Notice Anything Missing Lately?

It’s been a long time since we have consumed, and I have written about, a hamburger. Even Chuck has discovered that there is much more interesting food out there. But sometimes circumstances and appetite cry out for a hamburger and, fortunately for us, we are in Albuquerque—the home of Lumpy’s Burgers. And not even 55 degree weather, a brisk wind, and outdoor seating only would deter us.

“If anything, the name is just one of several things about Lumpy’s which seems to inspire curiosity. Lumpy’s does not subscribe to the stereotypical template of how a burger joint should operate. It’s an archetype–something original, a burger restaurant daring to be different” (Gil Garduno at nmgastronome. com/blog).

On our June 2, 2010 blog, I described the Twelve Step Program for ordering a Lumpy Burger. A brief refresher. Take a paper bag imprinted with the menu. Mark your choices with a crayon. Select a potato.

Take both to the nice young woman at the order counter.

Chuck and I, being old hands at this, wasted no time filling out our order. But some time was devoted to instructing Kitty Humbug on the proper potato selection. If you want screwy sweet potato fries—as did I—you want a long and thin spud. The second from the left looks just right.

All burger patties are ¼ pound size. The smallest sandwich--“The Wimpy”--has one patty. Next is “The Lumpy” with two patties. And for those with really large appetites is “The Plumpy,” its three patties weighing in at ¾’s of a pound.

It would be “The Lumpy” for both of us. Chuck, ever the purist, ordered his with onion only and thin regular fries.

Now here is the flaw in Lumpy’s system when it comes to regular fries. Selecting the potato just before preparation doesn’t allow for double frying. Therefore, you don’t get the crispness one wants (or at least we want) in a good French fry.

I went a more adventurous route and had my “Lumpy” with green chiles, onion, pickles, and ranch dressing. While the sandwich didn’t contain a lot of green chiles, those present produced enough heat to definitely let you know they were there.

Neither of us specified a degree of doneness for the burgers (and may well have been laughed at if we did) so the patties came medium well. Therefore, I thought that they were somewhat dry although this was eased a bit by the ranch dressing. But they did have that nice crust than comes from flat top cooking. I suspect that Chuck would prefer the crust. Can’t make everybody happy.

Now for my fries. Again, quoting Gil Garduno: “The fries recommended by most are the ‘skrewy’ fries…These are not conventional fries, but waifishly thin potato chips and they are terrific. Served warm in white paper bags, they are relatively low in salt and almost entirely greaseless. The sweet potato chips are some of the best chips we’ve had in a long time. They’re somewhat smallish, but very crisp and delicious. The bottom of the bag also doesn’t contain any of those annoying broken chips you find in commercial products” (nmgastronome. com/blog). So good are they that they were featured on an episode of United Tastes of America with Jeffrey Saad.

So popular is this place that Lumpy’s sold over 175,000 burger patties in their first 16 months of operation and has led to the opening of a second Albuquerque location. This one has indoor seating.

Our previous review gave Lumpy’s a 5.0 Addie rating. Is it burger ennui that forces me to lower that rating to 4.0 Addies?


We Gave Kitty Humbug the Night Off…

and joined Chuck’s cousin Jack Dannenberg and his wife Linda for dinner one evening. At Jack’s suggestion, our destination was Vivace, an Italian restaurant in the Nob Hill section of Albuquerque.

“…VIVACE features truly authentic cuisines from all regions of Italy. Featuring over 30 individual pasta dishes, VIVACE chef and owner Joey Minarsich makes every dish from scratch. ‘Nothing happens until a guest places an order. We serve the freshest fish every day, and our Veal, Beef, Chicken and other meats are the best we can buy. Plus we work very hard to feature daily specials that help to feed our culinary curiosity’ (www.vivaceitalian.com).

Before departing for the restaurant, we took a glance at the on-line menu. Chuck was set to order the Penne all 'Arrabbiata with penne pasta tossed with a spicy sauce of pancetta, tomato, red pepper flakes, minced garlic and fresh basil. Then he heard the list of specials (one of which had something to do with wild boar) and quickly changed his mind. What caused this? The special dish of penne with Italian sausage, arugula, and fresh tomatoes finished with a garlic, wine, and butter sauce. This was delicious and deceptively simple and deceptively complex at the same time. At my first taste, I exclaimed, “I could make this at home.” A few more bites from his plate and I was less sure.

Preceding the pasta came a salad of mixed greens with a light oil and vinegar dressing and garnished with pickled onion slivers. I didn’t taste this, but presume it was good.

