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"You can find Italian food in any city in the U.S. So what is the big deal about Italian food from Italy?"
The origin place of a cuisine is almost always better than getting that same food somewhere else. Except when it comes to pizza, I prefer Chicago deep dish (in Italy the crust is as thin as paper).
Not that Southern food isn't bad, I love it actually. In New Orleans I eat deep-fried crawfish daily, since I can't find that here. Or good quality jambalaya. I can find grits at the grocery store but not in restaurants (but I can live with that since I don't like grits).
Do you even know what Southwestern cuisine is? It's a combination of Mexican AND Native American cuisine. Here are the main styles you can find in both New Mexico and Arizona:
- Native American (different for each tribe, however Indian fry bread is the big item here in Arizona, and in common with nearly all of the tribes since it's a newer style of food, it is also highly blended with Mexican out here given the similar climates with the same types of plants, animals, etc.)
- Tex-Mex
- Arizonan
- New Mexican
- Baja Californian
- Sonoran
- Chihuahuan
Yes, these are all different. And they are all considered Southwestern cuisine. Arizonan food is based off Sonoran, and New Mexican is based off Chihuahuan. Tex-Mex is a similar dynamic. They have different items on the menu. For an example chimichangas (invented in Tucson BTW) are found on the menus of Arizonan and Sonoran restaurants yet if you go to a Baja Californian or New Mexican restaurant (if it's true to the origin as it's supposed to be) you will NOT find chimichangas on the menu. They use different spices, sauces, etc. I can find all seven of these types of restaurants in close proximity in both Tucson and Phoenix and I'm sure in ABQ as well.
I know people from the East Coast who don't even know what Indian fry bread is (which hurts my soul because it is one of my favorite things ever). And I know people from the East Coast who think Taco Bell is legitimate Mexican food (using the argument that McDonald's is real American food). From my experiences Mexican food in other parts of the U.S. are generic Mexican and usually are Arizonan-styled or Tex-Mex which is quite a difference as I dislike Tex-Mex but love all the other ones. And that is their one option for "Southwestern" cuisine, not counting the other six types.
If you can point out seven different restaurants in your area that specialize in each of these styles of cuisine, then I am wrong and yes you can TRULY find Southwestern food in your area. Or if you can find one that truly has options for all of them, which at that point would make it a Cheesecake Factory for Southwestern cuisine which would be crazy! I would need to eat there, ASAP.
But I know for sure that I cannot find Southern food in my area, at least a restaurant for it. And I am willing to admit that. But can you really find Southwestern food in your area?
I agree with you that you may cannot find several styles of Southwestern cuisine but you can find some of it where its not from a chain restaurant.
However in ABQ you wont have near as many options of other foods from everywhere you will have n Charlotte. Charlotte is not Atlanta in that regard but I have to say it does well for its size. No one likes to eat the same thing all the time even if it is your favorite
I think I really discerned true Southwestern cuisine when I first moved here and went to the New Mexico state fair and got served an Indian taco with fry bread, pulled buffalo meat, and green chiles. OMG, it was divinely good. I'm pretty sure you probably won't find anything like that back east.
Yes exactly... Native American cuisine is definitely the hardest to find! Even in Arizona there are a couple restaurants maximum in the cities, otherwise you actually have to go to the Rez yourself or wait for the state fair!
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Originally Posted by ApartmentNomad
You have to try blue corn fry bread if you have not had it. I only had it once, but I always keep a look out for it.
I will definitely look out for that one. I eat blue corn chips regularly and I love fry bread so I'm sure I'll like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Othello Is Here
I agree with you that you may cannot find several styles of Southwestern cuisine but you can find some of it where its not from a chain restaurant.
However in ABQ you wont have near as many options of other foods from everywhere you will have n Charlotte. Charlotte is not Atlanta in that regard but I have to say it does well for its size. No one likes to eat the same thing all the time even if it is your favorite
I've never been to either city, I just came to argue with that one poster's ludicrous statement. However I'm sure Charlotte is the bigger city, in which case I would believe your statement. Just like I'm sure Phoenix would have more options than Charlotte just due to size alone.
Of course New Mexico would have other options besides that. Mexican food is amazing but sometimes we want something other than fajitas and fry bread!
I agree with you that you may cannot find several styles of Southwestern cuisine but you can find some of it where its not from a chain restaurant.
