6 days in New Mexico: day 1

OK, so it's not 25 days in Paris, but it's lovely and sunny here in Santa Fe, the Indian Market and the opera (La Traviata with Natalie Dessay!) are on the agenda for the weekend, along with a jaunt to Los Alamos, and let me just point out that the food options here are nothing to sneeze at.

Case in point: arrived yesterday afternoon in Albuquerque (a name that I can never say without a Bugs Bunny accent) and headed straight to Frontier, a 24-hour joint with outstanding Southwestern food. I had chicken enchilada with chopped green chile, served with a puffy fresh flour tortilla, along with a 32-ounce lemonade. I would show you a picture of all this deliciousness, but as readers of the Paris blog may remember, I often get so caught up in the excitement of the food arriving at the table that all thoughts of blogging and photographing fly right out the window.



However, I did manage to keep my wits about me last night, at an amazing meal at La Boca in Santa Fe. It's a tapas restaurant that definitely puts together some creative-but-not-ridiculous combinations, like the outstanding rare hanger steak with smoked sea salt caramel. You can't even imagine. We also had grilled baby artichokes with soft goat cheese, mint, and orange zest; perfect boquerones served with avocado (such a great pairing); canelones stuffed with crab and sea scallops and covered with a Manchego cream sauce; and a mushroom crostini with a fried egg that was just eh. Everything else was wonderful, including my dessert: fig-anise ice cream, which I ordered with a glass of rich, dark Pedro Ximenez that I promptly dumped over the ice cream in my own inspired moment of brilliant combination-making.



Even though we're only here for a few days, we may try to hit La Boca again, if only to try the paella, which was so gorgeous.