The Taste of Santa Fe hurts so good.
For those who didn't make it to the Taste of Santa Fe, a food tasting benefit for the Palace of the Governors that featured many of Santa Fe's best restaurants, last Tuesday night at the Sweeney Center, here's a recap. First, the Taste of Santa Se and similar annual events like the Wine and Chile Fiesta aren't merely about eating, or tasting. Tasting is way too delicate a word for what these are-Bacchanalian feasts (minus the wine for Taste) with a bit of full contact sport thrown in for good measure.
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Things remembered from such an evening are not the usual dining experiences of interesting conversation or delicate flavors, but the kinds of things recalled about a football game: highlights, big scores, important assists and fouls.
And I mean this comparison as a compliment. Where else is it acceptable to toss mousse-filled chocolate cups into your mouth like they were jelly beans on the way to eat some goat cheese frittata? Forget the proper order of foods, forget saving sweet things for last. If you wait in line at a table to find a piece of tiramisu at the end of it, then that tiramisu goes down the hatch, on the way to the next station.
So, the recap: Let me apologize to the man whose suit I sprayed with chowder because I was busy eyeing up a plate of chile poblano that hadn't yet been snatched. Many sorries, too, to the lady who received a low shoulder from me as she was closing in fast and unknowingly on my protruding belly with a pointy fork. Thanks to numerous assists from my husband, who often stood in the middle of a violent crowd with two
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plates in each hand, fork sticking straight out of his mouth and napkins tucked under his shoulder, waiting for me to spell out the ingredients of some tapenade or crème sauce on a crinkly napkin.
Here are the highlights: the hands down favorite for both me and two ladies sitting on a bench as we left was El Farol's slow roasted pork shoulder with green olive and fig tapenade. The shoulder was so very tender and flavorful and the tapenade was the best I've had in a long time. Also very good was Paul's grilled flat iron steak with a ginger sesame sauce and potatoes au gratin. I spied several women stowing South Side Café's caramel, cinnamon and chile chocolate mousse cups into their purses to take home. I would have done so too if I'd brought a purse-these things were absolutely delicious, and the contrast of all four flavors at once worked quite well, even when this treat was sandwiched between bites of steak and clams. Pink Adobe's clams Lucifer with tequila and red chile was very tasty, even as an encore to fantastic chocolate, and finally, Los Potrillos'
pollo en salsa de pino
, or chicken with chipotle and pineapple was a shredded chicken dish, smothered in sauce, that made me brave the crowd to go back for seconds.
Like others who left as the food began to run out, we emerged at the end a bit bruised and battered and very sweaty, but victorious.
