Green Chili Willy

It may be cold here in Dallas but I had to go somewhere much colder to find my latest food fetish.

The location? Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The food? Green Chili (which you probably already figured out from the title…so much for the big reveal).

I mean, I sort of knew what green chili was. Sometimes at Tex Mex restaurants they have “green chili enchiladas.” Then there was that Hatch green chili festival that I went to at Blue Mesa last summer. Still, I don’t think I had a clue.

When we arrived in Santa Fe post-Christmas/pre-New Year and inquired about where to eat, the lady at the visitor center said, “Oh, go to the plaza café. They have the best green chili!”

Frank said, “Oh, that sounds good! I’m going to get some green chili!”

And I said, “Frank, I think it’s like a sauce. You don’t get like a big bowl of it and eat it.”

He said, “But you eat red chili in a bowl. Why not green chili?”

This went on for several minutes. I won’t torture you with the transcript.

At the restaurant I got a chicken sandwich with green chili (as a sauce) and Frank got some sort of combination plate that had green chili (as a chili pepper). We’re still talking about this meal. It was freakin’ awesome. A close second was the McDonald’s we stopped at in Cuba, New Mexico where we had green chili burgers.

Now we’re green chili champs. We’ve only been back for about two weeks and we’re already on our second jar of the stuff. I bought the El Pinto kind because it was made in New Mexico. It had to be the real deal. We put it on turkey burgers, omelets, sandwiches, salads. And get this: it’s lower in calories than even salsa!

I’m totally counting down to the Hatch green chili festival this year. But this time, I’m afraid we’re gonna have to head over to Hatch for it. Until then, I’ll be here, chillin’ with my chili.

This is when we were waiting for our table at the Plaza Cafe. We didn't know how much our lives were about to improve!