New Mexico Culinary Treasures Trail

With the possible exception of Louisiana, no state is more proud of its unique cuisine than New Mexico. Those who savored it during the Roadfood tour in September will recall that for a short while in Santa Fe we were led by Southwest food authorities Bill and Cheryl Jamison. In addition to authoring award-winning cookbooks with Bill, Cheryl is the Culinary Liaison for the state Department of Tourism, where she recently contributed her expertise to an on-line Culinary Treasures Trail, listing 75 of the state’s most delicious destinations -- plain and fancy, famous and obscure. The above sign was at Sichler Farms in San Antonio, which is represented on the Treasures Trail by its two green-chile-cheeseburger stops, the Buckhorn Tavern and the Owl Bar.

Time-Zone Appetite Confusion One-Night Stand

I found a hotel and went to sleep quickly after my plane landed on the West Coast; and work required me to leave town the next morning at 6am. Still living in the Eastern time zone, I woke up about 2:30am ravenous. Fortunately I was in Los Angeles, which has a bounty of open-all-night eateries. I will be posting some reviews and logbook entries soon. ‘Til then, I hope you enjoy these wee-hour photos of a few culinary beacons where I ate before having to leave town at dawn. The sign above is in the window of Dupar’s at the farmer’s market (note the reflection of Christmas lights, which they were putting on trees outside while I ate my delicious stack of pancakes. which as you can see in the photo below, come with a whole pitcher full of melted butter):

I cannot resist the “Googie” style of the quintessential SoCal Coffee Shop, Pann’s, as seen in its wacky flashing sign:

Of course I had a few donuts at Randy’s:

Dawn was breaking as I had my last L.A. meal at Canter’s Deli, where the made-on-premises rye bread is really wonderful:

Meat and Potatoes

The small prime rib at Ben Benson's was preceded by a basket of blue-ribbon breads…

and accompanied by lovely hash browns:

Is it Roadfood? I can’t argue that it is, certainly not by price. But it’s a signature meal of New York, and one I won’t soon forget. Carnivorous Nirvana.

Turkey Tamales

Todd Martin's mission in life at the Tucson Tamale Company is to prove the incredible versatility of the tamale. I managed to eat some delicious evidence of his quest in the form of Thanksgiving tamales: corn masa laced with hunks of meat, stuffing, and vividly tart cranberries. I didn't miss the gravy one bit. Still in the freezer, yet to taste-tested: blue corn tamales and green corn tamales, direct from Tucson's finest.

Mall of America Getting Betty’s Pies

Betty’s Pies, which began in Two Harbors, MN in 1956 (Roadfood.com review), will be opening their third store, by March of next year, in Bloomington’s Mall of America, according to a story in the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal.  A round of pie shakes to celebrate!

Holidays and Food: It’s All About Thanksgiving and Christmas

It’s a rare holiday that doesn’t have at least some kind of food attached to it.  Nonetheless, when we presented Roadfooders with this poll -- Holiday You Most Look Forward To, Foodwise – just about everyone chose Thanksgiving or Christmas.  All these holidays come with a higher purpose than simply chowing down, but none comes closer to being defined by what’s eaten than Turkey Day.  The holiday is the meal, usually followed by a roomful of tryptophan-induced snoring in front of the TV tuned to a football game.  Actually, that tryptophan and turkey story is something of an urban legend – post-Thanksgiving drowsiness is more likely a result of our gluttony than any Sominex-like effects in the bird.

Quick – word association – name the first edible that comes to mind for each holiday:
Thanksgiving – turkey
Christmas – cookies
4th of July – hot dogs
New Year’s Eve – Champagne (though for us it’s mail-ordered smoked brisket from Texas, which is why we chose this holiday)
Easter – chocolate bunny
Passover – matzo
Diwali – don’t know!  We know food is important, but is there a signature food for the holiday?  Tikka masala maybe?  Can any of our Indian readers weigh in?
Valentine’s Day – box of chocolates
Hanukkah – latkes
Halloween – candy corn

County Line Barbeque In Oklahoma City Has Closed

The Oklahoma City branch of the County Line Barbeque chain served its last meal this past Sunday, according to reports on NewsOK and NewsOn6.  The restaurant, which opened 29 years ago, is for sale and there is some hope that someone will purchase and reopen the popular local landmark. The other branches of the Austin-based chain, seven in Texas and one in New Mexico, remain open.

In his Roadfood.com review of the OKC County Line, Michael Stern had this to say: “The County Line menu is a full roster of smokehouse fare, including butter-soft baby back ribs, hefty beef ribs with a luscious crusty savor, slow-cooked brisket infused with the taste of hardwood smoke, taut discs of plump sausage, plus peppered turkey and smoked chicken.”

Listen to Jane and Michael Stern Discuss The Best Meal Ever, and More…

On October 29th, Jane and Michael Stern, along with James Oseland, the editor in chief of Saveur magazine, appeared on The Leonard Lopate Show (that’s a radio show out of New York City on WNYC).  The visit was prompted by Saveur’s recent feature in which they asked 25 writers (the Sterns included) to describe their greatest meals.  It’s a fun half-hour; click above to listen.

An “Absolutely Magnificent” Green Chile Cheeseburger

“Absolutely magnificent”: that’s how Michael Stern described the green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite, found on the outskirts of Santa Fe, NM (Roadfood.com review).  He and Jane Stern appeared on Lynne Rossetto’s Kasper’s radio show The Splendid Table this past weekend to talk about Bobcat’s magnificence, and you can listen in online.  Choose either the Sterns’ segment, or Lynne’s entire show.

Rhode Island’s Best Strip Joints

Like most residents of the Ocean State, we love only-in-Rhode-Island specialties like stuffies, hot weiners, jonnycakes, and coffee milk. We’re particularly enamored with pizza strips, those classic rectangles of room-temperature sheet pizza—just sauce, no cheese—that are utterly rapturous. Children of all ages grow up devouring strips as snacks, and as adults they fondly remember the bakery boxes or bags with the unmistakable see-thru grease of the tomato sauce. Not all pizza strips are created equal, however, as some are better tasting than others. We assembled our crack team of judges (Amy, Chris, Susan, Lucky, Steph, Xin) at the Roadfood Test Kitchen on Federal Hill in Providence to analyze five popular choices around town. Our judging criteria include crust, thickness of sauce, taste of sauce, and overall enjoyment. The results are in:

Crugnale Bakery, Cranston – thickest crust of all, but overall too much bread; decent amount of sweet sauce.

Morning Star Bakery, East Providence – very tender crust, easily cut with a fork; sauce tastes like plain tomato paste, not enough garlic.

Silver Star Bakery, Providence – very tender crust, though slightly dry; not enough sauce.

Calvitto’s Bakery, Park Avenue location, Cranston – chewiest crust, but hard to cut, even with a knife; great sauce, great tomato flavor.

And our favorite of the day: Superior Bakery, Cranston – very chewy crust, with crunchy parts at the edges; most sauce of all, sweet and flavorful.

Superior Bakery’s pizza strips will advance to the next round of judging and compete with four new contenders next month! Please send us your favorite Rhode Island spots for pizza strips, and we’ll include them in our travels.