Considering moving to Santa Fe: Advice? (Albuquerque, El Rancho: apartment, rental, tenants)

[Xavious Orgus]

Lovehound,

A koi pond would be a great idea for you. I guess that would take care of your sushi situation! (just kidding)

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by Xavious Orgus

Lovehound,

A koi pond would be a great idea for you. I guess that would take care of your sushi situation! (just kidding)

LOL

Actually koi look pretty bony to me. For sushi I mainly want tuna, salmon, perhaps a few other fishes. I'm not much for things with suckers (octopus) or urchins and that stuff.

The important thing about sushi is that it's got to be damned fresh. Even the usual stuff at a supermarket is not fresh enough. I'd NEVER eat raw fish from a supermarket. Presently I live near a Korean supermarket and Koreans are like other Asians in their liking sushi and sashimi although I'm sure they use other names. That Korean market is one of the things I'll miss when I move away from L.A.

[santafescribe]

Being Irish I like my fish cooked, so I'm not the person to ask about Santa Fe sushi. From what I gather, though, it's safe to say that although it can be obtained, Santa Fe is not a sushi-haven ;-}

Kohnami, on Guadalupe St., gets good reviews from friends of mine, as does Masa sushi, which is under new ownership. Here's a recent review:
Masa Sushi [SIZE=3]Address:[/SIZE]927 West Alameda Street,Santa Fe, NM 87501 [SIZE=3]Phone:[/SIZE](505) 982-3334 [SIZE=3]Review:[/SIZE]"New owners March 2008. I have honed my 35 years of eating sushi in Los Angeles and I must say Santa Fe is very lucky to have Masa Sushi here. First I must let you know that Masa Sushi had a change of ownership a few months back and the new owner-chef, Sammy is doing a fine job of getting top notch fish from his suppliers. In my 35 years of addiction to sushi I have 'Never' seen orders of sushi cut so big! I asked Sammy if he could get one of my favorite's not carried by the previous chef called Aji (Spanish Mackerel) and he now carries it on his menu. He is very open to accommodate your requests. Masa has the standard selection of fish as well as the hard to find (at least here in Santa Fe), Toro, Aji and Uni. One of my favorites here is his salmon, very lightly cured, cut big, mostly from the belly with lots of white lines in it, great as sushi and also in a roll. Masa's prices are very reasonable. Salmon sushi $4.00 for an order of two pieces and $5.95 for a cut roll. He also has varieties of special rolls you see around the country. I always end my sushi meal with one of my faves, a scallop hand roll, not spicy, with a little mayo and masago.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by santafescribe

Being Irish I like my fish cooked, so I'm not the person to ask about Santa Fe sushi. From what I gather, though, it's safe to say that although it can be obtained, Santa Fe is not a sushi-haven ;-}

Yeah, sure you like your fish cooked. Then you post a glowing review of your favorite SF sushi restaurant and admit to being a sushi addict for 35 years! LOL!

It would be hard to imagine SF with no sushi restaurants and your report confirms my suspicions. I'm still hopeful that sufficiently fresh fish is available in SF, although like I said you won't find fish this fresh in any supermarket, not even in Los Angeles (well not your chain supermarket, but as it turns out, in Asian specialty supermarkets maybe, depending).

It would be interesting if anybody can locate a fish market in SF that specializes in fish fresh enough for sushi.

I won't die if I can't make my own any more although you would NOT BELIEVE how much money you save by making your own! Of course not many of us are even interested in doing that, but as I mentioned I enjoy cooking as a hobby (although "cook" does not apply to sushi).

Anybody for squirrel sushi? Rattlesnake sushi?

[santafescribe]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Yeah, sure you like your fish cooked. Then you post a glowing review of your favorite SF sushi restaurant and admit to being a sushi addict for 35 years! LOL!

So you don't sue me (we realtors live in mortal fear of that...), that was a review I picked up online, not one I wrote myself. I stand firmly behind my desire to have my fish grilled, fried or at least smoked

[Lovehound]

OIC now. I've been online too long today and speed reading and comprehension going down.

Well grilled fish is good too (and other forms of preparation). Actually I'd rather eat chicken than anything else, but you can't eat chicken every day. And no reason to check to see if chicken is commonly available in Santa Fe.

Another Santa Fe question: Assuming you had a big enough lot (2+ acres?) could you raise your own chickens? Is there some kind of zoning problem? Or would they simply self-barbecue during the hot days of summer?

And home owners associations: How prevalent are HOAs? I'm not so much against the rules as I am against monthly fees, and particularly monthly fees that keep going up. I'm retiring, and when I retire whatever I've got is all I'm going to have, and if the HOA fees keep going up I'll have to begin giving up things I moved to SF for, and eventually probably no more sushi and no more koi. How common are HOAs in SF?

