Cuisine from New Mexico to Terra del Fuego
No matter what city I am in look for Southwest, Latino or Spanish foods.
Coyote Cafe — Santa Fe
Coyote Cafe Santa Fe
I first went to this restaurant in 1990 a couple of years after Mark Miller had opened it.
The current chef is Eric DiStefano who is a risen star in the culinary world. He isn’t serving southwest tacos here. You can get a grilled lobster and chilled heirloom tomato consomme or a sauteed Italian mushroom & house-made provolone cheese tortellini with braised pork shank, truffle essence and roasted garlic mushroom coulis. That’s an excellent way to start a meal. The salads range from Eduardo’s house smoked chile rubbed duck breast & sweet pea salad to organic Romero farms baby lettuce with wine & saffron poached pears, Tulli’s Gorgonzola, pecan toffee & cider vinaigrette or the traditional coyote Caesar salad with organic Romaine spears, Reggiano anchovy parmesan & warm polenta croutons. They have a vegetarian and tasting menu that might look something like roasted beet & chicory salad with house mad marshmallow & goat cheese vinaigrette, New Mexican sweet corn soup with chopped block perigord truffles & fresh thyme, Sherry infused Italian brown mushroom strudel with tempura spring onions, Dijon mustard sauce or for the traditional you might start with a pan seared hatch green chile Colorado rosen lamb rack with potator medley sauce Robert or roulade of naturally raised pork tenderloin with Italian sausage, apple & walnut stuffing, pear chutney & caramelized five onion fondue to the chef’s tellicherry pepper elk tenderloin with roasted garlic smashed potatoes, applewood smoked bacon and brandied mushroom sauce.
Pascual’s — Santa Fe
Pascual’s is adorned with strings of madonnas and milagros. For one or two people you will be seated at a big round table with other guests. You might have to wait an hour to get in but it is worth it. The breakfast chorizo sausage, omelette’s and spicy potatoes are a great way to start the day.
Pink Adobe — Santa Fe
The Pink Adobe was started in 1944 by Rosalea Murphy (The Pink). The restaurant is across the street from the oldest church in the United States, the San Miguel Mission. The menu includes shrimp and steak but I went for the enchilada pink adobe (chimayo red chile, blue corn tortillas, cheese with beans and posole). It’s worth going to be eating in Rosalea’s spirit but if you can’t go everywhere for dinner you might try their lunches which have more of a southwest flare and a dessert named after my sister, Chocolate Denise (chocolate mousse).
Rancho Chimayo — Chimayo
When you head out of Santa Fe towards Taos you should pull off main road and go to Chimayo. James Beard called this one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country. The tamales are amazing and eating next to one of the Sacred spots in the world enthuses you with energy. Formica top tables, Negro Modello beer, tamales and refried beans. It is worth the detour.
Pueblo Museum — Albuquerque
Each month a different Pueblo will run the kitchen at the museum and you can get traditional Native American food — bone stew, fried bread, blue tacos. Amazing food and inexpensive. The museum is also a treasure to go through.
Topo lo Bampo — Chicago
Rick Bayless has become a legend in Chicago and on television. I was lucky to go there before the legend (and after). Spiral tamales, lamb in mole, duck tacos.
Juanita Juanita — Sonoma
Pitchers of hot sauce on the table to go with your burritos and tacos.
Red Iguana — Salt Lake
Red Iguana Salt Lake
I’ve been going to the Red Iguana since 1986. It was a fairly new restaurant in Salt Lake City and why Ramon and Maria Cardenas thought a Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake in 1986 was a good idea I have no idea. Tamales and beer for a Mormon crowd? This is one of our first stops in Salt Lake as we head up to the Sundance film festival. You don’t get mole out of a can here — you get seven kinds of home made moles from amarillo (golden raisins, yellow tomatoes, yellow zucchini, chile guajillo & dried yellow chiles with chicken to mole coloradito with pine nuts, almonds, peanuts, dried chile chiuacle and guajillo chiles blended with fresh chile pbolano and Mexican chocolate over pork loin or mole negro with dried chile mulato, negro pasilla, Mexican chocolate, raisins, peanuts, walnuts & bananas tossed with turkey! They have a number of traditional Mexican dishes like chile verde, huevos con chorizo, gringas (carne adobada tips grilled with pineapple, green, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, onions folded into tortilla) or puntas de filete a la nortena — a top sirloin sauteed with bacon & jalapeno strips, onions served on top of an almond mole. All this said I come here for the tamales which they don’t make every day, but if you are in town when they are making them you should go the Iguana. (I met a person in Doolin Ireland who said it was the best meal they had in the USA).
Bolo — Manhattan
Bobby Flay’s southwest/Spanish restaurant in New York.
Indigo Grill — San Diego
One of Deborah Scott’s restaurants in San Diego with Pan Pacific food. Pepper bloody mary’s, beet palaces, grilled seafood.
Taco Wagon — 6th and Main Walla Walla
Zerela’s Manhattan
Oaxaca Brooklyn
Stephan Pyle — Dallas
Limon — San Francisco
Mijita — San Francisco
La Taqueria — San Francisco
El Metate — San Francisco