Red or Green?

That’s the official New Mexico State Question:

The official State Question refers to a question commonly heard at restaurants, where waiters will ask customers "red or green?" in reference to which kind of chile pepper or "Chile sauce" the customers want served with their meal. This type of "chile" is usually distinct from Salsa, as the Chile sauce is much finer and thicker and more commonly served with meals. Natives are more likely to refer to the Chile sauce put on their meal as just plain "Chile", and not as any form of "salsa" (which is usually reserved by natives in English for the salsa served with chips; everything else is just "Chile"). If the diner wants both they can answer with, "Christmas" (or "Navidad" in Spanish), in reference to the two traditional colors of Christmas - Red and Green. However, most natives simply say, "both".

At the risk of offending Californians, Arizonans, and Texans (not to mention Thais and Hunan Chinese), I’ll submit that New Mexico has the finest chile in the world, bar none. I’ve been around the block a few times and have eaten virtually every spicy cuisine known to man…and MY verdict is in: There’s no better chile to be found in the world. And the best chile I’ve eaten in New Mexico? The green chile at El Farolito restaurant in El Rito, NM. That’s me in the pic above, standing outside El Farolito, in June of 2004. Second-best chile I’ve eaten in New Mexico? My daughter-in-law Erma’s green chile stew, which is simply amazing.

An article in the July, 2000 edition of Sunset Magazine has a wonderful write up on the importance of chile to New Mexicans, followed by some great restaurant recommendations:

"Red or green?" That's the official state question, asked and answered thousands of times a day in New Mexico's restaurants and cafes. New Mexicans take the preparation of their state vegetable, the chili pepper, very seriously; they are prone to discussions both lengthy and fierce on the subject. How important is this sauce natives call chile? You can live without sex, many would say but live without chile? Impossible!

…

EL RITO: El Farolito. Located on Main Street across from the general store in the village of El Rito, a center of northern New Mexico Rio Grande weaving, this charming cafe with eight picnic tables has taken home International Chile Society trophies (ed: three, to be exact) for its well-seasoned, piquant green chile. 1212 Main St.; 581-9509.

And here’s a review of El Farolito at “RoadFood.com:” (emphasis is from the original article)

El Rito is a long way from almost everywhere, but the trip to get there is stunning. It is a drive through pure New Mexico, with a landscape of awesome rock formations, sagebrush, and grazing cows. The town is little more than a single street with a general store on one side and El Farolito on the other. It’s a small place, hardly bigger than a house trailer, with seven picnic tables up front and the kitchen in back.

For native New Mexican food, you won’t find a better place at a better price. Chilies rellenos, tacos, enchiladas, and green chile cheeseburgers are featured on the menu (which also offers ordinary hamburgers and hot dogs for chilephobes). The green chili is especially excellent: a luxurious stew of bite-size pieces of pork, tomato, and slivers of ultrahot green chile. Red chile is more a sauce, nothing but pureed chilies and spice; and it is used on burritos and enchiladas. But if you’d like a “bowl of red” as a meal, the Trujillos will add beef and/or beans to create a thick, powerhouse stew.

El Rito is out of the way, in spades. But if you’re ever in New Mexico…El Rito is worth the trip, for both the scenery and the food!