green chile in new mexico pt. 1 - enchiladas and eggs

Green chile is EVERYWHERE in New Mexico. Our first taste came in Albuquerque, at the Frontier Restaurant, a dive-y institution that sits right across the street from the University of New Mexico. We originally wanted to head to Monte Carlo Liquors and Steakhouse, but they were unfortunately closed on Sundays.

I got an order of the green chile stew, which had a really fierce heat level. It was a lot hotter than I expected. The stew had chunks of vegetables like potatoes and little nobs of ground pork. I also got a little side salad, which was pretty basic, but had a sprinkling of sunflower seeds which lent a saltiness and nutty crunch to each bite.

Accompanying my food were warm and fluffy homemade flour tortillas.

Dan got a half order of chicken enchiladas with green chile. It was pretty substantial and again, really, really firey. To wash things down, we ordered the intriguing sounding "raspberry rush" which turned out to be really bad, overly sweet raspberry flavored lemonade.

Exterior shot of the Frontier, established 1971. Afterwards, we drove over to Isotopes Park to watch the home team take on the Triple-A affiliate of the Mets, the New Orleans Zephyrs. Instead of spending the night in Albuquerque, we drove back north to Santa Fe.

Our first meal in Santa Fe was breakfast at Tia Sophia, just a few blocks from our hotel. I went with a breakfast burrito smothered in what else, but green chile. Tia Sophia's green chile was milder than the Frontier's, probably a good thing for our stomachs.

The insides reveal a carb love fest of has browns and bacon.

Dan ordered the huevos rancheros with blue corn tortillas. My dish was better so I shared. He asked for his eggs over medium, but they came out more like over easy and the entire dish turned into a runny mess. Also, it wasn't apparent from my food since everything was mushed together into a salty, cruncy, chile covered, delicious mess, but his potatoes tasted like they were fried in some sort of fake butter or butter flavored oil. I was not into the taste and much to my chagrin, it would be a recurring theme in Santa Fe.