In New Mexico, chile isn't just a vegetable. It's practically a religion. It inspires devotion among worshipers who blend it into everything from to beer to fudge to spa treatments. A statewide trail pays homage to the green chile cheeseburger. A state-run institute is dedicated to its study. It even rates an official state question: red or green?
So how do you spice up a road trip in the Land of Enchantment? Brake for chile!
James Ditmore does. He calls himself the Chile Whisperer. Others simply call him The Reverend.
True to form, he's preaching the gospel of chile while awaiting his Champ Burger (winner of the 2012 state fair Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge) to come off the grill at Rockin' BZ Burgers in Las Cruces.
"Every one of us at this table is a chile sn! ob," he says proudly as owner Cody Childress sets down a tray of tender pulled pork flecked with glistening specks of green chile.
For dessert, Childress will serve some of the best apple pie you've ever tasted. Its secret ingredient: green chile.
But before we partake, a brief tutorial. Chile is not the beans-and-meat concoction known as chili. Though there are many varieties grown here, New Mexico chile refers to the long, green mild-tasting pepper.
Fire-roasting it removes the skin and imbues it with a delicate smoky flavor. The same plant left to vine-ripen is used to make rich, red chile sauces.
ALSO ONLINE: Follow the grease on the green chile cheeseburger trail
Like a 'legal drug'
As a marketing specialist for the state agriculture department, Ditmore evangelizes the pure goodness of chile, even while likening it to a drug. "Get Your Fix" reads the lettering on his state-issued chile-green polo shirt.
Bobby Olgu! in will eat to that.
"I call it a legal drug," says the ! third-generation owner of the Buckhorn Tavern, a cheerful rust-colored eatery set in the middle of a dirt parking lot in tiny San Antonio (population 300). "It's an addictive food. The more you eat it, the more you crave it."
Olguin garnered national attention in 2009 when he went grill-to-grill against celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a green chile cheeseburger "throwdown." Olguin won. He no longer competes ("When you're No. 1, you don't let anyone challenge you," he says), but he's still working magic at the grill in the restaurant's tiny kitchen.
On this day, the place hosts an eclectic crowd. Tattooed bikers, grizzled ranchers, a preppy family from Arizona. Mike Fisher, an emergency medical technician, and Estevan Trujillo, a pastor, have driven 1½ hours south from Albuquerque to get their green chile cheeseburger fix.
"I've grown up eating green chile cheeseburgers my whole life," Fisher says. "At one point I had to stop, it was so good."
The morat! orium clearly has been lifted. Half-pound beauties arrive topped with shredded lettuce, tomato and raw onion on a blanket of cheese with an emerald crown of chile. They dig in.
Olguin isn't secretive about his burger technique. Still, patrons complain they can't get theirs to taste like his.
"It's cooking with love," he declares. "You don't rush the beef. You don't rush the chile."
A Wall of Flame dedicated to notable breeders and growers marks the entrance to the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. The facility develops new chile varieties and improves existing ones, but there's also a retail store chockablock with chile plants and related merchandise.
"What's the chile pepper that won the fancy-schmancy award?" asks a customer.
Program specialist Erica Trevino directs him to an ornamental plant dubbed the NuMex Easter, which just took first place in a national competition.
So many varieties
By comparison, the world's fieriest chile, the Carolina Reaper, scores about 2 million on the Scoville scale. (The best way to douse the fire: dairy products.)
"There are so many varieties and heat levels. It's like wine," Trevino says.
Chile may be like wine in its infinite variety. But is it good with wine?
Absolutely, wine specialist Mark Burden says as he sets out bottles for chile-and-wine tasting at La Posta de Mesilla restaurant. The restaurant, a local institution in Mesilla, periodically offers wine-and-chile-pairing events. Local cookbook author Kelley Coffeen, who's at this one, notes a growing trend of teaming wine and the spicy local cuisine.
"It can heighten the flavor of the chile," she says. "Plus, not everyone drinks beer or tequila."
The five chile-based dishes start with jalapeño-spiced! house salsa paired with an Italian moscato, and ends with red chile con carne paired with a Malbec.
A little sweetness in the wine cuts the chile's heat, Burden explains. But the main objective in pairing wine with chile is balance.
For non-wine drinkers who still want something with a kick, La Posta serves a mean chile 'rita — a margarita laced with locally made blackberry-habanero sauce.
Verdant and versatile
In Albuquerque, a new tour pairs chile and cycling. Routes Bicycle Rentals & Tours leads visitors through the city's Old Town neighborhood and along the Rio Grande.
Along the way, they stop for chile-based appetizers at Gardunos of Mexico, green chile stew at La Fonda del Bosque and a New Mexico roll with tempura-fried green chile at Sushi King. Then it's back to the shop for chile-laced coffee and spicy chocolate.
"We want to show off the different ways you can enjoy chile — savory, sweet, in beverages," sa! ys co-owner Heather Arnold. "Chile isn't just a condiment. It's in every! thing."
Around here it is, anyway. At the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa in Bernalillo, north of Albuquerque, they've dreamed up a treatment called "Ancient Drumming."
For $190, a therapist will slather you with red-chile-infused mud (said to be detoxifying). The drumming comes in when she thwacks your naked body with flax-seed-filled muslin bags.
Over at The Candy Lady's shop in Old Town Albuquerque, proprietor Debbie Ball prefers a more direct chile delivery system. She laces homemade fudge, brittles and truffles with dried, red New Mexico chile.
He's been spicing up sweets with chile for 25 years or so, "before anyone was doing it," she notes.
It may be an inventory staple, but Ball isn't a fan.
"I don't eat it. I don't like heat."
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/experience/food-and-wine/tours-and-trails/new-mexico-green-chile-peppers/7819995/
