GASTRONORMOUS

I went to Santa Fe weekend before last for a family reunion (The Hubs family) and also to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Santa Fe is a truly special place (it is The City Different, as they say), and if you haven’t been, I highly recommend you add a new folder to your “places to visit” file.

We happened to be there for the annual Fiesta, which started out with the burning of Zozobra, or Old Man Gloom. The ol’ sourpuss is pictured here, pre- (left) and during-burning (below).

The next morning, unburdened of all the accumulated gloom of the last year (of which, for me, happily there wasn’t much!), we went down to the historic Plaza where there were all sorts of food and craft booths set up. We ate lunch at a restaurant that is popular with local and tourists alike, The Shed. If you want to make like a local, ask for a fried egg on top of your enchiladas. I swear you will impress the waiter with your Santa Fe savoir faire. Unlike the other New Mexican restaurants around town, the shed serves garlic bread with every meal (in place of sopaipillas), which is great for sopping up their delicious red chile sauce (which is also available for purchase there for $7.95 for a 16 oz. jar).

You don’t need me to tell you that Santa Fe has a lot going for it, but the many muy delicioso New Mexican food restaurants might just be what I appreciate the most! I have bemoaned the lack of good Mexican food in New York before. One of my chief complaints is that not many places here get enchilada sauce right. Most places in NYC put a bright red tomato sauce on enchiladas, which, I dunno, may be authentic in some part of Central or South America, but every enchilada I ever had growing up in California is red- or green-chile-based (or maybe tomatillo). The same goes doubly in New Mexico, where people take their chile seriously, and the sauce goes on almost everything, not just enchiladas.

I have never had a bad chile in Santa Fe. I like a really hot chile, and if you do too, then I would recommend to you Guadalupe Cafe or Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen, which are two of my favorite restaurants there (though I hasten to add that there are so many places that I, a relative new comer to Santa Fe, have not yet tried). Their chile is not for the faint of heart, but their food is delicious.

In between reunion activities, we made it back down to the Plaza for the children and pet parade, which was totally hysterical. Afterward, we grabbed some food and beverages from some of the food stands. The Hubs and I shared a Navajo taco that was just okay. It didn’t have much flavor and isn’t worthy of much discussion or a photo here. I had a yummy papaya agua fresca, though, and The Hubs had a young coconut juice served en coque, and presented with this awesome parrot and pom-pom straw. Much to my disappointment, the Hubs “accidentally” tore the frou off the straw soon after I took the picture. He described the drink as “pungent” which I took to connote badness, but after I tasted it I knew what he meant. It was the most intensely coconuty coconut-flavored anything I have ever had. More coconuty than coconut. It is hard to explain. But try one some time.

The trip to Santa Fe was too short and I left, as I always do, longing to return. And this time, with a renewed and vigorous desire to move there. Some day!