Category: Announcements

Announcements

Red and Green: New Mexico’s Culinary Scene is on Fire: November, 2024

Gil Garduno

ALBUQUERQUE VEGAN RESTAURANT AMONG AMERICA’S TOP 100: In its compilation of the Top 100 Vegan Restaurants in the US for 2024, Yelp elaborated: “Once a niche cuisine, plant-based food—free of animal ingredients—is now a top dining trend, as more consumers choose diets for a healthier body and planet.”  Everyman philosopher Homer Simpson continues to resist that trend, preferring pork-based products to health: “I’d be vegetarian if bacon grew on trees.”  One point Yelp didn’t make is that vegan and vegetarian restaurants are serving food that’s absolutely delicious–whether it’s Mediterranean, Mexican or Moroccan.   As Albuquerque’s Vegos Vegan New Mexican has proven, even New Mexican cuisine can be made deliciously vegan style.  Vegos ranked 66th in Yelp’s compilation. TALKING ABOUT TACOS:  Tacos aren’t…

AnnouncementsRed or Green - New Mexico Food Scene is on Fire

Red or Green–New Mexico’s Food Scene Was on Fire in 2023

Gil Garduno

2023: The Year In Review T’was the year that was, a banner year for Gil’s Thrilling (And Filling) Blog with more milestones having been achieved. Most significantly to your friendly neighborhood restaurant review blogger was the continued dialogue–your sharing of comments noting contentment, humor, news or displeasure with me or some other food topic. There are now 13,869 comments on 1,370 reviews, an increase of 619 comments and 59 new reviews over 2022. My edacious publicist Bob of the Village of Los Ranchos (BOTVOLR) retains the lifetime commenter achievement award with well over 1200 comments over the life of the blog.  In 2023, however, he was supplanted by the always clever and witty Lynn Garner as the year’s most prolific…

AnnouncementsGil's Best of the Best

Gil’s Best of the Best for 2023

Gil Garduno

Welcome to Gil’s Taylor Swift-free list of my favorite dishes in 2023. These dishes were selected not for complex culinary preparations and exorbitant price points, but for the simple preparation of dishes that taste as if they were prepared by a chorus of angels in a celestial kitchen. These are the dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this list was heretofore unknown to my palate before 2023. Every dish was a delicious discovery from within New Mexico’s sacred borders. In chronological order, my “best of the best” are: January 2023 You…

Announcements

Souper Bowl 2023 – Soups to Soothe The Soul

Gil Garduno

Genesis 25:34 recounts the story of Isaac’s two sons Esau and Jacob.  Talk about a sibling rivalry.  Coming home from an unsuccessful hunt one day, Esau was exhausted and famished.  The aroma of hot, steaming red lentil soup filled the air and he would do anything to have some.   His brother Jacob, a crafty schemer, agreed to give his brother some soup in exchange for the birthright to which the elder son was entitled.  Esau acquiesced. There are two things about this popular Old Testament story that have always perplexed me: (1)  Just how good can soup possibly be that someone would renounce a birthright to have some?  On Saturday, February 4th, 2023, I was privileged to serve as a…

AnnouncementsGil's Best of the Best

Gil’s Best of the Best for 2022

Gil Garduno

You might think that my annual “best of the best” compilation would be replete with lavishly extravagant dishes proffered by swanky fine-dining establishments.  Instead, the list of dishes I enjoyed most across the Land of Enchantment in 2022 are almost exclusively of the “cheap eats” (if that term even applies under the current economy) variety, selected not for complex culinary preparations and exorbitant price points, but for the simple preparation of dishes that taste as if they were prepared by a chorus of angels in a celestial kitchen.  These are the dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly…

