The Chili Trail
In West Texas and New Mexico, chiles are a way of life. Long green ones soak up the sun in the summer and ripen in the fall, and fiery...
Las Cruces is the big city of the Mesilla Valley, which is where the chilies grow. It’s also home to a branch of New Mexico State University, where the horticulture department is devoted to caring about them. South of town in La Mesa, you’ll find a humble restaurant in what used to be a family home, surrounded by fertile fields. It’s called Chope’s, and is one of the best places to savor Mesilla Valley’s long greens, the basis of the kitchen’s chilies rellenos. Stuffed with mild cheese, battered, and fried crisp, the fleshy walls of the pod are not particularly hot, but have a strapping vegetable punch. As for red chilies, they can be tasted in a purée that is made daily. You can’t get a bowl of chili at Chope’s, but the puree comes on the side of most entrees. It is a cream-thick opaque vermillion liquid that would be deemed insanely hot anywhere other than here in chile-growing country. In the town of Las Cruces several restaurants specialize in native foods, including one that used to have a sign on its wall saying “A day without chile is like a day without sunshine.” Las Cruces’ culinary landmark is La Posta de Mesilla, located in an old adobe building that used to be a stop on the Butterfield stage line. Here you find elegant versions of the state’s signature dishes: carne adovada, green chile enchiladas, a dish created here in 1939 — tostadas compuestas — and even that dish from over in Texas, chile con carne.
In West Texas and New Mexico, chiles are a way of life. Long green ones soak up the sun in the summer and ripen in the fall, and fiery...
Road trip through New Mexico Take a road trip and eat your way through El Camino Real "The Royal Road" through New Mexico. In addition to spectacular natural beauty, you...
As breathtaking as a western sunset is, western breakfast can be every bit as beautiful. Sunrise never tasted better than it does at any one of these dozen breakfast...
The Mesilla Valley in southern New Mexico is chile central, where the best are grown and where the hot pod is enjoyed at every meal. If you want to...
To quench ferocious thirst (non-alcoholically), few beverages are as welcome as horchata. A rice milk that varies from saki-thin to milk shake-thick, served on ice and dusted with cinnamon,...
Huevos Rancheros, which means ranch-style eggs, once was an exotic dish that U.S. travelers found only in the southern border-state cafes. With the burgeoning popularity of Mexican food --...