What makes New Mexican food special?
It’s really a place-based food that never lost its identity. For thousands of years, Native peoples enjoyed a variety of foods including domesticated turkey, dove, rabbit, deer, and elk — and they cultivated crops such as corn, beans, squash, herbs and wild harvesting greens, cacti, and chiles. On first contact with the Spanish, sheep, pork, cattle, and additional types of chiles were introduced and collided with the foods and food cultures already in existence here. As additional European immigrants moved into the area within the last 150 years, each group brought its own recipes, ingredients, and techniques that expanded the food traditions here. Today, New Mexico fuses or blends all of these cultural influences. If you had one meal to share with good friends, what would it be? I would serve a meal with multiple courses so that each guest could savor the tastes of the Southwest and enjoy the presentation. The first course would be a spicy corn soup made with chipotlé chile or an eart