AnnouncementsRed or Green - New Mexico Food Scene is on Fire

Red or Green–New Mexico’s Food Scene Was on Fire in 2022

Gil Garduno

New Mexico’s restaurant owners ended 2022 with a sigh of relief after yet another tough year. While the number of guests has rebounded (to some extent), already slim profits were diminished even further.  Restaurateurs faced ongoing struggles from inflationary pressure on food costs, hiring and retaining staff, along with supply chain issues and availability of key items. Restaurateurs felt the pressure on the bottom line in actual earnings.  These challenges made staying in business a difficult proposition.  A significant number of restaurant closures transpired during the year.   On the flip side of the coin, it was a banner year for New Mexico restaurants with the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives crew featuring restaurants in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and…

AnnouncementsRed or Green - New Mexico Food Scene is on Fire

Red or Green–New Mexico’s Food Scene Was on Fire in 2021

Gil Garduno

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a cautious reemergence into a world where “normal” is constantly being redefined. New Mexico’s restaurants continue to push boundaries, shift paradigms, and invent new and better ways to serve their guests.  2021 saw the proliferation of the “ghost kitchen” concept.  Bold restaurateurs began pushing back against parasitic delivery companies that misrepresented alliances with the very restaurants whose profits they usurp.  Branded meals–ingredients, recipes and pre-cooking started by a restaurant and finished at home–became a part of the fabric that is dining out.  So is the ever-increasing shift to off-premises dining and the growing popularity of food trucks.  Menus were increasingly streamlined, in part to supply chain issues and staffing shortages.  Most diners agree 2021 was an improvement…

AnnouncementsGil's Best of the Best

Gil’s Best of the Best for 2021

Gil Garduno

You might think that my annual “best of the best” compilation would be replete with lavishly extravagant dishes proffered by swanky fine-dining establishments.  Instead, the list of dishes I enjoyed most across the Land of Enchantment in 2021 are almost exclusively of the “cheap eats” (or reasonably priced) variety, selected not for complex culinary preparations and exorbitant price points, but for the simple preparation of dishes that taste as if they were prepared by a chorus of angels in a celestial kitchen.  These are the dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this list…

AnnouncementsRed or Green - New Mexico Food Scene is on Fire

Red or Green: New Mexico’s Food Scene Was On Fire in 2020

Gil Garduno

We’ll always remember 2020 as the year we mostly stayed home, the year of cancelled vacations, of working remotely and as the ignominious year of politics and pandemics, a “year of nonstop awfulness,” according to Dave Berry. It was the year so many our favorite restaurants and small businesses had to shutter their doors and those who didn’t close, struggled mightily to remain viable.    Despite restrictions and resets, we continued to support restaurant through take-out and delivery options enabled by locally-based technology solutions such as Selflane.  Some of us discovered inspired innovation in the form of mobile kitchens (that’s food truck to you, Bob) offering dining concepts not often found in brick-and-mortar establishments. 2020 was another banner year for…

AnnouncementsGil's Best of the Best

Gil’s “Best of the Best” For 2020

Gil Garduno

2020 will be remembered for a series of shelter-in-place and lockdown restrictions that largely limited restaurants to delivery, call in, carry out and online ordering options.  The resilience, strength and innovation demonstrated daily by restaurateurs throughout the country has been inspirational.  Despite the tremendous challenges and economic hardships they faced daily, restaurants soldiered on, blessing us with a delicious bounty that deserves to be recognized.  Without further ado, these are the dishes I enjoyed most across the Land of Enchantment in 2020, the fifteen dishes most indelibly imprinted on my memory engrams…the first dishes that come to mind when I close my eyes and reflect on the past year in eating. As with previous yearly compilations, every item on this…

Announcements

New Mexico Eateries Dishing Out Great Grub During Lockdown

Gil Garduno

Several years ago after waging a lengthy and courageous battle, my friend Larry’s beloved bride of nearly four decades succumbed to the ravages of cancer. It was a devastating loss for her family, friends and community who loved her. Among the very first people who reached out to Larry were Joe and Kassie Guzzardi, the affable proprietors of Joe’s Pasta House, a Rio Rancho institution and one of the family’s favorite restaurants. Joe and Kassie ferried over trays of food to feed all the well-wishers.   Not even a year later, our friend Brian passed away at 48, far-too-young for someone who had so much to give.  When his parents from Fort Worth asked us to help them find a…