Restaurants in Silver City

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Gypsy Queen

Like most small towns, Silver City has a pretty consistent restaurant scene where a few rock steady restaurants thrive and new places have a hard time getting a toe hold. This visit I was pleased to see a couple new places had moved onto Bullard Street and were also thriving.

Tre Rosat Cafe was once a tiny lunch space connected to Cienega Spa. They’ve now taken over their own space downtown and they offer lunch and dinner. Their food tastes super fresh with generous portions, I had the southwest cob salad above and ate it for two different meals. I especially liked the heirloom tomatoes in the cobb salad and their creamy potato salad with green onions, bacon and blue cheese was an incredible combination that I went home and duplicated.

I have trouble describing Tre Rosat’s food vision given the wide range of ethnic influences on a menu that includes a Korean bulgogi hoagie, shrimp po boy and tempura vegetables. However, I find this kind of range in most restaurants in Silver City. I suspect it’s easier for restaurants to offer a little bit of everything rather than narrow their focus to one type of cuisine. In any case, Tre Rosat offers well cooked tasty food so I think that no matter what you order, you’ll enjoy it.

I last visited Little Toad Creek three years ago when they opened out in the Mimbres as an Inn and Tavern. This new iteration of Little Toad is a brewery and distillery on Bullard Street in the corner space formerly occupied by Isaac’s.

Little Toad’s creative pub food menu is a bit of a conundrum. A sampling of their menu includes potato chip nachos, roasted beet hummus and a southwest reuben – above – with green chilies, plus a Chinese chicken salad, chicken and waffles and smoked salmon with cream cheese and rye toast. Where is that all going? I don’t know. They also only offer beer brewed in New Mexico and liquor brewed by their distillery. That’s both a lot of choice and a distinct lack of choice, all in the same restaurant. Very curious.

Here’s the thing: I liked the sandwich. I thought the green chilies worked surprisingly well with the sauerkraut and pastrami. I also tried the stout, which I thought was ok, and their porter, which I really liked. And I love their corner restaurant space because it’s big and roomy and cozy and popular. There’s so much possibility here that I want Little Toad to stay open! However, I look at that menu and I don’t know what’s happening. Clearly I’m not a restaurateur but I wish upon them a food editor to create a cohesive menu with some regular pub options – like chickpea hummus and nachos with corn chips – and perhaps some creative sandwiches and entrees? A theme, that’s all I’m asking, Little Toad. Let’s see what happens the next time I’m in town.

On the complete other side of the spectrum, Curious Kumquat is an even better restaurant than the last time I was here. The Kumquat is where I met Virginia and I’ve eaten here several times but this last visit showed a cuisine leaps and bounds more interesting than my last visit.

I eat a lot of tasting menus and most of them blur into a happy haze of good food. I love the ones that stand out because of the ingredients or the cooking techniques. The Kumquat offers a unique tasting menu unlike anything else in the Southwest because Chef Rob forages in the hills and lakes around Silver City for edible nuts, seeds and wild plants. He designs his menu around the historic Apache diet using foraged food cooked in a modern fashion and I can tell you that it’s all fascinating and full of things I’ve never eaten. That alone is saying something since I live my life eating in restaurants.

My favorite dinner moments included the cattail salad – above – served with a crisp bitter vinaigrette and the acorn flour muffin bite, which was dense, nutty and sweet. I also had incredible tender rabbit entree, slow cooked until it fell off the bone and topped with a drizzle of tart prickly pear sauce. Kumquat’s tasting menus have surprisingly large entrees so you will not go away hungry. The only misstep for the entire dinner was the dessert, but that’s a common event in tasting menus. I rarely eat a tasting menu dessert that equals or even compliments the quality of the dinner courses.

I applaud Chef Rob for the foraged food direction he’s taking the Kumquat. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere. And that’s a good thing.

Silver City Yoga

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Gypsy Queen

Silver City has a new yoga studio and it’s so pretty! This city deserves a quality yoga studio and I’m so pleased it’s finally happened.

I took the Align and Refine Vinyasa class with Melissa and we worked through some complicated poses like Eagle and Upward Bow by starting with less complicated stuff and transitioning into the complications. This kind of work is incredibly helpful for me as a relatively unpracticed yoga practitioner because I rarely know what I’m doing. In any class. Ever. But Melissa broke down the complicated poses into components so we could work on our alignment in the simpler poses and when we transitioned into the full poses, they made so much more sense.

My yoga lesson of the day: How you get somewhere is as important as where you go.

