New Mexico. The Grub.

I enjoy some Mexican food as much as the next red-blooded American male who likes to fart. I love me some chili con queso, a good taco, sizzlin' fajitas, etc. There is, however, a stopping point. There is such thing as too much, although I have at least two friends who would disagree with me.

When we arrived in New Mexico, we drove to Santa Fe to our hotel. From there, we found ourselves the first of several brew pubs and sat down for a beer while we waited for another of our party to show up. Chris, the guilty one, lives in Colorado and was driving to meet us and had not arrived just yet. So, the rest of us decided to enjoy our wait by downing some New Mexico beer and appetizers. We had nachos and chips with dips and some quesadillas.

When we met up with Chris, we all went to a fly-fishing shop where I bought a $75 fly-fishing hat, then headed out to dinner. Finding another brew pub, we sat down for a nice meal. A nice, Mexican food meal. I had shrimp fajitas this time around, and they were damn good.

To the left is a whole lot of New Mexico chilis. There are green ones and red ones, just like you see there, unless you are colorblind and are seeing what you think is yellow and maroon.

They eat these with everything. Not like you see them there, but chopped and roasted and stuff. They came with the quesadilla and nachos. There was a side of them with the fajitas. We went for ice cream one night and there was a shot glass worth of them at the bottom of the cone. My beer had them floating in it. Hell, they were stuffed inside of the mint on my pillow.

Now, I am prone to exaggeration at times, but I am almost not exaggerating here.

You can get red or green with your food. The green lends itself to a bit more heat, so I went with the green while we were there because I like to party.

After those two places, we headed out the next day to Pecos, New Mexico, where we would then go off the beaten path onto a not-as-beaten path into the mountains. Before we hit that dirt trail, we stopped at a general store in Pecos to get a few things. Mainly to get beer, as this place is BYOB. They fridge it up for you and everything and you can get to it at any time, they just don't provide it. Which is a good idea, when you think about it. You are playing with hooks the entire time, so it behooves them to not provide you with the alcohol.

Across the street from the general store was a small adobe packed restaurant, the name of which escapes me and is not entirely important. What is important is that my meal was Mexican food smothered in green chilis. So this is the third complete Mexican meal I have had in two days. I could feel my colon sneering at me, but whatever I had really tasted good. It was beef and cheese inside of some light Mexican pastry. Also, with the chilis option, they included with most dishes an awesome concoction consisting of zuchini and squash and onions and melted cheese. Very tasty.

From there it was on to the ranch itself. Cow Creek Ranch, for those that have already forgotten. In the main house is the dining room, where every group had their own table. We were a group of six, so we had our own six-seater right there waiting for us. This place does breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and there are plenty of snacks available if you are wont for something to gnosh. Also sodas and bottled water.

We arrived around 2pm or so, a little before our actual check-in time, but they let us check in earlier than usual. We did some fishing, then it was dinner time. As a change of pace, they were serving Mexican food! And lo and behold, there was a dish of green chilis for topping! On top of that, at least two of the dishes contained the same. Do not take this perfectly executed sarcasm as complaining, though, because it was absolutely delicious. The chef at the ranch is a gourmet, and everything he made was awesome.

There was some sort of chicken and cheese and chilis dish. Sliced steak with onions and peppers for fajitas. Some sort of corn-bread-chilis in a corn leaf wrap. Another one like that with pork. I know I am forgetting some stuff, but at that point I was a little overwhelmed with Mexican cuisine. Like I said though, it was really freaking good. I think desert was green chili cheesecake but I can't recall.

The next day, we were done with the Mexican food. Four full Mexican meals in two days is plenty enough, thank you. You know how you go to the bathroom several times a day to urinate? Right, well take that several times a day thing and associate it with what the kids like to call, Number Two.

For breakfast was normal fare; eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, crepes, waffles, etc. Normal breakfast stuff, very tasty. For lunch that day we had a choice of pork sandwich or chicken caesar salad. Nice light lunch to get you ready for some afternoon fish hunting.

I like to call it fish hunting. 'Fishing' just doesn't portray a picture as manly as Fish Hunting does. Hunting implies danger. And these fish were dangerous. They have little tiny small mini-teeth that could cause you some serious slight wincing.

Dinner that night was my favorite of the bunch. We had some nice medium-rare sirloin accompanied by a couple huge king crab legs. I forget exactly what the side dish was, but it really doesn't matter. The steak was cooked perfectly and the crab legs - pre-sliced - were packed full of meat. For some reason, I don't like regular crabs - which is odd because I loved them as a kid and grew up in Maryland near Baltimore - but I do love some king crab. Or snow crab. Those are good too.

The next day's breakfast was the same, pretty much. I went with some cereal, then fresh yogurt with granola.

Lunch was another example of the chef being awesome. We had a choice between some sort of chicken thing, another thing, and a hamburger. I got the hamburger. Topped with what, you ask? Green chilis. Cooked perfect, a little over an inch thick, delicious. My friend Dave and I went horseback riding afterwards, which was a little uncomfortable after a very full stomach. More on that in another post.

That night was the fish fry. Outside, within walking distance to the ranch but still out in the middle of the woods. They have a nice size fire set up and some chairs around it, plus a few picnic tables with log benches to sit on. The choices there were freshly fried-on-the-grill trout (if I remember I'll post the recipe up), grilled sausages, home-made potato salad, some kind of asparagus salad that I stayed away from because I don't like asparagus and I hear it makes your pee smell funny, some of that cheese-squash stuff, different kind of potatoes, and something else that I can't think of again.

That was the last of the ranch food, although they did pack us a to-go lunch for the ride out of there.

We drove back to Santa Fe and dropped Chris off at his car, then proceeded on to Albuquerque. That night, we found us a brew pub, the Chama River Brewing Company- the Fathers on the trip seemed to have a knack for that - and had us a nice dinner. I went with fish and chips, which were quite tasty, as was the brew itself.

The next day, after breakfast at the hotel, we did some sight-seeing and souvineer buying, then ended up eating at a local place in Albuquerque's Old Town called the High Noon Restaurant & Saloon. I believe I went with a salad, as I was starting to feel bloated having not yet digested the previously described fourth Mexican meal from a few days ago. We drank some there, too.

That night was the last in New Mexico. So after taking a short nap at the hotel after a vigorous walk around Old Town and a little workout on the credit card, we all hopped in the rental and made our way to the Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse. When you're in New Mexico, come to the Texas Land & Cattle!!! It kind of seemed almost like they didn't want to go with an Outback, so they renamed it and redecorated it. Still good though. Had me a big ol' steak.

That concludes the food portion of this epidode of the New Mexico blog. I recommend to any and all to head on out west... or north... or south... or wherever the hell direction it is to New Mexico from where you live and enjoy you some of their fine cuisine.

Go with the green chilis. Be sure to make time for trips to the restroom.