Food in New Mexico

One would expect to find a prevalence of high quality Mexican food in the Southwestern United States.  I have to admit that that was not necessarily the case in Arizona, with the notable exception of the Plaza Restaurant in Wilcox.  However, now that we are in New Mexico, I see the definite influence of Mexico in the food.  New Mexico enchiladas are sometimes “rolled” and sometimes “flat”—meaning that the tortilla is laid flat on the plate and the ingredients are stacked on top and then heated so that everything blends together. Pretty yummy.  Burritos are meat, cheese, and sauce only.  Rice and beans are not added.  This makes the burritos delicious, but not huge.   Also, there are apparently an infinite number of ways to prepare green chili sauce in New Mexico.  All delicious and all different depending upon the cook.  Very flavorful, and not necessarily hot.

We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Silver City, New Mexico, for a few days while Morrison was in the shop getting new brakes, shocks, and tires.  They offer hot breakfast at Comfort Inn, and I was surprised that the menu changed from day to day.  They offered tamales every day.  One day the home fried potatoes were definitely seasoned with chili powder, another day instead of scrambled eggs, there were empanadas that were egg instead of pastry on the outside and cheese inside. Another day, the hot food chafing dish was filled with hard fried eggs.  I don’t know if that’s supposed to be “Mexican”, but I had never seen that particular presentation of eggs at a hotel.  At the Jalisco Cafe last night, Dave finally scored in his quest for the perfect chili relleno.  He always orders a relleno, and judges the quality of the restaurant’s food based on that relleno.  Well, the Jalisco Cafe got top ratings from Dave.  The restaurant is 1 1/2 miles from the Comfort Inn.  We decided we could walk there, then get an Uber back.  Dave questioned one of the hotel staff about whether taxis or Ubers were available in town.  They said oh sure, so we started out on foot.  After we were stuffed with food and had imbibed our fair share of tequila, we walked a few blocks, then sat down on a bench and tried to get an Uber.  We sat on that bench for a good ten minutes and were never paired with a driver, so we canceled the request and continued walking.  Next time we saw a bench, we sat down again and requested an Uber.  By now it was almost full dark, and the way back to the motel was uphill. We waited and waited, the app thanking us for our patience, but a driver never picked up our request, so we sucked it up and walked the rest of the way to the hotel.  When we got there, the girl behind the desk said they don’t have Uber or taxis in Silver City because it’s such a small place.  She wondered why anyone would tell us different, and we wondered too.  Anyway, even though the Jalisco Cafe was delicious, we probably won’t eat there again while without a vehicle.  Three miles round trip walk for dinner is just a tad too far.