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Good milk shakes, good basic hamburgers. The original owner just died, he started the places in 1952 (?) in Albuquerque. There are 75 locations, strictly New Mexican. Kind of an institution. Ate at one last weekend with my granddaughter...
Rich
It's too bad that the location in Alamogordo is so inconsistent! 3 out of 5 times, it has been lousy. Having them leave off the pickles and big hunks of raw onion helped on the last trip, but it has never been as good as the first one I had there.
Coming from a big city like Chicago, I found that Las Cruces restaurants were no match, even for Mexican Food, however they aren't a disaster either. I found them adequate for a small size city where eating out is not a big business. The ones in Mesilla are perhaps the most interesting.
Hey Tito...have you savored the genuine Mexican cuisine of Frontera Grill/Topolobampo? I would assume so. Mrs Tecpatl and I have been Rick Bayless fans for 20+ years.
Nothing like that here in S. New Mexico, despite the endless number of "Mexican" restaurants. I'm not sure there is much in Alb. or Sta Fe that can compete, either.
Of course, there's no comparison between Chicago, a world-class big city, and LC..... I just have a hard time convincing people in New Mexico that one of the world's great Mexican restaurants is in Chicago!
People in and around LC just have to demand better, then support it when it's offered, if they want to see better places to eat.
Hey Tito...have you savored the genuine Mexican cuisine of Frontera Grill/Topolobampo? I would assume so. Mrs Tecpatl and I have been Rick Bayless fans for 20+ years.
Nothing like that here in S. New Mexico, despite the endless number of "Mexican" restaurants. I'm not sure there is much in Alb. or Sta Fe that can compete, either.
Of course, there's no comparison between Chicago, a world-class big city, and LC..... I just have a hard time convincing people in New Mexico that one of the world's great Mexican restaurants is in Chicago!
People in and around LC just have to demand better, then support it when it's offered, if they want to see better places to eat.
Agree, but you are comparing apples and oranges. The "Mexican" food served in LC is NM-style indigenous cooking found in this area, not the more sophisticated cuisine of central Mexico. It's like comparing chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy to fine Continental cuisine. Chicken-fried steak is good as far as it goes, but no one is claiming it's fine dining.
We agree, domino, and I don't compare 'yer general Mexican LC chow with actual Mexican food, except to express a personal longing for the latter.
What passes for most of Mexican food in LC is campesino cuisine....the traditional chow of (generally) poor Northern Mexico ranching(and by extension New Mexican) folks. Fine (in most cases) for what it is, but rarely distinguished.
I am still seeking foods "New Mexican" in LC that don't have deep and direct roots to north Mexico, and have discussed this often with friends. Other than the prevalence of red or green chile sauces (w/ or w/out meat) available on most everything, which you don't see as much in Mexico, I can't say that I've found anything else particularly unique hereabouts. I"m open for suggestions or ideas here...this isn't an anti-LC food rant.
One friend points at sopapaillas and biscochitos, for example. Use of pinons might also qualify, if anyone actually used them here in LC.
This is not to disparage traditional New Mexico eats...not at all. It is what it is and, when well prepared, deserves credit on that basis. I am a lover of all things red and green when quality is present.
But when, over a period of years, I visit so many restaurants and find so much ordinary (or worse) food I can't help having the feeling that I'm seeing the same chicken fried steak n mash 'taters over and over and ...over, in varying levels of quality, as if that in some way sums up American or Southern or Texas or, more likely, truckstop food.
The cuisine of Oaxaca or Yucatan, for example, is not rich man's food or fancy Mexico City stuff..it's the product of relatively (and often extremely) poor agrarian Spanish, Mexican and Native American cultures doing what they can with what they have.....cultures that also exist in strong and varying forms in New Mexico. European/American influences are here too, of course, but are present in Mexico as well, though to a lesser degree. I'm not sure what Eastern US culture brought to NM food...not much is apparent except maybe an increased use of wheat flour tortillas. Oh yeah...frozen yogurt!
I wish there was a genuine Mexican restaurant in the area....but there really isn't as far as I know, and who knows..maybe it wouldn't succeed if there was one. I'm not expecting to see duck breast in rose petal sauce garnished with pomegranate seeds here....but a good chicken mole would be cheerfully welcomed.
Local efforts to produce a Mole Poblano, for example are pretty pathetic and disappointing (I've spent the time and energy to look hard), nearly always chunked or shredded chicken topped with the dark sauce and rolled in a burrito in the two or three places that have it at all. My wife had a copy of a slick magazine aimed at Hispanic women and there was an article about the mysteries of Mole...and also a short listing of restaurants in and about LC that served it. Visited all...a few had no mole whatsoever and the other two served the aforementioned burritos.
Feeling like a food crank today...
I enjoy a good mole and chile en nogada, etc. Unfortunately many people in LC are looking for familiarity (i.e. local food) and not exotic. The local NM food served in restaurants fills a niche, but it's nothing I can't make as well or better at home. Still it's nice to have someone else cooking for you, so I don't complain, unless it's obvious that it comes from a can.
The appreciation for same-old-same-old is deep and wide. I am doomed..lol
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