February 2, 2012 Lunch –Café Lush and Dinner –Zacatecas

February 2, 2012 Lunch –Café Lush and Dinner –Zacatecas

I went with Mike Verhagen and Ed Hollington to the old reliable, Café Lush for lunch.  Ed and I ate my usual favorite pizza a Callan with fresh homemade green chili sausage, and mozzarella and mushrooms and added roasted garlic and spinach from the Booty pizza ($7.25).  Mike had a Papa Doc sandwich because the theme for discussion was the evolution of governance in the Arab world touched by the Arab Spring, because talk of revolution and dictators was in the air.

I met Amy Jackson, my ex, at UNM to hear the Horn Lecture given by Martha (“Marni”) Sandweiss, our old friend from Fort Worth.  Marni and Amy worked at the Amon Carter Art Museum together thirty years ago.

That was not the oddest coincident at the lecture.  The Director of the Center for the Southwest, Virginia Scharff, who introduced Marni at the lecture, went to Sunday School with Marni and was in her confirmation class in St. Louis, probably 50 years ago.

When we were introduced to Virginia by Marni, we had a short conversation with her and found out she was teaching the History of American Cuisine at UNM.  So I asked what new restaurants she liked and she mentioned that several Santa Fe restaurants like Geronimo’s and the Compound had opened new second restaurants in Albuquerque and that seemed to be a trend.

So after the lecture, I called Suzette and she met Amy and me at Zacatecas.  The Restaurant is a Mark Kiffin Restaurant located at

3423 Central Ave. NW

, in Nob Hill http://www.zacatecastacos.com/.

The menu appears to be totally Mexican regional dishes.  I ordered Queso Fundido ($5.00) and a draft pint of Negra Modelo ($5.00).  The Queso Fundido was spot on.  They used green chili for their chili rajas, which was actually a nice touch because they probably used fresh local green chili.  The dish as served with four warm lightly toasted corn tortillas, like in Mexico.  I loved the dish and asked and was given four more tortillas.  Next time it will try it with the addition of House Pork Chorizo ($8.00).  Amy is a vegetarian these days so I ordered the vegetarian form of the dish to meet her wishes.

I ordered Mark’s Caesar Salad ($9.00), just see how he made his.  It had a thick creamy white dressing and not much anchovy flavor, so I asked our waiter to bring me a few more anchovies.  After a few minutes the waiter re-appeared with a small white bowl with about eight to ten white marinated anchovy fillets, like the ones sold at Whole Food Market.  I boned and chopped up the delicate little white fish and loved eating my salad.

Amy ordered the Vegetarian Chilaquilles, which used diced chunks of blanched zucchini squash instead of chicken topped with sautéed corn tortillas and cheese.  There are many other wonderful dishes on the menu such as Cochinita de Pibil (Pork slow braised in Banana Leaves and Chiles served with a Tomatillo-Chipolte Salsa, Escabeche, Queso Fresco and Ciantro) that is worth going back to try.  Any time a great chef is cooking, I am interested in the food.  Mark Kiffin won the James Beard Award for the Southwest several years ago, so he is a certified wonderful chef.

Suzette had eaten at Santiago’s with Debbie and Melissa, so she had only a margarita.

Bon Appètit