Good New Mexican Food

I returned from St. Louis on Saturday. My friend came to visit me in Phoenix. What a lovely week.

We ate at a few different places, and took in the sights and sounds that Arizona had to offer. I miss New Mexico--my home. This is where I lived for a long time, went to school, etc. I am finding Arizona to be a cross between New Mexico and Southern California. New Mexico doesn't have palm trees or In 'n Out Burger, but Arizona and LA do. However, Arizona and New Mexico have Walmart Supercenters and Sonic Drive-Ins; LA does not.

I really needed some New Mexican food, so we ate at a place called Richardson's here in Phoenix near my parent's. Pitiful. It is supposed to be this really great New Mexican food, but I found it bland and the service was fucking terrible. Had I set to work making my own meal (including killing and preparing the chicken for my burrito), I'd have done it faster than these fuckers had served us. It wasn't anything at all like real New Mexican food. It was a sham. It was terrible. Even the decor was shitty. I figured I'd see at LEAST a New Mexico flag somewhere, but--alas!--no.

The next day (yesterday), we went to Jerome, AZ about two hours north. It's a ghost town--a former copper mining community. It's extremely beautiful. Once there, we ate at Mile High Cafe. The food there, though not advertised as New Mexican, was more New Mexican than Richardson's. I got a big-ass quesadilla with green chile in it that was just out of this world. I love Jerome, though--and not just for the food. It's an old, beautiful town at the top of a mountain. Many of the buildings up there stretch back in time to when Arizona was a territory, and nobody knew that the copper mine would one day be depleted.

After Jerome, we went to Sedona to see the Wallace and Gromit movie. I loved it. Go see this movie, and do so in Sedona. Sedona's an extremely lovely town with a lot of charm as long as you stay away from the very touristy parts (East Sedona).

On the drive back from Sedona, we saw a Mexican place I remember from Albuquerque called Los Betos. It was behind some gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Sedona and I-17. The one in Albuquerque was at a prominent intersection and was busy 24 hours a day. Here it was the opposite. How strange.

Meanwhile, I leave for the island on Friday and I'll arrive Sunday morning. Oh dear.