Sumptuous Santa Fe

Red and green chilies, blue corn tortillas, pink adobe—Santa Fe New Mexico is a very colorful place.  This town is packed with local art, culture, and flavor to match.  Our stay in this mountain art city began to pique our curiosity for southwestern art and flavor, and satisfied our long-standing craving for hot and heady New Mexico green chilies (and red ones, too)!

The architecture, art, and pottery in Santa Fe is elegant and distinct, the colors are unabashedly bright and fun, and the flavors are bold and spicy.  All these things are firmly grounded in New Mexican tradition, and the awareness of Native American culture here is very strong and it permeates every aspect of the city.

Santa Fe is a city of adobe.  Lumpy structures of reddish earth seem to rise naturally, straight out of the ground.  The work of man is more apparent in the carefully tapered beams that poke out of the buildings at right angles and regular intervals, casting shadows that rarely conform to the clean right angles of the Santa Fe architecture.

As we explored Santa Fe’s many ceramic shops we learned that traditional southwestern pottery is always coil-built from local clay, and that pots made by different southwestern Native American tribes have distinct aesthetic styles.  We also learned that this pottery was to expensive for us to buy!

Also important to Santa Fe’s is the amazing restaurants.  A tip from a friend led us to two of Santa Fe’s most beloved and established restaurants—Pink Adobe and The Shed.

The Pink Adobe restaurant was established in 1944 by Rosalea Murphy, a New Orleans native.  She began serving New Mexican food alongside southern classics of her hometown.  This combination resulted in a unique restaurant that quickly became a beloved part of Santa Fe’s culture and often referred to as just “The Pink.”  Later, in the 1970’s Pink Adobe opened the adjacent Dragon Bar which was named after the dragon carvings of the bar’s heavy wooden doors.

Amanda and I chose to eat in the Dragon Bar.  Inside, local art adorned the walls of this cavernous and cozy bar and a tree even grew from floor to ceiling, extending through the roof!  When choosing what to drink one option seemed obvious—Margaritas!

One Margarita fit with the theme of The Pink Adobe and was tinted pink with a splash of cranberry and kissed with Gran Gala orange liqueur.   Our other Margarita was simple and sophisticated with fresh lime, Cointreau orange liqueur, and smooth tequila.

We took our time sipping our colorful drinks and eventually ordered an appetizer of tortilla chips and three dips.  Guacamole, melted queso (cheese), and smoked corn salsa dips delighted us with rich, fresh, and spicy flavors.

After spending some time watching baseball on the bar television and chatting with the bartender we ordered our main courses.  Amanda had a chile reilleno and I couldn’t resist their green chile cheeseburger.

The gametes are placed in an incubator to allow cialis canadian fertilization to occur. The chile relleno was a big, deep green, spicy Poblano chile stuffed with black beans and corn, coated and fried with blue cornmeal, and served with a goat cheese Romesco sauce made with roasted red peppers.  We enjoyed the different textures and bold flavors of this colorful version of a classic Mexican dish.

I had been craving a green chile cheeseburger since crossing the border into New Mexico and I was excited to finally indulge.  This would have been a great burger even without the green chiles—good beef with a robust charred aroma, a soft and toasty English muffin bun (my favorite), and fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and onion.

The green chile relish made this burger exceptional, adding a steady and restrained heat while providing a silky texture and an enchanting aroma that boosted up the flavors in the burger without overpowering them.

After dinner we drove up into the mountains to our beautiful streamside campsite.  The temperature was about 15 degrees cooler at this high altitude and the brisk air smelled fresh and crisp.  We fell asleep to the sound of the running mountain stream near out tent.

The following day we returned to downtown Santa Fe for lunch.  A colorful sign directed us into the courtyard of another Santa Fe landmark restaurant—The Shed. A short, multi-colored doorway opened into the large and bustling restaurant.  Late fall sunshine poured through The Shed’s many skylights, filling the colorful dining rooms and hallways of the restaurant with light.

The Shed served classic New Mexican food loaded with plenty of stewed green and red chiles.  To start, Amanda and I shared an appetizer of marinated, grilled shrimp served with a spicy cocktail sauce.  Hot and sour, sweet and fresh, the shrimp was a light and flavorful introduction to the fiery faire that New Mexicans love.

Also for appetizer, I sampled another New Mexico favorite, green chile stew.  This stew was made from New Mexican green chiles and lean pork, and it was hot! Many of the green chile seeds were suspended in the stew accounting for the blistering heat, and I loved every bite.  The pork used to make this stew was cooked until tender, adding a rich, sticky texture to the silky stew.

For our main course we shared a generous plate of chicken enchiladas with red and green chile sauces.  Blue corn tortillas enveloped moist chicken, onions, and mild white cheese. The enchiladas were smothered with the brightly colored sauces, tender beans, and plump kernels of hominy.

The green chile sauce was sharp and hot with a thin, almost watery consistency but the bold flavor was anything but watered-down.  The red chile was full flavored as well, with lots of bright chile flavor, raw heat, and the shocking red color from the dried New Mexico red chiles.

Santa Fe has an unmistakable look, feel, and flavor that is grounded in tradition and uniquely funky, too.  The architecture, art, pottery, and food speaks of the strong native culture here and it is beautiful to see and perhaps even more delicious to taste!