So, Tuesday in Santa Fe, we went out for breakfast at the Santa Fe Baking Company. It's located in a strip mall around the corner from Trader Joe's. Z. ordered a giant cheese danish and a side of bacon (this was the summer of bacon for her- at least when going out to eat as it's a rarity in our house- up till now she never touched the stuff). I had something called the AM Sandwich which was gigantic and so good. It was a giant herb biscuit scrambled eggs, cheese and thinly sliced ham inside. I couldn't finish it, it was so big. I also had some of their organic decaf coffee with was very good. A. had blue corn pancakes with grilled sausage patties and organic coffee (regular of course). I forgot to take pictures (this happened a lot, we also often remembered part way through the meal). It was a busy place with mostly locals. We sat inside but they also have outside seating.
From there we went to the Santa Fe Farmer's Market. It's home has been moving around (they are working on a permanent home) and was in the parking lot of the DeVargas shopping center. It wasn't very big (I imagine it's much bigger on Saturdays) so it didn't take us long to poke through it. We bought some goat milk and honey soap in the shape of a sleeping cat for our neighbor who was cat sitting for us and a canvas Santa Fe Farmer's Market shopping bag.
We went back to the hotel (which was close by) and got ourselves ready to go out for the day. We drove the "low road" to Taos, which is the faster route which is mostly highway and goes through Espanola, famous for it's low-rider cars (although we didn't see any this trip, we've seen them in past trips). The last part of the trip does go through the mountains and it was quite beautiful. The "high road" is much more mountainous and windy and scenic, but takes a lot longer and with our late start we didn't want to spend the time driving.
When we got to Taos we drove right to the Taos Pueblo. A. and I had been wanting to go there since our first trip, when we drove the high road and halfway there I read in the newspaper that they were closed that day. So we just walked around Taos instead and had green chile cheeseburgers and looked at art galleries. This time we made sure it was open by calling ahead that morning.
We paid our entrance fees and bought a camera permit. The architecture of the pueblo is beautiful and I took a lot of pictures of buildings (none of the Pueblo people, although an occasional tourist got into a shot here and there). We went into one old woman's house and bought some oven baked bread (they bake it in outdoor ovens) and some pumpkin cookies (which were a bread like cookie, almost like a scone, not quite). For lunch we stopped at this stand one woman had where she was making Frito pies. She had one little table in the shade next to where she was preparing the food and told us to sit down there to eat. A. and I got the Frito pies, which were made differently from the Frito pies we have eaten at the Five and Dime at the Plaza in Santa Fe. The Five and Dime makes takes an individual sized bag of Fritos, opens it up and puts chili and cheese (and onions if you wish, I never wish) on top. Here, she took a styrofoam bowl and put the Fritos in the bottom, topped it with some chili, put the cheese and then some chopped tomatoes and shredded lettuce and then more chili on top. I know many Frito pie aficionados think the lettuce and tomato is sacrilege but I liked it. We got Z. a piece of Fry bread with some powdered sugar on top (kind of like eating funnel cake for lunch, but our choices were pretty limited as to what she'd eat). As we ate lots of people came by to get their lunch and the overwhelming majority were people from the Pueblo, so we figured we found another place where the locals ate.
After eating we went through some of the shops (they shops are in people's homes) and bought an inexpensive pair of turquoise and silver earrings. As we were about to leave a young woman was gathering a group of people for a guided tour and asked us if we'd like to join, so we did. I'm glad we did as we learned a lot and enjoyed the perspective of a younger, more "modern" member of the community (most of the Taos people live in more modern homes in the area surrounding the old Pueblo).
We took the "low road" back towards Santa Fe but in Espanola we turned left and headed towards Chimayo. Our first stop was the Santuario de Chimayo, a small church with is famous for it's miraculous healing dirt. A. was insistent that we go and get some of the dirt to bring home for me, even though we all know that the dirt is brought in each day from somewhere else. Let's not even talk about the fact that he is Jewish, not Catholic (although I was raised Catholic so maybe he thinks that make it okay :-) We got our dirt and looked at the wall of cast-off crutches and photos and rosary beads and went next door and bought a quart sized ziploc bag filled with Chimayo red chile powder. Oh did it smell so good! When we got back in the car we called a nearby restaurant called that we had always wanted to go to but never had made it to. It was early and we were able to get in without reservation. The restaurant is known for it's homestyle New Mexican food.
We ate outside in the garden, with climbing plants and flowers all around us. It was very pretty, however the bees and the flies loved the garden too, so we spent a lot of our meal battling the insects. We started the meal with chips and salsa of course. Z. had that old New Mexican favorite, chicken tenders and fries. A. ordered the Carne Asada, an 8 oz. steak covered in melted cheese and green chile with a cheese enchilada and refried beans and spanish rice on the side. He loved it and ate every bite. I ordered the Combinacion Tradicional which was a beef taco (shredded beef, like a brisket, in a hard corn tortilla shell), a cheese enchilada and a pork tamale with both red and green chile (aka Christmas), with Spanish rice and beans. Along with dinner was a basket of sopapillas, our first of the trip. The sopapillas were good but a little limp (the best ones of the trip were in Abq at Little Anita's towards the end of our travels) and we had to be very careful to put the plastic wrap back over the honey dish as bees do love honey. It was all very good and very filling but we still managed to make room for dessert. Z. had a chocolate ice cream sundae and A. and I each had a small flan. The flan was tasty but the texture was kind of odd (at least to me) as it had lots of little air bubble holes in it. We rolled ourselves out of there and drove back to Espanola and continued on the low road back to Santa Fe as we were all very tired and wanted to get to bed as soon as possible.
2 comments:
If the dirt doesn't have any healing power, maybe the powdered chiles will! It at least has some power for fighting off colds (esp if you put a pinch in lemon-ginger tea :^)
A's insistence about the dirt reminds me of DH's insistence in buying a wooden fertility statue when we were at the Grand Canyon in 1995. (This was after having 3 losses and not sure what we were going to do regarding pursuing having children of our own.) I went along as a good joke, but interestingly, I got pregnant with N in that first month. After Z was born, we noticed that the feathers on the statue's head had both fallen out. So I guess we were meant to have two kids. We still have her. We're going back to the Grand Canyon next summer but I won't be buying a fertility statue.
Post a Comment