AlbuquerqueClosed in 2015Food TruckGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

El Chicken 100% Carbon – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:13 AM

My environmentally conscious friend Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver doesn’t have a large carbon footprint.  No environmental activist would ever condemn him for fouling the air and water with a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, Sr. Plata leaves large “carbon fingerprints,” the finger-licking kind you get from frequenting restaurants which specialize in pollo al carbon, chicken prepared over charcoal.  Pollo al carbon has spoiled Sr. Plata.  He craves those juicy, golden-skinned birds speckled with black char, chicken so meaty and delicious it makes store-bought rotisserie chickens look positively anorexic in comparison.  Who can blame Sr. Plata?   Pollo al carbon is absolutely addictive.  It’s truly finger-licking good, much better (by legions) than you’ll find at the Colonel’s place. Fortunately the…

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Break The Chain Visits Paco’s International Smoked Cuisine

Gil Garduno3:51 PM

When Break The Chain host Ryan Scott learned that a CIA trained chef was operating in the Duke City, he knew he’d have to investigate.  His sleuthing didn’t reveal any clandestine menus or covert cooking, but he did discover a chef with some pretty deft knife-wielding skills.  Throughout Ryan’s interrogation, the chef maintained no cloak of subterfuge or secrecy.  In fact, Chef Paco Aceves was rather forthcoming about his training and his not-so-secret mission here in the Duke City.  Chef Aceves’s mission is to introduce Albuquerque to a range of international smoked foods including some of the most popular American BBQ specialties. His eponymous restaurant, Paco’s International Smoked Cuisine is not your typical BBQ restaurant in that it he utilizes…

New MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta FeSouthwestern

La Cantina at Casa Sena – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:12 PM

In the dark ages of 1979 when the world wasn’t nearly as connected as it is today, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ruled the airwaves throughout the United Kingdom just as it had since its founding in 1922. Young listeners complained that the monopoly of control had forged a monotony in programming. For Yanks like me, however, the so-called “monotony” provided the most interesting diversion. In perhaps trying to appeal to listeners of all demographics with a one-size-fits-all approach, the BBC’s programming didn’t seem to make any sense…at least by American standards. My own musical tastes tend to be very eclectic, but the BBC sometimes stretched eclectic beyond logical sense. One of my favorite examples of the “diversity” of the…

AlbuquerqueAsianRating: Very GoodThai

Krung Thai – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:00 AM

At 75 years of age, Grandma remains as energetic and feisty as ever though she’s quite unhappy that her well-intentioned and loving family have made her take Saturdays off. She’d just as soon work six days a week at the Krung Thai Restaurant on Menaul. Grandma’s not only an accomplished cook, she’s got several treasured family recipes locked in her vault of a memory. One of those recipes is for some of the very best Lao sausage in the Duke City. Launched on New Year’s Eve in 2003, Krung Thai translates to “Thai City,” but the restaurant’s menu extends well beyond Thai cuisine. You’ll find Vietnamese and Chinese entrees, too, and you already know about the Lao sausage. Krung Thai…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoVietnamese

Pho Hoa – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:18 AM

Though it ended in 1975, the Vietnam war was still very fresh in the minds of Americans when I enlisted in the Air Force two years later.  Many of my senior colleagues had served in Vietnam and regaled me with tales of their adventures.  It wasn’t man’s inhumanity to man they took away from the experience, but the goodness of people brought together by exigent circumstances.  It is very telling of the high character of my colleagues that despite the ravages of war, they had fallen in love with Vietnam: its people, culture and its food.  Several of my friends sponsored Vietnamese families fleeing the beleaguered nation. One of my friends told me the beauty of Vietnam was best seen…

