A friend texted me today to ask for some reccos for restaurants in Albuquerque:

• Sadie’s in North Valley
• El Pinto in North Valley
• Frontier on Central – iconic spot, breakfast, maybe too touristy
• Flying Star for lunch
• El Parasol in Santa Fe – dive kitchen (carne adovada burrito)
• The Shed in Santa Fe

My warning was –  no place is going to be upscale – but you’ll get good New Mexican food at any of those spots. There may be better places since I’ve left, but those are the ones I remember…

…and hot sopapillas with honey in a squeeze bottle, and the smell of roasting green chile in a hot sun and prickly pear jam.