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Mama Zahira Foodies – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:00 AM

FROM THE BITE:  “In Albuquerque alone, there are too many places doing falafel for us to dine at them in quick succession. That’s despite the Wacky Iraqi’s temporary relocation to Michigan (he tells us he hopes to return in a few years). It’s so easy to be judgmental, to take things at face value…to assume.  As my friend Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver and I approached Mama Zahira Foodies’ order window, we espied the self-deprecating term “The Wacky Iraqi in Albuquerque” scrawled by the vehicle’s rear wheel well.  The term “wacky” made us wary.  It’s just not a term we associate with great food.  No sooner had we reached the window when we were greeted by Riadh Seheem, a thickly accented,…

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Bamboo Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In his 30s, curmudgeonly London food critic Jay Rayner who’s been called the “enfant terrible (literally “terrifying child) of the gastronomic scene,” came to the realization that he hated hangovers more than he hated being drunk.  During a visit to a Vietnamese restaurant in London, he achieved an epiphany:  “huge steaming bowls of a deeply aromatic beef broth called pho, bobbing with slivers of meat and wide rice noodles – would prove a perfect cure. The head pain would ease. The pitch and roll of the stomach would steady. A gentle, soft comfy cloud of well being would descend. And all this for not very much money at all.” A 2017 article from the travel experts of Lonely Planet also…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

S-A Barbecue – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:21 AM

London-based restaurant critic Jay Rayner makes barbecue sound a bit like a scientific process: “the long, virtuous interplay of fire, smoke and time on cow and pig muscle fibre; who sees only joyous caramelisation and the deep flavours gifted by the Maillard reaction, when heat says hello to amino acids and natural sugars and they all get along famously.”  He’s actually quite right, but most of us got enough chemistry formulas in high school.   We recognize that at its most basic, the formula for barbecue is expressed much more simply: meat plus smoke plus time plus (or minus) sauce equals delicious bliss. Okay, my formula only sounds simple.  Mastering the art and science of “low and slow” actually takes…

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Alicea’s NY Bagels & Subs – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:43 PM

Imagine a world without sandwiches! That daunting premise would make a pretty fatalistic post-apocalyptic movie in which Dystopian societies exist in a nightmare of deprivation, hopelessness, terror and processed food rations (Soylent Green anyone?). No sandwiches–it’s just too incomprehensible to imagine, especially considering everywhere you turn there’s another Subway. Frankly, my own post-apocalyptic nightmare would be a world in which Subway and other restaurants of that ilk are the only option for sandwiches. Like the indestructible roach, chain restaurants would survive even a nuclear cataclysm. Alas, my personal post-apocalyptic hell is closer to reality than you might suspect. CHD Expert, the worldwide leader in collecting, managing and analyzing food service industry data reports that the sacrosanct sandwich, one of America’s…

AlbuquerqueMediterraneanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Kabab House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Unlike New York City, Albuquerque might not ever truly be mistaken for “a cultural melting pot.”  Though numerous ethnicities are scattered throughout the city’s 189.5 square miles, some of their culinary cultures are vastly underrepresented (if at all represented) among the city’s restaurants. Not even in the International District–where you might feel as if you’re jumping from continent to continent as you take in mutually incomprehensible languages–will you find restaurants representing some of the world’s great culinary cultures.  As we’ve espied people draped in the traditional attire of their homelands assiduously scouring Talin Market’s shelves, we’ve often contemplated the dearth of such restaurants.  For gastronomes, one of the pleasures of eating out is experiencing unfamiliar foods and new flavors.  We…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Seafood

Salty Catch – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:24 PM

As children growing up in landlocked and agrarian Peñasco, my siblings and I led a very sheltered life. Our extremely provincial experience with “seafood” was limited to Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks which we dipped in Kraft’s sandwich spread (we didn’t know about tartar sauce) and (gasp, the horror) Mrs. Paul’s fried shrimp. Sure, we snared the legal limit (yeah, right) of German brown trout, cutthroat trout and rainbow trout in the cold, rocky waters of the mountain streams in our backyard, but that wasn’t “seafood.” That was fish! One commonality among the “seafood” and even the “fish” we experienced was that it was all fried. Okay, so the Mrs. Paul’s seafood was already breaded and fried when we removed it…

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Urbano Pasta Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:14 AM

“To break bread together,” a phrase as old as the Bible, captures the power of a meal to forge relationships, bury anger, provoke laughter.” ~The Joy of Food From National Geographic Sharing a meal creates a unique sense of intimacy felt by all who sit together at the table.  It’s an act that can spark new friendships, solidify lifetime bonds and serve as the backdrop for new memories.   Dining together is the most communal and binding action humans can take–an act The Atlantic describes  as “a quintessential human experience.”  It’s a universal act that transcends cultures, borders and geopolitical divides and it’s been practiced since the dawn of time.   Or at least for 300,000 years  according to archaeologists…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: Good

Dragon House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:20 PM

Admit it–every time you dine at a Chinese restaurant, you peruse the Chinese Zodiac paper placemats at your table describing the characteristics of people based on their birth year. Every new year of the lunar calendar is represented in Chinese mythology by one of twelve animals, only one of which is mythological. That would be the dragon. People born on the year of the dragon are considered very fortunate as presumably a long, happy life awaits those with a dragon birth year. So that you don’t have to look it up, the last six years of the dragon were 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964 and 1952. If you were born before 1952, simply subtract 12. Long before Hungarian Horntails, Swedish…

BurgersNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: Very Good

Bibo Bar & Grille – Bibo, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:52 AM

There’s an old Lebanese proverb that says, “some men build a wine cellar after only finding one grape.” That proverb aptly describes the many rags to riches success stories among Lebanese immigrants to the Land of Enchantment, primarily to our state’s northern villages. Some of New Mexico’s most prominent names in business–Maloof, Bellamah, Hanosh, Ghattas, Sahd and others–embody the spirit of that proverb. The progenitors of many of New Mexico’s Lebanese immigrants left Lebanon during the repressive Ottoman Empire, the main exodus occurring in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Escaping persecution and poverty, some arrived with nothing but aspirations, dreams and hopes. The frontier territory of New Mexico was replete with opportunity (and the prospect of freedom) for…

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Nena’s Food – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED*)

Gil Garduno11:39 AM

“The restaurant business, as I well know, ain’t no picnic. And in Mexico City, it’s particularly rough.” ~Anthony Bourdain NOTE:  Although its brick-and-mortar shuttered its doors in 2022, Nena’s Food now exists as a food truck.  You can find it parked “Somewhere in New Mexico.” With an urban area population of almost 22-million over a broad expanse of 573 square miles, Mexico City is the fifth most populous city in the world and the most heavily populated city in North America. Known as Distrito Federal, or the federal district, it is the country’s economic and cultural hub, as well as home to the offices of the federal government. A true megalopolis, Mexico City boasts of some 15,000 restaurants including two…

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Red or Green: New Mexico’s Food Scene Was On Fire in 2020

Gil Garduno8:01 AM

We’ll always remember 2020 as the year we mostly stayed home, the year of cancelled vacations, of working remotely and as the ignominious year of politics and pandemics, a “year of nonstop awfulness,” according to Dave Berry. It was the year so many our favorite restaurants and small businesses had to shutter their doors and those who didn’t close, struggled mightily to remain viable.    Despite restrictions and resets, we continued to support restaurant through take-out and delivery options enabled by locally-based technology solutions such as Selflane.  Some of us discovered inspired innovation in the form of mobile kitchens (that’s food truck to you, Bob) offering dining concepts not often found in brick-and-mortar establishments. 2020 was another banner year for…