Tag: Tres Leches Cake

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosMexicanRating: Excellent

Delicias Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:59 PM

There’s no denying the ever-increasing popularity of Mexican food across America, but it may surprise you to learn that in the estimation of some sources, it has supplanted Italian food as the favorite ethnic cuisine in the land. Marketplace, a nationally syndicated business oriented radio program with more than nine-million listeners a week, says there’s no bones about it, calling Mexican food “the most popular ethnic food in the U.S., bigger than Italian or Chinese.” Askmen.com confirms only that “Mexican has become one of the three most popular cuisines in the U.S., with nearly 90% of the total population having tasted it.” According to Marketplace, there are some 90,000 or so Mexican restaurants across the fruited plain. The loose categorization of “Mexican restaurants” not only includes our incomparable New Mexican cuisine and our neighboring state’s Tex-Mex, but such “Americanized” chains as Chipotle, Taco Bell and others of the ilk. Lest you become agitated that such Mexican “in name only” restaurants would be thrown in along with the authentic Mexican restaurants, the truth is that even among restaurants owned and operated by Mexican immigrants you’ll find pretenders serving less than authentic Mexican cuisine. Sometimes they do so to remain competitive in…

2003 James Beard Foundation (JBF) "Best Chef - Southwest" Winner2022 James Beard Foundation (JBF) Outstanding RestaurateurArizonaJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersPizzaRating: OutstandingUnited States

Pizzeria Bianco – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of pizza in America, Ed Levine, the creator/founder of Serious Eats,  ate nothing but pizza for an entire twelve month period, taking a representative pulse of the best from among thousands of pizza purveyors. His terrific tome, Pizza A Slice of Heaven, published in 2005,  provides a definitive guide to a much-loved product that in its elemental form is simplicity itself–bread, cheese and whatever toppings a pizzaioli artisan might care to add. To the surprise of many, Levine declared the best pizza in America (and the world, for that matter) to be made in the unlikely town of Phoenix, Arizona where the intensely brilliant Chris Bianco plies his trade as no other. Before a business trip to Phoenix in 2002, I also learned that a writer for Travel & Leisure magazine definitively proclaimed Pizzeria Bianco as “the best place in America for pizza.” I also found that in its 1998 edition, Zagat’s respondents rated Pizzeria Bianco the top restaurant in Phoenix with a lofty rating of 29. Despite these proclamations, I couldn’t accept that a pizza could possibly be that good. The impunity of all these blasphemers to place on the loftiest pedestal, a pizza…

Dog FriendlyLas CrucesNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

La Nueva Casita – Las Cruces, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Heading east on I-10 from Deming, we espied several billboards touting Las Cruces as “The Real New Mexico.”  Yeah, it’s a branding effort designed to attract more visitors to the City of Crosses, but there’s a lot of truth to the city’s official new slogan.  New Mexico’s second most populous city does have A LOT going for it.  For culture, weather, history, beauty and cuisine, it’s easy to build a case that Las Cruces may well be the real New Mexico.  That may especially be true about New Mexican food.  Every time we dine at a restaurant in the Las Cruces area, I extol the deliciousness, piquancy and authenticity of the food and lament the “dumbing down” of New Mexican cuisine in the Albuquerque area.  Mostly I lament that we don’t visit often enough. My friend Steve Coleman, an El Paso resident who shares his reviews on Steve’s Food Blog visits far more often.  I’ll admit to a bit of jealousy when I read his entertaining and thorough reviews.  That’s especially true when he visits New Mexican restaurants and indulges in red and green chile that actually bites back.  Most of it comes from area purveyors who  seem to send…

ItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Piccolino Italian Restaurant – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When I asked Gaby (our server Gabriela) what the Italian name “Piccolino” translates to, she didn’t have a clue.  She asked Olga Tarango-Jimenez, the restaurant’s co-owner who also seemed at a loss, but shared the restaurant’s very interesting history.  When my Kim Googled “Piccolino, she found it translates to “little one” and has such slang alternatives as “teeny weeny.”  Talk about a fitting name.  I joked with Gaby that if she ever called her diminutive in stature boss “teeny weeny” she’d probably find out her boss has a giant temper. Just how small is Piccolino?  Before its transmogrification into one of Santa Fe’s most popular Italian restaurants, its Liliputian digs housed a Church’s chicken and before that a gas station.  Piccolino is situated off the beaten just a few blocks north of heavily trafficked Cerrillos and a hair or two east of Siler.  Square footage not withstanding, Piccolino optimizes its space while still managing to provide better than personal space proximity.  Somehow it looks a whole lot larger when you marvel at all the “Best of Santa Fe” awards accorded by readers of The Santa Fe Reporter.  All but one of those certificates designate Piccolino as Santa Fe’s best Italian.…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastDog FriendlyMexicanNew MexicoRating: Very GoodTacos

Foodtopia – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When a restaurant with the curious name “Foodtopia” surfaced in 2022, long-suffering readers of Gil’s Thrilling… probably realized an etymology lesson would soon be in order.   If the suffix “topia” intrigued you as much as it did your grandiloquent blogger, hang on.  First, a review of what we all know.  Utopia is “a seemingly perfect society, one without flaws, where everyone is content and conflict and strife are unknown.”  One example of a Utopian society is the movie Zootopia in which animals live in harmony and lions sing kumbaya with antelope.  More common than movies about Utopian societies are movies and literature about dystopia, “societies that are either extremely chaotic or extremely authoritative, a hellish place where most people suffer.”  No, it’s not your place of employment, but rather something like Planet of the Apes or George Orwell’s 1984. The common element in these two opposite societal types is the suffix “topia,”  a Greek word meaning “a place with specified characteristics.”  An imaginary society with both good (Utopian) and bad (Dystopian) features might be called a “mixtopia.” Some posit an imaginary place where everything (especially the government) is as bad as it can be.  Fittingly, the term for this…