the rest of new mexico = mostly disappointing meals

We had a reservation at Cafe Pasquale's but wound up canceling it. I just wasn't in the mood to spend that much money. The prices seemed a little outrageous to me - a plate of garlic fries for $11, a filet mignon for $39. The cheapest option is a veggie Thai green curry for $21. So we headed to The Famous Plaza Cafe, which is basically a diner with a Southwestern twist. We stared with chips and a trio of salsas and the three bean house salad, which also came with carrots, beets and jicama.

Salsa verde, salsa rojas and pico de gallo.

Dan's steak and enchiladas. I think he liked the enchiladas ok, but the steak was pretty terrible. It was tough and chewy and mostly inedible.

My carnitas platon with chile slathered on Christmas-style. Also underwhelming. The pork tasted like it was marinated in ketchup. Our entrees came out moments after our starters and we were seated by an a/c vent so our food cooled off before we knew it.

These sopapillas were really good though. Hot fried dough rarely disappoints. Squirt bottles of honey were available at all tables and made for a great accompaniment.

On our way to Texas, we stopped at Pete's Cafe in Belen, NM. We had high, high hopes for this institution which turned out to be a big dud. Dan's chicken enchilada's were dry and lacking in flavor.

My queso was even worse. It tasted like Play-Doh. What a shame. Honestly, it might have been the worst I've ever had. It mostly went untouched and I never ever leave even a drop of queso behind.

After sliding down sand dunes at the White Sands Monument, we settled in at the very comfortable and charming Hacienda De Mi Madre bed and breakfast in Tularosa. Tularosa is one sleepy town and a place where the restaurants shut down at 8pm. This made for very limited dinner options. I won't even say where we ate, but it was a chain and one we've eaten at on an entirely different continent. The next morning, we had a big breakfast waiting for us: eggs, bacon, fresh fruit salad, apple pancakes and homemade biscuits. Yum. If you're ever in the area, this is a recommended place to stay. We had an ensuite room, with the biggest bathroom ever. No tv or internet, but it was only for a night. There was a small pot of homemade strawberry spice jam waiting for us on the nightstand and upon checkout, we got some kettle corn courtesy of the gift shop down the street.

After eating, we sat outside for a bit and saw a ton of hummingbirds. I couldn't stop staring at them. The B&B also had a fig tree in the backyard, this one I found especially cute.

green chile in new mexico pt 2 - burger vs. burger

Hmmm, we're in Santa Fe. What should we eat? Green chile cheeseburgers of course! We first tried Bert's Burger Bowl, which was a stone's throw from our hotel. These guys opened their doors in 1954 and claim to have invented this burger.

Dan manages to smile even though he is not happy with me making him pose in front of the joint.

We both ordered the house specialty and I got onion rings on the side and a lime coke to wash it all down. The mister got fries and a cherry coke. The patty was on the thin side and adorned with cheese, green chile, onions, pickle and mustard. There were no tomatoes due to the salmonella scare. I think they had a sign up explaining this.

Here's a shot of the lovely couple. The onion rings were awesome, perfectly crisp with a good balance of batter and onion. I just wish there were more than 6-7 to an order. The fries left much to be desired and it kills me to say this because Bert's is such an institution, but the burger did not live up to the hype either. The patty was overcooked and not moist at all.

But those onion rings!!!

The following day, on our way out of town to El Paso, we tried the Bobcat Bite, which is on the Old Las Vegas Highway (once a part of the old Route 66). I can't recall where I first heard about this place, but I've been dreaming about this burger for a long time. It's run by a husband and wife team, and on this afternoon, a person who I imagine is their son was working there as well.

Again, we opted for the green chile cheeseburgers, cooked medium. Instead of chips, we split an order of home fries. Everything was cooked to order and we got there during a brisk lunch service, so had a little wait for our food. We ordered the home fries extra crispy and they came out as such. My only issue was that once again, I tasted "butter flavored something." I don't know if it was oil or margarine, but in this case, at least the potato seasoning helped to overcome that strange flavor.

This is an entirely different beast than Bert's burger. The burger is 10 ounces of meat (ground daily in-house!) and the patty alone is probably thicker than a Bert's patty plus bun. On the side were a couple pieces of crisp green leaf lettuce and two slices of bright red plum tomatoes.

The cross section reveals a perfectly cooked medium burger. This thing was oozing juices and the heft of the meat completely crushed the bottom bun. I liked the use of white American cheese over standard issue orange. It was almost a perfect burger... The meat was a little underseasoned; an extra dash of salt and pepper would have made for a knock your socks off burger. Even so, it was still a very, very, very good burger. I managed to finish it, though that last bite was really tough.

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.