Southern Comforts

I usually have lame excuses for not posting in a long time, but this time I have a good one: I've been out of town for the past week and will continue to be on the move for another week! 

As friends and family know, I'm pursuing a personal project which has taken me to Texas and now New Mexico.  California is to follow.  Having made sure that the Internet would always be accessible, I was expecting to write almost daily about my dining adventures, especially since there's very little home cooking involved when on the road.

Well, while the eats in Texas were very good, they were almost all deep-fried, grilled or Tex-Mex.  It made for a repetitive and generally unhealthy menu.  Furthermore, the dining venues weren't exactly conducive towards photo-taking.  I felt alien enough being a very visible minority; it might have been too freaky for the locals if I started taking pictures of my food.

At last, today I was in Santa Fe and had my first taste of light food since leaving home.  At a modest little place called the Palacio Cafe, I had a refreshing half-sandwich and salad.  The sandwich was a BLT with whole wheat bread accompanied by a simple salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  My beverage was a delicious prickly pear iced tea.  In other words, cactus tea.  One thing I am loving about the southwest is that all iced tea here is unsweetened which is the only way any iced tea should be served, IMO.  And refills are always free.  The prickly pear tea was oddly familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place the taste until I remembered that my brother had given me a pouch of cactus tea upon returning from Tucson.  Unfortunately, I always made it hot and didn't like it much.  Served cold, I can't get enough of it.  A squirt of lemon perfects it.

For dinner, I found myself at the Atomic Grill -- aptly named considering Santa Fe's close link to the Manhattan Project.  I would have walked away from their menu which offered standard pub fare, but I was immediately attracted to their Fried Avocado Salad.  They took two fleshy halves of a whole avocado, rolled them in some breading then fried them to a light crisp.  The indentations where the pit used to be are filled with a creamy, tangy crab salad.  Leafy greens and yellow peppers are on the side, drizzled with a honey mustard dressing.  It was satisfying without bloating and seasoned just right.  I'd love to emulate this at home!