You can have Christmas in March in Albuquerque

A friend and I had lunch the other day at Ian's Pizza at Garver. My dining companion ordered breadsticks and we were asked what kind of dipping sauces we wanted. The helpful and friendly counter helper ran through the list of what was on offer: bacon queso, marinara, green chile ranch...

Wait!

Green chile ranch?!

I immediately took her up on that option as it was something of a vestigial reflex from my recent trip...

I grabbed a taxi a bit after midnight at the Albuquerque airport. It had been a long day of travel. A light wouldn't turn off on the plane in Madison which meant we sat on the runway for an hour or more and so I got to O'Hare late and missed my flight which necessitated a long layover. Hours and hours of interminable layover. I wasn't sure I'd be able to catch a flight that night as apparently there was a power outage at the Denver airport and the effects of that were cascading down to O'Hare. But the plane took off a bit after 9, thankfully.

Despite the lateness of the hour, my cab driver offered an important culinary lesson: in Albuquerque you have the choice of green chile, red chile, or both. This last option is called Christmas.

What a wonderful thing! As the trip wore on, I would learn just how significant the chile was to Albuquerque's identity, just how ingrained the humble fruits are in Albuquerque's psyche. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that public schools give kids a day or 2 off at harvest like Chicago students get Casamir Pulaski Day off or kids up north can take a week away from school for gun deer hunting season.

Green chile granola? Yes, I bought some.

While there I learned that the official state cookie is the biscochito. My stepson and his fiancée took me Celina's where they had a variety of flavors on offer including those with chile.

I think the use of lard and anise are the distinguishing features of this cookie. Very tasty!

The duality of chile even went beyond foodstuffs. Got a pain in your back? There's a chile for that.

Methinks a return trip is in order to further investigate the green-red dichotomy.

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After 4 or 5 days of eating at restaurants, I did some cooking at home. First was a loaf of Polish rye beer bread.

Misshapen, perhaps, but tasty.

In addition to the staff of life, I finally got around to making shrimp creole.

The poor shrimp had been in my freezer since I moved in here back in October. Prior to that, they were in the freezer of my marital residence for a short time. This batch of shrimp creole had been a long time coming.

It turned out well. Nice and chunky with extra Holy Trinity.

I need to grocery shop today and am thinking about what I want to eat in the coming week. If I recall correctly, I have most of the ingredients for bigos, including venison, and just need some cabbage.