Serving up a sample of N.M.
cuisine
Last month I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with cookbook author Molly O’Neill, former food columnist for The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
The setting for our luncheon was the 100-year-old adobe house of master micaceous-clay potter
Felipe Ortega in the tiny town of La Madera. O’Neill was visiting New Mexico to research a new book she is writing on indigenous American cooking.
Ortega prepared a feast cooked over a wood-fired stove using his amazing clay cookware (available for sale at the Caf預asqual’s Gallery at 103 E. Water St.). We dined on homemade bread, red chile-buffalo stew, wild rice and calabacitas as Ortega regaled us with tales of his family’s rich history.
As a part-time food writer myself, it was interesting to see the heralded O’Neill in action: She arrived, greeted us all and immediately flipped open a large notebook and began interviewing Ortega as he put the finishing touches on our meal. She was thorough in her exploration of Ortega’s Jicarilla Apache heritage and chronicled every word and bite of our delicious meal with rapidly written and organized notes.
I took a lesson from O’Neill’s technique — when I sit down to write my column I usually have to forage through pant and shirt pockets for bits of paper, napkins and menus that contain notes on the food and personalities I want to include on these pages.
A friend had told me about a caf頴hat has opened recently in a swanky new housing development called Aldea de Santa Fe, off the Santa Fe Relief route and near La Tierra. It was a surprise to drive into the planned community of more than 400 houses that seemed to have popped out of nowhere. There is a small plaza, complete with fountain, and a retail area that already has an art gallery and the caf頩n place, with a larger full-service restaurant in the works for the future.
Caf頁ldea (473-2877) is a small, sunny restaurant that has a scattering of tables, with counter service tended by affable owner Ferdinand Carasco. The menu is international with salads, sandwiches, burgers, burritos and the like. Daily specials might include shepherd’s pie, Greek pasta or vindaloo chicken. The half-pound burger with green salad ($9) and buffalo- wing seasoned chicken sandwich with chips ($8) we sampled were fresh and tasty, as was a zippy homemade hummus appetizer served with pita chips ($3.50).
We learned that the Uganda-born and Goa-raised Carasco had “retired” from the corporate world (where he specialized in business startups) to have a more “relaxed” life in the restaurant business. I chuckled at his naﶥ enthusiasm — I can’t think of anything less relaxing than the world of hospitality — but I wish the nice guy luck. He’s off to a good start.
Caf頁ldea is a short 10 minute ride from downtown and is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when dinner is also on the menu, the hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Saturday night dinner special varies, but often features Indian dishes or something drawn from Carasco’s Goan heritage.
To view the daily specials and complete menu, go to www.cafealdea.com.
Serious barbecue fans will travel amazing distances for great ’cue— Santa Feans already are disco vering
Josh’s Barbecue (474-6466) in front
Please see CUISINE, Page D-2 |
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Continued from Page D-1
of Lowe’s on Cerrillos Road, next to the new Regal Cinemas.
Owner Josh Baum has an unlikely r鳵m頦or a pit master: He worked for many years as Martin Rios’ sous chef when Rios (now executive chef at Inn of the Anasazi) was at The Old House.
Is it me, or does the “center-oftown” seem to be slowly creeping away from the Plaza out toward Cerrillos Road? Perhaps this location can be considered the new culinary frontier, because everything we sampled at Josh’s — ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken and brisket — was smoky, tender and tasty, even before the addition of the table-side BBQ sauces. Warning: There’s green chile in the coleslaw and the cornbread, and both have a kick.
Prices are pocket-friendly, with meats starting at $5.50 per halfpound, combo meat plates starting at $9.99 and to-go family-size meals starting at $20.99.
The sprawling dining room is comfy and loud enough to bring the kids — there also is a kids’ menu — and there are beers and agave wine margaritas to help the grownups wash everything down.
Josh’s Barbecue is open 11:30 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday; he’s closed on Mondays.
A recent lunch at Caf預asqual’s
was topped off with some most delicious and delicate little cakes called cann謥s (pronounced kah-nuh-leh.) The dome-shaped delights have an almost custardy center with a touch of rum and a kind of moist popover texture.
At first glance, they seem to be coated in chocolate, but the darkbrown exteriors come from a light coating of beeswax on the copper molds in which they are baked. The molds are then chilled before being filled with the eggy batter, allowing the ever-so-thin layer of edible wax to darken and caramelize with the sugar in the batter to form a heavenly crust.
Fans of French pastries will rejoice when they taste this specialty from Bordeaux, brought to us by Katharine Kagel and her staff. The cann謥s are available for takeout from Cafe Pasqual’s cookie kiosk for $1.75 each; on the eat-in dessert menu, they are served with a scoop of house-made ice cream and caramel sauce for $8.
To share a tip or dish about the local food scene, send an e-mail to chefjohnnyvee@aol.com or call 505-699-3419.
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JOHN VOLLERTSEN
Side Dish
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Copyright 2007 Santa Fe New Mexican 05/09/2007 |
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