“This is my complete and utter obsession.”

One of the guys in the band Beirut spent nearly all of a recent interview waxing, pining, and gushing about his absolute love and addiction for New Mexico chiles.  Though he was born here and visits twice yearly, the poor dude lives in Brooklyn.  The article included a link to someone’s blog showing a large variety of our beloved dishes, which is kind of a nice summary.

Sounds like we might need to seduce his band to come out (again?) and play the Sunshine or something local and then ply him with tons of the good green stuff.  Or, Mary & Tito’s for some mind-blowing red. I know he already gets it, but hey, more chile is always better, right?

I love to hear when folks that “get it” with the chile thing talk publicly about their addiction after they’ve moved to another city.  He’s very disparaging about Tex-Mex, which is awesome:

“You can’t find [New Mexico Chile] anywhere else in the world, let alone the southwest, and it always gets overshadowed with, you know, like Austin bragging about their fucking breakfast tacos like it was the biggest invention of the century and that kind of thing.”

Garduno's Chile Rojo - delicious red chile and steak

Garduno’s Mexican Restaurant group, of which just 2 are still in operation, was BOUGHT for $1.7 million dollars, quite a sum if you consider the troubles they’ve been through the last few years.

Many locals, however, seem to just not care about all that internal stuff – just bring the food back!  I kind of agree – the guacamole was quite tasty, the bowl of red (Chile Rojo) with beef tips is one of my favorite comfort meals of all time.

So, we’ll see what will happen under new control and new ownership – they say they’d like to continue sourcing locally, and that would be a great thing for Albuquerque and the loyal fans who no doubt will be back to order up some of that tableside guac.  (Though you can now get it made tableside at the FORMER Garduno’s on 4th, which is now El Brunos of Cuba – and it’s good there, too.)

. . . but the folks at the NM Tourism department still think that that’s what can and has been done.

Seriously.  Choose your SINGLE favorite Green Chile Cheeseburger from a list of well over a hundred places, and then, list them all out for the entire state and culinary tourist nation to behold.

How to pick the best, if you were choosing all over again?  Do you go by pure flavor, the size, the cheese, the spiciness of the chile, the condiments (or not), the price, the ambiance, the overall experience?  Tough call, but with tons of foodie-driven voices already all over this list, you now have some great specimens to check out and evaluate – did they pick correctly?

Weigh in and tell me YOUR fave, and which one is on this list that really doesn’t deserve it.  I’m sure there are a few.

NM Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail

Love lamb?  Love all kinds of game meat, gently prepared and exuberantly strong flavored? I was reading the newest copy of New Mexico Magazine today and lit upon a description of a wildly simple entree at a little spot called Atrisco Cafe – leg of lamb burrito with red chile.  Kate Manchester‘s description was evocative enough that we literally scrambled to the car and went up for a late lunch, calling ahead to make sure this now-famous item was still available.

At Atrisco Cafe I had the pleasure of tasting their piece de resistance – a burrito stuffed with roasted leg of lamb from a heritage farm in New Mexico.  Lest you think this is ONLY about Santa Fe – the cafe has history.  George Gundrey opened the spot after generations of family restaurants, including a place at Atrisco & Central in Albuquerque called the Central Cafe, in operation from the 1940′s until the 1970′s.  The whole extended family has their chile-scrubbing hands in places like Horseman’s Haven and Tia Sophia’s – not bad for a story.

The burrito?  It’s really, really, lamby.  And that’s it.  No beans, no garnish.  Even the cheese is gently applied.  It is a good example of why I don’t often order lamb – for my tastes I find many lamb dishes too mild, too toned-down-for-beef-eaters.  But this, this grabbed you by the tongue and said, “hello.  I’m game meat.  How are you today?”

You can revel in that flavor but it does get overwhelming – a friend of mine suggested it was lacking something but we were not sure what.  Maybe calabacitas, maybe some beans, something with a little neutrality.  But if you want to be smacked in the head with your leg of lamb, it’s perfect.

Oh, and their red chile is pretty darn good, too.

Today is the LAST day to get your vote (or votes) in for the best Green Chile Cheeseburger in the entire gosh-darned state of the Land of Enchantment. The Land of Enchilement.

Whatever you want to call it, your voice must be heard, crying out in the wilderness of yellow processed cheese and canned chiles – choose the best, and vote as many times as you can ethically stand.  Get creative and remember that amazing burger you had in some little dive in a tiny town, or just pile the love on to something BIG and inspiring and well-known.

VOTE NOW!