Category: Closed in 2014

BurgersClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenRio Rancho

NM Rodeo Burgers – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

“Traveling with the rodeo It’s the only life I’ll ever know I started in New Mexico Must have been a thousand years ago.” ~Lyrics to “Ride ‘Em Cowboy” by Paul Davis Although my friends and I were all fairly accomplished horse riders in the svelte and carefree days of our youth, Peñasco didn’t have a high school rodeo team so we couldn’t show off our skills in the arena of competition. Instead we entertained ourselves with such non-sanctioned “rodeo” events as hand-fishing for bottom-feeding suckers and tossing them into a chicken coop where a frenzied take-away melee would ensue with feathers and fish entrails flying. We also enjoyed tossing wet bailing wire into electrical wires overhead. if done right, the…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2014Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Bouche – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Career paths do not always unfold as stereotypes might dictate. Heavily recruited out of Mission, Texas, a high school football hotbed, Frans Dinklemann, a 6’6″ 241-pound defensive end, signed with the University of New Mexico where his Lobo teammates included perennial National Football League (NFL) All-Pro Brian Urlacher. By his senior year, Frans had grown to 6’7″ and 270 pounds and moved to the offensive line where he set the team weight room record for offensive linemen with a 33-inch vertical leap. The stereotype of the offensive lineman is of a brutish behemoth heavy on brawn and light on brain, a misanthrope with very little personality or charisma. In his inimitable manner, Hall of Fame NFL coach and longtime television…

BarbecueBernalilloClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Back-Sass BBQ – Bernalillo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Every few years, the eyes of the world fixate on a tiny chimney perched on the roof of the Sistine Chapel as millions await the telltale plumes of white smoke which signify that a new pope has been elected. Since November, 2012, savvy Duke City area barbecue aficionados have been following plumes of smoke emanating from a mobile eighteen-foot grilling machine, a sign that great barbecue is imminent. Fittingly “Follow the Smoke” is the motto of the Back-Sass BBQ team which has been hauling its mother ship of barbecue all over the city. On January 29, 2014, Back-Sass BBQ put down roots in Bernalillo, launching its bodacious barbecue operation in a restaurant storefront. Located on North Camino del Pueblo less…

Closed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenSoul FoodSouth CarolinaSouthern

Gullah Cuisine – Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

No culinary tour of South Carolina’s Lowcountry would be complete without sampling Gullah cuisine at least once. In the Lowcountry, Gullah represents several things: people, culture and language. As a people, the Gullah represent a distinctive group of African Americans living along the island chains and coastal plains which parallel the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The Gullah people are directly descended from the thousands of slaves who labored on the rice plantations in the moist, semitropical country bordering the South Carolina and Georgia coastline. Because of their relative isolation, the Gullah have managed to preserve their dialect and culture more completely than virtually any other group in the country. Where Gullah culture is most in evidence is in the…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenItalianRated 23

Terra Bistro Italiano – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

To some extent, people watch Anthony Bourdain for the same reasons they tune in to infamous shock-jock Howard Stern–to see what he’ll say next. Though Bourdain, the best-selling author, world traveler, renown chef and “poet of the common man” is hardly the potty-mouthed bane of the Federal Communications Commission that Stern is, his incisive comments are oft peppered with pejoratives and references to genitalia. They’re also laden with insightful, well-reasoned, highly intelligent and well articulated thoughts uncommon in the world of food television currently dominated by pretty faces with Ultra Brite smiles. In the 2010 season premier of his No Reservations show, the first words Bourdain uttered were “the optimist lives on a peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is…

AfricanAlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not Forgotten

Rafiki Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

“Let us break bread and celebrate our diversity.” ~Desmond Tutu Peruvian cuisine…been there, done that!  Moroccan meals…that’s so yesterday.  Persian food…it’s had its day.  Pan Asian dining…erstwhile eating.  Never mind Italian regional cuisine and Spanish tapas.  Once fresh and nouveau, they’re now practically prehistoric.  Who would have thought ten years ago that the Duke City would become so cosmopolitan, so open to multicultural culinary elements from all over the world?  Who would have guessed that cuisine once considered exotic and alien would become just another welcome part of the culinary climate? In contemporary times fashioned by an interconnected world, a community of intrepid diners in Albuquerque has become very receptive and accepting of new foods. We embrace diversity, craving adventurous…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011

