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AlbuquerqueThai

Thai Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:39 PM

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare Contrary to the Bard of Avon’s most famous sonnet, what something is named does matter. It matters at least as much as what it is. Some would say, in fact, that a name is everything. If a steak restaurant was named Rotted Meat, it’s unlikely it would entice enough diners (much less pedantic critics) to ever discover it serves four-star gourmet quality cuisine. Diners would stay away in droves and those intrepid enough to visit would likely find the…

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Matanza New Mexico Local Craft Beer Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:01 PM

“At school, whenever I heard the word matanza, hog butchering, My face warmed up with joy and my heart beat a happy sound. It was a heavenly time for me. Images of sizzling chicharrones, crisp, meaty cracklings and Fresh, oven-baked morcillas, made my mouth water.” ~Hoe, Heaven and Hell by Dr. Nasario Garcia For young boys growing up in rural New Mexico in the 60s, one of the rites of passage signifying our transition from childhood to young adulthood was being asked to participate in the matanza. As one in a succession of life’s progressions, working a matanza was an…

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Desert Valley Brewing – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:01 AM

Every time a new brewery launches in the Duke City, aficionados of quaffing ales, lagers and stouts celebrate another venue where they can slake their thirsts. The media, on the other hand, always seems to ask one question: “Is Albuquerque approaching a “saturation point?,” meaning can the market sustain another brewery. Cerevisaphiles will tell you this is just an alarmist “sky is falling” media seeing the (beer) glass overfull and creating yet another sensational headline. In any event, the answer seems to be a resounding no. In that respect, Duke City brewing trends mirror those of other cities throughout the…

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Kolache Factory – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“If security could ever have a smell, it would be the fragrance of a warm Kolache.” ~Willa Cather When you marry someone, you don’t just acquire a new spouse. You inherit an entire family of individuals with all their personality quirks, foibles and eccentricities. For me, “Big Fat Irish-Swedish-New Mexican Wedding” quickly morphed into “Home Alone” with me in the role of Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). In all fairness, I only felt alone among my in-laws when discussions about where to have dinner came up. My in-laws’ reactions to some of my dinner suggestions (Vietnamese, Korean, Basque) were similar to…

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Pho Lao – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:52 AM

One definition of audacity is “the state of being bold or daring—particularly with disregard for danger, rudeness or pressure.” Audacity is nine-year-old fourth grader Akilan Sankaran (son of my friend Sridevi) unflinchingly spelling such words as “rejoneador” and “mnemonic” to win the New Mexico Spelling bee over eighth graders who’d participated in the annual event as many as six times. Audacity is a miniature dachshund protecting its family from the menacing mailman who dares trespass daily into the family’s territory. Audacity is Homer Simpson eating fugu, a blowfish which can be toxic if not properly sliced. It may not be…

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Counter Culture Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:21 PM

Counterculture. Growing up in rural Taos County four decades ago, I don’t know how many of us understood that the cultural and political upheaval of the big cities had moved into our isolated corner of the world. All we knew was that these unkempt and unwashed interlopers preaching free love and practicing it in communes had invaded our idyllic agrarian communities and shocked our quiet, small town sensibilities. They rode around in psychedelic school buses and wore multi-colored smocks. The men among them wore their hair as long as their women. More shocking was how these strangers walked around unabashedly…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenLatin AmericanMexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Maya – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:09 PM

My precocious niece doesn’t miss a beat. Ever attentive to adult conversation, she often stumps my brother and me with her surprisingly deep and thought-provoking questions. Case in point, when she overheard me telling my brother Mario about the Mesoamerican-inspired cuisine at Maya, she asked what I have against Americans. Perplexed by her assertion, I gently asked what she was talking about. “First you said Americans are ugly (obviously remembering a discussion Mario and I once had about the “ugly American syndrome”) and now you’re calling them messy, too.” From the mouth of babes… Her comment got me thinking about…

AlbuquerqueGreekNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Olympia Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:41 PM

For culinary diversity, it’s hard to beat the University of New Mexico (UNM) area in which restaurants with a broad socioeconomic appeal are congregated. Aside from academic enrichment, this area is nurturing a refreshing open-mindedness toward the cuisines of the world. That seems to be a commonality in areas within easy walking distance of large urban universities. Perhaps restaurateurs recognize that students–especially the oft-maligned millennials–are not only willing to open up their minds to new knowledge, but their wallets and their minds to new culinary experiences. The UNM area inaugurated many of us from rural parts of the state to…

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Sauce Pizza & Wine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of pizza in America, James Beard Award-winning food writer Ed Levine ate nothing but pizza for an entire twelve month period, taking a representative pulse of the best from among thousands of pizza purveyors. His terrific tome, Pizza A Slice of Heaven, published in 2010, provides a definitive guide to a beloved staple that in its elemental form is simplicity itself–bread, cheese and whatever toppings a pizzaioli artisan might care to add. To the surprise of cognoscenti and plebeian alike, Levine declared the best pizza in the fruited plain (and the world, for that…

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Fresh Bistro – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:15 PM

“Life is similar to a bus ride. The journey begins when we board the bus. We meet people along our way of which some are strangers, some friends and some strangers yet to be friends.” ~Chirag Tulsiani NOTE: In August, 2018, Fresh Bistro moved in with its younger sibling ABQ BBQ, essentially relocating to the same complex at 7520 4th Street, N.W.  You’ll still find several popular menu items from Fresh, especially on weekends when the fabulous Fresh brunch menu is served. Perhaps no mobile conveyance in the Land of Enchantment has ferried as many interesting people on as many…

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Marley’s Barbecue – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:00 PM

“In Central Texas, Barbecue is more than a way to cook meat – it’s a way of life, a path to salvation, and a sure-fire way to start an argument at the dinner table.” ~Central Texas Barbecue Texans hold certain truths to be self-evident: everything is bigger (and better) in Texas, the Dallas Cowboys are America’s team (who can argue with that?), George Strait is the king of country music, Nolan Ryan was the greatest baseball pitcher who ever lived and the best barbecue in the universe is pit-smoked along the Central Texas Barbecue Belt. Although Texas may be “like…