Food Books That Make You Think

Food history is a relatively new scholarly discipline, going back only about thirty years.  It evolved from two seemingly disparate human endeavors, cooking and recording general history.  The late food historian Karen Hess observed in 1981: “Few scholars are cooks—and fewer cooks scholars. Perhaps thi...

Babble on the Blogs

There has been misinformation flying around on certain Chilehead blogs about the National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show. Some folks have been trying to compare our show with a competing show in Texas (which was recently...

Ciudad Juárez Then and Now

I used to spend a lot of time in Juárez back when it was one of my favorite Mexican cities. Back in the late '70s, I was producing custom car shows at the El Paso Civic Center, and in the '80s I was visiting NMSU a lot to research chile peppers, so a trip across the border was not only commonplace, it was a lot of fun. There was a great mercado, my favorite tile shop, a very nice furniture store, and of course the La Florida Bar and one of my favorite restaurants, Martino'...

Abuelita's Killer Red Chile
I never imagined that a single red chile enchilada could burn me out. After all, I've been eating New Mexican red chile enchiladas for 35 years, and although some red chile sauces are hotter than others, they usually run medium-hot at the hottest. But yesterday, Lois (the SuperSite editor and art director) and I had a business lunch at Abuelita's Restaurant at 6083 Isleta Boulevard in Albuquerque's South Valley, about three miles from my house. Fall was in the air, so I had a bowl of green chile stew plus a red chile enchilada a la c...