Yes again, as the strangely re-rising star of Neil Patrick Harris hits headlines due to the Emmys last weekend, his parent’s restaurant in Albuquerque’s North Valley – Perennials – is getting more mentions than most mom & pop cafes could ever dream of.

I ate at Perennials a while ago and it was fine.  That’s about all I have to say, sorry Harrises!

But any locally owned establishment that isn’t serving bad food is a good place to support and give your love and money to – the Chili’s and Outbacks of the world will do just fine.  Or not.  And that wouldn’t be horrible, either.

One of our local news outlets – KASA – is sponsoring a giveaway for a $50 gift card to Calico Cafe.

Calico Cafe is tucked up in the near north valley and offer some amazing comfort food and killer brownies, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Give it a whirl, and do your best to stay off KASA’s email spam list after that.  Heh heh.

Who let September happen?  I definitely do not like this whole “time just keeps speeding up” thing.  Can someone call Hawking or fish Einstein out of his jar and do something?

Today I left the Los Ranchos farmers market with $200 worth of fishies – salmons of all kinds, from coho to silver to sockeye and some bellies thrown in for extra fatty goodness.  Brenna of the Fishhugger team is my hero and I have to admit that I do feel a little guilty each year when I come by and buy last year’s stuff at a seriously killer discount instead of pumping up her profits with fresh catch.

However, I did get about 2 pounds of fresh sockeye which will be used for sashimi – perfect texture and not too fatty for good mouthfeel.  A little bit of the sliced up bellies and all of the rest of the 23# or so is silver salmon from 2007, frozen rock-hard.

Brenna also handles dry ice with her bare hands, another hero-worthy behavior I’m not planning to emulate.

Not necessarily “pudding” as in Jell-O brand, but Pudding as in the British word for dessert.

Desserts?  Now we’re talking!  Tonight, as it occurs monthly, is the PUDDING CLUB event at The Old House at Casa Vieja.  I can’t think of many more reasons to embrace your inner sugar fiend and cruise on up the scenic path to the North Valley and have some amazing sweets.

Here are the details – please call ahead!

(If you miss tonight, July’s event is set to be an all chocolate theme.)

An Albuquerquean by birthright, Francisco is currently a resident of the City Different, and so far I’m not holding it against him.

How can I, when he is taking up the torch to demonstrate to his city-dwellers that the Duke City has food worth eating and is not a cesspool of strip malls and freeways? Of course I can’t. He led a group this weekend to experience the comfort and panache of Gold Street Caffe, on the one day of the week they offer Southwestern Eggs Bennie, piquant with jalapenos and tasting of fine butter.

We talked about the great hole in the wall places around Albuquerque,  from tacos to burgers and everything in between, plotting to draw all Santa Feans down here for gustatory revelry.

He had not, however, been acquainted with Sophia’s Place, and that is what I present here, in photos as well as previous reviews by both myself and other food writers. Enjoy, my friend!

Gil Garduno’s write up

Duke City Fix column from 2006

ABQ Journal review (if the link is broken, I hope to have another copy of it available ASAP!)

Alibi (Jennifer Wohletz)