[Dancingearth]

There are sushi restaurants but I don't know where they get their seafood. Fresh seafood is one thing I miss from the coasts (lived on both.) There is a koi pond at my job - use to have a turtle but he escaped this Spring and a car ran over him

I never had any desire to take up painting until I moved here. This land is enchanted--after you spend some time here you want to express the beauty--at least that is what I found. I plan on practicing my drawing this spring on the plaza. This is one of my favorite pots--it reminds me of the desert. On my list of classes to take is photography--have a hard time getting these pots to show their color and not reflect the light.

[Lovehound]

Thanks for sharing your pot pictures. Very artistic!

I know what you mean about taking pictures. I think you need some sort of light box to do it well. I used to sell electronic stuff I manufactured myself, on the Internet, and I never did get really good pictures of my products, certainly not professional appearing, although good enough for my purposes.

Art, though, art has to be perfect, right? Life is short, art is forever. You don't want to do forever if it isn't perfect. One nice thing though, there is an infinite number of ways that art can be perfect. (And oddly, even more ways to be imperfect. )

I suspect that the sushi restaurants may have their seafood custom shipped, daily. It isn't necessary to have a local seafood outlet although for my purposes it would be. I'm pretty sure they cool the seafood to near freezing (35 degrees?) and ship it that way, probably with dry ice. I wouldn't be able to afford custom shipping like that since my quantity would be too small.

If worse comes to worse I'll give up doing my own and just frequent Japanese restaurants. Better living in Santa Fe with no home made sushi than living in Los Angeles (traffic, smog, craziness) and all the sushi I can make and eat.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Another Santa Fe question: Assuming you had a big enough lot (2+ acres?) could you raise your own chickens? Is there some kind of zoning problem? Or would they simply self-barbecue during the hot days of summer?

And home owners associations: How prevalent are HOAs? I'm not so much against the rules as I am against monthly fees, and particularly monthly fees that keep going up. I'm retiring, and when I retire whatever I've got is all I'm going to have, and if the HOA fees keep going up I'll have to begin giving up things I moved to SF for, and eventually probably no more sushi and no more koi. How common are HOAs in SF?

Let me make my usual suggestion:

Consider the Pojoaque Valley, particularly Nambe or next after that Pojoaque east of 84/285. It is a mixed area -- some nice neighborhoods -- some not so nice. So you have to come out here and look. Also the views -- some are fantastic -- some are nothing.

But the good views in Nambe, I'll match them up against the priciest neighborhoods in Santa Fe. Nobody in Santa Fe sees the biggest mountains better than we do. (You have to go to Taos for better views.)

And if you have two acres, absolutely no one is going to object to a few chickens -- you might want to hold down on the roosters however. The chickens will survive the heat, but they won't make the first night unless you keep the coyotes out. No HOAs.

You will live in an area where most people are Hispanic, and you'll be near four pueblos -- but people have been getting along here for generations and take pride in it.

And people say that Nambe is the next Tesuque -- which means it is a very good investment -- because Nambe is still affordable.

20 minutes to Trader Joe's in Santa Fe. Five minutes to the Pojoaque Super Market and say 13 minutes to Walmart in Espanolo and it's grocery. 20 minutes to Smith's in Los Alamos and 20 minutes to Albertson's in Santa Fe.

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Devin Bent

...
Consider the Pojoaque Valley, particularly Nambe or next after that Pojoaque east of 84/285. It is a mixed area -- some nice neighborhoods -- some not so nice. So you have to come out here and look. Also the views -- some are fantastic -- some are nothing.

Great suggestion! Nice post, Devin Bent.

And if you have two acres, absolutely no one is going to object to a few chickens -- you might want to hold down on the roosters however. The chickens will survive the heat, but they won't make the first night unless you keep the coyotes out. No HOAs.

To give you an idea of how lenient it is in NM, even the City of Albuquerque has no limit on the number of fowl you could raise on a given property in town. You can hike on the Bosque trail down by the Rio Grande and see camels, alpacas, ostriches, lamas, horses. It's like a zoo down there. There's a lot of people out here who like to keep animals of all kinds.

For your chickens, skip the fancy ones. Stick with the hardy breeds like the Plymouth barred rocks and the Rhode island reds. They're good producers and acclimate well. Make sure you build a real structure for them to roost in, as the small door, raised floor and high roost all serve to defeat the coyotes. It's too dicy to trust that a fence will. I actually used to pull up the ramp and close them in each night, but some think that's more trouble than it's worth(who's going to do it when you're on vacation and all that...). Also, purchase a real watering system, not just dog bowls filled with water. Because of the altitude and humidity, they absolutely need a clean, constant water source. Somewhere in their range, give them twice the shade it would take to cover the huddled flock. Devin was right on about roosters, if you want one for ambiance, go ahead. They're really more trouble than they're worth. They hassle the chickens, and make chores a pain by getting territorial every time you get near. When they flog they can scare/hurt smaller people too. The only exception would be if you've got dogs around and want the chickens to free-range, because they're mean and scary enough to keep most dogs at a respectful distance to the flock. Have fun!