Autumn is here and sorghum, that least mentioned of crops, is the star of the show at next weekend’s Rio Grande Community Farm Maize Maze in Albuquerque, which is, in fact, a sorghum maze. Only the oldest among us might remember firsthand that we once made our own...
The cascade of kernels hitting the bottom of a sizzling pot. The cacophony of pops against the lid. The house warmed by smells of oil and corn and spices. The lights dim and the credits roll. Whether it’s avocado oil or butter, turmeric or toasted coconut, fresh...
Food will never be digital. (We keep seeing announcements about video games that have digitized scent, but user reports are less than convincing.) What we love about eating is that it is so physical—from the experience of teeth sliding into a tomato to the juice on...
For the purist, a negroni is a cocktail made from equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. We don’t exactly count ourselves in that category, but we’ve been known to wade into arguments about what a thing is (and isn’t). For instance, a martini: gin plus...
Even in the land of Red or Green, sometimes the answer is yellow. Here, as in most of the United States, we are used to a certain species of chile pepper, Capsicum annuum, which includes our classic New Mexican chiles, along with bell peppers, cayennes, and most...
Last Sunday, sitting on the barn patio at the lavender market in Los Ranchos, sipping a lavender spritzer and eating a lavender scone, we found ourselves craving something bitter or salty. As an herb, lavender is often typecast as an ingredient for desserts. We...
On a recent evening, quenching a dusty thirst with a prickly pear margarita at the Mine Shaft Tavern in Madrid, we had a flashback to 1908. It was in that year that a group of New Mexico agricultural scientists turned their attention to the commercial viability of...
Lately we’ve been thinking about the art of the dinner party. Not Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, although with her autobiography coming out next week, this wouldn’t be a bad time to take inspiration from her work and host a dinner in honor of brilliant women. We...
Dear Reader, One unassuming afternoon in the before times, a traveler asked infamous LA food writer Jonathan Gold for recommendations on where to eat in New Mexico. His answer was basically “ . . . ” As in, isn’t that place mostly empty space? Is it actually a...