New Mexico’s cuisine places a regional emphasis on the native red and green chile peppers in the preparation of dishes. The cooking is influenced by Mexican, Spanish, and Native American traditions.
Those eating at restaurants in the state frequently are asked if they prefer red or green chile with their meal. To select both, as many locals in the Southwest do, is opting for the so-called “Christmas” choice.
As author Cynthia Detterick-Pineda wrote in “The Heart and Soul of Southwest Cooking” for What’s Cooking America: “Cooking in New Mexico is probably best associated with the chilies grown there. Jalapeños are not often the pepper of choice when it comes to New Mexican cooking, it is instead the long green variety. Two areas of the state well known for their peppers are Hatch in the South Central region and Chimayo a small village tucked away in Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe.”
Differentiating New Mexico cuisine from Tex-Mex
The New Mexico chile helps to distinguish the food from the Tex-Mex style of Mexican-American cooking found in Texas and parts of Arizona that has tended more to make Mexican and Spanish dishes appeal to American tastes, such as what is commonly served at Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants where food is prepared in full view of patrons.
Chile in New Mexico finds its way into cheeseburgers, red chile-drenched Frito pies, macaroni and cheese, bagels, pizza, green chile stew, chile rellenos with roasted fresh green Anaheim or poblano chile peppers, enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos, blue-corn tacos, menudo soup that is also stewed for hours with garlic and other spices, and the vegetable dish calabacitas.
Some other favored examples of New Mexico cuisine include:
- Albondigas soup - Meatball soup that can be served as main course that can have chopped mint leaves in the meatballs
- Carne Adovado - Traditional pork dish in adobo sauce
- Chalupas - Form of tostada platter made by pressing a thin layer of masa dough around the outside of a small mold and then deep frying it to produce a crisp shallow corn cup
- Chicharrones - Made with different cuts of pork or meat
- Posole - Spicy corn stew hominy dish that is known as a ceremonial food for celebrations
- Tamales- Another celebratory food for feast days, holidays, weddings, christenings, and birthdays
Range of dishes at New Mexico restaurants
The well known El Pinto Restaurant in Albuquerque, which its Web site describes as being “the largest restaurant in the state of New Mexico,” has colorful strings of sun-dried chile peppers hanging outside and offers nachos served on a large platter and its own brand of Scorpion Salsa as well as milder salsas. Its famous guests have included Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and John McCain and Sarah Palin.
A collection of photographs on its wall inside features pictures of Obama stopping by during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign and McCain and Palin together during the same period while he was buying bottles of the restaurant’s salsa.
Among the items on El Pinto’s menu are: grilled baby back ribs marinated overnight in red chile and then baked, chicken adobada marinated in red chile and served with calabacitas, ribeye steak and enchilada with red or green chile, green chile queso burger, vegetarian cheese enchiladas served with red or green chile, and steamed corn tortillas made with low-fat cheese, red or green chile, and rice pinto beans.
A daily special at Tia Sophia’s, a 90-seat café in downtown Santa Fe operated by a Greek family, which serves breakfast and lunch, is the chorizo burrito made with sausage and red or green chile or both, noted the Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema, writing in the June 27, 2010 paper on Santa Fe restaurants. “On the regular menu, the breakfast burrito packs several strips of bacon or another choice of meat and crisp hash browns in a warm flour tortilla that can be topped with chile and cheese or an egg if you want. (Co-owner Nick Maryol thinks ‘the flavor is lost’ when the eggs are tucked inside a burrito.)”
Experiencing the sopaipilla
One of the restaurant’s items is the Atrisco Plate with green chile stew, a rolled yellow corn cheese enchilada with either red or green, beans, posole, and a sopaipilla. This last of these is a square or round dough pocket feature in New Mexico appearing similar to puffed pastry, crisp on the outside shell and tender inside, and typically served in place of bread or filled with ingredients commonly found in tacos and enchiladas. Some customers choose to pour honey over it.
Tia Sophia’s small combo is chile relleno, rolled blue corn cheese enchilada, pinto beans, posole, and a sopaipilla, served hot
New Mexican cuisine is not necessarily everyone’s favorite. Some object that it often contains the same melted cheese, green or red goo, and bean broth.
But still Nu-Mex eating is what draws residents and visitors alike who keep coming or coming back for the flavors they know or want to try.
Sources:
- Cynthia Detterick-Pineda, The Heart and Soul of Southwest Cooking,
- New Mexico Cuisine, Culinary Enchantment, New Mexico Magazine,
- Tom Sietsema, “Postcard from Tom: Santa Fe restaurants offer many ways to enjoy red and green chiles,” Washington Post, June 27, 2010
John Seidenberg - John Seidenberg has worked on newspapers, newsletters, radio news, and produced specialized news publications as well as freelance ...
