The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: sjlimmer on March 10, 2006, 08:13:05 pm
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Anyone here from (or familiar with) Albuquerque? I'm going to be there for 2 days next week, and I was hoping someone might have food/drink recommendations for me. Any food I must eat, or watering holes I must get shit-faced in?
Thanks!
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I just passed through there a couple of weeks ago and they do Mexican food differently than in Texas. Mainly they use those Utah Scones only they call them sopaplillas. And instead of Jalapeno they use the local New Mexico chiles which are pretty damn hot. I ate at a place called La Hacienda Restaurant and Cantina and it was damn good. It's located at 12935 Central NE, and there phone number is 505-271-0444. Also, my very pregnant waitress was hell of cute.
If you get up to Belin there is a definite must try restaurant. A little hole in the wall that has the best food in New Mexico. I can't think of the name, but if you really want to know i'll call my Dad and ask him. We did work there a few years ago and ate there as often as we could. He's been back recently to Belin and went back to that Restaurant so he probably remembers the name.
~Paul
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While we're on the topic of restaurant suggestions... Paul, I gather you're now an expat, but could you or one of the other Houstonians recommend a nice Houston restaurant I could get a married couple a gift certificate from? I'm looking for something where they'd be able to get apps and entrees and maybe a bottle of wine in the $125-$150 range. I think they're pretty adventurous when it comes to cuisine...
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While we're on the topic of restaurant suggestions... Paul, I gather you're now an expat, but could you or one of the other Houstonians recommend a nice Houston restaurant I could get a married couple a gift certificate from? I'm looking for something where they'd be able to get apps and entrees and maybe a bottle of wine in the $125-$150 range. I think they're pretty adventurous when it comes to cuisine...
I could recommend scores of restaurants that would be perfect for the adventurous palate, but none of them would be that expensive, not even close. As for which ones sell gift certificates, I don't know, you'd have to check. But any restaurant I would recommend two could dine like Kings for less than $50, and the best of them, probably $30 or so.
~Paul
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Oh oh oooooooohhhhhhhhh! Guess who lived in Albuquerque for a year and a half.
Paul is right about the chiles. Hatch chiles are mostly grown in Hatch, NM, and they're similar to Anaheim chiles that you can get all over. They range from mild to insanely hot. New Mexican food is similar to Mexican, but there's little to no tomato, and everything revolves around the chiles. You will be asked "Red or green?" Red is the red chile sauce, which is made from the dried chiles that are ground up and thinned with water or chicken broth. Green is green chile sauce, made from fresh chiles, usually with a bit of cilantro and other stuff. I always preferred the green stuff, but try them both. Hatch chiles also make for a damn fine chile relleno--peppers are stuffed with cheese, battered, deep-fried, then topped with chile sauce.
One of my favorites from back in the day is The Frontier (http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=305), a block-long 24-hour diner-type place across from the University. I love their breakfast burritos, green chile stew, western hash browns (Ore-Idas fried up and topped with green chile sauce), and sweet rolls.
I also liked Los Cuates, at San Mateo and Washington, and Ron's Camino Real, on Yale south of University. There was a joint called El Patio, with nice outdoor seating, near the University as well (I lived near UNM, can you tell?), but I forget exactly where.
I was very disappointed to learn that Jack's, our favorite shithole bar from those days, shut down a few years ago. We liked a bar on Central called Gecko's because they always had hot waitresses. The El Rey/Golden West was the best place for live music.
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Thanks for the suggestions, paul and carlos. I don't know how much free time I'll have (I'm in town for a job interview), but I'll have to see how many of these places I can try. The prospect of good chiles is making my mouth water.
Any opinions on Billy's Long Bar (http://realbeer.com/nmvbp/billys.htm)? Any place with ~50 taps is bound to get my hopes up since it's hard to find more than 3, none of them good, here in small-town MO.