July 26,
2014 A Day in Taos Brunch El Gamal Dinner
Martyrs Steakhouse
We slept in
a bit but were up and at the Farmer’s Market by 9:00. The Farmer’s Market has grown in size and now
is located on the Plaza.
We parked at
the Taos High School parking lot and walked through the John Dunn commercial
development, where we bought large cups of Chai for me and coffee for Suzette
on the way to the Plaza.
When we
arrived at the Plaza it was filled with vendors of all kinds, both fruits and
vegetables and prepared foods and baked goods and food vendors.
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| Suzette at the Farmer's Market |
I ordered a
daily special of Eggs Florentine on Challah.
Suzette ordered a chicken curry dish.
When the food was served we discovered that the bakery had baked Challah
rolls and everything was served on or with the freshly baked challah rolls,
which was okay because they were delicious.
The Hollandaise Sauce on my eggs Florentine was perfect, buttery, creamy
and thick. The eggs were beautifully
poached tight bundles of white around a pocket of creamy golden yellow yolk and
lots of freshly steamed spinach.
Suzette’s dish was equally good and served with toasted slices of
Challah roll with homemade fresh peach preserves, which also delicious. Regardless of its name, this restaurant in
this location is my favorite brunch place in Taos, so long as the chef who
always seems to be there is cooking. I
hope he lives a long time.
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| Eggs Florentine |
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| Suzette's curry |
We then fetched
the car, and drove to the Harwood Art Museum and saw the Gus Foster art collection that he is giving to the Harwood, the great Ron Davis resin piece 6 9ths and the John Connell Show with its lovely spray paint on rice paper scroll of a Buddhist monk. I even saw a great photo of Robert Ray, who painted a picture hanging in the collection.
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| Photo of Robert Ray |
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| Ron Davis' 6 9ths |
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| John Connell's monk |
Then we drove to the parking lot beside the Taos Inn and visited some of
the art galleries on Kit Carson and Pueblo Sur and Bent Street. By 1:30 we were tired again and still feeling
full from our bid brunch so we went inside the Adobe Bar at the Taos Inn and
had a pint of honey beer and rested.
Then we returned to the room for a nap.
At 4:00 we
were up and going again with a full itinerary for the evening. We started by going to the Apricot festival
at Taos Mesa Brewing, where we discussed the growing of apricots trees and bought
an apricot tree from a very nice and knowledgeable young man ($20.00) and drank
a apricot beer, which did not taste very much of apricots. Then we drove toward town but I stopped at
Taos Clay to see their ceramics show, which we had passed on the way north last
night. There were still lots of lovely
items and I bought a nicely decorated pitcher for $20.00.
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| Taos Mesa Brewing's patio with view of Mt.Wheeler and apricot trees under awning |
We still had
some time before the 6:30 reception at Taos Community Auditorium in Kit Carson
Park, so we went to the Exchange Store which has lots of interesting things. I
looked at a lovely Netsuke carved in the shape of a deer.
Then around
6:30 we drove to the Taos Community Auditorium in Kit Carson Park.
When we
walked into the foyer of the auditorium, we saw two long tables filled with
appetizers and desserts. There was a concession
stand on one side of the foyer next to which was a small bar with wine and
beer. We walked over to the bar and bought a glass
of pinot grigio.
We had made
a reservation at Martyrs Steakhouse for 8:30 so we were happy when the auditorium
opened a few minutes before 7:00 for the 7:00 showing of the new documentary film about the life of Frank Morgan named "Sound of Redemption", which was introduced by the director N. Hiekin.
As soon as
the movie ended at around 8:25, we left and walked across the street to Martyrs
Steakhouse (http://www.martyrs-steakhouse.com)
and were able to be seated on the patio.
Martyr’s Steakhouse is a beautifully restored house with a lovely bar
area, lots of inside seating and a large attractive patio area dominated by several
gas torches that one can buy at Costco that shoot flames up about six feet
within a self-contained steel frame. The
patio is located next to Martyr’s Lane and
pueblo Norte, so it is subject to all the street noise which can be terrible
when the motorcyclists drive through gunning their engines, but we put all of
that at the back of our minds because the service and restaurant were so
pleasant. We had looked at the menu in
the afternoon when we made our reservation, so it did not take long to decide to
split an order of steak tartare ($15.00), a bowl of fish soup ($7.00) and a
tournedos ($33.00), which was two 4 oz. petit filet mignons.
The wine
list was a little pricey but we both immediately decided on the first and least
expensive choice, a Joel Gott Sonoma and Monterrey County Pinot Noir for
$46.00.
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| Steak Tartare with Aioli Sauce |
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| Fish Soup |
The soup turned
out to be over spiced with chili, so we did not eat it, but the steak tartare
was delicious with lots of olive oil and capers served with toast points. We ordered bread and butter and the bread was
a soft Italian style of bread that was also delicious slathered with the steak
tartare and aioli sauce. Soon our steaks came with garnished
with a delicious cabernet sauvignon demi-glace sauce and a béarnaise sauce on
the side. Both sauces were delicious
although the béarnaise was a little more vinegary than I usually make it.
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| Steak, mashed potatoes, vegetables and bearnaise sauce |
The steaks were served with crisp flash blanched
and sautéed vegetables that seemed to be fresh from the Farmer’s Market., a mound of not very appealing garlic mashed potatoes that tasted a lot like regular mashed potatoes without much butter, cream or garlic, and a ramekin of bearnaise sauce that was overly vinegary.
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| chocolate mousse |
For dessert
we ordered a chocolate mousse that was overly creamy with the addition of a scoop
of whipped cream on the top of a parfait glass and whipped cream stirred
into the mousse also.
Generally my impression was that all things
related to the meat and its preparation were superb, but there was a little
weakness in the sous elements, the soup, the béarnaise sauce and the chocolate
mousse all could have been prepared better.
By 10:00 we
had finished our meal and a great day of activities in Taos and went back to
the B&B.
Bon Appétit
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