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Red or Green?
“Red or green?” A seemingly odd question coming from your waiter or waitress. Just about anywhere else, but New Mexico, where it is, in fact, the official State Question.
It refers to these guys, and is asking which one you want smothering your food: red and green chile. They’re the same thing, except the red has been allowed to ripen before harvesting.
Not “chillies,” “peppers,” or “chilis.” And they are a way of life around here.
Chile grow natively here, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that researchers at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces created a hybrid variety that was actually mild enough to eat. Called the “Big Jim,” that chile is the grandfather of all New Mexico chile.
When I say that chile is a way of life around here, I mean it. We put chile on eggs, hamburgers, pizza, beans … pretty much everything. Including, of course, tacos and burritos.
Unlike many Asian chillies and real firestorms like Ghost Peppers and Scotch Bonnets, New Mexico chile aren’t exceedingly hot. (At least, we New Mexicans don’t think so.) But they are flavorful, which is why we love them so much. (New Mexico grows the vast majority of the world’s chile, and we keep 80% of it for ourselves!)
Until relatively recently, it was impossible to get green or red chile outside of this state, but these days, grocers like HEB and Wegman’s are trucking in shipments of fresh chile in August, so you might be able to get some fresh chile and roast them yourself. Otherwise, you’ll have to content yourself with powdered or frozen chile from Amazon or these guys.
Once you get some, you can try out the helpful recipes in the comments, which are some of my favorites.
Published in General
I read all the (fictional) Posadas County NM mysteries by Steven F Havill and green chile breakfast burritos appear in every book
“Treating you right every night.”
Hmm, the ad campaign messaging might need a little massaging.
This post is so much more tasteful, to say nothing of tasty, than yesterday’s on the writing theme, “Hot Stuff!” We still have several open days as the summer season starts. Please stop by and sign up to share your own angle on the topic, however loosely construed.
Just on food, you might write on anything from other cuisine with chemical “heat” to, oh, say . . . hot dish!
Besides dinner, what about a movie? How has “hotness” changed over the history of cinema, or the time you have observed?
What makes a band hot, or not? What is a hot guitar or fiddle lick, and would you care to share a couple by way of illustration?
I lived in New Mexico for a couple of years. Chile peppers are a way of life. What Non-Native New Mexicans don’t realize is that green chile peppers are hotter than red ones, which seems counterintuitive to many people.
This is something my wife educated me about on my first visit to Colorado after we started dating. A waitress asked me if I wanted green or red chile on my order. My wife told me the green chile was hotter. I ordered it, and haven’t looked back since . . .
And really watch out for some of the green salsa.
Invented in Santa Fe in 1975. Now available at McDonald’s!
That’s not necessarily true. You learn to ask which is hotter that day, if it’s a concern.
I’ve had carne adovada (red chile) a couple of times that was too hot to eat. And, of course, the green that you can get McDonald’s to put on your burger for you is barely lukewarm.
Mr. CowGirl and I were introduced to Mexican food when we got married and lived in SoCal while he served in the Navy. Every version of this succulent cuisine was available in San Diego. I’d had no idea that this world existed…mind you, we got married in 1974, and we grew up in the Wyoming Rockies in a very small, isolated valley.
We ended up living in two different regions of coastal SoCal, so we were introduced to a vast menu of foods from the Mexican cultures of the people who lived there with us. We became snobs about various specialties from the different regions, and had our own preferences about taco carts, or burrito types (using a just-cooked, giant flour tortilla), and different seafood choices.
Well, then in the mid-90’s, his civilian job working for the military, was abruptly moved to an east-coast base in a rural Maryland county south of Washington D.C. There wasn’t even a Taco Bell. We’d go up to D.C. to go to a play or a movie, and search all over for a Mexican restaurant. Not to be seen…none. There were Peruvian, El Salvadorean, Chilean, even a little place from Argentina (which, BTW, is NOT spicy food, but more Italian/beef/bread and delicious). We did find Taco Bell! But from 1996 to 2000, we could not find a Mexican restaurant in that region. It was so weird. I guess it’s because of immigration patterns. I know now that there are many versions of Mexican food in the D.C/Maryland area, but twenty-five years ago…nope!
That’s kinda weird, as there’s actually a chain of New Mexican restaurants in that area. I tried it back in probably ’93. It’s not good, but it is New Mexican food.
https://www.anitascorp.com/
Cow girl’s comment reminds me of how I always try every restaurant that purports to be “New Mexican” wherever I’m living.
In about 1991, a new place opened up on the South Side of Pittsburgh; it had the Zia symbol and everything. I took a friend, and–true to what I’m used to–they brought out chips and salsa.
Or, rather, what they called “salsa”. It was basically diced tomatoes and onions. I showed the waitress my NM ID and asked her if maybe they had anything hotter in back.
Her response, “Well, we can’t put out anything too hot, you know.”
—
A few years later, in Seattle, I saw carne adovada on a menu, so I ordered it.
The Russian waitress said, “Oh! Say it again! You say it so well!”
The carne was meh. Flavorful, but without any spice.
—
A couple of years later, I took a date to a place in Old Town San Diego. As soon as I saw carne adovada, I again ordered it.
But I told the waiter, “I don’t need the rice and beans, just take the carne advoda, put it in a flour tortilla with some cheese, make it into a burrito, and cover it with cheese and sour cream.”
“Oh, I don’t know if we can do that.”
“Just ask.”