Funny how all my recent yoga lessons are about slowing down and paying attention to the particulars, my intent, my breath, the method in which I do things… This particular lesson has a much wider application than just yoga. It’s like that saying “how you do anything is how you do everything.” The How matters. Deeply. Relationships, jobs, politics, yoga poses… they’re all built on small uncomplicated transitional choices and if the choices aren’t solid, the end result falls apart too.

Focus and going back to the basics, right? Good practices for yoga and for life.

If you’re in Silver City, visit the Lotus Center. The interior is a gorgeously appointed oasis of calm and beauty fully stocked with mats, blocks, straps, scented eye pillows and anything else students might want or need. There are no additional fees for equipment. It all comes with the cost of the class, which makes it so easy to stop in. There are yoga classes every day of the week as well as meditation, qigong, tai chi and even some Buddhism basics. Lots of options, lots of times and a beautiful space.

So go forth and do yoga. Namaste.

Spring in New Mexico

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Gypsy Queen

Because I don’t live anywhere in particular, I adopt the places of people I love. Silver City is such a place, (see also Bellingham and Chicago). While I might be conflicted in my relationship with Arizona, I have few mixed feelings about New Mexico, especially in the spring.

Hard to argue with a sky this big and blue, either real or painted.

I particularly love the colorful way New Mexicans decorate to reflect the natural colors of their surroundings.

Yellow cactus fruit

Brightly painted doors

Blooming trees

Painted buildings

Bushes and exclamation points. So much color! This is the perfect season to visit the Southwest.

Last time I was here at this exact same season and it snowed while we were waiting for the birth of this little one

She’s so big now! (and that’s glitter pencil on her face :)

3 years goes quick.

Goodbye and Hello

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Gypsy Queen

Goodbye to great breakfasts

cute babies who endure mardi gras photo shoots

And their older sisters who enjoy it a little more

To domesticity

To Mad Hatter bridal showers

That migrate to the Buffalo Bar

Goodbye to all that and the lovely people of Silver City. It’s been an amazing month and I can’t wait to come back!

Until then,

Hello, Roatan.

It’s gonna be all diving and islands and adventure for the next 5 months. Stay tuned!

For the love of taco trucks

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Gypsy Queen

I didn’t have a real appreciation of taco trucks until I moved to Tucson. There I discovered that some of the best Mexican food in town was served in parking lots under makeshift umbrellas and out of dusty trailers that looked like they’d driven all the way from Argentina. Three words: Sonoran Hot Dog.

In New Mexico, it’s hard to find true Mexican food because New Mexican food is its own cuisine. Most Mexican restaurants in Silver City serve New Mexican dishes that all come with green chilies and lots of smothering sauces.

Except at the taco truck

Chip’s taco truck is an unassuming little trailer

set up in a former autobody shop with a shady overhang and little picnic tables for dining alfresco

Jen swears by the #1 combination with brisket and carne asada tacos but I’m partial to the #4 with queso quemado veggie tacos.

Queso quemado is cheese slapped on the grill until it’s browned and melting and then plunked on corn tortillas and topped with sauteed green peppers and onions.

And lots of salsa.

His salsa bar is outstanding

With pickled onions, fresh cabbage and salsas ranging from red and green “greasies” to mango salsa and spicy pico de gallo

There’s nothing glamorous about a taco truck, but sometimes really good food needs to be eaten with your fingers outside while the sun beats off the blacktop and grease drips down your hand.

When that’s the case, go visit Chip.

Please Welcome, Kate Marie White

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Gypsy Queen

Dear Kate Marie,

We’ve been waiting for you all week. Your Gigi and Papaw came all the way from Nashville to be here for your birth and I came from Tucson.

It snowed on Sunday and I was sure you were going to be born. But you weren’t ready.

Your mom was very tired of being pregnant by this point. For the past week, I’ve told her good night every night by pressing on her belly and saying “Baby, come out!”

Your mom had contractions on and off for several days but you weren’t ready to be born. This made her cranky. She made muffins on Sunday and then she threw them when they burned.

In other news, your older sister Ruby also throws things when she’s angry. We don’t know where she gets it.

Today, I was writing about Michelle Shocked when I got a call from your Gigi saying “You better come.” So I did.

Your dad came home and your mom was in labor.

Everything got really intense around 11am and your mom said “I can’t do this!” a lot but we all knew she could.

At 12:30 your Gigi sent your Papaw out for tacos because everyone was hungry. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to miss anything. Your Papaw walked in the door at 1:10 with 4 boxes of tacos and we said “Hurry!” He got there just in time to watch you come out.

