UNM) area in which restaurants with a broad socioeconomic appeal are congregated. Aside from academic enrichment, this area is nurturing a refreshing open-mindedness toward the cuisines of the world. That seems to be a commonality in areas within easy walking distance of large urban universities. Perhaps restaurateurs recognize that students–especially the oft-maligned millennials–are not only willing to open up their minds to new knowledge, but their wallets and their minds to new culinary experiences. The UNM area inaugurated many of us from rural parts of the state to wonderful new taste sensations. The heretofore enigmatic mysteries of the Orient unraveled themselves the first time we tasted the sweet…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2023Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoPizza

Sauce Pizza & Wine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of pizza in America, James Beard Award-winning food writer Ed Levine ate nothing but pizza for an entire twelve month period, taking a representative pulse of the best from among thousands of pizza purveyors. His terrific tome, Pizza A Slice of Heaven, published in 2010, provides a definitive guide to a beloved staple that in its elemental form is simplicity itself–bread, cheese and whatever toppings a pizzaioli artisan might care to add. To the surprise of cognoscenti and plebeian alike, Levine declared the best pizza in the fruited plain (and the world, for that matter) to be made in the unlikely town of Phoenix, Arizona where the intensely brilliant Chris Bianco plies his trade…