However in ABQ you wont have near as many options of other foods from everywhere you will have n Charlotte. Charlotte is not Atlanta in that regard but I have to say it does well for its size. No one likes to eat the same thing all the time even if it is your favorite
Don't underestimate Albuquerque in that regard. Albuquerque has lots of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese restaurants, not to mention the plethora of fusion and Pan-Asian restaurants. There are also lots of Asian Indian restaurants and plenty of Italian, Greek and Middle Eastern restaurants as well. There are also a few more ethnic cuisines which are less well represented even to the point of only having one such restaurant in town, but they are still here nonetheless. Examples of this include African, Carribean and German cuisines, and there are indeed examples of Southern barbecue joints and soul food restaurants in town as well that fit into this category of representation.
Quality and authenticity I'm sure is going to be a point of contention for the majority of these restaurants in both cities, as it is in most places outside of our most diverse and biggest cities of New York City and Los Angeles and a few others.
It's interesting that you qualify your assessment of Charlotte for its size compared to Atlanta, but seem to dismiss Albuquerque as being less because of its size compared to Charlotte. A quick search on Yelp for Thai restaurants in both cities yields 26 Thai restaurants for Albuquerque versus 39 for Charlotte. Being that Charlotte is about 2.5 times the size of Albuquerque it should have about 65 Thai restaurants just to be at parity with Albuquerque, never mind excelling.
Taking another ethnic cuisine such as Ethiopian yields four restaurants in Charlotte and one in Albuquerque, so that is more like one city excelling in ethnic cuisine offerings over the other, but it really isn't all that impressive for Charlotte either, no matter how little Albuquerque has to offer in comparison.
I did these at random and am not gonna compare every single ethic cuisine, but I just want to illustrate how absurd it is to assert that Albuquerque only has Southwestern cuisine to point to as a strength and will pale in comparison to a city like Charlotte for everything else.
Don't underestimate Albuquerque in that regard. Albuquerque has lots of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese restaurants, not to mention the plethora of fusion and Pan-Asian restaurants. There are also lots of Asian Indian restaurants and plenty of Italian, Greek and Middle Eastern restaurants as well. There are also a few more ethnic cuisines which are less well represented even to the point of only having one such restaurant in town, but they are still here nonetheless. Examples of this include African, Carribean and German cuisines, and there are indeed examples of Southern barbecue joints and soul food restaurants in town as well that fit into this category of representation.
Quality and authenticity I'm sure is going to be a point of contention for the majority of these restaurants in both cities, as it is in most places outside of our most diverse and biggest cities of New York City and Los Angeles and a few others.
It's interesting that you qualify your assessment of Charlotte for its size compared to Atlanta, but seem to dismiss Albuquerque as being less because of its size compared to Charlotte. A quick search on Yelp for Thai restaurants in both cities yields 26 Thai restaurants for Albuquerque versus 39 for Charlotte. Being that Charlotte is about 2.5 times the size of Albuquerque it should have about 65 Thai restaurants just to be at parity with Albuquerque, never mind excelling.
Taking another ethnic cuisine such as Ethiopian yields four restaurants in Charlotte and one in Albuquerque, so that is more like one city excelling in ethnic cuisine offerings over the other, but it really isn't all that impressive for Charlotte either, no matter how little Albuquerque has to offer in comparison.
I did these at random and am not gonna compare every single ethic cuisine, but I just want to illustrate how absurd it is to assert that Albuquerque only has Southwestern cuisine to point to as a strength and will pale in comparison to a city like Charlotte for everything else.
Ive lived in Albuquerque so I know what I am talking about.I may not know it as intimately as you but nonetheless ,im not shooting from the hip.
These are opinions based on my experiences.I have been to both cities.A yelp search does not tell you exactly whats on the ground.
Two hours in either city you can see the difference in whats in both.
My statement was about Atlanta is that Charlotte being so close to Atlanta offers some of the same amenities of a city much larger,Restaurateurs who open cutting edge restaurants that are often ranked as high as those in NYC will sometimes find there way to Charlotte.
Yes I am aware that ABQ has more than Southwestern as that was not my assertion but your assumption. However compared to the range of options,ABQ to Charlotte its just not close and I know this from being in both.Not from a yelp search.
Charlotte has the 9th busiest airport in the U.S. and has a few international flights that are much more than ABQ airport.
