first taste of santa fe

Day 1 in Santa Fe has been an eating success!

We arrived with hunger pains so we drove straight into town and ate on the back side of the Plaza at Cafe Pasquale. What a treat! The menu was full of “diner food” but it was all organic and local. I had a housemade chorizo and egg burrito with mole. I have never had such great mole in my life. It was rich and had heat but wasn’t overly spicy. Whit had brioche French toast that was covered in thinly sliced almonds before cooking — it tasted like wedding cake French toast!

We spent part of the afternoon wandering through town and ended up in a grocery/kitchen store with a huge (and tempting) selection of dried ground peppers and Southwestern mixes like Habanero chili powder, blue corn meal, sopapilla mix, Cascabel chili pods, Pasilla Negro powder, carne adovada sauce mix, mole mix, Chipotle powder, Mexican oregano, and green chile ranch mix. I might gave to head back before the weekend is over for some blue corn meal!

After a relaxing afternoon, we had dinner at the restaurant at our hotel, Terra. I am not sure we’ll be able to beat tonight’s meal on this trip!

The bread basket was a great indicator of things to come– with roasted scallion and tomato lavash as well as cheddar and scallion biscuits.

I ordered the wild mushroom ravioli with rabbit ragu and black truffles. I loved the ravioli and the rabbit, but the truffles (uncharacteristically) had no flavor and seemed like an unnecessary addition. Whit’s appetizer, pumpkin soup with chipotle crema and lime dusted pumpkin seeds, blew us away. I want to recreate it soon!

For dinner, Whitney had the Chipotle short ribs with Poblano mac and mushrooms. The short ribs just fell apart– he could barely keep them on his fork. They were his favorite part of the plate but I loved the Poblano Mac and mushrooms. It was a fun combination!

I had a Kobe beef hangar steak with caramelized Brussels sprouts. The meat was really tender– and the marbling of the cut made it really flavorful. But the star of my plate was the Brussels sprouts. Wow! I could have eaten just a plate full of these and been happy. They were nutty and slightly sweet.

We finished by splitting housemade churros with caramel dipping sauce. They didn’t taste heavy with oil– instead they were light and fluffy. Perfect ending.

I think we’re in for a lot of good eating over the next few days! Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions of what to do in Santa Fe!