{"id":432,"date":"2008-07-07T10:52:12","date_gmt":"2008-07-07T09:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?page_id=432"},"modified":"2009-12-21T13:15:51","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T19:15:51","slug":"dining-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?page_id=432","title":{"rendered":"Dining New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The A&W Burger Family in Lemitar, New Mexico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For nearly a quarter century, the most popular section in New Mexico Magazine<\/em> (the nation\u2019s oldest state magazine, by the way) has been a humorous column entitled \u201cOne of Our Fifty is Missing<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The column features anecdotes submitted by readers worldwide recounting their experiences with fellow American citizens and ill-informed bureaucrats who don\u2019t realize that New Mexico is part of the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some travelers from other states actually believe they\u2019re leaving their nation\u2019s borders when they cross into New Mexico.\u00a0 Others think they need a passport to visit (not that they\u2019d visit considering they\u2019re wary of drinking our water.)\u00a0 Merchants and banks throughout America have been known to reject as \u201cforeign credit cards\u201d American Express and Visa cards issued by New Mexico banking institutions. <\/span><\/p>\n

The realization that it\u2019s New Mexico, U.S.A. isn\u2019t lost solely on ordinary citizens and bureaucrats.\u00a0 Even modern pop culture has gotten into the act. <\/span><\/p>\n

During one episode of The Simpsons, the iconic Homer Simpson didn\u2019t know New Mexico existed until looking at a Krusty Burger map and exclaiming with surprise \u201cHey, there\u2019s a New Mexico.” \u00a0Homer\u2019s despotic boss, the Yale educated Mr. Burns wasn\u2019t much better: \u201cWhoa! Whoa! Slow down there mistro.\u00a0 There\u2019s a New Mexico?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The green chile cheeseburger at the Bobcat Bite is perhaps the very best in New Mexico.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only is there a New Mexico, it\u2019s being increasingly \u201cdiscovered\u201d by thousands of viewers who tune in to various shows on the Food Network.\u00a0 Hardly a week goes by without one of the network\u2019s gastronomic glitterati visiting the Land of Enchantment and salivating effusively at some culinary creation or another.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the Food Network which has uncovered New Mexico\u2019s gustatory gems.\u00a0 It\u2019s the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, GQ<\/em> magazine, Gourmet<\/em> magazine and dozens of other traditional media publications.\u00a0 Online, New Mexico\u2019s cuisine is frequently feted on the popular Roadfood Web site as well as on salon.com, epicurious.com and a wealth of other Web sites. <\/span><\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s cuisine has also achieved the pinnacle of achievement in the culinary world, garnering numerous awards from the prestigious James Beard Foundation. \u00a0In recent years, the \u201cOscars of food\u201d have been awarded to chefs, restaurants and cookbooks all from New Mexico.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not every mention of New Mexico\u2019s cuisine is \u201cpeppered\u201d with references to chile, the capsaicin blessed staple of New Mexico home and restaurant fare. <\/span><\/p>\n

It may surprise you to learn that an Italian restaurant (Trattoria Nostrani<\/span><\/a>) in Santa Fe was lauded by Gourmet<\/em> magazine as one of the 50 best restaurants in America or that the Food Network and epicurious.com selected as the best burger in the entire fruited plain, a burger crafted in a humble New Mexico caf\u00e9 (Bobcat Bite<\/span>) with seating for only 26.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The Bobcat Bite's hamburger steak with green chile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several other New Mexico restaurants have earned prestigious national accolades.\u00a0 A surprising number of them are nondescript mom and pop diners with little to offer in terms of ambience but which serve outstanding food (most of it not sophisticated enough to be called cuisine). <\/span><\/p>\n

Understandably many of New Mexico\u2019s best restaurants are concentrated in its most populous cities, but to limit your culinary exploration to those cities is to miss out on some of the very best restaurants anywhere\u2014many just off the \u201cwell eaten path.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay on the teeming tourist traversed areas, and you won\u2019t discover that some of the state\u2019s best New Mexican (El Bruno<\/span>) food can be found in Cuba (New Mexico)\u00a0 or that its best Cuban food (Tocororo Cafe<\/span>) might just be found in Madrid (also in New Mexico).\u00a0 You\u2019ll miss out on conceivably New Mexico\u2019s best Cajun food (Callie’s), which is served from a dilapidated mobile kitchen that looks like a rejected hippie bus (or a rusty roach coach on steroids). <\/span><\/p>\n

Within miles of one of the ten natural wonders of the world you\u2019ll find what is arguably the state\u2019s best barbecue and (gasp) until just a few years ago it was served at a Carlsbad Dairy Queen by an owner who took the term \u201cindependently owned\u201d to heart.\u00a0 Even though it\u2019s on a tourist trodden path, neither the Food Network nor the guidebooks have found this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Mexicans like me are a discerning and demanding lot when it comes to our disposable income and one of our favorite ways to spend our hard-earned money is by dining out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The fictional Maggie's from the movie Wild Hogs filmed in Madrid, New Mexico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fiscal 2003, New Mexicans spent $1.6 billion in eating and dining establishments.\u00a0 Considering the state\u2019s median household income is just over $30,000 a year, the Land of Enchantment\u2019s restaurants\u2014and not just those anointed \u201cbest of\u201d by the culinary cognoscenti\u2014have got to be pretty good to inspire such enthusiastic patronage. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before you check out my restaurant reviews, please review my rating system which explains how I arrive at my ratings.\u00a0 It’s not exactly scientific and I don’t take into account anyone else’s opinion of the restaurants in which we dine, not even the opinion of my faithful dining companion and wife Kim whose palate has matured tremendously over the years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Your opinions may certainly differ as there are no rights and wrongs in my ratings, just opinions–mine. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Bobcat Bite photos courtesy of my friend and colleague Andrea Lin<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For nearly a quarter century, the most popular section in New Mexico Magazine (the nation\u2019s oldest state magazine, by the way) has been a humorous column entitled \u201cOne of Our Fifty is Missing.\u201d\u00a0 The column features anecdotes submitted by readers worldwide recounting their experiences with fellow American citizens and ill-informed bureaucrats who don\u2019t realize that New Mexico is part of the United States. Some travelers from other states actually believe they\u2019re leaving their nation\u2019s borders when they cross into New Mexico.\u00a0 Others think they need a passport to visit (not that they\u2019d visit considering they\u2019re wary of drinking our water.)\u00a0 Merchants and banks throughout America have been known to reject as \u201cforeign credit cards\u201d American Express and Visa cards issued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-432","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDining New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?page_id=432\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dining New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For nearly a quarter century, the most popular section in New Mexico Magazine (the nation\u2019s oldest state magazine, by the way) has been a humorous column entitled \u201cOne of Our Fifty is Missing.\u201d\u00a0 The column features anecdotes submitted by readers worldwide recounting their experiences with fellow American citizens and ill-informed bureaucrats who don\u2019t realize that New Mexico is part of the United States. 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