Charlotte is a white collar town where banking is king so even though it is small there is are more cosmopolitan options in Charlotte.
ABQ is as blue collar as it gets but that's what makes it more interesting.
Ive lived in Albuquerque so I know what I am talking about.I may not know it as intimately as you but nonetheless ,im not shooting from the hip.
These are opinions based on my experiences.I have been to both cities.A yelp search does not tell you exactly whats on the ground.
Two hours in either city you can see the difference in whats in both.
My statement was about Atlanta is that Charlotte being so close to Atlanta offers some of the same amenities of a city much larger,Restaurateurs who open cutting edge restaurants that are often ranked as high as those in NYC will sometimes find there way to Charlotte.
Yes I am aware that ABQ has more than Southwestern as that was not my assertion but your assumption. However compared to the range of options,ABQ to Charlotte its just not close and I know this from being in both.Not from a yelp search.
Charlotte has the 9th busiest airport in the U.S. and has a few international flights that are much more than ABQ airport.
Charlotte is a white collar town where banking is king so even though it is small there is are more cosmopolitan options in Charlotte.
ABQ is as blue collar as it gets but that's what makes it more interesting.
Are you kidding? You're really going to try to characterize your post as being something other than what it was? Unless you have a problem with usage and don't really understand the words you used, then I don't know what to say. Your words are quite clear in meaning to every one else who reads them, I'm sure.
You clearly say Charlotte is not going to have as many options as Atlanta, but it does alright for itself based on size. Then you diminish Albuquerque because it's smaller than Charlotte and therefore won't have as varied or as many ethnic options as Charlotte. You go even further and implicitly state that Albuquerque only really has Southwestern cuisine to offer when you state 'nobody likes to eat the same food all the time even if it is their favorite' Sorry, but you're not fooling anyone by trying to frame your words a different way after the fact.
And who cares if I quoted Yelp. Do you have a better online resource that compiles all restaurants in every major city in the country to do direct, unbiased and fact-based comparisons in a forum such as City vs. City? Please name the restaurants that Yelp missed for the example cuisines I gave that could only be known by "being on the ground" in both cities. Furthermore, expand on and enlighten us as to how exactly you think Albuquerque pales in comparison to Charlotte when it comes to this. Please do share your knowledge since you assert that you know what you're talking about.
Excuse me for committing another sin and turning to Google for info, but since you mentioned cutting edge and highly ranked restaurateurs I went looking to see about recent showings in the James Beard Awards by Charlotte and Albuquerque. I found that Charlotte has one chef in the running for the Southeast award this year and no showing specifically for restaurateur that you mentioned. It also has none in the running for a national award. As far as I can find through a quick search Albuquerque has none at all this year, but had two chefs in the running for the Southwest region last year, a year in which Charlotte had none at all. Albuquerque also had two chefs in 2014 as well and Charlotte again had none.
Furthermore, the only winners from North Carolina ever have come from Raleigh-Durham, four times, and Raleigh-Durham has had multiple semifinalists for the Southeast region in the the past three years, including one for restaurateur of the year, which as far as I can find Charlotte has never had. So it seems Charlotte isn't even the premier city in North Carolina for this sort of highly-ranked and innovative type of chef, let alone restaurateur like you seem to imply with your comment.
I only saw a lot of adobe architecture in Santa Fe. Not alot in ABQ.At least not the nice kind
So then you didn't make your way to Old Town, the North Valley, Corrales, North Albuquerque Acres or the Foothills where there are innumerable examples of fine adobe architecture and which are are among the wealthiest areas in town, many even wealthier than Santa Fe, so as to assure they will be nice? Let alone the UNM campus which is the only college campus in the world which is dominated by the Pueblo Revival style of adobe architecture??
And did you not fly in and catch the Great Hall of the Sunport immediately upon disembarking, or the spectacular Old Terminal while driving away from the airport to the freeway? Again, the Sunport is the only major airport in the world that is done in the Pueblo Revival style of adobe architecture. And the Old Terminal is much more majestic than the terminal of Santa Fe's Municipal Airport.
Traveling by train is the same story. Albuquerque's Alvarado Transportation Center is much larger and far more grand than the Santa Fe Fe Depot in their Mission Revival styles of adobe architecture.
I'd put Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus against the finest Santa Fe has to offer any day. And Los Poblanos in the North Valley is far more refined and sublime for the Territorial Style of adobe architecture than the vast majority of Santa Fe's monstrous and inelegant examples, especially the government buildings that aren't the Roundhouse.
