3 Weeks in Tesuque

[Liza]

We've both been given clearance to take off from Dec. 14 through the new year and will be decamping to Tesuque NM for the entire time. We've eaten in Santa Fe a few times and enjoyed meals at a range of places, including The Old House; Zia Diner; Cafe San Marcos (in Cerrillos); Burt's La Taquieria.

Wondering if there's any place an hour or even more away that we should make plans to visit. We usually cook quite a lot out there but would love to find an off-the-beaten-path place (like Cafe San Marcos - a feed store/restaurant) that's worth a meander.

Thanks in advance,

Liza

[Biscotti]

If you take the high road to Taos, there is a restaurant called Rancho De Chimayo that I have been to quite a few times and have always enjoyed (although I must tell you that I haven't been in five years). The drive from Santa Fe is truly beautiful and the restaurant (and I believe an Inn) is fun and the food (at least when we were there) was authentic. Very casual.

If you are in Santa Fe at all, I would recommend a Mexican place called Maria's. It is away from the tourist areas and is very reasonable with the best Margaritas in town.

Also, on a non-food related recommendation. If possible, visit the Acoma Pueblo if you haven't already. It is about 1 1/2 hour west of Santa Fe. Amazing placed with incredible history.

Have a great vacation!

[Rail Paul]

I'll put in a good word for Cafe Pasqual in downtown Santa Fe. We enjoyed it immensely this past spring.

Dinner at rancho San Juan in the farthest reaches of Espanola (30 miles from SF) was delightful. Its a Relais & Chateaux property. Fixed price menu, generally two choices. Was $65pp. Limited, but carefully chosen wine list. They used to have the info on their website.

Jumbo Burgers (on 285 as you enter Espanola) is a high volume local favorite. I was enthralled to watch the 8 women assemble burgers chili, etc. Two local chile, hominy and bean vendors have set up their pickup trucks across the street. Sell by the pound.

Had great rolled tortillas at the little place directly opposite the Santuario at Chimayo. Something like $2 each. Rancho is OK, but I've found it to have lost some of its edge over the past few years, or maybe my tastes have changed.

I posted on the spring trip, it should be on eGullet somewhere

Have a great trip!

[Liza]

Has anyone gone to any of the feast day celebrations at nearby Pueblos? We're near Cochiti, Tesuque, and more, and would be interested in investigating Pueblo cooking.

El Rancho de las Golindrinas, a living museum near Cerrilos, has a fall harvest festival where they cook bread in the kivas and make wine, just as people did hundreds of years ago.

[Liza]

First stop from the airport:

San Marcos Cafe, slightly north of Cerrilos, on Route 14, the Turquose Trail. (505-471-9298, open 8a-2p only). A combination feed store, bird sanctuary and restaurant, San Marcos serves up hearty Southwestern food with little style, but much enthusiasm. We were greeted by a pea-hen and 3 barking puppies. A cat sitting in the driver's seat of a car next to ours, paws on the steering wheel, was attempting to either back up or run over the puppies. We proceeded inside.

Sometimes the menus in this part of the world remind me of the Monty Python Spam sketch. Whatever we had - two combinations of eggs, chile, beans, cheese and tortillas - was lively and hot. A warning: if you are going to stop at San Marcos on your way to Santa Fe, be advised that you will be full on ready for a nap immediately upon reaching your destination. It is with great hesitation that I suggest dining at San Marcos if your final destination is further than ten miles beyond Santa Fe. You will be very, very drowsy, and even thoughts of what the heck the cat was doing at the steering wheel will not keep you from wishing to pull over and just grab a few.

That said, I easily recommend San Marcos, especially for the discrimination diner who finds that watching guinea fowl, turkeys, and peacocks greatly enhances the dining experience. An added bonus if you're low on grain.

[laura]

Liza I envy you , I haven't been in that area for a few years but I remember winter to be a beautiful time of the year, of course Santa Fe "s weather is great all year except for a muddy spring. I second Cafe

Pasqual. It is excellent for all three meals. Rancho Chimayo, is , I suppose , authentic , the drive is very

nice, but in my experience the food is not that great. Remember, Margueritas at that altitude can be lethal.Guadeloupe Cafe, always crowded, good for breakfast. It's been so long that I have been to Coyote Cafe, that I couldn't vouch for it but it has been good and inventive in the past. Santa cafe, I

have generally been lukewarm, about., Lafonda as an example of idiosyncratic early southwestern

design should not be missed, the food in the restaurant is ok. The various pueblos usually have ceremonial dances this time of year. Bandolier park is a great place to hike and explore cliff dwellings, and it is close to Santa Fe.

[Liza]

(Sorry for any misleading writing, but we're actually back from our trip, our 4th in recent years).

Through one of two free food-obsessed local magazines (La Cocinita and Local Flavor) we discovered Hayward F. Simoneaux's tiny chocolate shop, Todos Santos ("All Saints"). Voted one of the top ten chocolatiers in the country by Chocolatier magazine, Hayward's little shop in the Sena Plaza courtyard is filled to the ceiling with imported chocolates, and his own handmade renderings of saints, truffles, and assorted chocolate erotica. He also sells miniature Mexican wrestling action figures. Really, a one-stop shopping site for the discriminating wrestling slash erotica slash chocolate lover...but that about covers everyone, doesn't it?

