pastameshugana

My first (real) green chili cheeseburger was about 2010, in Alamogordo, NM. I went to a place and the lady could tell I was out of my element. She said, "Just trust me, I'll give you something you'll never forget." It was greasy, salty beef, melty cheddar, crisp pickles, shredded lettuce, a good ripe tomato, a healthy whack of yellow mustard, and tons of chopped, roasted green chili on a butter toasted bun. As evidenced: I still haven't forgotten it. That combo of: green chili, mustard, pickle and lettuce are truly magical.

We lived in New Mexico for 8 years, green chili is certainly a way of life. So much so that when I would have breakfast with staff, if someone ordered oatmeal, he would variably get mocked or someone would tell the server to put green chili the poor guys oats. After the first year, we learned to ask around about when the two main 'harvests' would show up in the local stores. If you wanted to buy cases of the good stuff, you had to be there in the first two or three days. You could get them year round, but that first delivery was the freshest, biggest, and best-priced. (To be fair, the second harvest seemed to taste better, but I don't know why). When the shipments would come in, most grocery stores would have huge entry displays with stacks of 25lb cases of the varying heat levels. Then the real chili-heads had their own favorite farms or areas, and special chillies. While green chili is not normally a very hot pepper, you could get mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and triple-x. And some years the XXX would be a fair comparison to some of the genuinely hot chillies in the world. The triple-X wasn't usually available at normal grocers, but some of the smaller places would carry them. Some friends were so committed they would drive a couple of hours to a particular farm or roadside stand to get their favorite batch each year. One of my favorites was a red chili from Jemez. Just a wonderful smoky flavor, it made the best red enchiladas I've ever had. We used to know a family that had a farm there and could get a private stash from time to time. As for restaurants, a couple of Green-Chile winners (As you can tell, I can't decide on a spelling of chili or chile...) Statewide: Blake's Lottaburger has great green chili cheeseburgers. A real staple. Depending on the season or the day they range from medium to very hot. Gallup (northwest NM): -The Rocket has the hottest green chili that is still mild enough to truly enjoy - great with juevos-rancheros or to dip your crispy bacon in -Jerry's Cafe has the absolute tastiest green chili, but not very hot. Not a stew, but a sauce. Also, their ground beef (in tacos & enchiladas) is catnip-level-addictive We're living back overseas again, and this time the only food we really miss is Green Chili.

That sounds like a good candidate. Even if it's not the recipe from the original rolls, I think I'm inspired to whip up some zaatar infused rolls! My first time having zaatar was in Jerusalem, we bought some hot, soft pretzels and they gave us little cups of zaatar to dip them in. Fabulous.

Beautiful meals, great presentation, and congratulations!

Lol!

In our home, Pho would definitely be one of our most-craved meals. Sadly it's hard to find here (Johannesburg, South Africa). However, we have found some delightful Chinese Hot Pot at a few tiny places that we have developed a real love for, so it 'sort-of' scratches the itch.

Can someone identify this pasta shape? This is from one of my favorite food YouTubers (sounds like a modern root vegetable). Mikey Chen AKA Strictly Dumpling. Normally his food tours trend toward Asian street food, but he's posted several videos recently from Italy. This shape looks fun: Also, as a side note, this topic makes me a little sad, because it's one of the ones started by Fat Guy that still lives on. It was 15 years ago, living in India, when I bought his book and got hooked on eGullet. It was such a joy to follow him, as he'd talk about walking around to 'build up a calorie deficit' before a big meal. I still use that excuse! Sorry for the topic swerve.

This looks astoundingly delicious. I don't often eat breakfast, but I would eat THAT for sure. Blueberries and waffles are one of those magical combos. What kind of batter did you use for your 'plaid pancakes'?

Lol. When you're driving 7 hours round trip for a sauce, it had certainly better NOT be less than a gallon!

This looks interesting to me. I've never had sturgeon (that I'm aware of), how would you describe it (flavor/texture/etc)? It looks like an oily fish, or is that an illusion in the photo?

Amen on the least flavorful bit. You can get chicken feet many places on the street here (Soweto, South Africa), usually at night. Just cooked over coals. My wife jokes that it's the perfect snack because the toothpick is built in. For all of our years since we lived in India we've preferred and bought leg/thigh, far tastier than the breast!

This sounds (and looks) very nice! And in my book, I think you've nailed the 'topping to rice' ratio perfectly!

This looks and sounds positively fantastic.

Repeat after me: "There is no such thing as too much butter!" In my home it's become somewhat of a joke, they will state butter amounts using *me* as the measure: "That looks like a 'dad' amount of butter" or "Use as much butter as dad would use."

Enjoy! It's been too long since we've been back.