Albuquerque even created a unique example of adobe architecture that no other place in the world had examples of, that is the Pueblo-Deco blending of adobe styles and Art Deco themes and design motifs. One of them was torn down, but the other one is still standing - the KiMo Theater in Downtown Albuquerque.
Are you kidding? You're really going to try to characterize your post as being something other than what it was? Unless you have a problem with usage and don't really understand the words you used, then I don't know what to say. Your words are quite clear in meaning to every one else who reads them, I'm sure.
You clearly say Charlotte is not going to have as many options as Atlanta, but it does alright for itself based on size. Then you diminish Albuquerque because it's smaller than Charlotte and therefore won't have as varied or as many ethnic options as Charlotte. You go even further and implicitly state that Albuquerque only really has Southwestern cuisine to offer when you state 'nobody likes to eat the same food all the time even if it is their favorite' Sorry, but you're not fooling anyone by trying to frame your words a different way after the fact.
And who cares if I quoted Yelp. Do you have a better online resource that compiles all restaurants in every major city in the country to do direct, unbiased and fact-based comparisons in a forum such as City vs. City? Please name the restaurants that Yelp missed for the example cuisines I gave that could only be known by "being on the ground" in both cities. Furthermore, expand on and enlighten us as to how exactly you think Albuquerque pales in comparison to Charlotte when it comes to this. Please do share your knowledge since you assert that you know what you're talking about.
Excuse me for committing another sin and turning to Google for info, but since you mentioned cutting edge and highly ranked restaurateurs I went looking to see about recent showings in the James Beard Awards by Charlotte and Albuquerque. I found that Charlotte has one chef in the running for the Southeast award this year and no showing specifically for restaurateur that you mentioned. It also has none in the running for a national award. As far as I can find through a quick search Albuquerque has none at all this year, but had two chefs in the running for the Southwest region last year, a year in which Charlotte had none at all. Albuquerque also had two chefs in 2014 as well and Charlotte again had none.
Furthermore, the only winners from North Carolina ever have come from Raleigh-Durham, four times, and Raleigh-Durham has had multiple semifinalists for the Southeast region in the the past three years, including one for restaurateur of the year, which as far as I can find Charlotte has never had. So it seems Charlotte isn't even the premier city in North Carolina for this sort of highly-ranked and innovative type of chef, let alone restaurateur like you seem to imply with your comment.
Something wrong with you?
Wow how insulting and rude.
Dont insult me and I will not insult your intelligence.There is no need for this to take an ugly tone.
Especially when I have not said anything insulting about ABQ.
You are the only one complaining about what I wrote so dont say everyone can read them because everyone can read anything and not always interpret things the same way..
I dont live in either city and Im not crazy about Charlotte as I have said but I also gave distinct reasons as to why I would choose one over the other and why.
You quote of my words were correct but your assumptions are not based in fact.As I also added earlier,Charotte benefits from its connections to more places.Either regionally or through its very busy airport.Therefore its amenities better reflect those greater connections ABQ just does not have.
Size is only part of the equation. Geography has a role also.
ABQ is isolated in comparison to other major areas. Charlottle is not.
Quote:
I agree with you that you may cannot find several styles of Southwestern cuisine but you can find some of it where its not from a chain restaurant. However in ABQ you wont have near as many options of other foods from everywhere you will have n Charlotte. Charlotte is not Atlanta in that regard but I have to say it does well for its size. No one likes to eat the same thing all the time even if it is your favorite
Now please tell me how in that sentence you understood I was only talking about Southwestern food when I CLEARLY said "as many options ".?I never said "no other options." Now who cant read?
You need a valum dude.:
Counting Yelp restaurants is not a great way to see what is going on in a city rather than being there.
James Beard is the measure that YOU chose to use.It is not the end all of all ratings.Especially if they rank Pittsburgh and Baltimore as the the top Food Cities over NYC,SanFrancisco,D.C and Boston.
Here is a well known Guide that rates restaurants in each city by tiers.
Notice there are several Chalotte resturant in a tier that ABQ has none represented.Even in the next tier down,Charlotte has 24 varied representations to ABQ's 9 in which half feature Southwestern Styles.
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I'm pretty sure you probably won't find anything like that back east.
....and no it's not Tex/Mex.
