Welcome to Gil’s Taylor Swift-free list of my favorite dishes in 2023. These dishes were selected not for complex culinary preparations and exorbitant price points, but for the simple preparation of dishes that taste as if they were prepared by a chorus of angels in a celestial kitchen. These are the dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this list was heretofore unknown to my palate before 2023. Every dish was a delicious discovery from within New Mexico’s sacred borders. In chronological order, my “best of the best” are:

January 2023

You can’t get any more simple than a fried SPAM sandwich ((SPAM, Cheddar, lettuce, mustard on lightly toasted sourdough bread), a staple for those of us who grew up in rural New Mexico like Chef Marie Yniguez and I did.  Marie’s fabulous home-cooking–showcased at My Moms on 4th Street–isn’t pretentious.  It’s the type of cooking all the moms in her life have been doing for generations.  Eating fried baloney sandwiches and fried SPAM sandwiches will transport the ruralites among us to our youth when life–and food–was simple, but no less delicious.  Marie’s talents have been showcased several times on various Food Network programs, but it’s in her kitchen that we enjoy them most.

What’s the secret to New York’s incomparable bagels?  It’s not the water as so many believe.  It’s doing things the time-honored and traditional ways.  One crucial step in baking the very best bagels is boiling them. Contemporary automation has dispensed with this crucial step.  As a result, tradition, texture and flavor are sacrificed for speed and ease.  Not so at Kaufman’s Coffee & Bagelswhere the bagels will transport you to Metropolis.  That may be especially true of the pastrami on New York rye.   Bursting with thinly sliced, peppery pastrami nestled between slices of American and Provolone cheeses and topped with a healthy schmear of cream cheese, it’s pastrami as good as you’ll find in New Mexico.

February, 2023

There are many reasons as to why Chef Justin Pioche was a finalist for the James Beard “Best Chef-Southwest) award in 2023.  From the perspective of food alone, you can experience at least eight of them should you attend  one of the Pioche Food Group’s LorAmy events (a Farmington pop-up dining series hosted by the Pioche family).  At least eight courses are offered of the most innovative seasonal dishes inspired by the family’s Navajo culture.  Selecting just one favorite from so many transformative dishes is like naming your favorite dog, but since I’ve committed…those braised beef cheeks (charred leeks, marinated roe, sorrel, huitlacoche) might be the best dish among eight phenomenal dishes.

March 2023

If you thought the James Beard Foundation recognized only high-brow fru-fru dining establishments, think again.   El Chile Toreado, a humble food truck  became a James Beard “Best Chef-Southwest” semi-finalist in 2023, proving that restaurants serving great food will be discovered and recognized even at the highest levels.  Whether you visit this slightly off-the-well-eaten-path for tacos, burritos quesadillas and for breakfast or lunch, it’s one of the most popular dining destinations in a city replete with dining destinations.  El Chile Toreado’s burritos are behemoth, burrito blankets enveloping thoroughly delicious ingredients that will delight your taste buds.

May, 2023

Food Network star Guy Fieri, host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, doesn’t always get it right–not even when he visits restaurants in the Land of Enchantment.  Sometimes, however, he features a restaurant that inspires us to visit.  Less frequently, that restaurant blows us away.  One such restaurant is the Plaza Ranchos Grill in Ranchos De Taos.  It’s the quintessential Northern New Mexican restaurant that prepares the cuisine with which I grew up.  Among the exemplary foods the Ranchos Grill prepares nearly as well as my mom did are blue corn enchiladas with chile Caribe (dried red chile pod ground to a crushed, coarse form).

July, 2023

Artistically presented in a deep-rimmed plate, El Zacatlan’s enchiladas de mole negro (roasted chicken, black beans, two Mexican cheeses) are edible masterpieces, as aesthetically pleasing as they are absolutely delicious.  An intensely dark and rich sauce and a generous sprinkling of creamy white cheeses blanket housemade corn tortillas which envelop moist white chicken.  There is nothing subtle about mole negro, a staple of Oaxaca which combines dark chocolate, dry heat roasted chilis, nuts, seeds, and spices.  Its sweet-spicy flavor is resultant from a significant undertaking.  Chef Eduardo Rodriguez survived the Cabrona Virus to launch one of Santa Fe’s best restaurants of any genre.

