Tag: Daily Specials

AlbuquerqueAmericanBetter Call SaulBreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Java Joe’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:17 PM

“I hate chile powder.” ~Tuco Salamanca Breaking Bad, Season 2 Duty-bound to make himself available to the citizenry of the fledgling United States, newly elected president George Washington spent the night in so many private homes and inns that “George Washington Slept Here” remains a real estate cliché and tourist draw centuries later. Perhaps the closest similarly celebrated landmarks in the Albuquerque metropolitan area are the filming sites for the 16-time Emmy Award-winning television series Breaking Bad. Never mind that Albuquerque recently celebrated its Tercentennial–three hundred years of history. History is not what visitors want to see. They want to see the Duke City of Breaking Bad. Albuquerque, which itself became a character in Breaking Bad, is the home of Walter White, the down-and-out chemistry teacher who metamorphosed into “Heisenberg,” the city’s meth kingpin. Five years after the series ended, pilgrimages to every Breaking Bad filming location remain a popular draw. During my inaugural visit to Downtown Java Joe’s, a number of tourists, not all of them millennials, were snapping selfies in front of the east wall where a towering graffiti-inspired tribute to city life dominates. One of them exclaimed “this used to be Tuco’s lair.” Another chimed in, “yeah,…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistFine DiningJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: OutstandingTaos County

THE LOVE APPLE – Taos, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

If the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century had had its way, the tomato might not be a ubiquitous ingredient in the cooking of many cultures today. So, just what is it about the seemingly innocuous tomato that once earned it a scurrilous reputation in the Church, the type of reputation which made it the Paris Hilton of the nightshade family? Brought to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors, it was initially viewed with apprehension, thought not to be edible but purely decorative–and poisonous. Leave it to the French to change that perception by ascribing aphrodisiac properties to what they called pomme d’amour or love apple. This prompted the Roman Catholic Church of the time to declare the tomato the “fruit of the devil,” a sinful indulgence. >The scandalous tomato, its sensuous red color and sweet-tangy flesh spurting with red juiciness, was even believed to be the fruit Eve offered to Adam. Because of its role in original sin, the Church believed the tomato to have been cast off to the furthest reaches of man (the new world), where it could no longer be the tempting source of transgression (sins of the flesh).  Leave it to the Spanish explorers to…