From artists to outlaws, much of Santa Fe’s history has been witnessed at the bar of El Farol (808 Canyon Road), a popular social spot for locals since 1835. The stories say that it was the scene of many gunfights, and in the 1950s, famed artist Alfred Morang paid his tab by painting a mural on one of the walls. Hidden underneath panelling for a number of years, his work has now been restored and continues to be a popular attraction. The fare is traditional Spanish, and the specialities are tapas (they even have a designated Tapas Room), paella and Spanish wines.
The garden courtyard outside La Casa Sena provides a quiet dining spot for residents and visitors.
The tradition of great restaurants in Santa Fe during the modern era was born more than 45 years ago when Rosalea Murphy opened The Pink Adobe (406 Old Santa Fe Trail). As Rosalea recalls, when “the Pink” first opened, Santa Fe was not the tourist mecca it is today, but rather a “lazy, sleepy town”. She served 25-cent “Pink Dobeburgers”, then imported chicken enchiladas from Mexico, and eventually became the first chef in Santa Fe to serve seafood. Today, the restaurant is in a former barracks for Spanish soldiers, Barrio de Analco, one of the oldest parts of Santa Fe. Despite its name, the Pink Adobe is no longer pink but rather a shade of sandstone. Santa Fe’s Historical Design Review Board has refused to allow the restaurant to be painted its original colour because, according to the board, pink is not an earth tone. During a hearing on the issue, Rosalea presented several samples of pink rocks collected in the desert and mountains around Santa Fe, but the board still refused.
Coyote Cafe owner Mark Miller, who is today renowned as one of America’s leading chefs.
The Coyote Cafe (132 West Water Street) offers a truly unique dining experience because anthropologist-turned-chef Mark Miller presents a different menu each day, re-creating Southwestern and Latin American dishes that predate the arrival of Europeans. It is difficult to suggest any one particular menu item because they change so much, but some past menus have included Barbecued Duck Crepas, layered corn crepes with roast duck, barbecue sauce, and corn chilli relish; and Red Chilli Quail, fresh Texas bobwhite quail marinated in dried chillies and wild mushrooms.
“My café is small but lively,” says Katharine Kagel, chef-owner of Cafe Pasqual’s (121 Don Gaspar Avenue), which has been in business since 1979. Located one block from the historic Plaza, the café serves the food of New and Old Mexico, as well as New American Cuisine. During the day, the atmosphere is informal, but the mood changes at dinner time when the white tablecloths come out and the wine service begins. Signature dishes include Huevos Motuleños, a Yucatán egg dish; and Chicken Mole Presciliano, a Pueblo-style family recipe made with 20 different ingredients. The café also boasts an art gallery that features Mexican murals, traditional Apache cookware and jewellery.
The three cultures of Santa Fe come together in the food and the architecture of Inn of the Anasazi (113 Washington Avenue), where Native American spirituality, Mexican flair and European practicality define the experience. Diners can settle in on cozy bancos to warm their bones by the fire and their insides with cutting-edge dishes like Grilled Tortilla and Lime Soup with Barbecued Yellow Tomato Salsa and Coriander Corn Oil, a popular appetizer that has been on the menu since the award-winning restaurant opened in 1991.
La Casa Sena (125 East Palace Avenue) was expanded from a small house to a 33-room adobe hacienda in 1868 by a prominent Santa Fe family. The courtyard is now one of the city’s most beautiful outdoor dining spots. The restaurant opened in 1983 and serves innovative dishes such as Grilled Pepita Crusted Salmon with Ancho Chilli Hollandaise and Goat Cheese Epazote Quesadilla.
Serving traditional northern New Mexico cuisine, Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen (555 West Cordova Road) was originally a take-away place started in the early 1950s by Maria, the wife of a local politician. After several years she sold it, and it has grown since. Owner Al Lucero says that his place was the first to introduce fajitas to Santa Fe back in 1985. However, margaritas, more than 75 of them, are Maria’s main claim to fame. They are made with only the best authentic tequilas and are hand-shaken, never stirred.
The Santacafé (231 Washington Street), a “Southwest American Bistro” in a 150-year-old building, has been open since 1983 and is a local favourite for its innovative menu and celebrity-watching opportunities. Its decor is not traditional Southwestern but stark minimalist, with bare off-white walls. The signature dish is Crispy Calamari with Lime Dipping Sauce, and the menu includes Grilled Rack of Lamb with Pasilla Chilli Sauce and Roasted Corn-Shiitake Mushroom Salsa. It has been named a top-rated restaurant by Zagat’s guide.
Since 1989, the Santa Fe School of Cooking (116 West San Francisco Street) has defined traditional New Mexican cooking and has set the tone for contemporary Southwest cuisine with dishes like Lime-Marinated Grilled Salmon with Ginger-Lime Butter. “We mirror Santa Fe,” says Susan Curtis, founder of the school. Many Santa Fe chefs have taught or studied here, and instruction is open to all.
Paul’s Restaurant of Santa Fe (72 West Marcy Street) is an intimate place that incorporates the best of all worlds, from its folksy yet modem atmosphere to its eclectic cuisine. “We don’t follow trends,” says owner Paul Hunsicker, who opened the restaurant in 1990. His menu combines flavours from around the world in dishes like Baked Salmon in a Pecan Herb Crust and Red Chilli Duck Wontons.
The many innovations of the new Southwestern chefs, while surprising, are fully in keeping with the past. In New Mexico, the traditional cuisine based on corn, beans, squash and chilli will probably be cooked for centuries to come. But this doesn’t mean that it has to be static. And today’s chefs are creating exciting new food by blending the ideas of other cultures with the fundamentals of Southwestern cookery and ingredients in wonderful new ways.
The kitchen of the Martinez Hacienda, a restored Spanish Colonial adobe house dating from circa 1804, which originally belonged to a mayor of Taos.
Part Two: The Santa Fe Kitchen
A guide to essential utensils, cooking methods and ingredients
Despite the food of Santa Fe seeming to be quite exotic, the equipment necessary to cook it is not strange at all. The traditional utensils, originally from Mexico, are all but obsolete in these days of premade tortillas and electrical appliances. In earlier times, a metlapil, a cylindrical stone, would be rolled on a metate, a flat, rectangular stone, to grind the corn kernels for tortillas. After the corn was ground and a masa (corn dough) made, corn tortillas would be prepared with a rolling pin, but the Spanish developed the first wooden tortilla presses to make the process easier. Presses were hand carved from mesquite or made of metal. Now more commonly made of cast aluminium or iron, a press consists of two plates, a hinge, and a handle that you press to flatten and shape the ball of masa. Wheat tortillas have always been prepared with a rolling pin and fingertips. After flattening, the tortillas would be cooked on a comal (griddle).
A molcajete y tejolote—a volcanic-rock mortar and pestle-would be used to grind spices or to make salsas for tortilla dishes. A molinillo, a short stick with indentations in the bulb at its tip, was used (and still is) to prepare frothy hot chocolate.
These dippers are examples of the exquisitely detailed pottery of the Mimbres (left) and Tanto (right) peoples, who lived in southern New Mexico and Arizona. The Mimbres vanished after about 1150 A.D.
In the modern Santa Fe kitchen, a food processor or blender has taken over the tasks of the metates and molcajetes, and a comal has been replaced by a griddle or cast-iron frying pan. Casseroles have replaced cazuelas, the glazed earthenware pots ubiquitious in Southwestern antique shops.
A spice mill is handy to have not only for grinding spices but for grinding