Chow

I've been eating a fair amount of soup lately as the temps haven't been deadly. Here's pho from Hot 'n Spicy. I've had it a couple times recently and appreciate the numerous basil leaves they give you. I've noticed that their jalapeno slices tend to be of a large diameter.

I took a friend's daughter there for dinner recently and she remarked that her dish had the perfect amount of spicy heat. Contrariwise, my ladyfriend ordered Pad Woon Sen there at medium heat and it burned her mouth up real good. "Well, I can't complain about it as I knew the place is called Hot 'n Spicy when I walked in," she admitted.

That place has quickly become a favorite.

When I couldn't indulge in pho, I went with wonton soup. This is a generous helping of the stuff from a Chinese joint at Global Market's food hall the name of which I cannot recall. Tasty but I wouldn't have minded more - much more - baby bok choy.

While it hasn't been 90 degrees out, I have nonetheless been trying to avoid cooking inside which means grilling outside. Here's chicken with Thai cucumber salad that I made.

Pork chops seasoned with that Cherry Bomb seasoning that I've mentioned previously.

My ladyfriend assembled chicken kabobs one evening and I cooked them up fine.

Walleye with green beans. I would like to get one of those tray hoolies so I don't have to wrap fishes up in foil for grilling.

I finally busted out the BBQ rub I bought in Albuquerque.

The chops turned out well. A little heat but nothing deadly. Instead just good red chili flavor.

Tangent: I was in a store recently and saw Hatch chili something or other and I immediately had a flashback to Albuquerque.

Spring rolls from Hot & Spicy. Mmm...

Lastly, the pollo soup from La Pollera Colombiana on East Wash. Simple yet delicious. Plenty of chicken along with potatoes and carrots. Good basic food. The staff there that night were quite friendly and our server was happy to let my ladyfriend ply her limited Spanish on her. Also of note was the football game on the TVs. When Brazil scored, the announcer yelled "GOOOOOAL!!" for about 15 seconds. Twice. Great food, great people, great atmosphere.

Taste of Albuquerque: Eldora Chocolate

Some Eldora chocolate from Albuquerque.

It was found in a little shop somewhere in Old Town.

This is tasty stuff. Perhaps a little less sweet than most chocolates that are 70%, um, chocolate. I intend to try more if/when I return to Albuquerque. Give me that 85% bar!

Chock full o'Pine Nuts

Earlier this week I finally busted open my bag of piñon coffee that I bought in Albuquerque.

It was amongst the few edibles and didn't come red, green, and Xmas. A real treat from the Southwest, it's coffee flavored with piñon, a.k.a. - pine nut. But not just any old pine nut. This stuff has New Mexican terrior as the nuts are from the Colorado Pinyon Pine (Pinus edulis), a pine native to the American Southwest and northern Mexico.

I brewed some up and took my first taste...

On the first couple sips the buttery flavor came through but I found that my tongue got used to it leaving the nuttiness to mingle with the coffeeness for the rest of the cup. It was delicious. 

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.

********

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.

Wrong turns were taken

From my vacation: