Our Santa Fe trip

we arrived in albuquerque last Friday famished and couldn't wait to get to Santa Fe to eat. so we used our new GPS gadget (gift from hubby's dad for xmas) for the first time and found a place to eat within 2 miles from the airport.

the grove cafe and market had a refreshing atmosphere and good food. i had an open face croque monsieur sandwich that came with a nice little fruit salad - yummy!

then we checked in to the Inn of the Governor's and it was an adorable place. the room was a little small, but the furniture was this rough, dark wood that gave it wonderful ambience. the location was great, right in historic downtown and we were able to walk just about everywhere.

in fact, we walked to all the galleries that participated in the Edible Art Tour that was part of Artfeast. the tour was an event where many of the local galleries (and there are TONS in Santa Fe) paired up with a local chef/restaurant/caterer. paying just $35/person (that went towards promoting the arts), we got to sample food at each gallery. walk into gallery, pick up food, look at beautiful art, eat food, walk out, repeat. it was a wonderful way to see great art and try a lot of different food. through EAT, we discovered a few great places to, well, eat.

but Santa Fe has more than great food and we spent saturday hiking around at the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.

we also visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and especially enjoyed the Here, Now and Always exhibit. as the museum was fairly empty and the exhibit used personal accounts to enhance the displays, the whole experience felt intimate and truly touching.

there were also some wonderful sculptures outside the museum.

during our trip, we had the pleasure of discovering Kakawa Chocolate House (from the tour) - a real treasure! they specialize in making Mesoamerican style drinking chocolate. it was a little too strong for me, i guess i prefer mine with a little more sweetness and not too much spice. the man that owns the shop is a chocolate historian and the knowledge behind his drinks was just amazing.

per a tip from Prof. O., we went to Cafe Pasqual's for dinner and the food was amazing. everything that the reviews and hype said it to be. but for me, it was not as memorable as Josh's BBQ (a decidedly more casual joint).

we had sampled their green chile brisket during the tour and i was obsessed. it was amazing and i had to have it again. so it was our last stop before the airport. they take their brisket that's been smoked and made a green chile from it - it's smoky and spicy and flavorful and now i'm drooling on my keyboard. i'm not sure why, but i ordered a green chile brisket burrito (i dunno why, i could've just gotten the green chile brisket plain). here is the monster burrito that was served to me (with sweet potato masher) -

i'm not sure if you can tell, but the burrito was bigger than my forearm. and yup, those ridged things that you see, waffle fries. in my opinion, they were just weird and didn't belong. so i picked them out and didn't eat them. but then, when i got to the end of the burrito, i discovered that the waffle fries had soaked up a lot of green chile goodness and that if i topped it with the sweet potato masher (yes, carb upon carb, get over it), it was no longer strange but deliciously delightful.

it was a good trip!