My choice was less clear cut. On the one hand, I wanted to order two appetizers the first being the Insalata Di Funghi (“mushroom salad” to we the great unwashed) with wild mushrooms and baby arugula with shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh lemon, and truffle oil. My second would be the Fritto Misto with mixed bay scallops, shrimp, and calamari fried and served with a lime and parsley dipping sauce. But then there was the Gnocchi Con Rucola—pan fried potato gnocchi with slivered garlic, wilted arugula, and Parmegiano-Reggiano in a light cream sauce.

It wasn’t until my turn to order that I made a decision—the gnocchi.
“The word gnocchi means ‘lump’ or ‘knot’ and is originally a Germanic word that may describe the distinctive shape of gnocchi. And just like most of Italian cooking, these delicious lumps do not just vary from region to region, but from household to household as well, depending upon what is available. However, the most common way to prepare gnocchi is to combine potatoes (boiled, peeled and mashed) with flour to form soft bite-size lumps of dough” (www.lifeinitaly.com). Sometimes, although not here, the small dumplings are passed over the tines of a fork or some other device to leave a light score that better traps whatever sauce is being used.

To quote Gil Garduno yet again: “…the Gnocchi Con Rucola (pan-fried potato gnocchi with slivered garlic and wilted arugula, Parmegiano Regianno and a light cream sauce) is certainly a keeper. Rucola, the Italian word for arugula, is a spicy, peppery, potent and aromatic salad green that has long been popular in Italy, but rarely used imaginatively in America (salads don’t count). The Rucola provides a very interesting contrast to the deep richness of the gnocchi and the cream sauce” (nmgastronome.com).

I chose the Caesar Salad and this was the only disap-pointment. Rather than incorpora-ting the anchovies into the dressing, they were presented whole on top. It was fine when you got a bite of the salty fish, but if you didn’t the salad was disappointingly flat.

We have found another Albuquerque keeper in this 4.5 Addie restaurant. We’ll just have to spend more time here on our next trip in order to eat at all of these favorites.

To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.

Any Visit to Albuquerque…

means one trip (at least) to Asian Noodle Bar.

Logan Greely at Local iQ says: “I have always had an affinity for Asian Noodle Bar since its opening…Perhaps it’s because of the restaurant’s wide open kitchen, where diners can sit and stare at their food being made in giant woks that make that unmistak-able giant wok sound. Add to that comforting kitchen clamor the bustling, busy sound of diners slurping away at deep noodle bowls—the place is usually packed during lunch and dinner service—and the fact that the restaurant is located in the cradle of Downtown, and it just seems like a big-city eatery. It feels like a restaurant should feel. It’s a vibrancy not found often in Albuquerque, and it endeared me to Asian Noodle Bar immediately….Like many Asian restaurants, Asian Noodle Bar features dishes that span the breadth of the Asian continent. From Vietnamese Pho to Japanese Miso to Pad Thai, Asian Noodle Bar touches on each culture without going too far overboard to where the menu reads like the short version of Siddhartha. Rather, the culinary minds at work here take a minimal approach and deliver it in a very straight-forward, down-to-earth and friendly manner.”

It’s a given that we will get two orders of the Asian shrimp. And these are usually accompanied by an order of Gyoza (Japanese deep fried dumplings) and either the Yakitori (Japanese chicken skewers with bell peppers and onions and topped with teriyaki sauce and sesame) or the Vegetable Spring Rolls. We especially enjoy the savory salty taste of the gyoza as a contrast to the shrimp.

But the name of the restaurant is Asian NOODLE Bar and shouldn’t we be eating noodles? As we deliberated, Kitty Humbug–-this being his first foray into an Asian restaurant—pondered the proper use of chopsticks. Or is he saying he wants a cup of sake?

O.K. We have a plan. Two orders of the Asian Shrimp and a shared order Spicy Sesame Noodles.

Chuck maintains that the Asian Shrimp appetizer is his favorite restaurant dish anywhere. While I might not go that far, I will concede that these are special. You start with impeccably fresh large shrimp. Then coat them with a delicate batter and fry until the coating is almost brittle. Place on a bed of shredded lettuce and crispy rice noodles and then apply just the right amount of sweet chile sauce and almond slices. What’s the right amount of sauce? The coating on the shrimp doesn’t get soggy. And the lettuce and rice noodles? To some this may just be a garnish. To us, it is an integral part of the dish.