August, 2023

During 2023, restaurants whose foods grace this list usually served me more than one item that could have made the list.  That’s certainly true of Gold Street Pizza in Albuquerque.  Both the Italian beef calzone and the Italian beef pizza could have (and were certainly deserving) made this list.  Instead, I chose the unique poached pear salad, an edible work-of-art with ingredients seemingly modeled on the plate for optimum aesthetics.   Colors and ingredients are splayed on a ceramic canvas as if posing for an artist.  Displayed in all their glory are strawberries, cranberries, shaved cucumbers, red onions, iceberg lettuce and Parmesan cheese.  At the center of these ingredients is a single poached pear about as purple as a ripe plum.

September, 2023

More than 142 million households viewed the series Squid Game within a month after its launch, making it the most viewed title on Netflix ever.  I’ll bet you won’t find 142 million households across the fruited plain who would even try spicy squid.  Yep, most people find the notion of eating squid quite offputting.  That leaves more spicy squid from Hanmi for me.  Squid has a mild seafood flavor, with some sweetness and meatiness to it.  Its texture is chewy and slightly rubbery. But when prepared well, it’s positively addictive.  Hanmi slathers its spicy squid with Gochujang and adds a generous amount of Thai peppers, making it a magnificently piquant dish.

October, 2023

If you’re thinking I’m some kind of hypocrite for listing Pad Thai as one of my favorite dishes for 2023, hear me out.  For years I’ve blasted Pad Thai, calling it a “Thai dessert” and renamiing it “Pad Boring.”  Only one restaurant has managed to dissuade me about the most popular Thai dish under spacious skies.  It’s not a Thai restaurant which managed this feat, but Joseph’s Culinary Pub.   To be sure, Chef Joseph Wrede is no ordinary chef and his version of Pad Thai is no ordinary Pad Boring…er, Pad Thai.  His verion features hoison-glazed duck confit, rice noodles, egg, peanuts, cilantro and charred cabbage.  It’s got the balance of flavors–salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and creamy–all great Thai dishes should have.

Perhaps no new restaurant in Santa Fe garnered as much acclaim from critics and the dining public akike as did Alkeme,  Owner Hue-Chan Karels and her team are reimagining Asian cuisine–not with trite fusion creations, but by honoring culinary roots and bringing to life ancestral recipes, stories, and memories of flavors combined with an innovative approach. I was fortunate enough to experience Alkemē with like-minded friends from Tulsa. Our foursome ordered two of the three tasting menus and one a la carte item.  Splitting dishes four ways doesn’t guarantee any one single diner will get a full impression from one or two bites, but we achieved something a consensus about the grilled rack of lamb.  Quite simply, we loved it!

November, 2023

My friend Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver loves beef ribs almost as much as he loves being retired.  Sadly, he’s been in Arizona twice when K-Style Kitchen, one of his favorite Korean restaurants featured galbi (flanken style Korean beef short ribs).   Galbi translates from Korean to “ribs” so it stands to reason ribs would be the focus of this dish. K-Style’s short ribs are soaked in a sweet sesame soy marinade, then grilled for a tender, delicious meaty dish.  Best of all, galbi is a relatively lean dish.  K-Style Kitchen serves its magical meat ribs with an empanada-sized mandu, white rice and mixed vegetables.  It’s one of the very plates you’ll find in the Duke City area.

December, 2023 

Contrast a visit to a Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsay’s television program about nightmarish restaurants) restaurant with a visit to Ramona’s Mexican Cafe and the only drama you might experience is the internal conflict of trying to figure out what to order from a terrific menu.  Ramona, the matriarch of the Chavira Y Valles family, runs the kitchen with her sons.   Her recipes are prepared to her exacting specifications.  And what recipes they are!  In three visits we’ve only managed to scratch the surface of the menu.  Every dish has been superb, maybe most so being the enchiladas montadas (breakfast enchiladas) with red and green chile.

Please feel free to share your own “best of the best” New Mexico dining choices for 2023 by commenting to this post. Who knows? Maybe in 2024 they’ll make it to my list, too.