GREEN CHILE CHEESEBURGER
Sugar Nymphs Bistro chef-owner Ki Holste’s green chile cheeseburger is just one of the many beloved menu items that have made the funky Peñasco eatery a High Road destination since 2001. Although she modestly calls the GCCB “nothing special,” we beg to differ. From a six-ounce burger cooked on a char-broil grill topper, melted with sharp Tillamook cheddar, and piled with chopped Fiesta chile to the house-made toasted bun swiped with mayo and simply topped with two slices of heirloom tomato, it’s not just the altitude that elevates these flavors. Open since 1913, Bibo Bar and Grille offers a rustic respite north of Laguna Pueblo and an unforgettable, whopping half-pound green chile cheeseburger. Alamogordo’s Hi-D-Ho Drive-In gives impeccable vintage vibes and a mustardy masterpiece in the green chile Tiger Burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.
CHICHARRONES
You might call Valencia County the Chicharrón Belt of New Mexico for its abundance of tasty fried pork chunks. World’s Largest Matanza participant Jerry Smith, a Los Lunas native, explains that in the old days, “Each family would at one point in the winter gather the town and butcher a large hog, so everybody would eat. Belén, Los Lunas, Veguita, Bosque Farms, we’re still those small rural communities.” Make a stop at Southwest Grill in Bosque Farms to pick up chicharrones by the pound for la familia or just go for a red chile chicharrón burrito with creamy beans and papas all to yourself. If you’re stuck in the city, Burqueños swear by the chicharrón breakfast burritos at New Mexico Beef Jerky Company.
FRITO PIE
“I want to make their journey worth the trip,” says chef Dominic Trujillo of visitors to El Farolito, which his parents opened in 1983 in the small northern village of El Rito. He preps the Frito pie as his dad did: layering corn chips, pinto beans, onions, taco meat, red chile, shredded cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes; adding more red and/or green; and making it vegetarian by request. Burque chef Marie Yniguez’s seasonal New Mexico BBQ truck Smokin’ Fred’s ’46 piles its Freddy Pie—a tribute to Yniguez’s dad—high with pulled pork, chile, baked beans, Fritos, and queso fresco. No stop at the Santa Fe Plaza is complete without a Frito pie from the Five & Dime General Store, where the late Lorraine Chavez’s original recipe for the old Woolworth’s is still served.
BLUE CORN
“We have people who come straight from the airport,” says Irene Leyba, second-generation owner of Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen, celebrating 45 years in Albuquerque. A majority are devotees of the No. 8, the blue corn enchilada dinner, an order we recommend with red chile and a fried egg on top. Another straight-from-the-plane taste sensation in the Duke City can be found at the Indian Pueblo Kitchen, where fried pickles are marinated in sweetly sour black cherry Kool-Aid, battered with Santa Ana Pueblo blue cornmeal, and served with a spicy-cool green chile ranch. “Growing up on Laguna Pueblo, we did Kool-Aid pickles, Kool-Aid sunflower seeds,” says executive chef Josh Aragon, who praises the alchemy of sugar, vinegar, and salt. Up north, Santa Feans never tire of blue corn pancakes from the original Pantry, opened in 1948, and its offshoots, Pantry Dos and Pantry Rio.
FRYBREAD
At Taos Pueblo, Tiwa Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery’s frybread pizza special recently caused such a buzz that they may put it on the menu. Debbie Sandoval, who opened the place with her husband, Ben, in 1992, says, “People have been coming back here from out of state for generations. We’ve always done blue corn and regular frybread. The recipes come from my husband’s mom.” At the Gallup Flea Market every Saturday, roast mutton and blue corn mush beg for frybread from the several on-site Native food vendors. Try a few to find your favorite. And visitors to the Indian Pueblo Kitchen can upgrade an Indian taco by swapping in ground lamb for the usual beef and chicken.