During my childhood in northwestern New Mexico fifty years ago, Della’s Spanish Dining Room made the best sopaipillas I have ever eaten. A fresh basket of warm sopaipillas was brought to the table when you were seated – along with a container of honey. Much the same as is now often done with tortilla chips and salsa. They kept bringing more to the table until you were ready to leave or until you told Della "No mas." Nothing I know of compares with biting the corner off of a warm sopaipilla and drizzling honey inside – then tasting a bite of heaven.

The two large old restaurants in Old Town, Albuquerque also had very good sopaipillas – but they never quite measured up to Della’s.

Since moving to Georgia 24 years ago, I have never found any sopaipillas which compare favorably with those I had in New Mexico many years ago. Here they are usually served as a dessert. They are usually overcooked and then sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with honey.

Years ago there was a little South American restaurant on Telegraph Rd. in Pontiac (it later became the East/West restaurant … run by the former defense secretary of South Vietnam … but I digress)

They had the most awesome sopapillas there.
I once asked the cook how they made them so good and he told me that a real (South American) sopapilla uses squash flour in the dough. The prices were dirt cheap and the food was fantastic it was a shame they closed.

quote:

Originally posted by holdem

We have a local place (La Paloma) that serves them stuffed with beef and cheese. Very good. They have been open for around 30 years.

Ah yes! The sopapillas at La Paloma are good, but the flour nachos totally rock! [:D]

Suz

quote:

Originally posted by PapaJoe8

Ah, I was like Roossy, just seen them as a desert and served w/ honey. I bet they would be good unsweetened and stufed w/ other stuff.
Joe

They are!! The "savory" sopapillas usually have red/green chile sauce as accompaniment.

Such a humble food (fried bread squares, really), so many variations.

Ah, I was like Roossy, just seen them as a desert and served w/ honey. I bet they would be good unsweetened and stufed w/ other stuff.
Joe

In Las Cruces, sopapillas are almost universally a dessert food. From what I heard from the locals here, stuffing sopapillas with meat and making them a meal is a "Northern New Mexico thing"!

The only time I have seen sopapilla’s is as a dessert..
Topped with honey, cinnamon and powdered sugar….
But the stuffed ones sound killer……

In NM sopapilla is usually a side dish that you fill with honey to take the bite out of chile. Often they come with the meal at no charge. They also have stuffed sopapillas with meat, etc. which is ordered as a main dish.
The best variation was last month when I had breakfast at Rancho de Chimayo north of SF and they had "sopa-pillows" on the menu. These were delicious little sopapillas that were covered with cinnamon & sugar and you could just pop one (or more…) in your mouth. mmmmm.

I love a good sopapilla !

Very hard to find in NJ; anyone know any good places?!?

I ordered them once at Juanita’s in the Freehold area.
They were so horrible that I took one bite, and left the rest…