Belle’s Urban Deli – Corrales, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Father Mark Schultz, the charismatic former priest at the Holy Ghost Parish in Albuquerque used to joke that the reason Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays is not because there’s a shortage of cows. That’s certainly true. There is more beef on the hoof grazing on the Land of Enchantment’s green (and mostly brown) grass than there are tax-paying citizens.  That’s why it’s always puzzled me that sandwich restaurants in New Mexico are so chintzy with their meat portions. You’d think there really was a beef shortage (and a surfeit of bread and lettuce) considering many an Albuquerque restaurant sandwich is comprised of thin shards of meat buried under half a head of lettuce and enough…

Mulas – Corrales, New Mexico

How many times have you heard an elected official referred to as a “jackass?”  In the village of Corrales, that term could conceivably not be used as a pejorative.  Every year during the last weekend of the Corrales Harvest Festival, a pet mayor is named.  If the newly elected mayor is unable to fulfill his or her duties, a pet mayor pro tem is named to assume the duties of the mayoral office.  Corrales has long prided itself on being a paragon of democratic values and inclusivity though the winning candidate is usually a dog or a horse.  In 2022, the winning candidate was a peacock and in 2020, it was  Chip, a five month old miniature donkey. Unlike human…