I had been eyeing the Spicy Basil (flat rice noodles, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms in chili basil sauce over shredded lettuce as our noodle dish), but Chuck saw the picture on the menu for the Spicy Sesame Noodles with chicken (udon noodles, carrots, onions, broccoli, mushrooms in spicy sesame sauce). Am I glad he did. This was extraor-dinary. Udon are a wheat noodle that are round like spaghetti but much thicker. These are cooked soft. No al dente noodles in the Asian kitchen. The soft noodles paired with the soft chicken were balanced by the just barely cooked veggies. Again, we have the contrast in textures that make Asian food one of my favorites.

The sauce wasn’t combustible, but was spicy enough to make my mouth very happy. This is a keeper for future visits.

Just as we had finished our meal, one of the managers—Mike—came to the table and inquired if we had enjoyed our meal. He said that the minute he saw the order for two Asian Shrimp, he knew who had placed the order. “But where are the gyoza?" he thought. "They always order the gyoza with the Asian Shrimp.”

Now it had been a year since our last visit to Albuquerque and Asian Noodle and for Mike to remember appetizers that we usually order but did not order this time...well, we were left speechless.

And here is one of the pleasures of traveling. During our extended conversation, we learned Mike’s parents had owned restaurants when he was a child and that he had later spent twelve years in the tire business.

And then somehow we got talking about winning a Powerball jackpot. Mike’s first order of business would be to buy a home on Nantucket—he is a big Red Sox and Celtics fan. I said mine would be to buy a high rise condo overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Now Mike has lived in Oakland, Ca and during our conversation he mentioned Emeryville, which lies next to Oakland. “Emeryville!” I exclaimed. “I wanted to go to the market in Emeryville while we were staying in Napa, but time (and truck trouble) didn’t allow.”

The purpose of this visit would be to see the Emerybay Public Market, a collection of over twenty food retailers representing the diversity of the Bay area. We learned about the market on an episode of United Tastes of America where the host—Jeffrey Saad*--visited a number of food stands.

“My mother has a Thai restaurant at the market,” Mike said.

“They featured a Thai restaurant on the program” was my response.

“That’s my mother’s,” answered Mike with a look of pride on his face. (Another instance of the "It's a small world" adage.)

And what was Kitty Humbug doing while we were talking? He was at the sushi bar trying to determine the best method for breaking into the fish case.

Asian Noodle Bar just gets better with every visit and maintains its 5.0 Addie rating.

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*Ed. Note: I wanted Jeffrey Saad to win Season Five of the Next Food Network Star. He came in second to an annoying and perpetually perky and smiling blond who wants to be the next Sandra Lee.

To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.

A Challenging Walk

What was going to be a simple walk through Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, located on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, became, instead, a walk that presented three challenges for us.

The drive to the park led us through neighborhood streets and down a street with a "No Outlet" sign on the corner and a driveway into the park's parking lot. After picking up a map of some of the trails through the park, we set out for the River Loop Trail, one of the two trails that led into the cottonwood forest (or Bosque) from the visitor center.

We soon faced our first challenge. The metal beams arranged in an "X" fashion appeared to block the trail. However, behind the shrub in the center of the photo (above) was a space that provided easy access to the trail. A challenge easily overcome.

We had come to the park to catch a glimpse of the colors of Fall. We have missed the panorama of brilliant reds, oranges, and gold of New England, Route 6 across the northern part of Pennsylvania, and the drive along highway 32 north of New Hope, PA.

The second challenge presented to us on this walk was to find some showy examples of Fall in the Southwest.

We were late in the season, so many of the trees had already lost many of their leaves, and even those that remained had lost their color.

However, the challenge was there.

We continued on the River Loop.

We came upon this grouping of muted colors, but one additional contribution from Nature was needed.

Sunlight. Brilliant sunlight.

We continued along the trail. We couldn't look for the classic panoramic Fall scenes to photograph, so we sought out the small scenes that had blasts of color.









After completing the River Loop Trail, we took a turn and joined the Bosque Loop Trail.





On a couple of occasions, our walk was supplemented with the sounds of the sand hill cranes. These early arrivals of the wintering cranes presented a welcome sound for the neighborhood residents.

Their arrival presented a third challenge for us--photograph the sandhill cranes.

The Rio Grande Nature Center overlooks a thriving pond that attracts a variety of wildlife, including Canada geese, sandhill cranes (four are shown in the photo above), several species of ducks, and coyote.

To the north of the Nature Center, visitors can observe wildlife enjoying the Candelaria Farm Wetland Preserve. The Wetland is part of an ongoing effort to restore lost habitat in the Rio Grande floodplain.