Your shoulders got a little stuck but your midwife, Shauna, reached in and pulled you out. Your Gigi nearly fainted.

At 1:11 on April 16, 2012, you were born.

You were very purple and we were all a little scared but Shauna breathed into your lungs so you could breathe and you started crying and we knew you’d be ok.

We talked about you all day. Then your sister, Ruby, came home to meet you and tried to feed you a carrot. She thinks you’re pretty great until you cry.

We’re all so happy you’re finally here.

Welcome to the world, little girl.

It’s a pretty crazy place but I think you’ll like it here.

Love,
Auntie Kaitlyn

Jen and Katie

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Gypsy Queen

Jen and I have known each other 22 years. All but 4 years of our friendship has been long distance, which makes it even more remarkable that we have not only stayed in touch but have gotten closer over the years. I think she’s remarkable and hilarious and the more time I spend with her, the more time I want to spend with her. Our friendship has been marked by several amusing moments and in honor of her 40^th birthday (officially tomorrow!) I’ll tell one of our many many stories.

One year Jen came to visit me in Tucson intending on a relaxing, rejuvenating “spa” weekend but without the requisite cash for a resort. Because we’re resourceful girls who love nothing so much as a challenge, we worked up a “ghetto spa weekend on the cheap.” It went like this:

Night #1: Jen arrives in town. We eat sushi for dinner and spend the rest of the evening driving around looking for yoga places advertising free first classes. She picks up several yoga flyers, free passes to the YMCA and then we find a community pool right down the street from my house. “$1 per visit? Perfect!” Jen says.

We go home and spend the next several hours on line searching for “cheap massages” only to find that there’s no PG rated way to make that search. After an hour of interesting websites and even more interesting speculation, Jen abandons the massage search and makes a list: “Tomorrow I’ll start at the YMCA with a cardio-kickboxing class, do yoga at 2 and go to the pool at 5. I’ll pick you up after work, then it’s the sweat lodge and dinner.”

The next day she does her classes, drinks green tea, gives herself a facial and calls me “Think of all the money I’m saving! she says. It’s all going so well! Why doesn’t everyone do a spa weekend on the cheap!?” Full of success, she gets into her swimsuit, grabs her giant sunglasses and her beach bag with and walks down the block to pay her $1 only to discover a small blood-temperature community pool surrounded by an acre of blazing hot concrete. Not deterred, our fair maiden throws her towel on the concrete, slaps at the line of ants marching across her ankles and ducks as small children skid into her, eating potato chips and dropping crumbs hither and yon to feed the aforementioned ants. She’s not a quitter and hung in there for an hour as the sun blazed and pool practically boiled before calling me and saying “I’ve discovered the “ghetto” factor in my ghetto spa weekend. I can see why people don’t do this. Let’s go to the movies tonight. I’m as rejuvenated as I’m going to get.”

Day #2: I come home to find that the spa weekend has taken an interesting turn. Jen has cleaned out my freezer (This says 2006!!! I’m throwing it away and you can’t stop me!), grocery shopped and done my dishes. As we hang out she spends the rest of the evening making critical comments about the way I organize my living room while I drink beer and nod at the appropriate moments. None of this is unusual. When I visit her, she cleans out her own freezer, grocery shops, does the dishes and makes critical comments about her own living room. I drink beer and watch her. Ordinary people would consider this the demise of the spa weekend; but for Jen, organization is relaxing.

Day #3: I come home to a newly reorganized freezer and refrigerator containing the few remaining things deemed worthy (You have had this as long as I’ve known you! It goes in the trash!). We eat a dinner Jen made (delicious) and dessert (even more delicious) and then she does the dishes while I write in the living room. I finish up and put my laptop away where I ALWAYS put it, where it ALWAYS lives in my house, where it works PERFECTLY for my lifestyle. Jen comes in the living room, watches me and says “Did you notice that I created a new space for your computer?” Without a pause for me to respond, she walks over, takes my laptop away, turns to the shelf next to me, moves my bag from the place where it always lives and puts my laptop down. “See?” she says. “Now you can hide the cord.” And then she shoves it under the rug. “Perfect!”

Wanna guess what happened when she went home? Yep. But there’s always next time…

Happy birthday, my dear unstoppable-force-of-nature friend. I love you. May your next 40 years be full of friendship and laughter. You can come organize my house and my freezer any time.

Actually, the sooner the better because you know how I get…