Thursday, August 31, 2006  I Can Actually Say I Love Something
about New Mexico  Despite the amount that I mock New Mexico, I
did live there for five years and there are actually things that
I miss about the place, not the least of which is the police and
drinking. But this is not about drunk cops. Living in Texas, the
two primary cuisines are barbecue and Tex-Mex. Barbecue,
excepting the possibilities of Kansas City and Memphis, is done
better nowhere. Tex-Mex is a good dining option, don’t get me
wrong. But I miss spice and flavor in combination. Chili powder
and Tobasco can only add so much to a dish.  A couple of nights
ago, a friend of mine asked me for use of my grill to roast some
raw New Mexico chiles he had bought from the primarily Hispanic
grocery store we shop at (if you want twenty pounds of tripe and
beef tongue, there’s only one place to go). I’d never really
roasted chiles en masse, but it seemed like fun and he promised
free chiles, so he brought over a fifteen pound burlap sac full
of beauti