We were pleased to have seen a few cranes and thought that the challenges presented to us had been met.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

In a Quandary

We are back in Albuquerque and have only a week. What do we do? Seek new culinary experiences? Revisit our favorites?

We chose the latter (with a couple of exceptions) and today take you to breakfast at one of our favorites--Sophia’s Place.

“There are several reasons Sophia’s Place gifted proprietor and chef Dennis Apodaca…is such an accomplished and innovative restaurateur. Sure, he’s got a very impressive pedigree that includes stints at some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and Santa Fe. True he’s worked for several world-famous, cutting-edge chefs in some of America’s most renown restaurants, but there’s so much more to this rising star than that.

“Apprenticing under luminary chefs may make apparent the genesis of some of his culinary influences, but it’s also obvious that Apodaca loves his craft and plies it with enthusiasm and style” (Gil Garduno at nmgastronome.com/blog/).

Sophia’s is named for the owner’s daughter. His mini-empire has expanded to Ezra’s Place (named for his son) and Jo’s Place (named for his mother Josie). We have eaten at Ezra’s but have yet to visit Jo’s.

As is the norm on a weekend morning, a small line had already formed by the time we arrived. When the doors opened at 9:00, the line had grown to over a dozen and by 9:05 every table inside was taken with the overflow headed to the outdoor patio. And the line was still out the door.

While you can get a few breakfast staples like a breakfast sandwich, egg/meat/potato combo, omelets, and French toast, the remainder of the menu leans toward such Southwest-influenced items as Breakfast Taco, Breakfast Enchiladas, Breakfast Quesadillas, and Huevos Rancheros. Many of these come with your choice of bacon, chicken, steak strips, pork carnitas, or vegetables. Some items like the omelets come with a mixed greens side salad.

On almost every visit, we have both ordered the steak breakfast burrito smothered in green chile. But how many times can I write about the same burrito? So we ventured forth in new and different directions.

Chuck’s choice was the full stack of blue corn pancakes with the restaurant’s homemade piñon butter. Yes, the butter itself is made in house and then combined with piñon nuts (the Mexican version of Italian pignoli). These are not on the regular menu and only occasionally appear on weekends. This was Chuck’s lucky day.

The cakes were light with a light toasted corn flavor. And, especially important to Chuck, they achieved this degree of lightness without an excess of baking soda.

I ordered the Huevos Rancheros, two over easy eggs seated on corn tortillas and then topped with Sophia’s green chile and cheese. For the side meat, I ordered the pork carnitas. Rounding out the plate were sides of beans and Sophia’s breakfast potatoes. The potatoes are thin (1/16th of an inch thick) slices of potato cut into halves or quarters and then fried until they more closely resemble a thick potato chip than an American or home fry. I love them. So must Chuck since he kept stealing them from my plate.

The carnitas were cooked in a spicy red chile and were a close cousin to carne adovado (pork marinated in red chile and then slow cooked) than to carnitas where the cooked pork is roasted at a high heat to achieve a caramelized outer surface. Still, while not your standard carnitas, they were extra juicy and tender.

While eggs are eggs, over easy eggs smothered in Sophia’s green chile take on a whole new dimension. The runny yolk marries with the bright tasting and spicy chile increasing the flavor profile of both. I give Mary and Tito’s (also in Albuquerque) to award for the best red chile in town, but Sophia’s wins the gold star for their green chile.

The one problem with Sophia’s Place? It is always so busy on weekend mornings that you would feel guilty lingering over a cup of coffee. You finish eating and leave since someone is waiting for your seat. This is just one of our 5.0 Addie favorites in the Duke City. (Albuquerque is named the Duke City after the man responsible for its creation, The Duke of Albuquerque, Spain.)

To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.

It’s Not Considered the Best…

Mexican restaurant in Tucson, but if you Google “best carne seca in Tucson, the name of El Charro appears. And just as I have never seen carne adovado outside of New Mexico, I have never found carne seca outside of the Tucson area.

“Carne seca translates literally to ‘dried meat’. A Sonoran dish indigenous to the Tucson area, it’s generally air-dried, shredded beef ‘jerky’ that has been reconstituted (by adding some sort of liquid base) and prepared in some fashion. There are a few restaurants in the area known for their carne seca, probably most famously El Charro, which purportedly dries their carne seca on the roof at their downtown location, utilizing the punishing Arizona sun to their advantage” (guiltycarnivore.com).

