New Mexican Food

The food scene in New Mexico is awesome.  We have enjoyed many good meals during our stay in Albuquerque.  New Mexican cuisine borrows heavily from Mexican food, but there are several items we have found that are unique to New Mexico. 

The sopapilla is an unassuming fried bread that is part pita, part donut. It puffs up when cooked so can be filled.  It is used to make both savory and sweet dishes.

Sopapilla

 

Inside a sopapilla

  

Carne Adovada is pork, slow roasted in a red chili sauce.  It is not terribly spicy but is definitely delicious. 

 

New Mexican breakfast of potatoes with Carne Adovada and a fried egg.

 

Hatch Chiles are a staple of New Mexican food.  We had been to Hatch our first time through NM (https://wallihan.blogspot.com/2025/02/hatch.html).  The chiles are green when they are picked and turn red as the dry out.  In NM you will be asked if you want red or green, meaning which chile sauce you prefer.  Green is spicier than red, but they are both tasty.  If you can't decide you can ask for "Christmas" and you will get a mix of red and green.

 

Red and green chile sauces

 

Which brings me to what may be the ultimate New Mexican dish.  Take a Sopapilla, stuff it with carne adovada and smother it with chile sauce and cheese.  This is a uniquely New Mexican dish and is quite delicious. 

 

Sopapilla stuffed with carne adovada and smothered in green chile sauce and cheese.

 

For dessert you can enjoy a biscochito, a cinnamon dusted sugar cookie.  Flaky, buttery and slightly sweet.  If you like cookies (I do) you'll like these cookies.

 

And for a nightcap Ponderosa Whiskey is a good New Mexican whiskey. 

 

Biscochitos and whiskey.  A classic dessert.

 

 

Karchner Caverns

We visited Karchner Caverns, near Benson, AZ.  It is a limestone cavern discovered by two geology students in the 1970's.  They convinced the landowner and the governor of Arizona to sell the land to the state of Arizona and establish it as a State Park.  It helped that both the landowner and the governor had geology backgrounds.

 

 

 

Petroglyph National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument is on the west side of Albuquerque.  The images were made by Ancestral Puebloans between roughly 400 and 3000 years ago.

The rocks are basalt, a volcanic rock that oxidizes to the dark color over millions of years.  The images are made by removing the oxidation layer. 

 

 

 

  

 

Looking east across Albuquerque at the Sandia Mountains

 

Looking west at the remnants of the volcanoes that made the rocks the petroglyohs are carved in.

Tombstone

Tombstone is a town in southern Arizona that is home to the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday facing off against the Cowboys at the OK Corral.  We stopped there and saw the live reenactment and strolled the dusty streets.

 

 

Petrified Forest National Park

The Petrified Forest is in the Painted Desert.

There are many petroglyphs within the park

The petrified logs are incredible.  They look just like wood.

Many of the petrified logs are clearly broken segments of the same tree.

Sunset in Holbrook Arizona

 

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon is always amazing to see.  We took the road west to Hermit's Rest, a direction I had not previously been.

 

Death Valley

Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America.  It is normally dry.

When Badwater Basin fills with water it is called Lake Manly.  There had been significant rain in the Death Valley area so we went there to see the lake.