Lumpy’s Burgers – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Of all the adjectives that can be used to describe something or someone, lumpy is certainly not one of the most complimentary.  Think of all the Archie Bunker-like tantrums thrown during holiday meals when lumpy mashed potatoes are served or the breakfast battles that ensue when the oatmeal is lumpy. In fits of pique, seven-time Academy Award nominated actor Richard Burton often called his voluptuous wife Elizabeth Taylor “lumpy,” perhaps one of the reasons Hollywood’s most volatile couple was twice divorced and their relationship generally tumultuous. Perhaps worse than describing something as “lumpy” is giving someone that nickname. Consider the Saturday Night Live skit which poked fun at former University of New Mexico golfer and current PGA tour pro Tim…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoVietnamese

Pho Hoa – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Though it ended in 1975, the Vietnam war was still very fresh in the minds of Americans when I enlisted in the Air Force two years later.  Many of my senior colleagues had served in Vietnam and regaled me with tales of their adventures.  It wasn’t man’s inhumanity to man they took away from the experience, but the goodness of people brought together by exigent circumstances.  It is very telling of the high character of my colleagues that despite the ravages of war, they had fallen in love with Vietnam: its people, culture and its food.  Several of my friends sponsored Vietnamese families fleeing the beleaguered nation. One of my friends told me the beauty of Vietnam was best seen…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenPeruvian

Taste of Peru – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Early in 2013, the National Restaurant Association took the pulse of more than 1,800 professional chefs and nearly 200 professional bartenders with its annual “What’s Hot” culinary survey designed to predict restaurant menu trends for the coming year. Considered the definitive forecast of culinary inclinations, the survey’s “Ethnic Cuisines and Flavors” category was topped by Peruvian cuisine which is not only hot, it’s cool. It’s hip, swanky and trendy. It’s so “happening” that even New Mexico, which is sometimes years behind culinary trends, has embraced it. Since 2011, three Peruvian restaurants have launched in the Duke City. Peruvian cuisine is so diverse–recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the nation with the most local plates, some 491 officially registered…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenVegetarian/Vegan

Mint Tulip Vegan Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

“Once a year during a certain holiday in November, meat-eaters use the hollowed-out rectum of a dead bird as a pressure cooker for stuffing. And people think vegans are weird because we eat tofu?” ~Gary Yourofsky In the spirit of the much debated question of “nature or nurture,” my inaugural visit to The Mint Tulip Vegan Restaurant prompted my own philosophical contemplation, “are veggie haters born or made?”  The answer is probably a little of both. Many of us were–as children–traumatized by well-intentioned parental chiding or threats regarding vegetables: “Eat Your Vegetables!”   “You’re not leaving this table until you eat your rutabaga!”  “No dessert until you finish all your vegetable medley!” Then there are those of us who were once…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenIndianLos Ranchos de AlbuquerqueRated 24Vegetarian/Vegan

Paddy Rawal’s OM- Fine Indian Dining – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

It wasn’t New Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce winter weather that enticed Chef Pramad “Paddy” Rawal to remain in the Land of Enchantment. In fact, when he first landed at Albuquerque’s International Sunport, he wondered if he had gotten on the correct flight. Albuquerque was as frigid as his home in Michigan which he had left just hours prior. Attired in clothing more appropriate for a balmy spring day, Paddy had certainly not anticipated the winter snap that kept New Mexicans indoors for several days on that uncommonly cold December in 2010. Paddy was in New Mexico to visit his artist friends Dick and Jane in Santa Fe. Michigan transplants themselves, his friends had long tried to influence Paddy to leave…