[Rail Paul]

Rancho Chimayo, is , I suppose , authentic , the drive is very  nice, but in my experience the food is not that great.  Remember, Margueritas at that altitude can be lethal.Guadeloupe Cafe, always crowded, good for breakfast.  It's been so long that I have been to Coyote Cafe, that I couldn't vouch for it  but it has been good  and inventive in the past.

The area around Chimayo has been gradually increasing in population as artists move in. Dee purchased several bowls and small copper sculptures from various merchants. There's a branch of the Turquoise Trail which covers several textile makers, sculptors, and jewelry producers.

One byproduct of this activity is an increase in employment for an area still desperately poor by most material standards. We purchased several items at Terra Weaving in Ensenada (far, far northcentral NM) where 20 weavers now produce blankets, coats, shirts, etc at very reasonable prices.

[Priscilla]

Liza a great, evocative writeup, and NOT just because of the ambitious cat.

The heart-shaped ristra hanging on my front door pulses with pride.

[Liza]

It was one determined cat, Priscilla.

For the feline-challenged visiting Santa Fe, I recommend a visit to Collected Works bookstore on San Francisco Street. Therein resides a lovely calico cat who enjoys under-the-chin rubs.

[Wilfrid]

So it was "rousting" coyotes, not "roasting" coyotes? Never mind.

[Liza]

'Fraid so. No coyotes roasted, nor nearly rousted. Must 'ave been 'ibernating. Or we're very, very quiet.

The local Whole Foods ("Did you find everything you were looking for today?") did provide us with short ribs, wild salmon, local ostrich, local chickens and eggs, pigs trotters, and rabbits. (Note: no balls on offer).

The local eggs have VERY yellow yolks. The local orange juice (Sunshine brand, made daily in Santa Fe) is easily the most delicious we've ever sampled. And the erotic chocolates, well...they do go down a treat.

[Wilfrid]

Er...no, let's leave that alone.

[Priscilla]

Wilfrid's inferring something.

I, however, am explicitly asking what did you do with some of these other ingredients.

(Little ah, suffix, problem corrected.)

Edited January 7, 2003 by Priscilla (log)

[Liza]

Let's see...if memory serves me correctly, we braised the short ribs in veal stock, mirepoix, after marinating in garlic, rosemary, honey and some kind of acid. Served with Thomas Keller's fancy-name-for-eggwhite and blanched garlic cakes. Yummy.

Slow roasted the salmon. OH! Let me mid-face (somewhere after a preface, yes?) with this: we were cooking on an electric oven. Oh the humanity.

Ostrich mignon, I believe.

MANY roasted chickens, lovingly stuffed under the skin with butter and herbs and sprizted with lemon juice (per Jeremiah Tower). Served with many sides of roasted root vegetables.

MANY brillaintly yellow brunches of scrambed eggs, sometimes with fried tortillas, sometimes with toast.

A lovely visit to Kim Muller, proprietress of Cheesecraft - the only local cheese importer - yielded some lovely Point Reyes blue, the American Cheese Society best-in-show winning Capricious, and some amazing artisanal polenta.

Did I mention that one can purchase wine at the supermarket? Outstanding.

[Priscilla]

Crikey! Oh the humanity makes its return and it's about effing time, too.

Supermarket wine purchasement, a privilege reserved for adults I do not take for granted.

[Liza]

We also heard the Brubeck Oratorio. OH. That's OT. Sorry! But it was RIGHT before we made dinner.

[Wilfrid]

Did I mention that one can purchase wine at the supermarket? Outstanding.

Gomorrah.

[Jaymes]

Memory bogs, recollections run together, truths overlap.

Seems to me like most places where I have lived, one can purchase wine at the supermarket.

Here in Texas, for sure.

Where are you all that you cannot?

[Rail Paul]

I think there was a thread on eGullet a while back about driveup liquor stores. New Mexico still treasures the few remaining (grandfathered from 1965, or some such) stores.

Someplace else, maybe Arizona, also has drive up stores. NJ had them in the 1960s, but only for warm beer by the case. No hard liquor, or singles of colt .45 or mickey big mouth.

[southern girl]

Liquor stores with drive thrus are still relatively prevelant in NE FL

Edited January 8, 2003 by southern girl (log)

[Dana]

In Kansas, the only liquour that can be purchased at the grocery is beer with a 3.2percent alcohol level. It's downright nasty.

[Liza]

Jaymes et al,

One cannot purchase wine or liquor at supermarkets here in New York City. Roaming the enormous aisles of the local Alberston's or Whole Foods in Santa Fe, I was filled with joy and a twinge of sadness that this was but a temporary respite.

Supermarkets, in general, outside of the NYC area are a revelation to this New Yorker.

[Jaymes]

Jaymes et al,

One cannot purchase wine or liquor at supermarkets here in New York City.

Oh, the inhumanity of it all....

Perhaps y'all should start a movement, a groundswell, a force to be reckoned with...

A veritable wave of demand for change.

An insistance on joining us free-minded, forward-thinking Texans in the wine sections of supermarket aisles.