Tag: Food Truck

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentTacos

Rio Tacos – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In May, Mexico City’s Tacos El Califa de León, in the downtrodden San Rafael neighborhood became the first Mexican taco stand to win a Michelin star.  One of the things that makes its selection remarkable is that the taqueria is the antithesis of most Michelin starred restaurants.  It’s not elegant and its tables aren’t set with immaculately pressed white linens.  There are no sterling place-settings or fine china.   Instead, the taqueria has no tables or seats.  It’s standing room only with space for only a handful of guests and a metal counter on which they can balance their plates. Fittingly, the taqueria is all about tacos.  There’s nothing else on the menu, only four options: bistec (seared steak), chuleta (thinly sliced pork chop), costilla (fork-tender beef) and the taqueria’s signature creation, the gaonera (whole steak).  These four proteins are sliced thinly, prepared with lard on a plancha (grill) and seasoned with coarse salt and a squeeze of lime.  While the chef is preparing each taco, handmade corn tortillas are being made alongside the grill.  It’s all prepared to order.  Tacos are served with your choice of two salsas. Michelin stars are a badge of honor, an honor coveted by…

BernalilloFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: Very GoodTacos

Sazon Con Amor – Bernalillo, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The Broadway musical Rent taught us that a year is comprised of “five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.”   Instead of measuring the length of a year “in daylights, sunsets, midnights, cups of coffee, inches, miles, laughter or strife,” Rent encouraged us to measure a year in life in seasons of love.  Not surprisingly, Seasons of Love (a song from the musical from which the italicized lyrics originated) came immediately to mind when we espied Sazon Con Amor, a food truck (that’s mobile kitchen to you, Bob) parked on Highway 550 in Bernalillo. Sazon Con Amor translates from Spanish to “Seasoning With Love,” but that was close enough to Rent’s definitive song to trigger a day-long earworm.  It also prompted me to ruminate on the many times chefs have expressed that the secret ingredient in their cooking is love, but until discovering Sazon Con Amor, we’ve never heard of any chef bragging about seasoning with love.  It’s not just semantics either.  Cookbooks refer to seasoning as “the herbs, spices and herb-spice mixes used during the preparation of food”  (by  contrast, condiments consist of ingredient combinations (often including spices) added by a diner at the point of consumption).  It would be…

AlbuquerqueItalianItalian IceNew Mexico

Pop Pop’s Italian Ice – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Legend has it that Roman Emperor Nero played the lyre or fiddle while the city of Rome was engulfed in flames.  From among a succession of emporers renowned for their erratic, cruel, or even psychotic behavior, Nero may have been the worst.  Notoriously cruel and  profligate, he arrested and tortured all the Christians in Rome, before executing them with lavish publicity. Some were crucified, some were thrown to wild animals and others were burned alive as living torches.  Nero didn’t even like his family, murdering his stepbrother, his wife, and his mother. Perhaps his most (maybe only) beneficient act was in popularizing a version of ice cream in the first century AD. According to another legend (Nero had a great publicist), the cruel emporer would send runners to the mountains to collect snow and ice which were then flavored with fruits and honey. This luxurious treat was served at his extravagant banquets.  Hmm, flavored snow and ice.  Doesn’t that sound like the progenitor of so many frozen treats enjoyed around the world over the millennia. Culinary history has it that one of those frozen treats, albeit one that’s misnamed, has its genesis in New Jersey.  That treat is Italian ice…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistBreakfast BurritosDog FriendlyFood TruckJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta FeTacos

El Chile Toreado – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.  Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches” or even worse “barf buggies.”  Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.  Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.  Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum. During the era of “convenience stores on wheels,” food trucks weren’t worried about building a brand.  Nor were they concerned with repeat business or customer loyalty. There was no such thing as social media at the time and there were no Yelp reviews. These unsightly vehicles (many with actual roaches in tow) were in business to serve a location for a short time period. After at construction job ended at one site, for example,  they would simply move onto the next profitable location and the process would continue.  These “convenience stores on wheels” served a purpose, but during…

Dog FriendlyFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Tio’s Kitchen – Bernalillo, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

I may not have much respect for the national media or for politicians, but I sure do respect the elderly (unless they’re members of the media or politicians).  My parents engendered among their six children, respect for our elders.  None of us would ever consider addressing an elder by their first name.  We would never use the pronoun “tu” (you) when speaking with someone older than us.  We always use “usted,” also a Spanish term for “you,” but used in a formal manner for people we respect and always for our elders.  We were raised with the type of respect for seniors that is practiced in India, Thailand, Somalia, Indonesia and other nations who venerate their elderly.   Being raised in Peñasco (which is within the confines of the Picuris Pueblo reservation), we witnessed respect for seniors quite often. Similar to the aforementioned nations, many Native American cultures across the fruited plain are exemplars in how to treat their elders.  In the Lakota culture, grandfathers are viewed as “the elders of the tribe and in many ways personify the sacredness of the goodness and wisdom of the Great Spirit. Grandfathers carry the spirit of the people. Grandmothers are even more…

