On my first night in Albuquerque (Thursday) I had the most tasty Chicken Green Chile burrito from a street cart vendor. I don't know why, but push-cart food gets a bad rap--I guess I must have good luck or poor taste--but I seem to find some of the best food from the small, local vendors. Here you can see my traveling companion, MWS (Stiffler), purchasing his dinner from the same cart:
Day Two (Friday). With the strong recommendations of fellow listers on the ASFS (Association for the Study of Food and Society) listserv, Stiffler and I went to Frontier Restaurant
for fresh flour tortilla, baked in-house, which were absolutely wonderful...soft...pillowy...warm...delicious:
The tortilla were the perfect vehicle to deliver the flavors of the Southwest. Here is my combo plate with beans, rice, shredded beef taco, chicken enchilada, and tamale smothered with Green chile stew (Stiffler commented the food was so good he did not want to eat it, because then it would be gone): 
Day Three (Saturday): Started off with a solo trip to the downtown farmers market for breakfast. The first course was a breakfast burrito with green chile--which was delicious--and I'm not a big fan of breakfast burritos. I ordered one with egg, jack cheese, hash browns, and fire-roasted green chile. From there, I progressed to an beef and potato empanada, samples of sweet potato pie (I bought one for later), BBQ sauce, and some of the best organic raspberry jam I have ever tasted from Heidi's Raspberry Farm.I bought a jar of the Red Chile Raspberry and a jar of the Red Chile Ginger Raspberry jams. Like I said, it is some of the best I have ever tasted. The raspberry flavor is bright and vibrant, it is not muddled with too much sweetness, then there is the heat lingering in the background, with a subtle hint ginger. These are ADULT jams if there is such a thing.
Red chile is also available. Here is a dried red chile ristra for sale by the same vendor who is roasting the fresh Hatch Green Chile: 
Which brings me up to the sweet scent of green chile being roasted at the market. The Hatch Green Chile are still in season and available at the market: 
The Chile are loaded into the roaster, a propane flame is ignited toward the rear of the roaster, and the operator carefully turns the roaster for five-to-seven minutes until the chile blister: 
The Chile are then loaded into plastic bags to sweat, which makes for easier removal of the skins:
Also available at the Albuquerque farmers market, prickly pears, which taste a lot better than their texture would suggest:
I picked up a bag of new crop pintos:
Which brings me up to the sweet scent of green chile being roasted at the market. The Hatch Green Chile are still in season and available at the market: The Chile are loaded into the roaster, a propane flame is ignited toward the rear of the roaster, and the operator carefully turns the roaster for five-to-seven minutes until the chile blister: The Chile are then loaded into plastic bags to sweat, which makes for easier removal of the skins:Also available at the Albuquerque farmers market, prickly pears, which taste a lot better than their texture would suggest:I picked up a bag of new crop pintos:Stiffler rejoined me around 11:00AM and we ventured off to Old Town Albuquerque, where we enjoyed the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this 300 year old village:
He bought a turquoise ring set in silver for J. Notice Stiffler in blue shirt toward the center of the frame: 
He bought a turquoise ring set in silver for J. Notice Stiffler in blue shirt toward the center of the frame: 
We ate lunch in old town and were both underwhelmed, so no pictures are going to be posted here, but the sopapillia were fresh, hot, and delicious with honey:
I also bought some Chocolate Red Chile Fudge, White Chocolate Red Chile Fudge, Piñon Toffee, and a Piñon Nut Roll from the Candy Lady: 
The trip was more of a straight-line wind than a relaxing retreat in the Southwest, but when one is conferencing, that is what is expected. Day four started early, much earlier than I would have liked, but I did get to capture an image that many undergraduates, and probably many of their professors, rarely see, the sunRISE:
3 comments:
Cool pictures. Some of my friends went to Albuquerque last year, with all my birth family finding travels I wasn't able to go with them but it sounds like a really neat place.
Thanks for coming to my defense Nathan. Things are nastier than you know around here. Election day can't come soon enough. I just posted about things much happier than politics. Lots of fun pictures from when Gina was in town so check it out.
interesting how we read things differently. I was assuming when they said that statement that they assumed I would pull my children out of the schools if they teach about it in schools. See THIS is why people need to talk about things because you and I have a totally different take on the comment. Thanks for the other viewpoint.
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