Tag: Pistachio Baklava

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Anatolia Mediterranean – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As a bumpkinly but book-smart twenty-year-old away from home for the first time, I practically ached for adventure, something different… the antithesis of  my agrarian upbringing.  The Air Force accommodated me, sending me first to the cultural, culinary and cosmpolitan region around Boston, Massachusetts.  It was an illuminating experience which I thoroughly loved, but after two years my wandering soul wanted to experience even further away lands.  Though very open-minded, the only places not on my “dream sheet” of assignment preferences were Thule, Greenland; Shemya, Alaska; and the country of Turkey.  The latter was based on having seen Midnight Express (on a date, no less).  Though centered in a Turkish prison, the movie gave me a wholly inaccurate portrait of…

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Nora’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As a precocious sprout growing up in an agrarian hamlet in Northern New Mexico, I dreamt of travel and adventure.  My voracious reading habits included hours immersed in world book encyclopedias, world atlases and National Geographic magazines.   By my eighth birthday, I was creating maps of the world free-hand and knew more about history and our planet than most of my teachers.  I longed to visit and plunge myself in wonders and cultures that existed for me only in books.  My longing to experience the world outside of Peñasco was, in fact, the primary reason I joined the Air Force days out of high school.  While my service career did broaden my experiences, my desire to see and do even…

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Afghan Kebab House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The juxtoposition of beauty, humanity and tragedy may best be exemplified by a photographic portrait taken in 1984 that graced the cover of National Geographic.  Christened “Afghan Girl,” the photograph depicted Sharbat Gula, a 12-year-old Afghan refugee in Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan War.   Widely described as the “First World’s Third World Mona Lisa,” the image became a rallying cry for compassion among the Western world for the attrocities being committed in Afghanistan.  CNN called it the world’s most famous photograph.  A framed photograph of the green-eyed Afghan girl hangs prominently on one wall of Albuquerque’s Afghan House. Since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, more than four-million people have fled the violence and crossed over the border into neighboring…

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Al-qud’s Mediterranean Grill & Grocery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:54 AM

The St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Magdalena, New Mexico is adorned with ceramic statues, most familiar and easy to identify…at least for dyed-in-the-wool Catholics like me. After Sunday Mass one September, 2010 morning, we espied a statue of a saint clutching a curious implement to his chest. None of the parishioners we asked had any idea who the statue represented. Father Andy Pavlak, the parish vicar at the time, confirmed the statue depicted Saint Lawrence of Rome and the curious device he held was a gridiron, a metal grate used for grilling meat, fish, vegetables or any combination thereof. Father Pavlak went on to explain why Saint Lawrence clutched the gridiron. Saint Lawrence was one of seven deacons of…

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Habibi House – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

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 educators) didn’t put this precocious, pedantic child up for adoption. Dictionaries were of little help as their content was mostly limited to English words.  The Velazquez dictionary was helpful when I wanted to learn a new Spanish word, but that, too, was limiting.  Alas, no comprehensive resource seemed to exist to sate my curiosity. Here’s an example of my dilemma.  The…

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Al-quds Mediterranean Grill II – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The penultimate day of the 2023 International Balloon Fiesta will be memorable for many reasons.  Foremost may be the 2023 annular eclipse whose path took it directly above the Balloon Fiesta Park, host of the world’s largest ballooning event.  That day will be imprinted on our minds for another reason–our inaugural visit to Al-quds Mediterranean Grill in Rio Rancho.   The second instantiation of perhaps Albuquerque’s most popular Middle Eastern restaurant is located on The Village on Rio Rancho, a timeworn shopping center that flourished in the early 1990s when Intel’s Fab 4 was fully operational. Neither owner Mohammad Abdeljalil or his son were in Rio Rancho when we visited.  Our server wasn’t able to tell us whether or not…

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Haji Baba – Tempe, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Visiting Haji Baba one day before the end of Ramadan in 2022, I pondered the Muslim observation of the month-long period  when the faithful are encouraged to give to charity, strengthen their relationship with God and show kindness and patience. Observed during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar by Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community.  It dawned on me, a life-long Catholic, that not all “Papists” like me have the spiritual and physical stamina to refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset for an entire month.  I probably don’t.   That these thoughts came to mind when we were about to enjoy an exquisite repast wasn’t lost on me.  I thought…

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Al Alwan’s Cafe – Albuquerque New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“I hope I live long enough to see the children of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria wake up to the sounds of birds not bombs.” ~Gigi Hadid Historians believe the name Syria derives from the Ancient Greek word “Seirios,” meaning, “sun-bright, glowing, blazing, and shining.” In Latin the equivalent term “Sirius” was used not only to denote the brightest star in the night sky and most prominent star in the constellation Canis Major (the greater dog), but to indicate “people from Syria.”  Officially today, Syria is known as the Syrian Arab Republic.  Lying in the east coast of the Mediterranean in the Middle East region which boasts of the most ancient civilizations in the world, Syria has historically existed in…