Dog FriendlyFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentRio Rancho

No Te Rajes – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

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 All Heart” out of Espanola.  KDCE played the New Mexican and Mexican songs dad grew up with and loved.  Among his favorites (frequently on KDCE’s repertoire) was Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes by Jorge Negrete. It became one of my favorites, too. The song title made absolutely no sense to me because the term “rajes” comes from the verb “rajarse” which means to “crack” or “split.”  Dad explained that colloquially, “no te rajes” means “don’t back out” or “don’t chicken out.”  He assured me the song was basically a love song to the Mexican state of Jalisco.  He also told me it was the theme song to the 1941 Mexican movie of the same name, based on a novel by the same name.  If you think I’m a wealth of information, you should have met my dad, one of the…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyItalianNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Taste of Love – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

NOTE: Taste of Love is no longer at the 505 Central Food Hall.  Follow them on their Facebook page. Ask virtually every chef and home cook what the secret ingredient to good cooking is and invariably their answer will be “love.”  Or in the case of Jersey Shore actor Michael Sorrentino, “The secret ingredient to every meal is love. And also garlic.”  Be forewarned, however, divulging “love” as the secret ingredient to good cooking might just get you in hot water with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).   In 2017 the FDA reprimanded a bakery in Concord, Massachusetts for including the term “love” in its ingredient list for granola.  The over-reaching, humorless federal agency’s warning letter admonished: “Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient ‘Love.’ Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name. ‘Love’ is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient.” It’s a good thing the FDA isn’t responsible for determining if movies contain profane, indecent or obscene content.  Otherwise, a 2017 movie titled…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueFood TruckNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Rev’s BBQ – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

You might think that the food truck industry is an ultra-competitive dog-eat-dog business in which purveyors aren’t very gracious when discussing fellow food truck operators. Considering how they often jockey for a limited number of spaces in heavily trafficked events and vie for consumer attention and dollars, you would think they’d denigrate their brethren.  In an October 4th interview on the fabulous What’s Up Abq Podcast, Michael “Mighty Mike” Mondragon dispelled that notion.  Mike couldn’t have been more benignant about Albuquerque’s food truck scene, calling it a “community.”   He expressed tremendous admiration for both the owners and the food of Tikka Spice and Wing It Up (review pending), among others. When asked “if you’re not eating your own barbecue, where do you go in town,”  Mike waxed poetic about his friend Manuel “Rev” Duran.  Mike appreciated that Manuel, who “who just started doing his trailer part-time because he’s a postal worker”…”has some real good barbecue” and “does it for the love.”  Ironically, just a few days prior to listening to that interview, my friend Bill Resnik had raved to me about Rev’s brisket, calling it “the best I’ve ever had.”  Over the years Bill and I have shared barbecue in Phoenix,…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2022Dog FriendlyFood TruckGone But Not ForgottenMediterraneanMiddle EasternNew Mexico

Mediterranean Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A few years ago if you told some of us we should follow a Mediterranean diet, we probably would have salivated at the prospect of having pizza and wine every day though we would have wondered how we could possibly lose weight on such an indulgent diet.  Today, the Mediterranean diet is widely recognized by dieticians as one of the most heart-healthy ways to eat.  Moreover, studies consistently show that a diet adhering to the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet is one associated with longevity. In truth there is no one standard Mediterranean diet.  In fact, the term is rather generic and is based on the traditional eating habits of the sixteen or so countries which border the Mediterranean Sea.  Because of differences in culture, agricultural production, ethnic background, religion, economy and geography, eating styles vary among those countries and even among regions within each country.  There are, however, some commonalities. A Mediterranean-style diet typically includes olive oil as the primary source of fat; fruits, vegetables, bread and other grains, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds in abundance; and only moderate amounts of dairy products, eggs, fish and poultry.  There is very little red meat in this diet and plant-based…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2023Food TruckGone But Not ForgottenMiddle EasternNew Mexico

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, very gregarious gentleman who couldn’t wait to tell us about his food truck.  Talking a mile a minute with the unfettered enthusiasm of a child at Christmas, he raved about his truck’s menu.  Yes, it would have been far too easy to be judgmental, but what a mistake that would have been. A quote from French emperor and brilliant military strategist Napoleon Bonaparte now comes to mind and it has nothing to do with an enemy’s tendencies in battle.  That…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueFood TruckIndianJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Tikka Spice – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:51 PM

“Fly once more like you did before, Sing a new song chicken tikka!” ~Chiquitita Misheard Lyrics You might think by virtue of my name and then gangling gait, school mates at St. Anthony’s in Penasco would have tagged me with the nickname “Gilligan.”  Instead, because I was considered a bit of a brainiac prone to sesquipedalian lexicon, my nickname was “The Professor.”  It was a sobriquet worn like a badge of honor.  Professor Roy Hinkley was my hero, a brilliant scientist marooned on an uncharted desert isle with six other stranded castaways.  The Professor built such cool gadgets as a Geiger counter, lie detector, battery charger and much more…usually with coconut shells, wire and papaya seeds.   The Professor, in fact, built almost everything the castaways needed to ensure their comfort and safety (including phones, lights and rudimentary pedal-powered motor cars).  The only thing he couldn’t figure out was a way to patch the U.S.S. Minnow to effect an escape from the tropical island nest.  Considering my frustrations at not being able to prepare Indian food, I wonder if The Professor would have been able to master that confoundingly complex art.  Scratch that!  Anyone who’s able to make nitroglycerine from…