AlbuquerqueAnnouncementsNew Mexican

Mary & Tito’s Recognized as an American Classic

Gil Garduno7:01 AM

The pinnacle of achievement in the culinary world. That’s what a James Beard Foundation award signifies. Deemed “the Oscars of the food world,” by Time magazine, The James Beard Foundation Awards are the country’s most coveted honor for chefs; food and beverage professionals; broadcast media, journalists, and authors working on food; and restaurant architects and designers. Considered the “Dean of American Cookery,” Beard established a legacy of culinary excellence and became a household name to generations of home cooks and professional chefs. Today, the James Beard Foundation, a national not-for-profit organization is dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and nurturing America’s culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate the appreciation of our culinary excellence. In January, 2010, Mary & Tito’s was…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenSteak

Duke’s Steakhouse – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:36 PM

“Did you ever see the customers in health-food stores? They are pale, skinny people who look half dead. In a steak house, you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying, of course, but they look terrific.” -Bill Cosby Bill Cosby probably didn’t have actor Robert Mitchum in mind when describing the type of people who visit steak houses. Heralded by movie critic Roger Ebert as “one of the greatest actors of all time,” the masculine Mitchum was certainly robust (evincing strength and vigorous health) and ruddy (inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life), but he wasn’t the type of he-man you might envision in a steak house. Presiding over a campfire, yes, but sitting down at a…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenThai

Lotus Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:15 PM

Balance. The Diné, or Navajo, of America’s Four Corners Region have a word for it: “hózhó.” The word embodies the idea of striving for balance and harmony along with beauty and order. Every aspect of Diné life–whether spiritual or secular–is connected to hózhó, maintaining balance between the individual and the universe and living in harmony with nature and the Creator. Balance. America’s favorite everyman philosopher Homer J. Simpson might define it as “a donut in each hand.” Obviously politicians discussing the budget should definite it as something unachievable, an ephemeral concept, a meaningless and baseless promise uttered simply to mollify their constituency. The dictionary might define it as a state of equilibrium. Balance. The underlying foundation of Thai cuisine, going…

AmericanFood Network Eats New MexicoRating: GoodSanta FeThe Best Thing I Ever Ate

The Pink Adobe – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:31 PM

Culinary historians credit the advent of the modern Santa Fe fine dining scene to a painter who moved to Santa Fe shortly after World War II to join the burgeoning art community. Having to support herself and a young daughter, Rosalea Murphy turned to something else at which she excelled–the culinary arts. As with most rags to riches success stories, Rosalea did not immediately set the Santa Fe dining scene on its ear, but then this wasn’t the “City Different” now widely recognized as a tourist Mecca. Good things take time. Great things take longer. When she first launched the restaurant she christened the Pink Adobe after the hue of its facade, her humble menu consisted solely of French onion…

BernalilloClosed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Coronado Grill – Bernalillo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:06 AM

In 1540 while searching for the fabled seven Cities of Gold, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado camped with his soldiers near the ancient Pueblo of Kuaua on the western banks of the Rio Grande where the city of Bernalillo exists today. Coronado never did locate the mythical Cities, finding instead a thriving agricultural village inhabited since 1300. Only the partially reconstructed ruins of Kuaua (a Tiwa word for “evergreen”) remain today, but the “City of Coronado” still celebrates the Spanish explorer whose legacy has been somewhat tarnished by revisionist history. The conquistador’s namesake restaurant is situated just south of the ruins in a sprawling 5,000 square foot complex sitting on three acres overlooking the Rio Grande. For ambience, you can’t beat…

AnnouncementsBurgersNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009

Introducing the New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail

Gil Garduno10:25 PM

To New Mexicans, there is nothing as thoroughly soul-satisfying and utterly delicious as our ubiquitous green chile cheeseburger.  We have a fierce pride in that most simplistic, but explosive, flavor-blessed union of a thick, juicy beef patty grilled over an open flame or sizzled on a griddle then blanketed in cheese and topped with taste bud awakening, tongue tingling, olfactory arousing green chile. New Mexicans throughout the Land of Enchantment’s 33 counties celebrated July 22nd, 2009 with the gusto normally reserved for a Lobo or Aggie victory.  We basked in the glory of one of our own upstanding citizens vanquishing an audacious interloper from New York City in a green chile cheeseburger “throwdown.”  On that fateful summer day, the Food…

AmericanBreakfastClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009

Harla May’s Fat Boy Grill – Belen, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:22 PM

Many of us who grew up in small town America during the 60s sometimes pine for the more innocent days of our youth–the days before cable television gave us hundreds of channels (and nothing to watch) and video games became the only form of exercise (albeit, of their thumbs) our children get. Back then, the movie theater was the town’s cultural center. It was where small-town America congregated to see Hollywood blockbusters (about two years after they hit the big cities) as well as movies which introduced our innocents to the Hell’s Angels, Bruce Lee, Godzilla and campy Sonny and Cher movies. The small-town American theater in New Mexico also meant Cantinflas, the campesino once referred to by Charlie Chaplin…

BreakfastBrunchFood Network Eats New MexicoJames Beard Foundation Americas Classic Award WinnerNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSanta FeSouthwesternThe Best Thing I Ever Ate

Cafe Pasqual’s – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:36 PM

Pasqual Baylon’s devotion to the Mass and the Holy Eucharist was so fervent that when assigned kitchen duty, angels had to stir the pots to keep them from burning.  It’s ironic therefore that San Pasqual is the recognized patron saint of Mexican and New Mexican kitchens, a beloved saint whose smiling countenance in the form of various art forms graces many a kitchen, including Katharine Kagel’s kitchen in the world famous Cafe Pasqual, one of Santa Fe’s most popular restaurants. Cafe Pasqual is a very small cafe with seating for only 50 patrons sitting in very close quarters. Prospective diners place their names on a waiting list then typically wait half an hour or more to be seated, usually longer…

AlbuquerqueItalianPizzaRating: Very Good

JC’s New York Pizza Department – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:46 PM

Gil’s immutable law of thermodynamics posits that the enjoyment of even the best pizza is correlative with the length of time which has expired since it was removed from the oven.  Pizza tastes best right out of the oven when it is steaming hot and the aromas waft upwards to provide an almost sensual olfactory massage.  That flavor and olfactory appreciation diminishes as the pizza grows colder and your belly fuller.  This law is absolutely immutable, but it also has an equally immutable corollary: the flavor of a great pizza actually improves after it’s been refrigerated overnight.  It helps, of course, if you wake up ravenously hungry and that the pizza was fabulous to begin with. I developed this theory…

New MexicanRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Tabla De Los Santos – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:31 PM

Professor Larry Torres, the brilliant historian, linguist and writer From Arroyo Seco is incomparable at spinning a yarn, especially when doing so in “Spanglish,” the without-a-pause blending of Spanish and English so prevalent among Latinos in the Land of Enchantment.  A few years ago in the Taos News, he told the story of a little South American boy staying with a family in Northern New Mexico who called home rather frantically begging to return home.  The little boy explained that New Mexicans are barbaric after overhearing that they cook and eat “chicos. Obviously the little boy didn’t know that chicos is not only the literal translation of little boys, but a delicious favorite food of Latinos throughout Northern New Mexico…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2010

Porky’s Pride Real Pit BBQ – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:56 AM

The genesis of America’s popular music–country, jazz and even rock and roll–is rooted in the soul and sounds of Mississippi Delta blues–sounds born in the disgraceful shadow of slavery and lyrics which echoed the grievous plight and painful lament of workers in plantations and fields.  It is a tribute to the resilience of a people that the music of their lament evolved over the centuries to bring succor, alacrity and pride to generations. Given poor quality meat, those plantation workers dug pits in the ground in which they cooked the poor cuts of pigs or meat they were allowed to raise. When emancipated, the pit masters introduced their prowess over the barbecue pit throughout the United States. The American epicenters…