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2012: A Thrilling (and Filling) Year in Food

Gil Garduno1:00 AM

Tis the season…for year-end retrospectives in which the good, the bad and the ugly; the triumphs and tragedies; the highs and lows and the ups and downs are revisited ad-infinitum by seemingly every print and cyberspace medium in existence. It’s the time of year in which the “in-your-face” media practically forces a reminiscence–either fondly or with disgust–about the year that was. It’s a time for introspection, resolutions and for looking forward with hope to the year to come. The New Mexico culinary landscape had more highs than it did lows in 2012. Here’s my thrilling (and filling) recap. The dailymeal.com apparently can’t keep a secret. In January, the site revealed America’s ten most secret restaurants, eateries which “remain conundrums to the outside world, with only a select few joining the inner circle of diners privy to their culinary secrets.” The only New Mexico restaurant “outed” was Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse in Albuquerque which the dailymeal described as “a high class speakeasy.” More than 1,200 guests visited the Roadrunner Food Bank on January 29th to partake of the very best soups and desserts in the Duke City as prepared by nearly 50 restaurants. In addition to sampling soups and desserts, attendees…

AmericanPizzaRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Joe’s Dining – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:32 AM

In the American vernacular, there is no male name which denotes “average” more than Joe. The terms “Average Joe,” “Ordinary Joe” and “Joe Sixpack” are used to convey a completely average, down-to-earth working class male just as Ordinary, Average or Plain Jane are used to describe average women. These terms are used more as general descriptors than they are for anyone in specific. When someone does something extraordinary or special, the expression “no ordinary Joe” is often used. Joe’s Dining in Santa Fe does its best to define just who Joe is:  Joe is everyman.  He is you, he is me, he is the guy next door, 
the gal next door.  He is José, Giuseppe, Joseph and all female renditions of the name. Joe is the common thread among us and yet he is one of a kind.  He is friendly, unpretentious, straightforward with quietly discriminating tastes. Joe has a robust sense of humor – he loves to laugh, even at himself. He loves good food, good drink and good company. Joe’s Dining is certainly no ordinary Joe.  What sets it apart is a palpable passion for a sustainable, local food supply-food that is wholesome, non-genetically engineered, often “better than organic,”…

AlbuquerqueChineseRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Yummi House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:01 PM

Years ago, I had the misfortune of working with a technical writer who couldn’t spell his way out of a paper bag.  His punctuation was pathetic, his vocabulary vacuous and his writing peppered with malapropisms (the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with a different meaning).  Some comedians have made an art out of malapropisms, but there wasn’t anything funny about this terrible technical writer.  How he passed English classes at a state school which will remain nameless, much less become a technical writer, is beyond me.  Fortunately it didn’t take our employer long to realize the right thing to do about that writer was to let him go. In mock tribute to our departed former colleague, my friend Ken VanLyssel and I designated an office bulletin the “Don Cruize” (in his honor, his name is misspelled) bulletin board.  Every time we came across slaughtered syntax, shoddy spelling or any grammatical faux pas, we would tack it to that board.  Many of our contributions were courtesy of menus from Albuquerque’s Chinese restaurants.  Chinese restaurant menus, in general, are notorious for grievous grammar and are frequent fodder for Jay Leno’s Headlines segment.  We wondered if some of…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2023Gone But Not ForgottenGreek

Zorba’s Fine Greek Dining – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:53 PM

“Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I’m told, into God.” ~Zorba the Greek The most obvious theme of the Nikos Kazantzakis novel Zorba the Greek is that life should be lived to its fullest–that its pleasures should be pursued with a lusty vigor.  The embodiment of that attitude was the eponymous, life-affirming protagonist Alexis Zorba whose unrestrained joie de vivre didn’t diminish with advancing geriatric progression.  If anything, Zorba’s exuberance and appetite for the pleasures of the flesh become more pronounced with age.  His passions were governed by his senses, not by social mores or even his own intellection.  In a sense Zorba’s attitude is encapsulated in Dionysus, the Greek god of the grape harvest, wine-making, wine, ritual madness and ecstasy.  In the pantheon of Olympian gods, Dionysus may have been the most “human,” a god subject to mortal traits of impetuousness, irrationality and emotionality.  His passions were expressed in such activities as dancing, drinking and eating.  If there was a Greek god of revelry, drunkenness and inebriation, it, too, would have been…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenItalianPizza

Fratelli Bistro – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:39 AM

The ingredients with which you can top your pizza are limited only by your imagination. Crocodile and caviar? Been there, done that. In fact, a New York restaurateur will sell you a thousand dollar pie topped with four of the priciest caviars in the world. Blueberries, shrimp, cookies? That’s pretty tame stuff. A Swiss-based pizza chef laces his pizza with spiders and snakes (Jim Stafford, where are you now?). The Japanese propensity for invention is on display with a “mega pizza” monstrosity (Godzilla? Mothra?) that starts with a crust constructed of hot dogs wrapped in bacon and rolls of molten cheese. The center is built with hamburgers, cheese rolls, sausage, bacon, ham, bacon bits, mushroom, onion, pepper, garlic and tomato sauce and it’s topped with ketchup and maple syrup. And you thought Cosmo Kramer’s idea to top his pizza with cucumbers was out-of-bounds! Comparatively New Mexico’s pizzaioli are pretty unimaginative. About the most “extreme” ingredients you’ll find at Farina Pizzeria are eggplant, broccollini and farmhouse goat cheese with leeks. DaVinci’s Gourmet Pizza throws caution to the wind with their toppings offerings of rosemary roasted potatoes, artichoke hearts and barbecue sauce. At Santa Fe’s Rooftop Pizzeria, you can scale the heights…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014ColombianGone But Not Forgotten

El Pollo Real – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:43 PM

Jay : I’m home! Mmm, what smells so good? Gloria : I’m making chunchullo, a traditional Colombian dish, for dinner with the family tonight. Chunchullo. Jay : What is that… like, uh, tacos? Gloria : Yes, like tacos. Manny : No, it isn’t. It’s the small intestine of a pig. Jay : Oh, geez. Why can’t we eat regular food like normal people? Understandably, to this gastronome, the funniest scenes depicting the cultural clash between Gloria Pritchett and her family and friends involve food.  In the true tradition of the Latin stereotype, Gloria, the curvaceous Colombian bombshell portrayed by Sofia Vergara on the hilarious television comedy Modern Family likes her food spicy-painfully so.  Conversely, in true stereotypical “white person” fashion, other characters just can’t handle the heat.  In one memorable episode, Cameron, an exemplar of “Caucasianism,” takes Gloria to one of her favorite purveyors of piquancy in an effort to bond with her.  After one bite, he sprints from the table shouting “I feel like I ate the sun!” Interestingly, Colombian food isn’t especially spicy–at least not in comparison with the cuisine of other Latin American nations.  As with most nations, Colombian cuisine varies by region.  In some regions, such…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenMariscosMexican

La Sirenita – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:15 PM

My good friend and frequent dining companion Bill Resnik is one of the most altruistic and selfless people I have the privilege of knowing. Every year he grows out his naturally white beard so he can portray Santa Claus at hospitals and nursing homes throughout the metropolitan area. Because he stands 6’5″ most of his friends look like elves standing next to him and there’s probably not a chimney he can slide down, but when he dons his padded red and white Santa suit, he IS Santa. With his characteristic light-hearted and whimsical approach, he keeps children of all ages and dispositions spellbound, their wide-eyed wonder reflecting the magic of the season. The rest of the year when he’s not playing Santa, Bill joins me in performing another type of public service. That’s what we call it when we visit a restaurant about which very little information is available (not even on Urbanspoon). Boldly going where no other critic has gone, we’ve discovered some gems over the years—restaurants which remain among our favorites–but we’ve also had more than our share of disappointments, most of which aren’t chronicled on this blog (if you can’t say something nice….). Public service can be…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew MexicanRating: Excellent