AlbuquerqueMediterraneanRating: Good

Yasmine’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:44 AM

Never mind an Emmy.  If the Hollywood Reporter and the Huffington Post have their way, comedian Larry David might qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize.  That is if a 2011 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm can do what diplomats and politicians have failed to do over the years.  In the episode, entitled Palestinian Chicken, Larry discovers a Palestinian restaurant that serves the tastiest chicken in Los Angeles.  The problem is that the restaurant is owned and operated by anti-Semitic Palestinians and Larry is Jewish.  Now, Larry could hardly be considered a peace-maker by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, his lusty ardor for both the chicken and the restaurant’s proprietor, override his loyalty to Judaism and the local Jewish…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2023Gone But Not ForgottenItalian

Caruso’s Italian Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:39 AM

The 1924 publication of Edgar Rice Burrough’s fantasy novel The Land That Time Forgot regaled readers with the notion of what might happen when contemporary humans stumble upon a lost world in which evolution has progressed much more slowly. Step into Caruso’s Italian Restaurant on Menaul and you just might be entering Albuquerque’s version of the Italian restaurant that time forgot. Ask friends or family to name ten or even fifteen Italian restaurants in Albuquerque and it’s likely Caruso’s won’t be on that list. Remind them Caruso’s isn’t on their list and their likely response will be “oh yeah, I forgot about Caruso’s.” At more than four decades of age, the venerable Caruso’s doesn’t have the pristine veneer or the…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenPeruvian

Taste of Peru – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:17 AM

Early in 2013, the National Restaurant Association took the pulse of more than 1,800 professional chefs and nearly 200 professional bartenders with its annual “What’s Hot” culinary survey designed to predict restaurant menu trends for the coming year. Considered the definitive forecast of culinary inclinations, the survey’s “Ethnic Cuisines and Flavors” category was topped by Peruvian cuisine which is not only hot, it’s cool. It’s hip, swanky and trendy. It’s so “happening” that even New Mexico, which is sometimes years behind culinary trends, has embraced it. Since 2011, three Peruvian restaurants have launched in the Duke City. Peruvian cuisine is so diverse–recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the nation with the most local plates, some 491 officially registered…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenSandwichVietnamese

Sai Gon Sandwich – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:51 PM

If ever there was a culinary Kobayashi Maru (for the non-Trekkies among you, that’s a no-win scenario), it might well be naming the best sandwich (or best food of any kind) in the world. Imagine the challenge. There are potentially hundreds of thousands of delicious candidates, many worthy of acclaim as the very best in their block, city, state or province…but the world’s an awfully big place. A lifetime might not be enough to sample but a few thousand sandwiches. Any sandwich you select would undoubtedly be disputed vehemently. Surely, you say, no authoritative source exists which would possibly have the temerity, much less breadth of knowledge, to name just one sandwich as the very best in the planet. Such hubris…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016DonutsGone But Not ForgottenSpecialty

Duke City Donuts – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:37 PM

If you love donuts (and who doesn’t), you might want to consider being just a bit more generous when you see the ubiquitous Salvation Army bell-ringers and their familiar kettles standing in the chilly winter air to solicit donations.  The Salvation Army didn’t invent the first donut, but you can certainly credit much of their popularity to this philanthropic group. During World War I, the “lassies” in the Salvation Army prepared donuts for thousands of soldiers, an act which along with their compassion endeared the group to the American public.  It also stimulated a taste for donuts which hadn’t existed before the war among the American public. In 1938, the first Friday in June was established as “Salvation Army Donut…

AlbuquerqueRating: N/R (Not Rated)Steak

High Noon Restaurant & Saloon – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:53 PM

“Oh, to be torn twixt love and duty Supposin’ I love my fair haired beauty Look at that big hand movin’ round Nearin’ high noon.” ~ Tex Ritter The 1952 Academy Award winning movie High Noon follows taciturn marshal Will Kane as he single-handedly prepares to face a posse of murderers hellbent on revenge when the clock strikes twelve. Though the memorable showdown between Marshal Kane and the villainous scourges lasts only a few minutes, viewers are held spellbound by the movie’s black-and-white cinematography and hauntingly relentless soundtrack which accentuate the clock’s inexorable ticking down toward the confrontation at high noon. The minute hand on the wooden clock facade at the foyer of the High Noon Restaurant & Saloon is…