Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog
Follow the Culinary Ruminations of New Mexico's Sesquipedalian Sybarite. 1,332 Restaurant Reviews, More Than 13,450 Visitor Comments…And Counting!
“”Vietnam. It grabs you and doesn’t let you go. Once you love it, you love it forever.” ~ Anthony Bourdain Most of us have never been to Vietnam. It’s possible, maybe likely, that most of us will never make it to Vietnam…at least not in a corporeal state. That’s an important distinction because for years, we’ve already been visiting Vietnam.…
“Eating slowly is good for the stomach; plowing deeply is good for the fields.” ~Vietnamese Proverb Imagine if the village of Hatch was granted a trademark that awarded it exclusive rights to the name “chile.” Imagine Hatch then taking legal recourse against Chimayo, Lemitar, Jarales, et al. to prevent them from using the term. Civil war would surely ensue. A…
Jim Millington, a long-time friend of this blog, contends that “there must be a bad Vietnamese restaurant somewhere on this wide earth but I have never found it.” If the Albuquerque metropolitan area is a microcosm of this wide Earth, Jim may just be right. Just ask Yelp reviewers, a blatantly honest bunch which doesn’t pull punches when expressing dissatisfaction…
It should have been a point-counterpoint debate for the ages. My ideologically opposed and perpetually squabbling friends Carlos and Hien were arguing about the concept of American exceptionalism. Carlos took the Reaganesque position that America is the shining city on a hill. “Everything about America is great,” he proclaimed. “We have the highest standard of living and pretty much the…
Though it ended in 1975, the Vietnam war was still very fresh in the minds of Americans when I enlisted in the Air Force two years later. Many of my senior colleagues had served in Vietnam and regaled me with tales of their adventures. It wasn’t man’s inhumanity to man they took away from the experience, but the goodness of…
To visit a restaurant review, simply click on the restaurant name below and you will be magically transported to that review. Restaurants rated “25″ or higher are noted in capital letters. American (41): | 66 Diner | Cafe Bleu | Cafe 6855 | Cafe Lush | Central Grill & Coffee House | Christy Mae’s Restaurant | Cinnamon Sugar & Spice…
Artistic plating, scintillating flavors, inspired creativity and ingenuity are hallmarks of Vietnamese cuisine which has taken the Duke City by storm. Jim Millington, a long-time friend of this blog, contends that “there must be a bad Vietnamese restaurant somewhere on this wide earth but I have never found it.” Frankly, I haven’t either with most Vietnamese restaurants ranging from very…
Louis De Guoy, author of The Soup Book wrote “There is nothing like a plate or a bowl of hot soup, it’s wisp of aromatic steam making the nostrils quiver with anticipation, to dispel the depressing effects of a grueling day at the office or the shop, rain or snow in the streets, or bad news in the papers.” Soup–whether…
GET TO KNOW NEW MEXICO’S MOST ICONIC RESTAURANTS: Lynn Cline describes the 25 classic New Mexico restaurant institutions featured in the May issue of New Mexico Magazine as “not just eateries–they’re living, breathing, cultural institutions.” She rhapsodizes further: “from roadside diners to downtown drive-ins, ancestral haciendas to mom-and-pop cafés, New Mexico’s iconic restaurants tell tales. For generations, these hot spots…
As the eldest of six, I had the wonderful blessing of having spent more time with our dad than my siblings did. Dad was the embodiment of the term “gentle man,” a patient mentor and nurturing exemplar of how to be a father and friend. During our many outings, dad always had the radio tuned to KDCE, “The Station That’s…
Before Al Gore invented the internet, it wasn’t easy for logophiles (lovers of words) like me to figure out what some words meant. “Lover of words,” in my case was an understatement. I was obsessed about learning every new word–its etymology (origin, definition and context, even what it used to mean) I came across. It’s a wonder my parents (both…