And, in addition to its famed carne seca, El Charro is considered by many to be the birthplace of the chimichanga. Quoting whatscookingamerica.net: “Culinary historians argue about exactly where chimichangas were invented… The strongest claim comes from the El Charro Cafe, the oldest Mexican restaurant in Tucson. Family legend says that Monica Flin, who started the restaurant in 1922, cussed in the kitchen when a burrito flipped into the deep fryer. Because young nieces and nephews were in the kitchen with her, she changed the swear word to ‘chimichanga,’ the Spanish equivalent of ‘thingamagig.’”

El Charro resides in an old house in the historic El Presidio district. You eat in one of multiple small rooms, the largest of which hold about forty diners. The walls are decorated with ironwork and old battered sombreros. (El Charro means “the cowboy.”)

As we walked through one dining room to reach our table, we both noticed diners eating something that resembled pizza. These were El Charro’s cheesecrisps, a menu item I have only seen a few other places (Rock Springs Café in Black Canyon, AZ and Casa de Pico in La Mesa, CA). Well, it wasn’t long until we were munching on the Grilled Green Chile Cheesecrisp--a large flour tortilla forming the crust and topped with cheese and green chiles. The baked tortilla took on the taste and appearance of a cracker-style pizza crust. As good as this was on its own, it was only enhanced by a few dollops of El Charros award-winning Salsa Picante, made with fresh ground Chiletepin (“…a wild chile pepper that grows in parts of Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. It is sometimes called the ‘mother of all peppers,’ because it is thought to be the oldest form in the Capsicum annuum species” [www.eatmorechiles.com]).

We both ordered from the smaller portion lunch menu. Chuck chose the Original “Charro Style” Beef Taco which is described on the menu: “In 1922, when our Great Tia Mónica opened her beloved El Charro Café, there was only one way to truly make a taco: form a ground beef patty, fold it in a tortilla & fry it in a pan. She then topped her delicacy off with fresh greens, peas, radishes, and tomato salsa, just as we still do today!” While I didn’t see any peas or radishes, the crisp corn tortillas did hold ground beef patties. Chuck enjoyed them, but these days I prefer carne asada (Yes, another one of “carne” foods) to ground beef.

The lunch menu had two carne seca choices—a carne seca plate (just the meat) or a carne seca burrito. My choice was the burrito with green enchilada sauce. While the dried beef is reconstituted with liquid, it never reaches the tenderness of, for example, a braised roast. There remains a slightly chewy texture, and if you are lucky, you may encounter a bite or two where the meat more resembles jerky. Some love that. Others don’t. Count me among the former. Also, before drying, the meat is frequently marinated in some form of acid (lime or lemon juice or vinegar) and the finished product still retains a slight tang.

Both of our plates came with seasoned rice containing peas and carrots and refried beans. Both were good, but not remarkable.

El Charro probably isn’t the best Mexican food we have eaten but is one of the few places where I can find carne seca. Still, we probably can’t rate this restaurant any higher than 3.5 Addies.

Before leaving Tucson, we had time for one last visit to the Visitors' Center.

"Is there any attraction that visitors miss while touring the city?" I asked the staff person.

"El Tiradito Shrine" was her quick response,
"the only shrine on the National Register of Historic Places dedicated to a sinner."

With that addendum, we knew we had to visit El Tiradito, "The Castaway," just a couple of blocks from the Convention Center and La Placita Village, home of the Visitors' Center.

There are many stories surrounding El Tiradito. According to the Tucson-Pima Historical Commis-sion, the most popular one dates to the 1870s and involves a gambler who fell in love with the wife of another man. When the woman’s husband found out, he shot the gambler. Reportedly, the people of the community liked the gambler much more than the husband, so they built the shrine to honor his memory.

El Tiradito is also called The Wishing Shrine. Many people believe that if you light a candle and it is still burning the next day, your wish will come true. Visitors also place prayers and letters to lost love ones in cracks and spaces between the bricks in the back wall. Many prayers ask to find one's true love or for broken hearts to be healed.

But the story of how El Tiradito saved Barrio Viejo from being demolished is perhaps more interesting.

The Butterfield Express would have been an east-west expressway through Tucson. The construction was to start after the 1960s Urban Renewal project, which had already destroyed all of the barrios north of Cushing Street to make room for the Tucson Convention Center and La Placita.

To stop this, citizens of the barrio and two other surrounding neighborhoods threatened by the construction formed the El Tiradito Foundation.

El Tiradito Foundation lobbied for the shrine to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. They knew once the shrine made it on the register, it would be nearly impossible to demolish because of its national recognition.

Saving a neighbor-hood must have been a wish of many residents of the community. (Trista Davis, Indepen-diente, 10/23/11)

(To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.)