Five minutes later, the cook came out of the kitchen and shook my hand, saying, “No one has ever ordered a carne adovada burrito here before!”
It ended up being several dollars cheaper than the full plate with beans and rice. But, again, no real spice.
I remember discovering carne adovada and it was great. A friend and I were doing the base inprocessing at Kirtland together and they gave us a long lunch break. One of the suggested places was Dos Hermanos, I think. They had a lunch special plate with I think three items, an enchilada, a taco, and carne adovada. We figured it was the best place to start and each ordered it. When the plate came, I recognized everything except the red pork and deduced that was carne adovada. It was the best item on the plate and became a favorite. I understand why you’d miss it.
I spent half my growing-up years just south of Albuquerque, down in the Rio Grande valley below the Isleta Pueblo. I remember being able to walk into a Wendy’s and order a burger by saying “double cheeseburger, everything, green,” the last being a request for green chili. Cross the border just north of Raton and that stopped working: all you got if you said it in Trinidad was a perplexed stare.
Red or green? I always asked for whichever was hotter, but I think I really like green more.
I was a big fan of the Atomic Weapons Museum on base. My wife and I visited it in 1977. I understand it’s been moved, and probably run more along conventional museum lines, but in 1977 it was informal, almost like wandering a used car lot with formerly really really dangerous old cars.
Yep, it’s moved off-base, so people can actually get to it. It used to be next door to where I went to kindergartner. I spent a lot of time there.
One of my friends from high school went to look something up in the classified section once. He told me he found some papers my Dad had written.
He couldn’t tell me what they were about, of course. :)
Isn’t it a wonderful smell?
“Get a rope”
Upstate New York was pathetic in the 90s if you craved Mexican food. We had to make it ourselves. It didn’t really pass. I had a mission companion from Arizona and she managed to make some decent burritos. She made them for my birthday.
I’m from Utah and we love Hatch chiles here. I use them all the time. This post is delicious.
It’s a lot easier these days with the internet. You can actually get real chile.
For those unfamiliar, this is the Zia symbol on the state flag of New Mexico.
(Incidentally, chosen by vexilologists as the best US state flag. :P )
My mom was born in Albuquerque and grew up in Northern California. Her sister would take us out for Mexican food. I particularly love tamales and enchiladas. There are authentic places on nearly every block here. Missionaries come home from their missions and want to continue eating the more edible foods from those countries. Personally, I miss real bagels, pizza, salt potatoes, black and white cookies, and red hots.
Tamales are ‘way too much work to make when they’re so cheap!
Carne adovada, on the other hand, is ‘way too easy to make to pay for. :)
I’m guessing you’re not in Ogden. I never found any good food there. In fact, three of us went out for Thai, and ended up going to a pizza place because the Thai food was inedible.
No. I’m in Orem. We have lots down here because of all the returned missionaries that go to BYU. There has also been a huge amount of Mexicans who have come here in the last 15 years or so. My mom’s favorite was Chile Relleno.
Real chile relleno? A whole green chile stuffed with cheese, then battered and fried? Because those guys in Texas, Arizona, and, I think, Colorado, have different ideas about the term “chile relleno”. :)
I just remembered an episode of us wandering into a supermarket in Abuquerque that we later realized catered to the local native population, and marveling at the mountains of chiles on display. We had never seen so many chiles. Just piled in multiple free-standing bins. (We were staying in an inexpensive motel down the street on Historic Route 66 and had gone into the supermarket looking for baked goods to have in our motel room the next morning before heading to the airport.)
The other really fascinating display in that supermarket was the meat counter – types and cuts of meat I had never heard of people eating, but that apparently were significant sellers for the local customers. Beef tongue, stomach lining, tail, various organs, and things I couldn’t figure out since most of the signage was in Spanish.
BTW, we have found that the local supermarkets offer valuable insights into the nature of a town, if you want to look at what it might be like to live in the town rather than be a tourist. We found supermarket visits a valuable part of our search for a retirement town.
Yes. It’s common here.
Ah! You found El Super Mercado!
That’s a really interesting store. I find the produce section fascinating, too. There have fruits I’ve never heard of, let alone seen before.
They also have really cheap beer. :)
I decided to make a pit stop at the Mexican Market which is on the way to the post office. I’ve not been to this one, but the parking lot is always packed. One side was a market with Mexican canned goods, soaps, aspirin, pinatas, holy candles (one with the grim reaper that said A Holy Death), statues of the Virgin and Jesus behind the counter, lots of packaged herbs and teas, candy, cake, ice cream, cold drinks, coconut water and mango juice.
The other side was a lunch counter and meat market – mostly pork, including a giant pork rind that they broke off and sold in bags. I ordered a taco and tamale – it was lunch time and I had to wait with a buzzer – the local Hispanic workers trucked in for lunch, even a police duo – one female officer was Hispanic, the male partner white. It was hot – the AC wasn’t working. I got my lunch home and it came with two sauces – red and green – each one could melt a hole through a table…….by the way, some of the stuff they were scooping out of a steaming vat at the pick up looked like tripe in a sauce with red beans – ugh….
Everyone said Ola to me and smiled, and excuse me as they walked by – happy people – the religious icons – the young girl at the register looked deep into my eyes and said thank you as I paid. It was a pleasant place, even with the grim reaper candles….
Sounds like menudu of some type. That’s a really Mexican dish.
The first year they did that here, we could get the chile fresh off the roaster, just like in New Mexico. Apparently the Texas health department didn’t like that. Now you have to buy it frozen in bags.