{"id":4965,"date":"2012-10-28T22:00:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T02:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=4965"},"modified":"2024-12-04T17:36:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:36:47","slug":"hushpuppies-and-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=4965","title":{"rendered":"Hushpuppies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Capitol April 1999<\/p><\/div>\n

Linda Burton posting from <\/em>Santa Fe, New Mexico <\/em>\u2013 I\u2019m in Santa Fe now, my break is over and I\u2019m back on Capital City duty again. I\u2019ll be hard at work exploring this fascinating capital city for the next two weeks. And tasting the tasty cuisine that I\u2019ve read so much about. My plan today was Sunday brunch. According to the internet, Tecolote offered the \u201cbest breakfast in town\u201d and it was just down the street from me; after that I would check out the beautiful pink adobe state capitol. I failed to write the Tecolote address on a post-it note; the GPS will know the name, I thought. It did not; alas, I never\u00a0found it. Onwards toward the capitol; one-way streets round the Plaza; the Sunday leisure crowd. Restaurants everywhere. Parking not. Curving roads. Right-turn only lanes that caught me unaware.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Capitol October 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Crosseyed and addlebrained and getting nowhere fast, I finally spotted a sign pointing to the Visitor Center. Ahh. Maps! Brochures! Directions! The capitol was just across the street, I was advised. I crossed, but the beautiful pink adobe I remembered from my visit in 1999 was nowhere to be seen. I remembered the sidewalks and the trees planted between; OMG they\u2019ve grown! Bushy and still in full leaf, they obliterated any street view of the building. Planters have been added; more greenery in the way. And where\u2019s the statue of Earth Mother? I found her over to the left, backed by a mass of trees; not only moved but replaced. The final surprise: the capitol is closed on Sundays. <\/p>\n

Good grief! I\u2019m starving now; I gave it up to find the restaurant recommended by my hotel; Mexican, with a distinctive flair; and near my room. At last I\u2019m there; For Lease<\/em> said the sign out front. Open<\/em>, said the sign at Long John Silvers, just next door. Day One in Santa Fe: hushpuppies! Back in my room, Visitor Guide in hand, I make up tomorrow\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Red or green? \u201cWhere you choose to give in to the charms of New Mexico\u2019s prized chiles doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d I read in the 2012 Santa Fe\u00a0Visitor Guide. <\/em>\u201cNew-Mex restaurants abound, and the chile\u2019s good at all of them.\u201d They mention some local favs: Tomasita\u2019s, at the Railyard, and La Choza, just off the tracks. Tia Sophia\u2019s is where Giada De Laurentis from the Food Network got her chili fix; The Shed, just off the Plaza, has a sublime red chile; the fiery green sauce at the southside Horseman\u2019s Haven is a must. Lots of local lingo there; map study will be next. (I must have chili on Halloween \u2013 I used to make it for my kids to eat when they\u2019d come home sugared up from Trick or Treat.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The passion for good food in Santa Fe stems from its rich culinary history, dating back centuries with the coming together of two major cultures: Native American and Mexican. Though many restaurants feature the indigenous ingredients of corn, chiles, squash and beans, almost every major ethnic cuisine is represented in the city\u2019s restaurants \u2013 Chinese, French, Hawaiian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Moroccan, and Thai \u2013 in bistros and chophouses; in high-end dining rooms and taco carts. Add to that the mountain vistas and the desert topography with the question: do you want to eat in front of a roaring fire, on outdoors on a sun-filled centuries-old plaza?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are over 200 restaurants in this Foodie Town of 75,764 people; many options to choose from in a town where international attention is focused on its food. So how to choose? Eat where the locals eat. That\u2019s my theory. I read that Caf\u00e9 Pasqual\u2019s has been a hometown favorite for more than 30 years; and that Tecolote Caf\u00e9 and The Pantry are family favorites. For upscale dining the Santa Fe\u00a0Visitor Guide<\/em>\u00a0mentions Geronimo (soft leather banquettes and eclectic menu), Coyote Caf\u00e9 (garners nationwide \"\"<\/a>attention), Restaurant Martin (Chef Martin Rios is inspired), Palace Restaurant and Saloon (newly revamped touch of Italian), and The Compound (Chef Mark Kiffin won a James Beard Award for best chef in the Southwest in 2006.) Fancy places; dress up-date! El Farol, El Meson, and La Boca are hotspots for tapas, if it\u2019s the little plates you want to try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s the variety of Pranzo Italian Grill, Jambo Caf\u00e9\u2019s Caribbean, New York Deli, Harry\u2019s Roadhouse for comfort food. There\u2019s the Bull Ring for steaks, India Palace, Mu Du Noodles, and finally, for singing and dancing the night away, Vanessie Santa Fe, a four-star continental restaurant with live performances, magnificent fireplaces, exciting art, and sensational acoustics. And don\u2019t forget the barbecue: The Cowgirl, The Ranch House, The Whole Hog.<\/p>\n

Deliciously Different, <\/em>the promos for Santa Fe claim. I grew up on hushpuppies and fish. I\u2019m about to expand my repertoire, for sure. And I’m going to find that State Capitol too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Santa Fe, New Mexico \u2013 I\u2019m in Santa Fe now, my break is over and I\u2019m back on Capital City duty again. I\u2019ll be hard at work exploring this fascinating capital city for the next two weeks. And tasting the tasty cuisine that I\u2019ve read so much about. My plan today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,1323],"tags":[1409,1396,1390,1391,1399,1413,1397,1388,1403,1404,1387,176,1408,1395,1410,1407,1402,1405,1393,1400,1398,1401,1411,186,1348,1406,1414,625,3074,1389,1394,1392,1412,1415],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4965"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4968,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions\/4968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}