Rey’s Place – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:00 PM

Rey’s Place has relocated and now shares space with La Familar, the terrific Mexican restaurant owned by Michael “Rey’s” lovely bride Luz.  La Familiar is located at 1611 4th Street, N.W.  Its menu includes all the wonderful foods you’ve loved for years at Rey’s Place: gorditas, enchiladas, caldo de rez and so much more.  Whether you visit for excellent Mexican food or Michael’s mellifluous guitar and sensational singing voice, Rey’s La Familiar will soon become one of your favorite restaurants.    Call Rey’s La Familiar at 808-242-9661 for more information. Human brains are wired so that the way we perceive the flavor of food is actually a synthesis of how it looks, tastes, smells and feels.  Four senses are actively engaged as we’re masticating, licking, sipping or sucking our food.  The one traditionally recognized method of perception apparently not crucial to enjoying the dining experience is the sense of hearing.  Until rather recently, the effect music has on the enjoyment of our food hadn’t been thoroughly studied scientifically.  In 2011, the Journal of Culinary Science & Technology determined through a series of experiments that food tastes best when served with quiet classical music in the background.  If the music was…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2015Gone But Not ForgottenRating: ExcellentVietnamese

Kim Long Asian Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED 1 JULY 2015)

Gil Garduno11:24 AM

Growing up on a relatively unsophisticated Northern New Mexican diet featuring such staples as beans, tortillas and chile could hardly be considered a training ground for gastronomic appreciation. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my mom’s cooking it was hardly with the realization that I was feasting on one of America’s very best regional cuisines. Frankly, in the 1960s, only someone with prescience would have thought New Mexican cuisine could eventually garner worldwide acclaim. My siblings and I actually thought we were deprived because we weren’t eating Wonder bread sandwiches, pizza and Big Macs. Similarly, my friend and Intel colleague Huu Vu who grew up in Vietnam had no realization that the simple foods on which he was raised would someday be considered part of the world’s most delicious, artfully composed and healthy cuisines. To him and other citizens of impoverished Vietnam, food was sustenance, fuel to keep them going. Huu related to me that in Vietnam, you ate to live. You learned to stretch your meals with fillers such as rice. The vegetables and herbs (typically fresh mint, basil, cilantro, bean sprouts) which accompany pho (the superb Vietnamese beef noodle soup) weren’t just flavor additives. They were added to pho to…

Closed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenItalianNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSanta Fe

Il Piatto Italian Farmhouse Kitchen – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:10 AM

As an independent observer of the New Mexico culinary condition, I used to think the most prominent delta in quality between restaurants in the Land of Enchantment and those in large metropolitan cities are in the areas of seafood, barbecue and Italian food. It’s easy to understand the dearth in outstanding seafood restaurants. We are, after all, a landlocked state some 800 miles or so from the nearest ocean. While many New Mexican restaurants have fresh seafood flown in frequently, it’s not quite the same as having seafood literally off the boat and onto your plate. In recent years, the launch of several very good to excellent barbecue joints has done much to narrow the gap in the barbecue arena: Sugar’s BBQ in Embudo, The Ranch House in Santa Fe, Sparky’s in Hatch and Mr. Powdrell’s Barbecue House in Albuquerque. This terrific quadrumvirate has given us barbecue you can enjoy every day of the week, maybe even more than once a day. We may not ever have transcendent barbecue like Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City, but the same can be said about everywhere else in the world. My argument used to be that New Mexico does have some nice, maybe…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2015Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009

Route 66 Malt Shop – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:21 AM

In a May, 2009 edition of New Mexico Magazine feature celebrating “20 reasons Rail is Cool Now,” the magazine’s staff and contributors shared the best things to experience via the New Mexico Railrunner Express.”  A Duke City notable was root beer at the Route 66 Malt Shop and Grill, then about three miles from the nearest Railrunner depot.  The magazine encouraged readers to “order a frosty mug of homemade award-winning root beer, or make it a float.”  While you’re at it, the magazine suggested “sinking your teeth into the signature Blue Cheese Green Chile Burger.  Dee-lish.” Ironically just as the magazine was hitting the newsstands, the Route 66 Malt Shop’s west-facing windows were scrawled with the alarming words “Lost Our Lease, Being Evicted.”  To the consternation of hundreds of loyal patrons who  signed petitions on the restaurant’s behalf, the developer who owns the building in which the restaurant was housed apparently had other plans for it.  Owners Diane Avila and Eric Szeman were unable to reach an accord with their landlord and had to close the beloved institution they operated for so long. To call an 845 square foot hole-in-the-wall an institution is a testament to how firmly entrenched and highly regarded this…